Even in the morning, night, or evening, FeTUS
headquarters was filled with the gentle light of day.
Once again, Miss A, aka Miss Alice, sat in
a white wooden chair during her teatime.
She was alone today as she enjoyed a Darjeeling.
“Hmm.”
Due to the humidity, the tea’s color was a
bit dark.
It had not been brewed perfectly, but the slight
changes from day to day were one of the highlights of tea. She took a sip and savored
the somewhat stronger flavor.
It was a little too bitter, so she returned
the cup to its saucer and picked up her fork.
Today’s tea cake was a castella. She scooped
up a small piece and carried it to her mouth.
“…”
The sweet flavor spread through her mouth.
At the same time, the strong smell of
bitter melon stung her nose.
“Bitter melon castella? …This will not serve
as a teacake.”
Her childish face wrinkled as she washed
the flavor down with the Darjeeling.
She then leaned back in her chair.
The sunlight was perfect for a comfortable
nap, so she calmly closed her eyes.
“…”
But then she opened them and reached into her
skirt pocket.
She pulled out a ribbon. A neatly balled-up
ribbon. She straightened it out and removed just the right scrunchie of the two
in her hair.
She brushed her long honey-colored hair by
hand and tied it in place with the ribbon.
It was a cheap ribbon with a bear character
printed on it.
“♪”
Miss Alice smiled slightly.
“Well? Did Miss B end up going to
Hi-no-Hoka Valley?”
“Yes. Miss E and that group might have been
camping there too.”
When two witches walked in, she quickly hid
the ribbon.
“Oh, there you are, Miss A. …Why are you
undoing your hair?”
“No reason. My head just itched is all.”
Miss C, aka Schwarze, sat across from her
and Miss D the Maid, aka Makoto, quickly began preparing tea for her. Miss
Alice cleared her throat and surreptitiously put the hidden ribbon in her pocket
while making sure she would not leave any creases on it.
Schwarze did not notice and took a sip of
the tea served to her.
“Isn’t Miss B doing too much? At this rate,
Fujita will find out who she is.”
“Her duty is to deter the angels. Him
knowing her identity is not a problem.”
“Hmph. And yet you wouldn’t shut up about
me having to stay hidden.”
She glared at Miss Alice over that difference
in treatment, but the small girl put her scrunchie back on and replied calmly.
“She had no choice this time. She has been
searching desperately for that cousin she calls her sister and information on what
seems to be her arrived from Hi-no-Hoka Valley.”
“…I know that.”
Schwarze was not happy, but she stopped
being so hostile.
Miss B, aka Lavriel Baran, had come to
Japan for a variety of reasons: to protect Miss A, to help deter the angels, to
keep watch over the Adam boy, and one other reason.
Her Baran family was in danger of dying out
and the two siblings and only possible heirs had been imprisoned in Japan, so
she had to find them.
And a presence that seemed to be the
younger sister had been sensed at Hi-no-Hoka Valley where Mutsuki’s group was
camping.
So…
“She might actually accomplish something
this time. I received word from Miss E earlier.” Miss Alice sharpened her gaze.
“She discovered a Kurosaki facility at Hi-no-Hoka Valley.”
Schwarze’s porcelain cup clacked against
its saucer.
Kurosaki. When she heard that word, her
entire body tensed like a female cat that had been driven out of its territory.
She could not hide the caution and panic oozing
from her body.
Miss Alice frowned at that, but Makoto did
not seem to notice.
“That does sound promising since Kurosaki
were the ones that kidnapped those siblings.”
“Yes.”
At that very moment, the grassy plain
hologram vanished and darkness surrounded them. At the same time, a red light
flashed on the ceiling and a piercing siren rang.
“An intruder!?”
The primitive warning sound did not suit
the elegant grassy plain or the cutting-edge scientific facility. And that was
sign of just how great an emergency this was.
FeTUS headquarters had been built to resist
divine punishment and yet it had allowed an intruder in far enough to trigger
this level of alarm? That should have been impossible, so the three witches reached
for their weapons.
…But.
“I’m sorry, teacher.”
The intruder had already reached the
darkness in this room and she revealed her position to them.
“I wanted to make a visit without causing a
scene, but I got caught by your security at the very, very end.”
It was a childish and adorable girl’s
voice.
When Miss Alice heard it, she relaxed and snapped
her fingers to say none of this was necessary. The warning lights and siren
stopped and the grassy plain image returned to the room.
“I’m not saying you should be careless, but
it is rude to sneak in like this. If you want to visit, use the front entrance.”
The artificial sunlight revealed a girl
with purple hair.
She grinned seemingly defenselessly as Miss
Alice sighed.
“I thought you were in Hi-no-Hoka Valley.
Lav went to meet you there.”
“And that’s why I came here. If I met her,
she’d definitely take me back to the Baran family. And then I’d be separated from
my master.”
“What a pain. But fine. Since you’re here, have
some tea.”
“Okay.”
The girl approached, but Schwarze and
Makoto had yet to relax. Even if Miss A was being friendly with her, they could
not let their guard down around this girl.
Lavriel’s “little sister” was the heir to
the Baran family. She had been kidnapped by Kurosaki.
And now she belonged to Kurosaki of her own
free will.
The two faced each other from across the table.
“It’s been a long time, Riselle.”
“Yes, it has, teacher.”
The exhaustion of their 3 days and 2 nights
of fun hit them all at once on the train-ride home.
It was a 3-hour ride with no stops along
the way. All 6 of them were crammed into opposing seats and they had fallen
asleep.
Starting from the window, Saya, Mutsuki,
and Sakae sat on the front end seat and Ange, Machina, and Lucia sat on the back
end seat.
The only 2 awake were Mutsuki and Machina
in the middle seats.
Mutsuki found it hard to sleep in the middle.
Saya and Sakae were leaning on his shoulders, so he could not even move.
“Eh heh♡ Eh heh heh♡ Don’t ask me to
choose, Ange-chan, Machi-nyan…”
“Uuh…fish…I hate fish…”
He could only sit there and listen to them
speaking in their sleep.
Machina did not seem all that tired, but
she was just as pinned in place. Ange was leaning against the window, but Lucia
was resting his head in Machina’s lap.
Everyone else was sleeping so peacefully
that those two did not dare move. They could not even break out the playing
cards or Uno cards, so they could only smile bitterly at each other.
Machina had always been taciturn and they
could not speak too loudly, so they remained silent.
The train shook rhythmically and the
setting sun shined in through the window, so Mutsuki naturally found himself remembering
the night before.
Shirohara Ren…no, the knight girl who
called herself FeTUS Witches Miss B had left, saying she was going to investigate
that Kurosaki Laboratory.
A lot had weighed on Mutsuki’s mind, but
Sakae and the other 2 had shown up after growing worried from the animal cries they
heard. They had all returned to the cabin without giving him a chance to ask
anything. He had tried asking Machina the following morning, but she had been
tightlipped about Ren. It did seem Ren had already left the campground.
It had been a fun camping trip, but the
previous night’s incident had left a bit of a bad flavor in his mouth.
He had been reunited with the upperclassman
he had looked up to. And she turned out to be a high-ranking member of an organization
opposed to the angels.
The Bio Springloaded had appeared as a new powerful
enemy. Not to mention Kurosaki.
The trip had left him with more confusion
and anxiety than anything.
And there was one more thing.
(What is wrong with me?)
He had sensed an odd uneasiness inside himself during the camping trip.
It had started with the incredible arousal
of fucking Schwarze outside. Ever since learning of that intense sense of
liberation, he had started noticing this new feeling inside himself.
He had felt this emotion a few times before
while driving girls mad through sex.
It was an almighty feeling.
And he recently felt like he was having
trouble stopping it.
Even when he was far outmatched by the enemy
in front of his eyes the night before, he had felt no fear and never even
considered running away.
There was a horribly arrogant part of him.
And that scared him. He felt like he would eventually
do something unthinkable.
And that concern was only amplified by the
fact that he had the Serpent’s Eye.
He had the power to rule over all women.
“Fujita-kun?
“Ah, what?”
Just as his thoughts started entering a
dark place, Machina snapped him out of it.
She must have noticed the depressed look on
his face, so she spoke in a quiet but powerful voice.
“This is not a problem. The Kurosaki
incident was our mistake. We will deal with it.”
“Oh…r-right.”
That was not what he had been thinking
about, but it was a worry all the same. He smiled and thanked her for the
reassurance.
Machina looked a little relieved and
lowered her gaze.
“And we aren’t the only ones helping you.”
She looked down to Lucia who was muttering
something while sleeping in her lap like he owned the place.
That uninhibited boy only cared about
himself and Mutsuki, so he did not seem interested in who was an enemy or ally.
And…
“…Ah.”
The train reached a curve and they were
pulled toward the aisle.
Lucia, Saya, and Sakae were fine, but Ange’s
center of gravity must have been off balance because she tilted back from the window.
“Nn…”
She shifted from the right to left and
rested her head on Machina’s shoulder.
She briefly opened her eyes, but her foggy
mind seemed calmed by the smell of her own shampoo coming from Machina’s hair. She
closed her eyes once more.
She could be so much trouble while awake,
but she was just like a 4-year-old child while asleep. Both Mutsuki and Machina
smiled.
When he saw Lucia and Ange sleeping so
defenselessly, Mutsuki felt his final concern vanishing inside him.
Everything would be fine. Even if someone
did show up to destroy the equilibrium…
(They aren’t going to fight each other
again.)
Or so he thought.
And if that day did eventually come, he
would stop them even if he was not almighty.
At that very moment, they reached another
curve. This time, they were pulled toward the window.
Lucia and Sakae were fine, but Saya’s upper
body wobbled a little. And…
“Ahh…”
“Ow. …Ah?”
Machina had also been pulled over. Toward the
window. Toward Ange.
Her forehead hit that of the girl right
next to her.
The sudden headbutt woke Ange and she looked
shocked to find Machina’s face close enough for their noses to touch.
“Wait. W-what?”
“Sorry. The curve came too suddenly…”
And…
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
When Saya woke up, she screamed and looked even
more shocked. She woke up Lucia, Sakae, and every other passenger sleeping on the
train. Her voice left Mutsuki’s ears ringing.
But Saya ignored all that and trembled while
staring at Ange and Machina with their faces so very close.
“A-a-a k-k-k-kiss…”
“Huh?”
“Huh?”
“You’re so mean! I thought you two were
fighting over me, but you were actually already together!? Were you just using
me for some fun!? Was I a snack!?”
She must have been half-asleep because no
one could figure out what she was yelling about.
“Um, Saya?”
“Kurikara-san, what is this?”
“You’re so meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeean! Wahhh, I was used! You used me!”
“???”
“???”
Neither the angel nor the FeTUS Witch knew how to deal with this crazy girl’s
accusations. They were utterly baffled.
“Shut up and let me sleep.”
“Kurikara… So you really do feel that way
about Jiyuuni. And Ibekusa is part of all this too? You’re not making this
easy, are you? Looks like I’ll have to work this all out for you as the popular guy.”
Lucia did not seem at all interested and
Sakae seemed oddly understanding of it all.
Mutsuki had no idea why Saya was angry, but
this told him the camping trip they had taken as normal classmates had ended
peacefully. He just had to smile.
thnx for the chapter
ReplyDeleteits late but thanks for the hard work. looking forward to vol 6
ReplyDelete