“Ahhhhhh!”
Ange had arrived below the parking lot for
the SeeDWalK shopping mall.
Technically, she was at a secret facility
Machina had made in the space below the parking lot. At this hour, the large
facility was closed, so no one was there and it was safe to shout loudly
underground.
A space of nearly 50 square meters had been
hollowed out 18 meters belowground. Ange had started using it as a training
ground.
The tungsten walls were lined with
superconductive material and were magnetically controlled, so the room could
survive temperatures of several million degrees for a short period. She never
could have come by something like this without FeTUS’s assistance.
Metatron’s firepower normally came at the
cost of burning away her own life, but Adam’s command had carved the inability
to kill herself into the core of her being. So she had recently started taking
advantage of that by trying to control the firepower on a level just barely
below the bursting point.
Metatron’s flames possessed the same traits
as normal flames, so they were more difficult to control than an angel’s flames
that only burned her enemies. That meant she needed a facility that kept the
flames from spreading even when she was only training.
“Hahh!”
Wings the same gold as the sun burst from
her back like jet streams.
She had learned to release Metatron’s power
quite freely.
This was all thanks to Machina who had
provided this location that covered already heat-resistant walls with heat
diffusion waves.
——Ooze
“Ah?”
——Gloop!
S-sizzle, sizzle!
“They’re melting!? Ibekusa! The walls are
melting! There’s not enough power!”
The crucial heat diffusion waves were not
strong enough. The heat had gone well past the walls’ melting point of nearly
4000 degrees, so she would be buried alive in magma mixed with metal at this
rate.
“Tch!”
There was no response to her calls, so Ange
had no choice but to eliminate her flames and make a jump.
She broke through the ceiling and arrived
aboveground. She felt heat on her head where the melted ceiling had gotten on
it.
Machina stood blankly in the asphalt
parking lot with a memo pad in one hand.
In exchange for supplying the training
facility, she was allowed to record data on Metatron to create weapons to
resist it. So the memo pad was fine. However…
“What do you think you’re doing Ibekusa!? I
was nearly buried alive! If you’re declaring war here, I’m ready to go at
any-…”
“…”
“…Ibekusa?”
Ange was furious at what she thought was an
obvious attack, but Machina just stood there while full of openings and showing
no sign of counterattacking.
Machina looked dazed.
She finally reacted when Ange waved a hand
in front of her face.
“Ah, are you done, Jiyuuni-san? …Hm? I
thought I told you to call for me when you were done. If you break a hole in
the ground, it will change the color of the asphalt and someone might notice
the oddity.”
“Y’know…”
She did not seem to have meant any harm, so
Ange’s shoulders slumped down.
When she realized her mistake, Machina
bowed down in apology and they ended the day’s training there.
While training, Ange wore only her angelic
underwear that was more difficult to burn, so now she put on some other
clothing she had prepared.
“Something happened. You always seem out of
it, but this was-…”
She trailed off there and changed her mind.
“No. You’ve been weird a lot recently.”
“Nn…”
“I mean, you were always weird, but your
weirdness has gone up by like 50%.”
She sat down on the spot.
There were no cars in the large parking lot
and a refreshing wind blew directly down on them from the sky. It felt good on
her heated skin.
“…”
Ange immediately regretted what she had
said.
Mentioning that Machina had been weird
recently made her think about the biggest sign of that weirdness. And after she
had been avoiding the subject while trying to pretend it did not bother her.
She thought about dodging the issue, but…
“Something happen with Stupid M-Mutsuki,
didn’t it?”
She ended up addressing it.
She focused on the kissing commotion
between Machina and Mutsuki.
“N-not that it matters to me since it’s
completely harmless. It’s just that…if there’s something there, just tell me.
It makes me curious. As his bodyguard.”
“…”
Until today, Mutsuki had dealt with the
issue simply by making sure they did not do it where anyone could see them, but
she got to the heart of the issue while he was not around.
(Although I’m not sure what to do about
this, whatever she might say.)
She knew that, so she was already blushing.
“The thing is…”
Machina opened her mouth.
She trailed off but then opened it again.
She was probably going to tell Ange the whole story of whatever had led to
this.
And in a way, the answer Ange received was
a helpful one for her.
Because it was something she could not
respond to as a guardian angel.
“The Holy Grail is complete.”
“!”
“We were attempting to create a womb that
matches as closely as possible to Eve’s and it has finally adapted
appropriately.”
“…I-I see.”
The angel somehow managed to respond calmly
despite gasping at how Machina held her lower stomach.
She had a lot of thoughts on this matter,
but…
“Science really does make a mockery of the
natural order of things, doesn’t it?”
She first gave the rational response
necessary of an angel.
“Kurosaki, was it? The ones creating the
artificial demons. You’re not much different from them.”
“Science is the power of progress given to
humanity. If there is a god who defined the natural order, then expelling the
bearers of knowledge was the same as giving the world the possibility of
encroaching on his territory. And if the natural order is perfect, then our
mockery of it is no more than another part of that natural order.”
“You always have an argument, don’t you?”
Ange shrugged. “Well, I’m not going to bother you about it. Angels are the arbitrators
of the commandments, so it’s not like I know what to do about something that’s unprecedented
from the creation of heaven and earth. In the end, the choice is Stupid
Mutsuki’s.”
“I see.”
They both fell silent for a bit.
She could not just ignore this, but she
could not interfere either. Angels were meant to correct abnormalities, but attacking
FeTUS now would create an abnormality. Even if she made a request to the will
of heaven, it would be rejected in the deliberation phase.
“…”
She had only learned to use Metatron’s power with Machina’s assistance.
But she could not deny that Machina might
be the first person she used it against.
“A-anyway, what are you going to do now?”
She was more curious about something else.
“If you have the womb to match, then is the
next step to get, um, Mutsuki’s…”
“The implantation of the child will presumably
come next. The birth of a true descendant cannot be rushed.”
“I-I see.”
Machina readily answered as she was wont to do and Ange blushed again.
They were keeping it from Mutsuki, but the
discovery of Adam and the completion of the Holy Grail were only the necessary
steps toward creating a child from the two.
That meant the implantation – the
impregnation – had to come next.
Ange was unsure how to respond to the idea
of Machina and Mutsuki having a child.
And she was curious about something else
too.
Machina and Mutsuki had been kissing more
than necessary recently, but they showed no sign of the crucial “baby-making”.
“Is there some kind of problem?”
She tried coming out and asking.
Machina looked somewhat troubled as she
answered.
“Miss A is hesitating.”
“Miss A… You mean that little kid?”
Ange had fought her once before. Miss A was
an old woman of several hundred years who looked like a child. She was
Machina’s boss.
“I do not know why, but she will not give
me the instruction. She only says to wait and see what happens.”
“Wait and see? After all this?”
Even Ange was puzzled by that one.
They had everything they needed. Given
FeTUS’s past actions, they should have been carrying out the rest of the plan
immediately.
She could not imagine why they had not.
“She said Fujita-kun and my feelings were
of the utmost importance and she left it with me.”
“Your feelings?”
“She said two people should love each other
before they make a baby, so she left the decision to me.”
“…Huh?”
This was not just beyond Ange’s expectations. It was completely out of left
field.
FeTUS pursued Adam as the representative of
the entire human race. Their final objective was to place his child in the womb
they called the Holy Grail.
They were a step away from accomplishing
that, but this was their reason for stopping?
“Because two people should love each other before
they make a baby?”
“Positive.”
“…How romantic.”
Even a hostile angel was shaken by this
reasoning. They had been logically sounding out the other’s intentions, yet
Machina had suddenly pulled out a textbook on morality.
Machina did not seem to understand either
because she fidgeted like a lost child.
“When I asked Miss D what to do, she told
me to flirt. So in order to make a baby with Fujita-kun I have been, um…”
“Flirting? …Oh.”
Ange briefly did not understand, but then
she saw Machina pressing her lips together.
“That was supposed to be flirting?”
“Flirting is a way of conveying your appeal
to the other person. …And Fujita-kun likes it when I do that.”
“…Yes, he does seem to like kissing.”
For the second time, Ange’s shoulders slumped down. She could not believe the
recent commotion had come from something so silly.
“But our situation has not changed in the
slightest. In fact, he seems bothered by it.”
“Of course he is. You’ve already done far
more than kiss him, so being a serial kisser isn’t going to change anything.”
“Really?”
Machina tilted her head.
Ange felt herself relaxing after her recent
worries came to such a ridiculous end.
“Then…what am I supposed to do?”
To Machina, this was a serious attempt at baby-making. She was apparently
attempting to complete FeTUS’s final objective. Ange went limp.
“I mean, the issue is whether you love each
other, right? So don’t you only have to confirm that?”
“Hm? What do you mean?”
“Just ask Mutsuki if he loves you.”
(He’ll obviously say yes.)
She chose to keep that last part to
herself.
Machina herself was probably the only
person left who had not noticed Mutsuki’s feelings for her. Ange, Lucia, Saya,
and their other classmates all knew.
Ange then realized she had forgotten
something important.
“Hey, I bet it isn’t just for Mutsuki’s
sake that Miss A hasn’t ordered you to do it.”
“Eh?”
Mutsuki’s feelings were so obvious anyone would notice, so FeTUS would have
caught on while monitoring him.
The only way they could not “love each
other” was if Machina did not have feelings for Mutsuki.
“How do you feel about Mutsuki?”
“…”
Machina’s eyes widened.
“How do I…feel about Fujita-kun?”
She must have never thought about it
before. She repeated the words as if pondering them.
“Do you love him?”
“Love is…not quite the right term. I exist
for him, so it would be better to say I am his possession.”
She stated that plainly.
And it did not seem to be a way of hiding
any embarrassment. She really did think that.
(I see.)
That told Ange what Miss A was trying to
do.
Which meant she could have said nothing
more. However…
“That possession stuff is only in relation
to your position in FeTUS, right? What do you
think? What are your feelings?”
Machina seemed to be hesitating, so Ange
could not stop herself from saying more. She took a step into the territory
Miss A had stayed out of.
“My
feelings…?”
It seemed she really had never thought about it before. She once more repeated
back the words.
After some hesitation, she seemed to
realize that was the fundamental issue.
“What does it mean…to love someone?”
“Don’t ask me. Go check a dictionary.”
“Love. I still do not really understand.”
She apparently had the contents of a
dictionary in her head, but that was not enough for her to make a decision.
“C’mon, you know. It’s like when you feel
your heart racing and time passes so quickly when you’re with them.”
“Time always moves at a fixed rate.”
“Not what I meant…”
“…Ah.”
But something must have occurred to Machina
because she suddenly held a hand to her chest.
“It is true my pulse accelerates when I am
with him.”
“See, your heart races.” Ange stared
directly at that expressionless face. “Think about it more simply. Ignore all
that FeTUS stuff. How do you, Ibekusa Machina, feel about him?”
“Nn…”
She clearly heard that.
But Machina’s expression remained
unchanged. And she spoke as mechanically and plainly as ever.
“He is an important person.”
But that plainness ended there.
“He is a kind person and I feel at peace
when I am with him.”
“Then you have your answer. You love him.”
“Do…I?”
“Don’t ask me.”
“I see…”
The tone of her voice kept dropping.
The conversation was rapidly growing more
embarrassing for Ange as well, so she too was saying less. She stood speechless
in the quiet parking lot for a while.
“…Love.”
The only sound was Machina repeating the
word under her breath.
“I love him…”
“…”
“I love Fujita-kun.”
“…”
She spoke quietly in the stillness.
And a few seconds later…
“…~”
“Wait!?”
Machina had been standing straight up like
a machine, but she suddenly sat limply down.
Her hips had given out, so crouching Ange
quickly supported her.
“What was that all of a sud-…wait.”
“~”
Ange was more surprised by her face than
that she had collapsed.
“I love him…”
Machina was still muttering the words and
she placed her hands over her cheeks to hide her face.
Her face was redder than Ange had ever seen
it.
“I love…Fujita-kun.”
“Did you only just now realize it?”
“…”
She had lost both her plain tone of voice
and her expressionlessness. She looked on the verge of tears as she nodded.
(She sure is cute.)
Ange gave an exasperated shrug.
“Then there’s no problem. If you love him,
you can make a baby with him.”
“! A baby…with Fujita-kun?”
“That’s what this whole thing is about,
isn’t it?”
“…N-not possible. Body temperature rising,
pulse abnormal. Continuing the mission would be difficult.”
Her voice was trembling.
Then her voice faded away, she covered her
head while practically curled up on the ground, and she tore at her already
messy hair.
Ange had no idea how to respond.
This was due to her meddling, but she had
no obligation to cheer up an enemy.
Plus, cheering her up would mean getting
her and Mutsuki to…
“…I-I am leaving.”
After a few minutes of doing nothing,
Machina finally calmed down and turned her back so Ange could not see her.
She disappeared into the darkness on
unsteady feet.
“…Phew.”
Left alone, Ange looked up into the sky.
A refreshing wind blew down from the
perfectly clear and starry sky. But unlike before, it felt a little chilly.
“Mutsuki and Ibekusa…hm?”
Ange thought back on the topic that had come to the forefront.
She had ended up pushing things in that
direction for Machina and Mutsuki.
“But that’s fine. It’s…not a problem.”
Assisting an enemy organization was
careless, but heaven still had not settled on a course of action vis-à-vis
FeTUS. She would not be reprimanded for this.
“…”
Only then did she realize she was thinking
about this in relation to her position and not her own feelings.
Just like Machina had been prioritizing
FeTUS’s decision over her own feelings.
(How do I feel about him?)
How did she feel about what she had just done?
How did Jiyuuni Ange feel about supporting
Machina and Mutsuki?
“…”
The girl gave a lopsided frown.
The wind once more brushed across her skin.
It had to be as refreshing as before, but
she could not feel it.
The feelings roiling inside her kept her
from feeling any kind of refreshing feeling that only went skin deep.
“I don’t care what Mutsuki does.”
This is certainly a fun chapter
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