Adolescent Adam

Volume 1, Chapter 1 - Blue-Burned Sky

“Now!”

The waning light of twilight shined down.

“Look at me with that eye.”

Fujita Mutsuki’s harmony was shattered by that voice.

He struggled and raised his head when he heard that whispering voice that had no place in his normal life.

Despite being told to look, his right eye would not open. He removed his hand from the eye, but it only throbbed with so much heat he thought it would explode.

It was the same itching feeling as when one watched too much TV, swam in a pool, or went outside during allergy season. It felt like the retina had been rubbed too harshly. He felt a heat like something else entirely had replaced his eye. Simply exposing it to the air hurt.

All he could do was hold his hand to it with all his strength.

The itching was growing by the second and he could not resist rubbing at it with his wrist. He gave in to the pleasure of distracting himself, however slightly, from the hot throbbing.

“Ahhh… Gh… Kh…. It hurts… It hurts!”

“Don’t worry. That heat is proof that you are the chosen one.”

He heard some heavy, damp breathing and a boy peered at his face. And the boy did so with a shockingly sensual look in his eyes.

“Look at me. Look at me with your Serpent’s Eye. Violate me with that devilish gaze of such beautiful corruption.”

“…Uuh…”

Tears spilled from Mutsuki’s left eye as he obeyed and removed his hand from his right eye. He hesitantly raised his puffy eyelid like a child afraid of some eye drops.

And…

“Ah…”

The first thing he saw with his opened Serpent’s Eye was an angel swinging down a giant sword.

The boy was sliced in two with his face still twisted in a look of ecstasy. The girl casually kicked the corpse aside, brushed back her hair, and looked to Mutsuki.

Mutsuki gasped not at the sight of someone being killed but at the sight of the girl in his no longer throbbing right eye.

“Fujita Mutsuki. You are the legendary boy chosen by the demonic eye.”

“Who are you?”

“Ange. I was sent here to protect you. I am an angel”

Her clear, ocean blue eyes looked directly into his burning right eye.

“I am Ange of the Double Flame.”

That day was a perfectly normal day that began in a perfectly normal fashion.

“Daaad, mooom, nee-chaaan, Chiakiii, Mutsumi-chaaan! It’s morning!”

With parents, an older sister, and two younger sisters, the Fujita family was relatively large and it was always Mutsuki’s job to get everything ready in the morning. He prepared breakfast and everything else too.

He could not rely on any of the others, so he had no real choice.

“Daaad, mooom.”

He started from the very back of the second story bedrooms lined up alongside his own. The first was his parents’ bedroom. He knew knocking was not enough to wake them, so he opened the door, shook the bed, and called loudly.

Finally, two hands wearing identical rings poked out from the bunched-up sheets and waved to tell him they were up.

They were both adults, so they would not go back to sleep. It was time to move on.

“Mutsumi-chaaan.”

The room next to his parents’ belonged to the youngest daughter, Mutsumi. She was still in kindergarten, so there was no real need to wake her this early, but he had to check on something.

He approached the bed buried under stuffed animals and pulled away the blanket.

“Nn… Onii-tama… Eh heh heh. Good morning.”

“Good morning. I see you didn’t do it today. Good job.”

He praised her and rubbed the head resting on the drool-covered Lazy Bear body pillow she loved so much. Before, she had wet the bed once every three nights, but that rate had thankfully dropped quite a bit recently.

The next was the most formidable foe.

“Nee-chaaan.”

She was in her twenties, but her room looked about the same as Mutsumi, the kindergartner. He stepped into the room decorated with fancy wallpaper and anime posters and approached another bed buried under stuffed animals.

The person sleeping there was a kindergartner in an adult’s body.

“Nee-chan! Wake up, nee-chan. It’s morning. It’s! Morning!”

He shouted quite loudly and shook her by the shoulders.

Despite the rough treatment, his sister continued to doze for about thirty seconds, but she finally opened her eyes.

“Good morning, Mu-chan.”

“Good morning. Now get up.”

“Good morning, Mu-chan.”

“Yes, good morning. You need to get going quickly in the morning. Breakfast is ready.”

“Good morning, Mu-chan.”

“Are you saying that in your sleep? C’mon, let’s go.”

Realizing the normal methods were useless here, he forcibly picked her up and dragged her from the bed. She was 170 centimeters tall, so she had more than ten centimeters on Mutsuki. He lifted her onto his back and left the room. Throwing her into the bathroom would be better than making a fuss here.

That left only one other person.

“Chiakiii? Are you up ye-….ah.”

“…Ah.”

As soon as he opened the door, he realized he should not have. Unlike the others, this sister was only a year younger than him. She had told him to always knock even when waking her in the morning.

Her pajama bottoms were down around her ankles and he was greeted by a cute butt wrapped in the cotton panties of an elementary school girl. It seemed his little sister was already up.

“Pervert!”

She threw a pillow that hit him square in the face.

“S-sorry!”

Mutsuki frantically closed the door. He had completely forgotten that Chiaki had recently decided to act more mature and thus tended to get up on her own in the mornings.

He was unaccustomed to these situations, so his face was beet red. Even if she was his sister, seeing a girl near his age in a state of undress had been too much for him.

“Heh heh heh heh? You sure are perverted, Mu-chan.”

“Why do you only perk up when things like that happen?”

He threw his grinning older sister from his back.

Fujita Mutsuki’s mornings were always like this. Afterwards, he placed breakfast on the table while his family made their way down. All six members of the family had an apron, but Mutsuki’s pale green one was the most stained.

He cooked six fried eggs and twelve strips of bacon. He prepared a large plate of salad and dressing and passed out rice bowls as each person came down.

“Here, Mutsumi-chan. Make sure to eat your broccoli.”

“Uuh… I hate broccoli.”

“Don’t be picky or you’ll never grow up big and strong. C’mon, eat up.”

“Uuh… Munch, munch.”

After preparing his own food, he made sure his youngest sister ate hers.

“Ahh? You can’t beat a morning with your cute little brother looking after you.”

“It doesn’t really matter, but can’t you at least get your own hair ready?”

“It feels great to have you do it, Mu-chan. The warm morning sun, delicious food, and a little brother’s care. This is true happiness.”

“Honestly…”

“Zzz…”

“Don’t you dare go back to sleep!”

He combed his older sister’s hair.

He also helped his mother check through the bathroom because she could not find her mascara and placed a compress on his father’s aching back. All in all, it was a busy morning.

The Fujita family was quite low key.

The father, mother, and all three sisters were as far from morning people as possible. Mutsuki had for some reason not inherited those low key genes, so he took care of all the morning jobs on his own.

It was a family’s job to cover for each other’s weaknesses.

He was used to busily running around from the moment he got up.

This scene was what Mutsuki considered a “normal morning”.

School was normal as well.

“Morning, Mutsuki.”

“Morning, Fujita-kun.”

His normal route was a straight shot to school once he passed the train station and a few classmates called out to him on that last stretch. He greeted them all with a smile.

When he happened across a classmate on the way to school, they almost always greeted him.

Fujita Mutsuki’s grades were above average and his athletics were below average. He looked well-behaved and had a well-behaved personality to match, so he did not stand out much but was considered easy to get along with.

He naturally had plenty of friends.

“Hey, Mutsuki! Early again, I see.”

“Agh! Ow, ow. Morning, Sakae.”

A boy jumped at him from behind. The boy landed on his back and placed his arm around his shoulders similar to a headlock.

Tomono Sakae was a classmate with an eternally cheerful personality and a charming face just short of being traditionally “good looking”. He had been Mutsuki’s childhood friend since elementary school.

While Mutsuki was well-behaved, Sakae was the eternal optimist. That difference may have actually helped them get along because neither of them would hesitate to call each other best friends.

“Damn it’s hot these days. Why can’t it be summer break yet?”

“I know what you mean. …And get off me, Sakae.”

His friend’s expression of affection was invading his personal space a little too much.

“Oh, hey, hey, Mutsuki. Do you have some time later? I’m the class rep, so the teacher told me to come up with the class seating chart. But you know how I hate details.”

“That I do. I’ll help you out…but you really need to get off of me.”

“You will!? Khhhhh, that’s what friends are for! Everyone needs a childhood friend who really gets them. When I’m president of the world one day, I’m making a law! The childhood friend law! If everyone had a childhood friend, we’d definitely have world piece, don’t you think!?”

“Good luck. And can you please get off of me? It’s so hot today…”

His friend was invading his personal space and speaking so loudly first thing in the morning, but Mutsuki smiled bitterly and put up with it because it was more annoying than unpleasant. This tendency to go with the flow was likely one of the reasons he was considered easy to get along with. And…

“Hi, Fujita-kun!”

“Gefh.”

Someone tackled him from the other side.

It was a powerful blow, but Mutsuki somehow managed to hold his ground since it was all transferred into Sakae behind him. Sakae was sent flying, though.

“Good morning, Kurikara-chan.”

“Hiii.”

The girl gave an innocent smile.

The short hair signifying her high energy was roughly tied back by two bows and her white teeth made her beaming smile look all the more cheerful. She was a little chubby which gave her some charming feminine curves. Her name was Kurikara Saya and she was another of Mutsuki’s classmates.

She got along well with Sakae as they were the class’s two biggest talkers and that meant she spoke with Mutsuki a lot, too. She was more than an acquaintance but not quite a friend.

“Ow… What was that for, Kurikara!?”

Sakae recovered after being knocked away.

He did not particularly like getting that close, so he did not place his arm around Mutsuki’s shoulder again. Mutsuki gave Saya a look to tell her she saved him. The white teeth she showed off to say “you’re welcome” were very cute.

After that, the three of them continued on to school.

“Honestly! I can’t believe this girl would violently attack THE Tomono Sakae, the man who stands at the center of the world!”

“Heh heh. You’ll never be president of the world if you can’t respond to an emergency. You’ll just end up blown away at your own inauguration.”

“What!? How can you say that about THE Tomono Sakae, the man with the world’s best crisis management techniques!? I’m definitely making a law about you! All chubby girls will be shot on sight!”

“Chub… I can’t believe you! Did you hear that, Fujita-kun!? This boy just stepped on a landmine!”

“Ah ha ha.”

Mutsuki could only laugh bitterly at those two’s energy-filled morning.

This was the beginning of an enjoyable day at school.

The school buildings finally came into view at the top of a hill separating it from the residential area. The large tower was the most noticeable feature.

Mutsuki and the other two attended Megutono Academy, a private school well known for its size and history. It had a tradition of freedom, it was well-known for the stylish uniforms for both boys and girls, and it contained an elementary, middle, and high school.

The school grounds covered almost the entire top of the hill and it contained more than twenty buildings, but falling birthrates had left less than half of it in use. The size of the campus made the trip between classrooms a pain, producing plenty of complaints from the students who joined at the middle or high school stage.

The most well-known feature was the clock tower in the center of the campus. The giant stone hexagonal pillar was positioned at the back of the courtyard which was known as a place of rest. It was taller than any of the four-story school buildings and the entire academy was on a hill, so one could see almost the entire town from the top of the clock tower.

Its primary roles were to tell the townspeople the time and…

“Ohh, ohh. Look at ‘em run. Keep up the good work.”

Sakae cackled in delight as he looked down from their classroom window.

He was watching a wave of boys with navy neckties and girls with red ribbons hurrying into the school’s front gate.

At 8:30 in the morning every Monday through Friday, the hill was covered by the ringing of the clock tower’s bell so the students would know the school’s gate was being closed.

While it almost never happened to Mutsuki, Sakae was often pursued by that bell, so he enjoyed watching the students gasping for breath as they rushed to school just in time. As a side note, Saya had joined a group of girls once they entered the classroom.

And…

“Oh. She’s as amazing as always.”

“Eh? Oh…”

A single student drew the eye among the chaos at the gate.

Sakae had spotted a girl walking calmly through the gate as everyone else rushed through.

She casually passed by the educational guidance committee member who was already moving to close the gate. Only two seconds after she passed him by, the bell finished ringing. Despite the close call, she was not running or even walking quickly. Sakae applauded her splendid performance.

But Mutsuki’s focus on her was due to more than mere surprise.

“See ya.”

After commiserating with the students who had arrived after the gate closed, Sakae decided homeroom was about to start, smacked Mutsuki’s back, and moved over to his own seat by the hallway.

Mutsuki sat in his own seat at the very back of the second row from the window.

“Morning, Ibekusa. You’ve still got that last second arrival trick down pat.”

(Here she is.)

Mutsuki tensed up a bit when he heard Sakae’s voice by the hallway.

A girl responded to her classmate’s cheerful voice with a slight nod of greeting.

“You sure cut it close day in and day out. You could always get going three minutes earlier, so why do you wait until the last second? Playing a one-man game of chicken?”

“Negative.”

“I see. That’s fine, but as the class rep, I’ve gotta tell you not to be late.”

“Positive.”

Her response was almost mechanical. Once she finished her unemotional exchange, she moved in Mutsuki’s direction. Technically, she was approaching her seat by the window.

She was the polar opposite of Kurikara Saya. She never asserted herself, so her aura or presence was practically nonexistent and she did not stand out much. At the same time, she was brimming with a calm attraction that mysteriously kept one from looking away once they did look her way.

She tended to keep her transparent eyes narrowed and she had a tall bridge of the nose. She did not seem to wear any lipstick, but her lips had a natural glossy pink color. The messy look of her curly hair was somewhat childish, but the noble atmosphere of her expressionless face gave her a sense of dignity beyond her years. She managed to hold both a child’s cuteness and an adult’s beauty.

Both boys and girls wore a blazer at Megutono Academy and that accentuated her slender figure. From the shoulders to the upper arm and down to the stomach, her blazer was clearly sewn as narrowly as possible.

But at the same time, she was not too skinny. Her chest and hips provided a stark contrast to her slender waist. Her hips were positioned high enough to be immediately noticeable. She wore gray socks over her lovely legs which were full-bodied and filled with life.

To match her face, her figure was as perfect as a model’s.

“Um…”

Mutsuki tried to speak up.

He only wanted to say “good morning, Ibekusa-san”. He would only be copying what Sakae had done so easily.

But…

“…”

He could not say a word before she sat next to him in her own window-side seat.

His cheeks filled with intense heat and his mouth refused to move.

“Okay, everyone, get in your seats.”

Meanwhile, their homeroom teacher arrived.

Yet again, he had been unable to speak to her.

He barely listened to the information being presented to him and instead took furtive glances toward her seat.

She was resting her head in her hand and starting expressionlessly out the window.

Outside, he could see the magnificent stone hexagonal pillar and the clear blue sky of early summer behind it. The clear sunlight had completely swept away the colors of daybreak, leaving a blue so pure it seemed to suck one in.

The girl in front of it seemed so transparent she would vanish into that sky.

Her name was Ibekusa Machina.

In a way, she was a class celebrity. Her beauty was naturally a factor, but it also had to do with arriving at 8:30 sharp every morning yet never once being late, as if she had a clock installed in her body. Also, she barely spoke with anyone.

“…”

Mutsuki looked her way again and again. He was enraptured by her beautiful profile, but he gave a disappointed sigh at the fact that he could not grow beyond simply looking.

And thus Mutsuki’s day began.

He worked hard for his family, he had stupid fun with his friends, and he failed to speak to his crush.

This was but one page from the many harmonious days of his life.

And he remained entirely unaware that the discord decorating human history was fast approaching.

Even afterschool, Mutsuki’s normal life continued as usual.

Ibekusa Machina would always arrive just before morning homeroom and leave as soon as the final homeroom was over. Mutsuki wanted to say “goodbye” or “see you tomorrow” but gathered his things with a gloomy sigh when he could not.

Sakae’s home was near his, but they did not usually walk home together. Mutsuki had no afterschool activities, but Sakae was always busy with his class representative work.

“Fuujiiitaaa-kun. Bye-bye.”

“Bye-bye, Kurikara-san.”

He left the academy as Kurikara Saya and his other classmates said goodbye.

He had nothing in particular to do, so he headed straight home.

The town was not quite a city but still had a fair number of people, so the station located on the way home was always filled with officer workers and students heading home.

More cars were honking their horns than usual, but that had nothing to do with Mutsuki on the sidewalk. He ignored the din as he walked straight through the station area.

Suddenly, his cell phone began vibrating in his pocket.

He pulled it out to find an unknown number on the LCD panel. The numbers for his friends, family, parents’ offices, and little sister’s kindergarten were all saved, so he wondered who this could be as he answered.

“Gather heaven, earth, and hell,” said a voice, “and you will have everything.”

“What?”

“The world was created from discord. …You’re about to be in trouble.”

“Um…”

“Run away.”

The nasal alto voice belonged to a grown woman, but he did not recognize it.

The boy frowned because he had no idea what the woman meant.

“Who is this? This cellphone belongs to Fujita Mutsuki.”

“Make sure you survive until Ange gets there.”

“…”

Survive. He stopped because that dangerous word brought the opposite outcome to mind.

He happened to stop in front of the large wall fountain that made a nice landmark for the roundabout in front of the train station.

“That is hell. You mustn’t stop there.”

“Eh? Eh?”

“The spring has already been wound. Get away from the roundabout!”

Before the woman finished speaking, the screams filling the station area told him something was wrong.

“…”

The woman was still saying something, but Mutsuki dropped his phone on the edge of the fountain.

That was hardly surprising given what had happened.

A bright rouge Porsche was noticeably parked in the middle of all the cars filling the station roundabout.

It was stopped right in the middle of the road which explained why the cars had been honking so much. But those horns soon became screams.

Everyone watched in shock as sounds of scraping metal came from the Porsche and it ceased to be a car.

“Ah…Ah…”

After the hood opened, metal claws burst out and stabbed into the ground to lift the tires from the ground. Next, the convertible chassis bent like an accordion and rose up in a menacing pose.

Then, the emblem on the bumper lifted its head to look in the boy’s direction.

Its glossy, streamlined red body showed off its dark engine. Just as a rhinoceros beetle looked like a jewel from the top but revealed its grotesque underbelly when flipped over, a sense of indescribable revulsion filled the roundabout with panic.

(What…is this? What is this? What is this?)

Everyone began to flee the station area, but Mutsuki was frozen in place. The air felt as thick as molasses and his legs refused to move.

As the car monster stood up like a human being, he noticed its headlights turning his way.

The Porsche seemed to forget it had tires, so it dragged its body along by its claws to approach the dumbfounded boy. The weight of the car produced an awful scraping noise on the concrete.

“~~”

The scraping almost sounded like the whinnying of a horse and the boy fell onto his butt.

Even after his hips gave out, the Porsche continued toward him.

“…sten! Listen, Fujita Mutsuki-kun!”

It stopped just as it crushed the dropped phone with its claw.

As the dumbfounded boy watched, something strange happened to the destroyed phone. The bisected parts clung to the claw and became a phone once more.

“Mutsuki-kun, calm down and listen. You can’t stay there!”

The phone still functioned.

It all felt so surreal that Mutsuki started feeling faint.

“Beginning scan. Fujita Mutsuki…positive. Serpent’s Eye holder confirmed.”

A mechanically synthesized voice spoke through the Porsche’s speakers and he clearly heard his own name.

But…

“Listen, Mutsuki-kun! The Springloaded isn’t the problem. The demon will defeat it.”

The voice coming from the cellphone was drowned out by the bubbling sound coming from the wall fountain behind him.

“The demon is the one you need to escape from!”

“Ha ha?”

He also heard a low and oddly alluring laugh.

“Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha! I found you! I finally found you, Fujita Mutsuki-kun!”

The standing Porsche seemed to lean backwards.

Just a few seconds before, the fountain had been filled with clear water, but now its contents sprayed out like a geyser, assaulting Mutsuki and the Porsche.

And this was not water. It was a sticky reddish-black liquid.

Dried blood may have been the closest comparison. It was exactly as warm as human skin and reeked of blood. Mutsuki shuddered in disgust as it poured down over his back.

“Kh…gh…”

The Porsche did more than tremble. The human skin fluid soaked into the exposed engine. Even in its monstrous form, the precision machinery was weak to foreign substances. As each drop entered the engine, the car’s movements dulled and it finally did nothing more than shake like a toy with a dying battery.

In that instant, a giant curved blade pierced through the center of the exposed chassis.

The red blade gently curved like a crescent moon. The giant scythe’s blade was over a meter long and the handle was over two meters long. It stabbed so deeply into the Porsche monster that Mutsuki almost felt sorry for it.

Only after moving his gaze down the weapon did he notice that someone stood on the damaged headlights at the front of the car.

(Who’s that? Watch out!)

The Porsche could not support itself any longer with its claws broken, so it collapsed forward.

Mutsuki panicked, but the person standing on top was not thrown off. They instead let go of the scythe and leaped toward Mutsuki.

The person bent their waist to a ninety degree angle in front of Mutsuki and moved their head so close it almost hit him.

The situation kept changing so fast that Mutsuki could only watch in a daze.

“Hi. I was looking forward to meeting you, Fujita Mutsuki-kun.”

The person was a boy of about Mutsuki’s own age…or at least he thought it was a boy. At the very least, the sleeveless shirt and pants were boy’s clothes and his husky voice sounded more boyish.

Yet he was so beautiful that Mutsuki’s heart began to race when their eyes met from close enough for their noses to nearly touch.

His droopy eyes and long eyelashes gave him an exotic depth to his looks and the hair held down by his baggy hat was a shiny blond. The innocent smile decorating his perfect facial features gave him a youthful and cute look.

He was more beautiful than handsome and he was more bewitchingly seductive than beautiful. He was such an androgynous boy that his clothes were the only clue to his sex.

“I can call you Mutsuki-kun, right? I’m Lucia. You can call me Lu-kun or Lucy or whatever you want.”

Mutsuki was just about charmed into a stupor.

“…?”

A complete change came over the innocent sun-like warmth of his smile. Like sunlight ripping apart the darkness, he gave the kind of insane smile one must not be charmed by.

“Wow… You’re even more than I imagined, Mutsuki-kun. You haven’t even awakened yet and I’m already all tingly. I can feel your hidden power oozing from your genes themselves!”

He looked over every inch of Mutsuki’s body with a look of animalistic intensity that seemed horribly out of place on his cute face.

(Wh-who is this kid?)

Mutsuki froze over and finally narrowed the corners of his eyes.

He was scared, but there was a strange charm in this boy’s eyes that just about made him fall in love.

He knew being here was dangerous, but his body refused to move.

The boy’s face drew even closer, but he could not escape.

“You’re just my type? Heh heh. I think I would’ve fallen for you even if you weren’t the chosen one.”

“The chosen-…? Nmh!”

He tried to ask about that phrase, but something made his mind go blank.

Reddish lips reminiscent of a blooming rose bud were pressed against his own.

The boy’s lips shined like glistening sweets as they covered the entirety of Mutsuki’s own lips.

(H…Huh?)

Mutsuki was utterly confused when he felt something wet around his lips. The mysterious boy named Lucia used that opportunity to squeeze his lips shut.

“Hee hee?”

His beautiful looks grew sweetly flushed and he let out a warm breath.

The boy’s bewitching, sweet, and stickily moist breath scorched Mutsuki’s lungs and robbed him all strength.

After being left motionless, the boy devoured, rubbed, and pecked at his defenseless lips.

(What…is this? What is he doing to me? …Nn, my tongue.)

Mutsuki could do nothing to stop it. He did not quite know what was happening yet. He only felt a pleasantly soft sensation pressing at his mouth sometimes fast and sometimes slow. The aroma of the heated breaths was certainly not unpleasant, but…

(Isn’t he…a boy?)

Only after the boy’s small sticky tongue split Mutsuki’s lips and began groping about his mouth did Mutsuki come back to his senses.

“Waaaaahhh!”

It had taken him a while, but he finally moved back. His back hit the dried fountain as he put some distance between them.

“Wh-why? What? What are you…?”

What are you doing? Who are you? Why did you kiss me? That was my first time.

Mutsuki had so many things flying through his mind he was not sure what to say first, so his mouth only flapped wordlessly.

“Heh heh heh heh heh. Thanks for that?”

Lucia pressed his knees together and fidgeted with a delighted and charmed smile on his face.

Mutsuki nearly found him cuter than any girl he had ever seen, so he lost his chance to get angry. He could only swallow his complaints. He had a habit of swallowing when he closed his mouth and he only realized afterwards that he had swallowed Lucia’s saliva as well.

The happy-looking boy held his hands to his cheeks.

“You’re better than I ever imagined, Mutsuki-kun. I never thought a kiss would be enough to make me feel like this. I was trying to make you my slave, but I was the one that fell for you?”

He moved his thin, pointed chin as if giving someone instructions, and…

“Wah!?”

Mutsuki had been sitting with his back to the wall but his hips were forced up.

It was that blood from before. The black slime-like liquid had stained all of his clothing and it now pulled him upwards on the boy’s command.

“Now, let’s start by awakening the proof that you’re the chosen one. Let’s awaken the world’s most impure and inescapable power that can drag all women down into corruption! Let’s awaken the Serpent’s Eye!”

“The Serpent’s…? …!? Eh…!”

The liquid had complete control. And as Mutsuki trembled in fear of that unexplainable magic trick, the next trick hit him.

“Ah…ah…ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

Ever since the Porsche had begun to move, none of the mysterious phenomena had harmed anything but his lips, but the flames of pain had finally been ignited.

An indescribable feeling welled up inside his head as if the inside of his skull were on fire or sewage was being pumped into his temples. His clothes were pinned to the wall, so he could not even crouch down as he squirmed and tried to control the core of the sensation.

That core was his right eye which throbbed and burned to a painful degree.

“Ahhhhhh! What is this!? What is this!? What is thiiiiiissssss!?”

“Don’t be afraid. The throbbing of the nerves is temporary. You’re breaking free of your frail humanity and setting foot in the realm of god. You’ll get used to it soon enough.”

Lucia smiled at Mutsuki’s temporary suffering in a mixture of worry and delight.

“It itches when you peel off a scab, but then you get new, healed skin. It hurts to peel back the foreskin that first time, but then you receive the most wonderful pleasure. Babies are born amid great pain, but then they get to enter this sweet, hellish world. …Now!”

What did Fujita Mutsuki do?

“Look at me with that eye.”

He looked up toward the whisper that would destroy the harmony of his everyday life.

“Ahhh… Gh… Kh…. It hurts… It hurts!”

“Don’t worry. That heat is proof that you are the chosen one.”

He desperately held and rubbed his right eye. He even wanted to pluck out the eyeball.

“Look at me. Look at me with your Serpent’s Eye. Violate me with that devilish gaze of such beautiful corruption.”

“…Uuh…”

Called by Lucia and with tears pouring from his eyes, he hesitantly opened the swollen eyelid.

And…

“Ah…”

A mass of metal dropped down and split Lucia’s ecstatic form in two, starting from the top of the head.

When the boy’s two halves collapsed to the left and right, Mutsuki saw her standing behind him.

Despite the pain from before, his right eye gave him a shockingly clear view of the world.

“Fujita Mutsuki.”

He saw long hair colored a burning crimson. A blue ribbon fluttered in the wind.

“You are the legendary boy chosen by the demonic eye.”

Mutsuki had anything but a large build, but this girl looked slender even to him. He doubted she was even 140 centimeters tall.

She had the large round eyes of a small animal. The narrow bridge of her nose rose to an unremarkable height. Her lips were thin, but their glossy pink color stood out on her snowy white skin.

She looked young enough already, but she had a round baby face that stood at odds with the dignified angle of her eyebrows. She was more than just short. The shoulders exposed by her white running shirt and the legs contained in her spats were so delicate they seemed they would break if someone grabbed her too roughly. The straight hair that was long enough to cover her butt further emphasized her slender build.

That girl easily lifted a sheet of metal that had to be twice her height and she rested it on her shoulder. Mutsuki was almost beginning to think all of this was just a dream, but he was still shocked by what he saw.

That sheet of metal decorated with black wrought iron was a sword.

She held a sword larger than she was.

“Who are you?”

“Ange. I was sent here to protect you.”

Her clear, ocean blue eyes looked directly into his burning right eye.

That was the beginning.

“I am an angel.”

Meeting this girl was enough to smash Fujita Mutsuki’s harmony to pieces.

“I am Ange of the Double Flame.”