“And you know what, onii-tama? Yesterday, I washed the dishes.”

“You did? You’re such a good girl, Mutsumi-chan. I bet mom was glad.”

“Eh heh heh. She was really happy♪”

Mutsuki called his family first thing in the morning, but it was more to cheer himself up than for their sake. He held the receiver between his cheek and shoulder and listened to the events of his littlest sister’s previous day as he squinted from the morning sun s.h.i.+ning in.

At the top floor of the high-rise apartment building, the mornings were still cool even with summer so close. He doubted they would need an air conditioner and he left the window open as he made his way to the kitchen.

He needed to fix breakfast. He soaked six slices of bread in syrup and cooked them in a frying pan.

His other little sister, Chiaki, took over the phone back home.

“How are things there?” he asked her. “Is everyone the same as always?”

“Pretty much. …Oh, but onee-chan insists she doesn’t have any cla.s.ses and so she doesn’t have to get up today.”

“How many Chu-His did she have yesterday?”

“She quit after two.”

“She has cla.s.ses. Go wake her up.”

“Roger. What about you? Anything new?”

It was 7:15 AM, time to wake up the “family” here, so he knocked on his roommates’ doors.

“Ugh, I drank too much yesterday.”

Micha trudged out looking ill. When she noticed he was on the phone, she poked his shoulder with her chin to say “good morning” and then collapsed into the recliner she loved so much.

The living room had been too messy to walk through before, but it had been mostly cleaned up.

“Not really. We’re doing fine.”

“I see.”

“Talk to you again tomorrow. I’ll call right away if anything happens.”

“Okay.”

He set down the receiver.

The food would be just about cooked, so he returned to the kitchen and grabbed the strawberry jam and orange juice. He moved the French toast to separate plates and took one to Micha.

“Ugh…”

“Here’s your juice. Or would you prefer water?”

“Bee-”

“Not happening. Here, have some orange juice.”

“Boo.”

As he responded to what sounded like some kind of code, he held out a cup filled to the brim with juice. Still sprawled out on the recliner, she grabbed the carton from his other hand and started gulping it down.

He had no choice but to use the cup for Ange’s breakfast and prepare another drink for himself. 

He heard a loud belch behind him, but as she was a woman, he pretended not to hear it.

“Ahh, I’m just not as young as I used to be. Sleeping in this heat doesn’t seem to help at all. But 

it would be too cold if I left the air conditioning on.”

“It certainly was a little hard to sleep last night.”

“My back hurrrts. Mutsuki-kun, give me a ma.s.sage later.”

“You’ve had me do that almost every day. Why don’t you go to a ma.s.sage parlor?”

“I like it when you grope me. It doesn’t feel good when other people do it.”

“F-fine…”

He wished she would not say anything that suggestive first thing in the morning. He had some water ready, but he could not return to the living room where she was only wearing a tank top and hot pants that left her midriff exposed. Especially when the tank top material was so thin he was pretty sure he could see her nipples.

“Ange! It’s morning, Ange.”

In search of help, he went to wake his other roommate.

“It’s so hot… I hate the human world.”

The door opened to reveal a girl in cute pajamas with a frightening look on her face.

She was not as scantily clad as Micha, so the heat was even worse for her. The scent of sweat scattered from her as she left. When she saw the water in his hand, she swiped it, emptied it in a single breath, and continued on to the bathroom.

“Don’t you dare peep!”

“I won’t.”

She drove her point home and then closed the door.

It had been three weeks since he had seen her naked, so he could only sigh at his roommate’s persistent grudge.

But he smiled when he looked through Ange’s room’s open door and saw the Lazy Bear body pillow on her bed.

Three weeks had pa.s.sed since Fujita Mutsuki had started living away from his family.

He had a dream! He dreamed of working in some international field! And after attending a language seminar, he had gained the wonderful opportunity to study a foreign language on an everyday basis by living with the bilingual Micha and Ange!

He had no idea how much of that his family had believed, but Micha looked foreign, she knew a lot about the languages of the human world, and she had prepared some legit-looking doc.u.ments. They had easily convinced his parents to let him live away from home.

His older sister and Chiaki had not looked happy and it had taken a full five days to convince Mutsumi to stop sobbing, but here he was.

He had been worried about the Fujita family’s mornings without their alarm clock of a son, but Chiaki seemed to be doing a good job in his stead. He would call every morning at seven, but someone was always already up by that time. Mutsumi had even started getting up early on her own so she could speak with her “onii-tama” on the phone.

His new life with Ange and Micha had begun.

“…”

It was not a bad life.

In fact, it tended toward being fun.

He had no complaints with the living s.p.a.ce. The balcony was so high up it scared him a bit, but the view was pretty, the apartment was s.p.a.cious, and the equipment was excellent. It was even conveniently located in a familiar area.

He was getting along with his roommates well enough.

Micha could be a little (using an extreeeeemely generous definition of “little”) messy, but she was kind. Ange was still p.r.i.c.kly, but she was not a bad girl.

Making breakfast had fallen to him at some point. In fact, he was taking care of ninety percent of the housework, including cooking ever meal and cleaning up afterwards. He was not particularly happy about that, but there was no helping it.

On his third day, he had cleaned up the h.e.l.lish mess in the living room:

“Wow. You really are used to this. You’re a great cleaner.”

“I…suppose.”

“Can you do other housework?”

“I…suppose.”

“Then from now on, you’re in charge of every last bit of housework♪”

“I…what?”

That was when he came to curse the fact that he was a natural yes-man who ended up agreeing to pretty much anything anyone asked of him.

On the other hand, he had no real problem with cooking or cleaning up and he did want to do some work since they were letting him stay here for free.

He had moved here because of the demons and FeTUS, but there had not been any sign of either one.

He did not regret moving here.

Ange was fitting in pretty well at school.

“Hah!!”

She spun through the air like she had wings slicing through the wind. She tied her red hair back in a ponytail during PE and it glittered beautifully like a flame.

She landed on the mat without wobbling a centimeter.

“Ohhhhhhhhhh!”

A cheer filled the entire gym. They were using the vaulting box for a PE cla.s.s with boys and girls together.

“Wow, wow! How many flips was that!? How many was it!?”

Saya and then the rest of the girls raised their voices and ran over to her. Fortunately, no one was all that familiar with gymnastics, so they had not noticed their cla.s.smate had just shattered a world record.

(You can’t do that, Ange.)

Mutsuki was worried about how much his angel roommate was standing out. She was probably only using a fraction of her athletic ability, but five flips was taking it too far.

“Well, that’s just how it’s going to be.”

Ange did not seem to mind the attention as she brushed back her long hair and stepped off the mat. In fact, she seemed to be holding her chest out proudly.

Thanks to incidents like that, Ange was known around the school as a “small but amazingly athletic” girl.

She was pretty well liked. She herself still had a poor impression of humans and could often come off as cold, but everyone allowed it because she was cute.

Also…

“W-wood…y-yoo lik…s-sum…kof…ee?”

While her athletic abilities were superhuman, the rest of her was anything but. And that had a certain charm to it.

“Okay, Miss Jiyuuni. That’s enough.”

“Gh…”

Ange clenched her teeth in frustration as their exasperated English teacher ordered her to sit down.

Despite being an elite angel when it came to PE, she was more like this everywhere else.

According to her:

“Shut up! The languages, chemical formulas, and mathematical theory in heaven are completely different! It was hard enough learning j.a.panese in such a short time frame!”

At any rate, this helped Ange’s arrogance not seem so disagreeable.

She did not move from her desk afterschool, but Saya and a few other girls had a habit of gathering around her. She did not seem wanting for friends.

She had really become a member of the cla.s.s.

On another note, it had become common knowledge on the second day that Mutsuki and Ange lived together.

“Gh!? Mutsuki!”

During the midday lunch break, she kicked her chair back and approached him.

“What is it?”

He tilted his head and she held an adorable pink lunch box in front of him. She pointed at the dark green blob in one corner.

“You added your own twist to the lunch again, didn’t you!?”

“Y-yeah. It’s a cold Salisbury steak made with greens and seaweed. Did you not like it?”

“It’s disgusting! It looks like Salisbury steak, but it’s bitter and stinks of seaweed!”

“That’s strange. I thought I’d done a good job on that one. …It’s full of nutrients, you know?”

“I’m not going to make myself sick for some extra nutrition! …Cough! Cough!”

Some of the flavor must have lingered in her mouth because yelling was enough to make her choke. Mutsuki was not sure what to say, but…

“The couple is at it again.”

“Fujita-kun’s had fifteen straight losses, hasn’t he? Keep at it!”

Sakae always ate lunch with Mutsuki and Saya would eat at Ange’s desk, so those two cla.s.smates started the usual conversation.

“W-we are not a couple!”

Ange was short tempered in the first place, so whenever someone teased her, she would shout back with her face the same color as her hair.

Mutsuki tended to grow silent, so whenever she got angry, he would take a figurative step back and let it happen. When another cla.s.smate caught his eye, they would give him a sympathetic look, so he could only smile bitterly back.

“Hey, husband. Quit ignoring your wife. She’s pretty angry.”

“I’m not her husband. How many times do I have to tell you she’s just a relative?”

He kept his tone as calm as possible as he answered his best friend who was nudging his cheek with a fist. Both Sakae and Saya cackled in delight.

The most convincing lie for living together was a familial relations.h.i.+p, so that story had worked its way into the cla.s.s over the past three weeks. At first, there had been rumors they had three or four kids together, but now only their close friends teased them about it. And with how plain Mutsuki was, no one was going to doubt that they were just relatives.

“F-fine then!”

Everyone was laughing and Ange seemed embarra.s.sed to be the only angry one, so she stopped complaining and moved away. She continued eating while avoiding the Salisbury steak.

Mutsuki made their lunches every day. It may have been a blessing in disguise that the cla.s.s knew they lived together because now he did not have to fix two separate menus.

“What did you even cook that made her so angry? You said it was a Salisbury steak made with greens and seaweed?”

“Yeah. You know how they make Salisbury steaks with one or the other? Well, I mixed them together.”

Mutsuki had a knack for all kinds of housework, but he especially liked cooking.

Back with his family, his mother and older sister had only let him make breakfast (and had limited the menu to toast, fried eggs, and salad), so he had a lot more chances to cook lunch and dinner now. That meant he could try out a lot more dishes.

“Want to try some?”

Sakae was peering into his lunch, so he held out a slice of the item in question.

“!!!”

Sakae leaned as far back as he could and vigorously shook his head.

Mutsuki was confused because this boy had a habit of asking for a bite whenever he was eating some kind of snack. But when it came to Mutsuki’s original creations, people had a tendency of sweating a lot and declining.

“But it’s really good.”

He took a bite himself.

“It takes a generous heart to accept something like that. You are a virtuous person, my friend.”

After Sakae muttered that, the smell of the seaweed and meat must have reached him because he pulled his chair back.

“Whoops. Sorry, Ibekusa.”

His elbow hit the neighboring desk where Ibekusa Machina was eating.

“…”

The desk shook, but the girl showed no reaction as she continued to eat.

Her desk was located between Mutsuki’s and Ange’s, so she almost seemed to be a part of their group. She was physically close by, but she was as hard to speak to as always.

No one said a word about her unique lunch: a single red apple.

The way she chomped wildly into it did not match her overall image. She did not actually open her mouth wide, but she did crunch right through the skin.

The cla.s.s was already used to this scene.

It happened every day. She always had a single apple for lunch.

Saya had once asked about it when it caught her interest:

“Hey, hey, Ibekusa-san. Is an apple enough for you?”

“It is nutritionally adequate.”

“But aren’t you still hungry? Are you on a diet?”

“Negative.”

“Do you like them?”

“Positive.”

That was all.

With her figure, she certainly did not need to go on a diet, so everyone had concluded she was just a light eater.

“…”

Mutsuki’s eyes wandered in her direction and he found himself entranced by her.

When her cherry blossom pink lips pressed against the round apple skin, they bent so softly around the apple’s contours.

That kiss between scarlet and pink looked so oddly seductive that the boy’s heart started racing.

Machina bit off a piece and thoroughly chewed it. Her eyes were still half-closed and he still questioned whether she felt emotions at all.

Even the normal act of eating seemed out of place for such a doll-like person. It felt like he was watching something mysterious.

Taking the bite had dirtied her lips with some apple juice, so she stuck out her wet and s.h.i.+ning tongue and carelessly licked it off.

“What are you staring at?”

“! Wh-what do you mean?

When Sakae moved into his field of vision, Mutsuki looked away in shock.

“You were looking at Ibekusa, weren’t you? Your wife’s right over there, so don’t cheat on her, okay?”

“I was not! Um…I-I was not looking at Ibekusa-san.”

Sakae was teasing him just like with Ange earlier, but Mutsuki panicked and shook his head since he really did have a crush on her.

His intense reaction was as good as admitting to it, but that boy was not mature enough to think so rationally about it.

In search of an excuse, he looked back toward Machina and the window beyond her.

“Th-the clock. I was looking at the clock tower because I wanted to know what time it-…”

But when he pointed out the window…

It had been a casual action, but as soon as Mutsuki’s eyes reached the top of the clock tower, his face grew pale. Ange noticed the same thing and once more sent her chair clattering backwards.

“Huh? What’s going on?”

Sakae and Saya both looked over at the clock tower in confusion, but by then “he” had hidden behind the minute hand he had been sitting on.

He almost seemed to have been luring in only Ange and Mutsuki.

“Let’s go.”

“S-sure.”

They left their half-eaten lunches behind and ran from the cla.s.sroom. They heard Sakae and Saya behind them, but they ignored it. They descended the stairs to the first floor, put on their outdoor shoes, and stepped outside. It was a sunny day, but the wind on their cheeks was so cold they thought it was going to rain.

They had practiced for this moment quite a bit in the past three weeks.

Mutsuki did not want to get anyone else involved in the confusion surrounding him and Ange wanted to avoid filling the human world with unnecessary chaos.

Once an enemy appeared, their first priority was finding an empty place.

Luckily, the enemy had chosen somewhere empty for them. The area was known as a place of rest, but it was not very well-maintained, half of the lawn was overtaken by weeds, and the overgrown plants acted as a natural fence that kept most students away.

The two of them ran to the base of the clock tower.

“Ha ha♪”

The boy sitting on the minute hand with his legs dangling down easily jumped down from the several dozen meter height.

“I’m so happy you came to see me, Mutsuki-kun.”

The demon boy named Lucia gave a smile that Mutsuki had a hard time finding dangerous.

“I’m willing to accept your invitation. Especially when it means I can dispose of an awful brat.”

Ange stepped forward, pulled a pendant from below her s.h.i.+rt, removed the top modelled after silver wings, and squeezed it tight.

The silver color swelled out in her small hand and became a sword pointing Lucia’s way.

The angel easily swung a blade thicker than she was, but the demon boy was entirely unfazed. He did wink at Mutsuki with a cute smile, though.

“Sorry I couldn’t come visit you for the past three weeks. Finding a way to deal with that troublesome angel took some doing.”

He defenselessly turned his back and faced the entrance to the hexagonal clock tower. He reached for the door labelled “no students allowed”. It was not locked, so it creaked open and he left behind a provocative laugh as he entered.

“Wait!”

This was clearly a trap – Lucia had pretty much said it was – but Ange did not hesitate to follow him inside.

“Ah…”

Faced with an enemy for the first time in three weeks, Mutsuki tensed up and failed to stop his reckless bodyguard.

According to Micha, this boy named Lucia was a demon. Of the two groups after the Serpent’s Eye, he was from the one that controlled that thick, black water. Memories of the three-week-old fear sent a chill down his spine.

“W-wait!”

But he forced his shaking knees to follow the two of them.

As the “no students allowed” sign would suggest, this was Mutsuki’s first time in the tower.

Inside, he found moss-covered stone walls and extremely faint lighting from the small windows.

Fortunately, Ange had stopped just after entering. There was no sign of Lucia, but…

“Stop, Mutsuki-kun. Don’t get any closer. It’s dangerous.”

Mutsuki heard the demon boy’s voice as soon as he set foot inside, so he had to be there somewhere.

The tower had only been designed to hold the clock at the top, so the twenty meter wide s.p.a.ce was empty save for the spiral staircase running up the wall. There were, however, sixteen columns made of stone and cement with wooden support beams alongside them.

Mutsuki knew nothing of combat, but even he could tell something about this place.

“Over there!”

Darkness dully glistened between two columns and a curved blade poked out. Ange flipped her sword around to deflect the tip and she tried to charge behind the columns.

“…!?”

But just before she did, her sword struck the countless stone columns and wooden support beams.

With her momentum gone, she was the perfect target. The scythe slithered between the columns like a snake and targeted her wide-open body. She twisted her torso at the last second and avoided having her heart skewered, but…

“Vah…!”

Lucia appeared from a different direction and kneed her in the cheek.

Her spine bent like a spring to lessen the impact of the knee to her face, but it still did a lot of damage and her short form wobbled on her feet. The boy instantly pulled his hand back and aimed the tip of the scythe toward her chest.

“Gh…”

“Ange!”

Mutsuki shouted without thinking. That silver blade glistened a disturbing amount in this dim light and it was about to reach his roommate’s heart.

He could feel the blood rus.h.i.+ng from his face as he watched.

“Suit – Adamah!”

The tip dug into her s.h.i.+rt a bit, but then it stopped.

“…”

Lucia realized he could not stab here because there was something incredibly hard below her s.h.i.+rt, so he swept the blade to the side instead. At the same time, Ange kicked off a column and moved away.

It was a blink-and-you-missed-it exchange. Mutsuki’s eyes only caught up after Ange fell to her knees.

Was “the way to deal with that troublesome angel” this place itself? The s.p.a.ce filled with so many obstructing columns was a poor battlefield for Ange and her large sword. On the other hand, Lucia’s curved scythe allowed him to target his prey from flexible angles.

“What are you going to do now? You can retreat if you want. But only if you’re fine with leaving Mutsuki-kun behind.”

The boy calmly sat in a place protected by the many columns and support beams.

“Tch.”

The girl twisted her face where she had been kicked and held the front of her blazer uniform.

Her clothes had been cleanly sliced from her chest down to the top of her skirt, but she fortunately did not seem too badly hurt. A trail of red blood ran diagonally across her cute belly, but that was all. Her chest was unhurt despite the direct hit.

Just like Micha’s underwear, Ange’s sports bra and spats were known as a Suit. They were armor made with a special material unique to angels. When it hardened, it was impossible to pierce. However…

“Shouldn’t you be retreating? I aimed for the wrong spot that time, but I’ll penetrate you next time.”

Lucia gave a challenging smile while rubbing his cheek against the scythe resting on his shoulder.

And he had a point. Ange was safe since the boy had happened to target her heart, but what if he lopped off her head or sliced through the abdomen next time?

“Ange…”

Mutsuki pleaded her to leave even as he trembled in fear.

But instead of nodding, the girl flipped her long hair back and stabbed her sword into the floor.

“Mutsuki, close your eyes.”

“Eh?”

“Don’t ‘eh’ me. Close them, you pervert.”

She made her usual lopsided frown and he finally realized her underwear was visible. Part of him felt this was no time to be embarra.s.sed, but he himself grew embarra.s.sed when he actually focused on her state of dress. It was too much for him, so he did as he was told and looked to the ground.

The girl sighed.

“Plus, you wouldn’t want to see this.”

She grabbed her sword in both hands.

“A living creature is about to be ripped to shreds.”

“What!?”

“Prominence – Loop!”

Drawn by Lucia’s shout of surprise, Mutsuki also looked to see why she sounded so confident.

She split her giant sword in two like a pair of scissors, giving her two long blades.

The sense of weight remained and the two curved single-edged swords were clearly quite sharp.

Also, these were the weapons of an angel that fought with fire. A blue flame pa.s.sed through the portion that had supported the center of the blade back in its original form, making it look like a hacksaw. Just seeing it was enough for Mutsuki to know how dangerous it was.

“Ange of the Double Flame.”

“—————”

“So that’s where the name comes from!”

“Ahhhhhhhh!”

Lucia was dumbfounded as Ange charged toward him with a weapon in each hand.

“Tch.”

Even split in half, it had more than enough power to overwhelm the boy. The sound of the scythe catching just one of them was loud enough to think the scythe was going to break.

And by that time, the other blade was already on its way down.

This wide swing was using the back of the blade. In other words, the flame blade.

Lucia’s back was bent, so he managed to sway out of the blade’s path, but the blue flames scattered by the pa.s.sing weapon still scorched his skin.

“I’m not done yet!”

As the boy tried to pull back, Ange stepped further forward and placed her body weight behind the first attack.

The boy and scythe were knocked backwards and his smoking body crashed into the wooden wall.

“Kh!? D-d.a.m.n you’re fast.”

“No, I’m not.”

Lucia grimaced from the damage and the angel’s foot was already right in front of him.

He somehow managed to escape to the side and Ange’s flying kick shook the entire tower when it hit the wall.

But she used that as her first step and made a second and third step on the nearby column and wall.

“You’re just slow!!”

As if to pay him back for earlier, she stabbed a sharp midair kick into his cheek.

“Hmph.”

She watched his body fly off and made a light landing.

“…”

She was strong. Even as a bystander, the difference in their strengths was overwhelming to Mutsuki. Lucia clearly had superhuman power, but Ange outdid him in everything.

“I’m no match for you.”

The boy had avoided an actual fatal blow, but his skin was burnt and he had been kicked across the room. His voice was weak as he got back up and he raised his hands as if to surrender.

“Improper interference in the human world is a first degree violation of the Angel-Demon Détente. In particular, involving the bearer of a special power for no reason is punishable by Nemesis 66.”

“Yeah, I know. And that 66th form of divine punishment is a requisition of your material form in the physical world. In other words…”

“Death.”

She mercilessly approached with both swords at the ready.

“Ah…”

Mutsuki frowned and seemed to entirely forget the situation.

The boy’s burnt skin cells were rapidly healing and the scorch marks were vanis.h.i.+ng, so he clearly was not human. Still, he looked just like Mutsuki or Ange. Getting kicked on the cheek had left a bloodstain on his lips. Mutsuki did not want to see him sliced to pieces.

It was because of his fear that he did not feel any hatred for the boy.

Not to mention the friendly smile on the boy’s face.

“Heh heh. Thanks❤”

Mutsuki’s thoughts must have gotten through to him because Lucia winked his way.

That confident expression did not look like someone prepared to die.

In fact, boldness filled his face as he faced Ange again.

“Not to worry♪ I said I’m no match for you, not that I can’t win.”

“!?”

He lowered his raised hands.

In that instant, black water poured down from where it was hidden in the dark ceiling. This downpour was made up of the blood-colored demonic creatures known as Succubi and they quickly surrounded Ange and Mutsuki.

However, this was not enough to turn things around. Wings of blue flame had already surrounded the girl and Mutsuki as a s.h.i.+eld, so the black water vaporized and turned to ash as soon as it fell down.

“What was the point of that? Surely you didn’t think that would help.”

“Ahh, ahh. Are you sure you should have burned them?”

Ange was confused that he had not tried to escape while making his futile last attempt, but Lucia made a show of looking upwards. When the girl noticed a sudden presence, she too raised her head.

“Those little guys were protecting you.”

It was already too late.

“Obstacle gone. Resuming capture of intruder…positive.”

It looked like a giant spider to Mutsuki.

It hung down with eight metal stakes driven into the columns and it viewed everyone inside the tower using round eyes made by placing countless cameras at different angles.

Once it determined these truly were intruders, the tail-like sh.e.l.l split apart.

“A Springloaded!? Wah… Why you-!”

Several wires shot out toward Ange. She fought back with her blue flames, but she could not immediately burn through the metal wires and their thread-like flexibility kept her from cutting them with her sword. They ended up capturing both her wrists.

This mechanical spider was a Springloaded. They were the soldiers of the human organization named FeTUS which was also after the Serpent’s Eye.

Mutsuki had seen ones based on cars before, but this one seemed to have modified the engine running the large clock. It was mostly made of metal parts and some a.n.a.log pieces like gears and springs were visible here and there.

“Ah ha ha ha! Weren’t you listening, moron? I found a way to deal with you.”

Like a trapped b.u.t.terfly, Ange was lifted up high by her captured arms and Lucia laughed in delight.

“Wh-why does a demon like you have a human weapon?”

“I’m not using it. The humans left it here to monitor Mutsuki-kun since he’s a top priority target. 

It took me three weeks to find a toy that would eliminate anyone who got close and that was waiting somewhere I could lure you to.”

The boy looked perfectly calm, but the spider Springloaded was attacking him too. However, the black water swallowed up the approaching wires and hardened to keep them from moving.

“My adorable little Succubi were keeping it from moving, but – heh heh – a certain someone thought it would be a good idea to burn them all away. …Whoops.”

While mocking Ange, he turned around and stood in front of Mutsuki to protect him from the metal wires coming his way. The black water followed him and surrounded both of them.

“Are you okay, Mutsuki-kun?”

“…”

The boy had been left speechless by the successive reversals.

“Stay close to me.”

Lucia moved so close his shoulder pressed against Mustuki’s chest.

“L-let go!”

Even if he could not keep up with what was happening, Mutsuki did not remember growing that close to the boy, so he violently twisted out of the way.

Lucia furrowed his brow at the unexpected resistance, but his smile remained.

“It’s no use. With a Springloaded on the scene, you’ll have to rely on me.”

He spoke with a confident tone different from his usual charming one.

“Were you thinking that girl could help since she beat me and I’m holding off the Springloaded? If so, I’ve got bad news. Angels aren’t that all-powerful.”

Mutsuki stood perfectly still as the black water created a wall around him and the boy calmly walked out amongst the flying wires.

“All of those with power are burdened with a certain duty. None can be perfect but G.o.d. If there’s someone at the top, then there have to be people down below. That’s the absolute rule of all things.”

He picked up the girl’s dropped swords.

“You know rock-paper-scissors, right? Rock beats scissors, scissors beats paper, and paper beats rock. It’s the most even matchup in the world.”

He placed the two swords together like scissors and lightly swung the original sword around. It easily sliced through the Succubi at his feet like they were paper, but it was easily deflected by the spider Springloaded that’s metal was as hard as rock.

“An angel’s flames are a purifying light, so demons like us can’t beat them. But angels can only intervene according to the rules of the natural world and those patterns have been a.n.a.lyzed by the descendants of those who ate the Fruit of Knowledge…in other words, you humans. We demons, on the other hand, have no restriction to the natural world. FeTUS only has the knowledge built up by mankind, so they can’t kill non-life forms. In other words…”

“It’s a three-way deadlock?” muttered Mutsuki.

Lucia gave an exaggerated nod.

Mutsuki looked up toward Ange, but the captured girl made no reb.u.t.tal. She hated to lose, so if she had nothing to say, it was likely true.

Angels were strong against demons, demons were strong against humans, and humans were strong against angels.

“But enough boring talk. What matters is that the angel isn’t going to be any help here.”

Lucia tossed the sword aside.

“Two intruders. Possibility of capture…negative. Prioritizing examination of captured target.”

The Springloaded also seemed aware of those compatibility issues, so it gave up on the demon. It quit battling the black water and turned all of its threads toward the girl it already had.

The wires were not mere fibers. They seemed to be autonomous machines themselves. They were already approaching their captured target and branching out their tips into something like a brush.

“Fwah!? ~~ Wait, hey!”

The split tips dug into the fibers of her clothing. Ange cried out in confusion, but it was too late. With each turn of the gears, the wire brushes mechanically pulled at the clothing.

Then there was a tearing sound.

“Ange… Wah!”

“~~~~~ M-Mutsuki, you idiot! Look the other way!”

“S-sorry!”

Her uniform had already been cut down the front, so it was easily torn away and her skirt fluttered to the floor.

Except for her socks, the ribbon worn instead of a tie, and her hair ribbon, she now only wore her sports bra and spats.

The skimpy outfit may have been even more provocative than if she were nude. Even with the metal threads wrapped around her, she tried to shrink down her body to hide her chest and belly. Mutsuki quickly looked away.

Ange had superhuman physical strength, but not even she could tear through the countless wires. Even as she was disgracefully stripped in front of others, she could do nothing more than blush. Meanwhile, the machine continued its a.s.sault.

“Beginning to take samples…positive.”

The finely split fibers pressed against her skin like ivy climbing a wall. Attack did not seem to be their goal, but gooseb.u.mps covered the girl’s skin as they traced along her flesh.

“Heh heh. How pathetic. The Springloaded have plenty of ways to leave an angel powerless, so it’ll make quick work of you.”

Lucia sounded satisfied that the opponent who had nearly defeated him was about to be turned into a specimen.

“Do you get it now? I’m the only one that can protect you.”

“Nwah… Wah. Um, stop.”

“Eh heh heh. You were worried for me before, weren’t you? I was sooo happy❤”

He returned to Mutsuki and moved his face in close. Mutsuki tried to escape, but the black water that had defended against the wires wrapped around his hands and feet, pinning him to the wall. After rendering him as much a specimen as Ange, Lucia leaned in and rubbed his cheek against him.

The beautiful boy gave off a strange smell that was not quite an essence of sweat. It was different again from Micha’s sweet womanly scent, but it was just as alluring.

As that seductive aroma surrounded Mutsuki, Lucia rubbed his body against him with the same friendly smile as before. The androgynously soft skin gave Mutsuki gooseb.u.mps of his own.

“W-wait. Aren’t you a boy? Stop that.”

“Hmm? I am technically male, but what does that matter? Do you not like me?”

“Well, it’s mostly that…I-I’m a boy too.”

Mutsuki complained while feeling fl.u.s.tered from the adorable expression on the face below his own.

The demon boy had slender limbs and a slender build. His white collarbones peeked out from his tank top, as did the nape of his neck. His body was filled with a bewitching charm somehow different from a woman’s.

Mutsuki had never felt any h.o.m.os.e.xual urges before, so he was confused by the pounding of his heart when the boy pressed up against him. Lucia seemed to have realized how he was feeling, though.

“Is it wrong when it’s two boys? But I love you.”

“…”

The look in Lucia’s eyes was purity itself.

Despite who this was and despite the situation, Mutsuki’s heart skipped a beat when he heard someone say they loved him. And while his mind went blank, Lucia grabbed his cheeks between his hands.

“My genes yearn for the bearer of the Serpent’s Eye. …But that’s not all. I fell deeper and deeper in love the more I investigated you. By the time I actually met you, you already ruled my heart.”

Lucia brought his face in toward Mutsuki’s defenseless face.

“I love you, Mutsuki-kun.”

“Ah…”

It was not a surprise attack like last time, but their lips pressed together.

It was a soft kiss with no tongue. His lips were not as plump as Micha’s, but they made up for it with a sweet damp sensation.

Despite coming from another boy, Mutsuki felt no revulsion or displeasure.

“S-stop!”

It even felt a little good, so he harshly shook his head to escape.

Lucia looked up at him in displeasure. His lips were pouting, perhaps as a remnant of the kiss, and that made him look all the cuter.

“I’m not into guys… And, um, I-I don’t think I can get along with you.”

He knew how pathetic it was, but he was completely fl.u.s.tered.

But Lucia tilted his head in confusion.

“You don’t think you can get along with me? Why not? Because the angels said so?”

“Th-that’s right. You want the Serpent’s Eye, don’t you? So you’re trying to pluck out my eye.”

“Oh, what a pain. You sure are pure. Don’t believe everything you’re told.”

For just a moment, his usual smile of enjoyment vanished and he shrugged.

“Didn’t I tell you? G.o.d is the only perfect being in this world. No one else is always right, be they human, demon, or angel.”

“Eh?”

Mutsuki’s blank look brought back the demon boy’s mischievous smile.

“C’mon. She’s starting to enjoy herself over there, so how about we get to know each other better?”

“Eh? Ange!”

Mutsuki had started to forget, but then he looked back to the girl captured by the spider.

“Hkh… Kh… Uuh…”

Ange was on her knees with her bound arms both stretched diagonally upwards.

She did not seem to be in much danger. The countless wires were only binding her arms while the extremely thin ones brushed across her skin.

However, her reaction was intense. Her sweaty brow was sharply furrowed as she desperately tried to endure something. Her limbs would occasionally give a jerk and her normally pretty soprano voice sounded pitiful as it escaped her tightened lips as low moans.

By focusing his ears, Mutsuki could hear what sounded like insects buzzing around even more quietly than the rotation of the clock at the top of the tower.

“…~~~…”

Ears, neck, collarbones, armpits, sides, navel, back, inner thighs, front and back of the knees.

It did not seem the wires could break through the angel’s Suit, but the soft brushes did apply suction and a slight vibration to all of her exposed skin.

It must have been too ticklish to bear because Ange had tears in her blue eyes.

“There’s nothing to worry about. It’s only taking samples of her cells and skeletal structure. She isn’t in any danger.”

“…”

“But… Heh heh heh. Look at that, Mutsuki-kun. She’s blus.h.i.+ng and short of breath. …I think she’s getting turned on from a toy messing with her body.”

The demon laughed loudly.

This may have been the worst torture for someone as prideful as her, so Mutsuki could not say anything.

However, he did notice her red face, the suppressed moans escaping her nose as “kfh” or “nn”, and the slight shaking of her skinny waist. It all looked erotic to him, so he politely turned the other way.

“Oh, I know♪ Let’s help her out.”

Lucia whispered mischievously as he peered in at the other boy’s face while lying on the floor. Mutsuki had no idea what he meant, but Ange briefly paled. And by then, it was too late.

“Open the seal. Oh, impure demonic eye, reveal the proof that you are king of this world!”

“Gh!”

This was the third time, but Mutsuki was still not used to the sensation in his right eye.

At the same time, Lucia and the more distant Ange’s bodies both reacted.

“~~~~ Ahhhhhh! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

That demonic eye could bring any women to a state of arousal. Ange was trapped within its range, so the effects reached her immediately. The cry she had ben suppressing burst from her lips and her entire slender body almost seemed to convulse.

“Ah hah! This really is amazing❤”

Despite being a boy, the intoxicated look in Lucia’s eyes made it clear he too was affected. He expressed his desire by rubbing up against Mutsuki like a playful kitten.

Mutsuki was worried about his friend, so he looked her way.

“Ange!? Are you o-…”

“Khkhhhh! Y…you…idiot! Don’t…use my…name…! Close…your…eyes!”

“Oh, sorry.”

He quickly squeezed his eyes shut. According to the experiment with Micha, a woman being violated by the Serpent’s Eye would be driven into an even worse state if they heard his voice or if he called their name.

The closing of the boy’s eyes let the initial wave pa.s.s, but an intense stiffness stuck with her.

“Hgh… Hh… Nnnnn!”

Oblivious to the Serpent’s Eye, the machine continued its probes, so she could only writhe in agony.

The many fine hairs brushed across her skin. They stroked across the most sensitive exposed parts of her fully aroused body: the neck, the ears, the armpits.

“Stop…uuh…! N-not the armpit… No, not the back!”

The ticklishness seemed to have been concentrated several dozen times over and that indescribable itching sensation caused Ange to cry out in a normally unimaginably weak voice.

Just like with Micha, fire was racing through every cell of her body and all of her sweat glands had opened.

The material of her bra and spats twisted. The heavenly armor known as a Suit could not be pierced by any material, but when exposed to salt water, it became something akin to body paint.

(Ange… What do I do? Ange is going to be-…)

Worried, Mutsuki opened just his left eye.

“Fwah!”

At that precise moment, the front of her sports bra was peeled away.

Two white b.a.l.l.s of flesh were exposed with a pleasant bounce.

She was as short as Mutsuki’s sister Chiaki, but she did have a proper bust size. It provided a nice curve up from her slender waist. Her uniform’s ribbon still hung around her neck, giving an obscene look to those artistic curves.

They were beautifully round and the immature, somewhat-inverted nipples were a bright pink.

The current situation was banished from Mutsuki’s mind and his heart skipped a beat.

“Heh heh. I see you’re pretty h.o.r.n.y, too♪”

At some point, Lucia had kneeled down and reached for Mutsuki’s pants. Before Mutsuki could react, Lucia had undone the belt and pulled both pants and boxers down.

Ignoring Mutsuki’s wordlessly flapping mouth, the boy turned his moist eyes toward the sweaty object now exposed. Given the situation, Mutsuki was not erect, but it was showing signs of stiffening due to his tension and Ange’s erotic appearance.

“Ahh… So this is yours.”

Lucia’s chilly palm lovingly lifted Mutsuki’s b.a.l.l.s from below. With that weak point in the other boy’s grasp, Mutsuki could only quietly ask him to stop.

Lucia ignored the plea, gently rubbed along his inner thigh, and wrapped his fingers around the swelling object. It had already started to fill with blood and this delicate stroking was enough for him to forget the situation entirely and harden at the touch of another boy.

“…❤ Thank goodness. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to turn you on.”

Lucia really did sound like he had been worried and he then wrapped his wet tongue around the foreskin that hid the tip even now that it was fully erect.

“Ah… Wait…stop…”

Even as Mutsuki panicked, Ange fell victim to even further humiliation.

The ultra thin wires were targeting her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Countless threads wrapped around those smooth spheres that resembled white peaches.

Those lovely forms were twisted and squeezed like boneless hams until her small nipples rose from the flat areolae.

“Ahhn.”

The thorough threads moved toward these newly-revealed points. All the while, the girl produced adorable breaths that were not quite screams. Feeling the slight vibration of the wires, her slender body shook harshly and her l.u.s.trous red hair flew through the air.

(Ange…)

Thinking he should not be seeing this, Mutsuki looked away, but the way she had sharply furrowed her brow to withstand the humiliation had been unbelievably erotic and the expression was already burned into the back of his mind.

“Ah hah. You’re so big.”

His uncontainable arousal caused his p.e.n.i.s to point sharply upwards and for prec.u.m to flow from the tip. Overjoyed, Lucia stroked his obscenely twisting tongue across the frenulum.

“S-stop. Stop that.”

Mutsuki’s resistance was weak.

For one thing, his mind was having difficulty comprehending the fact that another boy was pleasuring his s.e.xual organ.

But most of all, Lucia’s att.i.tude robbed him of anger, hatred, or any other offensive feeling.

Micha had given him a b.l.o.w.j.o.b the other day, but what Lucia was doing seemed entirely different.

The boy placed his tongue on the sensitive pink tip and coated it with plenty of saliva to keep the stimulation to a minimum. Then, his tongue crawled across its shape.

“Nkh. Hh. Hahhhh.”

Lucia thoroughly licked along every inch of the tip and frenulum while providing a slight vibration. A ticklish itching seemed to cover the surface of contact and in indescribable feeling filled the entire base of his thighs.

Lucia provided the perfect amount of stimulation for the exposed head. As a fellow boy, he knew just how to use his tongue.

“Nn… Pwah… Mutsuki-kun, I love you. I love you so much.”

He moved his tongue to the b.a.l.l.s, the perineum, and the a.n.u.s. As he did, he glanced up with the mischievousness gone. Instead, he had the look of a puppy wanting some love from its master.

That expression and the loving oral service kept any revulsion from Mutsuki’s mind even if this was a fellow boy and an enemy.

“…Kah… Wh-why you…hyah!”

Ange writhed, shaking the ribbon still hanging from her neck, and she let out a new cry.

She had been rubbing her thighs together, which had damaged her spats and torn a hole in the weakened material. The hole revealed her white thighs and the pink panties that were the last defense of her most precious spot.

“No…Stop… Ah, ah… Not there…”

The power of the Serpent’s Eye had left her nipples so erect they seemed to throb, so the attack on them left the brave angel as helpless as a doll. Her young age may have left her weak to s.e.xual pleasure.

“Ha ha. Look at her face, Mutsuki-kun. This is definitely turning her on.”

Lucia’s sticky lips formed a delighted smile.

“No matter how embarra.s.sed or frustrated she is, she’s can’t stop the s.e.xual desire. Heh heh. For how proud she acts, I bet she’s a huge M.”

“~~ Ange.”

On the verge of tears yet unable to free his hands from the demonic liquid, Mutsuki could only watch as the spider feasted on the angel in search of more data.

The tail sh.e.l.l the wires came from began to move. It pressed against the back of its prey and then produced a pin that glittered with a silver light.

It looked like a marking pin. It was about five centimeters long and it had a small stud on the opposite end.

“~~~~~~~!”

“Ange!”

The pin was fired into the center of the girl’s back.

Perhaps to investigate within her body, the pin dug over five centimeters into her. Mutsuki cried out at the painful sight, but…

“Kah… Heaaahhhh…”

Even as she writhed from the incredible shock, Ange’s screams sounded somehow sweet.

“Ahn! Ah… Ahhhh.”

More pins were driven in along her spine. And with each one, the tone of alluring ecstasy in her breaths deepened.

She was clearly feeling something other than pain when these pins violated her body. Each time the fine hairs tickled across her armpits or the wires squeezed her b.r.e.a.s.t.s or nipples, the ever-rising curve of her pleasure would spike sharply. And that was replacing the pain of her pierced skin with s.e.xual pleasure.

Each time Mutsuki heard one of the pins being fired, Ange’s round b.r.e.a.s.t.s would bounce.

The sharp contrast to her usual dignified att.i.tude left Mutsuki in shock. He knew silently watching his roommate writhe as she was violated made him far crueler than Lucia, but he simply could not look away.

“Ahh…ah…ahh…ahhhh.”

Once the Sprinloaded’s tail finished firing the pins in a straight line from the top of her spine to the bottom, it s.h.i.+fted its aim to her b.u.t.t region. She was lifted by her arms and pushed forward so the machine could aim better.

“Ah… S-stop… Not there…”

Once she realized where the ejection point was aimed, Ange shook her weak head.

But machines felt no mercy. With a sound as light as using a stapler, the marking pin was systematically driven into the center of her sacrum.

“Khee… Heeee…”

Sticking her b.u.t.t out behind her had torn a large hole in the weak material of the spats. The girl pleaded with tears in her eyes as her panty-covered b.u.t.t was exposed.

Seeing that look on her usually determined face filled Mutsuki with a cruel tremor of arousal.

“Ahn❤”

Lucia moaned happily when the p.e.n.i.s. .h.i.t the back of his throat.

He stroked the shaft with his lips and canine teeth while strongly slurping up all of the salty prec.u.m. Mutsuki felt like his urethra was in a vacuum and the sensation reached all the way back to his vas deferens.

The duet of arousal was just about enough for the boy to admit defeat.

“Phah… Nn, go ahead… Hah, let me swallow…nmh, your load.”

Lucia sensed Mutsuki was getting close, so he pressed his face in close while his eyebrows twitched.

“Ahhh, w-wait… I’m…I’m a boy.”

“Not gonna wait❤ Nmh… Nheh heh. Besides, your p.e.n.i.s knows what it wants. It wants to…phah…c.u.m in my mouth more than any girl’s.”

Mutsuki’s reason gave one last shout of protest at the pleasure of having his entire p.e.n.i.s wrapped in the boy’s soft mouth, but Lucia ignored it and continued moving his mouth and lips while groping at the front of his own pants.

“Hee!”

Mutsuki’s low groan overlapped with Ange’s stiff, high-pitched voice. The machine had parted her two b.u.t.t cheeks through her panties, letting the air pa.s.s through.

“~~~~!”

The final pin was fired toward her tailbone, just above her a.s.shole.

The sensation of the foreign object grazing her sensitive flesh was enough for the girl’s eyes to open wide and her spine to arch backwards.

“Hyah… Ahhh! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

S