Adolescent Adam

Volume 4, Chapter 4 - End of the Balance

“I’m hungry.”

Ange quietly complained while sitting on the couch with her arms around her knees.

She checked the clock and found it was already seven at night. According to the Jiyuuni timetable, it should have been dinnertime already.

She was still hungry because the boy in charge of preparing that dinner had yet to return.

“Where did that idiot get off to? He’s late.”

It had been five hours since she had left him at school shortly after two, yet he still had not returned. She rested her chin on the Lazy Bear cushion in her arms and puffed her cheeks out.

Micha chuckled as she stared at the rain pouring down out the window.

“If you’re worried, you shouldn’t have left him in the first place.”

Micha sat down next to her.

“Just because you were removed from bodyguard duty doesn’t mean you can’t accompany him.”

The woman stroked the girl’s red hair.

Ange put on a lopsided frown and did not reply.

He had not been told, but the alert level for Serpent’s Eye Possessor Fujita Mutsuki had been lowered.

He no longer required a 24/7 bodyguard and simply had to be monitored. As long as the angels knew what he was doing, he was permitted as much freedom as he wanted.

One could say Mutsuki’s work at making friends with Machina of FeTUS and Lucia of the demons had paid off.

Of course, this had only been decided among the angels and the enemy organizations had not been informed.

That meant Ange was no longer tasked with accompanying him at all times. She had also been given another special mission.

At the moment, she was not Mutsuki’s bodyguard, so she had not been abandoning her duty when she left him at school.

“If the observation team hasn’t said anything, he must be playing with his friends. If you’re that hungry, why not get some take-out?”

The girl ignored the suggestion with a sulking look, so the older angel narrowed her eyes and laughed.

Then she looked outside again.

“But this rain worries me. Did Mutsuki-kun take an umbrella with him today?”

“He had one this morning.”

“Hmm, so he wouldn’t be taking shelter from the rain. I wonder why he’s so late.”

Micha tilted her head.

Ange also looked out the window while pouting her lips.

She saw the sky dumping down even more rain than earlier in the day.

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“Knowing that idiot, his umbrella might have broken in the wind.”

She got up from the couch.

“Take-out would have a hard getting to us in this rain. I’ll go find Stupid Mutsuki, so you stay here, Micha.”

She walked quickly to the front door.

Ange had her back turned, but Micha caught a glimpse of her face from side. It was as red as her hair, so Micha burst out laughing.

“You need to be more honest. Just admit you want to eat Mutsuki-kun’s cooking.”

“…! Th-that is not-…”

Ange turned back with her face an even brighter red.

However, her outburst of anger came to an abrupt end as she shut her mouth like normal.

“Once Metatron begins, I’ll have to say goodbye to him anyway.”

“…”

“If I’ll never have another chance, it would be a shame to miss even that idiot’s bizarre creations.”

She left.

Micha’s face stiffened as she watched her leave.

The usual enjoyment of teasing that younger angel was nowhere to be seen.

Ange left the apartment with her own umbrella and a spare one for him.

It was past seven. With some help from the thick clouds, it was already quite dark out.

It was a fairly windless typhoon, but they seemed to be near the center. The rain grew nearly horizontal, so she would be quickly soaked even with the umbrella.

After making sure no one was watching, she produced wings of blue flame from her back.

She wrapped her body in the two thousand degree flames. A layer of air formed that deflected all of the raindrops that approached her. Even if one did get close, it would be vaporized before it reached her.

(I guess I didn’t need two umbrellas after all.)

She laughed to herself.

An umbrella was relatively useless in this weather, so they would need to use her wings to remain dry on the way back. In that case…

“…”

The two of them would only need the one umbrella.

“~~”

She shook her head and her face grew oddly warm.

(He can just get soaked on the way back.)

That would be more enjoyable. He was sure to tear up as the rain drenched him despite the umbrella, so she could laugh at him before having no choice but to let him inside her wings.

And then…

“Heh heh.”

Her expression relaxed as she imagined it and she followed the path back to school.

“C’mon, move in closer, Ibekusa. I’m getting soaked over here.”

She suddenly heard a familiar voice in the rain.

“…”

Her small smile froze over when she saw the three people walking toward her.

“You can make a new umbrella with your Springloaded, can’t you? So let Mutsuki-kun and me have this one while you head home with that.”

“Negative. Using Springloaded for personal matters is frowned upon.”

“Calm down, you two.”

Lucia had not had one, so the three of them were making their way to the apartment under a single umbrella.

Mutsuki was in the middle, Machina was on the right, and Lucia was on the left.

The rain was blowing nearly horizontally, so all three of them were soaked. The umbrella was essentially meaningless, so they were really just using the shared umbrella to flirt.

Lucia complained, Machina calmly parried, and Mutsuki settled things.

Mutsuki had enjoyed their earlier raw intercourse, but he enjoyed this too. He could not stop smiling.

“…”

When she ran across them and saw the boy’s smile, Ange quietly closed her eyes.

“Ange?”

He tilted his head when he saw her near the park right next to the apartment.

“What is it? I was just on my way ba-…oh.”

He noticed the two umbrellas she held and guessed what she was doing.

He tried to move close, but…

“FeTUS Witches Miss E…Ibekusa Machina.”

She spoke and his feet came to a stop when he saw the look on her face.

She always looked irritable and she would sometimes smile or look surprised, but he had never seen this look over the past two months.

It reminded him of the lonely look of a lost child.

“I owe you one for warning me in advance of Black Cat’s attack.”

“Ange…?”

“I will repay you for that now.”

Mutsuki frowned, but Ange paid him no heed and closed her umbrella.

“FeTUS stands in opposition to heaven’s command concerning Adam. It has been determined you are in violation of Deadly Sin #32. The angels will now use Metatron to exterminate your sanctuary…FeTUS Headquarters.”

“!”

The girl spoke plainly and Machina also gave a look unusual for her: surprise.

Even Lucia’s expression changed. Mutsuki alone could not follow what was being said.

“Metatron will be activated within thirty minutes of the present time.”

However, he could tell Ange was declaring war on FeTUS.

“Our target is your headquarters and any resistance would be futile. If you wish to live, then run away.”

The angel turned her back and Mutsuki prepared to call out to stop her.

“Now, now, Ange. You know you can’t give advance warning of divine punishment.”

But another familiar voice spoke first. The boy gasped as four angels landed between him and Ange.

Three were red-winged female angels he had never seen before, but his eyes naturally focused on the angelic young man he did recognize.

“What is going on, Rapha-san? …What is this…Metatron?”

A tremor filled the boy’s voice because he could tell this was serious. Rapha only gave his usual gentle and somewhat cold smile and did not answer.

“————!”

A moment later, Machina turned around and ran toward the school.

The balance between humans and angels had been desperately held together before, but Mutsuki could clearly sense that it had fallen apart.

“Ange?”

“…”

She did not respond.

She let go of the umbrella she had brought. Before the handle could even clatter to the ground, the five angels took flight.

At the very last moment, he felt like he saw her blue eyes looking back at him over her shoulder.

Utterly dumbfounded, he turned to Lucia for help.

“What was that? What is going on?”

Even Lucia’s behavior told him something was wrong. Normally, he would have smoothed things over with some kind of joke about them being alone together, but his expression remained tense.

“They’re using Metatron on a single human organization? The angels must really feel cornered.”

“What is that? What is Metatron?”

The demon boy was the only one he could rely on, so he grabbed his shoulders and shook him. He dropped the umbrella, so the pouring rain pelted their heads.

Lucia looked up and seemed unsure what to say for a while.

“Simply put, it’s a gigantic bomb the angels use.”

“A bomb…? H-how big?”

“I don’t know. It varies from case to case.”

He brushed up the wet bangs plastered to his forehead.

“It was used to destroy the Tower of Babel and to wipe out Sodom and Gomorrah. It also sunk the island of Atlantis and the continent known as Mu. Including Agneya and the Arrows of Indra, about 90% of the world’s phenomena that symbolize god’s wrath were caused by Metatron.”

“You’re kidding…”

On the upper end, it could sink a continent. That was an unimaginable scale.

The humans of FeTUS would certainly have the upper hand in a direct battle with angels, but what if a great calamity was used before the battle even began?

Angels, demons, and humans. Three organizations held each other in check around Fujita Mutsuki.

The stalemate had been growing more stable, but now it had utterly collapsed.