Vol 2 Chapter 4 (1/2)

Chapter 04: Reason to reach out…

I woke up on the sound of the faint wind.

When I opened my eyes, my room was dark and I could only see my surroundings vaguely. But I heard a quiet something. It was a suspicious WHOOSH sound. Then I felt a bad chill on my neck.

Who was there? I got up alarmed and approached the window—- at that moment.

CLAs.h.!.+ With a loud noise, the gla.s.s of my window broke.

But that wasn’t all. The curtain hung up on the frame of the window got ripped off and the sallow full moon light fell into my room. I was blinded and jumped back.

I had heard a sharp puff of air.

I was already in a panic, when yet another sharp puff of air along with someone else was sent after my head in pursuit. It burst over me, who had fallen down, without mercy and for a moment my mind felt dizzy. I was breathing out moaning on the floor and readied myself for the next attack, when someone entered my room from the window with a light step.

In the darkness I raised my head and focused my gaze.

A silhouette bathed in the moonlight. It was unexpected small. It must have been a girl. When I looked at the silhouette, I inadvertent widened my eyes.

Two wings were spreading behind the silhouette. It were pitch black wings that weren’t even s.h.i.+ning when lightened by the moonlight.

The word “Devil” crossed my mind and I realized that the attacks from earlier were similar to old man Bram’s attacks. But

“Guh!”

But they were faster and heavier than Bram’s.

Upon the next attack, my body was blown away in the air and then hit against the wall.

I received a heavy blow to my back and my breath was taken away, but the attacks didn’t stop there. Something directly hit me in my stomach, then slowly pressing onto my abdominal region with force. With the wall behind me, I couldn’t get away. I couldn’t ready myself for the next attack.

The girl slowly came closer and steady reached out both her hands towards my neck. But her hands were lightly shaking.

“….It’s your fault. Because you led me astray. You took her from me. So I have to act this time…. Or she’ll be taken away again….”

Hesitantly, the girl steadily increased the strength in her grip and strangled my neck. But her voice was still weak now as it would change into sobbing at any time.

And I found that voice familiar.

“…Ma…chi….na….?”

I said agonizing while my neck was strangled and the girl loosened her grip in confusion.

At that moment— A flash in my room.

Along with the light, the silhouette of the girl was enlightened.

Long, red hair and amber eyes. The one, who was strangling my neck, was indeed Machina.

Machina was a devil? Normally one would feel fear when realizing that, but I didn’t. Nor did I get angry about being strangled.

Instead my chest tightened and hurt.

—She had a teary expression.

Machina still had her teary expression and was glaring at me.

How weird. When I realized that I didn’t want her to make such an expression while strangling me… I forced myself to smile. I wanted to tell a stupid joke like usually, but since I was strangled, no words came out.

After a moment of distress, she became stumped.

“….Why. Why are you smiling!”

With confusion in her eyes, Machina shouted angrily. Then she gradually loosened her grip on my neck and finally let go of it.

The moment her hands let go of my neck, I coughed on reflex, but I opened my mouth to say something to Machina.

But in the next moment, the light that still enlightened my room grew stronger.

The bright light blended my eyes and I closed my opened mouth. While holding my hands up, I faced the light.

The bright light that enlightened my room— It came from the talisman on the wall.

The talisman from Gogyou-san emitted a light and was flattering like it had an own will.

Was it reaction to Machina…?

When I looked at the talisman while covering my eyes, I heard a sudden and loud BAM sound from the veranda window. Then someone tumbled into the room through the earlier opened window.

That person stood up and draw a sword from the sheath at the hips in a surprising fast speed. The tip of the drawn blade pointed at Machina’s throat.

“Get away from Nanjou-kun.”

Confronting Machina with a sharp voice.

The black-haired girl, who emitted a dignified, yet threatening aura, was

“Gogyou-san? Why are you here…?”

I was surprised at the unexpected appearance of her, when a knock on my door disturbed this whole situation.

“What’s the matter, s.h.i.+n.o.bu-san? It’s going to bother the neighbors, you know?”

Along with Luna’s worried voice, the door opened.

Naturally our gazes focused on Luna, who came inside.

Luna realized the situation, widened her eyes in surprise and when she looked at Machina,

“Machina….?”

Luna said surprised.

When Machina received Luna’s gaze, she was close to tears for a moment. But she quickly averted her gaze from Luna and moved towards the window. There she turned around and said still teary.

“Nanjou, it’s your fault. You took my sister from me…That’s why I’ll take your precious person away too….!”

She squeezed the words out, then leaped out of the window, spread her wings and flew away.

“Nanjou-kun, I’ll explain it in detail later!”

While saying that, Gogyou-san put her leg onto the window bench and leaped outside, going after Machina. Hastily I ran over to the window and when I looked outside, Gogyou-san put both her feet against the tree in the garden and turned her body around. Then she kicked away from the tree and landed on the concrete wall. She chased after Machina.

d.a.m.n, she was athletic.

Impressed I turned around and faced the door.

“s.h.i.+n.o.bu-san! I’m going too!”

Standing in front of the door, Luna said so while staring at me.

I could see her strong resolve in her eyes.

It seemed Luna knew Machina and that she was concerned.

“Okay, let’s go.”

I answered with a short nod. I sprinted out of the room and down the stairs to the front door. I hastily unlocked the door, jumped outside and when I looked around, I could see Gogyou-san in the distant.

As not to lose track of her, I chased after Gogyou-san.

But after a while, Gogyou-san suddenly stopped.

“….Kuh”

She was frowning frustrated.

Seeing that expression, I understood.

She had lost sight of her.

I raised my gaze to the sky in front, but there was no sign of Machina.

I made a small sigh, when Gogyou-san suddenly lowered her head with a “Sorry”.

“If I hadn’t failed back then, you wouldn’t get put in danger…”

Gogyou-san said another “Sorry”, but…. Back then? Did she mean when Nazuna left the house? She mentioned she failed a job, but… her opponent was Machina?

“Then the hybrid devil you spoke of….”

“It’s Orangelo-san. She’s also the one, who sucked the life-force of the patient in the hospital and defeated the exorcists.”

I was surprised by these news, Gogyou-san explained that she didn’t recognize Machina when she transferred in, since she was half-human, half-devil. And that she couldn’t win against her before, since she was too strong.

“…But it was a surprise when she came to school normally, even though I knew of her ident.i.ty. At first I thought she was looking down on us exorcists and was planning to suck the life-force of the students…but it seems I was wrong.”

Then Gogyou-san looked straight at me and said.

“I don’t know why, but she’s obsessed over you. I believe she wants to take your soul and literally make you her slave. That’s why I kept an eye on your surroundings.”

“I see. Thanks.”

When I thanked her, Gogyou-san lowered her head with a “Sorry” again for some reason.

“….I kinda used you as a bait. And then I even let her get away….”

“No, don’t sweat it. You were just worried about me, right?”

Gogyou-san made a really sorry expression, so I clapped her shoulder, when I heard a “s.h.i.+n.o.bu-san” from behind.

When I turned around, Luna came running over. Once she looked at Gogyou-san and me, she made a sad expression and opened her mouth.

“Ehm, where’s Machina…?”

“Ahh, sorry, but we lost—“

I stopped in the middle of the sentence. I looked at Luna and asked.

“Reminds me, you seem to know Machina. How?”

“Ah, right. She, Machina is my little sister.”

“Mhm, I see, your sister—wait, sister!?”

I got an unexpected answer, so my thought progress stopped for a moment. But I got my gears back to work and pondered.

When Machina was Luna’s sister, then she came here to take her back just like old man Bram…?

I shook my head on that thought.

If she only came to get Luna back, she wouldn’t be so obsessed with me.

“Why is Machina so obsessed over me? Actually, she doesn’t resemble you at all, Luna.”

I mumbled that with their difference in character in mind, but it seems Luna mistook for appearance. She said while smiling and shaking her hand.

“It’s only normal that we don’t look alike. After all Machina and me aren’t sister related by blood. Machina is the real daughter of my step-father.”

“…Is that so?”

“Yes. She has the same hair and eye color as father, hasn’t she.”

Now that she mentioned it.

Old man Bram had red hair and amber eyes just like Machina.

Reminded me, he said he married a human woman.

Right, that was why Machina was half-human, half-devil.

There I suddenly remembered the word “Failure” that Machina had uttered sadly.

And also Machina’s words from earlier.

—– It’s your fault. You took my sister from me…That’s why I’ll take your precious person away too….!

When I thought about the meaning behind these words, Nazuna’s face appeared in my head.

Was she going after Nazuna?

I didn’t want to believe it, but I couldn’t discard that possibility. Furthermore, I had shown her Elni’s house and told her that Nazuna was there.

When I told Gogyou-san and Luna about that, they both nodded and said.

“That’s possible. For now, let’s confirm if Nazuna-chan is safe.”

“….Yeah. Machina might just be lonely, since I came over here. Then she saw me getting along with s.h.i.+n.o.bu-san and Nazuna-chan, so she…. couldn’t keep her emotions in check anymore.”

Luna continued with a “That’s why”.

“I’ll meet her and persuade her. Machina is by no means a bad girl. She should understand when we talk.”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

I had come to the same conclusion.

Someone, who couldn’t leave a crying kid alone and couldn’t finish me off…… who always had a teary expression, couldn’t really do harm to Nazuna, could she?

The answer was NO.

I just wanted to talk to Machina and started running towards the parched river bed.

While suppressing my impatience, I continued to run and reached the river bed—Elni’s house.

And close to her house, I could silhouettes confronting each other.

When focused my eyes, I could see it were Machina, Elni and Nazuna.

In front of the big tent, Elni confronted Machine while covering Nazuna.

“Elni!”

I raised my voice and headed down to the river bed.  I approached Machina as a pincer move. Immediately behind me followed Gogyou-san and Luna.

There Machina turned around and looked at me.

Her expression was filled with anger. But for some reason, it also looked sad to me. I took a step forward because I wanted to call out to her.

“Stay away.”

Along with a sharp warning, an abnormal noise sounded around Machina.

WHOOOSH. A sound like air was being concentrated. A transparent ball that made a sharp sound while spinning. That was what appeared around Machina.

“I won’t show any mercy when you get closer.”

Upon these words, Gogyou-san put her hand on the sword on her waist and took a battle stance. When I s.h.i.+fted my gaze to Elni, she, like she didn’t know any fear, had her arms spread out to s.h.i.+eld Nazuna.

Amidst this tension,

“Machina.”

A gentle voice echoed and Luna took a step closer to Machina. When Machina saw that, she shouted.

“Why, Sister!”

BAM. Along with a sharp sound, the ground to Luna’s feet broke open.

“Why are you with a guy like that! There’s no reason you have to obey such a guy, Sister! That chocker too was placed on you by that guy, wasn’t it? That’s just weird! You’re a devil. It’s weird for you to become the slave of a human! Staying with that guy…Why aren’t you coming home?”

Her shouting was filled with sadness rather than with anger.

“….A devil?”

Nazuna’s small voice echoed mysteriously loud over the river bed.

“Luna-san… is a devil?”

Nazuna had most likely believed that Luna was a foreigner I brought along. She looked dumbfounded at Luna.

“Nazuna-chan, I—“