Vol 2 Chapter 3 (1/2)

Adolescent Adam 2: Chapter 3 - Poolside Taboo

Angels eak against huels

That three-way deadlock seeap between them

A swing of Pro black amoeba in two A bloody s from the sword burnt it down to ashes

It was a type of demon servant known as a Succubus and Mutsuki had seen them before

They were muddy black liquid creatures that could appear frohting theels, so they could not even get close while Ange was protecting him

“Let’s go”

After blowing away the scorched re froirl returned her sword to its pendant for had happened

Mutsuki quickly followed It was not even eight in theand they were on their way to school

“Th-thanks, Ange Like always”

“It’s my job”

Not only did she show no hint of joy at her victory, but she gave an indifferent response and put on a lopsided frown

Mutsuki sighed as he caught up with her fairly fast pace

She still seemed to be in a bad mood

“Looks like the Succubi are attacking on their own, but were you okay, Mutsuki-kun?”

“Yeah, I’m fine”

“Really? You aren’t hurt anywhere? Let me see, let me see”

“I’ off my clothes”

It was before ain

This happened everyand it could be a bit of a problee in hope of some help

She was resting her head on her hand and sullenly staring out the

Three days had passed since Machina had beaten her so soundly Ever since, she had been apathetic to allare at hi with a demon like Lucia The defeat must have really hurt her pride

“Sorry about that I want to do soenerally only act out of their own self-interest The Succubi have no intelligence and they only listen to what their master says”

Lucia gave an exaggerated shrug while sitting on the edge of the desk

Mutsuki did not kno much he could trust the demon boy, but this was how he explained it:

The demons other than him had been quiet for the past uard, but they were growing more andwith Mutsuki That had grown especially true in the past three days due to FeTUS’s actions (Which according to Machina was the incident concerning Black Cat)

The Succubi had been staying away before, but now they were attacking e could slaughter theerous ele in both FeTUS and the demons He treet

But at the same time…

“Mutsuki-kun? Muutsuukii-kun”

“Hm? Oh, sorry”

He looked up as Lucia waved a hand in front of his face

“Are you tired? …Maybe it’s because of us demons”

“N-no, I just zoned out for a second there I’m not tired”

In truth, one of the reasons for his mental weariness really was the sudden increase in demon attacks, but he shook his head to deny it

The boy frowned in anguish, but his friendly smile returned when Mutsuki srin all the more

Meanwhile…

“…”

“Oh, Ibekusa-san”

As always, Ibekusa Machina arrived a few minutes before homeroom

Three days had passed, but the Black Cat she had warned them about had yet to show up and Machina herself had not contacted theain since

She had gone back to being a normal classmate She was her usual quiet self

“Good ”

“…Good ”

She had gone back to being a classreeted her

Once the teacher arrived, Lucia returned to his own seat

With Serpent’s Eye Holder Fujita Mutsuki at the center, FeTUS Witches Ibekusa Machina sat to the left, High Level Deel Jiyuuni Ange sat diagonally back

It had been alement had been established

All four were getting along just fine as e could be irritable, but she was not a bad girl Both Machina and Lucia had blended into the school nearly perfectly

(At the very least, all of us are fine)

Afterschool, Mutsuki sat alone in the e sun

No one else was there Sakae and his other friends had club activities and cos, Machina had quickly left school, and Lucia had vanished at some point too

Ange was at the pool She was so bad at swi a special afterschool lesson from the PE teacher and the swim team

Mutsuki could not leave without her, so he had to kill some time at school

His current situation naturally came to mind

“…”

When he sorted through his thoughts, it was a simple matter

He had the power of the Serpent’s Eye and both FeTUS and the de more drastic measures

Also, Lucia and Machina were opposed to those violent methods

(Even Micha-san said I could get along with those two)

He had reached the saels, a demon, and humans

(It can be hard to tell what Lucia-kun is thinking at times, but I know I can with Ibekusa-san After all…)

He was confident he could be friends with her

(She told me about that Black Cat person)

At that point…

“…?”

He heard the clear sound of a bell

The tone passed pleasantly through his ears and cut off his thoughts

“Wah!!”

“Fweh!? What, what!?”

He had thought he was alone, but so behind him and he nearly fell from his seat

The other person also cried out in surprise and opened their eyes wide

“…K-Kurikara-san? You really scared me”

“No, you scared me Why did you suddenly shout like that?”

His usually noisy classmate Kurikara Saya had appeared silently

“What’s going on? You don’t often stick around afterschool”

She was friends with everyone in the class and knew a lot about them all She tilted her head as she asked her question She also tilted her entire body, which was childish and cute

“I’e This is the day for those who can’t swim to stay behind, remember?”

“Oh, yeah”

A char smile covered her face

“That was really surprising Ange-chan is so athletic, but she can’t see”

“Ah ha ha That’s right You’re always sticking with her during swi class, aren’t you? Sorry she’s so much trouble”

“Think nothing of it”

She sat on a nearby desk to continue their chat

“What about you, Kurikara-san? Don’t you have to get to your club activities?”

“I’ry after class, so I stopped by the school store and they had a wholllllle bunch of discount pudding I ended up eating too much Eh heh heh”

“Try not to eat so many snacks”

“Mhh Don’t say that”

Mutsuki did not have many female friends because he was fairly shy at the core, but he could hold a conversation with Kurikara who got along with all of their classmates

But now that he thought about it, this was his first time alone with her

She had a pluht personality

In the reddish light of the setting sun, she looked somehow mature

“Are you okay like this?”

“Eh?”

“Are you okay being away froe-chan?”

She almost seemed like another person entirely

“…Okay? Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Well, the two of you are always together, so I thought maybe there was a reason why you couldn’t be apart”

“…”

She was still s, but she stared directly at him with a somehow sharp look in her eyes

There was indeed a reason why they could not be apart Ange was his bodyguard, so she was normally with him at all times However, no one else should have known about that

“Not really W-we’re relatives, so we just happen to be together a lot”

He stumbled over his words a little The class had found out he and Ange were living together, so they had explained it by saying they were relatives

“H look “Relatives, you say?”

A sole escaped her throat

He usually got along with her better than any other girl in the school – even Ange – but for some reason he felt a chill run down his spine

“By the way”

It ht, but her usual friendly expression had transforlanced over to the seat behind the boy

“You get along ith Satowa-kun, don’t you?”

“Well, yes, I suppose I do”

“Well enough that he would come for you if you called for him?”

“N-not that well”

“I see, I see”

She giggled again with a so look on her face Only then did he realize that she no longer had the bright eyes of his classmate

Her eyes were angled sharply upwards like those of a wild ani its prey

The twilight of late spring entered the classroom

As that setting sunlight washed over hi down his back

“Hey, is anyone still in here?”

A sudden voice broke the thread of tension

Katsue-sensei, their homeroom teacher, poked her head in from the hallway She frowned suspiciously when she noticed a boy and a girl alone together

“I’m about to lock up, so head on home”

“Oh Okayyy!”

In that instant, Saya returned to being her usual eternal optiht expression on her face and ran off

“Bye, Fujita-kun See you tomorrow♪”

“S-see you”

His strength left him and his chair creaked below hiathered his things to leave

At that point, he heard the quiet sound of a bell once more

Saya left the classroo back

Mutsuki could not re alone was a bad idea That bad feeling led hie to finish up

The swi led by volunteers froutono Acadeh schools who had trouble swi their best with a kickboard in one hand

Incidentally, anyone could choose to join in even if they did not have any real trouble with swi

“Ahhh! Mutsuki-kun❤”

As he peered in through the fence, Ange’s was not the first familiar face he spotted Or rather, that he was spotted by

“Lucia-kun”

Mutsuki was surprised to have his name called so loudly and the demon boy in swim trunks immediately ran over like a puppy He had no trouble with swi In fact, he had broken the school’s records for the crawl and the butterfly He was apparently just having fun

“What is it? Are you here to swim? …Or did you come to see me?♪”

He brought his face close to the fence He had his usual bewitching attraction that affected both sexes equally, so he gathered gazes from the pool behind him Mutsuki shook his head with a bitter s all of the boy’s friendliness for himself

The pool was packed full of people, but he quickly found who he was looking for He could see a drowning redhead in the practice course for the (mainly elementary school) students who could not swim 25m with a kickboard

Lucia pouted his lips in displeasure

“It’s gonna take a while still for that angel Wait there I’ll head out to meet you❤”

He could leave at any ti part voluntarily, so he ran toward the exit for this higher priority He passed through the disinfectant tub and the simple shower and then entered the locker room

Mutsuki made his way to the locker room from the outside He could not bear the looks of the people ere angry that Lucia had left

Plus, there was so he wanted to discuss with the demon boy

Megutono Acadely luxurious facilities It had a normal pool and one with a shallow end of the ele facilities had to cost twice as much as well

But the boys changed in the classroo classes, so one had to join the swie of it all

These extra lessons were considered part of the swim team’s activities, so the facilities had been opened for everyone

Mutsuki entered the boy’s locker room which ell drained and ventilated, so it barely smelled mildewy at all No one else was there at the moment, so it was just him and Lucia

“Pfahh~~”

Lucia happily let ater wash over his face in the shower space

There was an accordion curtain installed, but the boy did not bother closing it

“…”

The boy in only swim trunks was surrounded by a thin layer of steaht flushi+ng of his white skin

It may have been due to his youthful skin, but he had no real flesh from his small collarbone to his navel and yet he seemed somehow round

He was skinny but not quite enough to see his ribs and his shs had no fat on them either

He had none of the feminine roundness of Micha or Machina, but his s and tickled at the male psyche The way he washed his blond hair was oddly sexual and Mutsuki’s heart began to race as he watched it

And…

“Eh heh heh❤”

“…”

The bewitching boy suddenly turned toward hi look of happiness on his face

It was a dangerously cute smile that seemed to stab into Mutsuki’s heart The expression could capture the heart of both boys and girls Mutsuki saw it on a daily basis, but his heart still skipped a beat and he looked away

“I’lad♪”

“Eh?”

“That you aren’t afraid of et close, right? But now you act normal even e’re alone”

Mutsuki realized the boy was right They had been classmates for teeks now, but this was the first tiether It felt like Lucia had e could see

Was that not to scare him?

“…Um”

Mutsuki raised his head and looked the boy directly in the eye

He had been thinking about this for a month now

His first i Lucia was clearly the one who had dragged Mutsuki into his current abnor the dee

But he had held a certain thought in his heart ever since seeing the boy’s smile for the first time

“I have a question”

“Yeah?”

Was it possible this boy was the farthest of anyone fro his enemy?

“Deels, can they?”

He tried asking and Lucia

“That’s right”

The de and did not hesitate to answer

“The relationshi+p between angels and deood and evil as humans like to interpret it, but our very existences are eternally at odds There’s no e can get along”

“…Really? There isn’t even a slight possibility?”

“Nope”

There was no hesitation at all in his voice

This was unfortunate, but Mutsuki had honestly expected it After all, Machina had told hi

“Then…what about you?”

“?”

“I’ your personal opinion, not your view as a dee?”

He placed his hopes on that question and took a step forward

Ibekusa Machina had said she would not oppose the angels on a personal level

That was good enough for now, so he hoped he could get a similar promise here

Lucia blinked his eyes froly earnest plea, but he seeing down fro shoater

“Not a chance I hate angels”

He coldly turned the other way, so Mutsuki frowned

“They’re violent and don’t have a lick of tact They call theuards, but that’s just an excuse to drive ahoever they don’t like Isn’t that Ange angel nothing but trouble for you too, Mutsuki-kun?”

“Th-that isn’t-…”

“But”

Ange was nearly family to Mutsuki and he just about juood side too, but the demon sidestepped him with a mischievous smile

He grabbed Mutsuki’s blue striped tie and pulled to bring the boy’s face doard him Some shower droplets bounced from Lucia’s face and onto Mutsuki’s cheeks

The dehout the school looked up at hi eyes

“If you tell me to, I’ll stop”

He whispered from lips so lovely that Mutsuki wanted to abandon reason and suck at them

“I’ll do anything you tell ”

“———”

The de voice seelued to the spot as if he had been paralyzed

No It was him himself that could not take his eyes off of Lucia

The deuarded lips

“Give me any command and I’ll obey It’s all up to you”

He brought his face close while tracing his finger around the boy’s lips

“Ever since I was bound by Avalon, I have been your eternal slave”

His lips were two millimeters away, but he stopped and narrowed his eyes in a smile

“Uuh…”

Mutsuki trembled as he felt the same sweet breath of another boy he had felt when his first kiss had been stolen

He could not help but recall how soft that fruit was

That boy’s aura transforuilt He had a strange charm similar to Micha’s It was forceful and yet it made Mutsuki do whatever he was told

Indeed, Mutsuki felt no displeasure fro the boy so close

“Then…”

The eyes peering into his froreen irises that seemed to suck him in

“Get along with everyone”

“Okay❤”

Lucia readily nodded and Mutsuki recalled what the boy had said that enerally only act out of their own self-interest

“Oh, b-but…not like this”

However, he lowered his head as far as his tie would allow

“This isn’t about you being a slave oryou We’re, um, all the same I just want you to, um, uh…”

“?”

Lucia’s quizzical tilt of the head was incredibly cute Mutsuki had started speaking before organizing his thoughts, so it came out aardly

“…b-be everyone’s friend”