Her tone was ice cold.
“Really?”
“Didn’t Micha tell you? The angel headquarters down here on earth are searching for a countermeasure against the demons and FeTUS. If we can restrict the influence of those two groups, you won’t need a bodyguard. Then I’ll be freed from this annoying job.”
“Oh, yeah. I did hear that.”
If the other angels could defeat those moving machines and that black water, he would no longer have to live with those two angels. He could return to his family. Micha had explained that the night before.
But when he thought back, something about that bothered him.
“I see. So after that, I won’t be able to see you and Micha-san anymore.”
That felt sad even if he had only met them the day before, so the tone of his voice dropped.
The girl glanced over at him, but she groaned and wrinkled her brow awkwardly when she noticed his expression. But she quickly bristled with annoyance.
“That’s right! I’ll be leaving soon and then we’ll be strangers again!”
She pointed at his nose and raised her voice.
It felt less like she was actually angry and more like she was trying to break the gloomy atmosphere.
The boy was used to being yelled at, but it shocked him when she began shouting in public. Naturally, they drew a lot of attention.
“Just to be clear, every minute and every second I have to spend with you is an annoyance.”
“S-sure. …Um, Ange?”
“Besides, why do I even have to be your bodyguard? You’re pathetic and perverted, so I’d never want to have anything to do with you if it wasn’t for the Serpent’s Eye.”
“Sorry. …But could you keep it down?”
Not only was she yelling quite loudly in public, but she was calling him pathetic and perverted.
More and more people started looking their way, so he was of course embarrassed.
But he could stand embarrassment. He could bear with the half smiles in those strangers’ eyes.
“Like I told you before, I hate, hate, hate people with no delicacy and no shame!”
“Yeah, you told me that yesterday. Anyway-…”
“I just can’t stand this. Stop getting carried away and acting like we’re friends or something.”
“Can you please-…”
“Just because we live together is no excuse!”
“Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???”
This time, everyone on the third floor turned around.
But they looked past Ange and Mutsuki to look at the girl behind them.
With the worst case scenario in mind, Mutsuki turned around with stiff movements.
“Living together… No shame, pathetic, perverted…”
The worst case scenario was here.
And it was the worst possible person for that worst case scenario. Mutsuki started feeling dizzy, so he figured this was would be when someone would faint from shock.
“No delicacy…and pathetic…when being perverted…together.”
A familiar girl was quickly rearranging the keywords for her own convenience.
Her mouth was opened wide, the corners were twitching, and even her nostrils were opened wide as she smiled.
“Hear me out, Kurikara-san. You’ve got it all wrong. The truth is…”
“Spam restrictions off! Chainmail ready to go! Send to entire address book!”
“Stooooooooooooooooop!!”
Even though she was a girl, he seriously grabbed at her to steal her cellphone.
But the girl, Kurikara Saya, easily swayed out of the way and continued dodging his attacks as her thumb raced across the keys with lightning speed.
Ange could only watch in confusion because she was unfamiliar with the human world and did not know of the incredibly dangerous type of human known as the “gossiping girl”.
By the following day, the entire school knew they lived together.
Chapter 5 – Skirmish between Heaven, Earth, and Hell
“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 happyd”
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 shining 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 classes and so she doesn’t have to get up today.”
“How many Chu-His did she have yesterday?”
“She quit after two.”
“She has classes. 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 massage later.”
“You’ve had me do that almost every day. Why don’t you go to a massage 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.