Lavriel frowned, but there was no doubt in Machina’s eyes.
Once they knew where Mutsuki had been taken, an all-out war between FeTUS and Kurosaki would begin.
But as long as Mutsuki was in Kurosaki’s grasp, there was no reason for these
three to fight each other.
That was of course a convenient interpretation for FeTUS and it would threaten their position in the future if they asked for help here.
“…”
“…”
Ange and Lucia stopped walking.
They turned around and looked Machina in the eye.
An angel and a demon could not just trust FeTUS.
Yet Ange and Lucia did trust Machina.
“…I’ll accept an email.”
“Positive.”
Ange gave her usual lopsided frown and Machina breathed a sigh of relief.
Lucia hesitated longer and scratched his head, but he must have ultimately decided that this was for the best even if he was only in it for what benefited him.
“You have 5 days. Find his location within 100 hours.”
“100 hours?”
“I sent some of my cells into Mutsuki-kun’s body, so a safety will activate if he’s really in trouble. His ‘masculinity’ should be sealed away for a little over 100 hours.”
When he was poisoned and burned, Mutsuki’s body had been regenerated with
Lucia’s power, so this had already been set up.
“A demonic safety…? I see. That helps for now. Kurosaki should have trouble removing demonic power.”
That worried Lavriel since it meant FeTUS could not do anything either, but she was relieved regardless.
Machina and Ange focused in on a different part, though.
“…What counts as ‘really in trouble’?”
“You seem to know something.”
Lucia was only ever interested in Mutsuki, so it was unnatural for him to be so helpful all of a sudden. They could sense his impatience.
The boy lowered his shoulders.
“…It will automatically activate if he approaches the other Serpent’s Eye.”
“!”
“!”
“The other one…? Are you saying she is with Kurosaki?”
“Probably.”
When they heard that, the other three realized why Lucia was so impatient.
The Serpent’s Eye was the power given to Fujita Mutsuki that allowed him to unconditionally control just half of heaven, earth, and hell.
Both humans and snakes had two eyes.
Just as there were two sexes.
“We can’t just wait around for 100 hours. Miss E, begin the analysis immediately.”
“Positive.”
“I’ll tell Micha and the others to see if we can use the full forces of heaven.”
“Tell me once you have it narrowed down at all. Even if it’s just a general area, I can sense Mutsuki-kun’s scent if I’m nearby.”
They knew what to do. Lavriel, Ange, and Lucia. Three members of three organizations turned away from each other.
But not as enemies. This time, it was so they could regroup once more.
So they could work together to rescue Mutsuki.
“…Jiyuuni-san.”
After Lucia and Lavriel left, Machina suddenly called out to just Ange.
The angel turned around and the girl spoke in her usual plain voice.
“I am almost certainly the cause of this.”
“What do you mean?”
“Kurosaki is rushing things because they know the Holy Grail resides in my body.”
This continued what they had discussed the day before, so Ange fell silent.
Machina continued on regardless.
“If the enemy is using their full strength, we cannot wait any longer. Once we rescue Fujita-kun, I will tell him to use this Holy Grail.”
“…”
“I will tell him I want to make a baby with him.”
The Holy Grail. That referred to Eve’s womb.
And there was only one way to use a womb.
Bearing the child of Adam, the original man, was the purpose of the girl born to hold the Holy Grail. That was the reason Ibekusa Machina existed.
“So you’ve made up your mind.”
“…I’m not sure.”
Something still bothered her, though. It was the same thing that worried Miss A.
Whatever her body’s purpose was, there was still the issue of her feelings.
“But I will say it.”
Machina’s tone was decisive.
What feeling was behind that? The expressionless girl did not know if she had a mutual understanding with human-hating Ange.
But she said this to Ange alone.
“I will tell Fujita-kun that.”
“…I see.”
Chapter 9
When I, Kurikara Saya, woke up, it was the evening after the cultural festival.
A helicopter had apparently crashed and I was apparently directly below it, so everyone said it was a miracle I only got some scrapes on my legs.
But my mind was cloudy and I couldn’t remember what kind of accident it was.
I kind of remembered a helicopter appearing in front of me, but the picture in my mind was shaped differently from the wreckage I was shown. And I also remembered hearing a really loud noise that didn’t sound like a crash. It was more like gunfire.
Then there was the weird dream I had. A blonde girl of about 5 went around to everyone who was lying on the ground and said, “I will only alter your memories slightly, so worry not. Just go to sleep.”
Well, the doctor said that our memories can get confused after an accident, so that’s probably what this was.
At any rate, I had miraculously escaped with no more than some slight wounds to my legs.
But I’m worried about Mutsuki-kun and the others.
Mutsuki-kun and Machi-nyan must have been near the crash. Same with Ange-chan and Lu-kun. They were apparently badly injured and hospitalized.
Their injuries aren’t life threatening, but they won’t be back to school for a while.
And they aren’t allowed any visitors.
Hmm, I hope they’re okay. I’m really worried.
…And what do I do? Mutsuki-kun and Machi-nyan were only there because of me.
If only I hadn’t invited them to the cafe.
Oh, no. It’s all my fault.
And it was those four friends who got so badly hurt. Does that mean Ange-chan and Lu-kun where there because of me too?
Uuh, please come back soon, everyone.
I hope they’re okay. Surely they’ll be okay, right? We’ll be able to laugh and hang out together like before, right?
“…”
I hope so.
While I was thinking about all that, the doctor told me I was free to go and my mom came to pick me up.
All the while, I was praying that we could all return our normal lives soon.
But just a few days later, I would learn that that enjoyable time spent with those four would never return.
Afterword
Hello. Eh? It’s been 3 years and 9 months since Volume 6!? This is Sakaki Kasa.
Yeah, sorry about the wait. This one was really late, but I somehow managed to get Adolescent Adam Volume 7 released.
You might wonder what I’ve been doing for the past 3 years, but I haven’t just been goofing off. I’ve had a lot of jobs writing game scenarios lately. So you might think I’ve been cheating on you with the game industry, but that only happened because of an offer to turn Adam into a game.
But it turns out this series doesn’t work very well as a game, so over the past 3 years, 3 different projects (for an all-time total of 4) have fallen though. The manga adaptation is going well, so Volume 2 of the Adam manga (drawn by Amagi-san who does the novel illustrations) is going on sale at the same time as his. Make sure to buy that too!
Now that the advertisement is out of the way…Amagai-san, thank you for more wonderful illustrations. I’m relying on you for the other jobs as well. And I’ve been causing trouble for my editor T-san again.
Now, let’s hope you can see the next one faster than that. I’ll do my best.
[Translator’s Note: Volume 7 came out in early 2015 and there is still no sign of Volume 8 here at the beginning of 2018. The most recent mention of it was in the afterword of a different novel released in early 2017 where the author said he had Volume 8 halfway written, so we’ll see what happens.]