“…”
The young man took a step forward, covering half of the two steps back she had taken.
She did not step back further. She no longer wanted to.
“What about you, Mutsuki?”
“Me?”
“Who can you hug in a perfect world of happiness?”
She knew what he was going to do next, so she spread her arms.
She knew this was what she had to do.
Because he had done the same for her earlier.
“I…”
The young man hesitated for a moment.
And he took another step.
He covered the rest of the distance she had put between them.
“Avalon.”
Lilith, however, stepped back.
The step forward and the step back split the boy and woman who had formed that young man.
The boy’s arms embraced the redhead’s small body.
Ironically, the collapse of a perfect world was uniquely beautiful.
Billions and trillions of glowing specks burst from the pool and ocean and soared through the night sky. They became a band of light that lit up the city like it was midday.
But Mutsuki and Ange failed to see that dreamlike sight.
Because their lips were pressed together and their eyes were shut.
“Mutsuki.”
“Ange.”
After a while, Ange finally laughed.
The world had changed. It was back to normal.
It no longer felt wrong to have rejected his suggestion. Yes. This was how it should be. What was wrong with not doing what he said?
And now that it no longer felt wrong, she knew exactly what to say first.
“What do you think you’re doing, stupid?”
She complained.
She complained to the person who had been as right as it was possible to be until just now.
There was no longer any reason not to. He was no longer perfect.
A lot of the golden seeds that had been in the pool flew toward the deck nearby. Black liquid and flames surrounded them to regain their original forms.
They became Machina, Lucia, Micha, Rapha, and the 13 angels.
Although those two did not see it happen since they had begun a second kiss.
“Hey, quit stealing him, Jiyuuni.”
“My, my. Does this mean love saved the world?”
“Dwaaahh!”
“Whoa!”
Lucia’s complaint and Micha’s teasing snapped her out of it. Ange shoved Mutsuki away.
Mutsuki staggered and Machina caught him in her arms with a silent frown on her face.
Lucia was livid and Ange was blushing. Micha and Rapha smiled happily as they watched on.
“How could you?”
A stir ran through the 13 angels.
They had cast off the ability to speak or think for themselves in order to optimize themselves for combat, but that gave them a more sensitive demon radar than even Ange or Micha.
They were the first to notice the violent evil growing there.
“How could youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!?”
But they did not have time to react.
The woman with long platinum blonde hair transformed into a massive white serpent. The 13 angels were thrust from the ship’s deck by her great mass.
The serpent did not even watch them fall as she turned her pitch-black left eye and human-looking right eye toward only Mutsuki.
“Why, Avalon? We had finally…finally become one.”
“Lilith-san.”
Large tears fell from the human right eye.
“Tch. Stand back, Mutsuki!”
Ange moved out front.
Blue wings burst from her back and surrounded that area. Her fire was especially effective against demons, so Lilith would be unable to even approach.
“I won’t allow it. I won’t give up. He is…”
But the serpent did not seem to care as her scales burned and fell away as ashes. More than not feeling pain, she did not seem to care about her body at all.
“He is mine!”
Her great maw opened wide enough to cover everything.
Machina and Lucia protected Mutsuki, but it did not mean much against something so large. Everything on the deck would be swallowed.
They all shut their eyes.
“I’m sorry, Lilith-san.”
Except for Mutsuki.
He looked her in the eye with his pitch-black right eye.
“…”
The serpent with gaping mouth immediately vanished.
All that remained was a long-haired maiden.
Just a girl who had decided, if she could not bite that boy, she would at least cling to him.
“Why? Why?”
Her tears spilled onto his chest and all he could do was stroke her hair.
“Avalon is gone and I can’t replace him for you.”
“Gh, hhhhh.”
“But even if I’m not Avalon.”
“Sob, gh.”
“Thank you for loving me.”
Adolescent Adam 9: Chapter 7 – Avalon and Lucya
Ten days had passed.
Ange and the other angels had all stopped their work and returned to heaven due to Adam shutting everything down and the necessity of a punishment hearing regarding Micha and Lilith’s actions.
Meanwhile, Mutsuki was in FeTUS’s custody.
He ended up living in that grassy underground field with Lucia who had refused to leave his side.
As usual, tea was being prepared at the white wooden table there.
“Have a seat.”
“S-sure.”
He generally shared tea with Machina, Lucia, and…
“Phew, this new body’s shoulders get so stiff. It’s getting to be a real problem.”
…a voluptuous woman he had never before seen.
She was an adult beauty with narrow, angular eyes, an icy musk, and full lips that seemed wet with lipstick. She was mostly slender, but her bust and butt were noticeably curvy and she only ever wore a thin robe which gave glimpses of those curves when she moved.
“Um, are you really Alice-chan?”
“I am. Well, I am technically a clone given a backup of the original’s memories to avoid any chaos within FeTUS if anything were to happen to me.”
He never would have imagined that little girl could look like this. His heart pounded and he reached for the tea to help calm himself.
She gave him a wink with her lyrical eyes and she wore a cheap bear-print ribbon on her belt. Mutsuki had given her that ribbon before.
“They could not repair the original body, but that isn’t too surprising since it was 600 years old.”
“Is…that so?”
Apparently the original – that young girl – really was dead.
The boy’s shoulders slumped because his memories told him that was his fault.
“That body was nearing its telomere lifespan anyway, so it makes little difference. Don’t let it get you down.”
“I see. But still.”
“I had kept that body so young because everyone recognized that as the manager of FeTUS, but I had wanted a proper adult body for a while. This finally gave me the excuse I wanted.”
She actually held her chest out happily.
“Heh heh heh. Check out these titties. Miss D and the others can’t lord it over me any longer.”
“Alice-chan?”
“Spending centuries as a child seems to have left her with some deep-seated issues,” said the rabbit doll.
“Quiet, you.”
The look she gave her rabbit friend looked much more liberated and bright than the scowl she had shown as a child.
Mutsuki still felt bad, but if she said she was happier this way, he would try not to let it bother him too much.
“And it seems that body was the only real loss throughout this whole affair.”
FeTUS had spent the last 10 days investigating and it seemed the side effects of that few hours of turmoil had been unexpectedly small.
Everyone who had their Fruit of Knowledge taken had lost all memory of it happening and the world simply saw it as everyone zoning out for a few hours. Since all memory of it had been lost, only those who had been monitoring the time closely for their job had even noticed something was amiss. FeTUS’s primary job over the past 10 days had been to lock down that minority of people and alter their data or memories as needed.
Some people had a lingering feeling of unexplained happiness, but that had faded with time and people had stopped talking about it by now. Since everyone’s safety had been guaranteed throughout, no one had been lost. Those who had been on their deathbeds had apparently managed to pass away feeling fulfilled, but they were barely even a rounding error in the total numbers. Online, there were theories that some country had tested a psychological weapon, that a solar flare had been used to hack the brains of the earthlings, or magnetism had messed with relativity to alter the flow of time, but those were all being treated as absurd urban legends at this point.