Volume 1, Chapter 8 - The Perfect Man

“Pervert!”

Mutsuki could hardly argue with her. A merciless punch from an angel with top class combat skills sent him flying and his back slammed into the bedroom wall.

“You…pervert! I let my guard down for a second and you cover my face in…in… ~~You perv!”

“I never actually told you to suck it.”

“—————”

“Sorry.”

If he argued back, his life might really be in danger. Sensing that in Ange’s eyes, he sat down and bowed over and over.

After his sixth ejaculation, she had snapped and their trancelike state had left them. The two girls were wiping off what covered their faces and Machina was fixing her clothing.

“Oh, honestly! Why do I have to protect you of all people?”

An odd scent lingered in her mouth, so Ange continued shouting in anger.

“C’mon, you say something too.”

After scrubbing her face with a wet tissue until it grew red, she turned to the other victim.

But Machina showed no concern as she gently wiped off the stickiness and calmly buttoned up her uniform and adjusted the ribbon.

When Ange saw how unconcerned the girl was, she must have remembered who it was who had gotten the other girl wrapped up in this in this because she stopped arguing.

“W-well, sorry this got so weird. You can leave now. Thanks for bringing us the printout.”

She gave a slapdash show of appreciation and turned her back.

Machina nodded and looked to Mutsuki for just a few seconds.

She immediately looked away once he raised his head and started to leave the room.

“Ah, I-Ibekusa-san, wait.”

Thinking letting her leave now would make him an awful person, he frantically called after her.

But when she looked back his way, he was unsure whether he should continue speaking or not.

“Um, it’s pouring outside, so let me call a taxi.”

“I have…an umbrella.”

“An umbrella won’t help when it’s pouring this hard. Um, where do you live?”

He asked a perfectly harmless question.

However, that was enough for Ange to drop the tissue in her hand.

First, her eyes widened in surprise, but then they sharpened.

She grabbed Mutsuki by the back of the neck, pulled him over, and threw him onto the bed. She then stood in front of the confused boy.

“You’re Ibekusa Machina, right?”

“Yes.”

“How did you know about this place?”

She grabbed the pendant on the desk.

“The school was only given a fake address, so how did you get here?”

“…”

Ange’s question was low and sharp. Machina’s expression did not change, but her skin visibly tensed for just a moment.

That was enough to confirm Ange’s suspicions.

“It was that pin, wasn’t it?”

Mutsuki’s mind had yet to catch up, but the clear angel gave her conclusion and pulled the boy from the room.

“~~~!?”

“Lithography: excellent.”

The living room had completely changed from the one he had lived in for three weeks.

The TV, audio system, refrigerator, and all of the electronics they had bought to fill out the room had vanished.

The table, sofa, and other furniture had been crushed into rubble. And in that empty living room, something stood atop the bisected sofa.

“Resuming capture of angel…positive.”

It almost looked like the previous spider, but this mechanical soldier’s shell was even more offense-oriented. Its joints creaked as it faced them.

The belly was made from a series of joints below the head and chest. The giant joint-legged animal even had a long needle attached to its tail. This steel scorpion had devoured all of the mechanical devices in the living room and swept the furniture out of the way with its giant tail.

Finally, Mutsuki understood. That one remaining pin had become a Springloaded using the machine-consuming power that could devour everything from a cellphone to a large truck.

“Beginning capture!”

“Gh!”

The scorpion Springloaded leaped at them. The girl shoved Mutsuki out of the way and used her large sword as a shield. She fought the machine’s great weight with just one slender arm.

“Run away, Mutsuki! I’ll hold this thing back, so you escape from that girl!”

He looked at Machina who had left the bedroom.

“Escape? From Ibekusa-san? Why?”

“She’s with FeTUS! She found this apartment using the beacon in that pin!”

“~~~!”

Mutsuki faced her in stunned disbelief.

Machina was as expressionless as ever.

She was not at all surprised at the half-destroyed living room or the moving scorpion machine.

With a sound that shook the entire apartment building, the living room’s window exploded.

Ange was thrown outside into the rain.

“Why you…! Corona!!”

A thin film of blue flame instantly enveloped her. The raindrops were large enough to see their droplet shape, but they were vaporized as soon as they fell around her.

She used that air pressure as footing and returned to the balcony, but…

“Movement range: excellent. Anti-angel tools: prepared. Capture: possible.”

“Kwah!”

With eight legs identical to the spider’s, the Springloaded clung to the outside wall and charged forward before she could balance herself. The giant scorpion-like tail swung like a whip.

Ange somehow managed to catch the attack on her sword, but even with her great power, she lacked body weight. She was blown away.

“Kh…”

“Equal or superior power confirmed. Capture: possible. Capture: possible!”

“Shut up!”

The girl clung to the wall and swung her sword, but the mechanical scorpion’s many legs gave it more chances to attack and a swing of its tail was enough to easily knock the girl away.

Unlike the spider Springloaded, this type kept pushing and pushing with its power.

“Ahh! God, you’re annoying!”

“Ange, are you okay!?”

Mutsuki ran out onto the balcony and shouted her way.

Ange and the machine used the apartment wall as footing as they clashed. Even to an amateur, it was obvious the girl was being pushed back.

“If you’re nothing but brute force, I just have to fight smarter not harder! Prominence – Loop!”

She split her giant sword in two and switched to her two-sword style.

Blue flames blazed along the back of the swords. At the same time, the flames erupting from her back grew more intense. The deep blue wings seemed to manifest as physical objects. The raindrops around her were vaporized, creating an explosive blast of heat that reached Mutsuki on the balcony.

“Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

The weight did not hold her back as she ran forward. She raced along the outer wall and charged toward the mass of machinery fast enough that Mutsuki could barely see her beyond the curtain of steam.

Once she was in range, she rotated with her arms spread wide.

The girl became a top that sliced through everything in the vicinity. She even deflected the extended tail once she touched it and the Springloaded noticeably faltered.

There was no avoiding her attack at this range, but…

“Target within capture range. Firing net…positive.”

“!?”

The raised tail fired the same white threads – or metal wires – that the spider had used to toy with the girl. A shield-like web formed between the machine and the sword.

The full-speed slice easily chopped through the impromptu shield, but…

The metal wires split their tips into fine brush-like hairs. They were as sticky as a real spider web and they wrapped around the sharp blade.

Splitting her sword into two came back to bite her. Their halved weight kept the sharp edge from slicing through the thread, so she could not cut the metal machine.

The spiral of power Lucia had mentioned was true. The angel could burn a demon with her flames, but her scissors-like weapon had less luck against the solid Springloaded that was hard as a rock.

“Angel capture simulation: complete.”

“!? Oh, n-…”

“Checkmate.”

The needle at the end of the tail targeted Ange. She deflected it with her other sword, but…

“~~~~ Kh!”

She paid dearly for leaving herself defenseless within the enemy’s attack range. The scorpion had extended its pedipalps at the same time as its needle, so it captured her arms and torso between them.

“Khah… Let me go! Let me goooo!”

The girl struggled, but her arms were not strong enough to break free of their alloy bonds and her swords were useless without use of her arms. Not that she could have cut through its shell with the threads and wires tangled around one of them.

“Ange… Wah!”

A metallic groan accompanied every movement of the frighteningly nimble mechanical scorpion as it hopped back to the balcony with the girl in tow.

It landed right in front of Mutsuki.

“Likely Serpent’s Eye possessor spotted within capturing range.”

“Mutsuki…you idiot! Why didn’t you run away!?”

The machine had shaken the entire balcony when it had landed, so the boy had fallen onto his butt. The scorpion extended its mechanical tail with the girl still in its grasp.

With the sound of splitting metal, the tip parted into a crane shape.

“Ah…ah…”

Mutsuki’s hips had given out, so he crawled backwards to escape capture. But after taking aim, the catcher caught up quickly.

Plus, his back hit something at the balcony exit and he could move back no further.

“…”

He turned around and trembled like ice was licking at his heart.

Machina stood there. Her usual cold eyes were calmly observing the abnormal events.

That was all the confirmation he needed, but…

“I-Ibekusa-san…”

He felt like he was praying as he asked the question.

“Are you with FeTUS?”

Speaking it aloud filled him with a tremor not brought by fear.

Just a few minutes before, he had felt she was the closest person in the world to him. She was no longer a mere classmate and that time had been so sweet and even more passionate than time spent with a lover. He had been happy and he was confident she had enjoyed it too.

But when he thought back, he had to ask why she had come here and why she had so easily opened her body to him.

“Positive.”

She gave a quick, precise answer and an unconcerned nod.

“Are you one of FeTUS’s top level members!? The FeTUS Witches!?”

Unable to move, Ange only shouted angrily. The other girl once more nodded.

The boy’s mind went entirely blank and all strength left him.

Then had she only allowed him her body and heart as an act to deceive him?

He had longed for this classmate since spring.

Just as he thought he was going to fulfill that desire, the ground had crumbled below his feet.

“Mutsuki! Pull yourself together! You need to escape, Mutsuki!”

Ange’s futile voice was drowned out by the rain and the boy had stopped moving. Machina reached out a hand and the Springloaded’s mechanical hand approached from the front.

“…”

The boy was surrounded and had no escape.

The mechanical hand continued forward.

“Mutsuki! Why you…!”

It grabbed the body of the chosen one.

“Let gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!”

“Eh?”

Why did Ange sound so confused?

Because the crane-like hand holding the boy had broken to pieces?

Or because the two mechanical bonds holding her had torn away like tofu?

“Ange?”

Mutsuki was just as baffled by the scene before his eyes.

His gaze met Ange’s wide-eyed gaze. Her eyes were as dignified and sharp as ever.

But they had shed their usual blue and taken on a divine gold color.

To match her eyes, the usually blue flame wings were also burning gold.

In a spherical shape around her, everything was audibly vaporizing: the balcony wall, the window, and even the Springloaded’s body. But as always, Mutsuki did not even feel warm.

“What…is this?”

“…”

Machina looked just as curious as she stared at her own hand on the wreckage of the tail crane.

She was the one that had destroyed the crane. Her outstretched hand had passed the boy by and grabbed the Springloaded trying to capture him.

As soon as she had touched it, the tail had fallen apart as if all of the screws had been removed. It looked just like when the spider in the clock tower had been destroyed.

Had she protected him? Mutsuki was confused by both this and what had happened with Ange.

“Damage level: 37%. Within capture range: negative. Attack still possible. Switching to attack.”

Two of the Springloaded’s legs had melted and its tail had come apart, but it approached the angel and boy with its remaining six legs. However…

Ange and Machina swept their hands dismissively toward it.

One hand melted it like chocolate and the other dismantled it.

“What in the world is this?”

They both looked curiously down at their own hand.

“The temperature of my purifying fire has increased. It’s on an entirely different level.”

“I can input the Anti-Code so quickly…This is six times as fast.”

They were both surprised by their own power. They exchanged a glance, completely forgetting they were enemies.

Ange remained utterly shocked, but Machina ultimately calmed down.

“Our bodies… Our cells and spirituality have raised our abilities to protect Fujita-kun.”

“Wh-what are you talking about? Raised our abilities? We can’t just get a power-up that easily.”

“It is not that surprising. The Serpent’s Eye affects every part of a woman. And if he is the true origin…”

“—————!”

They both looked his way.

“Adam?”

“The perfect man?”

“Hm? Wh-what are you two talking about?”

Mutsuki grew flustered when they both gave him a frightening look.

Ange seemed dumbfounded and Machina gave a look of realization.

“Damage…level: 71%. Move…ment: im…possible.”

The metal scorpion could just barely stand on its remaining four legs, but it gave a staticky groan like a poorly-tuned radio.

“Securing…classified information…top priority. Self…destruct approved…positive.”

“!”

“!”

Panic filled Ange’s and – for the first time – Machina’s face.

“The astral source is reversing. The core energy is being annihilated. The algorithm is shifting from libido to death drive… Oh, no.”

“Self-destruct!? Mutuski! Get down!”

Ange charged forward, wearing flickering armor of golden flames.

She almost seemed to trample his collapsed form to shield him.

“Ange…!?”

At the same time, Machina stood in front of the both of them and spread her arms.

He saw both Ange and Machina trying to protect him.

And…

“…?”

He saw the pouring rain grow a dark blood-red.

“Looks like my timing was perfect.”

“Vvvv!?”

The Springloaded let out a groan of surprise with only five seconds until it self-destructed.

All of the raindrops on it became the dark red of blood and began wriggling about on their own, so its surprise was understandable.

Rock could not be cut by scissors, but it was weak to paper.

A moment later, the black liquid surrounded the Springloaded and tossed it into the sky. All of its groans were drowned out by the rain.

“…! …!!”

Mutsuki did not know if a machine could scream, but he knew this one had to be screaming if it could.

More and more rain wrapped around it, slipped into the gaps between parts, and easily took control. At the same time, it was smoothly carried up toward the source of the rain. It moved opposite of gravity.

The raindrops acted like a slide as they carried the Springloaded high into the sky.

The clock inside was accurate, so it happened precisely four seconds later.

The thick clouds producing the intense rainfall were blown to smithereens by a sphere of light.

Ange, Machina, and Mutsuki were dumbfounded.

“Eh heh heh?”

Lucia gently landed.

“Told you I would be seeing you sooner this time.”

Just like on the day Mutsuki had been invited into this bizarre new life, the demon boy winked with a glimpse of the setting sun in the background.