Adolescent Adam

“Ahhhhhh!”

Ange had arrived below the parking lot for the SeeDWalK shopping mall.

Technically, she was at a secret facility Machina had made in the space below the parking lot. At this hour, the large facility was closed, so no one was there and it was safe to shout loudly underground.

A space of nearly 50 square meters had been hollowed out 18 meters belowground. Ange had started using it as a training ground.

The tungsten walls were lined with superconductive material and were magnetically controlled, so the room could survive temperatures of several million degrees for a short period. She never could have come by something like this without FeTUS’s assistance.

Metatron’s firepower normally came at the cost of burning away her own life, but Adam’s command had carved the inability to kill herself into the core of her being. So she had recently started taking advantage of that by trying to control the firepower on a level just barely below the bursting point.

Metatron’s flames possessed the same traits as normal flames, so they were more difficult to control than an angel’s flames that only burned her enemies. That meant she needed a facility that kept the flames from spreading even when she was only training.

“Hahh!”

Wings the same gold as the sun burst from her back like jet streams.

She had learned to release Metatron’s power quite freely.

This was all thanks to Machina who had provided this location that covered already heat-resistant walls with heat diffusion waves.

——Ooze

“Ah?”

——Gloop! S-sizzle, sizzle!

“They’re melting!? Ibekusa! The walls are melting! There’s not enough power!”

The crucial heat diffusion waves were not strong enough. The heat had gone well past the walls’ melting point of nearly 4000 degrees, so she would be buried alive in magma mixed with metal at this rate.

“Tch!”

There was no response to her calls, so Ange had no choice but to eliminate her flames and make a jump.

She broke through the ceiling and arrived aboveground. She felt heat on her head where the melted ceiling had gotten on it.

Machina stood blankly in the asphalt parking lot with a memo pad in one hand.

In exchange for supplying the training facility, she was allowed to record data on Metatron to create weapons to resist it. So the memo pad was fine. However…

“What do you think you’re doing Ibekusa!? I was nearly buried alive! If you’re declaring war here, I’m ready to go at any-…”

“…”

“…Ibekusa?”

Ange was furious at what she thought was an obvious attack, but Machina just stood there while full of openings and showing no sign of counterattacking.

Machina looked dazed.

She finally reacted when Ange waved a hand in front of her face.

“Ah, are you done, Jiyuuni-san? …Hm? I thought I told you to call for me when you were done. If you break a hole in the ground, it will change the color of the asphalt and someone might notice the oddity.”

“Y’know…”

She did not seem to have meant any harm, so Ange’s shoulders slumped down.

When she realized her mistake, Machina bowed down in apology and they ended the day’s training there.

While training, Ange wore only her angelic underwear that was more difficult to burn, so now she put on some other clothing she had prepared.

“Something happened. You always seem out of it, but this was-…”

She trailed off there and changed her mind.

“No. You’ve been weird a lot recently.”

“Nn…”

“I mean, you were always weird, but your weirdness has gone up by like 50%.”

She sat down on the spot.

There were no cars in the large parking lot and a refreshing wind blew directly down on them from the sky. It felt good on her heated skin.

“…”

Ange immediately regretted what she had said.

Mentioning that Machina had been weird recently made her think about the biggest sign of that weirdness. And after she had been avoiding the subject while trying to pretend it did not bother her.

She thought about dodging the issue, but…

“Something happen with Stupid M-Mutsuki, didn’t it?”

She ended up addressing it.

She focused on the kissing commotion between Machina and Mutsuki.

“N-not that it matters to me since it’s completely harmless. It’s just that…if there’s something there, just tell me. It makes me curious. As his bodyguard.”

“…”

Until today, Mutsuki had dealt with the issue simply by making sure they did not do it where anyone could see them, but she got to the heart of the issue while he was not around.

(Although I’m not sure what to do about this, whatever she might say.)

She knew that, so she was already blushing.

“The thing is…”

Machina opened her mouth.

She trailed off but then opened it again. She was probably going to tell Ange the whole story of whatever had led to this.

And in a way, the answer Ange received was a helpful one for her.

Because it was something she could not respond to as a guardian angel.

“The Holy Grail is complete.”

“!”

“We were attempting to create a womb that matches as closely as possible to Eve’s and it has finally adapted appropriately.”

“…I-I see.”

The angel somehow managed to respond calmly despite gasping at how Machina held her lower stomach.

She had a lot of thoughts on this matter, but…

“Science really does make a mockery of the natural order of things, doesn’t it?”

She first gave the rational response necessary of an angel.

“Kurosaki, was it? The ones creating the artificial demons. You’re not much different from them.”

“Science is the power of progress given to humanity. If there is a god who defined the natural order, then expelling the bearers of knowledge was the same as giving the world the possibility of encroaching on his territory. And if the natural order is perfect, then our mockery of it is no more than another part of that natural order.”

“You always have an argument, don’t you?” Ange shrugged. “Well, I’m not going to bother you about it. Angels are the arbitrators of the commandments, so it’s not like I know what to do about something that’s unprecedented from the creation of heaven and earth. In the end, the choice is Stupid Mutsuki’s.”

“I see.”

They both fell silent for a bit.

She could not just ignore this, but she could not interfere either. Angels were meant to correct abnormalities, but attacking FeTUS now would create an abnormality. Even if she made a request to the will of heaven, it would be rejected in the deliberation phase.

“…”

She had only learned to use Metatron’s power with Machina’s assistance.

But she could not deny that Machina might be the first person she used it against.

“A-anyway, what are you going to do now?”

She was more curious about something else.

“If you have the womb to match, then is the next step to get, um, Mutsuki’s…”

“The implantation of the child will presumably come next. The birth of a true descendant cannot be rushed.”

“I-I see.”

Machina readily answered as she was wont to do and Ange blushed again.

They were keeping it from Mutsuki, but the discovery of Adam and the completion of the Holy Grail were only the necessary steps toward creating a child from the two.

That meant the implantation – the impregnation – had to come next.

Ange was unsure how to respond to the idea of Machina and Mutsuki having a child.

And she was curious about something else too.

Machina and Mutsuki had been kissing more than necessary recently, but they showed no sign of the crucial “baby-making”.

“Is there some kind of problem?”

She tried coming out and asking.

Machina looked somewhat troubled as she answered.

“Miss A is hesitating.”

“Miss A… You mean that little kid?”

Ange had fought her once before. Miss A was an old woman of several hundred years who looked like a child. She was Machina’s boss.

“I do not know why, but she will not give me the instruction. She only says to wait and see what happens.”

“Wait and see? After all this?”

Even Ange was puzzled by that one.

They had everything they needed. Given FeTUS’s past actions, they should have been carrying out the rest of the plan immediately.

She could not imagine why they had not.

“She said Fujita-kun and my feelings were of the utmost importance and she left it with me.”

“Your feelings?”

“She said two people should love each other before they make a baby, so she left the decision to me.”

“…Huh?”

This was not just beyond Ange’s expectations. It was completely out of left field.

FeTUS pursued Adam as the representative of the entire human race. Their final objective was to place his child in the womb they called the Holy Grail.

They were a step away from accomplishing that, but this was their reason for stopping?

“Because two people should love each other before they make a baby?”

“Positive.”

“…How romantic.”

Even a hostile angel was shaken by this reasoning. They had been logically sounding out the other’s intentions, yet Machina had suddenly pulled out a textbook on morality.

Machina did not seem to understand either because she fidgeted like a lost child.

“When I asked Miss D what to do, she told me to flirt. So in order to make a baby with Fujita-kun I have been, um…”

“Flirting? …Oh.”

Ange briefly did not understand, but then she saw Machina pressing her lips together.

“That was supposed to be flirting?”

“Flirting is a way of conveying your appeal to the other person. …And Fujita-kun likes it when I do that.”

“…Yes, he does seem to like kissing.”

For the second time, Ange’s shoulders slumped down. She could not believe the recent commotion had come from something so silly.

“But our situation has not changed in the slightest. In fact, he seems bothered by it.”

“Of course he is. You’ve already done far more than kiss him, so being a serial kisser isn’t going to change anything.”

“Really?”

Machina tilted her head.

Ange felt herself relaxing after her recent worries came to such a ridiculous end.

“Then…what am I supposed to do?”

To Machina, this was a serious attempt at baby-making. She was apparently attempting to complete FeTUS’s final objective. Ange went limp.

“I mean, the issue is whether you love each other, right? So don’t you only have to confirm that?”

“Hm? What do you mean?”

“Just ask Mutsuki if he loves you.”

(He’ll obviously say yes.)

She chose to keep that last part to herself.

Machina herself was probably the only person left who had not noticed Mutsuki’s feelings for her. Ange, Lucia, Saya, and their other classmates all knew.

Ange then realized she had forgotten something important.

“Hey, I bet it isn’t just for Mutsuki’s sake that Miss A hasn’t ordered you to do it.”

“Eh?”

Mutsuki’s feelings were so obvious anyone would notice, so FeTUS would have caught on while monitoring him.

The only way they could not “love each other” was if Machina did not have feelings for Mutsuki.

“How do you feel about Mutsuki?”

“…”

Machina’s eyes widened.

“How do I…feel about Fujita-kun?”

She must have never thought about it before. She repeated the words as if pondering them.

“Do you love him?”

“Love is…not quite the right term. I exist for him, so it would be better to say I am his possession.”

She stated that plainly.

And it did not seem to be a way of hiding any embarrassment. She really did think that.

(I see.)

That told Ange what Miss A was trying to do.

Which meant she could have said nothing more. However…

“That possession stuff is only in relation to your position in FeTUS, right? What do youthink? What are your feelings?”

Machina seemed to be hesitating, so Ange could not stop herself from saying more. She took a step into the territory Miss A had stayed out of.

“My feelings…?”

It seemed she really had never thought about it before. She once more repeated back the words.

After some hesitation, she seemed to realize that was the fundamental issue.

“What does it mean…to love someone?”

“Don’t ask me. Go check a dictionary.”

“Love. I still do not really understand.”

She apparently had the contents of a dictionary in her head, but that was not enough for her to make a decision.

“C’mon, you know. It’s like when you feel your heart racing and time passes so quickly when you’re with them.”

“Time always moves at a fixed rate.”

“Not what I meant…”

“…Ah.”

But something must have occurred to Machina because she suddenly held a hand to her chest.

“It is true my pulse accelerates when I am with him.”

“See, your heart races.” Ange stared directly at that expressionless face. “Think about it more simply. Ignore all that FeTUS stuff. How do you, Ibekusa Machina, feel about him?”

“Nn…”

She clearly heard that.

But Machina’s expression remained unchanged. And she spoke as mechanically and plainly as ever.

“He is an important person.”

But that plainness ended there.

“He is a kind person and I feel at peace when I am with him.”

“Then you have your answer. You love him.”

“Do…I?”

“Don’t ask me.”

“I see…” 𝗳𝓇ℯe𝓌𝚎𝚋𝓃𝚘𝚟𝘦𝑙.𝑐𝚘𝙢

The tone of her voice kept dropping.

The conversation was rapidly growing more embarrassing for Ange as well, so she too was saying less. She stood speechless in the quiet parking lot for a while.

“…Love.”

The only sound was Machina repeating the word under her breath.

“I love him…”

“…”

“I love Fujita-kun.”

“…”

She spoke quietly in the stillness.

And a few seconds later… 𝒇𝙧𝚎𝐞𝙬𝒆𝑏𝑛𝑜v𝚎𝒍.c𝑜m

“…~”

“Wait!?”

Machina had been standing straight up like a machine, but she suddenly sat limply down.

Her hips had given out, so crouching Ange quickly supported her.

“What was that all of a sud-…wait.”

“~”

Ange was more surprised by her face than that she had collapsed.

“I love him…”

Machina was still muttering the words and she placed her hands over her cheeks to hide her face.

Her face was redder than Ange had ever seen it.

“I love…Fujita-kun.”

“Did you only just now realize it?”

“…”

She had lost both her plain tone of voice and her expressionlessness. She looked on the verge of tears as she nodded.

(She sure is cute.)

Ange gave an exasperated shrug.

“Then there’s no problem. If you love him, you can make a baby with him.”

“! A baby…with Fujita-kun?”

“That’s what this whole thing is about, isn’t it?”

“…N-not possible. Body temperature rising, pulse abnormal. Continuing the mission would be difficult.”

Her voice was trembling.

Then her voice faded away, she covered her head while practically curled up on the ground, and she tore at her already messy hair.

Ange had no idea how to respond.

This was due to her meddling, but she had no obligation to cheer up an enemy.

Plus, cheering her up would mean getting her and Mutsuki to…

“…I-I am leaving.”

After a few minutes of doing nothing, Machina finally calmed down and turned her back so Ange could not see her.

She disappeared into the darkness on unsteady feet.

“…Phew.”

Left alone, Ange looked up into the sky.

A refreshing wind blew down from the perfectly clear and starry sky. But unlike before, it felt a little chilly.

“Mutsuki and Ibekusa…hm?”

Ange thought back on the topic that had come to the forefront.

She had ended up pushing things in that direction for Machina and Mutsuki.

“But that’s fine. It’s…not a problem.”

Assisting an enemy organization was careless, but heaven still had not settled on a course of action vis-à-vis FeTUS. She would not be reprimanded for this.

“…”

Only then did she realize she was thinking about this in relation to her position and not her own feelings.

Just like Machina had been prioritizing FeTUS’s decision over her own feelings.

(How do I feel about him?)

How did she feel about what she had just done?

How did Jiyuuni Ange feel about supporting Machina and Mutsuki?

“…”

The girl gave a lopsided frown.

The wind once more brushed across her skin.

It had to be as refreshing as before, but she could not feel it.

The feelings roiling inside her kept her from feeling any kind of refreshing feeling that only went skin deep.

“I don’t care what Mutsuki does.”