Adolescent Adam Volume 6 Chapter 2

s.h.i.+rohara Ren had served as Megutono Academy’s Student Council President through the previous year.

At the time, she had been known as History’s Greatest President.

She got excellent grades and was skilled at sports. She was the lacrosse team’s ace and she was beautiful to boot. That alone would have been enough to make her the school’s most prized student.

But her excellence as President had come from another talent: her superb leaders.h.i.+p.

Her mere presence had a way of whipping people into shape. Her naturally lofty aura filled people with tension.

She could be a little hardheaded herself. Whenever someone confessed their love to her, she would give them a lengthy lecture about how a student should be focused on their studies, so she could be inflexible. She gave off a strict atmosphere, but that did not seem like a bad thing unless you were truly up to no good.

Everyone had sensed a slight disturbance of the public morals after she had left this spring.

She was of course incredibly popular.

Her light brown hair and bright white skin gave her an almost ephemeral look, but her slanted eyes held a shocking depth.

Her small face was perfect, from the outline to the distribution of facial features. The long refined bridge of her nose, her lips, and her strong-willed eyebrows all possessed a certain elegance.

And she also had a body very unlike a j.a.panese one. Her beautiful b.r.e.a.s.t.s swelled out as much as possible without detracting from her elegance, her waist was skinny in contrast, and her b.u.t.t was cutely plump. Her hips were positioned high and her tight legs made her look tall even though she was only about 160 cm. And that helped add to her reliable charisma.

The entire school had been shaken when word had arrived that she was leaving. It was well known that 20% of the students had written in her name when voting for the current year’s Student Council election.

It was also still unknown why she had left the school. She had said nothing and not even the teachers had been informed.

It was only speculation, but there were rumors that she had heart problems. Several people had seen her occasionally holding her chest, so they wondered if she had transferred elsewhere to undergo surgery.

At any rate, she was someone that Megutono Academy’s middle school was not about to forget in only 4 months.

…And the same was true for Mutsuki.

Fifth period ended and school was let out.

From the start of the second term until the cultural festival at the end of September, the final cla.s.s was a homeroom used for meetings and preparations. For today, they had just finished changing into their gym clothes in the locker rooms.

Mutsuki was a little late, so he started back toward the cla.s.sroom in a bit of a rush.

And on the way…

“President s.h.i.+rohara is so great.”

“…”

He just about came to a stop when he heard that name.

He had pa.s.sed by some boys form the adjacent cla.s.s. They were likely fans because they were discussing the famous and beautiful President s.h.i.+rohara Ren on the way back to their own cla.s.sroom.

They said that she was good-looking, that she had a nice body, and that her refined atmosphere was best of all.

He wanted to stop and listen in, but he continued on to his cla.s.sroom instead. And…

“Oops.”

“Oh, sorry, Niki-san.”

“Yeah, no biggie.”

He ran across a girl exiting the cla.s.sroom, so he quickly moved aside.

Niki Hozumi had nearly run into him, but she was not a delinquent and she politely nodded to him when he let her past.

She had returned her hair to brown and it bounced as she moved.

He ended up watching her leave as he walked to his seat. The cultural festival meeting was about to begin. Hozumi and others partic.i.p.ating with their clubs had left, but everyone else was seated.

“…”

The return of the “most skilled president” at the beginning of the 2nd term had brought a great change to the entire school.

No matter where one went, people were talking about her.

That was normal enough since she had the public position of Student Council President, but her mysterious departure and return had also produced much speculation. The biggest theory was that she had left to be treated for a heart disease, but others claimed she had tried and failed to skip ahead to a high school elsewhere.

The biggest change was the tense atmosphere throughout the school.

Everyone worked extra hard at their studies and athletics and the students corrected their public morals even without the teachers or Student Council doing anything.

Even taking into account that it was the start of the new term, the number of tardy students had drastically reduced, and Niki Hozumi had returned her hair color to normal after only 3 days. Some had taken on more permanent new looks such as tanned skin or pierced ears, but they were unable to flaunt it and awkwardly took their lessons as “somewhat flashy but normal students”.

A week had pa.s.sed since the 2nd term began.

The annoying subject tests were over and it was time to begin preparing for the big event at the end of September: Megutono Academy’s cultural festival. It was a little strict, but their school life was mostly comfortable.

“…Sigh.”

Mutsuki rested his cheek in his hand and sighed quietly as he listened to the bell for 6th period.

He always felt melancholic when thinking about Ren lately.

It had been a week since the new term began, but he still had not had a chance to speak with her.

His relations.h.i.+p at school with s.h.i.+rohara Ren was the same as it had been the previous year. They had met once, but they had no connection beyond that. Mutsuki knew her, but she showed no interest in a normal student like him. It was hardly a surprise that they had not spoken during the past week.

But the actual situation was different.

Mutsuki was targeted by FeTUS because he had the Serpent’s Eye.

And she was a FeTUS agent known as FeTUS Witches Miss B.

But he had discovered that at the summer break camping trip half a month earlier. And a week after the new term began, she had not made any kind of move.

He had discussed it with Ange and Micha, but FeTUS and the angels were currently pa.s.sive enemies, and their stalemate meant they could not do anything until FeTUS did. He had tried asking FeTUS, but Machina and Katsue-sensei had refused to tell him anything.

In the end, he had no idea what to do and simply felt jealous.

“…”

Also.

There was one more reason for his melancholy…

“Mutsuki!”

“Eh!?”

The boy had been zoning out, so he nearly fell out of his chair when his name was called.

He heard his cla.s.smates laughing. Cla.s.s Rep Sakae had apparently called his name several times while leading the cultural festival meeting.

“C’mon now, bestie. There’s already way too many people who refuse to listen to me, the center of the cla.s.s. I don’t need you joining them too.”

Sakae stood at the lectern and shrugged. “Sorry, sorry,” apologized Mutsuki with a bitter smile.

Sakae wrote on the blackboard with messy handwriting: “Cultural Festival Roles”. In the corner, he added: “h.e.l.l yeah! Cultural Festival!”

“Okay, let’s get started. For the cultural festival, all the 2nd years are putting on a traffic safety play for the elementary school.”

He gestured grandly as he spoke. He was an eternal optimist, so controlling the scene came naturally to him.

“Our cla.s.s will be playing 5 roles, so we need to decide who will be doing that.”

“Ehhhhh!?”

About 70% of the cla.s.s began booing.

That was hardly surprising. They had to work with the other 2nd year cla.s.ses for this. And it was a play. More than just that 70% thought this sounded like a pain in the a.s.s.

But as casual as he could be, Sakae always made sure to do his job as the cla.s.s rep.

“Yes, yes. Settle down. This was decided for us, so there’s no helping it.”

He clapped his hands.

None of his cla.s.smates were actually trying to trouble their cheerful cla.s.s rep, so they soon quieted down. For one thing, frightening Katsue-sensei was watching them from a corner of the cla.s.sroom.

“Don’t worry. As the undefeated rock-paper-scissors champion, I beat all the other cla.s.ses and got us all the easiest roles.”

“Ohhhh~~”

This time, the cla.s.s erupted into cheers and applause.

This childhood friend had natural talent at entertaining everyone around him. Mutsuki smiled and joined the applause even though he had not joined the booing.

“First, we’ll decide 3 to be in charge of props and 1 to be in charge of the spotlight. 

The props require some hard work, but you share it between several people. The spotlight is only needed during the rehearsal the day before and during the performance on the day of, so it should be easy.”

Sakae puffed his chest out proudly.

Everyone seemed to accept that. Those were some easy jobs. If they had been determined by rock-paper-scissors, he had some decent luck.

But…

“And? That’s 4, but what about the last one?”

Saya raised her hand and spoke for the cla.s.s as a whole. They had 5 roles, but Sakae had only revealed 4.

“Well, about that last one…”

His behavior changed entirely and he scratched at his head.

“The lead. Someone from our cla.s.s will be playing the lead.”

“…”

The cla.s.sroom filled with serious booing this time.

Katsue-sensei ultimately grew angry and the homeroom became truly unpleasant.

A traffic safety play.

Those were often put on at the police station to teach small children traffic etiquette such as using the crosswalk and wearing your yellow hat.

At a mammoth school like Megutono Academy, the cultural festival was made to encourage interaction between school years, so the a.s.signed events were often targeted toward another year like this. It could be a choir or a play. Among those, Mutsuki’s middle school 2nd year had been a.s.signed a play for the lower elementary school years.

It was an incredibly simple play.

The lead girl had properly raised her hand and used the crosswalk while in kindergarten. But at her elementary school entrance ceremony, she decides she is an adult and crosses somewhere other than the crosswalk. She gets. .h.i.t by a car and injured, preventing her from going to the entrance ceremony. In the end, she promises a police officer and her mother that she will never break the traffic rules again.

It was an incredibly simple play that only lasted about 20 minutes. The only characters were the girl, her mother, and the police officer.

But their cla.s.s rep had drawn the short straw in that small framework.

“Ahh, ahh. To think this would happen to me, the rock-paper-scissors demon…”

“Sakae, you’ve always been unbeatable until it actually matters. Then you lose every time.”

“Really?”

“In lunch rock-paper-scissors, you would win the strawberry milk and meatb.a.l.l.s, but then lose the pudding.”

“And the one who stole the pudding from me was always you, bestie. Oh, dammit. I should’ve sent you in instead when playing for the roles.”

The homeroom continued, but they were free to get up from their desks to gather their thoughts. Sakae and Saya naturally gathered at Mutsuki’s desk.

A somber mood hung over the cla.s.sroom.

Especially over the girls.

The play’s lead was a girl. That meant only the girls were at risk here.

Taking part in a play was not a big deal. Students at this school would have to do that at some point, no matter what year they were in. And if it came to that, they would obediently help with the props or spotlight. They had enough courage to play the mother or police officer if they had to.

But they could not help but hesitate when it came to the lead.

That meant memorizing more lines, but something else was worse.

The costume.

“Don’t we have someone who would look good in this?”

Sakae pulled out what he had been given.

It was the play’s costume: clothing and some props such as the cast for after the accident.

This was why the lead was restricted to being a “girl” and not just a “child”.

Since the same traffic safety play was done every year, the costume was already decided.

It was a dress with a large ribbon and a brand-new red child’s backpack. That kind of lolita design was not something a girl Mutsuki’s age could wear. This one felt like a punishment, especially when compared to the 4 doing the props and spotlight.

“Hmm~ A play sounds like fun, but a kid’s backpack?”

Even ever-cheerful Saya looked unsure.

“You don’t need to worry about it, Kurikara. I’m not gonna ask you.”

“Why not?”

“Well, these clothes are for an elementary school girl.”

“?”

“So it’s way too small for-…ow, ow, ow! Don’t pinch! Don’t pinch!”

Sakae fled as she pulled on the inside of his upper arm (a human weak point).

“That’s not what I meant! An elementary school size wouldn’t work with someone as tall as you!”

“Oh, I get it now. Sorry, sorry.”

“G.o.d, what a violent girl. Whoever said someone with a round face has a round heart had no idea what they were-…ow, ow, ow!”

Saya was really mad now, so Sakae fled with her in pursuit.

Mutsuki stared at the costumes and backpack left on his desk.

(Yeah, wearing this at our age would be a bit much…)

He could not help but think that even though he was not at risk as a boy.

There were two costumes: the kindergarten version and the entrance ceremony version. They were both meant for kids.

The entrance ceremony one was not too bad. It was a dress with finely folded frills adorning the neck, sleeves, and skirt. With just the one ribbon, it was not too fancy, but it did have an elegant, gothic lolita design.

However, the kindergarten outfit was precisely that: a kindergarten uniform. It was a beige-ish yellow smock with short sleeves and a long skirt.

It would be asking a lot for a girl their age to wear one, even as a joke.

And as Sakae had pointed out, it was a small size, so not just any girl would do.

And just as he wondered who could wear it…

“Hey, hey. Mutsuki-kun.”

“Hm?”

Lucia poked at his back from the seat behind him.

“This is my first cultural festival, but is putting on this play all we do?”

“No. There’s plenty more. This just means we only need 5 people for the play our entire year is doing.”

“Hmm.”

The entire school took part in the cultural festival, so how they partic.i.p.ated differed between years.

The elementary and middle school sections generally enjoyed the festival while the high school section ran the festival. The younger you were, the less work you had to do and the more you could walk around and have fun. The older you were, the more you had to run refreshment stands and stage productions. Of course, the clubs and individuals also had their own booths.

“Then it doesn’t sound like there’s much we can do together.”

Lucia sounded disappointed, but he leaned forward and rested his chin on Mutsuki’s shoulder. He seemed to want to do something in his first cultural festival, but he also did not seem interested if it was not with Mutsuki.

That was when their homeroom teacher checked the clock.

“Tomono, it’s about time.”

“Oh, right.”

And she instructed the cla.s.s rep to get going.

Sakae returned to the lectern, so Saya, who had been lightly pummeling him, and everyone else returned to their seats.

“Okay, I’ll gather everyone’s opinions. Any volunteers to play the lead!?”

He raised his hand. Unsurprisingly, no one else did.

“Okay, that’s 0 volunteers. Any recommendations?”

He continued just as everyone had expected.

“Personally, I think we do have someone who’s perfect for this role.”

“Eh?”

He scratched his chin like he had trouble saying it.

He had seemed so worried before, so Mutsuki tilted his head. If they had someone perfect for the role, wasn’t it the cla.s.s rep’s duty to ask them to do it?

As he thought that, Sakae suddenly looked his way.

No, not at Mutsuki but diagonally behind him.

Everyone in the cla.s.sroom naturally looked in the same direction. Including Mutsuki, Lucia, and Machina.

The only one who did not was the person who had stared blankly out the window instead of taking part in the homeroom discussion.

“Eh? What?”

When she noticed everyone focused on her, she followed their gazes diagonally behind her, but only found a window.

After about 3 seconds, she realized they were looking at her.

“Huh!?”

She kicked her chair back and stood up.

“Me!? Y-you want me to play the lead!?”

“Yeah.”

Sakae nodded. Half the cla.s.smates looked like they had expected this and the other half looked like they thought it was a good idea.

“Jiyuuni would look good on the stage.”

“Ange-chan is cute.”

“And more importantly!! I want to see Ange-chan wearing a kiddie backpack!”

Ignoring Saya’s final comment, they all praised the idea.

She was so small that the costume size would not be an issue. She might always look sullen, but she had the perfect beauty for playing the lead role.

“Wha-? Wait…”

Ange was simply confused.

Since she naturally disliked humans and was far from sociable, only Mutsuki and people like Saya would talk to her, so she had never expected to be singled out here.

“Ah ha ha ha. Go for it, go for it. It’s the perfect part for you.”

Lucia was immediately on board when he saw Ange looking so troubled.

Katsue-sensei said nothing as a teacher, but she secretly grinned at seeing her enemy in a situation like this. The cla.s.sroom’s consensus seemed to be settling on this answer.

“D-don’t be ridiculous!”

Sensing that, Ange shouted angrily.

“Don’t even try with this nonsense. Why should I have to do that?”

“Ehh? But I want to see you in a kiddie backpack.”

“So do I.”

“Gh…”

Being friends could be a problem at times like this, so while the rest of the cla.s.s withered in front of the angry girl, Saya doubled down. As did Lucia who just wanted to cause trouble for the angel.

“I-I said…”

She was too strong-willed to just go with the flow, but when the entire cla.s.s was looking her way, she had trouble looking them in the face and saying no.

Her eyes wandered in search of escape, but she found no one, not even Mutsuki, to take her side.

Her eyes finally stopped on the seat in front of her.

“I-Ibekusa should do it!”

“?”

“I bet she would be good at memorizing lines. Ibekusa, you do it.”

She tried to rope someone else into it.

“…”

Machina looked taken aback at being dragged in as a scapegoat.

But that selection surprised everyone else as well.

“Ibekusa…”

“Ibekusa-san…?”

“Wow, that would work too! Machi-nyan in a kiddie backpack! I so wanna see that!”

Saya’s excitement spread through the cla.s.sroom and everyone started thinking they wanted to see it too.

Machina kept to herself so much that most of the cla.s.s had never heard her speak, but since spring, everyone had learned how good looking she was.

That cute girl tended to blend into the background, so what would happen if she stood on the stage? Of course everyone wanted to see that.

Machina seemed hesitant, but she also seemed to sense what everyone wanted.

She briefly looked Mutsuki in the eye. While he did not say it out loud, the look on his face clearly said he wanted to see it too.

“If no one else is suitable, I can do it.”

She stood up just like Ange had.

“See!? That settles it. Ibekusa will do it.”

Ange immediately sat back down.

Now everyone in the cla.s.s was looking Machina’s way.

Mutsuki wondered if he should help her get out of this, but he could not tell if the expressionless girl was opposed to this idea. She did not seem intent on refusing, so would this settle it?

But then…

“Can Machi-nyan fit in the costume?”

Saya had wanted to see her in the backpack more than anyone, but she still voiced her doubts.

Mutsuki looked at the costumes Sakae had left on his desk. They were fairly small and would have fit Ange perfectly, but Machina was medium height for the cla.s.s.

Machina hesitated a moment.

“I will try it on.”

She took the costume from Mutsuki’s desk.

She started with the glove-like cast since it was the easiest to try on. She had some difficulty moving with it on, but it was not much of a problem.

Next she tried another one of the props.

“Nn…”

She put on the red backpack.

“…Ohh.”

Half the cla.s.s gasped.

Half the boys looked away and the other half plus the girls blushed.

Oblivious, Machina tested her range of movement. But…

“…They’re so plump.”

Everyone nodded in agreement with Saya. This was out of the question.

The shoulder straps were meant for an elementary school kid, so they were too small for Machina and were much too tight around her shoulders and sides. This pulled her clothing back.

“???”

Machina looked confused by their reaction.

Gym clothes + a backpack would be mismatched enough on a normal elementary school student, but it was downright criminal on this more grown-up body.

The s.h.i.+rt was pulled tightly back against the weighty mounds on the front. And when your eyes focused on the sensual outline of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, you naturally continued down to the raw and s.e.xual lines of her hips visible through her bloomers.

“…”

Mutsuki felt a bit like her bust belonged to him, so he wordlessly took the backpack from her.

“Ahem.”

Sensing an odd mood in the cla.s.sroom, Sakae cleared his throat to gather attention.

“Jiyuuni? Um, is there no way you can do it?”

He looked to Ange once more.

She blushed a little and seemed convinced that Machina could not do it, but she still stubbornly shook her head.

She refused to let them continue, so Sakae sighed.

“Fine, then. We don’t have time, so we’ll only figure out the prop and light people today. …Mutsuki.”

“Eh?”

“I have something to ask you.”

Mutsuki never imagined his week of equilibrium would be broken by this.

“Come in.”

After nervously knocking at the door, a familiar voice answered.

Entering the Student Council Room was enough to make any normal student nervous.

But it was even worse for Mutsuki.

“Hm?”

It was 6th period, so an officer would definitely be there to receive cultural festival pet.i.tions.

Only Student Council President s.h.i.+rohara Ren was there. She welcomed the visitor at the head of a long table.

“Do you need something?”

“Y-yes. I am from Cla.s.s 2-1. We would like to ask for an extension on deciding our roles for the play.”

“Oh, that would be this form. Write your year, cla.s.s number, cla.s.s rep’s name, and the reason you are requesting an extension.”

She pa.s.sed him a folded piece of paper and a pen. His heart pounded as he took them and filled out the indicated fields.

Since they could not decide on someone for the lead today, they had to submit this request to the Student Council. Cla.s.s Rep Sakae was still running the homeroom, so he had asked his friend Mutsuki to take care of this.

Mutsuki had been unable to refuse, but he had not expected to be alone with Ren.

His hand trembled as he tried to write.

Ren did not seem to mind and organized some kind of paperwork.

As far as he could see, she was no more than a diligent student. While he did sense the skilled aura of a charismatic Student Council President, he could not see anything other than that.

There was no sign that she was FeTUS Witches Miss B.

“Are you done?”

“Eh? Oh, yes.”

He suddenly looked up and their eyes met. He felt his heart leap in his chest and handed her the filled-out form.

She barely looked at it before stamping it, tearing it along the fold, and handing him back half.

That completed the process. He could take back that half.

Ren returned to her work without saying a word. That implicitly told him he could leave and he just about turned his back

But he could not just leave here.

He had wanted a chance to speak with her this entire week…no, since the camping trip halfway through summer break. And now they were alone together, so he would not just leave.

“Um.”

He spoke to her and she looked up.

But now that he had his chance, he realized he had failed to think about what he should actually say.

His mind was blank. Should he ask about her connection to FeTUS? But he did not know if she would answer and she might not like being asked that. He agonized over all sorts of questions.

“Oh, right. The castella.”

“What?”

“Was it bitter melon? Yes, the bitter melon castella from before was quite good.”

“Oh…”

She spoke first.

Before the camping trip, he had brought a bitter melon castella to FeTUS headquarters.

s.h.i.+rohara Ren, aka Miss B, made no attempt to hide she belonged to FeTUS.

At the same time, she guided him toward the topic he had wanted to broach.

“Senpai…um, Lavriel-san, was it?”

He used the real name he had heard before.

s.h.i.+rohara Ren…no, Miss B, aka Miss Lavriel Baran, nodded and set down her pen and printout. She placed her elbows on the table and folded her hands in front of her mouth.

That seemed to say “let’s talk”, so Mutsuki faced her more directly.

“Are you…part of FeTUS?”

“I am. Didn’t you hear from Miss E or Miss C?”

“No. I only learned that when I saw you before and, um, it was a real shock.”

He spoke awkwardly.

But not because he was alone with someone from FeTUS, the human organization that opposed the angels.

…He was one-on-one with his first love. Of course he was nervous.

“I see. Hee hee. I suppose Miss E isn’t going to talk. And Miss C might break the rules, but she wouldn’t want to bring me up if she didn’t have to.”

She had no intention of hiding it and she laughed with amus.e.m.e.nt.

“Um… Then were you monitoring me last year?”

“I don’t like the way you put that, but I can’t deny that I did end up effectively monitoring you. Because you had showed the most promise of the Serpent’s Eye candidates we were aware of.”

“Is that so?”

“Was it unpleasant?”

“No.”

He shook his head.

He denied that, but there was definite displeasure in the way he frowned and looked down.

“When you left…this spring…was that for FeTUS too?”

“No, that had to do with my family.”

“Your family? The Baran family then?”

“Yes. My little sister disappeared…and it’s an embarra.s.sing issue, so I would prefer not to go into details.” Miss B hid her mouth behind her folded hands and spoke calmly. “Anyway, I had settled half of that and j.a.pan happened to be a convenient location for the rest of the work, so I returned. Miss E had already taken over monitoring you, but I will resume that duty later.”

“You…will?”

“Is something the matter?”

She finally noticed the unpleasant look on his face, so she peered at him doubtfully.

“No.”

Mutsuki spoke even more quietly than normal and looked the other way.

He tried to avoid her direct gaze.

“What is it?”

“…”

“If you have something to say, say it.”

A sharpness filled her calm voice, giving it the quality of an icy knife.

“…”

“…”

Mutsuki continued looking to the side with his mouth shut, so silence fell over the room. It was an unpleasant atmosphere that felt like a sticky chill across his skin.

The first one to give in was Ren. Her eyebrows sharply rose.

“I have no idea what you want to say, but…”

“What’s taking you, Mutsuki!?”

But her irritated voice was drowned out by a sudden intrusion.

Ange burst through the door without knocking. Machina stood behind her.

“How long can it possibly take to get a printout? Take too long and everyone will start the final homeroo-…ah.”

She immediately noticed the odd atmosphere enveloping the room. Mutsuki was facing a member of FeTUS, the organization that opposed the angels, so Ange quickly moved to stand in front of him.

The angel glared at the girl with her azure eyes and Ren sent her sharp gaze back since she was already irritated.

But that only lasted an instant.

“…Go. You’ve finished what you came here to do.”

She withdrew the sharp look in her eyes and sat back down.

The touchy situation had been defused. Ange could be confrontational, but she was not reckless enough to try anything with Machina, another witch, present.

She pulled on Mutsuki’s hand and turned around. But…

“I will say one thing.”

After sitting down and proving she had no hostile intent, Miss B called out to their backs.

“The biggest reason I returned to j.a.pan was to strengthen our ability to fight back against the angels who caused such severe damage to FeTUS with Metatron.”

Ange turned back around and briefly gasped at the icy glare coming from the seated girl.

The look in Miss B’s eyes was enough to make the strongest angel flinch.

“I will never forgive the person who destroyed our headquarters, set back our research, and harmed my teach-…harmed Miss A.”

“…”

“Remember this.”

Those final words were cold.

Ange tried to snap back, but Machina stepped forward first. She stood between Ren and Ange to block their clas.h.i.+ng gazes.

Ange had no choice but to fall back now, and any further confrontation was avoided.

Metatron Ange had delivered a serious blow to FeTUS.

And FeTUS’s strongest knight, Miss B, had been absent at the time.

The angels and FeTUS had an implicitly understood truce, but a new bud of discord was growing.

And…

Mutsuki had moved to stop the conflict before, but he only watched on now.

“Is this where you wanted to go?”

“Yes.”

Two girls had come to get Mutsuki, but they seemed to be taking care of some other work at the same time. After leaving the room, Ange and Machina split up.

Ange returned to the cla.s.sroom to take the extension request form to Sakae. Machina was putting up the backpack and costumes. Mutsuki decided to stick with the one who had the more difficult job, so he helped Machina carry the costumes.

The costumes would need to go to the drama club’s storeroom, but they went to the infirmary first.

“The bandages on the cast are old, so I was told to get new ones.”

She removed the old and yellowed bandages from the prop cast.

Doctor s.h.i.+romiya, the school doctor, was not there, but Machina knew where to find the bandages. She opened the cabinet above the sink and pulled out some new ones.

There were no other students there, so Mutsuki sat down on an open bed since he had nothing better to do. Then he lay down.

“…Sigh.”

He sighed deeply.

“What’s the matter?”

As she wrapped the new bandages around the cast, Machina realized he wanted her to speak to him. He sighed more quietly before answering.

“Ibekusa-san…you’re here to monitor me, aren’t you?”

“…I am.”

“I see.”

A long while back – and in fact in this very room – he had just learned she was part of FeTUS, so he had pulled her out of swimming cla.s.s and asked her about it.

The girl tilted her head, wondering why he would be asking this now.

The boy covered his face with his hands.

“So you’re the same as s.h.i.+rohara-senpai…”

“?”

“You really see me as ‘the person with the Serpent’s Eye’ and not ‘Fujita Mutsuki’.”

“…”

Machina fell quiet as she realized why he was in such a bad mood.

Mutsuki kept his expression hidden.

The most unpleasant part of it all was that s.h.i.+rohara Ren and Ibekusa Machina were both girls he had already had feelings for. One was his first love and the other someone he had been developing similar feelings for.

If he had met them through the Serpent’s Eye as he had with Ange or Lucia, he would not have felt this way. He never would have met those two if not for the Serpent’s Eye.

But he had fallen in love with those two before he knew anything about FeTUS or the Serpent’s Eye, so things were different.

He felt like someone had rubbed dirt all over his feelings for them.

But he could not direct his anger toward anyone in particular. He never would have met those two without the Serpent’s Eye any more than he would have Ange or Lucia. The frustration was purely emotional.

“What…am I?”

He had no target for his humiliation and irritation, so they came off like bitter complaints.

“I was born with the Serpent’s Eye, so there’s no use complaining about that. But…”

“…”

“…I feel like I’m not living my own life.”

He felt ashamed of the words as soon as they left his mouth, so he squished his heated cheeks between his hands. He felt like an idiot for complaining like this to a girl he had feelings for.

But he could not stop himself. Even when he held his tongue, a sad sigh left his mouth.

He had never thought he was this pathetic. And that only accelerated the worries filling his chest.

“That isn’t true.”

But those worries were soon stopped.

The bed creaked and he felt a warm softness on his elbow. He looked up from between his fingers and saw Machina sitting next to him and looking down at him.

She placed her fingers in his messy hair and gently stroked his head.

“We did approach you for the Serpent’s Eye. That is the truth.”

“Yeah…”

“But you sometimes betrayed our expectations, sometimes betrayed the angels’, and sometimes betrayed the demons’. That is what created the current situation. That is undeniably your accomplishment, Fujita-kun, not the Serpent’s Eye’s.”

“…”

“If anyone but you had the Serpent’s Eye, then at the very least, we in FeTus would have already been destroyed.”

He sensed no ulterior motive behind her comforting words. The girl simply spoke the truth and he felt like his eyes had been opened.

“And I…do not like hearing you say that.” Machina closed her eyes a little. “Because our lives belong to you.”

“…!”

The boy finally realized just how insensitive his words had been, so he quickly straightened up.

He had claimed to not be living his own life, but it was they who were not living their own lives.

They were using their school life to monitor the boy with the Serpent’s Eye. That was true of Machina, s.h.i.+rohara Ren, Katsue-sensei, Ange, Micha, and Lucia.

Just how many people were supporting this peaceful life of his? He thought his cheeks would burst into flames as he thought back on his ignorant complaints from just a few minutes earlier.

Luckily, his bright red face was hidden.

“Hwah…”

Machina hugged the boy after he straightened up.

She buried his face in the chest of the gym clothes with her name written on them. Her cleavage was deep, so the confused boy’s entire face was out of view.

The girl then mussed his hair that was now below her chin.

“…Well?”

“Ahp. W-well what?”

“Kurikara-san really likes when I do this to her head. What about you, Fujita-kun?”

She rubbed his head with a gentle hand.

He realized he had often seen Machina brus.h.i.+ng Saya’s hair at the other girl’s request in the few days since the opening ceremony. This seemed to be similar.

Mutsuki was unsure how to answer her question.

Her slender and somewhat chilly fingers rubbed his scalp through his hair.

Even the inside of his head felt nice, so he could see why Saya kept asking for it.

And with his face firmly planted between her soft b.r.e.a.s.t.s, each breath tickled his nose with the sweet scent of a girl.

His head and face felt good.

“Um…”

“Relax.”

“Ahh…”

She was treating him like a baby. This was not something he wanted the girl he liked to do to him, so he tried to resist.

But his body relaxed against his will.

The taciturn and expressionless girl’s fingertips were as gentle as a mother cat grooming her kitten.

“Ibekusa-san…”

As the bell rang signaling the end of the final homeroom, their bodies were pressed together.

Mutsuki’s mind was fuzzy. s.h.i.+rohara Ren, the Serpent’s Eye, and everything else seemed to melt away like he was dreaming.

He could only think about indulging in Machina…

“?”

Mutsuki was the first to notice something was not right.

As he rubbed his face against her b.r.e.a.s.t.s hard enough that his nose reached the bottom of the valley, he heard a wet sound from a strange place.

From the peak of the two small mountains.

He looked up and noticed two slight stains on the nametag pressed tightly against the mounds. He tried touching them.

“Nn…”

The girl’s back trembled.

Instead of the softness of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, he felt the intense springiness of her nipples below the stains.

He furthered his investigation by pinching those tips.

A warm dampness seeped out.

He brought it to his nose and found it was almost odorless. It did have a slight smell of protein.

He licked it and found it was tasteless but felt smoother on the tongue than water.

“Breast milk?”

“…?”

Machina did not seem aware she was producing it, so she only looked puzzled.

“L-let me see.”

“O-okay.”

She was partially confused by the suddenness of it all and she was partially embarra.s.sed by his request to “see”. Machina placed a hand on the bed while ensuring no one was around. Golden threads raced over to the room’s door like magic and locked both it and the windows. Then she closed the curtain to hide the bed.

“…Nn.”

She pulled up the front of her gym s.h.i.+rt.

Machina generally did not dress up, but her underwear was always oddly cute. Her bra today was a light blue half cup and it was somewhat damp with sweat.

And the part pressing against her nipples was especially wet.

“I’ll be removing that, okay?”

Their size was always impressive, but he was more impressed by the dampness this time. After getting permission, he undid the front hook.

The bra cups were quite large, but they still must have been restraining her t.i.ts. With their bonds removed, the white melons bounced free.

The moisture on the tip flew through the air.

They were not quite erect, but the nipples were still colored a delicious pink. Mutsuki was hesitant to touch them right away, so he grabbed them from the outer edge of the areolae.

And he lightly squeezed.

“Ahn…”

As his fingers dug in, lines of white sprayed from the light pink points.

It was definitely breast milk. Mutsuki had a much younger sister, so he had seen his mother breast feeding when he was about halfway through elementary school.

“Have you been…lactating? You haven’t, right?”

“No, um, it suddenly started now.”

Machina was as confused as he was.

“…”

“…”

Unsure what to do, they both fell silent for a while.

“…Hwah.”

Finally, Mutsuki resumed his investigation without asking her permission.

The tip of those beautiful mounds perkily pointed forward. He lifted one in his hand and hesitantly placed the bud in his mouth as it dripped white extract.

He did not even need to suck. Rolling it around with his tongue was sufficient.

(Wow, it came out.)

The very tip of the perfectly stiffened protrusion had a crater-like indentation. The human spray came from the pinhole-like opening even further in the center.

It came out as a single stream, but it would separate into several sprays in midair, so he would choke on it if he was not careful.

He covered it with his tongue.

“…Hhn…ahh.”

When he pressed his soft tongue over the nipple, Machina uttered a nasal gasp.

The boy rolled the nipple around with his tongue while sucking on the entire areola.

A faintly fragrant spray burst from the flesh indentation. A milky liquid also welled up in the small slit in the other breast.

“It’s kind of sweet. It’s kind of like…melon juice?”

He naturally began with taste in his investigation of the sudden change to the girl’s body.

A sweet extract something like hot milk spread through his mouth. He also sensed a raw female scent not found in cow milk.

It was smooth on his tongue, oddly mild in this throat, and addictively flavorful.

“Nn…nn.”

He really began sucking now.

Her nipple was an extremely light pink for an Asian, but it seductively gained color as it grew erect from his sucking.

The more erect it grew, the more forcefully the milk squirted out. He had to slow down to not choke on it.

“Oh, I can’t let this go to waste.”

“Eh? …Ahn.”

The mammary glands were linked, so when the lactation in one breast increased, it did the same in the other.

Mutsuki could not bear to watch the milk drip down onto the bed, so he placed the other nipple in his mouth. He licked up the milk that was dripping down the large round t.i.t and then began sucking.

“Nn… Fujita-kun…if you suck that hard…”

Machina generally did not fight anything he did, so she only raised a trembling voice when he began pecking at an area that had not received any stimulation yet.

While alternately sucking from one then the other nipple, he also squeezed both b.r.e.a.s.t.s hard enough for his fingers to dig in, naturally increasing the sensitivity of the entire mounds.

“Ahh…”

The girl uttered a sweet moan as if she had saliva coating her vocal cords and she leaned back. Like she wanted to escape the shame. Like she was offering her b.r.e.a.s.t.s to him.

“Ah…n. Ahh…Fujita-kun…”

Machina had initially been moaning about the feeling of him rolling her nipples around, but as the amount of juices surging out grew, a change came to her expression.

She bit her lower lip and wrinkled her brow.

The change was all the more vivid because her expression was usually so calm.

She exposed her white throat, stuck her small nose out in odd directions, and…

“Ah…hh…nn…”

“…Nn.”

She arched her back, pus.h.i.+ng her accentuated bust into Mutsuki’s face.

As he stroked them between his lips, the small protrusions grew into nearly cylindrical shapes. They were like tubes meant to more efficiently let the cream out.

Those beaks made their presence known by trembling slightly. And when he lightly bit them…

“…Hahhhhn.”

The trembling spread to the girl’s entire body.

In the name of investigating her mysterious lactation, Mutsuki had become lost in the sweet flavor and feminine scent, but there was no missing that reaction.

“Ibekusa-san, does it feel good when I suck your milk?”

“Eh? …N-no, it…”

Suck~

“Ahhhhh…n.”

The girl arched her back and screamed.

And the s.e.xual note to her voice was undeniable.

“It does feel good, doesn’t it?”

Mutsuki grinned mischievously and asked her that without releasing the nipple from his mouth.

“I-I don’t know.”

Machina looked embarra.s.sed as she shook her curly hair and looked away.

She seemed truly baffled by the change to her own b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Both the milk and the sensation coming from them.

Mutsuki was tired of moving back and forth between the mounds, so he used their elegantly symmetrical size to gather them in the center and place both tips in his mouth.

“Ahhhhh…”

When he pecked at both puffily erect areolae at once, the girl could no longer restrain her voice.

Her heart and body were both confused by the unexplained lactation. The collected warmth ran through the mammary glands and erupted from the sensitively erect openings. That sequence filled her skin with a throbbing heat around her nipples.

Heated breaths left her slack mouth.

Mutsuki chuckled when he saw it.

“We can’t have this, Ibekusa-san. Your body was lewd enough already, but now you’re producing lewd milk and you get off to being milked?”

He rubbed his hips against her defenselessly sprawled out legs.

They both wore their gym clothes for the cultural festival preparations. That meant white shorts for a boy and bloomers for a girl. He rubbed his erection against her bare thigh through the thin fabric of his shorts.

“Ah… I’m not lewd.”

“You are. Incredibly so. Let’s not forget how you showed off your plump body to everyone back in the cla.s.sroom. After that, every boy in the cla.s.s is going to jerk off to your t.i.ts tonight.”

“…I-I’m sorry.”

“It’s too late to apologize now. I wanted the size and lewdness of your t.i.ts to be my secret.”

This girl was always reserved, so she naturally stimulated the slight sadism inside the boy. He rolled her soft b.r.e.a.s.t.s around even more roughly and pressed his canine teeth into her areolae.

“Ahh! …Nn, hh…ahh.”

The way Machina did not complain only stimulated him further.

He had controlled all of her s.e.xual pleasure since she had lost her virginity, so she had a habit of matching her level of arousal to his.

Pressing his erection against her thigh was enough for her to wiggle her hips. Her body recalled the sensation of having that pierce her v.a.g.i.n.a and stir up the flesh within as it pumped in and out.

His s.a.d.i.s.tic attack on her nipples inspired a m.a.s.o.c.h.i.s.tic pleasure inside her.

“You’re sweating. Even your smell is lewd.”

“D-don’t say that.”

“But it’s the truth. …You smell like milk. Ibekusa-san, that milky smell is really raw or animalistic and it smells really lewd when it mixes with your sweat.”

“Ah…ah.”

“Such shameful t.i.ts.”

He again sucked at them both at once.

He forgot all about his original objective and seriously worked at caressing her. He rubbed along her slender waist and down to the slim b.u.t.t below her bloomers. His erection was still pressed against her thighs.

“Ah…no. Don’t touch me…there. Ahn.”

He transferred his male body heat to her hipline and crotch with the persistence of an obscene tentacle.

Her body shook horribly. Her b.r.e.a.s.t.s twisted like they were trying to escape his grasp and even more milk erupted as if from two tiny hoses.

“Pfh. You’re shooting out way too much milk, Ibekusa-san. I can’t drink it all.”

He had trouble breathing with all the milk squirting out as if from a geyser.

He briefly removed his mouth from them, but that did not stop the eruption. The warm, obscene-smelling extract splattered on his face.

And that felt like a waste.

“It keeps getting thicker… Heh heh. Will it stop if I milk it all out?”

“Ahhhhhn.”

He squeezed around the pink tips hard enough to change the elegantly streamlined shape of her bust.

He crudely milked her like she was a cow.

The white lines that flowed out fell to the bed and sometimes got on the curtain.

“I’ll milk you dry of this lewd milk, Ibekusa-san.”

“Ah…n. Fujita-kun, you mustn’t…”

“But I have to. It’s your body’s fault for being so lewd and having such plump t.i.ts and a.s.s.”

“I’m not…lewd…ahh.”

He squeezed with the hand on her b.u.t.t. He could feel the flesh of her b.u.t.t even through her bloomers.

That sensation aroused him, so he stuck his fingers in through the leg hole digging into her thigh. He groped that roundness that was even more resilient than her bust and felt like a water balloon full of warm water.

“Ah, ahn. No, not so rough.”

“You say that, but it’s so damp in here. Is this all sweat? No, it isn’t. It’s reached as far back as your a.n.u.s and it’s much stickier than sweat.”

“Heeee!

The fingers squeezing her b.u.t.t finally reached the hottest area at the bottom of the center.

The boy had had teased her a.n.u.s a few times before and it knew the taste of his d.i.c.k, so it had developed into a proper erogenous zone that produced an obscene heat. The girl wrinkled her brow when he simply touched it.

“Ha ha♪ It’s getting rea