Monday, February 29, 2016Adolescent Adam 4: Chapter 1 - The Usual Scene “Ange?” “!” Ange seemed to have been napping for once, so she opened her drowsy eyes. “It’s lunchtime. Aren’t you going to eat?” Mutsuki smiled bitterly at the girl’s sleepy look and handed her today’s lunchbox. Only then did she realize their lunch break had started. It was midsummer and they only had two days until summer break. Her window-side seat was not exactly comfortable with the sunlight falling directly on it, but it was cool enough even without the air conditioning because a typhoon was approaching. With the sound of the rain and the chilly wind reaching her through the opened window, it was hardly surprising she had dozed off. “You have some sleep in your eye.” Mutsuki chuckled and pulled out a handkerchief. Without taking the handkerchief, Ange sullenly wiped her eye with the back of her hand and turned away with a lopsided frown on her face. This was the usual for her, so he returned to his seat. “Okay, time to eat, time to eat. We’re in the middle of the period of growth that has to support our futures, so this is another way to enjoy our school life to its fullest.” His childhood friend Sakae walked over with a ton of bread in his arms. “Let’s push our desks together~ Outta the way, Sakae. Mutsuki-kun, over here, over here♪” “Sure.” “Deh heh heh heh heh. Ange-chaaan. Let’s eat together.” “Th-that’s fine.” Lucia moved his desk behind Mutsuki and Saya moved over to Ange’s desk. “…” As usual, Machina remained in the neighboring seat. On her own, she pulled a water bottle and a single apple from her bag. Mutsuki and Ange ate together, Lucia, Sakae, and Saya wanted to eat with them, and Machina sat nearby. Recently, the six of them spent most of their lunch breaks together like this. They all pulled out their lunches. Saya’s was quite girly, Sakae lined up the bread he had bought at the school store, Lucia had a lot of portable foods like dried meats and seeds, and Machina had her single apple. Mutsuki and Ange’s lunches were the same since they lived together. “Once again, it at least looks normal enough.” Ange sighed when she opened the lunchbox she had been given. It contained sakura denbu on rice, pickled cuc.u.mbers, rolled omelets, bacon soaked in chili oil, and spinach salad. The main dish was pork dumplings. The sakura denbu was shaped like the Lazy Bear character the girl liked and the pork dumplings were star-shaped, so it had a real focus on presentation. It did indeed look like a delicious lunch. “Okay, let’s get started.” Mutsuki clapped his hands together. On that signal, they all started eating. Machina was not even looking in their direction, but he had a feeling she brought the apple to her mouth after he clapped. With six of them there, they naturally split between boys and girls. Mutsuki, Sakae, and Lucia formed one group and Ange and Saya formed another. Machina did not speak with anyone. The three boys discussed cla.s.s, which girl (or boy) the most recent love letter Lucia had gotten was from, and generally wandered from topic to topic. As for the two girls… “Ange-chan, Ange-chan. I have some fried chicken today too.” “Again?” “Say ‘ah’.” “Saya, are you bringing this everyday just to feed it to me?” “Of course not. It’s just a coincidence. Or do you not want it?” “I didn’t say that.” “Say ‘ahhh♡’.” Ange hesitated but gave in because she liked meat. This cla.s.smate seemed to have gotten quite clingy lately. Ange had attacked her before after mistaking her for an enemy, so she had been worried about how to treat her afterwards. However, Saya did not seem to mind and did not seem to have realized who Ange really was. In the end, they were still just cla.s.smates. Except that the girl was giving her a lot of heated looks that seemed to surpa.s.s the level of cla.s.smate. “A-ahhh.” “Here you go. Heh heh heh~ You’re so cute with your mouth open, Ange-chan.” “Am I?” “Yeah. Oh, I just can’t stand it!” For some reason, Saya blushed and grinned. Ange was a little worried the girl had indeed realized she was an angel, but there was nothing she could do if the girl did not bring it up first. “Here. This one’s ankake-style. Say ‘ahhh’.” “Ahhh.” “Deh heh heh heh heh♡” As a result, she could only do as the girl asked. While the fried chicken flavor lingered in her mouth, she gulped down the spinach salad she did not like. She disguised the aftertaste with the rice and pickled vegetables before starting on the pork dumplings. “…” (Munch munch) She had a bad feeling about them, but they were normal pork dumplings. After breathing a sigh of relief, she washed them down with a sip of tea and ate the spicy bacon she liked with some rice. Finally, she took a bite of the rolled omelets. “Gwoh!!” She spat it back out. The other five and everyone else in the cla.s.s turned her way. “Ahhh~ So it was these, not the dumplings~ Saya! Tea, tea, tea!” “Here you go.” She chugged down the 500 mL bottle of tea. The omelets had something sweet and yet bitter inside. After clenching her teeth, she glared at the boy with tears in her eyes. “Mutsuki!” “U-um, to make sure you could stand the summer heat, I added in some garlic chives, grated ginger, garlic, and cacao beans that are full of polyphenols. You like cocoa, don’t you?” “Why would you put that in an omelet!?” She shouted in anger. Of the cla.s.smate’s watching them, half were giving lukewarm looks and the other half had already cooled as if to say, “Oh, it’s this again.” “But it’s highly nutritious.” “It may be good for you physically, but it’s bad for you mentally! Enough to stop my heart! Oh, honestly! How many times do I have to tell you not to add in your original dishes!?” “S-sorry. And sorry to you too, Ibekusa-san.” “Not a problem.” The boy apologized to Ange whose anger was like a blazing fire and to Machina who was sitting in front of Ange and thus was. .h.i.t in the back of the head when the angel girl spat out the food. “Honestly.” Once she was done yelling, the girl returned to her seat. And… “How spoiled do you have to be to complain when someone makes food for you?” “…What?” She wrinkled her brow again when Lucia spoke up next to her. The demon boy looked cute, but he could be truly malicious to people he did not like. And as an angel, Ange was his natural enemy. “Beggars can’t be choosers. Who does she think she is? Right, Mutsuki-kun?” “I-I do the cooking because I like it.” Mutsuki quickly intervened when he saw the frightening look on the already short-tempered girl’s face. Lucia generally never did anything that would cause him trouble and Ange did not bite at the obvious provocation, so nothing came of it. They both returned to their lunches. “Speaking of that, Mutsuki.” Noticing the tense atmosphere, Sakae immediately changed the subject. “You’ve always loved cooking, haven’t you?” “Yeah. I’ve been doing it since before elementary school, so it’s more of a habit than anything.” Mutsuki narrowed his eyes as he easily ate the highly nutritious omelets. “And Ange might complain, but she always eats everything but the one thing.” The girl shoved the omelets to the side and gulped down the rest of the pork dumplings and rice. He laughed happily when he saw it. “I do like making lunches for Ange.” “Ha ha. You’re a total house-husband.” His best friend Sakae laughed too, but Lucia gave a sullen look next to him. The three boys naturally turned toward Ange. When their eyes gathered on her, the girl blushed in surprise and faced the window with her usual lopsided frown. Mutsuki, Lucia, and Sakae had all realized that was just how she hid her embarra.s.sment, so they all burst out laughing. Ange ignored them and turned her back on them. “…” And that was why none of them noticed the hint of loneliness on her face. “That was delicious!” A woman loudly clapped her hands together and set down her chopsticks. Mutsuki made a total of three lunches every day: one for himself, one for Ange, and one for their other roommate Micha. Even though she lay around the apartment drinking all day, she had a lunch prepared neatly inside a lunchbox instead of stuffed inside some tupperware. She had already eaten it, but the sakura denbu on the rice had spelled out “No Alcohol”. She laughed as she walked to the fridge. She winked and said “sorry” to the sticky note that said “Only two beers a day!” in Mutsuki’s handwriting and pulled two cans out. Incidentally, there were already four empty cans in the trash from that morning alone. She opened one with a nice “ksh” sound. “…” But before drinking any, she set them down on the table. “What?” She looked out the window toward the balcony. This was the top floor of the apartment building and it was pouring rain thanks to the typhoon. However, the sound of the rain had suddenly died down. Four figures were visible out the window. Three were girls and one was a young man. They all had an otherworldly beauty as they smiled softly at her. The falling raindrops veered unnaturally away from the balcony as if they disliked the people standing there. “The preparations for the guiding chant are complete. The location of FeTUS headquarters has been confirmed. We are prepared to bring judgment.” “I see.” “Now we must only wait for Metatron.” Micha’s expression stiffened when the young man – Rapha – said that. She instantly forgot all about the intoxication brought on by the four beers. “Please hurry this up, Micha. The higher ups seem irritated that the current situation is making the humans look better than us.” “I am well aware.” Her voice was rough. The young man quietly closed his eyes, said “please” once more, and then left. The three girls followed suit. Micha sighed quietly as she watched them leave. Her eyes stopped on the lunchbox she had just finished eating from. That lunch had been filled with Fujita Mutsuki’s love. “I wonder if this will be the least time he makes one of those for me,” she quietly pondered. She reached for a nearby shelf instead of the beers she had set down. It contained a few drinks with higher alcohol content, like whisky and brandy. It also contained a photo of Mutsuki, Ange, and Micha that they had taken a while back. She closed her eyes when she saw the smiling boy in the photo. She carelessly grabbed a bottle of whisky and began drinking it straight from the bottle.