Chapter 1 - Blue-Burned Sky (4/?)

"Who is this? This cellphone belongs to Fujita Mutsuki."

"Make sure you survive until Ange gets there."

"…"

Survive. He stopped because that dangerous word brought the opposite outcome to mind.

He happened to stop in front of the large wall fountain that made a nice landmark for the roundabout in front of the train station.

"That is hell. You mustn't stop there."

"Eh? Eh?"

"The spring has already been wound. Get away from the roundabout!"

Before the woman finished speaking, the screams filling the station area told him something was wrong.

"…"

The woman was still saying something, but Mutsuki dropped his phone on the edge of the fountain.

That was hardly surprising given what had happened.

A bright rouge Porsche was noticeably parked in the middle of all the cars filling the station roundabout.

It was stopped right in the middle of the road which explained why the cars had been honking so much. But those horns soon became screams.

Everyone watched in shock as sounds of scraping metal came from the Porsche and it ceased to be a car.

"Ah…Ah…"

After the hood opened, metal claws burst out and stabbed into the ground to lift the tires from the ground. Next, the convertible chassis bent like an accordion and rose up in a menacing pose. Then, the emblem on the bumper lifted its head to look in the boy's direction.

Its glossy, streamlined red body showed off its dark engine. Just as a rhinoceros beetle looked like a jewel from the top but revealed its grotesque underbelly when flipped over, a sense of indescribable revulsion filled the roundabout with panic.

(What…is this? What is this? What is this?)

Everyone began to flee the station area, but Mutsuki was frozen in place. The air felt as thick as molasses and his legs refused to move.

As the car monster stood up like a human being, he noticed its headlights turning his way.

The Porsche seemed to forget it had tires, so it dragged its body along by its claws to approach the dumbfounded boy. The weight of the car produced an awful scraping noise on the concrete.

"~~"

The scraping almost sounded like the whinnying of a horse and the boy fell onto his butt.

Even after his hips gave out, the Porsche continued toward him.

"…sten! Listen, Fujita Mutsuki-kun!"

It stopped just as it crushed the dropped phone with its claw.

As the dumbfounded boy watched, something strange happened to the destroyed phone. The bisected parts clung to the claw and became a phone once more.

"Mutsuki-kun, calm down and listen. You can't stay there!"

The phone still functioned.

It all felt so surreal that Mutsuki started feeling faint.

"Beginning scan. Fujita Mutsuki…positive. Serpent's Eye holder confirmed."

A mechanically synthesized voice spoke through the Porsche's speakers and he clearly heard his own name.

But…

"Listen, Mutsuki-kun! The Springloaded isn't the problem. The demon will defeat it."

The voice coming from the cellphone was drowned out by the bubbling sound coming from the wall fountain behind him.

"The demon is the one you need to escape from!"

"Ha ha❤"

He also heard a low and oddly alluring laugh.

"Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha! I found you! I finally found you, Fujita Mutsuki-kun!"

The standing Porsche seemed to lean backwards.

Just a few seconds before, the fountain had been filled with clear water, but now its contents sprayed out like a geyser, assaulting Mutsuki and the Porsche.

And this was not water. It was a sticky reddish-black liquid.

Dried blood may have been the closest comparison. It was exactly as warm as human skin and reeked of blood. Mutsuki shuddered in disgust as it poured down over his back.

"Kh…gh…"

The Porsche did more than tremble. The human skin fluid soaked into the exposed engine. Even in its monstrous form, the precision machinery was weak to foreign substances. As each drop entered the engine, the car's movements dulled and it finally did nothing more than shake like a toy with a dying battery.

In that instant, a giant curved blade pierced through the center of the exposed chassis.

The red blade gently curved like a crescent moon. The giant scythe's blade was over a meter long and the handle was over two meters long. It stabbed so deeply into the Porsche monster that Mutsuki almost felt sorry for it.

Only after moving his gaze down the weapon did he notice that someone stood on the damaged headlights at the front of the car.

(Who's that? Watch out!)

The Porsche could not support itself any longer with its claws broken, so it collapsed forward.

Mutsuki panicked, but the person standing on top was not thrown off. They instead let go of the scythe and leaped toward Mutsuki.

The person bent their waist to a ninety degree angle in front of Mutsuki and moved their head so close it almost hit him.

The situation kept changing so fast that Mutsuki could only watch in a daze.

"Hi. I was looking forward to meeting you, Fujita Mutsuki-kun."

The person was a boy of about Mutsuki's own age…or at least he thought it was a boy. At the very least, the sleeveless shirt and pants were boy's clothes and his husky voice sounded more boyish.

Yet he was so beautiful that Mutsuki's heart began to race when their eyes met from close enough for their noses to nearly touch.

His droopy eyes and long eyelashes gave him an exotic depth to his looks and the hair held down by his baggy hat was a shiny blond. The innocent smile decorating his perfect facial features gave him a youthful and cute look.

He was more beautiful than handsome and he was more bewitchingly seductive than beautiful. He was such an androgynous boy that his clothes were the only clue to his sex.

"I can call you Mutsuki-kun, right? I'm Lucia. You can call me Lu-kun or Lucy or whatever you want."

Mutsuki was just about charmed into a stupor.

"…❤"

A complete change came over the innocent sun-like warmth of his smile. Like sunlight ripping apart the darkness, he gave the kind of insane smile one must not be charmed by.

"Wow… You're even more than I imagined, Mutsuki-kun. You haven't even awakened yet and I'm already all tingly. I can feel your hidden power oozing from your genes themselves!"

He looked over every inch of Mutsuki's body with a look of animalistic intensity that seemed horribly out of place on his cute face.

(Wh-who is this kid?)

Mutsuki froze over and finally narrowed the corners of his eyes.

He was scared, but there was a strange charm in this boy's eyes that just about made him fall in love.

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