Adolescent Adam

Volume 9, Chapter 1 - A Changed World

The transportation Miss A had supplied for them was a lot like a missile without a warhead.

They flew at such high speed that it took less than half an hour to return to FeTUS headquarters at Megutono Academy from as deep in Kansai as south Fukui prefecture.

However, there must not have been time for proper maintenance. The speed dropped and Ange, Machina, and Lucia were dropped to the ground before arriving back at the headquarters.

“Ow. That was a hell of a way of sending us back.”

“It was a very Miss A thing to do. But more importantly…”

“Where are we? Oh, is that the mall over there?”

They had apparently made it back to the city. They had fallen near SeeD WalK, the shopping mall that the angels like Ange often used.

It had been closed for a while after the destruction from Black Cat’s attack, but it had reopened before summer break. It was once more a place for countless families to make nice memories.

“…?”

Or it should have been.

The outdoors hall was large enough to hold a small concert and the center was connected to the food court a floor below. It was still warm for fall, so the outdoors hall had been remade into a beer garden during the evening hours and it should have been full of office workers on the way home from work.

But it was empty.

The three exchanged a glance wondering if it was closed today.

Ange and Machina only looked puzzled, but Lucia’s expression was darker. He looked down at the floor where the tile was engraved with a grid of small grooves to let rainwater drain off.

His face stiffened further when he saw the black stains there.

“This is odd,” said Ange. “There’s no one down here either.”

They descended the stairs to find the food court deserted.

No customers would be one thing, but there were no workers in the restaurants either. Yet the lights were on and the grills were still active.

“Was everyone evacuated because our ride was mistaken for a missile?”

“Negative, the government is unaware of any of this and there would be more of a commotion outside if that were the case.”

The mall was quiet. Eerily quiet.

There was an arcade near the food court and the game cabinets there were all still powered on. The mall’s speakers were playing ambient music based on a forest or the waterside, which only increased the eeriness of the deserted building.

Ange did not know much about the human world and Machina did, but they both thought of the same name: the Mary Celeste.

But for warriors like those three, learning they were in an emergency situation actually helped them avoid panicking.

They calmly, calmly observed their surroundings and noticed a few odd things within the food court. Some chairs were toppled and a few people’s worth of underwear and other clothing was lying on the floor.

There were also black stains dotting the chairs and floor.

“What is this black stuff? Succubi?”

“Negative. The ratio of materials is similar, but there is no life activity in these.”

They investigated in their own unique ways. Machina analyzed the materials and Ange produced fire from her back to heat them enough to burn a demon.

The materials analysis told them nothing and there was no response to the fire, so these did not seem to be demons. However…

“These are human bodies,” said Lucia after scooping some up on a finger and licking it. “Just with the Fruit of Knowledge removed.”

“H-human bodies? All of these were people!?”

Ange was shocked at the identity of what she had been investigating and she gasped when she looked again at how many stains were scattered throughout the mall.

Those were all people. It did make the most sense given the odd state of the mall, though.

“Ah, ahhhhh, ahhh, yesssss! That’s…that’s so good!”

When they focused their ears, they heard someone’s voice. All three of them moved toward the voice and peeked into the arcade adjacent to the food court.

“Ah! Nikki!” shouted Lucia.

A girl who looked somewhat young for her flashy clothing was half naked and down on all fours.

This was Niki Hozumi, a classmate of those three, and a member of the rock band Lucia had performed with at the cultural festival a few days ago.

His voice did not seem to reach her and she was wiggling her hips side to side while on all fours.

The three of them gasped when they saw the man firmly holding those hips.

It was that young man. The one who resembled Mutsuki and that Micha had called Avalon.

“Sob, wahhhhh! Papaaa, mamaaaa.”

They had not noticed before due to all the noise from the arcade cabinets, but there were still a few people in the arcade.

A boy of about 5 was crying in front of the bathrooms on one side of the arcade. Ange and Machina hurried over to help him, but then they realized there were still two adults in the diaper changing room next to the bathrooms.

“Ahhh, what, what!? I’ve never felt anything like thissss!”

“Ahhh, I-I’m so close! Ahhhh, I’m cumming!”

A different man and woman were in there with them for a total of four people.

A young woman was having sex with the young man named Avalon and a somewhat older man in his thirties was having sex with a woman who had long platinum blonde hair.

That shockingly beautiful face was Lilith’s. Ange and the others had only seen her for a moment, but they could tell right away.

The boy was crying “papa” and “mama” at what those two were doing. They must have been his parents.

“Ah, ah, ah, ahhhhhhh, I’m cummiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!”

Hozumi let out a cry while her slender body arched backwards.

At that very moment, her body burst into a black liquid.

There was no blood. She was transformed into a black stain on the carpet before Lucia’s eyes like she had been a water balloon all along.

Then a glowing speck floated up from the stain. Was it an apple seed? The man having sex with her grabbed the tiny speck of light with a satisfied look.

The man and woman in front of Ange and Machina also achieved climax and collapsed into a black liquid. The boy gave a quiet shriek at seeing his parents burst into nothingness.

After retrieving the specks of light from those two as well, the two Avalons and the one Lilith smiled in satisfaction. They vanished like mist without even glancing over at dumbfounded Ange and the others.

The only people left were Ange, Machina, Lucia, and…

“Does it sadden you, boy?”

The boy had nearly fainted after seeing his parents disappear, but another Lilith appeared right behind him.

“Papa…mama…”

The boy could not find the words to express the tragedy that had befallen him, so Lilith gently smiled and rubbed his cheek.

“There is no need for sadness for I shall love you. I can love you more than your father or your mother ever could, so you need only love me in return.”

The boy finally remembered how to cry and clung to her blonde hair with tears spilling form his eyes.

“Wait! Get away from her!”

Ange realized what was coming, so she shouted in anger.

But the boy showed no interest in her words and indulged in the arms embracing him.

A moment later, there was a splatting sound and he became a black stain.

“The human world has this idea known as a brain in a vat.”

After confirming no one else was around, the thought of staying in the mall made them sick, so they left. The pleasant evening breeze of early autumn helped them forget the reality around them.

The first to speak was Lucia.

“The idea is that you are nothing more than a brain in a vat and the world you know is no more than electrical stimuli given to that brain. Of course, it’s not meant to claim this is true. It’s more of a joke showing that thoughts are a subjective thing and all scientific theories can be explained away as only existing in that vat if you remove that subjective element.”

It was quiet outside as well.

This city was not a metropolis and there was not a full shopping district around the mall, so the only sounds would be the people passing by. So when there were no people passing by, everything was so quiet the autumn wind sounded far too loud in their ears.

“There are sometimes science fiction stories based on that joke. They present humanity as existing in a vat where they are shown a false reality instead of the real one. The person who develops a way to place themselves in the vat could just enjoy the perfect world they have created for themselves, but for some reason, they decide they want to share that happiness with everyone else and work in secret to turn all of humanity into brains in vats and they attack as a giant robot brain for the final battle.”

“Are you saying that’s what Mutsuki is doing?”

“I won’t say that. But in that state, he should be able to promise eternal pleasure to the brains – or minds, really – that he has locally collected.”

As they continued walking, they accidentally stepped in a black stain. Lucia did not seem to mind, but Ange found it gross and quickly stepped around it.

Machina was already used to avoiding others as she walked, so she never stepped in one to begin with.

“From what I can tell, 98% of the humans in the world have entered the same state,” she said with her phone to her ear.

She was not actually speaking with anyone; she was gathering global information over the network.

“That’s a lot,” said Ange.

“It actually makes me curious about the remaining 2%,” said Lucia. “What’s happened to them?”

“Anyone piloting airplanes, ships, submarines, or anything else that would cause harm if it lost control has been spared. But once they arrive at the airport, harbor, or coast, contact is lost.”

“I guess that’s what happened to them.”

They glanced over at the nearby road.

There were a lot of cars on the road, but none had gotten into an accident. They were all stopped on the side of the road with their shift lever in park, their parking brake on, and their headlights off. Every one of the cars had come to a safe stop…and there was a black stain on the inside.

Not one of the 98% who had disappeared had been attacked.

They had all ensured their own safety and chosen for themselves to become black stains.

A being was gathering people’s minds – that is, the Fruit of Wisdom.

What was that thing formed from the boy named Fujita Mutsuki? Ange and Lucia had no word to define it. An angel and demon like them were familiar with what the human world interpreted as “god”, but not even that “god” could do this.

There were of course plenty of things god could do which this being could not, but there was one major point in common between him and god.

They were revered.

No, they were loved.

The small amount of Adam’s power allowed out by the Serpent’s Eye showed that Adam’s nature was to capture the affections of all women. And if Lilith, bearer of the other Serpent’s Eye, had the opposite nature, then she captured the affections of all men.

Now that they had become one, they had created a being that could capture the affections of all humans.

It was unclear which one a gay person would be drawn to, but as long as they carried the emotion of love, they would fall in love with one or the other side of this being. Age was not factor. A newborn baby and an elderly person breathing their last were no exceptions.

And once they loved him, they lost all ability to resist him.

When he asked them to give up their Fruit of Wisdom, they would gladly do so and they were willing to let their abandoned body be reduced to mere nutrients – a pile of black flesh. They could not defy that being. Any who did so would instinctually choose to abandon living.

But what would happen to the gathered Fruits of Wisdom?

“They will live forever in the grasp of the one who loves them. They will have no thoughts or emotions. They will simply be with the one who loves them.”

“Well, they must be happy.” Lucia cackled. “Thus, humanity escaped the age of discord and lived happily ever after in the vat they named Eden.”

He was clearly making a joke, but he also stopped walking.

“It’s disappointing that Mutsuki-kun chose that woman, but if that’s his choice, I’ll accept it. I’m sure he’ll come for me too eventually. But what about you two?”

He looked to the others.

“…”

“…”

Ange and Machina were hesitant to respond.

It was hard to view this as a good thing. Something very close to being god had appeared out of nowhere and humanity had been eradicated. A hellish scene of a deserted world stained by dark liquid lay before them. Their sense of justice told them they needed to put a stop to this.

But Lucia’s words had greatly shaken them.

He had said this was what Fujita Mutsuki wanted.

Lilith had no real reason to want this.

She was the origin point of all demons and, since her name was never seen in human history, she must not have done much of anything for thousands of years. She had no desire to rule the human world or to eradicate humanity.

She only wanted to make Adam hers and she had accomplished that.

And since that young man was indeed a “man”, it was best to assume Adam’s – that is, Mutsuki’s – mind was most strongly in control.

And it did seem a lot like Mutsuki to be so oddly thoughtful about not hurting anyone by waiting for people to park their cars or land their airplanes even though he was going to eliminate them anyway.

So…

“This is Fujita-kun’s answer to the rivalry.”

“He does sometimes take things to an extreme.”

Their shoulders slumped.

This was the biggest reason why FeTUS had not told Mutsuki himself about his role as Adam in the age of rivalry.

It was meant to go the way the angels wanted: Adam would choose his Eve through a natural process, they would come together and have a child, and that would bring gradual salvation to Kali Yuga, the age of destruction that followed after the rivalry. That was the natural system created by god.

But that would mean a major regression in human civilization, so FeTUS opposed it. They believed the near extinction of the human race should be avoided even if that was unnatural, but if the rivalry led to a nuclear war, that would prevent any life from living on the planet at all. That was why their plan had been to artificially create the Holy Grail – that is, Eve’s womb – implant Adam there, and arrive at the source of modern human genetics.

“But to be honest, this is the best way of preventing the rivalry.” Lucia cackled again. “Even setting aside the deterioration of human genetics, humans are a species that kill and steal from each other.”

FeTUS’s plan to prevent the rivalry had been to avoid the short-term threat of extinction and produce new long-term problems such as limited resources when the population exploded.

Would Fujita Mutsuki want that? If not, wouldn’t Adam look elsewhere? That was FeTUS’s greatest concern and the reason they had not simply asked for his help in preventing the near-extinction of humanity.

But perhaps keeping it from him had been the wrong choice.

After learning the truth from someone else, this was the method Mutsuki had chosen.

“It’s no good. Heaven is being affected too.”

Ange had pulled out her phone and called someone, but there was no response.

Just like with Rapha and the other angels, the birth of a perfect being was affecting heaven and likely hell as well.

“This really did turn Mutsuki-kun into someone who is loved by all of humanity and all other forms of life as well. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen a single cat.”

There was no sign of animals either.

They had a hard time imagining just how widespread these effects were. Could they be the only three living beings in the entire world?

“…”

But a question mark appeared in their minds.

In other words…

“Ah!” Machina looked up while suddenly checking the network. “A phone is receiving a call in this city.”

“Does that mean there’s still someone here!?”

“I am looking into it. Give me a moment.”

She used her phone to check the network and work out what phone was being used.

They did not know what this would lead them to, but there was not very much they could do at this point.

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