Published at 31st of August 2019 4:06 am

Volume 1, Chapter 04: Moon’s real identity

This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml

It was a fragment of my memories.

The screeching sound of brakes. A small figure flying through the air. Red blood. Hollow words. A sobbing voice. My own wet cheeks. The warmth of a hand touching my head. A gentle warmth. A gentle smile. Gentle words. A sad smile. Sad eyes….Two painfully weak hands.

Shouted words. Promised words. Forgotten words. My extended hand—-

“Shinobu-san.”

I awoke to a worried voice calling my name.

HAH. I opened my eyes and sat up suddenly. My body was hot and covered in sweat all over. Both my fist were tightly clenched and my heart was beating fast. The morning sunlight through the curtains was strangely bright.

“…Are you okay? Did you have a nightmare?”

When I looked up towards the voice, Luna was looking at me with a worried expression.

“Did you have a scary dream?”

“Y- Yeah, I did. A horrible dream. I don’t really understand it though. It was a dream about me being crushed by beautiful girls wearing swimsuits. Geez. They just wouldn’t let go of me.”

I opened my fists under the blanket while I forced myself to smile… but it seemed like she noticed that I was forcing myself.

“It is okay.”

Luna gently extended her hand towards me.

“It is okay now.”

The warmth of my head being touched. A warm and soft sensation. A feeling like being embraced.

Strange. Was I still dreaming? She’d just patted my head, but I felt like I was being embraced.

I calmed down. My hands loosened by themselves and the strength slipped out of my body.

Hah, if I were to close my eyes now, I would fall asleep again. It was that soothing.

Getting elated by the sensation of a gentle hug I snuggled up with a calm heart.

“….Wait a sec.”

Was I a kid or what? Wasn’t it a bit embarrassing to calm down by having your head patted after having a scary dream? Actually, it was quite embarrassing.

“…Is that your way of harassing a warrior?”

“Eh?”

Freeing myself from Luna’s hands that were enveloping my head, I shouted.

“THERE!”

I expressed my displeasure by extending my forefinger and poking Luna’s cheek. Luna then quickly tried to escape my finger with a “Wawah”.

Most likely it was ticklish for her. Luna was defending herself with both her arms while laughing.

Mm, this was funny. Her flustered behaviour and surprised face were quite lovable.

“There, there!”

I got carried away and poked Luna’s body through holes in her defence while letting out a flashy voice.

“Hya… Ah…”

Suddenly an erotic voice escaped from Luna’s mouth.

And there was a soft sensation on my finger.

My eyes widened. They practically were opened to the limit. I watched intensely.

—My finger was poking into Luna’s breast.

Even through the clothes, I could feel the volume that I had measured wrongly before. My finger was swallowed by the soft and elastic breast and even my first knuckle joint was enveloped by the breast.

But that wasn’t all. My finger was being pushed back. The tense flexibility of her breasts repelled the invasion of my finger. I undauntedly went on the offensive. By doing that, a rich sensation came back at me. Th- This is amazing. All excited, I pressed down into the middle of Luna’s right breast.

“Nyaah… Uhhn….Sh- Shinobu-san, st- stop~”

“Mh?”

I raised my head on her erotic outcry. Luna was looking at me with a bright red face.

Then my reasoning came back to me.

“Wait, that wasn’t my intention.”

Spouting some nonsense excuse, I quickly drew my finger back. Luna was red up to her ears and looked down.

Aww, what now. While thinking of how I could gain her forgiveness,

“…Uh- Uhm, Shinobu-san, do you want to touch my breasts?”

Looking up at me, Luna asked with her face still bright red. I panicked. Then.

“Could you call them boobies instead of breasts?”

In my panic, I voiced out my inner desire.

Luna seemed to be troubled, then asked once again while turning red.

“Shinobu-san…. Do you want to touch… my, ehm… boobies?”

“—Ah, the wind is calling for me! I have to go! After all, I’m a gentleman!”

Shouting some nonsense, I moved towards the door in an attempt to flee.

Even I thought that it was a horrible way to cover up things. Did I have a screw loose? Why couldn’t I honestly say that I wanted to touch them? Why had I gotten embarrassed? Why?

I fiercely asked myself, but the only answer I’d got was: You’re a wuss.

I dropped my shoulders for being so pathetic.

“Shinobu-san”

“Y-Yes.”

When I turned around on being called—- KISS, I suddenly felt a soft and warm sensation on my cheek.

“….Eh?”

I let out a perplexed sound inadvertently.

Her soft hair on my shoulder. Her wet pink lips close by. Her long eyelashes on her closed eyes. Her cheeks still red.

“…Payback for touching my boobies.”

She said mischievously.

Aww, why was my heart beating so strangely fast?

Was I sick? Speaking of that, my cheeks had been strangely hot for a while and my heartbeat was unusually fast.

“This doesn’t look good. I’ll rest today.”

“Ehh? Y- You hated it that much~?”

When I claimed to “be sick”, Luna got all teary-eyed for some reason.

I wonder why?

* * *

Classes were over and I sat at my desk while looking out of the window.

Usually I was the first to leave when the bell rings, but today I let someone else have that glory.

While letting out a sigh, I averted my gaze from the rain on window.

—Yes, rain. It suddenly started to rain when it was time to go home.

The rain continued to pour down loudly and didn’t seem like it was going to stop any time soon.

The weathergirl on TV had said “Today it’ll be sunny all over. Hallelujah.”, so I trusted her and didn’t bring an umbrella. I wouldn’t have minded getting wet, but hoping the rain would ease up after a while, I stayed in the classroom and waited.

The classroom was filled with the chatter from people of either the going home club, who awaited for the rain to stop like me, or the sports club, who had nothing to do now.

While listening to the laughter of my classmates, I silently continued to stare at the rain.

The pouring sound of the rain. The peculiar smell of the rain. The drenched trees.

I was thinking of making a poem out of it, since I had nothing better to do anyway, whereupon

“—Ah, there you are, Shinobu-san.”

I thought that I’d suddenly heard Luna’s voice….Was it my imagination?

There was no way Luna would suddenly show up at school. Wondering what kind of hallucination it was, I turned my gaze to the classroom door.

“Shinobu-sa~n.”

I saw a blonde haired girl with a dynamite body happily waving her little hand at me.

The blonde girl was smiling cutely and calling out my name.

Without a doubt it was Luna. But what was she doing here?

Could it be she was an illusion created by my brain?

When I waved back at her, she smiled brightly and came closer.

My classmates in the classroom looked at Luna, who came closer to me with her dazzling blonde hair waving, letting out captivated sighs. Then they all made way for Luna. She was a bit like Moses.

“A… A Goddess has descended upon our school!”

Someone shouted and the others nodded in agreement.

Luna tilted her head perplexed at the reactions of my classmates, but continued to come over to my desk in a straight line.

“Shinobu-san, I brought you an umbrella. Let us go home together.”

Luna smiled gently.

On Luna’s left arm hung two umbrellas. One black, one pink.

….Could this be a dream?

To confirm that, I extended my hand towards Luna’s cheek and lightly pulled on it.

“R- Rouch. Wry ale you pinching me?”

Luna was in tears.

Mh, if it hurt it means it wasn’t a dream. So this was reality, huh.

“Shinobu-san, ale you angly?”

Luna looked sad, so in order to fool her I said.

“No, this is an action to feel your existence better. Basically it’s an expression of affection.”

“…Affekhion? I ree. Okay rhen.”

Luna brightened up immediately.

Yes, I brilliantly fooled her, but… I felt quite guilty. I avidly let go of Luna’s cheek, which was a bit red, probably from my pinching.

Aw, I did something bad. But for some reason Luna looked happy, I better apologise after all.

“N- Nanjou-kun! Do you know that Goddess? Say, do you know her!?”

“….Mh? Yeah, she’s my maid.”

It was too much of a pain, so I just gave the boys with bloodshot eyes, a random answer.

“Y- You demon! You’re a demon, Nanjou-kun! It’s R-18!”

“Y- You’re the worst! You’re scum , Nanjou-kun! For kidnapping a foreign girl, forcefully training her and in the end turning her into the slave called maid! And it saddens me, how she doesn’t even deny it! You demon!”

For some reason I received a bombardment of accusations from the girls in the classroom, as well.

“Nanjou-kun! You did the unforgivable! For tainting this beauty—You’ll never be forgiven! I misjudged you! But I need to know how you captured her!”

“Yeah, tell us! How can we get our hands on such a blonde beauty? Money? Power? Or is it love? Tell us! Otherwise I’ll start crying like a baby!”

After the girls, the boys also started a ruckus. It was so annoying that I just hit my desk with a bam.

“—Shut up, damn it. Stop your damn whining or I’ll show you hell, man.”

I threatened them a bit as a joke, but my classmates all went pale and shivered fiercely.

…Eh? Was I really that scary?

Sure, I’d tried to make an evil look on purpose, but for it to have had this much of an effect somehow made me depressed.

As I became depressed….I noticed a disturbance coming from the hallway.

Wondering what it was, I listened carefully. I could hear the noisy voices of boys saying stuff like “It’s a blonde beauty!”, “A witness said she entered the sophomore classroom!”, “Find her! All of this world is with her!” or “Wow, truly the One Piec— no, forget that.”.

If we stayed here, it would become a big ruckus again.

The guys in the classroom also looked like they would start up once again….Such a pain, so we better leave.

I said “Let’s go home”, pulled Luna’s hand and left the classroom at high speed.

“Ah, he fled! While still monopolising our Goddess, Nanjou-kun escaped our questions!”

“Nanjou-kun, you lust monster! Geez! Tomorrow you’ll tell us everything! And if you get mad, I’ll tell on you to Gogyou-san!”

…Are you that scared of me that you have to rely on Gogyou-san?

Thinking of how sad that was, I headed for the shoe lockers while still pulling on Luna’s hand. Luna seemed to have changed into the guest slippers, so we both changed our shoes there and headed for the school gate.

“Here, Shinobu-san.”

When we stepped outside, Luna handed me the black umbrella.

“Ah, sorry for that. Thanks, it’s very helpful, Luna.”

I said that while taking the umbrella, but Luna made a slightly surprised face.

She came all the way to my school to deliver an umbrella, so I thought it was at least appropriate to say thanks….well, it surely was a rare feat for me to thank someone honestly.

“I am glad.”

Luna nodded with a bright smile on her face. If she were a dog, she might’ve wagged her tail out of joy now. The reason I came up with that comparison was because she looked too happy.

That my simple thanks had made her so happy gave me a mixed feeling of joy and embarrassment. But when I looked at the smiling Luna beside me, I thought.

From now on I’ll be more honest with my gratitude.

I didn’t dislike seeing Luna smiling like that.

“Okay, Luna, let me give you a reward. Anything you want?”

As a first step, I proposed this as thanks for bringing me the umbrella. Luna pondered for a bit, then asked me “May I ask for something immaterial?”. I nodded generously.

Upon that, Luna turned red and said with a shy and quiet voice.

“…I want you to pat my head.”

“WHAT?”

I was so perplexed that I unintentionally spoke in English, but I had set my vow of more honesty only moments ago.

While playing it cool, I extended my hand towards Luna’s head and patted her slowly. Her hair felt different from Nazuna’s. The fragrance. The emerald green eyes looking up at me. Her red cheeks. Her well-formed, pink lips.

“…And done.”

“Eh, Ehh? I- It has no’t even been ten seconds yet! You are always patting Nazuna-chan way longer!”

Luna looked at me sadly. I turned my back to her and said.

“I’ll give you more on the WEB.”

“I… I cannot use Mr. Computer.”

“I’ll teach you.”

With my back still to her, I opened the umbrella and started to walk quickly.

I couldn’t look Luna straight in the eyes. Why was it so different compared to Nazuna and the girls in my class? It was quite troubling how my heartbeat strangely kept raising.

Avoiding eye-contact with Luna, who lined up next to me, I headed for the school gate, whereupon

“Mh?”

Suddenly a sense of discomfort pierced my body.

I frowned unintentionally.

The moment I stepped outside, the strange feeling of a searing pain in my neck struck me.

The atmosphere was particularly uncomfortable. A discomfort that felt like I was being watched by someone befell me.

And that discomfort grew stronger the closer I got to the school gate—- Then I noticed.

“…The rain has stopped?”

The rain that I was sure had poured down until moments ago, had abruptly stopped.

How strange.

I retracted the umbrella and looked up at the sky….. The clouds didn’t move. The dark clouds had stopped moving like they had been blocked, not moving a single centimetre. And it wasn’t just the clouds. There was no wind. There was no smell. There was no sound.

—-The world had stopped as if it was in a deadlock.

I felt like I’d been thrown into a different world.

When I looked at Luna, she was looking around worried, since she’d probably felt the same as me.

“What’s this?”

I spoke unintentionally.

“A barrier.”

The answer came from behind me.

A firm voice. A sharp gaze. An obvious hostility.

I turned around and there stood Gogyou-san.

Gogyou-san opened the drawstring on her bamboo blade wrap in her hand and pulled out a Japanese sword in it’s sheath.

It was most likely real. The ominous looking pitch-black sheath made a rattling metallic sound.

“I knew it was strange. I’ve always felt this bad presence from you, Nanjou-kun. But you were too normal. You didn’t do anything out of the ordinary. Your actions, your mind and your body were all that of a human’s. Usually when one is possessed by a monster an abnormality is bound to appear in time. So I’d thought I was mistaken, but…”

While giving Luna a fierce glance, Gogyou-san said.

“Get away from Nanjou-kun, you monster.”

Monster— On that word Luna’s shoulders started to tremble lightly.

“I’m sure you came here to widen your hunting grounds, but…you chose the wrong place. Monster, I’ll seal you right here.”

Gogyou-san pulled her sword from the sheath and pointed it at Luna.

My body then moved on it’s own.

“…Out of the way, Nanjou-kun.”

Gogyou-san reprehended me, who stood protectively in front of Luna.

“Nanjou-kun, you’re being fooled by that monster. Try to recall it. Where’d you meet that monster? How did you get to know it? Why is it staying by your side? …The place, the time and the reason, everything is vague to you, isn’t it? That monster stayed at your house for no apparent reason, didn’t it?”

Then Gogyou-san continued with “It’s a common charm used by devils.”

“That monster integrated itself into your family and got them to like her. Right? It’s a common method of devils—-in particular Vampires or Nightmares. Though there are some Japanese ogres who use charms too….It’s mostly the former though.”

Vampire? Nightmare? ….Luna is?

“The devils are after the souls of humans. To make their own soul more valuable, they steal human souls. A common practice among low level devils. That it came to school was probably so that it could get lots of souls.”

Take souls…. Luna will?

—-For an instant I felt an intense headache.

Taking souls. These words triggered a memory.

Amidst the screeching pain in my head, I suddenly saw the image of a crying girl. A girl crying by herself. A girl with blonde hair and green eyes. That girl really resembled Luna…

“Stop it.”

I looked at Luna behind me. As expected she was close to tears.

I didn’t want to see such a sad face on her anymore.

I still couldn’t remember Luna, but that’s how I felt.

“Stop it, Gogyou-san.”

“….Nanjou-kun. This matter doesn’t concern only you.”

Gogyou-san took one step forward, still looking grim.

“If that monster isn’t satisfied with just your soul… A lot of other people will suffer.”

Gogyou-san pulled out a piece of paper from her pocket. Complex characters covered the thick paper.

“It’s a talisman.”

Gogyou-san said briefly, before she faced me and threw the talisman. I could have dodged it easily. But I wasn’t the target of the talisman to begin with. The talisman flying at me suddenly changed its direction towards Luna—Then exploded.

It was like an exploded balloon. The talisman split into small pieces.

“That talisman doesn’t have any effect on humans. It only reacts to non-humans. Obviously, since it was created to exorcise devils.”

Gogyou-san took another step forwards.

“I understand your disbelief, Nanjou-kun. But that’s a devil. You’re being fooled.”

“…Fooled?”

My voice was shaking. Shaking from… anger.

Luna fooling me, as if something this stupid was possible.

Gogyou-san didn’t know anything about Luna.

Whether it be that she’d been abandoned by her mother, the wound on her left hand or that she wasn’t allowed to cry in front of others.

Not even that she cried out of happiness from a single phrase— Welcome home.

“….Don’t set off the charge with the single word of devil.”

Luna was a devil. Even if that was the truth, my feelings wouldn’t change.

“She, Luna, is already part of my family. So Gogyou-san… stop it.”

I felt Luna holding her breath behind me.

Don’t worry, I’ll protect you. Passionately I said to Gogyou-san.

“Gogyou-san, sorry, but I can’t yield here. If you’re going to lay your hands on Luna, I won’t show you any mercy.”

Then I ditched the umbrella and took a stance.

I lowered my hips into a defensive position. My left hand extended loosely and my right hand level with my navel, formed into a fist. Gogyou-san looked at my stance, changed her glance and said.

“…I see. I get it. It’s the influence from the devil. You’re not in your right mind, Nanjou-kun. Your mind is being violated by the devil’s charm.”

“So what?”

“I’ll just get rid of that monster.”

Simultaneously with her words, she dropped her hips, shouldered her sword and took a stance with the sword hidden behind her back.

That wasn’t a stance from kendo, but from swordsmanship. And a stance not to protect, but to kill.

While emitting an enormous aura, Gogyou-san took a step forward.

“Thou are the flame. Thou are the Fire God. Thou are the Fire Dragon…”

While she slowly raised her sword from behind her back, Gogyou-san mumbled a chant. With each verse the air around the tip of the blade started to flicker.

A natural sweat broke out on her forehead.

“Boil my blood. Stimulate my heartbeat. I’m Gogyou. The one who burns devils with flames. Answer my call.”

—-Kagutsuchi of Fire!

The moment Gogyou-san finished chanting, her blade flashed and was engulfed by a pale flame.

“The flame of purification. With it I can release you from the devil that has possessed you, Nanjou-kun.”

Gogyou-san lightly swung her sword and the pale flame shot at the ground towards my feet.

The flame which grazed my knee was as hot as boiling water. But I frowned, as Gogyou-san told me.

“Rest assured. It’s a flame to exorcise devils, so it doesn’t harm humans. It just gives you a little burn.”

“…No, the burns aside, I’ll die if you cut me with that sword.”

“I’ll make it painless.”

Gogyou-san said that with a straight face.

This wasn’t good. A sword alone was already an advantage, but she also had flames on top of that. It was hopeless.

…I better run away.

The goal wasn’t to fight or to win, it was to protect.

For that, I would even throw away my little pride and run away from here with Luna. No, the best way would be to let Luna escape while acting as a decoy. But Luna surely wouldn’t accept that. I was sure she would say some stuff like “I cannot leave you behind, Shinobu-san.”.

I wondered what to do, whereupon Gogyou-san made my worrying pointless by stepping forward and raising her sword again.

–At that moment.

—-Wait!

Suddenly a dashing voice echoed through the area. I turned towards the source of the voice in surprise.

“What are you guys doing here!? This is a school! A place where you study! Not a place to fight!”

Despite the cool voice, the contents were pretty childish.

“Bad kids get detention! Got that!?”

An idiot tried to give a lecture. Yes, when I turned around, there was an idiot.

Silver twin tails. Big and pretty red eyes. A beautiful girl with a face like a doll.

The girl made a daunting pose on the concrete fence of the school gate, but for some reason she only appeared stupid. Even Luna and Gogyou-san, who had faced her way, couldn’t say anything about her idiocy and just showed expressions of mixed feelings.

Not only did the girl not notice that, she also seemed to have misunderstood the gazes focused on her, so she mumbled “Seems like you would like to know who I am.”, spread her arms and shouted.

“Take a close look, all of you! For I am—- a Goddess! Okay, applause!”

The self-proclaimed Goddess asked for applause, but no one responded to her in the de-escalated situation. Saddened by that, the self-proclaimed Goddess said “…I’ll cry.” with teary eyes. Out of pity Luna then gave her a moderate applause and Gogyou-san also joined in. Seeing that, the silver-haired and red-eyed albino girl Elni nodded satisfied. You might have forgotten, but Elni was the weird fellow that not long ago stole my hotdog and sexually harassed me over the phone. She appeared honest, but as soon as she started to speak her fatal idiocy revealed itself. A pitiful, but pretty girl.

I once again looked at Elni, who struck a pose on the fence. Like before, she was wearing her slobby yellow hoodie and for some reason she was holding a blue skateboard in her right hand.

“…Wh- Why is she here? Don’t tell me she broke through the barrier?”

Gogyou-san looked dumbfounded at Elni. Then she made a surprised expression like her reasoning had returned. Elni answered her with a “Fufu”.

“A barrier? If you mean those pieces of paper, I ate them, since I was hungry!”

“Y- You’ll ruin your stomach, you know?”

The worried Gogyou-san said to Elni, who’d puffed up her chest with pride.

Then Elni imitated the rumination of a goat with a “Mäh” and spit out a full piece of paper.

Impressive, Elni. Even Gogyou-san was surprised.

But did you know, Elni? While goats have the stereotype of eating paper, when you actually let them eat it, they can’t digest it and are in danger of having an intestinal obstruction.

Elni most likely didn’t know that. She made a face like she’d actually done something awesome.

“Yop!”

She jumped off the fence onto her skateboard, made a few turns and landed pompously. Then she skated towards us when….she lost her balance and fell down.

“D- Doesn’t hurt! It doesn’t hurt at all!”

Elni had fallen flat on her face, but she bravely raised her head and wiped away the tears at the corners of her eyes. She got back onto her skateboard and this time moved towards us more slowly. Then she shouted.

“Why didn’t you mail me, Shinobu!?”

I was surprised how I was reproached by the pouting Elni, out of the blue.

Mail? What was she talking about?

“I was waiting for it! I finally bought a cell phone, so why are you being so indifferent!”

Cell phone? …Ah, that reminds me. When I exchanged mail addresses with Elni at the department store, I told her “I’ll mail you.”, but I had always put it off.

“You’re so mean! You said you would send one, Shinobu! So mean! This is just too much! I was waiting for it the whole time! Can you imagine how sad I was?”

Elni got angry with tears in her eyes.

I certainly did something bad. When I was about to apologise honestly—Gogyou-san rushed over to Elni. Saying “It’s dangerous here, so get away.” she pushed Elni aside.

Gogyou-san probably didn’t put that much strength into it.

But Elni was still riding her skateboard, so like before she lost her balance and fell down. The back of her head hit the ground.

“Fueeh….”

That surely had to hurt, since tears welled up in her eyes.

“Are you okay?”

Luna’s maternal instinct was probably triggered, as she approached Elni and gently brushed off the dust from her hair and clothes.

“Thanks.”

“No problem.”

They looked like mother and daughter.

“…Now then.”

I raised my face and glared at Gogyou-san, who had taken the role of a bully.

“You’re the worst, Gogyou-san.”

“Ehh? S- Surely that was my bad, but, ehm, it wasn’t on purpose….”

“Making excuses? That’s not manly!”

“I’m a girl!”

I made her angry. And it seems she was seriously angry. Scary.

“Scary. This girl is so scary. She’s a bully. She wants to resolve everything with violence. She’s the worst.”

“Indeed. Raising your hand against a Goddess is really the worst. That really hurt! And you call yourself an exorcist?”

The angry Elni hid behind my back in fear of the scary Gogyou-san.

“I heard that the exorcists from the Gogyou family were quite formidable and well-mannered, but what a disappointment! I’m really angry now! I’ll spread the rumour that your family prostitutes themselves!”

“Okay, I’ll help you. I’ll also spread the rumour in school that Gogyou-san is a pervert.”

“St- Stop it! I… I’m not really a pervert!”

Gogyou-san turned bright red.

“….Not really a pervert? Mm, suspicious. Right, Elni?”

“Pretty Perverts.”

Elni made a weird interjection with a straight face and nodded.

Gogyou-san kept getting redder and after she denied it,

“Th- That aside, you know about us exorcists?”

She changed the topic. Elni nodded with a “Yeah”, then continued.

“The exorcists’ ancestor is Kamo. One of Kamo’s apprentices specialised in flame exorcism. That was Gogyou, right?”

“How do you know that?”

“It’s only obvious, since I’m a Goddess. A Goddess knows everything. I’m only bad at arithmetic.”

Elni proudly answered the bewildered Gogyou-san.

At least call it mathematics, was my inner retort.

“But what business does a Gogyou exorcist have with this blonde beauty? She is something like a guardian spirit that I gave to Shinobu, you know? There is no reason to get rid of her.”

Elni said something unbelievable while Luna was watching.

Hold it. Luna was a guardian spirit? And from Elni? That means the ring I’m wearing right now was used to summon Luna? If that was true…

I looked at Elni, who was patting the bump on the back of her head with teary eyes.

Could she actually be someone really impressive?

I was bewildered by the shocking truth.

“Then you made that monster possess Nanjou-kun?”

Gogyou-san’s expression had changed upon Elni’s word. Speaking in a low voice, she glared at Elni. Then Elni tilted her head and asked “Monster?”.

“What nonsense are you spouting? I’m a Goddess, you know? I’m amazing, you know? I’m grateful to Shinobu, who treated me to food. There’s no way I’d stick a monster to—-”

Elni mumbled displeased while staring at Luna, then

“U- Uwah! Sh- She’s a devil!”

She shouted while she became rigid out of horror.

“And she isn’t one of those low level devils! Wh- Who summoned this devil!? Such a strong devil would usually be repelled by the barrier of the human world and not be able to enter! Just who summoned her!!”

Gogyou-san gave the flared up Elni a fierce glare. People call it a killing intent.

Elni quite likely noticed Gogyou-san’s glare, as she started to break out in a cold sweat.

“…R- Right. I was the one who did it. B- But such stuff can happen, right?”

Elni was appealing to her sympathy, but Gogyou-san just silently approached with her sword in hand.

“Wa, Wawah. H- Hold it. Let’s talk this out!”

Once again Elni hid behind my back. Then

“D- Don’t you care what will happen to him?”

I was taken hostage.

Quite the guts she’s got, seriously.

“Don’t move an inch! E- Ehm, or I’ll k- kiss him!”

Elni said with a flushed face while bringing her face closer to mine. To that

“Th- That will not do! Please let Shinobu-san go!”

Luna shouted desperately for some reason.

When I looked at Gogyou-san, she had stopped with a face that said that she didn’t know what to do.

“D- Don’t move. Or don’t you care about Shinobu’s lips?”

“P- Please stop it. Please do not be so cruel to Shinobu-san. Ah, just now you touched his lips! You touched them with your finger! So cruel! No fair. I am so envious.”

Elni was touching my lips and cheek as she pleased, while Luna protested.

“Uh- Uhm…”

“D- Do not move, please! Do you really not care what is going to happen to him?”

Luna cried out in tears when Gogyou-san took a step forwards.

The strange vigour of it made Gogyou-san apologise with a “S- Sorry”.

“Fufufu. I could buy enough time. I made a crack in the barrier, so that over time it would break. Then the dangerous girl with the sword will be exposed to everyone’s eyes!”

Elni said terrible things with an “all according to my plan”.

But I have to say, I was a bit amazed by the feeling of the close contact, for a while now.

Since she’d hugged onto me from behind, two soft and small bulges were directly pressed against my back. Likewise Elni was emitting a sweet fragrance.

“Fuh.”

I took a small breath, turned around and tore off Elni, who had rested her chin on my shoulder. Then I extended my hand and picked up Elni by strongly grabbing her neck.

“Wah. Wh- Why are you holding me like a cat all of a sudden? If you want to hug, then do it properly from the front.”

I ignored Elni, who’d spread both her arms, and approached Gogyou-san. I went behind Gogyou-san, who was totally confused by this bizarre scene, and slowly put Elni on…. that defenceless back of hers.

“There we go. Okay, Gogyou-san, the rest is up to you.”

“Eh? Uh- Uhm, what am I supposed to do?”

Gogyou-san turned her head and looked back and forth between Elni, who’d clung to her back like a koala, and I while making a troubled expression. Looking at this situation, I put my hand on Elni’s head and shouted.

“Now, Elni! Your secret move, the snake hold!”

“Righto~!”

She probably meant to mimic a snake. Elni raised a cute voice, then twirled around Gogyou-san using both her arms and legs. Upon Elni’s snake hold, Gogyou-san turned red and squalled “Wawah. Not my breasts”.

“You were careless, Gogyou-san.”

I said triumphantly and headed back to Luna.

“Okay, time to bug off.”

“”EHH?””

I didn’t even notice that Elni and Gogyou-san had raised surprised voices in perfect unison. I just ran away, like I had intended from the very beginning. Taking Luna’s hand, we sprinted away, leaving the other two behind.

“Sh- Shinobu, you traitor! Leaving me behind, so cruel! Next time, I’ll just impose on your house and eat all of your side-dishes for dinneeeer!!”

Behind me, Elni shouted “Idiot~!” and Gogyou-san “W- Wait!”.

Obviously ignoring them, Luna and I ran for the school gate.

Gogyou-san didn’t chase us.

As I found that strange, I turned around and saw Elni desperately clinging to Gogyou-san.

She said all those things, but she still helped in our escape.

“I’ll treat you to something again.”

Quietly mumbling that, I rushed out the school gate while still holding onto Luna’s hand.

* * *

“We should be fine now after running this far.”

Looking behind us, I slowed my pace.

Like Elni had said, the barrier was broken and we could leave the school grounds normally.

Surely Gogyou-san wouldn’t swing around her sword on the streets.

“…Well then, let’s go home.”

I said to Luna beside me, but there was no reaction.

“Looks like the rain has stopped. And you went to all the trouble to bring me an umbrella.”

When I looked up, the dark clouds were still there, but it wasn’t raining anymore.

Since I threw away my umbrella, this was actually for the better….

I looked at Luna, who was walking while staring at the ground.

I could immediately tell what was on her mind.

I’m sure she was regretting it. Coming to school. Delivering the umbrella. Coming to see me.

It must have been quite the shock for her to have me know that she’s a devil.

She didn’t raise her head for the whole time.

Since it’s her, she was probably thinking that I’d hate her now.

I re-adjusted my grip on her hand.

I was bad at conveying my honest feelings.

But I wanted to convey it to her, who still had a teary look and wouldn’t raise her head.

“Luna.”

Luna raised her head and I said a simple phrase.

“Stay by my side.”

I tightly grabbed her hand. I gently squeezed it so that my feelings would be conveyed. I grabbed her hand because I wanted her to stay by my side.

For a moment Luna cast her eyes down, bit her lip and clenched her fists. Then

“….Yes.”

She raised her head and nodded while tears flowed down her face.

She no longer had to hold back her tears.

Her teary voice. The warmth coming from her hand. Her happy smile.

Even while crying, Luna smiled.

That was enough for me.

My feelings hadn’t changed. I wanted to protect her. No matter what happens.

How strange. It was like I’d had these feelings since a long time ago.

I wonder why I was so proud of myself?

I didn’t know. I really didn’t know, but at that moment I was sure that I was happy.

As long as I could hold her hand like this forever.

Back then I had also wished—

“Uh!”

For a second, a pain ran through my head. I stopped abruptly and Luna stopped too.

Then she suddenly tightened the grip on my hand.

“….What’s up?”

When I peeked at her face, it was frozen stiff.

Finding it strange, I followed her gaze.

“Bats…?”

Like they were blocking our way, the bats had spread their wings.

Their numbers easily exceeded ten and were steadily increasing.

In mere seconds, the surroundings were covered by bats.

“What the.”

It felt like every single bat held a killing intent towards me. It was creepy.

I pulled Luna’s hand and turned on my heels— I held my breath.

When did he get behind us? A tall and gaunt man was standing there. He wore a black coat and had flaming long, red hair. His eyes were amber-coloured. His white skin and facial features made him look abnormally inhuman.

“You’re in the way, human.”

He gave me a fierce glare, so I stepped back unintentionally, when—— I was attacked. Before I noticed it, a pain was already running through my back.

…I was blown away? I felt the hard concrete fence on my back and opened my eyes.

“Shinobu-san!”

Luna rushed over to me and extended her hand, but it didn’t reach. The man grabbed Luna’s hand and pulled her close to him.

“Luna. Stop getting involved with that human. That guy is no good. You’ll only get hurt.”

“Please let me go!”

Luna desperately tried to shake off the man, but their difference in strength was obvious. She couldn’t escape the arms of the man.

“It’s no use. Did you forget already? You’ve lost your powers because of him. The demonic realm aside, you can’t use your original powers in the human world.”

Then the man looked at me directly for the first time.

I could see an obvious killing intent in his anger-filled eyes.

“That boy is the kid from seven years ago, right? Why are you so concerned about him? Why won’t you take his soul? Why did you leave him be for seven years? You granted his wish, right?”

Seven years ago? Soul? My wish?

Together with a headache, an image suddenly floated into my head.

A girl lying in blood. Shaking fingers. My crying self.

“Is the memory manipulation intact? You don’t seem to remember it.”

When I looked up, the man was looking down at me with his enraged eyes.

“Like I thought, you’re also hurting Luna.”

Don’t screw with me. When I tried to get up to oppose him,

“Gah!”

My body was pushed down on the ground immediately.

I looked behind me and saw a couple of bats sticking to my body and were holding me down. Then the bats swarmed together and finally formed two silhouettes.

A man and woman in full black.

Devils. That word echoed in my head.

“Bram-sama, what do we do with this guy?”

“Shall we dispose of him?”

The man and woman asked while they held me down by my arms.

The man called Bram looked at Luna, then….sighed and said.

“Leave him be. There’s no need to kill him.”

That was all.

Without even giving me a second glance, he turned his back to me and was about to leave with Luna.

Fuck that. You think I would allow that?

Luna turned around and looked at me. She was close to tears again.

What was I doing? Didn’t I swear that I would protect her no matter what?

“Get awaaaay!”

I howled and threw off the devils with all my strength.

I gave the two surprised devils a wry look and chased after Bram.

With an explosive acceleration I closed the distance and threw a punch at his face. But,

“Guh.”

Right before my fist hit Bram’s face, I received an attack to my stomach.

Bram hadn’t moved. Then where did it come from?

Bram moved faster than I could think.

He let go of Luna’s hand and raised his right hand loosely.

In that moment, I felt a punch on my face. In the next moment I was looking up at the sky. When I shook my head and took a stance it was already too late. I was pierced by a strong, invisible “something” in the stomach.

“Gah.”

When I groaned, I received an attack to my chin from below. My body was thrown back by the force of it. I knew that wasn’t good, but it was already too late.

Unable to cushion my fall, I suffered a dull pain on the back of my head. When I opened my eyes, my vision was blurred.

In my blurred vision, I could see Bram raising his hand again.

I put strength into my shaking legs and forced myself to stand up. I prepared for the attack— but couldn’t avoid it.

After the sharp sound of something cutting through the air, my face was struck. I was down on my knees.

My vision was blurred, my legs were shaking. The pain felt distant as my consciousness faded away.

When I received the next attack, my vision got filled with the dark cloudy sky. I forcibly stopped my body from falling backwards and could barely stand. I didn’t have any strength. I couldn’t prevent my body from falling over.

“Please stop it already, Father!”

Before I collapsed, I could hear Luna’s outcry with my numb ears.

“….Luna.”

I looked up… and saw Luna crying.

In the blurred scenery, I seemed to see that quite clearly for some reason.

Aw, I have to protect her. As my consciousness slowly faded away I extended my hand—-but it couldn’t reach.

The powerless arm couldn’t grasp anything.

Their backs faded into the distance. Luna was leaving. She was crying.

The last thing I saw with my fading consciousness was Luna’s crying face.

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