novelPossessor of the Serpent's Eye
| ← Ch.76 | Ch.78 → |
Based on the nitrogen content, radiation, and mineral distribution, the sample of Kagari Enju's blood was likely based on water from Lake Biwa.
It was on the fourth day they used that to determine her base was in the Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe region of Western Japan.
The helicopter that FeTUS prepared had three seats, but Ange was the only outsider onboard.
"Yes. Yes, please assist us if anything happens, Nii-san. And make sure to work with Micha."
Ange was secretly working with the other humans, but only she was allowed to directly cooperate with the humans.
Micha was working separately from them and Rapha was their backup. As usual, they could not reach Lucia.
"So where in Western Japan are they?"
"We still do not know, but this position allows us to make an attack within five minutes once we figure it out."
As a result, Ange and Machina were in Sakai, Osaka. That city gave them a lot of choices when it came to air routes. They could quickly reach top speed once they took off and they were right in front of the Chugoku region and a bit west of Kobe, so the five minute figure was not an exaggeration.
All the angels could do was trust in Micha's old-fashioned investigation. FeTUS had a far better information network in the human world, so relying on them was the right choice here.
That did not mean Ange was happy about it, however. She was plainly irritated that she had screwed up in her mission to protect Fujita Mutsuki.
"You can locate him, can't you?"
"Miss A and Miss D are doing everything they can. Miss B is also on the case. We can only wait for a report."
"Tch. Can I really trust them?"
"...Please do."
This all went back to a failure on FeTUS's part, so Machina had to put up with the other girl's bad mood. She continued answering all of Ange's questions while maintaining her usual lack of expression.
But that rubbed emotional Ange the wrong way.
"How am I supposed to trust them? We never have trusted FeTUS, you know?"
"..."
"How can I trust people who want to keep Adam to themselves and distort the laws of nature?"
"We are not trying to keep him to ourselves. We simply wish to combat the coming time of rivalry."
"Which is what I mean by distorting the laws of nature."
"...From god's perspective, perhaps so."
Machina was unusually talkative in response to Ange's endless complaints.
That she bothered responding at all meant she too was irritated. That may have been a sign that she was worried about Mutsuki. Ange decided any further argument would be meaningless, so she shut her mouth.
15 hours remained until Mutsuki's feminization wore off.
The maid named "Kisaragi" was most often tasked with cleaning the rooms and hallways like a normal worker.
Mutsuki was used to it now that four days had passed. Automatic vacuum cleaners did the floors, so his primary job was cleaning the windows within a given area using a rag.
"Hee hee. My, aren't you cute. How much do you cost?"
"Ah... S-sorry, but I am recovering."
When a customer would walk by, they had a tendency to stick a hand up his skirt, so the trickiest part of the job was convincing them to leave him alone without angering them.
They had no compunctions about sticking their fingers right inside his panties, but when he showed them the special mark on his nameplate, they would leave him alone. That mark indicated someone who could not work with customers because their genitals were recovering from another customer's rough treatment.
The rate of sexual harassment was about five or six people per hour. That was not enough to be unbearable, so he simply had to deal with it.
But there were a few problems. Sometimes their fingers felt good enough for a moan to escape his lips.
And...
"Hee hee. Are you sure?"
One old man kept groping his butt for a while even after being told he was recovering and he only stopped after making a show of licking off his own hand.
But even then, he was looking at the mark on Mutsuki's nameplate with mockery in his eyes.
"Johnson, come here."
He snapped his fingers.
"Woof!"
A large husky weaved through the people following behind the man.
The very obedient dog ran over to the old man and came to a complete stop. Then the man gave some kind of hand signal.
"Hyah! U-um."
The dog was big enough he had to lower his head somewhat to stick it up the maid's skirt.
"P-please stop. Um, wait."
Mutsuki was simply afraid the dog would bite him, but such a well-trained dog was not going to use his fangs. Instead, he obeyed his instructions by sticking his pointed nose between Mutsuki's legs. Afraid the dog would bite him if he resisted, Mutsuki spread his legs to let the dog do what it would.
Something warm, wet, and hard pushed inside his panties.
"Um, ah, ahh."
It took him a bit to catch on since it was so different from a human's, but this was the dog's tongue. The very long tongue felt pointed and hard as it licked inside his underwear.
"Ho ho. I know you are recovering, but my Johnson is very naughty and never listens to anything I say."
The old man laughed in amusement at the panicking maid girl.
The biggest problem Mutsuki faced was the many customers who would not listen when he said he was recovering.
"S-stop. Please stop. Ahn, I...I..."
He tried to run away, but he tripped over the dog and fell on his butt.
The dog was unfazed by all the movement and continued targeting inside his panties.
"Hwahhh, ahhhh, ah, ha ha, ahh...hhhhh."
The long tongue crawled all over the sensitive bases of his thighs.
He tried to crawl back along the floor, but...
"Ahhhhhhhhhn!"
The tongue seemed to finally locate its target, so it pushed inside the hole, spreading the flesh within.
The stimulation to the core of his female body caused him to arch his back and then fall forward.
He was now on all fours with just his butt raised in the air.
"Ho ho. Presenting for my Johnson? I think she likes you, Johnson."
"Woof!"
The husky barked proudly and continued licking at Mutsuki's round butt.
Dogs instinctively disliked having their nose restrained, but this one shoved his face in so close his black nose was just about to enter the maid's asshole.
"Ahn, ahhhhn, wait, no, not so deep!"
Mutsuki was helpless as the invader went wild in his sensitive tunnel. The maid skirt fluttered as he wiggled his hips around.
That tongue had a different purpose to a human's, so this felt far different from cunnilingus.
Tongue stimulation from a human was soft and it brought a gentle pleasure. The trick to it was to add speed to that gentle pleasure and to vary that speed over time.
On the other hand, this dog's tongue was an entirely new sensation.
It felt like the surface area of two fingers but much softer. It was kind of squishy and had a way of forcing open his internal flesh. And after that, a softness similar to a human tongue sent gentle pleasure much deeper inside.
"I-I've never felt anything like this."
He could feel the tip of the tongue licking quite near his womb, so he ended up rubbing his butt against the dog's face.
That was precisely when the invader pulled out his tongue and stepped back.
"Ah..."
Mutsuki just about asked why, but he held his tongue and turned around.
The dog was now seated obediently at his master's side. And in that seated position, a penis was sticking out from his crotch. It was very different from a human's, but the arousal in the dark red tip sticking out was impossible to miss.
"Hee hee hee. Miss, my Johnson is a clever and devoted boy. If you want this, just ask for it. He will readily comply."
"B-but..."
Mutsuki knew exactly what the old man meant: Ask for it. Let me see you fuck my dog.
He could not possibly do that.
He could not, but...
"..."
His licked lower body was throbbing badly and he could not take his eyes off of that dark-red call of the wild.
He could not get up from his animalistic crawling pose that was perfect for receiving the dog...
"What are you doing?"
"Oh."
Then someone arrived to help him.
Riselle shrugged as she approached him.
That broke the spell. The old man fled with his pet dog and Mutsuki returned to his senses enough to stand up and push down his skirt.
"Th-thank you, Riselle-san."
"If you want to do it with a pup, I won't stop you, but make sure you do your job."
"I-I don't want to-..."
"This area is clean enough, so start tidying up the big boss's room."
"Of course."
There was no excusing his behavior and Riselle did not particularly seem to care. Mutsuki could not stand it any longer, so he left his post here while thankful she had given him this escape route.
He fixed his clothing while trying to pretend his skin was not as hot as it was.
"...Excuse me."
He made his way to the room she had mentioned.
It was a lot like a counseling room. Since she had called it "the big boss's room", it must have been used by the Kurosaki father.
Mutsuki was good at tidying up rooms since it was little different from what he normally did at the apartment. He put away the items that had been left out and did some simple cleaning.
Of course, given the location, the "items that had been left out" were far from normal. For example, when cleaning the room used by that name named Ookura, there had been a sheet with a fresh red stain on it. That had put him in a gloomy mood.
But this looked like the room had only been used for a meal. Two wine glasses and a beer can were left out, so he only had to carry them to the appropriate location for glasses and trash....The beer was the brand Micha liked. That had him feeling a little lonely as he walked back out of the room.
"!"
Katsue Subaru walked by at just that moment.
She must not have noticed him because she kept walking without reacting.
Part of him wanted to call out to her and part of him could not bring himself to do so. He was confused and conflicted.
Was she on his side or not? He still did not know.
He would normally have trusted her and asked for help, but Lucia had told him to hide his presence there and wait for Ange and the others to rescue him. Which was he supposed to choose?
In shy and indecisive Mutsuki's moment of hesitation, the woman moved out of view.
He had no idea if he had done the right thing or not.
"I'm back..."
Once his work was complete, Mutsuki returned to Shuntarou's room as instructed.
"I will have her ready by tomorrow."
The trainer named Shibaki happened to be leaving at the same time.
Shuntarou had just received some kind of report and he pulled out his beloved tablet while grinning.
"Check out this girl. Her name is Haramiya Koishi. She's one of our new products and I've decided to try her out for myself. Hee hee hee. She's so cute."
"Is...that so?"
"As a former boy, this should excite you. How about we make it a threesome? I'd love to have both your cute asses lined up in front of me and you want to see what it's like having a girl in the mix, don't you?"
"N-no thanks."
The thought of being one of the girls in a threesome briefly sent his heart racing, but he told himself the idea did not at all appeal to him and looked away.
He wanted nothing to do with a situation where a human being was referred to as a "product".
"You don't like her? Then who do you like? Is there an actress or idol you have a thing for? We control 90% of the top-rated idols in their teens or twenties, so I can get you pretty much anyone you ask for."
"I-it isn't about that."
Anything he said was twisted in the most vulgar way. His breathing grew heavy as he grew even more painfully aware of how abnormal this man was.
"I'm just kidding." Shuntarou shrugged."You're so pure. Do you still find it hard to believe? As long as it's logically possible, humans have no problem doing anything no matter how immoral."
"..."
That reminded him that this man's abnormality was normal in this place.
He was unsure what to say.
He recalled what he had seen on his first day here.
Mutsuki did not watch much TV, but even he had recognized those idols. One he had thought was cute after seeing her online had been eating the ass of a politician he had seen on the news a lot despite not watching it all that often.
It had been shocking, but Riselle had explained that it was not that unusual here. He had learned just how true that was after seeing similar things so many times over the following three days.
This abnormal place was the reality of the Japan he lived in.
"Do you think all this is wrong?"
"..."
"You are right. It is wrong. But we want to do it because it is wrong. That is known as the Caligula Effect. As soon as humanity creates its rules, there is already a desire to break those rules. That is our instinct as animals.""Again, you are right. Human trafficking, prostitution, and using those things to build connections. None of that is the right thing to do. But..."
"Ah."
"That is why it feels so good and why we want to do it. That is human nature."
Mutsuki looked uncertainly down and could not respond to the words of that man who proudly announced he was doing the wrong thing. The man easily pulled him close and held him to his chest. The newly-developed sweet and tingling ache in his chest prevented him from saying anything.
"You feel the same, don't you? You were born a boy, but here you are enjoying mind-blowing orgasms in a female body. Do you think that is the right thing to do?"
"Uh..."
Mutsuki had no response for that. He knew just how indecent he was being. He could tell how seriously he adored this man during sex, so there was nothing he could say.
He had nearly let a dog enter him earlier. That was a truly forbidden pleasure, yet that thought was enough to dangerously shake his heart.
The more wrong he knew it was, the more he wanted to do it. And the better it felt when he did it.
He was old enough to know about the darkness inside people.
He would have refused to admit any of this before April, but...
"Heh heh. So very pure." The look on the man's face changed when he saw the boy fall silent."This is a good thing. Humans cannot do that. They search for excuses when things get inconvenient and they refuse to face the fundamental solutions. I personally believe that is what we call Original Sin."
"Huh?"
"I like you. Fujita Mutsuki-kun was it? Miss A seemed to like you quite a bit and I can see why....Heh heh heh. It makes me want to fuck your male body too so I can truly make you mine."
The man smiled happily.
This was not just the twisted side of the man. Shuntarou seemed to like Mutsuki for something other than his body.
Although Mutsuki had no idea what it was the man liked about him.
More importantly, the man had used a term that caught Mutsuki's attention.
"Original...Sin?"
"Hm? You don't know about that despite being Adam? Your past life ate the forbidden fruit and all of humanity must suffer to atone for that Original Sin."
"Adam...and Eve."
The boy connected this to the story he had looked up in the library quite a while back, but that only confused him further.
His puzzled look must have been cute because Shuntarou's usual dirty grin grew to a coughing laugh. That may have been what his true laughter sounded like.
"Yes, geh heh heh. The forbidden things are what we most want to do."
"...?"
"How much do you know about Adam? How much do you know about the Serpent's Eye and why you are a target?"
Mutsuki was unsure what to say when he was asked something so basic without warning.
But the hand on his chest withdrew, so he took a deep breath and calmed down.
"Th-the Serpent's Eye can be used to...essentially brainwash people. It could be used as a horrible weapon, so we can't let anyone have it."
"Ha ha. You think that's the answer? That explanation is only meant to keep you from asking further questions. You really are pure if you were satisfied with that."
"No, um, I know there are other reasons, but..."
"Was it the angels who told you that? Yeah, they wouldn't really care if the human race was wiped out."
"..."
If the human race was wiped out?
There was no way Micha or Ange wanted that, but he still gulped because he had seen several times how inhuman they were.
He knew there was something inside him other than the Serpent's Eye. He knew it was called Adam and he knew it was special just like Rapha had said in the library that one time.
But the battle over the Serpent's Eye between heaven, earth, and hell had settled down recently and he was starting to learn how to control the Serpent's Eye of his own free will. He had decided not to look into it further because he did not want to make waves. In a way, he had been turning a blind eye.
"The Serpent's Eye is no more than a sign. It is known as a Demon Crest and it is something like a wound left in Adam's genes."
The answer rapidly approached him from an unexpected direction.
A tremor ran through his shoulders, but was it from fear or curiosity? Not even he knew.
"Adam's power...no, power isn't the right word. Adam's very presence is meant to be suppressed, but it flows out through that wound. And when any human woman is exposed to that presence, she grows sexually aroused. It inspires an overwhelming craving to be fucked by Adam and have his babies."
"Um, I believe Rapha-san told me about this."
He had heard something similar before, but he had not understood what it meant at the time.
"But what is Adam's power. Or his presence, I guess. Is that what it means to be the first man? But if so, why does it, um, have that effect on women?"
Mutsuki could not help but show interest in this.
The man chuckled as he pulled over his beloved tablet.
"To get back on topic, what do you think of this?"
He showed Mutsuki the page from before.
It was divided into 16 sections arranged in four rows and four columns. Each one displayed a different woman and they were all being fucked by men, sex toys, dogs, horses, or the slime-like Succubi that Mutsuki had seen a few times before.
He had grown accustomed to seeing these things over the past several days, but he frowned because he still did not enjoy seeing it.
"Do you think it's an awful thing? I'm sure you do. Take this girl for example. She grew popular online for having one-in-a-million looks and once-in-a-millennium beauty and she is set to star in a movie soon."
The man pointed at a girl strapped to a horse's belly with something thicker than her arm penetrating her. It was far too large and she had probably been there for hours, so she had passed out with her eyes rolled back in her head.
She could not be any older than Mutsuki, yet this was essentially torture. Mutsuki looked ready to cry.
"But you'd be wrong. She chose to do this herself."
"I don't believe you..."
"See this woman here? The foreigner? She's a judge for a certain film award in America. She loves horse-fucking, so letting her watch this guarantees that girl's next movie a place at that film festival."
"..."
"We make sure no harm comes to our products, so all the necessary preparations were taken care of and she will be cared for afterwards. Her pussy will be a little looser afterwards, but she just bought herself a future as a movie star."
Mutsuki recalled his first day here when Riselle had told him the girls here went through a special training regimen and the only ones protesting were those serving someone who asked to rape a protesting girl.
He still found it hard to believe, but...
"All 16 of these are the same. They have been trained here and they are repaid in the form they desire if they please our clients. Whether it's for fame or fortune, they all have some desire they refuse to abandon even if it means a looser pussy, bodily modifications, or literally eating shit."
The man added "and even if they can never again be satisfied by the tame stuff found outside of here" under his breath, but it did not reach Mutsuki's ears.
"Do you think they are insane?"
"..."
Firmly nodding was the only response Mutsuki could manage.
"I know why you would think that, but this how human society and human history were built. It is a perfectly ordinary way of doing business even in the modern age. If there are even two humans, they will instinctually compete to come out on top. With a hundred of us, there will be a clear split between those with power and those without."
He operated the tablet to change the view. It now showed the men and women of all ages laughing in delight as they viewed those 16.
"Those with power can do what they wish with those without and those without can only escape it by gaining power themselves."
He returned the view to the girls again.
"At this point, that form of power has become even more important to us than reproduction, which is supposed to be the most important thing for a lifeform. There are a lot of men and women who render themselves forever unable to have children in order to gain power."
He switched to a close up of the giant horse cock penetrating that one girl. The size was clearly too much because there were signs of her vaginal walls having been sewn up a few times.
Mutsuki's face had already gone pale.
Then the man tossed the tablet aside.
"But don't worry. This sort of society will soon come to an end."
"Eh?"
"In another century or two....Although World War Three is probably coming before that, so there might not be any humans left on earth by then."
"Wh-what do you mean?"
That second part had been accompanied by a cynical smile, but the first part had been deadly serious.
"What I mean is simple. Once we start prioritizing other things above reproduction, the human race's reproductive power has already begun to decline."
"But the human population is growing."
"In the developing nations. The population continues to rise in developing nations where no one receives a proper education. But in the developed nations where the education standards have passed a certain point, the birth rate falls primarily among the intellectual class. Reduced sperm levels, ovum abnormalities...well, there are a variety of reasons, but haven't you heard that the higher someone's IQ, the harder it is for them to have children?"
"Well..."
"Japan even has an aphorism about the poor having many children. Although the relevance of that relies on it actually being true that the stupid tend to end up poor."
Mutsuki was not familiar with any actual data on the matter, but he had heard about it before.
"It isn't that unusual a thing when you look at all forms of life. In fact, mammals and even insects tend to fall victim to natural selection and fall in number when they grow too numerous. Too much reproduction means less food and less genetic compatibility, so it is avoided in the natural world. Have you ever seen that documentary about mice jumping into a river to commit suicide when there are too many of them?"
"..."
"Human adrenal glands are the same as mouse ones, so we share the same stress reactions. It's thought a population control hormone within humans is responsible for the decline in birth rates. I don't know what the DNA analysis says, but we and Miss A's FeTUS think this tendency is a chosen effect by the Fruit of Knowledge. The further we develop our knowledge, the more of a threat we see in relying on others, so we begin to pursue only our own desires even if it means rejecting the chance to have children."
"The Fruit of Knowledge?"
He had seen that term when researching in the library and heard it a few times outside of that.
In the story of Adam and Eve, eating that was what led them to be banished from paradise. It could be seen as humanity's Original Sin, but...
"It is a theory as to how humanity developed intelligence far surpassing every other lifeform on earth. It is the black box that separates humanity from the apes. One theory says bipedal movement stimulated our brains, another says it was a genetic abnormality, and I quite like the theory that our brains were modified by Martians. Regardless, we have yet to find an answer to that question, so we defer to the Bible and simply say it is because we ate the Fruit of Wisdom provided by god."
"..."
It sounded both realistic and fictional at the same time, so his mind had trouble keeping up.
But he kind of got the general idea. They thought humanity had evolved by gaining knowledge, but that evolution led to the depressing displays of depravity seen in this mansion.
And the more people enjoyed these things, the lower the birth rate would fall.
"The Fruit of Knowledge..."
It sounded like they were holding a scientific discussion, but they ended up saying god was punishing humans for falling into such madness.
Mutsuki was familiar with the angels who people viewed like gods, the demons, and FeTUS who fought using science, so it was an oddly persuasive conclusion for him.
"The Fruit of Knowledge is inherited by one's children. It is untouched by mutations and it is not advanced or deteriorated by human genes, but it does ripen. And..."
"The more it ripens, the less you can have children?"
"Exactly."
That much he understood.
"Wh-what does this have to do with Adam? Why does it mean humanity will be destroyed?"
"As you said earlier, the human population is growing in the developing nations. A split is occurring between the shrinking ruling class and the growing ruled class."
At some point, Mutsuki had started asking questions more actively. Shuntarou still only had a cynical smile on his lips, but he narrowed his eyes to show he had wanted this change.
"There will eventually be a confrontation between those two groups. A rivalry, if you will."
"A rivalry?"
"We do not know if it will manifest itself as a war, if we are already seeing its beginnings in the international tensions over the refugee crises, or if it has been with us for a while in the current age of terrorism, but the time will come when the two groups of humanity work to reduce each other's numbers. And the only possible result is mutual destruction. Human science has progressed too far for the ruled class to win and the ruling class will be no more than non-reproducing beasts if they lose the ruled class. Perhaps the species itself will not go extinct, but modern civilization will gradually decline during the next generation and the generation after that."
"..."
"We have to do something, " said Mutsuki in a scratchy voice.
...And he was oblivious to the fact that Shuntarou grinned like he had been waiting for those words.
"I'm fine with it myself. I mean, it isn't happening today or tomorrow. Plus, I was lucky enough to be born into power. I see no problem with enjoying myself in the 50-odd years I have left until I die of old age."
"But..."
"Heh heh. Yes, not considering the future generations may be precisely how the Fruit of Knowledge has robbed us of the ability to reproduce. I mean, it's definitely not a lack of sexual desire."
With a self-deprecating smile, the man touched Mutsuki's belly.
His touches had always been sexual caresses before, but this was a stronger touch that seemed to be checking on something.
"But you can stop it. Adam can stop it."
"...I can?"
"Adam refers to someone with the same genes as the original form of intelligent humans that has since been modernized."
Did that mean going back to an ancestral state? Would they be returning to the ones who figuratively ate the Fruit of Knowledge?
"Humanity has gone through countless great rivalries in the past. Each time, a large part of the population was lost and civilization reset. But the Adam genes which are born once a millennium will also reset humanity's Fruit of Knowledge after it ripens and robs us of our reproductive ability. Adam is the final breakwater allowing us to reconstruct our civilization."
"A breakwater..."
Now he knew why heaven, earth, and hell were all targeting him.
He felt like he finally understood the strange battles and stalemate he had experienced since spring.
"Wh-what am I supposed to do? What do I do with my genes?"
"FeTUS has concluded that replicating Adam's genes is not possible. They learned as much from the semen you have apparently been supplying them since the start of spring."
"Se-...um, oh..."
Now he knew what the semen he had "supplied" Machina with had been used for.
"That leaves just one option: the genes of your child."
"M-my child?"
"And not just any child. Your child with the women who laid the foundation of our current civilization. In other words, your child with Eve. Once we have the genes of the origin point of all humanity, the ripening of the Fruit of Knowledge should temporarily stop if those genes are replicated and given to those in which the Fruit has ripened. We have about 100 years to do so, which should be easy enough given Miss A's connections."
"My child with Eve? But isn't Eve already...?"
"She died long ago, but genetic analysis can create a clone very similar to the original woman. An Eve ex Machina, if you will. The Holy Grail Project was started...how many centuries ago was it? But I hear it has shown some results recently."A clone of Eve. The Holy Grail.
That sounded familiar.
Reality caught up to him and his curiosity returned to fear.
Shuntarou must have enjoyed Mutsuki's every little reaction because he resumed grinning at the very end.
"Although no one knows how long that process will delay the rivalry. It could be 1000 years, it could be 100 years...and it could just be 1 year."
| ← Ch. 76 | Ch. 78 → |