Chapter 2: The Kiss of the Demon Mother

Takumi Hoshino was a fake otaku.

He loved anime, beautiful girl games, light novels, and all sorts of anime merch. Even the mysterious forbidden folder on the E: drive—the one normal guys use for… you know—wasn’t filled with Mutou Miki or Asou-sensei. Nope. It was full of ero-doujin stuff. You know… Yarashii Haha, Yoru no Byoutou, Oni Chichi… yeah. Basically, he was madly, hopelessly in love with everything 2D.

The “fake” part came from the fact that he couldn’t actually live the true hikikomori dream. He still had to drag himself to school every day, then come home and do chores while taking care of his 13-year-old little sister. No choice—Mom and Dad were working far away, and all the grandparents had already passed on years ago. So yeah, it was all on him.

Just like any other morning, Takumi crawled out of bed with sleepy eyes, let out a huge yawn, and scratched at the bird’s-nest disaster he called hair. Still in slippers, he shuffled downstairs. First thing: let the “second head” take a leak. Then make breakfast for his sister. Last night he’d done a nostalgia binge of a classic anime with over fifty episodes… and ended up staying up half the night.

He reached the first floor, opened the bathroom door at the entrance hall—and froze.

There, right in front of his barely-open sleepy eyes, was a pair of bright pink panties.

They had an adorable Snoopy pattern.

And standing there was a girl with shoulder-length hair, a simple pink hair clip on the left side. She had just slid her denim shorts down to her ankles.

The two of them stared at each other. Big eyes. Small eyes. Total silence.

“…Sorry.”

Takumi slapped both hands over his eyes, turned tail, and bolted. He at least had the presence of mind to slam the door shut behind him.

His heart was hammering like crazy.

He was fully awake now—not because of the fanservice “lucky lecher” moment (though that definitely contributed), but because of sheer terror.

The owner of those pink panties… was his little sister.

Hoshino Akari.

To Takumi, she was basically a living Empress.

Top grades. Sports prodigy. A genuine genius in every sense of the word. Outside the house, everyone saw her as the perfect, sweet, super-popular beautiful girl.

Inside the house? She was a full-on female tyrant.

And the worst part? Her combat power was insane.

Those beautiful, model-like legs of hers actually held a taekwondo black belt. Takumi had experienced being kicked by them once. The pain was something he never, ever wanted to feel again.

A little while later, Akari stepped out of the bathroom and slowly approached.

Her footsteps were light. Almost like a ballerina, tiptoeing. Like a cat stalking prey. Completely silent.

Takumi could smell her faint shampoo scent getting closer and closer. He swallowed hard. Every muscle in his body tensed up, waiting for that terrifying 200-kilogram-per-square-centimeter leg to launch.

“Imperial Brother. We are hungry.”

“Eh? Ah—y-yeah! Right away! I’ll go buy breakfast!”

Takumi didn’t even bother brushing his teeth or washing his face. He fled the house at sprint speed.

Only after he got out of the apartment complex did he finally exhale and wipe the cold sweat off his forehead.

“That was weird… Normally if something like that happened, I’d already be doing a mid-air somersault into next week. Last time I even blacked out! That classic ‘lucky pervert’ death flag almost became a real death! Wait… why was the little tyrant so nice today? This is suspicious. Very suspicious.”

Takumi couldn’t figure it out, so he decided to shelve the mystery for now. He started crossing the road to buy breakfast.

Suddenly—whoosh!

A sharp sound cut through the air.

He looked up just in time to see a metal bottle falling straight toward him.

BAM!

It smashed right into his head.

His vision spun. Legs buckled. He dropped straight to the ground on his butt.

It took a long time before his brain rebooted.

Something warm dripped onto his face. He touched his forehead—his hand came away bright red.

Blood. His own blood.

Takumi was both shocked and furious.

He looked up. The building right next to him was a thirty-story apartment tower. He’d heard stories about people throwing stuff off balconies, but he never thought he’d be the unlucky idiot who got hit.

A million alpacas stampeded through his heart.

He grabbed the cursed metal bottle, ready to storm up there and find the culprit—only to deflate the moment he reached the elevator lobby.

How was he supposed to know who threw it? Was he really gonna sue the entire building like those crazy news stories?

“Damn it… I’m so pissed!”

Still fuming, Takumi turned to head to the clinic to get cleaned up and bandaged.

He didn’t notice that the blood-soaked metal bottle in his hand had started leaking black smoke.

Then—crack!

The bottle shattered like glass.

Black flames poured out, swirling around Takumi in a perfect circle, drawing an insanely complicated magic array on the ground.

The world around him distorted, like someone had scribbled over reality with a marker.

His vision went black.

When he opened his eyes again…

He was standing on top of an enormous rock pillar.

The air smelled like sulfur.

Heat blasted his face.

And below the pillar… was a sea of bubbling magma.

“……What the hell is this?!”

While he was still dumbfounded, a voice echoed from nowhere.

“Hello.”

Takumi jolted.

A woman appeared out of thin air right in front of him—curves that could kill, entire body wreathed in dancing flames.

He stared stupidly.

“…Hello.”

“State your wish.”

“Huh?”

“I, Lilith, have sworn an oath. Whoever frees me shall have one wish granted. What do you desire? Immortality? Endless wealth? To become king of a nation?”

“Grant my wish…? Wait—who are you?”

“I am Lilith, Mother of All Demons. My time is short. Speak your desire. If you do not, I will consider it forfeited.”

“Wish… Long life is longevity. Money is wealth. Power is status. I don’t need any of that. If possible… I want the ability to freely travel between the real world and the worlds of anime and fiction. To come and go between reality and 2D whenever I want.”

“As you wish.”

The flaming silhouette’s fire gradually faded, revealing the woman beneath.

She wore only a leather bra and tiny leather shorts made of some kind of deerskin.

Hair the color of fresh blood—vivid crimson.

Yet instead of looking evil or terrifying, it gave off a powerful feeling of life, like blood itself was the source of all vitality.

Her body was outrageously sexy.

But her face was still hidden behind a veil of mist.

The demonic mother goddess stepped closer.

With fingers sculpted from the most perfect white jade, she gently—almost teasingly—lifted Takumi’s chin so their eyes would meet.

Even though he couldn’t see her face clearly, Takumi’s instincts screamed one thing:

This woman was impossibly, heartbreakingly beautiful.

That strange, addictive fragrance filled his nose.

His heart pounded again.

This time, it wasn’t fear.

It was something else entirely.

“I, in the name of the Mother of All Demons, grant you the power you desire.”

While Takumi stood there stunned, she leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to his forehead.

Electricity like a high-voltage shock surged through his entire body.

He trembled.

A complex magic circle appeared on his forehead, glowing bright red.

“Now go. Enjoy fulfilling your wish. When you die, there will be a very nice place prepared for you in Hell, boy.”

Lilith let out a sultry giggle.

Takumi’s mind blanked.

When he came back to himself…

He was standing in front of the apartment building again.

He touched his forehead. The blood was completely gone.

But the faint electric tingle still lingered, making his body shiver slightly.

This was no dream.

It was real.