I Took A Succubus's First Time

Yumi finally stepped out of the medbay, and the moment Kouhei noticed her coming through the doorway, his eyes immediately locked onto her. The expression on his face was almost painfully obvious, because there was a small amount of hope behind it, the kind of hope that made it clear he was waiting for Yumi to tell him that things had somehow turned around.

Deep down, however, Kouhei already knew better than to expect a miracle.

He had seen enough situations go wrong to understand that hoping for good news did not magically make good news appear. Still, knowing that did not stop him from hoping anyway, because when someone he cared about was lying inside that room, telling himself to expect the worst was easier said than done.

Unfortunately, if the answer turned out to be bad, that little bit of hope would only make the disappointment hurt even more.

Yumi looked at Kouhei for several seconds, seemingly understanding exactly what he wanted to hear without him having to ask. She slowly shook her head from side to side, and the gesture alone was enough to tell him that whatever answer he had been hoping for was not coming.

Kouhei lowered his head.

For a moment, he simply stood there without saying anything, staring at the floor as the reality of the situation settled over him. He had known this was possible, yet knowing something intellectually and actually having it confirmed were two completely different things.

Yuuna looked toward Yumi, her expression becoming increasingly worried as she waited for an explanation.

"What’s happening with Kozue?" Yuuna finally asked.

"Her fallen angel mana is starting to eat away at her body from the inside out," Yumi answered, "I’m afraid that even with my specialty in healing magic, I won’t be able to do anything for her."

Kouhei raised his head slightly upon hearing that.

Yumi was proficient in healing magic, and because of that, hearing her admit that she could not help Kozue was particularly discouraging. She was usually one of the people they could rely on whenever someone was injured, so having her say that there was nothing she could do made the situation feel considerably more hopeless.

The problem was that Kozue’s condition was not simply a physical injury.

Yumi could heal physical damage, but Kozue’s mana itself was the problem. Mana was not something physical that could simply be treated like a wound, and because of that, Yumi could not reach inside Kozue’s body and simply remove whatever was destroying her.

"Personally, I don’t think this is something I can cure," Yumi continued, looking troubled by the conclusion she had reached. "It seems like... her body is slowly becoming unsuitable for the holy power that she has inside it."

Holy power existing inside a demon was already something that should not have been possible in the first place. Demons were naturally vulnerable to holy power, after all, and angels had specifically been created with powers capable of opposing and defeating demons. Because of that, having holy power inside a demon’s body was practically asking for trouble from the beginning.

Kozue’s situation was therefore much more complicated than an ordinary magical injury.

Her body was gradually becoming unable to withstand something that had been residing inside it, and the very power that existed within her was now becoming one of the things that threatened her life.

Even someone as skilled as Yumi could not simply heal away that kind of incompatibility.

"What should we do, then?" Kouhei asked.

His voice was quieter than before, and there was an unmistakable tension behind the question. He was trying to remain calm, but there was only so much composure he could maintain when the person they were talking about was one of his own members.

Yuuna remained silent as well.

For once, she seemed completely unable to come up with an answer.

The silence that followed was uncomfortable, because everyone understood that simply waiting around was not going to solve the problem. Kozue’s condition was continuing to worsen, and they could not afford to sit around hoping that something would conveniently fix itself.

"How about we freeze her in time?" Yuka suddenly suggested.

Kouhei immediately turned toward her.

"Freeze her in time?" he asked, his eyebrows rising as he tried to understand what she meant.

This was the first time Kouhei had ever heard about someone possessing an ability that could actually freeze time. He had already encountered enough strange abilities to know that the world was full of people capable of doing things that should have been impossible, but manipulating time was still on another level entirely.

Yuka nodded.

"One of my faction members is coming back home along with the others, and she has the ability to freeze time," Yuka explained. "Although, I can’t guarantee that she’ll arrive in time to do anything for Kozue."

Kouhei listened carefully.

"There’s another problem," Yuka continued. "Her ability also freezes her own time, which means we would have to ask her whether she is willing to use it on Kozue as well. If she agrees, Kozue could remain frozen for months... or even years while we search for something that might actually help her."

The idea sounded strange, but Kouhei immediately understood the reasoning behind it.

They did not necessarily need to cure Kozue immediately if they could prevent her condition from getting worse. Freezing her in time would not solve the underlying problem, but it could potentially stop her body from deteriorating while they searched for another solution.

It was not an ideal answer.

Honestly, it was probably one of the weirdest solutions Kouhei had heard in a while.

Still, weird was considerably better than dead.

"If that’s the case, then I guess I’ll have to make sure that I beg them to consider it," Kouhei said seriously.

Yuka stared at him for a moment.

"If begging is what it takes, then I’ll do it," Kouhei continued. "I don’t care how embarrassing it gets, because keeping Touyama-san alive is more important."

Yuka looked somewhat surprised by his response, mostly because Kouhei sounded completely serious about it.

She could genuinely imagine him getting down on his knees and begging if that was what it took.

It was an unusual thing to see from someone in Kouhei’s position. He was the leader of a faction, and on top of that, he was a candidate for becoming a demon lord. Someone of that status was generally expected to command respect and maintain a certain amount of dignity, rather than lower his head and beg another person for assistance.

At the same time, there was something admirable about Kouhei being willing to put his pride aside.

His status clearly meant nothing to him if maintaining that status meant sacrificing one of his own people.

Still, Yuka knew that such a request would not necessarily be easy.

"I see," Yuka said after thinking about it for a moment. "Well, you had better start practicing your begging, because she’s practically impossible to move."

Kouhei gave her a somewhat awkward look.

"Alright," he said. "I’ll prepare myself for that, then."

Yuka then looked toward the medbay.

"More importantly, why don’t you go inside and see how your member is doing right now?" she suggested. "I heard that she’s awake."

Kouhei’s expression immediately changed.

The moment he heard that Kozue was awake, the concern on his face became even more obvious.

Without wasting any more time, he turned toward the medbay.

Afterward, Yuka left them alone, giving them some privacy while they went inside to see Kozue.

Kozue was lying on the bed inside the medbay, looking incredibly pale.

Her lips were dry and chapped, while dark circles had formed underneath her eyes, making her look as though she had gone several days without getting any proper sleep. She appeared exhausted even while lying down, and the overall condition of her body made it difficult for Kouhei to hide his concern.

He slowly approached her bedside.

Kozue noticed him almost immediately.

"How are you feeling?" Kouhei asked.

Kozue looked at him for several seconds before giving him a tired expression.

"What do you think?" she asked. "Do I look okay to you?"

Kouhei immediately realized that his question had probably been poorly chosen.

He had only asked because he wanted to know how she felt, but looking at her condition, asking whether she was okay was almost absurd. Kozue looked like she had been dragged through a war and then politely told to take a nap afterward.

Still, Kouhei had not meant anything bad by it.

He was worried about her.

"Seems like I’m dying," Kozue said, her tone surprisingly calm. "Well, I’m not really that surprised, to be honest. In fact, I already knew about it before things ever got this bad."

Kouhei’s expression became more serious.

Yuuna looked at Kozue as well, clearly struggling to understand why she had kept something like this to herself.

"Why didn’t you tell us?" Yuuna asked.

Kozue lowered her eyes slightly.

"I didn’t want to be a bother," she answered.

Kozue had apparently known that something was wrong with her, yet she had chosen to remain silent because she did not want to become a burden to the people around her. She had kept something this serious to herself simply because she did not want everyone else to worry about her.

Kouhei did not know what to say to that.

He understood the reasoning, but that did not make it any easier to accept.

"More than that, truthfully, the reason I joined you, Yuuna-san, was because I wanted to find that monster," Kozue continued. "I wanted to kill him for all the suffering he inflicted on my mother."

Her voice remained calm as she spoke, but the reason behind her decision was obvious.

Kozue had not joined Yuuna’s group because she was looking for some grand adventure or because she simply wanted somewhere to belong. She had joined because she had a personal goal, one that had been sitting in the back of her mind for a long time.

She wanted to find the monster responsible for her mother’s suffering.

She wanted him to pay for what he had done.

"But even that..." Kozue continued quietly, her gaze becoming distant. "It seems like I won’t be able to do it."

Kouhei remained silent.

Kozue did not sound bitter when she said it.

That was probably the part that bothered him the most.

There was no anger in her voice, no desperate denial, and no attempt to pretend that everything would somehow work out. She sounded almost resigned to what was happening, as though she had already accepted that she might die before getting the opportunity to accomplish the one thing she had been pursuing.

"The only regret I have is that monster getting away with the murder of my mother," Kozue said after a moment. "I also hate the fact that he might be able to do more in the future."