“Hey. Earth to Rick.”

“Huh?”

You look up from your monitor in the computer lab, your usual hangout (you like using the school servers for compute tasks, but they won’t let you do it from home). You’ve been poring over those papers all night, and into the day, just devouring this fascinating information.

Your first reaction was that it was all speculative bullshit, but for some reason you can’t quite treat it that way. You swear, somehow, they were so close to achieving something, but if they were, why hasn’t it appeared in the next twenty years or so? Maybe a scandal buried the data? It’s not unheard of.

“You keep spacing out today,” says G, your messy-purple-haired best friend sipping on a juice box he grabbed with the fries. “More of your golden boy shit? Science incomprehensible to mortal men?”

“Something like that,” you say. “Old genetic studies from Sunset’s Special Divisions.” Some of this stuff actually is used in current gene therapies, so you’ve been paying extra attention once you figured that out. It’s just…so fascinating! Genetics isn’t even your field of choice – you can’t exactly do it without a massive lab and the necessary resources – but it would hardly be the first time you decided to read up on the literature on a topic like this when you’ve had prior releases.

“Great, I needed new conspiracy theories.” G noisily sips on his juice – on purpose, of course. “What’s it this time? Lizards ruling the Earth? The Bavarian Illuminati? La Cia?”

You groan. “Could you just for once take this seriously?” This guy’s always screwing around; you’ve just kind of gotten used to it after all these years. But, you know, he’s helped you out quite a lot, so you just take it as one of those things.

“Hey, if it weren’t for me, no one would be around to make sure you paid attention to the real world – speaking of.” G points at the door, and the arrival of two big blonde twintails announce the lady of the hour. “Your princess is in this castle.”

“Ssh, not so loud,” you whisper, as you lift up your spare plate of fries and hold it up for Celina to see. As expected, she quickly walks over, and snaps up the plate before you even offer it.

“Oh, cool, thanks!” she says, quickly grabbing a few fries and stuffing them into her mouth. Celina’s the crush of the month, though you usually get along pretty well as a rule.

“I, uh, I had some extra,” you mutter. God, what a lame line – your mouth really needs to wait on your brain to be done sometimes.

Then again, being around Celina is always a little nerve-wracking. She’s gotta be number one in terms of cuties here at the Pedersen College, with her unfair, curvy body; sure, Alicia is pretty cute too (abs! track star!), but you get along with Celina way better. Still, you’ve never really managed to say it…

(G hides his snickering mouth behind his juice box. Jeez, way to be a good wingman, buddy.)

“…what are you reading?” Celina asks, sitting at the computer next to you and leaning over. “Wait, is that one of the genetics studies they just released?”

“Yeah, I started reading last night. There’s some pretty crazy stuff in here, but it all sounds like a marketing fever dream more than real science.” You nom gently on some of your fries. “About what I’d expect, really.”

“That’s good! If it were anyone else, though, I’d be worried you’d do something stupid like buy one of those black market gene editing kits.”

“…what?” You turn in your chair toward Celina so fast you risk whiplash! “You can’t be serious. They seriously sell that?”

“No, it’s true!” Celina excitedly waves, and you pointedly try not to look at the way her twintails bounce, or her unfair chest and body. (It’s pretty difficult, actually.) “They’ve been doing it since CRISPR and the Heisei era! I even heard there’s a whole bunch being sold out of Former Chinese Shanghai in the Electric City these days! It’s super dangerous!”

“You couldn’t use those at home,” G points out, as he steals one of your fries. (Don’t think you didn’t catch that!) “Even Rick isn’t that daft. He’d need to bribe a doctor, get some time in a nice cushy high-end hospital, and that’d definitely not be covered by his insurance. He’s still cheap, he made me buy extra fries.”

“Shut it,” you mutter.

“It’s not like that. Sure, it’s just a few cells, but adding random foreign DNA into your body is just a terrible idea! Especially if it gets into your reproductive cells.” Celina sighs, and takes a big handful of fries and stuffs it down. “Mmh. Y’cahnt mehss whiff yer bohdy likh thet,” she continues with her mouth full.

“I didn’t know that was even a thing,” you say. “But don’t worry, I wouldn’t be anywhere near that stupid.”

Yes. There’s absolutely no way you’d be tempted by the possibility of modifying your own genome, at home, without any oversight or need to share. Not that you’d even have the capacity to do so, or those kits could even do it anyway. You’re more likely to give yourself a new genetic disease than anything else – or worse, give one to your hypothetical kids. Full-body gene therapy is the stuff you get at a cushy Sunset clinic for incurable genetic diseases. Sure, they talk about the potential for adapting humans to space travel using genetic engineering, but the reaction from the Reiwa Accord space development board is a hard ‘no’. This is the real world, not some ridiculous ‘cyberpunk’ setting…

Besides, what would you even do with that kit, anyway? It’d be tempting if something like Irisviel, manipulative succubus elevated over normal humans on every level, could really exist, but there’s no way. Not even the Sunset Corporation could do that, and they clearly wanted to based on some of these documents. So it’s really not tempting at all.

Yes.

Not even a little bit tempting…

---

On the train home, you sigh, having a conversation with G as you listen to some tracks Blue and Inle recommended to drown out the crowds. Music isn’t really your thing, but it’s either that or some awful podcast, and you’re not in the mood to go off on a rant today. Too tiring.

Oh hey, this track is about Lilith too, apparently. You’re gonna be thinking about this succubus shit for weeks, right? Alright, maybe you drag Windam into DMs, later. Your homework load is pretty light and you’ve stalled out on most of your programming projects for now, so it sounds like time to get Robin to moan and scream. Heh, it’s nice to have things to look forward to~

If only you were better with girls in real life.

SufferLikeGDid: So when are you going to ask Celina out, anyway?
SpecializationIsForInsects: I don't know, I really don't think we're close enough yet.
SufferLikeGDid: Priscilla, then?
SpecializationIsForInsects: Tch. If you were the one she was always stalking, you'd change your tune real quick.
SufferLikeGDid: You're the only guy I know who treats a girl paying her lots of attention as a problem, Rick.
SpecializationIsForInsects: Nah, it's gotta be Alicia. I think she really likes me, y'know? Heh, track star and 'golden boy', the school would love it, I'm sure.
SufferLikeGDid: mm.
SufferLikeGDid: Well, if you say so.
SufferLikeGDid: What about me? :3
SpecializationIsForInsects: In your dreams. :v
SpecializationIsForInsects: Get a butt like Celina's and we'll talk.

Yep, as usual, G’s always screwing around. He is into guys as well as girls, at least in theory, but thankfully he limits his interest in you to jokes like this.

Now, Celina Andrews…

She’s smarter than she looks, she doesn’t ask stupid questions, and she’s just fun to hang out with. You’re not in the same year, so you don’t share any classes, which is a damn shame in your book; still, she’s one of the people you spend the most time around when at school. Hell, she’s even talked you into doing things with her and her friends outside of school, which is a feat of madness. She’s clearly hiding her true power level!

…alright, okay, yeah, there’s also the fact that she’s got a great butt, and the most luxurious twintails imaginable (you call her ‘Big Twintail’ in the group chat), but that’s just secondary. Honest. Between Celina and Alicia, do you just have a thing for blondes? She’d look great with a tail. (Coming out of her butt? Nah…)

If you did think there was a chance, you’d probably go for it, but it doesn’t really seem that way to you. You’re not even sure dating is a thing she does, entirely. So it’s probably better to keep her as a friend rather than risk fucking things up through a botched attempt. Nice thing about being ‘golden boy’ is that you don’t have to worry about ‘out of your league’, but still, this whole song and dance with romance is tiring. What’s it take to get a cute girl to snuggle with, anyway?

People are just so fucking incomprehensible. On more levels than you’d prefer.

At least with Alicia you think you’ve got a shot, which is a welcome change. Priscilla just isn’t worth bringing up, though, she’s just too creepy, besides…other logistical problems G is inexplicably ignoring.

But it’s all a moot point. You’ve got a bunch of stuff you wanna work on before Golden Week next Monday, and with your parents handling a bunch of logistics for their respective business trips, you’re not in a position to start making overtures.

Blue’s got a girlfriend, he’s the only one in the chat with one. Thankfully he avoids girlfriendposting too much, but still, he’s got a dress-up darling he makes outfits for. Which is actually rather appealing; seeing Celina, or Alicia, or even Priscilla in sexy cosplay would be worth the price of admission. Not like they couldn’t wear what you’ve been dreaming of since last night, but maybe it doesn’t entirely suit them…

and so you start to think about cute girls in cute outfits, closing your eyes for the rest of your ride home.

Yes.

Your ride home. Definitely.

---

…eight hours later, you did something really stupid.

The big box on your workbench is featureless cardboard, completely nondescript, but you know exactly what’s inside: one of those kits Celina specifically said was a stupid idea to buy.

And Celina is 100% correct, it is a stupid idea. You don’t even have the equipment to make use of it here, but you went and bought it anyway, huh? All the way to the Electric City, to some dodgy dry market under the neon and catwalks, well past the touristy glitz at the border. Not the first time, but usually you do it for shit that’s actually fucking useful.

(You also got a bunch of Fourth Order pamphlets on the side, which feel like a waste of the planet to you. Look at all this paper. Honestly, those magical girl cultists who like that Meduka Meguca or whatever don’t seem that different from the occultists who wrote the shit G was referencing in his essay; this ‘Adversary’, their Devil, seems pretty similar to a lot of the occult Lilith shit. Kinda hot, but…)

(but still, why worship an anime? Why worship something you know isn’t real?)

Soooooo yeah, you bought a highly illegal gene editing kit with half of your saved-up Science Budget which you couldn’t do anything with and may as well just be a paperweight. Great use of cash, Richard. Fantastic. Better hope you don’t need to ask Dad for more cash anytime soon.

(For some reason, the idea just gnawed away at you, though. What if?)

Thankfully, you’d spent the rest of your night on something much more sensible.

Wind_God_Windam: ...what am I looking at, here?
SpecializationIsForInsects: Oh, like you don't know. It's a tail.
Wind_God_Windam: A...a *tail*.
SpecializationIsForInsects: Yes, a tail. A demon's tail, to be precise! It's retractable, is all. I built a prototype today. Here, lemme show you.

With your face and most of your body carefully out of frame so you don’t accidentally dox yourself on stream, you tap the side of your glasses and let the prototype tail extend from the base like a rising, curling wire with a spade-shaped tip. It’s razor-thin (though not sharp) and highly flexible, yet still capable of grasping tightly. It’s all attached to a specially designed base that quite nicely sits at the base of the tailbone. You can use it with remote control of course, but that’s not really what it’s designed for.

clearest_blue: You know, I've seen one of those before. It was more of a cat tail, though. But it was pretty disappointing, because it didn't move in a particularly realistic fashion. Even with AI and everything, it really doesn't come off like a part of the body.
TR-6inle: was your girlfriend wearing it? O:
clearest_blue: Surprisingly, no!
SpecializationIsForInsects: Oh, this is designed as a prosthetic, Blue, so it wouldn't have that problem. Just gotta figure out the interface. Don't think myoelectrics will be reliable enough, so it'll probably be a direct nerve job...
Wind_God_Windam: What.
clearest_blue: What.
TR-6inle: isn't that a bit, uh, dangerous?
Wind_God_Windam: You know, when I said that stuff about Iri and all, I was *kidding*, Spiffy.
SpecializationIsForInsects: It's just a proof of concept, really. I hear they have pretty similar stuff these days in some of the other new cities, but come on, guy's gotta have a bit of fun now and then. There's a few girls at school I'd *love* to see wearing this.
SpecializationIsForInsects: But sadly, we don't have one of them here. Oh well, I'll just have to find someone else!
Wind_God_Windam: <Robin> ...you're not going to test that on me, are you?
SpecializationIsForInsects: <Tharja> Wouldn't you like to know. :black_heart:

Oh, come on, Blue shows off dresses he makes for his GF and everyone’s super happy, you show off a succubus tail and everyone gets all weird? Fucking typical. You bet they’re just projecting and they think it’s as hot as you do…

Really, you knocked up the prototype astonishingly quickly, even by your standards. Thought of it after waking up, sketched out some models between classes and after school, printed a basic model by not-quite-bedtime. The materials involved aren’t what you had in mind, but you’ve already made an order for some of Sunset’s soft robotics DIY line, so you’ve got time to work the kinks out before any test.

(Never mind that you don’t have anyone to wear it yet…)

Yeah, once you work out the man-machine interface, you think this’ll be pretty amazing. Not really going to be super impressive, but you can guarantee you’ll make something better than those cat tails Blue mentioned. Then you’ll show them! You’ll show them all!

…would that things weren’t about to get much worse because you forgot to shut the door all the way.

Wind_God_Windam: Hey, isn't that your mom?
SpecializationIsForInsects: Shit. Turning off the stream.
clearest_blue: She had purple hair, didn't she...?
TR-6inle: hey! sakura has purple hair too!!!
SpecializationIsForInsects: You. Saw. *Nothing.*
Wind_God_Windam: Wait, you've been calling me a 'siscon' all this time and you based your character for FSN on your *mom?*
Wind_God_Windam: That's the most hilarious shit I've ever heard.
Wind_God_Windam: Hey, is she Japanese, too? Is she Russian? Go on, tell us~
SpecializationIsForInsects: *Shut it.*

Ugh. What a fucking disaster.

Typical Windam, though. He’s such a doormat, always letting his family or his sister or whoever at his school push him around, complaining in the group chat, then being shocked when it happens again.

He’s a doormat, that is, when it comes to everyone but you.

In the RP? It’s even worse. Anyone else can do whatever they want, pull whatever shit they want with other characters, and he’ll do nothing. Besides Blue and Inle, there’s a goddamned revolving door when it comes to the RP, and if he would just fucking listen to you for once before problems happen rather than let people walk all over him, you’d all have a much better time.

But when it’s you? He insults you, he cajoles you, he does absolutely everything he can to get under your skin. It’s disgusting. What is it about you that makes him grow a fucking backbone?

He must really fucking hate you, huh.

If it weren’t for being able to take it out on him in the RP, be it Robin or Shirou, bending them to your will and doing things to their vulnerable bodies, twisting them to your chosen shapes, you swear you’d quit. You’ve honestly been pretty tempted already. If he weren’t so good at writing absolutely smouldering shit like that succubus Irisviel story, you’d have deployed fucking everything you’ve got in heaven's feel.txt.

…

…

(…to be fair, though. Your mom is pretty hot. Shit, who wouldn’t want a body like that…?)

---

That night, you dream.

You dream of a superior body, with a superior tail, curled around the neck of your throne.

It’s not like she needs to breathe anymore, anyway. Poor little Windam’s been turned into your little girlpet, your chair, twisted into shape, as you stroke her angelic wings. Bound in your power and embrace. It’s her punishment, and her joy. Hatred and love are so very close for both of you, after all.

It’s so wonderful.

You can feel every bit of breeze around you with your horns. You can stretch your white wings with black feathers. Your mathematically perfect breasts on your beautiful biomechanical body.

A demon.

The mother of demons calls to you, to take her mantle as your own, with science and visions.

Stand before the Echidna’s throne. Become the Demon Lord.

You’ll defy God, however you wish to. Rejected by Him, you’ll take matters into your own hands…