Mushi Uta:Volume 13 Chapter 4

4.00 OPS3 Part 15

This happened before the mist created by C covered Akamaki City.

Konomura Chami was sucking on a straw inside a family restaurant. She wasn’t sipping any drink, but simply shaking the straw in her mouth.

“I did somewhat have this feeling. But I didn’t want to acknowledge it, or rather… basically, it’s this.”

She looked at her face with its short-cropped hair in the reflection on the moisture-covered cup. This was her thinking this, she never felt bitter about the fact that her eyes looked eviler than average and about her rather lacking stature and figure. She never even felt bitter about her ability that had been designated as unranked when she belonged to the SEPB.

If Chami had to curse something, it would be fate itself.

“I just wonder whether my choice in pawns was completely mistaken.”

A spray of hamburger sauce splattered against the muttering Chami’s glasses.

“Ah, Ubuki-chan! But that’s my hamburger!”

“Back in my island, us siblings would always steal each other’s food. You’re the one at fault for leaving an opening.”

“Huh? Chiharu-san, isn’t that menu item 2000 yen over budget?! We decided each of us only goes up to 1000! You gotta do this sort of thing properly!”

“…You really are too meticulous, Yuu… way too much…”

“But Konoha-chan’s right, you know? Imposing one’s values on others at a young age is due to the psychological pressure of growing up in a repressive family environment—ow.”

“’Scuse me, is the special coffee I’ve ordered not ready yet? It’s the one that costs 2,000. So slooow, such bad service, unbelievable. …Oh, sorry, Satou-san. Did my elbow hit you?”

“I’m right in front of you, Lucifera-san. It’s a Chawanmushi. I fixed the order.”

Around two four-person tables brought together sat people that looked completely mismatched.

Ayukawa Chiharu. —Formerly one of the Original Three, Aria Varei. Kakkou’s biological sister.

Shirakashi Ubuki. —Formerly a combatant from the SEPB. Among the rare Fusion Types, she alone was powerless.

Ebina Yuu. —Both now and before, a plain civilian.

Konoha. —A combatant from the SEPB. She wore casual clothes now.

Satou Youko. —Formerly the Demon Lord.

Lucifera. —A member of Mushibane.

Kitazawa Tamaki. —Formerly the adviser of the Kanon Cult. Alias Mimic.

A girl whose look goods was wasted on her, a girl who was too high-strung, a girl who was nervous and fussy, a girl who was always gloomy, a girl who lacked a sense of presence, an uncooperative girl, and a cold and composed girl—no matter which angle you looked at them from, none of them looked as though they were friends.

Their only point in common was that they were all girls and that they had practically no fighting power.

And the most important of all—

“Okay, sorry for going over budget! But since it’s just a measly 2,000 yen then don’t I have special privilege, as the oldest one among you? You agree with me, right Chami-chan?”

“H-huh? Wasn’t I three months older? Then I’m the—”

“I do understand the claim that you need to show respect to your elders! But those are two different things! Right, Chami-san?”

Being pestered by Chiharu and Yuu, Chami closed her eyes.

The most important point in common to all these girls gathered here was—

That they were all Chami’s pawns.

“Since Ubuki’s minus 20 yen under budget and took a bite, it balances out to zero.”

Putting up both her legs on top of the table, Chami opened her eyes again.

Hearing the ruling of their mistress, the pawns all fell into silence.

Or so she thought.

“You can’t put your legs on the table, Chami-chan!”

“What horrible manners!”

“Chami-tan, your legs are in the way.”

“…You spilled my juice…”

“Yeah—”

“Sooo vulgar. Unbelievable. I’ll pretend I don’t know you.”

“Not even Kanon was this bad.”

Her pawns’ merciless criticism focused on her.

“…Tch.”

Chami clicked her tongue and removed her legs from the table.

Although everyone was her pawns, Chami didn’t have the kind of power needed to bind them to her. The reason for that was that they had no admiration or fear for her.

In conclusion, never mind the fact that these were her pawns, she was the weakest among them.

“This is so fucking stupid…”

While looking at her pawns that raised an uproar again, she muttered.

She wanted to push those who acted out the main characters in the fight between Mushitsuki off the stage and dance atop it—

While having this dream that was way beyond her reach, she gathered pawns to make it come true. At times losing pawns and at times gaining new ones, she kept gathering information and making use of it.

The result was the situation in front of her.

“Chami-sama. Are we just going to sit around and do nothing today as well?”

Lucifera’s bored-looking face said everything about how this group’s life went as of late.

The other members also clearly felt this way.

“I haven’t been spreading my wings for a while now so I’m getting fat.”

“Girls should be a little chubby!”

“You call it getting fat, but it’s all going to your chest.”

“Huh? Did several of you click your tongues just now?”

After making many plans and running around in preparation, in the end—

It became a deadlock.

The SEPB, Mushibane, and Harukiyo’s group.

These main forces were stuck at a standstill, barely clashing anymore, so there were less openings for Chami to take advantage of. Even the Kanon cult, that almost made a stir between these various forces, vanished like a midsummer night’s dream.

“I haven’t met Kirari-tan for a while, either. Won’t she come and play?”

“I do not think she comes to play with us, though…”

“Oh, Kirari-san? Well, she’s been requested by this person called Munakata-san to—”

“Seems like Kirari-san’s been requested by Munakata to act as a certain person’s escort. She said it’s because we’re approaching the time to use Chronicler’s footage, or something like that.”

“That’s got nothing to do with us… so we’re still bored…”

“The time for what we need to do is still far off, right Chami-chan?”

Cutting off the rambling talk, Chiharu suddenly spoke.

“What is it, Chiharu. You suddenly sound like you know what’s going on.”

“It’s because you’re not angry yet, Chami-chan.”

Chami frowned.

“Whenever you’re about to do something, you always get incredibly mad.”

Raising her fork purposely as if this was some meal scene in a tv drama, Chiharu spoke.

Thinking about it, it was certainly true, but still—

“Ah, that’s right.”

“I always thought that smart people were much calmer.”

Chami constantly had anger boiling inside her.

It pissed off her to no end that there some people were absurdly strong and that they matter-of-factly changed other people’s lives and worlds. And inevitably they would always force the countless supporting characters into unpleasant situations.

Chami wanted to turn this world over.

“Don’t go and decide somethin’ like that on your own. Can’t change my shithead personality.”

However, her ability was nothing more than amplifying other people’s emotions.

She couldn’t control them as she wanted. She simply stirred up a part of the person’s emotions, using their inner turmoil to induce them to act as her pawn.

A simple con man-like ability that designated her as unranked.

Even so, since she attempted to have all these Mushitsuki under her control—she felt angry even toward herself for thinking something so stupid.

“So rather than you being angry, we need to wait for someone to make Chami-chan angry.”

Chiharu kept talking as if she understood her.

Chami hated the fact that everyone looked as if they agreed with this.

“Well, anyway… I’ll be going now.”

Tamaki rose from her seat.

The girl called Mimic, who held the ability of transformation.

Chami and the rest all knew where she was going next.

“Let me just make sure, but there’s no mistake that Kanon’s in the SEPB’s East Central Branch, right?”

“Yeah, Konoha checked it. I don’t mind you going, but don’t you forget. I only got you out of Mushibane due to my deal with Lucifera.”

“All I have to do is periodically leak information from the East Central Branch, right? It’s a cheap deal then—but this is just a verbal promise. Is that really fine? How can you tell I’m not lying?”

“You’re terrible at lying so I’ll know immediately. Also—”

Chami shrugged.

“Including me, none of us here can go against you. We’ve got no way to enforce that.”

To be more precise, Tamaki alone wasn’t Chami’s pawn. After Mushibane rescued her in a certain incident when she got heavily wounded, all Chami did was help her escape from there.

She wanted strong Mushitsuki so badly that she could taste it. That was the truth.

However, right now Chami didn’t have the power to get a hold of one such Mushitsuki.

“You’re not going to sting her with your Mushi, Chami-chan?”

Chami shook her head at Satou Youko’s words.

“That’s too risky, if she’s going to the East Central Branch.”

Tamaki furrowed her brows.

“Why’s that?”

“It’s just a hunch, but... Looking at the East Central Branch recently—I have a bad feeling. I can sniff the scent of someone who doesn’t jibe with me on a visceral level. So I don’t want them to learn of my existence.”

“I don’t really get it… but it means that handing me over to the East Central Branch is also meant for me to search for that.”

“It does.”

“I’ll do my best to answer your expectations.”

Tamaki turned around, not even smiling. “Good luck!” Chiharu called to her, and instead of a response Tamaki just raised one hand.

She left and a temporary silence befell the table.

“We’ll also need to go do what we need to at some point.”

No one answered to Chiharu’s mutter.

All they did was slightly narrow their eyes.

Although they were bored now, they all had things they had to do.

Chami would obviously be the one who told them the timing for it, and they were all convinced the time would come.

And when that happened—everything would probably move all at once.

“But I also think that it’s not half bad for us to loaf around like this.”

Even such clumsy one-liners sounded good when coming from her, making it all the worse.

Right, if even Chami was about to follow suit with Chiharu’s feelings, she was beyond saving—

“Don’t lower your fucking guard. Just eat up already.”

A temporary peace before the large battle.

It really was like that today, what with all of them boasting about feeling so bored.

Several days after this, Akamaki City was covered by a mysterious mist.

Chami had certainly lacked anger on that day.

Recalling that day in the family restaurant when Kitazawa Tamaki had left them, she realized this clearly.

After this, Akamaki City was engulfed in a strange mist—and the battle with Shinpu started.

That battle further connected to the decisive fight with C, leading to the present—

Chami was finally and completely angry.

“What’s up with Akasegawa’s list?!”

She was in massive tower in the center of Akamaki City—the radio tower’s observation deck.

Chami was here, in the tourist spot that allowed one to view the entire cityscape from 360 degrees.

“I told her to bring me the list of each and every land the Akasegawa Group owns! This’s missing the most important bit!”

The evacuation orders spread to the entirety of Akamaki City.

The tower also included it, so there were no staff around, let alone sightseers.

In the observatory there were two people—and one creature.

Chami, who was yelling at the cellphone, as well as Konoha who was wearing her SEPB getup. Also, there was Konoha’s Mushi that resembled a leaf beetle.

Konoha’s Mushi possessed high-performance telescopic abilities. With the feelers extended from the leaf beetle that attached to Chami’s face, she too could see what it saw.

“The multi-purpose dome in the east ward! Akasegawa also has the majority of its shares! Tell Akasegawa to hurry up and buy the rest of the stocks and drive out everyone, Lucifera!”

Chami was not angry at what started just now.

Not even when their attempt of contact with Alpha failed—but way before that.

“Also, you should tell the Mushibane lot about the preparations! There’s no time to sleep! Make simulations for who does what and keep practicing it until the very last moment! We’ll stop the space debris no matter what! It’s not gonna end well if you fail this!”

A different phone rang from Chami’s pocket. She put it against her free ear and pressed the talk button.

“—Haah? You called me just to give a lame excuse that you can’t find it? Then keep looking! Why’d you think I sent you over there, Ubuki! Find it, snatch it, hide it and come the fuck back! We’ve got no time!”

Cutting off the call after saying just that, she returned to her original conversation on the other phone.

“You can’t use the government’s space surveillance system…? Have you tried working it through Miguruma properly? Then have that Kabuto what’s-his-face go directly to her! If we can’t track the fucking debris none of this works! Stress to them that this is essential to making Operation 3 work and convince them!”

Everything started all at once.

Shinpu’s release, as well as C’s evolution to a Super Class.

The large fight she was convinced would come at some point suddenly began—and it kept advancing even after the unmistakable main character called Kakkou got off the stage.

Chami had aimed for this opportunity—but she had to admit she’d fallen one step behind.

There was someone other than Chami who also aimed for this chance.

She knew how that person thought, but whether or not there was someone else—

Looking at the current situation, she had to say the answer to that question was no.

“You need a receptable for C, right? You obviously gotta make Akasegawa prepare that too! We can’t spare the time to move the space debris after stopping it—grab all the storage devices needed and take ‘em to the fucking dome!”

As she kept issuing orders, Chami felt a human presence behind her.

“I’m back. I’m out of things to do.”

She didn’t need to turn around. From that lacking presence and that voice, she knew it was Satou Youko.

“Isn’t it too roundabout to issue orders through Lucifera-chan like that? You can just joinr Mushibane like Fuyuhotaru-chan wants.”

“I also said this many times…”

Chami ignored Youko and Konoha.

“Chami’s still bothered about Aya…”

“Her previous pawn? The Mushibane member she made betray them and ended up dying? They won’t know about it if she doesn’t talk. Isn’t she bothered by something completely inconsequential?”

“I’m the one who decides what’s inconsequential and what’s not.”

She couldn’t deny any longer that she was bothered by what happened with Sugitsu Aya, her previous pawn.

However, the reason for Chami to not join Mushibane was different.

“In the worst-case scenario, if I was in Mushibane as well—it’ll be mutual destruction. I want no part of that.”

“The worst-case scenario… meaning, if Operation 3 fails?” Youko asked.

Chami spoke.

“If Operation 3 also fails, I mean.”

Youko and Konoha were silent for a moment.

“Also? What do you mean by that?”

“All of you are such idiots, really! Not a single one of you has noticed anything unnatural about these operations?”

Chami yielded to her anger and shouted.

“Every last one of you—don’t think I’ll keep dancing to your tune, shitheads!”

The success of Operation 3.

That basic assumption included in the fall of the space debris approached moment by moment.

4.01 OPS3 Part 16

She heard that this dome was purely meant for sports events.

The dome that the SEPB used as a tentative base two days ago was a commercial complex. As such, it was located in the city center and had lodgings and hotels attached to the building.

Shiika and the rest and Mushibane as well as the combatants including Kabuto all saw the night sky from inside the dome. The moveable all-weather dome ceiling was open wide, and the twinkling stars looked down on them.

“So we have 4 hours remaining to our time limit of 48 hours, huh.”

Aijisupa was the one who muttered this. He looked around all the Mushitsuki on the artificial grass.

They were all members of Mushibane as well as reinforcements of low-levelled combatants brought from the SEPB by Kabuto. Together they were almost 300 people.

“Never mind the quality, but we’ll probably never gather these many Mushitsuki again.”

“It’s thanks to Kabuto and Halensis-san, who’s still gathering comrades…”

Shiika also looked around the many people just like Aijisupa. Many of the Mushitsuki she could see were already tired.

Obviously.

In order to be able to stop the space debris that was about to fall at any time now, they spent ten hours in rehearsals.

Failure was not an option.

Focusing on that, even the longstanding enemies Mushibane and the SEPB combined forces, albeit only temporarily.

Kabuto approached Shiika.

“I’ve had contact from Operations 1 and 2… but frankly, none of them are in a good state.”

Operation 1. The annihilation of Super Class 1 Rank C hiding in the Underground Fort.

Operation 2. Awakening of Sleeping Beauty conducted by Harukiyo’s group.

All of them threw themselves into battles they couldn’t afford to lose, just like Shiika.

It would be a lie to say she wasn’t worried about that.

“I see…”

Shiika’s expression became clouded. The girl called Terasu, who was leading Operation 1, looked very strong to Shiika’s eyes. She even said that she’d defeated Kakkou once, so Shiika could do nothing but believe in her.

She didn’t know much about Harukiyo, the man in charge of Operation 2. From what she could hear of the rumors calling him the devil of flames, she couldn’t imagine him failing.

“Meaning, all Operations are in similar situations.”

Aijisupa spoke calmly. His arms that bore terrible burns were now being healed by Chafer.

“So it does.”

“Kabuto-san… I know this is pretty late, but thank you so much for gathering SEPB people. Still, is it really fine? There are so many of them…”

“Yeah, all of them are low-ranked that were on standby, so there’s no problem. I got permission from Miguruma, too…”

Saying this much, Kabuto cut off his words.

“I-is something the matter?”

“No, speaking frankly, I’m also a bit worried.”

“…?”

“Until now Miguruma was completely passive about defeating Oogui… even so, she’s awfully cooperative with this Operation. You could say it’s natural given the situation, but still…”

“Well, no use worrying about it now. Rather than Miguruma, we should focus on what’s in front of us.”

Hearing this from Aijisupa, Kabuto put his hand on his chin and thought. “True,” he said, nodding.

“I agree.”

She wondered about Kabuto’s worries, but Shiika felt the same as Aijisupa.

Anyway, Shiika and the rest were probably going to face a difficult challenge now. Although their preparations were quite thorough, if they got distracted everything might come to a waste.

“Err, I’ll go check how the others are doing.”

Saying this to Aijisupa and the rest and leaving, Shiika approached the transport van parked at the very edge of the grounds.

“E-excuse me.”

Opening the baggage door, she hurriedly entered.

The closed space illuminated by small lights had a girl hugging a small boy.

“We’re doing it soon.”

They were Chiharu and the boy housing Sanbikime.

“Yes… this boy—doesn’t seem to be doing well.”

The boy’s condition was obvious at a glance. He was sleek with sweat all over and his breathing was rough. He was apparently unconscious, but his face was grimaced in pain.

“That girl called C.J. came here just before. It’s dangerous so I had her evacuate, though.”

“That girl…”

A person who’d been destined to become a Mushitsuki by Sanbikime, Aria Varei. She recalled how that girl was willing to save a complete stranger although she was covered in wounds. Shiika heard that thanks to Chafer and the emergency services, her life was saved.

“She was a strange girl. She’s cute but has a sharp tongue, yet when we spoke she felt tense… she told me that she has a hard time speaking with pretty people. She gave me her handmade cookie.”

Apparently Chiharu liked her. She spoke while smiling.

“Also, once I told her what happened she said to thank you.”

“Thank me for what?”

“For not turning her into a Mushitsuki.”

Shiika was surprised, but thinking about it more, it was obvious.

“I-I see. No one would want to become a Mushitsuki…”

“No, it’s not that. She said that she didn’t mind that one bit. That as long as this boy ended up not suffering, it wasn’t an issue.”

“Eh…”

“But, rather than that… since this boy resisted it so much, then her becoming a Mushitsuki would definitely make him suffer even more, so she’s going to resist with him—that’s what she said.”

“…”

“She said she wouldn’t become a Mushitsuki even at the price of her life. She’ll go away for a while, waiting for the boy’s condition to improve… it doesn’t have anything to do with distance, though.”

Chiharu and Shiika. The two girls exchanged glances and smiled.

“So cool.”

“Yup.”

What a reliable girl. It was a bit of a pity someone like her didn’t become their ally—but Shiika felt reassured for going against it at the time. If the girl herself didn’t want to become a Mushitsuki, then she shouldn’t.

“I’ll definitely do it.”

Chiharu looked down at the boy in her arms and spoke calmly.

“I’ll definitely get Aria from this boy.”

“…Yes.”

Chiharu’s role was extremely important.

She would definitely manage to do it. With this conviction in her heart, Shiika went out of the transport van.

Next, she looked up at the spectator seats.

What she could see there—wasn’t the audience illuminated by the lights meant for night games.

There were megaliths of all kinds packed together.

“Nanana.”

Shiika went up to the spectator seating and found Akasegawa Nanana.

The billionaire girl sat all alone among these megaliths. While waving her cane, she absently gazed up the night sky.

“What’s wrong, Nanana?”

Nanana gave no answer to Shiika’s call.

All around her men in working clothes moved busily and hurriedly. They were conducting inspection work on the megaliths lined in the spectator seats—swarms of metal boxes.

These were large amounts of storage devices, control panels, cooling devices and the generators needed to make them work.

Erii’s receptable.

Shiika didn’t really understand how it worked, but apparently Erii had converted her personality to a vast amount of digital data. In order to pass it from the space debris, apparently they needed lots of such devices.

“Any information about Operation 2?”

Nanana suddenly spoke.

“Eh? Oh, yes. Apparently it’s not going great…”

“I see, so she’s not awake yet.”

She, probably meaning Sleeping Beauty.

“The night she fell asleep… there were so many shooting stars. Did you know? I’m talking about the Perseids Meteor Shower.”

Nanana smiled happily.

The Perseids Meteor Shower—

Shiika didn’t know about it. Without even looking at her titling her head, Nanana erased her smile.

“She’ll wake up soon.”

What was Nanana thinking about as she looked at this starry night?

“And yet again a star will fall…”

There was barely any time before the remnants of the artificial satellite fell.

Shiika felt that Nanana held strong feelings for the girl referred to as Sleeping Beauty, whether for good or bad.

“You’ve been helping us a lot, Nanana. I’m sure—that you’ve also helped Sleeping Beauty-san a lot, right?”

“…”

“Thanks, Nanana.”

Nanana said nothing.

“I’m sure that Sleeping Beauty-san’s going to say the same thing to you as well.”

Leaving these words behind as Nanana stayed unmoving, Shiika tried leaving.

“…Please.”

She turned back hearing a voice behind her.

“Never show me again—a sight as horrible as that night of the meteor shower.”

Nanana’s face was hidden in the shade of the storage devices so she couldn’t see it well.

“Definitely.”

Nodding clearly, Shiika turned her back to Nanana again.

As she came back below, the many Mushitsuki were already assuming their positions in preparations to stop the space debris.

Confirming that Shiika came back, Namie, who was at the center, raised her voice.

“There’s less than ten minutes until the projected time of the debris crashing down! We spent ten hours on rehearsal, but let’s confirm everything one last time!”

Her well-carried voice spread among the Mushibane and SEPB combined forces.

“The one who’s going to stop the debris is Aijisupa! He’s going to use his steam to act as a cushion against the impact, soften it to not let it get destroyed! But he’s obviously unable to stop it all by himself. That’s why we’ll all support Aijisupa’s steam from the surface! Aijisupa’s going to stop the debris, then we’ll stop it all together!”

While everyone confirmed their strategy again, Lucifera approached Shiika.

“Lucy-san?”

“Snow-san, I need to talk to you...”

“The debris is heading here—or more precisely toward the landmark carried by Erii’s fragment!”

Next to Namie stood Erii who was in the form of Ebina Yuu.

Expressionless like always, she looked like she was gazing at empty air.

“—Don’t take your eyes off of Erii.”

“Eh?”

While looking at her cellphone, Lucifera spoke in a hushed voice to not let anyone around hear her.

“It is odd. To think that Erii—the Mushitsuki called C—would just obediently help us like this… she supposedly hates you very much, never mind if her grudge is deserved or not, and yet she never tried attacking you even once.”

“N-no way… C’s being desperate to not get erased by her own powers.”

“That is exactly it. She had told us that she ran away into that satellite to avoid getting absorbed by her powers… but if so, what is that fragment over there? She was so desperate, yet she was careful enough to hide the fragment to become the landmark near Alpha… that is odd.”

“Although we have a landmark, some calculation errors are bound to pop up. Since it can drop somewhere within dozens of meters, although the government’s surveillance system is watching the debris’ trajectory, the timing of the fall will definitely be mistaken by at least some second! Therefore, we will have Recall use her teleportation abilities to spread a net in the sky!”

Shiika furrowed her brows and looked at Lucifera’s face.

“B-but that’s… it’s for saving herself—”

“Indeed. So it’s just in case—you’re the only one I’m telling this to.”

“Once it touches Recall’s ability in the sky, the satellite will move—and get thrown into the our and Aijisupa’s cushion! As long as we succeed in this, we’ll definitely be able to stop the debris, both position and timing-wise!”

“W-what are you telling me to…?”

“We have no time. If some unexpected happening occurs, we must move to another place immediately. If that happens, you will have to guide everyone as the leader, Snow-san.”

Once that was said, Lucifera went away from Shiika, wearing an innocent face.

“A happening…?”

Shiika mumbled and looked to Erii.

The girl was just standing still. Shiika couldn’t see any suspicious movements like Lucifera said.

Miguruma’s unexpected intention that Kabuto spoke about.

Erii’s true aims that Lucifera spoke about.

There was no way she’d be able to clear these worries just as they were about to handle the falling debris—

“One more minute! …It’s coming! Everyone to positions!”

Namie’s command echoed throughout the stadium.

“—”

Shiika and all other Mushitsuki looked up the night sky.

With no one able to utter a sound, the promised time came.

As a second and yet another second of tension passed—

Who was it that made a voice?

At first it was a small voice of confusion.

Yet it soon transformed into a loud clamor.

“…Is it not coming?”

Shiika’s mumble moved Namie.

“I can’t see anything! What’s going on, Kabuto!”

She heard that they’d be able to confirm the signs of the satellite falling from the sky at the projected time.

But as several minutes passed—there was no change to the night sky.

Everyone there became agitated.

“Ah, we’ve received contact from the observatory!”

Kabuto, who was located further away, put a hand on his goggles and shouted.

“Apparently, a little while ago—the space debris in orbit started decelerating!”

The clamor reached its peak.

“For just a moment, it used its propulsion to move to the opposite direction! It’s apparently going to take some time until it reaches the right angle for atmospheric entry!”

“What…! How long is that supposed to be, then!”

“About—two hours.”

Hearing these words, the clamor instantly faded off.

The projected time was late.

Which meant—

“It’s going to be right before the time limit…”

Namie groaned in shock.

An unforeseen happening—

Just as what they feared happened, Shiika came back to her sense with a start.

“Erii…?”

Recalling what Lucifera told her, she turned to look at Erii—

“—Eh?”

The girl borrowing Ebina Yuu’s body was crying.

No—it wasn’t the girl borrowing her body.

The profile of the girl standing in place and shedding tears was unlike the time she was called Erii—it was the Yuu Shiika knew.

“Erii! What’s—”

Namie also noticed something was odd after a delay, but went speechless.

Was she Erii or Yuu?

The tear-stained girl slowly opened her mouth.

“Right… I remember… my dream is…”

Looking up the sky, she mumbled to herself.

“I want to save Mushitsuki… that’s all…”

“Yuu—chan…?”

Shiika wasn’t the only one there surprised.

“W-what does this mean!”

Lucifera’s expression changed. Although she was the one who noted Erii’s actions were odd, it apparently went way past even her estimations.

“Why’s Yuu-san’s dreaming right now! We haven’t done anything yet—Satou-san hadn’t used her suggestion on her!”

“…!”

Shiika gulped.

Ebina Yuu was dreaming.

Every Mushitsuki there could guess what this meant.

“She’s dreaming… Meaning, that—”

Namie groaned.

“Oogui’s going to come here…?”

Including Shiika, all Mushitsuki were astonished at this unthinkable happening—

At this overwhelming change in plans.

4.02 OPS3 Part 17

“Wait! Yuu-chan!”

Shiika rushed to Yuu, grabbing both thin shoulders.

“It’s too early! If we fight Oogui now, we won’t be able to save Erii…!”

Yuu looked up the sky and mumbled to herself. She couldn’t hear Shiika’s calls.

Lucifera turned to Satou Youko.

“Satou-san! Can you seal Yuu-san’s dream?!”

“—I can just about buy some time.”

Holding her briefcase, Satou Youko rushed to Yuu. Now that she had her hair pushed up and her face was exposed, her entire impression changed from before when she had a thin presence.

All Mushitsuki were agitated by this unexpected development. They became restless and noisy.

Aijisupa grabbed Lucifera.

“What’s going on, Lucifera! Why did she suddenly start dreaming like that? Did your group do something?”

“W-we have not done anything! I can only think that Erii…”

“Erii? I haven’t heard anything about her being capable of this!”

Being questioned violently, Lucifera looked about to cry.

“Erii—C can interfere with a person’s brain’s electrical signals and touch their dream.”

“…!”

All Mushitsuki became speechless.

“Ubuki-san… Karasu-san saw something like that happen.”

“Ubuki did?”

Lucifera turned only her face toward the surprised Shiika.

“Snow-san. You, Ubuki-san and Yuu-san all ran together from Akamaki City, right? —The disk you had back then contained a record of the experiments conducted by the Central Headquarters.”

“—”

She’d never forget it.

Shiika, Shirakashi Ubuki and Ebina Yuu. They came to know each other and after risking their lives in their escape from Akamaki City, found the data disk.

Seeing its contents, Ubuki raged.

Why was it that Ubuki was so mad at the time—Shiika realized the reason for it for the first time.

“Why have you said nothing about something so important until now…!”

“Because I thought Erii took Yuu-san hostage and wanted to save her! If Yuu-san called Oogui, it wouldn’t end just with it being dangerous for her!”

“Erii—C can summon people’s dreams, and then the Original Three make them Mushitsuki…”

A bad feeling was quickly swelling up inside Shiika.

“Then what’s going to happen if C absorbs the Original Three…?”

It wouldn’t be just people with latent dreams like Yuu.

If C could just freely create dreams on her own, she’d end up involving even normal civilians—

“What is C trying to do…?”

She ended up voicing her thoughts.

However, that voice made all Mushitsuki in the sports ground silent.

Right now, Shiika stood at the forefront of many Mushitsuki. By the time she noticed she’d forgotten that fact, the Mushitsuki all froze.

“Change in plans! —We’ll intercept Oogui here!”

As if to erase Shiika’s blunder, Namie raised her voice.

“Let’s switch it up! All that’s changed is the order we’re doing things! Recall, Aijisupa, fall back and protect Fuyuhotaru with your lives! All other combatants are to take positions just like we trained, and follow my orders!”

Hearing these strong orders, the Mushitsuki all regained their calm. They hurriedly formed lines again.

“Let’s finish this with a quick fight before C senses us! The enemy can use all sorts of abilities, but we’re not going to lose, number-wise! It’s going to be tough regardless, but you can just keep teasing Oogui! If we dangle the bait in front of her, she’ll tire of the fight and use that power!”

Namie’s voice echoed between the Mushitsuki all hurrying to form interception position.

“Fuyuhotaru’s power!”

Shiika’s heart leapt hard.

“If that happens, neither numbers nor strength would mean anything! We will retreat and switch with Fuyuhotaru who preserved her powers!”

Although their tension was restored by Namie’s orders, the Mushitsuki all acted quickly. They formed the positions to intercept Oogui in the blink of an eye.

“Then—it will be a duel between Fuyuhotaru and Oogui.”

Everyone’s gazes instantly gathered on Shiika who was waiting behind them.

Shiika’s heartbeat kept growing.

She was neither strong like Kakkou nor had leadership like Rina. All she could do was destroy.

Even so, she’d inherited Kakkou’s and Rina’s dreams.

She carried the hopes of all Mushitsuki.

Therefore, Shiika—would accomplish what only she could do.

“Oogui will probably use my power, but it’s not me.”

Shiika did her best to speak in a strong tone.

“I’ve been helped by countless people until now. So while I’m here, my power doesn’t belong to me alone.”

Thinking about it, Shiika had never fought out of her own volition.

She’d always been running away, but now she was heading to battle for the first time—

Inheriting feelings and wishes, all in order to fulfill the promise ahead.

“I will never lose!”

Shiika’s voice was followed by the Mushitsuki’s cheers. Some of them probably thought she was trying to incite them. Now that both Kakkou and Rina were defeated, they felt that the lone surviving Rank 1, Shiika, supported them.

Defeating Oogui—

All Mushitsuki in the dome were focused on that feeling when it happened.

“Wait—”

This restraining voice came from Aijisupa.

While everyone looked up, expecting to see Oogui’s arrival, he alone was looking at the surface.

“Where’s Ebina Yuu?”

Eh—

Several gasps of astonishment overlapped. Shiika made one of them.

Yuu was supposed to be behind Shiika. Satou Youko had opened her suitcase, showed its contents and performed some sort of process. More than 10 Mushitsuki surrounded them as a defensive ring to protect them.

As Shiika turned around, she saw exactly what she saw before.

“…Yuu-chan?”

However—Ebina Yuu alone wasn’t there.

Other than that, nothing changed. Satou Youko and others all just stood there calmly, doing nothing.

“Hey! —Ugh.”

As Aijisupa rushed toward Satou Youko, there was an electric crackle and his hand was blown back.

From the ground surface, a pale blue electrical discharge transmitted through their bodies—

“…!”

Everyone in front of Aijisupa collapsed to the ground. The reason they were completely unmoving was probably because they lost consciousness.

“To the entrance!”

Roused by someone’s voice, all members turned to the entrance of the dome.

Ebina Yuu was standing there.

No, those sharp eyes looking at her and commanding several C-butterflies meant it was—

“Erii…?”

As Shiika mumbled this, Erii flew out of the dome to the outside.

“Chase her! Bring her back! Don’t lose her!”

Namie hurriedly issued out orders, but apparently they couldn’t preserve their calm.

“She pretended to be calling Oogui and escaped…! What’s that brat thinking about?!”

Just like most other Mushitsuki, Shiika was frozen with shock.

It was just like Namie said. She simply couldn’t understand Erii’s aim.

“At the very least, she doesn’t look like she wants to save herself.”

While biting her nails, Lucifera fiddled with her phone.

“Why’s Erii… at this rate, not only will we not be able to move Sanbikime into Chiharu-san, we won’t be able to beat Oogui either. Reaching the deadline without accomplishing anything would be the worst…”

Her bad hunch was becoming reality.

Time was moving second by second, and yet—things were not going well.

Shiika and all others waiting in the dome were being eaten by anxiety and tension.

“—Erii changed direction again!”

Receiving contact from their comrades who rushed after Erii, Namie yelled in annoyance.

“We have no time! We need to send more people after her!”

How much time passed since Erii escaped?

Receiving the contact from those who went in pursuit, she escaped them, she struck them back, her direction changed again; things repeated like this.

“This is no good! If we just keep on sending more people, Erii’s just going to play with them and cause us to spread our forces thin! Even if we capture her, she might try to escape again. At least until we figure out where she’s heading to, we should keep on going like this…!”

Lucifera tried stopping them, but the Mushitsuki were all at the edge of their patience.

As for why—

“The space debris is coming down soon.”

Akasegawa Nanana appeared next to Shiika.

“Nanana! I-it’s dangerous, you can’t be…!”

“Since Erii—Ebina Yuu isn’t here, nothing’s going to happen here, right? Honestly, I prepared so much money and yet it’s all gone to waste.”

While spinning her cane, Nanana spoke calmly.

“Will it fall on where Erii is? Or another place? Also, when and where will Oogui appear?”

“…”

Even asked all that, Shiika had no answer.

Dawn was approaching.

There was no more time until the time limit of 48 hours.

Time was just passing with no one able to do anything—

“The debris has started entry! Its trajectory is being calculated!”

Kabuto shouted.

Now that it became like this, Shiika and the rest lost the chance to stop it—as well as their goal.

“The calculation’s done! —It’s about to fall inside Akamaki City!”

“So it’s really where Erii is, then.”

“But there’s nothing prepared for Erii there.”

Aijisupa and Namie exchanged glances.

Regardless, Shiika and the others who were so far away couldn’t do anything.

Just when she thought this—

“No, that’s wrong! The place of the estimated crash is… a place to the east of here!”

It suddenly appeared then.

The start button to let Shiika and others move.

And the one who pressed it—was Nanana’s murmur.

“East? What is even there—”

She started speaking, then widened her eyes.

“Alpha…! The museum hiding Alpha!”

“Eh—”

Lucifera went speechless. Even before she heard Nanana’s words, it looked as though she became speechless upon gazing at her cellphone screen.

“N-no way… Erii’s aim is—”

Speaking in a shaky voice, Lucifera raised a strained face.

“She’s going to crash the space debris right on Alpha and kill him…”

“—”

Everyone there gasped.

“Even if Erii herself couldn’t kill him, if the museum became a battlefield with Oogui, she might end up killing Alpha with Fuyuhotaru’s ability—”

While no one was able to utter a single word, Lucifera kept going as if in delirium.

“I don’t know why she’s going so far against Alpha—but there’s no mistake he is someone far more important than we realized—”

Perhaps because sunrise was approaching, the twinkling of stars in the night sky was gone.

It was the black right before getting dyed in white.

Underneath the sky dyed by daybreak, and much too suddenly—

“Erii used herself and Fuyuhotaru in an attempt to attack Alpha, Oogui and even Sanbikime—and turn everything to zero.”

It was as though time only now resumed its flow.

As if this was the signal to begin the final fight.

4.03 OPS3 Part 18

“All members, equip your goggles! Those who can fly, take as many as you can with you and head to the museum!”

Namie shouted.

All Mushitsuki equipped the goggles they’d been supplied in advance. Shiika also let a pair dangle from her neck.

“All others are to board the vehicles prepared by Akasegawa! We have no time! Hurry!”

A giant five-horned rhinoceros beetle appeared in front of Shiika.

This was Kabuto’s Mushi.

“Get on!”

Her arm pulled by Kabuto, Shiika climbed the rhinoceros beetle’s back. Aijisupa, Namie, Lucifera, Recall, Peedwood also came, and following after the Mushibane admins, Nanana also forced her way to the Mushi’s back.

“I’m going as well!”

“N-Nanana? It’s dangerous!”

“Grab on! We’re taking off!”

There was no time to convince Nanana, so Kabuto made his Mushi fly.

The artificial grass was blown by the sudden gale, and weight pressed on Shiika’s entire body from above. After a moment this changed to a sensation of floating, and Shiika found herself in the sky above the dome.

Following the rhinoceros beetle, more and more flying-type Mushi rose from the surface one after another. They were about 30% of the entire forces. The rest all took into large vehicles and could be seen from behind leaving the dome.

“There’s just about 10 minutes until the space debris falls!”

Inside the blowing hellish wind, Kabuto put his hand to the goggles and shouted.

Namie raised her voice even further.

“How long will it take from here to the museum? Can we get there before it falls?”

“I can’t say we’ll make it for sure!”

Perhaps he was the kind of person who didn’t like speaking with optimism, or it really was this severe of a situation. Kabuto’s tone of voice indicating he was clearly pushing down his feelings fully showed how difficult the present state was.

“Have all the employees evacuate!”

Nanana, who was clinging to Shiika, brought out her cellphone. Shiika strained her voice. “A-Alpha-san also needs to be transported somewhere...!”

“We can’t! Do you want to gouge part of his body? If we get him out of the life support system without any preparations, he’ll die on the spot!”

Meaning, they couldn’t even move him with Recall’s teleportation ability, either. The situation was just getting worse and worse.

“Konoha-san has confirmed that Yuu-san—I mean, Erii has reached the museum on the surface!”

With her hair going wild in the wind, Lucifera looked at the cellphone.

So Erii’s goal really was Alpha—

Although no one said this, everyone grimaced and looked convinced of this.

“Uh—”

Lucifera changed her expression.

“At the same time and quite far away—Oogui’s appearance is also confirmed!”

“…!”

A sense of tension spread all over the back of the rhinoceros beetle flying in the dawning sky of Akamaki City.

Oogui appeared.

There was no doubt now. She was being lured by Ebina Yuu’s dream.

“We’re closer to the museum—but apparently Oogui’s heading there as well!”

All became speechless. Only the shout of the rushing wind shook their eardrums hard.

“—We should give up on Alpha.”

Everyone turned to look at the person who suddenly said this.

It was Aijisupa. Even within the blowing wind, his calm voice carried well.

“Rather than trying to stop the debris—which we don’t even know if we can in time—we should focus on our original goal, Oogui. We can’t exhaust ourselves unnecessarily and end Operation 3 in failure.”

“W-wait, I can’t allow that! I’ve bought Alpha! I’ve kept looking for that person… for the Magician and managed to get it! I won’t allow you to give up on him!”

“W-what are we going to do about Sanbikime, too! We can’t move it from the boy to Chiharu-san unless we get the Erii that’s in the debris…!”

After Nanana’s and Lucifera’s fierce rebuttals, Shiika followed as well.

“T-they’re right! We won’t be able to save Erii like this, either…!”

“You know this already. —Erii’s not our ally.”

Aijisupa’s calm expression was like ice.

“B-but…”

Shiika couldn’t say anything in reply.

“We don’t know if we can make it in time. I don’t think Erii will cooperate. Also, Oogui’s approaching from nearby. —Those are enough reasons to give up on Alpha.”

There was only little remaining time.

This extreme situation required a decision—

“’If I can just touch the debris… I’ll try whatever I can…’”

A pained voice echoed.

“’I’ve done it before… made a mess of everything… and fused it together… yes, just like I did when I was born…’”

“Aria… san?”

Shiika put a hand on her goggles.

It was the voice of Sanbikime—Aria Varei. She couldn’t see it from above, but the transport van was probably headed to the museum. Apparently, he’d heard them talking through the wireless.

“’I’ll do what I can… I’ll lump it all together with C’s power or whatever her name is… this body’s at its limits anyway…’”

That disconnected voice had clear pain in it.

“It’s finally the time for me… to try this minimal resistance thing, too…”

“I’ll help Aria as well!”

It was Chiharu’s voice. Shiika could imagine her desperately hugging Aria.

“Never mind me going into Chiharu or waking up Alpha… I do not know what happens to C without her receptable, either…”

Shiika bit her lips.

Erii. The girl who relied on Kakkou and so ended up hating Shiika.

Why would she sacrifice her own body to try and erase Alpha? Shiika couldn’t understand why Erii would use even those she was supposed to hate to accomplish her goals.

Didn’t she want—to be saved?

Since Erii was somewhere far away and far below her, Shiika couldn’t even ask this question of her.

“Even that being said, I don’t think we have the time to let Sanbikime go near the debris!”

Namie’s voice cut through the wind’s sound.

“Even if we send Recall to the skies from here, she won’t make it in time! —If she’s aiming for Alpha, then fixing the slight inaccuracies in the trajectory won’t mean anything… we can’t do anything about the timing! If we want to stop it, we must reach before the debris falls!”

There was barely any time until the debris crashed.

Even so, not only were they not ready, but they were separated and desperate to even reach the museum.

“We can only wait for a miracle… will you still do this? Fuyuhotaru!”

Everyone on the five-horned rhinoceros beetle looked at Shiika.

She wasn’t blaming Shiika. Although those eyes were certainly full of despair, they also exhibited her will to go along with whatever Shiika said.

“—”

Shiika opened her mouth but she felt no words could leave her throat.

She was about to choose the wrong answer again.

Operation 3 had started, and although it was different from their schedule, they could engage Oogui now.

Even so, for Shiika to be saying she wanted to stop the debris right now—would be nothing but her sentimentality.

“What’ll we do? I’m against this, but if you tell us to do it…”

“Shiika-chan!”

“Shiika!”

“Snow-san!”

“Three more minutes…!”

Some wanted to complete Operation 3 even with some sacrifices.

Some wanted to stop the debris and fulfill their own duties and accumulated wishes.

Pressed to find the right choice for both, Shiika—

“…!”

Held her tongue.

She couldn’t choose.

She could choose nothing but the answer of silence; the most foolish to choose as a leader.

Their feelings, their duty to finish the fight, anything and everything—

Were too heavy for the weak girl called Anmoto Shiika, and she couldn’t carry all of them.

“What? Look at the surface—”

As Shiika couldn’t speak, she heard Kabuto’s surprised voice.

There was no need to ask, as the change was as clear as day.

“Something’s shining!”

It was just like Nanana said.

Since an evacuation order had been issued to Akamaki City, there were so few lights there it didn’t look like a capital.

Even so, spots of lights were suddenly born here and there. Buildings, houses, alleys and such were suddenly flooded by golden glows, looking as if they were floating above the surface.

As if they were replacing the glowing stars that vanished with the approach of dawn.

These countless stars on the surface were all moving to a certain direction.

“—Butterflies.”

The one who realized their identity was Namie.

Shiika also narrowed her eyes and looked down—feeling a chill run down her spine.

Those lights born on the surface were swarms of butterflies. They were familiar ones, glowing in gold.

“C—”

That shaky voice was erased by the wind, so it wasn’t clear who it belonged to.

Golden C-butterflies filled Akamaki City, joined into swarms and aimed at a certain location.

And where these C-butterflies were heading to—

“They’re heading to the museum…?”

Starting with Shiika’s mumble, her comrades became agitated.

“They’re all going to the museum…?”

“So she noticed Oogui’s presence…!”

“T-these numbers are insane—is this really possible with a Mushitsuki’s power?!”

While Shiika and the rest looked down, the number of butterflies only kept increasing. The glow emerging from any and all electric lines became fairies and added to the swarms.

Akamaki City in its entirety was being overrun by fairies and butterflies—

Just like Lucifera said, this went way past the limits of a single Mushitsuki.

“I can see the museum!”

Aijisupa’s voice brought everyone back to reality.

Raising her face, Shiika could see the lights gathering from far in the building.

The rhinoceros beetle accelerated.

Shiika and her comrades.

Oogui.

C.

All were heading to the museum, and the first one to reach—

“—We didn’t make it in time.”

Kabuto grimaced and looked up at the upper sky.

“The debris… is falling!”

Shiika gasped and looked up.

There was a lone line of light running through the sky dyed with dawn.

“Ah—”

Shiika’s unconscious mutter became the cue.

Following the first line of light, another and yet another line of light joined it—

“—”

It was a shower of lights.

Probably because they were right below where it was falling, the lights showering on Akamaki City spread in a radial formation.

Everyone including Shiika lost their words not due to the despair of not making it in time—but rather being taken away by such a beautiful sight.

“Once again… stars are falling—”

Nanana’s voice, sounding somewhat sad, rang especially clear in Shiika’s ears.

“The debris fragments…”

She felt like she could even hear Namie grit her teeth with this mumble.

A miracle—would not happen.

They didn’t make it in time.

The one who first reached the museum where Alpha and Ebina Yuu—

Was the burning lump coming down from the heavens.

“The debris’ main bulk is coming!”

“My ears…!”

Crackling in the atmosphere was a sound like an earth tremor.

At the very center of the fragments burning up in the atmosphere that would never reach the surface was an especially bright light.

This tremor—no, the sound shaking the air was growing larger and larger.

“Erii…!”

Shiika grimaced.

There was nothing to be done now. There was no longer any way to save Erii, and Chiharu and the others’ wishes would not come true, either.

In a few more seconds, the debris would strike the earth.

It would knock down the museum where Alpha slept without leaving a trace.

While everyone could imagine this sight, an unforeseen change occurred.

“Something’s odd! The fairies on the surface…!”

“Eh—”

Hearing Lucifera’s voice as she looked to the surface, Shiika saw that the swarms of fairies all held hands.

No. Looking closely, a golden light surged and connected all fairies and C-butterflies. These all gathered at a single point on the surface, then burst with a loud roar.

“—!”

Lightning.

It was a massive lightning strike, shot from the surface to the sky.

It spread through the sky above the museum in the literal speed of light.

A gigantic C-butterfly.

Emitting golden electricity, it spread its wings toward where Shiika was looking—

“The debris—”

The shooting star that didn’t vanish from the sky while falling.

She realized that this was the debris—because something impossible happened.

The C-butterfly floating above the museum stopped it.

No, rather than saying it stopped it, to Shiika it looked as though it absorbed it.

After all, the vibration shaking Akamaki City’s sky, the shockwave that hurt her ears, all vanished into thin air as if they never existed.

“The C-butterfly… stopped Erii?”

“No, something’s odd—”

“T-the debris… is still falling…”

She felt all her comrades were confused.

Yes, Shiika could see the exact phenomenon just like someone said.

Although it clashed directly against the C-butterfly, the debris—from afar it looked like a lump of metal burning pure red—kept falling down while leaving an aura of flames.

It kept falling despite not moving from the spot.

“—An isolated space.”

Battle-experienced Namie realized this.

The C-butterfly closed its wings and its form melted into the air. The stopped debris also was vanishing while continuing its eternal fall.

Aijisupa groaned.

“It’s going to vanish… so she’s going to take even Erii’s remaining personality.”

“Will C become even stronger…? If so, this is a situation even worse than Erii self-destructing!” said Lucifera.

Among the Mushitsuki who gazed at that sight while stunned—

Shiika alone thought of something else.

No miracle came.

The one who obtained Erii’s debris was their enemy, C.

While having the enemy they needed to defeat crush their hopes, Shiika actually—felt power welling up within her.

Her doubts—

Her weakness at being unable to choose the right answer—

Cruel reality struck them all down.

“We now have some time to prepare…”

As Shiika mumbled this, the next action she took—

Was taking Recall’s hand.

4.04 OPS3 Part 19

Horiuchi Erii watched it all happening from the surface through Ebina Yuu’s eyes.

Only Yuu was in this spacious museum.

“This world I was born into was full of no more than things I couldn’t understand.”

Erii spoke from within Yuu.

Underneath the starry night sky, the golden C-butterfly wrapped up the debris.

Erii’s personality was left inside a certain storage device in that debris. Right now, settling within Yuu’s body—within her brain—was nothing more than a fragment she’d created with Shinpu’s ability.

“I was born in a certain town, but was always alone. The mere fact I could perform just a slightly calculation made them all think I was a genius… but they soon started treating me like a hideous monster. —So apparently, being a normal person was conditioned upon being unable to perform even simple calculations.”

“Calculation… right, I need to keep studying for my entrance tests.”

While idly looking above, Yuu moved only her mouth.

Right now Ebina Yuu was being controlled by C manipulating her electric signals. The human mind could be easily controlled by just a bit of electric flow.

“Why were all other people stupid? And why was I hated? I had no idea. I wanted to understand what other people were and above all else what I myself was, and by that time—I became Mushitsuki.”

“Mushitsuki… very strong people… but also slightly sad people…”

Yuu mumbled in delirium.

She was already used to hacking people’s minds to operate them. She also became able to preserve memories and feelings as well as fake and erase them.

Because she repeated it again, and again and again to learn.

In the experiments under the orders of Miguruma Yaeko.

“Finally… I thought that I was reborn in the world I should have been a part of in the first place.”

Erii recalled the time when she’d been assigned the codename C.

“The ones who stopped my rampage after I became a Mushitsuki were Kakkou-san and Sleeping Beauty—Arisu-san. The ones who guided me into the world of Mushitsuki just like me. Since Mushitsuki were abnormal, my powers of calculation were not special in the least… and I finally gained the friends called Mushitsuki.”

“Friends… Mushitsuki friends… Ubuki-san… Shiika-san…”

“Several years ago, on the night of the meteor shower, I was the only one absent. …Did they see through me? Kakkou-san and Arisu-san were both sharp, despite being so simple. Since I had so much fun being with them, did they notice?”

Erii, along with Miguruma Yaeko, repeated the experiments on Shinpu’s fragments.

She embedded Mushitsuki with fragments to strengthen them, she forcibly revived them… Erii repeated these cruel deeds that played with people’s feelings.

Although she knew this was unforgivable, Erii couldn’t escape.

After all—

“I actually didn’t want the battles of Mushitsuki to end…”

In the night sky she saw with Yuu’s eyes, the C-butterfly’s silhouette engulfing the debris was thinning out.

A mere lump of electricity couldn’t stop the debris. Her aim was to take it to an isolated space that didn’t exist in this world and patiently wait for its momentum to stop.

“I, just like Miguruma Yaeko—wanted there to be a world that always had Mushitsuki in it…! But if it became known that I thought this, other Mushitsuki—my friends would hate me. So I did my best pretending to fight… However, Miguruma tempted me with the prospect of gaining more friends, so I couldn’t go against her… I wanted him to stop me. None other than Kakkou-san…”

The fragments of the debris became shooting stars in the night sky.

It looked exactly the same as the night that gave Sleeping Beauty her alias.

“I wanted him to act before Sleeping Beauty—before Arisu, who always fought for Mushitsuki, woke up. I wanted him to kill me along with Miguruma. —Because I’ve already done something so horrible that I can never face her again.”

These hidden feelings of her contained the spark lighting up the fires of hatred.

“If Fuyuhotaru is not going to grant me even that, I’ll just purge it all. All so I can puff up with pride and say I fought, when Arisu-san comes back…”

Yuu’s vision moved from overhead to the surface. She glared at the half-domed building in the distance.

“Alpa—”

“Alpha…”

Erii and Yuu’s voices overlapped.

“Before I got swallowed by Shinpu’s memories, I peeked at Miguruma’s memories. Before the Original Three became the Original Three, Alpha was already a Mushitsuki… the true start—was with this human called Alpha. As long as he exists, even beating the Original Three will not mean the end of the fight—”

“Alpha will… vanish…”

Yuu’s mouth moved.

“But—then… Erii will…”

Erii knew that her control was rapidly weakening. Since the C-butterfly took the debris away, Erii’s ability was being erased from this world.

“It’s fine. I’ve—already been dead for a while now. Ever since the time I synchronized myself with Shinpu and was unable to restrain my own power…”

As she looked at the night sky again, almost none of the C-butterfly’s silhouette remained.

She wanted to grit her teeth, but Erii had no body.

“What I did is meaningless, yet—”

In the end, Erii was unable to achieve her goal and couldn’t stand up to her own power.

Failure.

Although she pulled out all breaks trying to win, she lost.

Although she felt like she wanted to writhe with this scorching pain, at the same time—she was glad.

She felt like she finally understood Kakkou and Sleeping Beauty.

They definitely had fought while carrying the same feelings as Erii did right now.

Perhaps they would keep fighting from now on.

“I will not regret it. It is painful, but… it doesn’t hurt.”

“Erii…”

“Sorry, Ebina Yuu-san. For using you.”

“Don’t go…”

“—You really are just like Sleeping Beauty. For example, in how you look like you’re being controlled by me but you actually accept it, or how you try to stop someone from vanishing… as well as in your dream of saving Mushitsuki…”

Were they Erii’s? Or perhaps Yuu’s?

Whoever they belonged to, large tears started gushing out from Ebina Yuu’s eyes.

“Because it’s the same as Sleeping Beauty’s… the same dream as Arisu-san’s…!”

Erii’s consciousness was leaving Yuu’s body.

No, her true personality was being pulled back to the debris.

The Mushitsuki called Horiuchi Erii watched this scene in the last moments of her life.

She saw Ebina Yuu, shedding tears and reaching out into empty air—

“Couldn’t you see it, Erii…? Even though my eyes were able to do…!”

See it?

What was she seeing?

Leaving that small doubt behind, Erii’s vision was cut off.

“—”

As Erii got pulled back to the storage device in the debris, she saw a gigantic C-butterfly holding her.

A pitch-black world.

It was even darker than the outer space Erii had drifted through before. There were no twinkling stars but only golden butterflies fluttering around, and nothing else.

This was the isolated world created by C in the past.

Once the being known as Super Class Rank 1 C absorbed even her lost personality, what kind of a being would she become?

Even that was a future Erii would never come to know.

“…”

What should she think about while dying?

What should she mutter?

Erii thought of such things, but it didn’t matter.

Because a light different than that of the C-butterfly was created in this world of darkness.

Fluttering softly, that small glow was as just like—snow in the midst of winter.

“Give her back—”

Although this world was supposed to contain only Erii and C, something else pushed its way inside.

Held by the girl called Recall who had teleportation powers, that girl was—

“Give Erii back!”

Fuyuhotaru—Anmoto Shiika.

This was what Ebina Yuu spoke about. The moment the isolated space closed, she probably saw those two manage to slip inside with the girl’s teleport ability.

Touched by a single snowflake, the C-butterfly screamed.

Since it had no mouth to raise a cry with, instead it blew electrical attacks—but its wings broke from the inside, the sound of shattering became its death throes and it echoed through the space.

What an evil and scary power—

It was the freakiest power among all Mushitsuki.

It was obvious at a glance why everyone would fear it—but at the same time, since Erii was used to feel lonely because of her oddness, it was a fact she also felt a strange sense of camaraderie.

“Stop acting for no reason… even risking your life…”

If Erii currently had a mouth, she would have cussed and cursed her.

If she had arms, she would have probably struck her and laughed hard at this foolish act, trying to save someone who was going to vanish anyway.

And if she had eyes—she would have probably cried.

“…I don’t want to owe anything to someone like you…!”

Horiuchi Erii’s last words—

Became this sort of unintended scream.

4.05 OPS3 Part 20

Shiika had leapt into the isolated space created by C because she believed.

Recall understood Shiika’s aim just from the girl grabbing her hand and looking her in the eyes. It had been a very short time since she joined Mushitsuki and she was still a young Mushitsuki. Even so, the fact that she fought when she needed to could be said to symbolize the reborn Mushibane.

It wasn’t just Recall.

Shiika had many allies she could count on.

Shiika couldn’t do anything, yet these Mushitsuki supported her and believed in her.

Therefore, she had no doubt about using her own powers.

“Break…”

Being held by Recall from behind, Shiika raised her arms aloft.

Floating above her hands was the pale light glowing in the darkness of the isolated space.

It was a small firefly that used Shiika’s voice.

“Just a little…”

The snow that started inside the isolated space already captured the golden C-butterfly. The wings that were dozens of times larger than Shiika burst, broke down, shattered and scattered.

“Erii…!”

The debris floating right below Shiika’s eyes was a red fireball. Its wrapped surface was scorched black, and she knew it was emitting such violent heat wave due to its friction with the atmosphere.

The debris was still falling—

If Shiika broke the isolated space, it would fall down to the surface.

It would fall down on Alpha.

Although she knew that, Shiika didn’t let up her efforts.

“…!”

While the C-butterfly was losing its shape, light passed into the space wrapped in darkness.

The real world coming back with noise and electricity was filled with blinding light.

Daybreak.

Way above the museum, the morning sun was peeking from between the gaps in the buildings of the shopping district and showed itself.

“—”

The golden C-butterfly was completely destroyed, and what Shiika witnessed—

Was the exact scene she had believed in.

“Everyone, prepare!”

Mushitsuki who looked up the sky, surrounding the building Alpha inhabited.

With Aijisupa and Namie in the lead of Mushibane as well as the SEPB combatants under Kabuto’s command.

Shiika didn’t say anything.

She didn’t find an answer.

However, as Shiika took so quick of an action—she believed that they’d definitely be waiting for her.

“It’s heeeere!”

The afterimage of C’s isolated space was gone and the debris vibrated violently again.

The moment after, a gigantic white sphere formed between the debris and the museum. Its surface was misty but looking more closely, it was entirely made of small water vapors.

It was the lump of steam produced by Aijisupa.

The debris—finally resumed its fall.

“OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!”

Shot just like a bullet from a gun, the debris clashes with the steam formed by the howling Aijisupa. The shockwave and heatwave created by the debris easily poked the surface of steam.

However, it couldn’t pierce through.

Although the large sphere was being warped, almost like a water balloon managing to stop a bullet, it just barely held back the fall’s momentum.

“Now! Push it back!”

Along with Namie’s order, the Mushitsuki on the surface all unleashed their attacks at once.

“—!”

Shiika, who had been brought back to the surface by Recall, was assaulted by a fierce wind.

The Mushitsuki’s unified attack supported the lump of steam from the surface. It covered the debris and, in order to not let the Mushitsuki destroy it, the steam changed shape from an ellipse to a disk.

“Eeek!”

A violent shockwave assaulted the surface. Shiika held down her ears and took a step back.

As if trying its very last resistance, the space debris spread around violent hellfire. The burning machine was instantly boiled by Aijisupa’s steam.

“Guh…!”

“OOOOOOH!”

“We can’t hold it…!”

Hearing the many Mushitsuki panic, Shiika startled.

Looking to the entrance of the museum, many transport vans appeared. One after another, Mushitsuki came flying out of the parked vehicles.

Those who made it in time were only the flyers—

Although C’s appearance helped them make it on time, their comrades running on the surface didn’t manage to. Right now, only about 30% of the entire forces were supporting the debris.

“OOOOOOOH!”

This especially loud war cry came from Aijisupa.

He was desperately trying to hold up the debris—

“——!”

The sky welcoming the dawn of a new day exploded.

The lump of steam and the Mushitsuki’s attacks were pierced by the debris.

Along with a roar, the debris was falling toward the building that contained Alpha—

And a moment before that.

“Eh—”

Shiika had definitely seen it.

A black arrow passed through the museum’s entrance, weaved a path between the running Mushitsuki—and flew inside the museum.

It looked as if that black arrow alone operated on another time than anyone else.

Was it just a hallucination? Perhaps she unconsciously tried to escape from reality.

Shiika thought this way because she was seeing the cruel reality in front of her eyes.

“Alpha-san…!”

Shiika’s yell was drowned by the roar of the debris crushing the building.

A violent vibration assaulted the surroundings, and all Mushitsuki who were caught up in it were blown back. Steel, concrete, glass—the fragments of the destroyed building burst inside the museum.

Erii’s aim was too precise.

The debris knocked down the building, caring not what it hit. Since the Mushitsuki managed to kill about half of its momentum, it didn’t become a huge crater, and yet—almost all of the building had been blown away as though a giant’s hand scooped it up, and it continued far behind the premises.

The direct impact settled down.

“Recall-chan!”

While dust danced around, Shiika grabbed Recall’s hand. She assumed her aim, transformed her and Shiika’s bodies to smoke and moved them atop the wreckage.

“…!”

Standing at the very edge of the gouged earth, Shiika had witnessed this scene.

A ruined building and Alpha’s corpse—

Did not exist there.

It was a mysterious result.

Although the building had clearly been destroyed—Alpha remained there, sleeping in his life preservation system.

And it was not just Alpha there.

“—Chiharu…san?”

As if to protect Alpha—or perhaps as if to stop the debris from killing Alpha.

Chiharu was there, reaching out toward the life preservation system and to empty air.

And wrapping his arms around her waist was the boy housing Sanbikime.

How on earth had they managed to reach Alpha in that split second?

How did they protect him from the debris?

She immediately knew the answer.

“—It would’ve been impossible for us alone.”

Inside the rain of asphalt fragments, Chiharu slowly raised her face.

Chiharu was shedding tears.

“Erii—saved us.”

As the girl mumbled this, her hair flowed like water.

It flowed aside as though fanned by the wind—glowing deep azure.

Looking closely, it wasn’t just Chiharu. The boy who was unconscious while hugging her waist as well as Alpha were also wrapped in the blue light.

Chiharu smiled. Her eyes narrowed in seeming reminiscence were also dyed blue.

“Welcome back, Aria—”

Blue glow rose from the ground as though only now remembering to.

The glowing light became a surge, and behind Chiharu—created a rift that flowed all the way to the debris that was supposedly somewhere far.

“I knew it, our compatibility’s the best!”

Ayukawa Chiharu.

Seeing the girl with her azure glow, Shiika came to realize.

The girl who was once house to Aria Varei and turned Kakkou into a Mushitsuki.

She now—had Aria back inside her.

She apparently used her powers as Sanbikime to protect Alpha from the debris. Was she completely unhurt despite being unable to stop the debris due to her slipping through it?

“It really was in the nick of time.”

Shiika heard that voice from overhead.

“Ubuki!”

Shirakashi Ubuki was floating in the sky, her coat transformed to four wings. She was apparently the one who carried Chiharu this far.

Shiika was very happy at getting reunited with her friends, but she came back to her sense with a start.

“Erii…! What happened to her?”

Looking at the traces of destruction continuing afar, Shiika yelled.

Had anything remained of the debris ahead?

Or had it broken down to smithereens?

“Chiharu-san!”

Shiika looked at Chiharu.

The girl who united with Aria Varei again said that Erii had saved her.

Then for sure—

“—”

Shiika’s faint hope was crushed by Chiharu’s expression.

Chiharu—erased her smile. She stared at Shiika with serious eyes.

“She left a… message for you, Shiika.”

“…!”

Left a message?

From that phrasing, it was as though—

“Yes. —It was her final request.”

Shiika felt herself go limp.

She couldn’t save Erii—

Shiika was about to fall to her knees, but Aijisupa who appeared at some point supported her.

“Grieving comes later.”

As she looked at the boy, he was looking up to the completely opposite direction of Chiharu.

It wasn’t just Aijisupa. Other than Shiika, all Mushitsuki around were glaring at the same direction.

“But it’s definitely not just you alone, Shiika-chan. I believe she told this to all of us.”

Chiharu, with her azure hair fanned in the wind, did not look at Shiika.

She appeared to be looking at the sky behind Shiika’s back where the sun just rose.

Shiika turned around and became speechless.

The sky that until just now was illuminated by the morning’s light—was dyed in purple.

“She said, ‘please protect Yuu-san’—”

Speaking of Erii’s last will, Chiharu glared ahead.

Floating there in the purple-dyed sky—

Was the being called Oogui.

4.06 OPS3 Part 21

She wore a coat as red as blood and behind her sunglasses, she had eyes in the colors of the rainbow.

She had a long hair and a long, slim body.

Physically she just looked like an adult woman.

“Oogui…”

Shiika unconsciously mumbled that creature’s title.

One of the Original Three who produced Mushitsuki.

She was their archenemy, who ate the most dreams of them all, who produced countless Mushitsuki.

Oogui’s ability allowed her to use the abilities of all Mushitsuki she created as her own.

Operating separately from Shiika and the rest, Harukiyo’s team had supposedly reached Sleeping Beauty right about now. If they woke her up, the Undying Mushitsuki she’d sealed would revive as well.

If that happened, Oogui would once more become invincible.

The time limit was approaching—

“Fufu—”

Oogui’s sneer as she floated far above echoed all the way down to the surface.

“It has been quite a while since I saw so many Mushitsuki together…”

Her response at having so much awe and hostility directed at her—

Was just that.

She then suddenly removed her eyes from their group and looked down someplace further.

“—You’re dreaming again, then?”

Gasping, Shiika followed Oogui’s gaze.

At a position removed from all these Mushitsuki there was a girl standing as though dazed.

“Ebina Yuu-chan.”

As she stood up and gazed up the sky, Yuu’s cheeks were wet with streams of tears. Purple scales drifted around her and shook eerily to entice the girl.

“Now… will you tell me your dream?”

Oogui’s rainbow pupils could see nothing but Yuu.

She didn’t even care about all the Mushitsuki gathered there to meet her. Had she simply not noticed so many Mushitsuki—or was she really not interested in them?

The answer was most likely the latter.

The Original Three would appear to a person with a dream, eat their dream and make them Mushitsuki.

Among them, Oogui had an especially powerful appetite.

“This is bad…! Protect Ebina Yuu!”

“We have no time! Let’s start!”

Aijisupa and Namie leapt to the frontlines of the Mushitsuki.

Although confused, they all started unleashing attacks toward the floating Oogui.

“Pull Ebina Yuu back! Now that she’s lured Oogui here, her role’s over! Bring her back to her senses!”

Namie’s orders made the mixed forces of Mushibane and the SEPB move.

The decisive fight against Oogui.

Although they didn’t want to, it started now.

“Oh…?”

As Oogui tilted her head, purple scales gathered in front of her.

These assembled into one spot, condensed and assumed the shape of a giant five-horned rhinoceros beetle. It spread its wings and became a shield against the attack of the rhinoceros beetle trying to hit Oogui.

“My ability…!”

On the surface, Kabuto groaned with clear hatred in his voice.

The five-horned rhinoceros was smashed and became purple scales again. Behind it, Oogui suddenly turned to Shiika as though only now recalling her existence.

“Neither Kakkou-chan nor Arisu-chan are here… but you are still going to stand in my way?”

Around the smiling Oogui, purple scales were condensing.

“—”

Every single one of the hundred Mushitsuki there became speechless.

Underneath the sky glowing in purple, what Oogui produced around her in the blink of an eye—

Was a number of Mushi comparable to the number of Mushitsuki on the ground.

She could probably use even the abilities of Mushitsuki who weren’t there. The Mushi of those people made Mushitsuki by Oogui assembled in perfect coordination as though they were military troops to look down on Shiika and the rest.

Witnessing the vast gap in their powers, the Mushitsuki’s assault stopped for a moment.

“Now, can you please give me Yuu-chan?”

Oogui’s Mushi attacked the frozen Mushitsuki.

She perfectly forestalled them.

Not only were they not able to attack Oogui, now they needed to be on the defensive. As the Mushi attacked recklessly, not even caring for mutual destruction, soon there were several screams.

“Calm down! Don’t get separated! Preserve your formation!”

Namie was desperately trying to stop them—

It wasn’t those Mushitsuki who grasped the opportunity for a counterattack.

“Oogui!”

The scream heard from the sky made Shiika raise her head.

An azure glow dancing way overhead intersected with Oogui.

It was Chiharu.

Her entire body glowing azure, Chiharu used her right arm to slash at Oogui—and tore a huge hole in the crimson long coat.

“Oh, this is Chiharu-chan, and… Aria. My, what good friends you are to get reunited like this.”

Although having lost everything from her shoulder to her hips in a single strike, Oogui was smiling.

Looking even higher above Oogui in the sky, Shirakashi Ubuki was dancing there. She had probably carried Chiharu and dropped her to Oogui.

“Damn…!”

Perhaps aiming for a deeper cut, Chiharu groaned painfully while in air. Gravity took its hold on her, and this time it was Recall who caught her.

“Interrupting my meal again and again like this, you really do resemble your beloved brother.”

Oogui laughed as though it was a funny joke while small Mushi came to her. The white objects gushing from her lower torso filled the missing parts of her body, and by kneading it together with their small legs she managed to retrieve her previous form.

“No—”

Akasegawa Nanana, who was watching the battle from afar, screamed.

“It’s not that Mushi… it’s not the Undying! Harukiyo hadn’t woken up Sleeping Beauty yet!”

Since Nanana was the witness to that large battle in the past, the Mushitsuki’s expressions changed.

“If she’s not Undying, she can be beaten! Go!”

Namie’s Mushi, the common albatross butterfly, burned away the soldiers made of scales on the surface.

Feeling a definite hope, the Mushitsuki regained their morale. Unheeding the fatigue they accumulated from stopping the debris, they kept repeating relentless attacks.

Although Oogui kept fluttering around to evade, Chiharu followed with more surprise attacks.

Even the Mushitsuki headed by Aijisupa, Namie and Kabuto wrung out loud voices to rouse themselves for this mortal combat.

And supporting all of them—

“Connect it all to Fuyuhotaru!”

Namie shouted.

This fight was connected to Shiika.

How many hopes and wishes she was carrying?

She knew this since long ago. Shiika had intended on steeling her resolve for this.

“—”

Even so—Shiika looked not at Oogui, but glanced at the entrance to the premises.

Space debris fragments were strewn all around the depression gouging the ground.

She couldn’t save Erii.

She wanted to save that Mushitsuki, yet failed. Erii had apparently borne a grudge against Shiika, but Shiika didn’t hate her. She didn’t really understand it well, either—but at the very end, knowing that she cooperated with Chiharu, Shiika thought her impression wasn’t wrong.

Erii was someone who should be saved.

However, she had been unable to.

Helplessness and sadness filled her chest to the brim—

She felt just like when she’d heard about the death of her friend Tachibana Rina—

But this made her recall how powerless she was back then, when all she could do was get protected.

“At this rate, I’ll never get to eat Yuu-chan’s dream.”

Twitch.

Shiika wasn’t the only one agitated by Oogui’s mutter.

The Mushitsuki focused on the battle all stopped moving.

“Chiharu-chan and Aria as well… are you not tired of this already?”

The moment Oogui smiled, the soldiers fighting against the Mushitsuki dispersed. Becoming purple scales again, they gathered above Oogui’s head and were being condensed.

Producing this way—was a purple firefly.

“—It’s here!”

It was just like they aimed for.

Starting with Namie’s order, all Mushitsuki began distancing themselves from Oogui at once.

“Retreat! Focus on protecting Alpha!”

“Will you really be fine, Shiika?”

While all her comrades were getting away, Aijisupa stood in front of Shiika, tired and with this headband soaked in sweat and blood. Shiika nodded at him.

“Yes.”

She could no longer avoid her confrontation with Oogui.

She couldn’t—complain.

“Leave the rest to me.”

Seeing Shiika speak clearly, Aijisupa nodded as well.

“…Don’t die.”

Aijisupa touched her as he left. She was glad at feeling his hand’s warmth.

She understood Aijisupa’s feelings. He was worried that Shiika was chasing after the footsteps of Tachibana Rina, the previous Mushibane leader.

But that was wrong.

The kind Rina attempted to save many Mushitsuki and took everything on herself.

However, unlike Rina, Shiika was hopelessly weak.

She only reached this far because her comrades supported her.

“It’s fine. —I will not die.”

The moment she mumbled this, there was no longer anyone around Shiika.

Behind her, the technicians brought in by Nanana were engaged in a fierce battle to transport Alpha. If the Mushitsuki also helped them, they should be able to move him to a safe place before there were victims.

“—Oh, Shiika-chan.”

Only now did Oogui notice Shiika being there.

Perhaps it was inevitable, because she was a being controlled by her instincts.

She was just trying to use this Mushi to kill everyone on the surface—not even caring that it was the very same Mushi born from Shiika’s dream.

Because of that being, Shiika—could bring out her full powers.

“Are you going to stand in my way as well? And after I went to the trouble of making you recall your dream…”

“This wasn’t thanks to you.”

Shiika raised both arms aloft.

A firefly glowing in white appeared within her hands.

“I’ve recalled my dream… because I had an important promise.”

You too, one day—

The one who said this and waited for Shiika was Kakkou.

Not the true and real monster that was in front of her eyes.

“Break…”

Shiika’s firefly whispered.

“Break…”

The purple firefly whispered.

Two kinds of snow came down from the sky dyed in an abnormal color.

White and purple.

Two kinds of snowflakes slowly drifted down, and the moment they touched—

“—sssssssss”

All sound vanished from the outside world.

The sky dyed in purple distorted, twisted, and warped. Everything around the museum that Shiika could see from her position—the buildings, the lighting, the trees—all broke down, were smashed, inverted, was blasted into smithereens and erased.

“Break…”

“Break…”

Was everything around Shiika destroyed?

Or was space itself warped such that it looked like it?

It was possible she couldn’t hear anything due to the clash of two kinds of snow creating such a loud sound that her eardrums were destroyed.

Shiika and Oogui.

Only those on the surface and above in the sky preserved their original form.

Shiika tried pouring the white snow over Oogui’s. Purple snow tried pouring over Shiika. But the moment snow touched snow they cancelled each other.

“More…!”

“More…!”

It was a space where nothing existed except for destruction.

A world that didn’t allow anyone other than Shiika and Oogui.

One could say that this was a completely different kind of perfected world to the isolated space created by Special Type Mushitsuki. As Shiika lost even her sense of direction, she had no way to confirm everyone’s safety outside.

She wasn’t even sure how much time passed.

There was only one fact that showed the elapse of time.

“Fufu—”

Oogui laughed an alluring sneer.

On the other hand, Shiika—

“…Haa… haa…”

Her entire body was covered in rivers of sweat.

The accumulating fatigue and her expended spirit—these alone indicated the real passage of time.

Their destructive power was exactly tied.

Obviously. Because it was the same Mushi.

She knew this in the first place.

If this was any Mushitsuki other than Shiika, perhaps they would have thought of a way to better use their Mushi and overcome Oogui who was relying only on her ability.

However, Shiika’s ability was exceedingly simple.

Destruction.

It was no more than that.

“You understand it, right? Since it’s the same power, you will never be able to stand in my way, Shiika-chan.”

Oogui spoke kindly.

The difference between the two wielders of the same ability—was that of a person and a monster.

Oogui knew no fatigue, but Shiika was no more than a weak girl.

“Meaning, that… no one can stand in my way.”

In this world of intercrossing white and purple destruction, Shiika closed her eyes.

Tears fell down her cheeks.

“—I knew I can’t win…”

The truth she was trying to hold back leaked from her mouth.

“That someone like me could never beat Oogui…”

Even so right now as they were confronting like this—

What moved Shiika was no longer just herself alone.

People she met, people she parted with, all of them helped Shiika reached this final battle.

Their wishes and dreams, their powerful feelings pushed the cowardly Shiika from behind.

So she didn’t hesitate.

“But—this Mushi is packed full of dreams that are not only mine.”

“Bre—ak—”

The firefly raised by Shiika shook its body. It spread its wings with momentum, increasing its glow.

“More—more!”

Now she knew.

She knew exactly how Kakkou felt when he’d expended the very last of his powers in order to defeat Shinpu—

“More!”

The balance between the white and purple destruction was shifting.

Within the destroyed world, the white territory dyeing it was growing.

Shiika opened her eyes wide and shouted at Oogui.

“It’s completely different from that empty Mushi!”

Kakkou bet on his own power to defeat Shinpu.

So this time it was Shiika’s turn to bet on her power to defeat Oogui.

“Break a lot!”

White destruction pursued Oogui.

At the same time something was gushing out of Shiika’s heart with alarming speed.

She became a Mushitsuki, met Kakkou, then became a Fallen.

After becoming a Mushitsuki again, she met with Daisuke. For a short while—it was an unbelievably time of happiness.

She also met her friend Rina—

And went through many fights—

“I’m—”

She wanted to shout something, but soon forgot it.

In complete opposition to Shiika’s muddying consciousness, the white snow was clearly overpowering the purple snow.

“So you’re going to use up your dream here, Shiika-chan?”

Even now that the white snow almost reached her, Oogui kept her smile.

“If you do that you will Mature—and then kill all your friends outside, you know?”

Shiika shook her head and looked above herself.

White snow was falling down.

Flakes that were slowly falling down were aiming for Shiika’s firefly.

“Before I Mature—my own Snow will kill my Mushi.”

Oogui tilted her head, looking amused.

“So you’ll become a Fallen again. Do you think you can come back again?”

“Even if you don’t help me, I’ll definitely come back.”

Shiika said.

“And by that time, Kakkou-kun will definitely come back as well—”

Let’s meet again next Christmas—

She promised this to none other than Kusuriya Daisuke.

This promise, exchanged between a normal boy and a normal girl, would definitely bring Shiika back.

“Because I also had… the same promise with Daisuke-kun!”

Seeing Shiika shed tears and shout, Oogui sneered. She saw the snow just about to reach her shoulders and spoke.

“Fufu… so I can’t eat that beautiful dream anymore. I wanted to eat a lot more of it, though.”

Even aware of her own defeat, Oogui was a being made of nothing more than appetite.

However, that Oogui tilted her head as though in caprice.

“However, that was a weird way of saying it.”

“…?”

“You spoke as if Kakkou-chan and Daisuke-chan are different people.”

Creak—

A second away from touching Oogui, the snow white was slightly pushed back by the purple.

Shiika wasn’t agitated.

She wasn’t surprised, nor was she confused.

She simply couldn’t understand the meaning of Oogui’s words at all.

“—”

Eh?

Seeing Shiika frozen like that and unable to raise even that voice—

“Oh?”

Oogui sneered.

Completely unlike her smile thus far, it was an evil smile exposing her true nature as a monster.

“Did I get the wrong person?—no way, right? The Kakkou-chan and Daisuke-chan that me and you both know very well… I don’t think we’re talking about other people.”

She was paving the way for more dreams to get eaten from now on—

Oogui’s mouth, that looked as if it might start salivating, spoke of them.

“There’s no way there were two kids with such a delicious dream.”

She couldn’t understand what this monster was talking about.

Wanting to find a place he belonged to—

Wanting to find a place he belonged to—

The two boys just so happened to have the same dream.

Their figures overlapped in her mind.

“—”

For just a moment, their silhouettes fit perfectly—

And separated again.

Shiika didn’t want to think any further about this.

There was absolutely no need to think any further. Oogui was just lying because she wanted to save herself.

“What are you…”

Shiika tried laughing it off and focused on using her power.

However, Oogui didn’t miss her agitation.

“No way, have you been thinking of them as two separate people? I wonder how you made that mistake.”

The voice leaking from her lips dyed in red wrapped around Shiika like a snake.

Even if it was just being used to escape Shiika, it really was too ridiculous of a lie.

Did she really think Shiika was going to believe something so silly—

“When Aria made Daisuke-chan into a Mushitsuki I was there. So I’m the last person who’d make that mistake.”

A laughable, stupid lie.

Such a lie—

Such an impossible lie—

Was made by a monster?

“Daisuke-chan… is Kakkou-chan, you know?”

Her goggling rainbow eyes gouged Shiika’s chest.

“—No—”

Her mouth moved unconsciously.

However, her head was spinning thoughts on its own.

Daisuke and Kakkou had completely different voices and personalities.

Daisuke was a completely normal boy who met Shiika by chance and became friends with her. He invited her to a date while looking unfamiliar with it, and he was a kind high schooler who swung between joy and sorrow.

On the other hand, Kakkou was burly and strong enough that nothing could move him. To protect his promise to Shiika, he kept defeating more and more Mushitsuki so cruelly that they called him a demon.

The two were nothing unlike.

However—

“No—it can’t be—”

Unbidden, their images came closer again.

What if their behaviors were acting, meant to hide something?

—What… should I do?

Even the kind Daisuke had shown her an adultlike face for a moment.

—I’ll never give up. It’s a promise. So you too, one day…

Kakkou was supposedly cold-hearted, yet he showed her this confusion and kindness.

Recalling the two boys’ original warmth that they kept concealed—

“I mean—”

Daisuke and Kakkou.

The two boys’ images fit each other perfectly.

A boy who was kind while hiding both strength and weakness.

Above all else, the one who told her of the promise to meet Daisuke one year later was—

—This is a message from that guy called Kusuriya Daisuke.

He told her this.

None other than the boy called Kakkou.

“Daisuke-kun is—“

Why hadn’t she noticed until now?

No, she’d never notice. She always thought of them as completely separate, and the worlds they lived in was different, too.

“Kakkou-kun is—”

She blocked her ears.

She didn’t want to hear her own voice.

She shook her head, eyes still wide.

“I—turned him into a Fallen—”

When she spoke about Daisuke, Chiharu was acting odd as well. Now she could understand why.

Chiharu, who was Kakkou’s older sister—was Daisuke’s sister. She never considered it, perhaps also because their surnames were different.

“Oh, you turned him into a Fallen?”

Oogui sneered. The eyes of a monster looking down on a human—were dyed in the color of pity.

“Kakkou-kun’s a Fallen—then, I—”

She was able to fight this far because of her promise with Daisuke.

Her responsibility to keep fighting as the surviving Rank 1. Her pressure as Mushibane’s leader. And even her painful separation from a friend. She was able to bear all of these.

Even the weak Shiika was able to hold back her fear and keep walking, all for that day’s sake.

Even so—

“Because of me, Daisuke-kun is—”

She felt as though something audibly crumbled within her.

It was probably her most important part.

“Oh, poor, poor Shiika-chan.”

As Shiika fell to her knees, Oogui looked down at her, amused.

“There is no longer anyone—waiting for you.”

Shiika blocked her ears and arched her back.

“Ah—”

If Kakkou and Daisuke were the same person, had she been deceived?

No.

They—no, he—wasn’t that kind of person.

But if so, why had he concealed this?

Without knowing anything, Shiika—

One was a friend.

And the other she liked.

Their promise to meet again—

“Aaaaah—”

Since Shiika was rounding her body and denying the truth she suddenly came to know, she hadn’t noticed at all.

Shiika and Oogui’s battle had already finished.

Coming back to the previous world, Aijisupa and the others all rushed toward her.

The two fireflies vanished—and Oogui brought back her hordes of Mushi again.

Also—

“O-Operation 3…”

Looking down at the unmoving Shiika who was unable to withstand the truth—

“Has failed—”

Kabuto informed this to the Headquarters through his goggles.

4.07 OPS3 Part 22

The time limit of 48 hours passed.

The temporary Headquarters of the Special Environmental Preservation Bureau located in Akamaki City was receiving the reports from all operations.

“Incoming communications from Operations 1 and 2! I’ll connect them to the speaker!”

Clad in white coats, the intelligence division hurriedly operated the communication devices.

Operation 1. The annihilation of Super Class Rank 1 C, the national threat.

Operation 2. The awakening of Sleeping Beauty, set to become the new leader for Mushitsuki.

Operation 3. Defeating Oogui before she got swallowed by C—as well as before waking up Sleeping Beauty, who’d sealed the Undying.

These three operations were for the sake of shooting down these dangers that might threaten the continued existence of the country.

And the grand commander of those was Miguruma Yaeko.

“I am certain they will answer my expectations.”

Miguruma smiled.

Inside the tent she inhabited were the heads of every branch as well as government officials.

Since the operations started, they could entrust their hopes to the Mushitsuki on the scene. All people who understood this other than Miguruma had their faces stiff with anxiety and worry.

“In any case, if even one of them fails… then C will likely destroy this country.”

The exact moment Miguruma prophesied this, pained voices came from the speakers.

“O-Operation 1… has failed…”

“O-Operation 2… has failed…”

C’s annihilation failed, and the awakening of Sleeping Beauty failed as well.

Everyone in the tent couldn’t even raise a voice of disappointment.

Completely unlike the temporary headquarters wrapped in a despairing silence, the screams coming from the scene spoke of the current situation.

“W-we must escape—”

“Where to?! Our path of retreat is full of fairies…!”

“W-Waaaah!”

“This can’t be, Harukiyoooo!”

“…Witch’s dying…”

“S-Sleeping Beauty’s looking at us—”

“Fuckyou!”

Everyone listened to these voices, unable to move.

The vice-minister dispatched from the government fell to his knees. He held his head and groaned.

“Uh…aaah…”

“How unfortunate for this to end like that, Vice-Minister.”

“Unfortunate, you say… y-you bitch—”

“Since it turned out like this, let up put our hopes with Operation 3.”

Among these operations, where even a single failure meant there would be no future, two have ended in failure.

Even so, Miguruma did not erase her smile, and her subordinates the branch heads were also shocked.

“My beloved Fuyuhotaru will surely save the world.”

“Incoming transmission from the members of Operation 3! I’ll connect to the speakers!”

Lady Bird had died and Kakkou became a Fallen.

Harukiyo was defeated by the Maturing Sleeping Beauty.

That meant that of the five Rank 1s, not including C, four had left the stage.

The remaining—was Fuyuhotaru alone.

She was the first Mushitsuki designated as a Rank 1, so what happened of this lone remaining survivor?

A voice to inform of the situation was heard through the speaker.

“O-Operation 3…”

It was a familiar voice. It belonged to East Central Branch member, Kabuto.

While everyone held their breath, the final report came to their ears.

“Has failed…”

Ah—

A sound that was somewhere between a voice and a breath filled the tent.

All operations ended in failure.

Not even a single hope remained.

Today on this very day the monster called C was released to the world and even the Mushitsuki elites including the Rank 1s were obliterated.

A heavy thud resounded because the Branch Head of the West Central Branch leaned hard against the chair.

And it wasn’t just him. It was clear that all other branch heads were overwhelmed by despair and upset. Especially East Central Branch Head Goroumaru Touko started crying on the spot like a little girl.

“W-what are we to do… give us some orders…”

“Harukiyo! Harukiyooo!”

“Fuyuhotaru’s acting odd… we can’t stop Oogui! Give us orders!”

Voices pleading for orders reached from all three battlefields.

While these Mushitsuki were all about to get annihilated, Miguruma—

“—”

Said nothing at all.

All branch heads turned to her in astonishment—but soon averted their face.

There wasn’t even a single remaining move left.

Everyone understood this.

“Miguruma Yaeko—”

The vice-minister rose to his legs and glared at Miguruma. His suited followers moved, surrounding him.

“I will have you apprehended. You will be charged with creating that monster and starting right now, you are absolved from your post as the Vice-Deputy. —The death penalty’s too good for you.”

“Understood. Incidentally, who shall be my successor?”

As Miguruma nodded casually, the vice-minister strained his loosened cheeks.

“Well…”

He was looking at the branch heads.

There wasn’t even a single person candidate to the united commander position. All of them were in stupor or crying, and even Branch Head Takemi, the lone person who managed to remain calm, shook his head. —Even counting the ambitious Takemi, actually becoming one of the top at this juncture amounted to suicide, and they all clearly felt that it was impossible for them ability-wise as well.

The vice-minister directed a gaze full of hatred to Miguruma.

“I-if things are like this, I’ll entreat the international community for help and send their militaries…”

“If you bring the international community into this, C will be able to use this route to spread her ability to the entire world. —Since it’s already heading that way, it would only serve to accelerate that, though.”

Even while all the adults were talking amongst themselves, the Mushitsuki kept screaming from the speakers.

“If we don’t make a decision soon, my beloved Mushitsuki are all going to die, you realize?”

“U-uh…”

His face reddening, the vice-minister leaned against the wall.

“W-what on earth can we even—”

A hoarse groan showed the severity of this situation—the lack of any hope.

Mushi appeared, Mushitsuki were born, and Mushitsuki were made pawns while concealing their existence.

After doing all this, this was how the country ended.

As the new threat of C appeared, even the SEPB created to manage Mushitsuki shut down its functions and was practically on the verge of collapse.

And any person who could handle this predicament—no longer existed.

“There is no need to fear, vice-minister.”

Miguruma sat down to face the vice-minister who slid down to the floor against the wall.

“Surely you have had some dream yourself, right?”

“…?”

“It remains even now. —And it’s not just you. They might be unaware of it, but everyone holds a wish regarding their future.”

What was she even talking about—

Everyone other than Miguruma looked like they wanted to ask this.

“C will drag out that small feeling.”

She put her hands softly to the vice-minister’s face. Bound by her Smile of Shackles, the vice-minister widened his eyes and froze.

“I received a hint. It came to me just like a letter—no, like a package. That package already vanished, but C dug it out, analyzed it, copied it… possibly, made even the original—I would have liked to have that red queen bee, though.”

“V-Vice Deputy? What are you talking about?”

Branch Head Takemi asked timidly.

“I’m explaining here about the possibility of all people without—no, who are unaware of their dream, becoming Mushitsuki.”

She smiled at Branch Head Takemi.

He apparently still couldn’t understand the meaning of her words. No one directed a second question at her.

“Convey this to all the combatants on the field as well.”

Detaching her hands go from the vice-minister, Miguruma ordered the intelligence division.

“Everything is fine. There is no need to be afraid.”

She wore a smile and spread her arms.

She hated how short her arms were ever since she was born. Miguruma felt like taking all of them—each and every person in this world—into her embrace.

“Even if you die, C will bring you back to life.”

Although she said not to be scared—

Everyone in the tent was frozen as though encased in ice.

They all thought that the operations failed.

However, that was wrong.

It seemed like only Goroumaru Touko, who changed her expression, as well as Takemi who opened his mouth in astonishment, noticed this truth.

“V-Vice-Deputy—no way, from the very start, you—”

“You should rejoice.”

Miguruma narrowed her already narrow eyes—

“The old Mushitsuki will be purged—and be reborn into new Mushitsuki.”

Miguruma announced the world changing.

Notes

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