Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 12 Chapter 2 (section)

== 2.00 OPS1 Part 1 ==

Monma Makoto had encountered that demon only three times.

Kakkou, the Mushitsuki clad in a green, shining pattern. The first time she met that Rank 1, designated as the strongest, was when Makoto was still an elementary schooler.

Since she embraced a boring dream, she became a Mushitsuki.

She was found by the SEPB for a boring reason.

She counterattacked the SEPB’s boring assassins one by one.

And as she got carried away—boringly enough, that demon appeared.

A pitch-dark coat, pitch-dark goggles, hair standing up like horns and a fire-spouting pistol.

No matter how much she hurt him, no matter how much she hid herself, he came after Makoto. He was on an entirely different league from all the assassins thus far. He was so strong she didn’t think he was human.

Although so young, Makoto felt danger to herself. At this rate she’d be killed—she was convinced of this, and lured the demon into her own elementary school.

She opened up all the speakers across her alma mater at night—

Setting up the largest trap, she tried to have the demon buried along with the school.

However, she did feel a touch of uneasiness.

Makoto managed to draw the demon not into the campus but into the gym and made her attack.

“—I wooon!”

Makoto whooped in triumph in front of the tattered demon.

However—the following moment, Makoto’s vision was dyed in purple.

She felt that trap that she set at school vanish instantly. Makoto’s ability never lost to anyone this far, yet it was being completely overwritten by someone.

The entire surroundings were being taken over for a fleeting second—this was what she felt.

The entire gym was ripped into two.

“N-nooo!”

Feeling a chill, she used her ability for defense.

This saved Makoto’s life.

When she came to, a bizarre girl stood in front of her eyes.

She had eyes of differing colors, she wore a large raincoat and had a candy on a stick in her mouth. —She swung a hockey stick which was stopped by Makoto’s ability mere millimeters from her head.

“Do be proud of yourself. —You are the first Minion Type who managed to block my full-powered blow.”

Even after cutting the gym into two the shockwave of purple lightning did not stop, tearing into the floor.

Another abnormal assassin came with the demon.

“Do be proud! Do be proud!”

Even as she kept running away from this exuberant battle-crazed warrior pursuing her, the pitch-dark demon appeared in front of her again to block her way—

And stopped the hockey stick about to inflict the final blow. With his other hand he grabbed Makoto’s throat and held her aloft.

“S-shit… I won when you were alone… you coward…”

As she said this with a grimace, the demon with a bleeding head smiled as if he found it funny.

“Ha. —You went too easy on me. Did you really think that if you brought out your full powers you’d kill me, instead of fainting me like all the other combatants?”

“Uugh…”

“I’ll never lose to someone so soft.”

Saying this, the grip holding Makoto’s throat was being strengthened by the demon. “Do release me! Do release me!” the battle-crazed warrior wailed behind him, grinning and kicking the demon.

''This is it for me—

She really thought this. It was obvious at a glance that the berserker at the back was insane, but the demon in front of her certainly did look filled with killer intent as he was trying to murder her.

“I-I’m sorry—”

Since she faced actual danger to her life for the first time ever, Makoto’s heart completely yielded.

“P-please forgive me… don’t kill me, please…”

She did nothing wrong, but she was shaking all over with fear as she apologized and begged.

“I’ll do anything…”

Her face completely wet with tears, she pathetically begged for her life.

Her pleas lacking any shame or honor bore fruit. The demon did not kill her.

“I see. —Anything, you say?”

As the demon said this, he didn’t keep on injuring her.

Apparently the demon and the berserker fought over how to treat her following this. They argued and it became a fight, but Makoto didn’t even have the power to escape.

''—I see, so I was weak.

Seeing the demon and the berserker, she noticed her own helpless averageness. At the tender age of 13 she finally realized that humans were inherently separated into the strong and the weak.

As Makoto had sworn that she’d do anything, this was the demon’s first request of her.

That was to join the Special Environmental Preservation Bureau.

Makoto was appraised as an excellent member, but that offered her no salvation. After all, it meant that Kakkou would keep on holding her leash.

In fact, Kakkou treated her like a tool every time they met ever since. Regardless of her own will, she was just ignored if she argued against this. Otherwise, he would say—

''—You said you’d do anything, right?

Being told this, Makoto felt so shamed that her face turned red and she squatted down.

Makoto couldn’t go against this blackmailer who grasped her weak past.

That demon, Kakkou, was helpless trash.

As long as Kakkou was alive, Makoto would keep shaking in fear of his threats.

Therefore, she always swore in her heart.

''One day, I’ll kill Kakkou and become free.

''But if I can’t, at least I’ll live longer than him—




“—I’m Blaze Class Rank 2, Terasu. It’s been decided I’ll serve as the commander of the C annihilation operation.”

Makoto named herself in the center of the dome.

In front of her eyes were the elites of the SEPB. There were also some hindrances forced to be there by their branch heads, but that was a small issue.

They were all meant to die along with Makoto as stepping stones for the Rank 1s, anyway.

“Kasuou, Nene, Yotsuba, Yakugami, Tamamo, Rinrin, Kaguya, Himiko, Kabuto, Maimai, Sakura… and?”

Mixed with the SEPB members was also a boy wielding a hockey stick. He wore not SEPB equipment, but casual wear, and had an amiable smile.

“I’m Shachito. Nice to meetcha!”

“Shachito. All of us thirteen members are to form a team and unleash a preemptive attack on C lying in the deepest layer of the Underground Fort. You are not to retreat even if anyone drops out along the way. For this, I have chosen those who are especially strong even among the SEPB so that you will be able to continue the operation even alone, in the worst case.”

Even if this was her saying that, she felt like spoke well there.

Makoto gathered high-ranked Special Types from Central Headquarters to fulfill “a certain goal”.

As for the East Central Branch, the combined forces had some excellent members. There were Himiko, who was unable to fully recover from the shock of Kakkou’s dropout, as well as those forced to come along with them who looked like they would be of no use and only serve as burden. This was troubling, but there was nothing to do about it. Did they intend to follow Kakkou to the grave?

From West Central Branch came the lone high-ranked fighter, Sakura, and no others.

South Central Branch had zero fighting power. They provided no support.

And for the North Central Branch that Makoto belonged to—there was only her. Anticipating the power struggles that were going to occur after the operation’s end, her branch head Takemi was afraid of them losing their power.

“During the operation, you must all obey my orders. Disobeying me will be regarded as treason against the SEPB, and you will be eliminated as obstacles to the operation.”

While Makoto spoke mechanically, how many people there were seriously listening to her words?

Including Kasuou, those who were close to Kakkou didn’t have their hearts there. Even the others couldn’t hide their anxiety, perhaps feeling the lack in manpower.

Ironically, the only one full of energy was Shachito, who wasn’t even an SEPB member. His form grinning while holding the hockey stick was the exact same as that berserker.

Thinking about it, half of the team were the disciples of that berserker—of Shishidou Inuko.

Noticing this unpleasant fact, Makoto felt further depressed.

“C is a terrible threat, so we must eliminate her as soon as possible. Failure will not be permitted in this mission. If we fail, this country will be destroyed.”

''If we.

She felt ridiculous at how vain this word was.

If this was Kakkou leading them instead of Makoto—it probably would’ve been a completely different team. These elites fighting with that demon in the front definitely held the possibility to take on at least one small country or two and making them dysfunctional.

[[File:Mushi Uta 12 p155.jpg|thumb]]

Now however, those in front of Makoto’s eyes—was nothing than a low-morale suicide corps scraped together.

Will any of them manage to survive and return to the surface healthy and sound?

“…”

Makoto glanced at the faraway tent.

Miguruma Yaeko grinned at Makoto.

Makoto always took the safe way out, so it was perhaps about time for her to pay the piper—

In her heart she smiled bitterly, carrying the bag laid at her feet. It was a heavy, rectangular bag. —Inside it was sealed a “certain something” that Miguruma gave her in secret to carry.

“Are you ready, everyone?”

If they retreated, they’d be charged with treason.

Even so, there was no hope for Makoto ahead.

How dangerous was C? How much she defied the imagination?

Excluding Miguruma Yaeko, she knew no other one to ask this but herself.

“Then we shall now infiltrate the Central Headquarters’ Underground Fort.”

Monma Makoto stood at the front of the suicide corps, taking the first step toward death.