Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 13 Chapter 4 (section)

== 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.