Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 14 Epilogue (section)

== Epilogue ==

Anmoto Shiika was walking somewhere unknown.

Back during the C annihilation operation and the decisive fight against Oogui—

—Daisuke-chan is Kakkou-chan, you realize?

Shiika believed that monster’s whispers.

She accepted that reality way too easily.

A normal high-schooler and a demon clad in a pitch-dark coat.

Although their figures, personalities and even their voices were different—

Perhaps Shiika had already felt somewhere in her heart that they were the same person.

“…”

An empty, soundless city.

Since Akamaki City was silent and empty after the evacuation notice, there was no one to stop Shiika there.

Almost as if everyone was avoiding Shiika in the road she walked through.

Or perhaps—some sort of will had purposely emptied the road.

“I… made him Fallen—”

Her reflection was visible on the glass window of a convenience store.

She was short. Her face was young and she couldn’t really tell how much she’d grown ever since she became a Fallen a few years ago. Due to her battle with Oogui her clothes were in tatters and her face was deathly pale.

Nothing changed.

She remained just like she was when she was young, when the boy called Kakkou turned her into a Fallen.

Although many things were supposed to have happened since then—

Her form as she walked on her own remained unchanged from how she was back then.

“I did this… to Kakkou-kun… to Daisuke-kun…”

The only difference—was that right now, Shiika no longer had anyone who would come for her.

It was none other than Shiika herself who did this to the person she promised to meet again—

Shiika herself caused her to lose the one and only person she was waiting for.

“Why—”

How long had she walked through this empty town for?

Perhaps she might have been walking like this the entire night.

During that, Shiika kept mumbling those questions to herself.

“Why did Kakkou-kun… how could he wait for me…?”

Her tears had already dried up long ago. Her face covered in dirt just had tear marks on it.

“How could he have waited all these years…?”

By meeting Kakkou after all these years, she immediately understood.

Just like she promised, he believed Shiika would return and waited for her.

At the time she was immensely happy.

But right now—Shiika couldn’t believe him.

“Have you never thought—that I might never return…?”

The empty part of town was over.

The army’s barricade appeared, but Shiika paid it no heed.

“How could I have—done this so easily to Kakkou-kun… how could I have turned him into a Fallen?”

As Shiika mumbled to herself and walked, the soldiers opened the path for her. —For a moment, it looked as though golden sparks flew over the camo-dressed soldiers.

“Even if Kakkou-kun never returned—because Daisuke-kun was there?”

As Shiika kept walking past the barricade, she entered a road where there were passersby here and there.

Some of them turned quizzical glances at the dirty and tattered Shiika.

“Because Daisuke-kun… was supposed to wait for me at Christmas?”

Although she supposedly dried of tears, Shiika grimaced.

''—Let’s meet again next Christmas.

The one who told her this was the completely commonplace high-schooler, Kusuriya Daisuke.

So it should have been—

“How—”

Shiika couldn’t believe in herself now.

She knew the reason for that.

Because she could no longer believe in the promise that supported her so far—in the one who made that promise, Kakkou and Kusuriya Daisuke.

“Why did Daisuke-kun… never tell me the truth…?”

Shiika revived from the state of a Fallen and the one she thought she met by chance was the boy called Kusuriya Daisuke.

However, in actuality he was the Mushitsuki entrusted with the mission to capture Shiika—Kakkou.

Shiika never knew that.

As a result, this time she was the one who made him Fallen.

Shiika lost the two people who were waiting for her with one blow—

Just like when she once became Mushitsuki—

She became alone.

“Why… haven’t you told me…?”

No—she didn’t want to know the reason.

If only she hadn’t known the truth that they were the same person—Shiika could believe.

That Kakkou would come back again.

That Kusuriya Daisuke would be waiting for her.

Although she could believe both—now she ended up doubting.

Kusuriya Daisuke—Kakkou—wouldn’t wait for the likes of Shiika. It was all a trap so he could recapture Shiika, and it might have been no more than a lie.

Someone who would wait for Shiika—was there actually even a single person like that from the very beginning?

“—”

Bell sounds echoed.

They were so clear that they felt otherworldly, and they permeated Shiika’s chest.

“I have told you so, right?”

Appearing in front of Shiika was a petite girl. Her hair tied into pigtails and the heart-patterned dress she was wearing were the same as when they met for the first time.

She was Horiuchi Erii—C.

“You had no one who allowed your existence from the very beginning.”

After having been captured by the SEPB, Shiika ran away with Shirakashi Ubuki and Ebina Yuu from Akamaki City. This already felt like the distant past.

Back then she met Horiuchi Erii, and now the girl appeared in front of her again.

“Even so, you have—really done well.”

Erii’s smiled and spread her arms to Shiika.

As if she was a mother praising her child, she tried kindly accepting Shiika.

“I will love you, who kept fighting all alone.”

Bell sounds echoed again.

A sweet, irresistible temptation made Shiika’s body tilt.

“I will make you needed.”

Shiika buried her head in the girl’s chest.

All doubts and misgivings torturing Shiika were dyed by gold and vanished.

“Sleep well, my beloved Dove—”

Resistance was unavoidable.

No—she was inside a world dyed in gold without any resistance.

On top of Horiuchi Erii’s head, a sublime tiara was materializing.

[[File:Mushi Uta 14 p357.jpg|thumb]]


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