Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 15 Chapter 2 (section)

== 2.00 The Others ==

When Takashiro Taiki woke up, his room was dark.

“—Uh…!”

He tried raising his body, but was assaulted by violent pain.

His head was spinning and his body was heavy. Did he have a fever, or did he catch the flu? He grimaced while thinking.

Although he somehow managed to raise his upper torso, he felt dizzy. His throbbing head and body were so dull he felt like a puppet. This made him angry.

“Shit—not again…”

He felt an unpleasant sweat form all over his body.

“Those dreams about Mushitsuki—”

Recently, Taiki had been having strange dreams every night.

The events there felt too real to be dreams, and he felt worse each time he woke up.

Furthermore, even in reality he was being followed by a pair who introduced themselves as journalists and caused him nothing but trouble. Putting aside the foreigner that called himself John Mash, his assistant Ikarino Kirai was tenacious to an eccentric degree.

—''You’ll definitely dream about her as well.

Ikarino Kirari’s unpleasant prophecy passed through his mind.

Although he shook her off and went back home, her prediction—hit right on the mark.

Taiki dreamt about another Mushitsuki.

Sleeping Beauty, Arisu.

And in this dream, at a place called Aoharima Island, Mushitsuki and people called the Revived were fighting.

“What’s up with that Fuyuhotaru Mushitsuki or whatever—”

Taiki’s mental state was probably at its limits due to the dream being so violent. So this was probably why he woke up so early in the morning.

His used his half-open eyes to peek at the clock nearby.

He thought it would be even before sunrise, but he was shocked upon seeing the clock’s hands.

“Eh—i-it’s already so late…? I gotta hurry—”

It was already past eight o’clock. He tried leaping out from bed without thinking, but then noticed.

No matter how much he looked around, the room was dark. There was no sunlight coming even from the curtains.

“W-what does that even—wah!”

He tried clumsily getting out of bed but then leapt back.

There was a small figure standing right in front of the door to his room.

“R-Ririe…?”

It was his youngest sister, Ririe. She was staring right at Taiki, without even turning on the lights.

“W-what are you doing here…?”

His sister remained unanswering. She was glaring at her big brother Taiki with eyes like those watching an insect. Since her body was so small even when compared to middle schoolers, she blended in with the dark.

“Ririe—it’s you, right?”

Was it not his sister, but just a ghost taking Ririe’s face?

As he began considering even things like that seriously, Ririe finally opened her mouth.

“Right, big brother.”

“Y-yeah… obviously… please turn on the lights—”

“I am Ririe. My big brother is Taiki. We’re siblings and we also have another sister, Noa. Our parents are a bit strict, but we’re an average, happy family.”

“…Ha?”

“But you’re a bit odd, big brother. I didn’t manage—to fix you properly.”

''—You’re the one saying strange things—

He was about to say this to his sister who was definitely acting weird, but stopped.

That was because he could hear footsteps coming from the door behind Ririe.

“Big brother, you’re finally awake?”

Opening the door without knocking was their middle sister, Noa.

“Eh, Ririe, you’re also here? —Is your cold better? We have gruel if you’re hungry. I made it this noon but you were asleep…”

Noa asked from behind Ririe with a worried face.

While Taiki did feel relieved at seeing Noa act normally when everything else was odd since he woke up—it made him even more confused.

“Cold…? Sleeping through the afternoon—wait, is it night now? I took today off from school…?”

If Noa was right, this wasn’t eight o’clock in the morning, but rather 8 PM.

However, Taiki had no memories of this.

He knew nothing about catching a cold and couldn’t remember skipping school—

“What dream were you talking about before?”

Ririe’s eyes became harsher. It was an expression even her brother had never seen before.

“Big brother, don’t tell me—that someone did something to you?”

“Ririe…?”

He couldn’t understand what his sister was saying.

Noa seemed to also find it odd. She tried peeking at their sister’s face from behind.

“Ririe, what are you talking—”

For a moment, golden electricity ran through Noa’s braids and her head.

Noa’s eyebrows twitched, then she turned back to Taiki like nothing happened.

“Oh, but the gruel’s cold already. There’s been a blackout just now, so we can’t use the microwave.”

“Noa…?”

What happened right in front of his eyes just now was abnormal.

Taiki was confused, while Noa didn’t seem to notice anything.

Sandwiched between the two of them, Ririe was mumbling something incomprehensible while trying to corner Taiki.

''Am I still dreaming?

Next to the confused Taiki, the glass window suddenly broke with a violent sound.

“Uwaah!”

“Kyaaa!”

A stone thrown from the outside broke the window.

While Taiki and Noa froze, Ririe mechanically moved her head toward the window.

“Taiki-san! Escape!”

A voice echoed from the other side of the window. It sounded familiar.

It belonged to Ikarino Kirai.

“E-escape…?”

Everything turned strange since the moment he woke up.

He thought it was morning but it was night, his sisters were acting odd, and just as the window was suddenly broken, he was told to run by a girl who had no relation to him. As an added bonus, there was a blackout.

Ririe stood in front of the door as though to block his path of escape.

If he were to run away—he’d have to jump out of the window.

In the first place, he was told to run away, but this was his house. Where exactly was he going to escape to, and why?

“…!”

However, he didn’t have time to think about it.

As Ririe slowly approached Taiki, her hand was clad in a golden glow. Seeing that, his body unconsciously headed to the window.

He unlocked it and opened the broken window.

He had no idea what was going to happen.

Even now that he had half his body out of the window, he hesitated—

“—Come here. Taiki-san.”

Waiting on the surface was the girl called Ikarino Kirari.

Seeing her frank yet powerful smile—Taiki threw his body into the air.