Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 4 Chapter 1 (section)

==1.00 Chiharu Part 1==

Dispensing with the preliminaries, how is everything going?

For me, Ayukawa Chiharu to say, if you asked me, it appears to me that I am revelling in the festivities of youth.

After all, my family can be said to be in perfect harmony and I have lots of friends in school as well. And because I do some part-time jobs occasionally, I am not troubled financially either. Ah, but I couldn’t afford the latest model mobile phone. Looks like I have to start working again.

Aah, what wonderful days. Hurray for being a highschool girl in bloom!

Incidentally, I am currently being embroiled in a situation commonplace to youths.

When you hear the word youth, I wonder what would you associate it with?

Studies?

Nightlife?

''Non non'', those are not it at all!

It’s falling in love!

“Ayukawa? Did you not hear me?”

—Chiharu, whose consciousness had been transported into a different dimension without her realising, came to with a start.

The time now was midday.

In this season right before the spring break, lessons ended in the morning. The time now was when half of the students were heading home, and the remaining half engrossing in their club activities.

Chiharu was presently in her own classroom, class H of the second year. The figures of her classmates were not around, with only herself and another male classmate all alone in the classroom.

When she received the mail stating, ‘After school, please stay behind in the classroom’, she already had an inkling of what was going to happen. But when it came to that moment, as expected, she felt discomfited somehow.

“Ah, erm. Well…”

Facing the male student staring at her nervously, Chiharu lowered her face with a bitter smile.

“I like you. You are not attached currently, right? In that case, please go out with me!”

‘In that case’, even if you say that—.

Chiharu’s face started to look more and more sour. This was not the first time someone had asked her out, but she could never get used to it. She would probably still feel the same no matter how many times she experienced it from now on.

“Once the new term begins, our class would be shuffled again. There’s a chance that we may be allocated to different classes… That’s why, I want to tell you my feelings right now.”

Apparently, he was very earnest. This is bad. Chiharu was weak against the serious types.

“Well, to state the conclusion, it’s impossible. Sorry.”

Chiharu stated clearly. Because the other party was very serious, all the more that Chiharu could not answer him half-heartedly.

“Why? Do you have someone else that you like?”

“Nope. Although it is saddening, there’s not a single person I like. How unfortunate, even though falling in love is like the main event of youth.”

“T-then, all the more…!”

“Like I said, that’s impossible. Although I don’t know if I could grow to like you, I can’t make that kind of promise. Sorry.”

Once she finished speaking, Chiharu thought in her mind, ‘Oh damn, I’ve gone and done it again’, as she held her head.

Although she had been so hesitant and wavering in her heart, her actions were frightfully straightforward and blunt. What’s worse was the fact that she felt no regrets about it at all.

As expected, having received such an outright rejection, the boy was shocked. He tried to disguise his depressed expression with a forced smile.

“I see… I guess that’s only to be expected. Sorry, please forget about today. If we are in the same class again in our third year, please treat me the same as always, okay.”

“Mm.”

As Chiharu assented with a smile, she felt a prickling pain in chest. If she were to listen to his words and forget entirely about today’s happening, would the boy actually be content? …The answer was obvious. She thought to herself that she would try her best to keep today’s event in her memories.

After watching the male student leave the classroom, Chiharu leaned on her desk.

“That’s right. What a bummer, truly. Youth really isn’t that easy-going.”

Taking deep breaths with her face lying side-down on the desk, the texture of surface of the desk was reflected in her eyes.

Her long hair, which just barely went over what was allowed by the Nishito Sousei High School’s school rules, stretched out. She had large pupils that made it easy to tell when she was awake or not, which was of not much use to her up till now. She also had a habit of humming, during which her face was described as ‘resembling a cat’ by her friends.

“''Muu… Ooah!''”

With a jump, Chiharu stood up forcefully from her seat. Surely the boy who confessed to her would not want her to be depressed. Burying her emotions within, she exited the classroom.

As Chiharu walked along while looking out of the window, she unconsciously started to hum with a smile before she even realised. She came across many of the Sports club members in the middle of a run as she walked across the school compound.

…Yes, today was just another peaceful day. It may not be bad to experience such a youth with frequent worries.

Chiharu spoke to no one in particular in her heart.

—Chiharu took pride in herself as being quite an ordinary highschool girl, however, she had three strange idiosyncrasies.

The first one which was her ‘decisiveness trait’, as she had just displayed earlier. To put it in words, it means that her mind and her body were not in sync. There were more than just a few instances when her thoughts were unfinished yet she had undertaken some decisive actions.

The second was her humming. Often, she would start humming with a smile on her face out of nowhere. Who knew how many times had she started humming out of the blue during lessons, drawing the ire of the teachers.

The third and last idiosyncrasy was the most difficult to explain. Perhaps, one could call it a ‘narrating quirk’? She would narrate her daily life out loud, as if she was writing a letter. To whom she was addressing, even she herself did not know. However, this diary which had continued for years, would usually start with a ‘Dispensing with the preliminaries’ or ‘Dear…’. By this point, it was no longer a diary, but a bunch of letters that did not have an addressee.

Anyway, those were small peculiarities that anybody was bound to have one or two of no matter who. Or so that was what she wanted to believe.

“Hey! Yo! Excuse me!”

Opening the door to the room allotted to the student council, multiple familiar faces looked in her direction.

“One greeting is more than enough, Ayukawa-senpai.”

The person who said so with a bitter smile was a baby-faced first-year student, Tsushima Ayumu. He held the position of secretary.

“Ah! What is that, Tsushima-kun!”

Chiharu circled around in front of Ayumu as he laid out his lunch box.

“Oooh, that looks so good! Hey, Tsushima-kun, isn’t there something that you should say to your hungry and esteemed vice-chairman?”

Placing both of her hands on the table, Chiharu looked up at Ayumu’s face with a coveting look. Ayumu turned slightly red and relented with a sigh.

“Fine, you may help yourself to an onigiri.”

Chiharu smiled with a ''huu'', grasping her fist in victory behind her back. —Despite Ayumu’s present circumstance, he was in fact a playboy who had multiple lovers. The fact that Chiharu knew of it was also something Ayumu knew. Because of such, there was an unspoken rule between Chiharu and Ayumu and he often had to accede to her requests.

“Aah, wait… not the kaarage! Even though that was the last one!”

“Ah! Why did you give it to vice-chairman? Although I asked you for it earlier!”

[[File:Mushi Uta 4 p055.jpg|thumb]]

The one who cut in from the side was Noda Saori, the accountant who was similarly a first-year student. She was also in the Swimming club and gave off an image of fitness. Aware of the feelings she bore towards Ayumu, Chiharu felt a little bad and reflected on the inside.

“Well, that’s because Ayukawa-senpai is different from Noda-san, she’s our senior.”

“Yes, yes, this is definitely not an abuse of power. There’s nothing, really. Anyway, is it ok for you not to attend club activities, Noda-chan?”

“I’m skipping today!”

“Yup, I hear you loud and clear. …So Kanadome-kun attended properly too. That’s good!”

Sitting in the opposite end of the room with his legs placed on the table, Kanadome Naoki raised his head from his mobile phone. Dressed from head to toes in accessories that were forbidden by the school rules, he seemed most removed from what one would expect of an officer of the student council. However, he always attended such gatherings without fail, showing that he was a responsible general affairs officer.

Including the chairman who was heavily involved in club activities, the remaining members of the student council seemed to be absent as well. But, as the four of them who were the primary members in charge of routine tasks were gathered, there were no problems.

“That’s right. But anyway, we’re here to hear the report by Ayukawa, right. So?”

“Eh? Report?”

“Someone from your class confesses to you, right? So? Did you accept?”

Naoki flashed a grin. This caused Chiharu to widen her eyes.

“Wha-, wha-… why do you know that!”

“S-senpai! What do you mean by someone confessed to you?”

“Why is it that part that Tsushima-kun concerned with?”

“The friend of the guy who confessed to you was also my friend. I heard from him that he would be confessing sometime soon. And then, you were late for this meeting. Thus, that was what I, the genius detective, deduced.”

“Don’t surprise me like that… I thought for sure that some secret organisation was observing me or something.”

“So? What’s your response?”

“''No comment''. As the one in question, please do not dig into my privacy. Now, as this is our final task, let’s get it over with quickly.”

After giving a slight cough, Chiharu distributed the pile of documents placed on the table equally to each of the members. To facilitate the handing over of duties to the new student council in the new term, they were classifying the documents.

“At any rate, you’ve probably rejected him, what’s the point of all the secrecy now.”

“…If you knew, then you shouldn’t even have asked.”

“Nope, that was just what I had thought. I see, so you refused.”

“Nice leading question, Kanadome-senpai.”

“What’s nice about that, Tsushima-kun.”

Thereafter, the four of them sorted the documents while chatting about meaningless things. As their chatter stopped halfway, Chiharu looked out of the window casually. She looked towards the running tracks in the field.

Indeed, this is not bad. This spring-like everyday life—.

Without her realising, her ‘narrating quirk’ emerged. She began to speak to a faceless, non-existent ''someone''.

But, you know. Somehow, this… how do I say it. It may be weird to say it like this, but perhaps you could call it a sense of guilt? For some reason, it feels like my current life does not seem to belong to me—.

“Anyway, there’s no saying that this would be our final task, wouldn’t it? At least for Ayukawa.”

At Naoki’s sudden words, Chiharu turned to him. It sounded like he was denying what Chiharu had said earlier.

“Eh? Why do you say that?”

“What are you being in a daze for, next term’s student council chairman? Even the three of us knows that you have the recommendation of lots of people.”

Chiharu showed a bitter smile.

“Sorry, that’s impossible. I don’t have the qualities for that.”

“Why is that so? If you indicate that you are running for chairman now, there’s no doubt that Ayukawa-senpai would win.”

“''Ahaha'', I’m glad to hear you say that. But, what can’t be done cannot be helped.”

Now was her ‘decisiveness trait’ in display. Although she felt happy about their support for her, she still clearly refused.

—I have a feeling that I… shouldn’t become the ‘protagonist’. Hey, there’s definitely something weird about me, right?

She spoke inside her mind to no one in particular.

“In that case, you can just be the vice-chairman again. There’s no problem with that, right?”

“If I can. But, at that time, I would forcefully drag all of you together with me, okay. If you are thinking of drawing me into something as troublesome as that, I wouldn’t let the rest of you escape.”

“That’s fine by me. It’s a promise, okay!”

“Fine, fine.”

“I-I want to be part of the student council again too! …Even if the advisor of the Swimming club disapproves…”

Talking and working at the same time in that vein, time passed in a blink of an eye. Due to them taking multiple breaks as well as Chiharu and Naoki going out to buy food, their progress was slower than expected.

By the time the western skies were dyed in the colours of sunset, Chiharu finally burst out.

“Oh, jeez! There’s no way we can finish everything today looking at what’s left! Are you guys actually working properly?”

“That’s weird. Although you distributed all the documents equally to us at the start, yet the one with the largest amount remaining is you, Ayukawa-senpai.”

“That’s… looks like it’s impossible for today. Tomorrow, tomorrow is the day.”

“''Uu''… I agree.”

In the end, they reached the conclusion that the work needed to be carried over till tomorrow.

After splitting up in front of the student council room, Chiharu headed for the school gate with her bag.

In the first place, she had chosen this school because of its proximity to her house. Thus, it was only a fifteen minutes’ walk away from home. Humming along as she walked, she soon reached her house.

As she tried to push open the door, she realised that it was locked. Now that she thought about it, her mother had told her earlier that she would be attending the neighbourhood association meeting and would be late. Likewise, her father was in the middle of a business trip and would only be back in a week.

She retrieved a key from her bag and unlocked the door.

“I’m back—”

As Chiharu took off her shoes, she called out to the empty house. As she did not have any siblings, there was obviously no response.

She climbed up the stairs and entered her own room. It was a simple room devoid of soft toys or posters. Having conducted a conference (or so they called it) for the student council in her room once, the four who attended the meeting today had visited it before. Naoki commented, ‘What a dull room’, while Ayumu remarked, ‘This is certainly a girl’s room but it’s unusually bland’. This led to the scene where Saori questioned Ayumu, ‘Sounds as if you had visited lots of girl’s room’, but anyway, it was such a room.

A board hung barely off the wall on which photographs were pasted, all of which belonged to her during her time in middle school. As for photographs of her before that time—for some reason, there were none.

“''Hmm…?''”

While closing the curtains so that she can change, Chiharu knitted her eyebrows.

She seemed to sense a human figure passing by through the window of the apartment opposite hers. Almost all of the sliding storm shutter of the rooms of the apartments were closed usually, with the exception of a room on the second floor which was always covered in darkness. As there never seemed to be light coming from the room, nor were there curtains blocking the view, she had always thought that nobody lived there.

A ghost…?

Feeling shivers on her back, Chiharu shut the curtains. Taking off her uniform, she reached out for a sweatshirt from the closet and stopped.

“A ghost, huh… don’t tell me that the girl from yesterday was really a ghost?”

She recalled the girl sleeping in the centre of the forest paradise.

Now that she thought back about it, just what was the feeling that was similar to a compulsion that she felt that time.

—She had first seen that girl yesterday, during her stroll back home after school.

The moment she saw her, all the buzz from the hustle and bustle became distant to her.

Be it the couple pleasantly chatting as they walked, or the salaryman returning home from work, or the catch-sales preying after females restlessly. —None of the them seemed to have notice the existence of the girl. Normally, upon seeing a girl walking on the streets in what looks like in-patient garbs, one would at least have the reaction of turning around to look at her again.

Only Chiharu alone perceived the figure of the girl. In addition, she had a strange impression of her.

That was—a nostalgic feeling of having met her before.

As Chiharu herself had no memories of her face, that feeling disappeared immediately afterwards.

Nevertheless, Chiharu felt a burning curiosity about the bumbling girl. There shouldn’t have been any basis for the nostalgia—no, there may be perchance. Even though it was contradictory, Chiharu thought so for some reason.

Secretly following the girl, they arrived at ‘URBAN’. The girl entered the dome, into the lounge surrounded by trees and collapsed with a plop, falling asleep.

Chiharu wanted to watch over her for a while, but she did not look like she would wake up anytime soon.

She wondered what should she do. This did not seem like a situation that necessitated reporting to the police, but neither did it felt like calling an ambulance was needed. Above all, the girl herself seemed to be very comfortable, so she did not have any intention of disturbing her.

After around two hours, the girl showed some signs of waking up. Chiharu inadvertently hid into the shadow of a nearby tree.

Just as she thought the girl was still in a daze, the girl once again headed for the streets with unstable footsteps.

Chiharu could do nothing other than watch the girl walk away.

“…”

She let go of the sweatshirt which she was holding. Instead, she opted for a shirt with a skirt, putting on a cardigan above that. Whenever she wore her plain clothes, she usually paired it with a hat. She reached out for a hunting cap, but immediately changed her mind and took the casquette instead.

Looks like her body had moved into action before her brain again. She went down the stairs to the entrance and tied the shoelace on her boots while humming.

Locking the door behind her, she left her home. She then got on her bicycle and raised her head.

“Youth is the age where one wants to embark on adventures, isn’t that right?”

With a grin, she spoke out to nobody in particular.

Subsequently, she rode in the direction of Nishito City, towards the lofty Urban Tower which reflected the orange sunset.