Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 10 Chapter 1 (section)

== 1.01 Tamaki Part 2 ==

Having transformed into a blond girl, Tamaki leapt into the alley between a fast-food place and a clothes shop.

Although she’d used one of her abilities to transform to another person, since she grew shorter her shoes didn’t fit her. She decided to just bear with it being a bit hard to walk.

She saw the men and women corner a small girl in the dark part of the alley.

“—hear us? We said we’re Mushitsuki—”

…Mushitsuki?

Responding to that voice, she hurriedly hid herself behind a power pole.

This was apparently a Mushitsuki-related problem. Since the countryside had a low encounter rate with Mushitsuki, she really chanced upon quite the rare scene.

For now she should be careful and just wait and see—or so she thought, but decided not to.

It really was a rare happening, after all. With curiosity and a little bit of expectation in her heart, Tamaki revealed herself from behind the power pole.

“…! Who’re you!”

The tallest man there noticed Tamaki.

“I saw you all ganging up on a girl… is there any trouble?”

Grinning, she spoke in slightly weirdly pronounced Japanese. Deceiving them with her elegant, friendly way of speaking, she watched over the situation.

''Three men and a woman, huh… and the poor girl is over there. She’d even holding her head and shaking—

“This has nothing to do with you, so please leave.”

The teen girl spoke in a low voice, pushing Tamaki’s shoulder. She restrained herself from getting offended.

“Hey, you woman over there! Are you fine?”

Brushing the girl aside, she called toward the other crouching girl.

“I told you to leave!”

A short-haired boy was threatening her. At his feet, the curled-up girl raised her face.

“U-um… I-I really didn’t see anything! I saw nothing about you using some strange creature on the bank’s ATM…!”

“You little…! Why are you saying this?!”

“Eek!”

Being yelled at, the girl curled up again.

“Oh, I see now…”

Tamaki wore a bitter smile. She could more or less imagine the chain of events from that.

The strange creature seen by the girl was probably a Mushi. Meaning, this group probably used their Mushi abilities to illegally draw out money from an ATM.

This was so trifling that she felt disappointed for the second time that day.

By doing this, they would leave traces that would clearly indicate it was the doing of Mushitsuki and the SEPB would immediately find them. These wannabe-delinquents would be captured in the blink of an eye: The End.

Since it was a failed attempt, they weren’t going to be caught by the SEPB… but they probably hadn’t noticed that this girl saved them.

They truly were trash among trash. She could see that their abilities as Mushitsuki amounted to nothing.

“Did you think you could easily make some money by using your Mushitsuki abilities? The SEPB are fully aware of that. In a sense, making you think that way is part of the SEPB’s trap.”

Tamaki had ended in contact with the SEPB a few times before. However, she always successfully escaped or turned the tables on them, so she managed to live alone peacefully.

“Wha—”

Pushing through the circle of the speechless group, she grabbed the girl’s arm.

“Did you try to threaten her to shut her up? —Come on, let’s leave these guys behind.”

“H-hey! No one said you can go!”

“Uu…”

The girl curling up her body raised her face.

Seeing her face, Tamaki’s expression froze.

“—Kanon?”

“Fweh?”

With tear marks on her face, the girl—no, Tamaki’s acquaintance made a strange sound. Petite, cute, round face. The T-shirt that grew longer due to being washed many times, the dirty shoes, the thin hoodie.

She couldn’t readily believe it so she took a hard, long look at that face.

There was no mistake. Even those thick eyebrows and the way Kanon’s hair was bound on top of the left ear was unchanged from the past.

In front of her was the childhood friend who lived in the same neighborhood until middle school.

“Kanon! It’s me, it’s me! Do you remember? We were together until middle school! We used to play in the park together, and in middle school you…”

“Pfft, you’re obviously just pretending to know her to take her away, right?”

“Hey, you! Do you actually know her?”

Asked this by the boy, Tamaki’s childhood friend looked at her face with a scared expression.

After glaring at her for a while, Kanon struck her palm exaggeratedly and nodded furiously.

“Right, of course, an acquaintance of mine! Umm, umm… right, she’s my dad’s, cousin’s, second child’s, neighbor that came from France…”

“So she’s a complete stranger!”

Oh, right.

[[File:Mushi Uta 10 p035.jpg|thumb]]

Shocked at this unexpected reunion, Tamaki had completely forgotten. She wasn’t herself right now.

“Hey, you go away now! —No, actually you wait right there.”

“…Shuddup, I’ll fucking kill you.”

Tamaki glared at the boy who put a hand on her shoulder. Being glared at, his movements froze. It was because he saw a black mist rising from Tamaki’s legs.

“I’ve got a nice idea.”

She mumbled in her mouth.

Knocking out all these Mushitsuki and rescuing her childhood friend would be easy. Child’s play.

Because of that—she decided to try a little prank. She wanted to make Kanon recall who she was, but just revealing herself was boring.

One of the boys, upon seeing Tamaki wrapped by mist, paled. He started trembling.

“B-blond hair and a black mist… no way, is she Kasuou?!”

''Great, if they have someone who knows her, it’ll be even more effective—

Smirking, Tamaki put a hand on her hip.

“Right, I certainly am the Central Headquarters combatant, Blaze Class Rank 3 Kasuou, but—”

The government agency called the SEPB used rational measures in order to capture Mushitsuki. These measures being training the captured Mushitsuki, supervising them and using them as soldiers to capture more Mushitsuki.

“If you know about me, then you also know—what’s about to happen to you, right?”

Also, the organization’s Mushitsuki were classified in ranks based on their powers. The “Blaze Class Rank 3” that Tamaki mentioned meant someone with an ability specialized for combat, as well as ranking right below Ranks 1 and 2.

“It is Kasuou! Why’s a combatant from Central Headquarters all the way here…?!”

Their group looked ready to flee. Even if they tried to rush out of the alley and into the shopping district, she could block their way with the black mist. —The mist created by Kasuou’s ability had high defensive capabilities, and human limbs would not be able to penetrate it.

Having their escape path blocked, they all turned to the back alley.

However, that was—a dead end.

“S-shit…!”

“Alright, it’d be easy to finish you off right here and now, but first—”

Tamaki was obviously Tamaki, so the Mushitsuki called Kasuou was a completely different person. The reason she could use Kasuou’s ability was obviously because it was part of her own Mushi’s ability. It wasn’t a mere transformation ability and had its own quirks, but—

Tamaki averted her gaze from the boys, turning to look at the person sitting helplessly on the ground.

“First, you. Resign yourself to your fate, ankle-biter.”

“Fweh?”

“Since you’ve seen my face, I can’t let you live.”

Even though she was the one who’d revealed herself in the first place—it seemed like the nuance managed to pass through. Kanon’s expression went from fear to half-crying, half-laughing.

“It’s time for you to die.”

The name of the girl in front of Tamaki was Nakayama Kanon.

They were childhood friends who once lived at the same building. Since they were close in age and both had familial problems, they would at times meet up in the neighborhood park and play together.

Tamaki especially remembered that day.

When the foreigner calling himself Alpha appeared, Kanon had told an amusing lie.

“Are you ready?”

Did Kanon remember?

It already happened more than years ago. It would be much more natural to not remember.

Tamaki did remember.

''—We’ll erase the monsters.

Thus Kanon spoke at the time.

And so, as a little greeting for their reunion, Tamaki had a little surprise.

“DIEEEEEE!!!”

Tamaki powerfully swung down her mist-clad arm.

Kanon’s reaction was—

“Gyaaaah!”

Much more extreme than expected.

“Gyaaaah! GYAAAAH!”

Tamaki never expected Kanon’s display of head holding, exposed teeth, shedding tears, shouts and cries in as loud a voice as possible.

''No, you really shouldn’t be that scared—

“…”

Tamaki froze at this unexpected reaction.

And Kanon froze as well, mouth open wide.

Even the group of Mushitsuki surroundings these two were unable to understand what happened and stayed silent.

“Wha…”

Tamaki came back to her senses and glanced around. —She ended up being surprised, but now she was going back to the script.

The black mist filling the back alley completely vanished.

“What the hell! My mist was erased?!! Who the fuck are you?”

“Fweh?”

“No way, do you have… an ability that erases Mushi?! Shit, I’m done for!”

Taking a step back from the stunned Kanon, Tamaki stamped her feet in annoyance.

While acting like she was mad, she stole a glance at Kanon.

Her childhood friend looked puzzled. Tamaki clicked her tongue.

“You have the power to erase monsters?! You’re unbelievable!”

She tried repeating it again.

She heard a gasp. Kanon rose with a puffed chest.

“R-right! Kanon has an amazing ability!”

“Shit! Then this means I’m now a normal person without any powers!”

“Fwahahaha!”

“Oh, it’s useless!”

Kanon was roaring with laughter and the blond girl, Kasuou, drooped her head while pretending to cry.

Seeing that scene, the Mushitsuki boys and girl were speechless.

Having Kasuou’s mist ability vanish was obviously not because Kanon could erase Mushitsuki abilities. Tamaki simply cancelled her own ability.

“—Yup, this should be enough.”

Satisfied, Tamaki stopped pretending to cry. Rising up, she put a hand on Kanon’s shoulder.

“So, you remember?”

“Remember what?”

Kanon still looked puzzled.

…Apparently her hopes were misplaced.

Tamaki sighed, turning back to the group behind her. She shooed them off with her hand.

“Hmm, well, so, if you don’t want your Mushi to be erased you should run away—eek!”

She unconsciously let out a real yelp.

Brushing Tamaki aside, the four Mushitsuki dashed to Kanon.

“Please erase my Mushi!”

“Mine, too!”

“Mine too! You can do it, right?!”

“Save me! Please… I beg you!”

Their rough behavior caused Tamaki and Kanon’s voices to overlap.

“Eh?”

“Fweh?”

The four Mushitsuki clung to Kanon with no regard to how pathetic they looked. All of them rattled on at once, so it was impossible to understand who was saying what.

But what Tamaki could understand—was that the four of them wanted their Mushi erased.

They wished for it from the bottom of their hearts. The girl was even crying profusely.

“U-umm…”

Suddenly being asked to save them, Kanon apparently didn’t know what to do, glancing around in confusion.

''Ah, I see—

Tamaki realized and glared at them with cold eyes.

All Mushitsuki wanted to be saved. Their bodies hosted the monsters called Mushi that ate their dreams, and at one point they’d become fully devoured—they couldn’t tell when their death would come. Mushitsuki had to shoulder that sort of fate.

It was quite natural, come to think of it.

Tamaki hated Mushi too.

If she really did know someone who could erase them—not this stupid lie, but an actual person like that—perhaps she would cling to them like that as well.

“Ah…”

If her lie was exposed here, they might turn on them and hurt her childhood friend. She wanted to help Kanon, but she obviously couldn’t erase their Mushi for real.

If she couldn’t erase them—she just needed to invent a reason why.

She would paint over her lie with another lie.

Tamaki looked up at the sky. The sun had already set, and a full moon was floating in the heavens.

“Thinking about it, I’ve heard about it before.”

A full moon.

That ominous, lustrous glow was just the right thing to deceive people. Throughout all of history people revered it and worshipped it alongside the sun.

''Yup, I can use this—

“There’s someone who can erase Mushi on a full moon night—and only once. Nakayama Kanon. Is that you?”

Saying this, Tamaki looked at Kanon. It was a bad improvised lie, but it should just be enough to fool them here. Just the means to buy enough time to vanish.

Following Tamaki, the four Mushitsuki also looked at Kanon.

''Just nod, please.

As Tamaki glared at Kanon, just like she thought, her childhood friend—

“…”

Slowly nodded.

At that time, a calm voice was heard from above.

“—Is that true?”

“…!”

Everyone there raised their faces.

A human figure stood with the night sky and the full moon behind them. Someone was standing on the roof of the fast-food restaurant.

“The SEPB…?”

Tamaki put herself on guard. When she’d looked up just now there was no one there. Even so that person appeared in an instant and she wasn’t even able to sense their presence.

Seeing the stance of the person with the full moon at their back, Tamaki realized.

''Seems quite strong… also, our position is bad! I can defend against most attacks using Kasuou’s ability, but I’d better use another—no, Kasuou’s ability is definitely the most adaptable!

Running fast simulations through her mind, Tamaki was about to generate her black mist.

“If so, I’ve got a favor to ask…”

However, no attack came from their enemy.

Dancing in the air, the figure landed in front of Tamaki and the rest. They managed to land safely from quite the height, but Tamaki couldn’t tell whether they underwent such training or perhaps used some ability.

“I have a Mushi inside this… so I’d like you to erase it.”

Illuminated by the moonlight, the one who spoke this was a boy around Tamaki’s age. He wore tattered shirt and jeans and a vintage motorcycle helmet on his head. His half-open eyes had dark circles under them and he looked completely languid and lacking energy.

The boy who appeared like this extended a bag held in his arms toward Kanon.

Suddenly looking around the speechless, frozen people around him, the boy spoke.

“…So, where am I in the line?”