Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 10 Chapter 2 (section)

== 2.01 The Others ==

It was morning.

A boy wearing a white coat and goggles stood inside the abandoned factory on the suburbs of Akamaki City.

While minding his surroundings, he stood in front of an empty wall, opening his mouth.

“My member number is ---. I ask for permission to return.”

The boy’s mumble echoed in the empty factory. After he did so, the wall that seemed to not even have any crack in it split into two, revealing a modern elevator that was completely different from how the factory looked.

The boy tried boarding the elevator that appeared—

“Hold on, let me board too.”

He was startled at his shoulder being grabbed from behind.

As the boy turned around, he saw a blond girl smirking at him, having appeared without him feeling anything. She wore the same white coat as the boy.

“Ka… Kasuou?”

“Yeah, lemme get in too. Let’s have a friendly, fleeting date between us two HQ members.”

Kasuou was a Blaze Class Rank 3 Mushitsuki belonging to the SEPB’s Central Headquarters.

Her real name was Mitake Anneliese. She was 17 years old. She looked like a refined lady with golden hair and blue eyes, but served as a combatant known to be belligerent and brutal. Once, her lack of brutality and tactics were seen as a problem, but after temporarily joining the East Central Branch she was reeducated and received a re-evaluation within the SEPB.

She was viewed as one of the central pillars of battle power in the Central Headquarters both in name and reality.

“N-no, I can’t. The regulations say that we must give our information separately to the—”

“Ha?”

Black mist spouted from Kasuou’s feet.

Her ability was controlling amorphous mist. When coagulated it boasted high defense, and at times it could be used as a powerful weapon to break enemies.

“Don’t be such a killjoy. You really hate being with me that much?”

Intimidated by her soprano voice, the boy groaned an “Ugh…” as he flinched. Kasuou’s short temper was well-known not only within Central Headquarters but through the entire SEPB.

“N-no…”

The boy mumbled and made some space for her.

Kasuou grinned as she entered the elevator and the door closed.

“Must be nerve-wracking to ride this alone with a beauty like me but don’tcha mind it too much.”

The boy was apparently just a low-ranked combatant. At the very least his form of trying to be the furthest away from this charming-looking lady as he stood next to the wall was just like a rabbit entered into the same cage as a wild beast.

“I don’t think I know you? Where are you from? What’s your name?”

Kasuou who placed her arm around the scared boy’s shoulders as if they were friends.

The elevator that took these two Mushitsuki reached the lowest floor.

SEPB, Central Headquarters.

Several entrances to HQ existed all over Akamaki City. All of them feigned to be public facilities or places normal people wouldn’t enter, serving as entrances to the members.

“Oh, I see. —By the way, you little shit. How much do you know about me?”

“Eh?”

“I’m asking about Blaze Class Rank 3 Kasuou. How’s she like?”

Her colleague looked puzzled. He probably couldn’t understand the meaning of that question.

Kasuou glared at his eyes and then checked her appearance on the mirror-like surface of the wall.

Blond and petite. Her form did not change at all.

—''Hmph, so I was wrong. That’s not enough for an “overwrite”.

When Kasuou mumbled this in her mind the elevator stopped.

“Welp, our date’s over. What a waste, huh.”

Leaving behind the clearly relieved boy, Kasuou exited to the corridor.

The area used for the underground facility of the HQ was vast. It had paths that led all over Akamaki City, so she had no idea where the center would be. That center part had cutting-edge security defense system and many high-ranked members to serve as security.

It was incredible vast, a literal immeasurable and massive maze that hid secrets. 

Everyone related to the SEPB called that place “The Underground Stronghold”. —Apparently.

“…”

Passing by white-coat-wearing members, Kasuou walked through the corridors, entering countless doors. After riding an automatic moving passage and going around a corner, she finally reached the place that led to the “base” of the Stronghold.

The area that served as the axis of the Stronghold was apparently divided into multiple layers, from top floor to bottom floor. Right now she was at the topmost layer, where Mushitsuki members could enter, and other layers contained places such as experimental sites and Fallen isolation facilities—so she heard.

Right.

This was all hearsay.

After all, this was her first time ever to set foot inside this Underground Stronghold.

“Phew.”

There was area made only for moving between the layers, so the number of members coming and going increased. Kasuou found an empty corridor and breathed as she passed its corner. There were no security cameras around.

“Who should I be from here on? Mizuchi, maybe?”

The mumbling Kasuou’s entire body was engulfed by black mist.

The next moment, the mist scattered into a shape like dark-red scales. These crackled while clustering together, transforming into a snake-like being that was about two meters long.

The snake floating in air while undulating its horned head cried in a small voice.

“This ability really is useful for all sorts of things.”

Kasuou herself was no longer Kasuou either. Her white coat and goggles stayed, but she became a tall girl with black hair. Even her voice changed from soprano to alto.

“First let’s check how things around look.”

The dark red snake opened its mouth, emitting a red gas. It spread around, disseminated in air and became invisible.

After a short while the gas gathered again, becoming a three-dimensional stereoscopic image. It showed narrow corridors, the people walking there or opening doors; a reproduction of everything in a radius of about 30 meters.

“Yup, no one’s gonna come here for a while. Should I just wait until a weak-looking member comes by?”

Hiding in the corner of the corridor, the woman killed her breath.

“Haa, and tonight’s the full moon, so I want to finish this already and go back.”

The person who’d transformed into the Mushitsuki called Kasuou and then into Mizuchi as well had infiltrated the SEPB’s Central Headquarters.

She was obviously not the actual Kasuou—

“I wonder if Kanon’s behaving?”

It was Tamaki.

She left her region to fulfill a certain goal and used her original ability to get inside the Underground Stronghold. She’d already heard all about the entrance to the Stronghold and its simple structure by beating the information out of a Central Headquarters member.

For Mushitsuki like Tamaki who had no affiliation, the organizations like SEPB and Mushibane were those who might turn up as their enemies at any time. Tamaki had a period where she captured these organization’s members and got information from them. That was when she was young and reckless, but it served her a great deal.

“First I have to find out whether or not Kasuou is inside the Stronghold.”

Tamaki shrugged while looking at the stereoscopic image created by gas. The ability of the Mushitsuki Mizuchi allowed her to spread an extremely thin gas over a place, thereby exploring the surroundings like a sonar.

“It would be pretty awesome if the real one passes here by coincidence, though.”

The reason for Tamaki to undertake this risk and infiltrate the headquarters was—

Kasuou’s assassination.

Since Tamaki had used Kasuou for her own convenience, she couldn’t let the real one keep loitering around. In order to use her until the very end, she needed to have the real one retire from being a Mushitsuki.

All in order to protect her childhood friend.

All in order to turn lies into reality.

She would have the real Kasuou vanish.

Although she thought of it as assassination, she didn’t actually need to kill her. She could either kill her Mushi and turn her into a Fallen, or else injure her enough she’d never recover. This would not be straightforward at all, but Tamaki was convinced that her own ability surpassed Kasuou’s strength.

“I’m actually looking forward to find out how strong the original is.”

While looking at the stereoscopic image in front of her, Tamaki laughed. She herself knew that she was feeling cheerful.

The original Tamaki’s ability as a Mushitsuki.

If described in a single word, it would be a transformation ability.

However, it wasn’t that simple. It had several rules, or rather limits.

One of those was that she couldn’t use her ability to actually become a perfect copy of the desired person. Meaning it was an incomplete transformation.

That sounded bad, but Tamaki actually thought of it as a strength.

“After all, I’ve ‘overwritten’ Kasuou’s abilities for a long time. It’s possible I’ve already long since surpassed her power.”

Tamaki transformed into someone’s mental image of the target.

While saying the transformed person’s name and touching another person, she was able to read the image that rose to their mind, and copy it.

Even Kasuou’s ability that she used thus far wasn’t copied from the original.

—''Do you know Kasuou?

Tamaki came to imitate the image of Kasuou that rose to the touched person’s mind as they were asked this question. The appearance was camouflage, the voice was mimicry and even the ability was a mere fake. As a result, to be more precise, it wasn’t even a copy. If there was for example an ability that only the target knew about, Tamaki would be unable to mimic it.

Not only that, but since people never had the exact same image in their mind, Tamaki sometimes needed to get information from several people and “overwrite” it. By doing so, Tamaki was able to transform even closer to that person.

It was an imperfect ability, but had its advantages.

Tamaki’s disguise of Kasuou was made of mental images taken from five SEPB members. If among them were those who feared her so much that they imagined a monster even more powerful than the actual Kasuou—

“Well, I don’t know how strong the real one is, but launching a surprise attack should lead to an easy win.”

In fact, Kasuou’s image she currently possessed was quite powerful. She’d encountered many SEPB members so far, but none of them gave her a good fight.

Even if she was in trouble, as long as she had Kasuou’s copy she could probably escape.

She was convinced of this, and so decided to go through this infiltration operation.

“Well, finishing this too easily would be boring, though.”

Tamaki killed her breath and waited for a chance.

To protect her childhood friend—

There was no doubt she acted while thinking this.

However, she couldn’t deny she was also being stirred by a certain feeling. No, perhaps that was the reason she was urged into doing this.

Anyway, her enemy was a secret agency of the government.

If she failed it would not end pretty for her.

However—no, because of that, Tamaki had managed to get this far. Perhaps the reason she tried getting information about the SEPB at any opportunity she was given was also due to seeking the thrill of facing against that mysterious organization.

“—Here.”

Tamaki grinned. Inside the stereoscopic image, a lone member appeared in a nearby corridor. There were no other members around.

First she’d capture them and get the location of Kasuou out of them.

Tamaki tried walking ahead when something happened.

A shrill warning sound began blaring around. She could hear a broadcast from somewhere.

“Intruder discovered in Area F-8! Assumed to be an undiscovered Mushitsuki! Abilities unknown!”

“Wha…!”

She reflexively looked at the nearby wall. The sign “F-8” was painted in large letters on it.

“Meaning they already found me? But why, I didn’t do anything!”

Looking around her, she couldn’t see any kind of security camera.

“Any members nearby are to head over to the site and capture the target.”

“Kh…!”

The stereoscopic image floating in front of Tamaki’s eyes showed members rushing toward her location.

“It wasn’t a camera that found me, so was it a Mushitsuki ability then? B-but even so, that’s way too fast…!”

This wasn’t the time to find Kasuou.

Being faced with more enemies so quickly was completely outside her expectations. Tamaki had neither gone wild nor made a mistake yet.

''Then who on earth—

Gritting her teeth, Tamaki transformed into Kasuou again.

“You’re on. I’m gonna turn the tables on you—”

Even while wearing a bold smile, Tamaki had a bad feeling.

Perhaps this place that Tamaki had come into so casually was far more dangerous than she imagined—



While the alarm was still blaring, there was a roar in the Underground Fort Area F-8.

“Gh…!”

A boy wearing white coat and goggles was pounded against the wall. Sliding on it, he collapsed at the floor.

Other than the boy all the other rushing members were also flattened. They all lost consciousness, whether from their Mushi being killed or from getting hurt.

At that point new forces rushed in. Two white coats saw the cruel scene and were left speechless.

Large claw marks were engraved on the walls and floor. The cables buried within were severed, and the lights on the ceiling spread sparks.

“H-hey! Where’s the intruder!”

The rushing member roused the boy on the floor. He weakly pointed ahead.

“T-the woman collapsed there—”

“Right.”

Nodding at each other, the two white coats produced their Mushi. Staying cautious, they approached the collapsed girl.

While watching their backs, the boy raised his trembling arms. He rubbed his middle finger with his index finger.

''Psssh''—a sound like a canned drink being opened around.

“—Is one of your allies.”

“What?!”

By the moment they turned around it was already too late.

The whirl of steam shot from the boy’s arms swallowed the two Mushi. The extremely hot steam explosion gouged half of their bodies.

“Gwoooh…!”

The Mushi’s grievous wounds became mental damage to their hosts. Seeing the two members collapse with expressions of agony, the boy rose up. He quickly approached them and grabbed them by the collar.

“You found me despite there being no cameras. How’d you do it? Is there a Mushitsuki who can do this?”

The boy—who was actually the transformed Tamaki—pressed them.

Right now she became the Mushitsuki known as Aijisupa. She drew out his image from one of Kanon’s followers who used to belong to Mushibane. She actually wanted to transform into Snow Fly, who was supposedly the strongest, but they said that they’d never seen her ability.

“If you don’t answer truthfully, I’ll kill your Mushi.”

If she wasted too much time more reinforcements were going to come. Turning toward the writhing Mushi, the member grimaced in pain.

“Ugh… Maybe Konoha…”

“Konoha? What’s her ability?”

“…”

“Even if I kill your Mushi there will be another one, you know?”

“Kh… Konoha can apparently see things from afar… and she can erase her presence…”

A vague answer. It was hard to think that just by looking from afar she’d be able to find Tamaki. There was no doubt she had some hidden abilities.

However, the ability to vanish was currently a very enchanting prospect for Tamaki. If possible, she wanted to copy it—

“…”

She hesitated.

Copying the image of Konoha would cause an issue.

Tamaki’s ability had two rules.

She could copy only three people at the most. When she surpassed that number, the images copied would automatically vanish based on the order they were acquired.

Three at the most. However, she could always “overwrite” the copied individual.

That was Tamaki’s ability.

If she copied Konoha’s ability, the one to vanish right now—would be Aijisupa’s ability.

Aijisupa’s ability was powerful. If possible, she didn’t want to let go of it.

But she had no time to hesitate.

“Could you please tell me about that Mushitsuki called Konoha in more detail?”

Grabbing the member’s head, Tamaki narrowed her eyes.

“There’s no need to talk. You can just imagine it—”