Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 13 Chapter 3 (section)

== 3.01 OPS3 Part 12 ==

Shiika saw a vortex of light and felt an impact.

The vast lobby was first drowned by bursting lights of pure white. All the electric systems perhaps shortcutting, the fluorescent lights on the ceiling burst, the electric bulletin board raised sparks and the LED screen on the wall shut down.

Next, there was sound.

A roar suddenly shook the lobby, blowing away not only their eardrums but their entire bodies. And it approached the lobby in less than three seconds—

“…!”

Shiika and the rest in the lobby witnessed this horrible sight.

Appearing from the return gate—were not the passengers carrying their luggage.

It was a gigantic white whale, its entire body injured and its bones peeking out—

Not that, either.

“’Please forgive me already…’”

Aria’s whisper was drowned in the noise.

It wasn’t Moby Dick.

What Shiika saw was the remnants of the large airplane that appeared by destroying the building.

The airplane’s radome nose was already crumpled beyond recognition. Rubbing against the asphalt, the surface that was supposed to be pure white was scarred dark red and the walls were torn away, exposing the bulkheads within.

“—!”

Due to the sounds of impact, all screams rising the lobby were just felt as soundwaves rather than being heard.

Both ceiling and floor—every part of the structure visible—was blown away by the approach of the gigantic fuselage.

Shiika and company were a moment before becoming victims as well—

But then the fuselage broke.

It was because it crashed into the airport not straight, but a bit slanted. The front impact broke down the radome, but the impact from the side broke the fuselage in half.

Inappropriate thoughts rose to Shiika’s mind, reminding her of a sausage snapped into two. Shiika and the rest standing frozen in the lobby now really were in the cross-section of the building.

“—”

Due to the fuselage breaking, the tragedy’s erosion ceased.

The cross-section of the fuselage was pure dark.

However, seeing the scene made visible through sparks momentarily lighting it, they all froze.

The inside of the broken plane had stuff dangling from the ceiling—countless oxygen masks. Similarly, an avalanche of luggage poured from the compartments opened in the ceiling. And within the dark space with its broken lighting there were passengers moaning in agony.

What on earth happened—

Why did an airplane, supposed to land on the runway, lose control and crash into the airport?

She understood it in her mind.

However, there were the debris, the broken fuselage, and the passengers groaning in agony that she could see. Also—due to the sounds of the screams and sparks reverberating in her ears, she was unable to move a single finger.

''I-I need to pull myself together especially when something like this happens—

Shiika’s sense of duty urged her.

''There’s the other Mushibane members as well, right, I need to be like Rina—

However, unlike what she was thinking, she couldn’t move her body at all.

A fire apparently started. She couldn’t see its source, but thick smoke was engulfing the lobby and the fuselage.

“Aijisupa! Find the fire and extinguish it! I’m also counting on you to erase the smoke!”

The lone voice of reason echoing in the lobby of tragedy brought Shiika back to her sense.

It was Namie. She rushed to Shiika, pulled out a handkerchief and put it to her mouth.

“Fuyuhotaru, you take Chiharu and Sanbikime and evacuate to a safe place. We can’t allow them to get hurt from secondary damages.”

Saying this, Namie’s tone was soft. As if saying there was no need to worry.

She pushed Shiika’s shoulder and turned around, her long hair waving.

“Lucifera, you call our comrades outside and secure the route to a safe place! Coordinate with the staff and prepare as many stretchers as possible! Try and rescue as many of the injured as you can until the firefighters and ambulances come here!”

“R-right!”

Going past the lifted airport floor, Namie leapt into the broken plane.

“Why—are you so—”

Shiika, who remained standing frozen there, leaked a shaking voice.

Although Shiika was used to Mushitsuki battles, even in her eyes what happened here was abnormal. It was an unreasonable hell with no ally or enemy, but simple bloodshed.

How should she call this sort of situation—

“’Is it the thing called fate…?’”

A small shadow passed next to Shiika.

“’I knew it… it always turns out like this in the end…!’”

The headphone boy—Aria Varei—started dashing toward the dark fuselage.

“Wait…!”

Shiika’s legs finally listened to her. She wanted to go after Aria, then turned around.

“Chiharu-san, you go somewhere safe…!”

Chiharu had no response. Until just now she was shocked just like Shiika.

While going past the concrete fragments along with Aria, they entered into the plane—

It was a space filled with smoke and groans of pain.

All lights were gone and it was gloomy inside, but she could see many seats collapsed. She could hear a child crying from somewhere, and several passengers tumbled down the fuselage in a clear state of panic.

“Get a hold of yourself! Guide the unhurt passengers outside!”

She could see Namie helping get up the passengers that were woozy from the impact.

“’C.J…!’”

Pushing through the dark corridor, Aria looked around him. Shiika desperately followed him.

“’Where are you, C.J! You should be somewhere near!’”

The name he repeated was probably that of the boy’s friend he spoke about before.

“’C.J’—”

As he reached the back of the plane, Aria walked ahead, then went speechless.

Shiika was the same upon seeing that sight.

Unlike the broken front, the back had definitely suffered comparatively less damage—

Or so she estimated, but it was a complete mistake. Probably before crashing into the airport, a single wall had been destroyed and something had sunk into the passenger seats—a thick metal pipe of a transporter crane.

“He’s not breathing! Lend me a hand!”

Hearing that voice, both Shiika and Aria startled.

The crane’s arm coming from the wall pulled off several seats, and someone had been pinned under it.

He was a blond boy. He was unconscious and his pale face looked languid.

“—”

Aria looked at the headphones rolling next to the blond boy.

It was the exact same kind as those Aria was currently wearing.

“’Is that you—C.J…’?”

“Help us!”

Several people, perhaps those from the surrounding seats, were trying to rescue the boy already. Middle-aged men, old men and girls, all of them were struggling against the crane’s arm. A woman crying her eyes out nearby was probably the boy’s mother.

Shiika rushed to the collapsed boy and tried helping the people lifting the crane.

However, Aria made no move.

Aria was—smiling.

“’—Haha.’”

Suddenly losing all power, he kneeled on the spot.

“’Here, look… it always turns out like this… trying to save him is useless.’”

Seeing the boy whose breathing stopped, Aria giggled.

Lines of tears streaked from his eyes and Shiika startled.

“Aria Varei—Sanbikime…”

Chiharu said that it was Sanbikime inside this headphone-wearing boy.

And he himself had also acknowledged that.

Even so, that boy Shiika was seeing was shedding tears for another person—

“You’re crying despite being one of the Original Three…?”

Oogui.

Shinpu.

Those beings who lived only to target people’s dreams and feed on them were the Original Three.

Shiika believed this without a doubt, so this scene came as a shock to her.

This one was different from the other Original Three—

“His lungs are being crushed, he can’t breathe! If we don’t hurry it’ll be too late!”

One of the people trying to save the boy shouted this.

Shiika came back to her senses and tried joining the people lifting the cranes, but—

“Eeek!”

She startled as someone grabbed her ankle.

“He’s probably not breathing anymore…! More importantly, save me instead…!”

A man wearing a suit was collapsed at Shiika’s legs. Perhaps another victim of the crane, he was bleeding from his legs.

“The blood won’t stop…!”

“Eh—but…”

The man’s wounds didn’t look all that serious to Shiika’s eyes. Only a part of his clothes turned red. She though the boy was in much more of a precarious state—

As she looked to Aria, he held his head, looking pained.

“’I have to eat his dream… but—shit…!’”

“Hey, you…! I’m telling you to save me already!”

“—”

Shiika hesitated.

Should she respond to the man’s request for help?

Or should she save who she thought needed it?

That momentary hesitation made the bleeding man screech.

“—Gya!”

The man fell backwards as if blown back. His head bumped against the wall and he fainted.

“Eh…”

Surprised, Shiika looked next to her.

There was a girl taller than Shiika there—and unless her eyes were playing tricks on her, the girl took a splendid pose as if she’d just kicked a soccer ball now.

She was one of those who helped saving the boy. She wore a white dress, red boots and for some reason, a thin cardigan was hanging on her shoulders, with her arms outside of it. It was hard to judge whether she was a middle- or high-schooler. Her wet hair clung to her face so it was hard seeing her expression, but Shiika saw a glance of her mouth with protruding canines.

Turning toward all the others present who sank into silence, the girl breathed out.

“Come on.”

She poked her finger against the crane’s arm.

All the passengers exchanged glances. They nodded and resumed the rescue activities in unison. Seeing them like this, the atmosphere inside the plane so shocked by the accident changed. More and more passengers with soot-covered faces gathered and joined the efforts.

“…Wow.”

While also helping the work herself, Shiika looked at the girl wearing a dress.

Seeing her actions, everyone’s hearts were united. Even foreigners who couldn’t understand her managed to hold back their fear by their will to save the boy.

''This isn’t something I can do—

Shiika had neither the charisma that grasped people’s hearts nor the leadership qualities that gathered people.

She could never become Mushibane’s past leader, Tachibana Rina.

She knew this since long ago, and yet—

“…Fuu.”

The girl suddenly stopped her work and breathed again. Shiika though she was wearing a bold minidress, but she actually had short pants underneath. She brought out some wrapping from her pocket and put its contents into her mouth.

It was a cookie.

“…”

Crunching the cookie, she was about to go back to work—and then noticed the crouching Aria.

She used her index finger to beckon him to her.

“—”

Aria grimaced in pain—but wiped his tears. He came next to Shiika and helped the work.

“’Shit… if this was how I originally was, I could easily slip past this…’”

“Sanbikime-san…”

The one who was the most hated enemy for Mushitsuki, one of the Original Three, now stood next to Shiika.

However, that member of the Original Three had his face twisted in agony and was trying to save a person’s life.

“’Once more I can’t do anything except eat this person’s dream, then…!’”

As if spitting out something he was accumulating, Aria groaned.

Then, along with a heavy vibration, the crane’s arm faintly moved.

“It’s… moving!”

“Just like this! Keep going! We’ve pulled it out!”

“Hurry up, someone help him breathe!”

The thick smoke-engulfed fuselage suddenly became noisy. —The amount of smoke lessened probably due to Aijisupa taking care of the fire’s origin and then clearing up the smoke through controlling the airflow.

“…”

Panting, Shiika and Aria stood there, stunned.

The boy pinned under the crane’s arm was finally rescued.

Seeing the crewmen who happened to be present perform artificial respiration, Aria mumbled to himself.

“’He’s saved… really? No, it’s too early to say…’”

“H-he’ll definitely be saved. Outside we have Nanana’s—”

“’There’s no way… after all, this far I always had to eat their dream—wah!”

The cookie girl grasped Aria’s head from behind.

Looking down at the surprised Aria, she grinned.

“’W-what is it… sorry, it was my bad, saying this was impossible.’”

As he sounded embarrassed, the girl ruffled his hair.

“E-err, thank you very much.”

Shiika bowed at the girl.

She heard from Chiharu about the fate of Fusion-Type Mushitsuki being born.

And the being called Sanbikime always suffered from it.

However, they apparently finally managed to avoid tragedy this time.

They succeeded in no small part thanks to the girl in front of Shiika.

“I know it’s odd for me to thank you but, well, it’s thanks to you that—”

Shiika tried speaking, but then noticed something odd.

She couldn’t see the cookie girl’s expression well. It was because her wet hair clung to her face.

But what was it that wettened the girl’s hair in the first place?

It was—an abnormal amount of sweat.

“Err… this might be rude—”

She felt her voice shaking unconsciously.

Now that the smoke was cleared, she could see that the cookie girl’s dress also changed color with the sweat. Not only that, but her cardigan sleeves—were dripping blood.

“—Are you hurt?”

“If there were two seriously hurt people, they’d hesitate too much about who to save… and once that happened, they might become unable to save both…”

The girl showed her sharp canines and smiled. Unlike her expression, however, her voice was terribly weak.

“’Hey—‘”

Aria’s expression changed. He was staring at the girl’s right hand.

She probably picked it up after saving the boy.

“’Hey! Why do you—you’re a woman, so why do you have it!”

The cookie girl was gripping headphones.

The exact same headphones as those Aria wore.

“I’m a man… I was just born in a woman’s body…”

As if begging for forgiveness, the girl’s expression twisted—

And vanished from Shiika’s sight.

“’AHHHHHHH!’”

Looking down at the girl who collapsed as though her strings were cut, Aria shouted.

“—”

Seeing the back uncovered by the cardigan now, Shiika felt herself grow pale.

She was covered in blood. Perhaps part of the wall that broke down upon collision with the crane, several sharp metal fragments stabbed into her. It was such a grievous wound that it was a miracle she managed to hide it until now.

That girl was, in fact—C.J. She possessed the dream that drew Aria to her, and had the sort of indominable spirit that allowed her to hide her own fatal wounds to save the boy. Regarding the confusion in gender, there were apparently some circumstances behind it.

As the girl lay there unable to move even a finger, Aria looked down at her and held his head.

Next to them, Shiika had definitely seen it in the fuselage filled with chaos.

“…”

The blonde boy that was saved thanks to the cookie girl started breathing again. He coughed painfully, and his crying mother clung to him.

“’It really does turn out like this… in the end, this is my fate…’”

Aria clenched his fist. He kneeled next to the girl.

“You wanted somewhere you could get reborn… you’ve told me this before…”

Aria’s body was wrapped in a faint, azure glow. He slowly opened his mouth wide.

“’It looks so, so tasty—and it’s exactly because I have these thoughts at such a time that I’ll never be forgiven…’”

Seeing that Aria brought his widened mouth closer to the collapsed girl—

Without thinking, Shiika slipped between them.

“…!”

As Shiika held the girl’s head in an embrace, Aria glared at her.

His expression of anger didn’t seem childlike at all—it really was monstrous.

“’Move aside—“’

“…!”

Shiika shook her head.

Aria grabbed Shiika’s clothes and tried pulling her away. However, he was awfully weak, completely unlike a supposed Original Three monster.

“’Don’t stand in my way—on whose authority do you intend to kill her—‘”

“…!”

Shiika shook her head again.

No words came out. Instead, she started crying at some point.

“’What am I supposed to do, then! Are you telling her to leave her to die?! It’s better to become a Mushitsuki than die!”

“…!”

“’What can you do, then! Are you telling me you can—save her?!”

“—I can’t…”

Shiika bit her lips.

These were tears of frustration and chagrin.

Knowing neither shame nor honor, she spoke what she already knew since long ago.

“I can’t do anything…!”

[[File:Mushi Uta 13 p195.jpg|thumb]]

As the surviving Rank 1, she couldn’t become a replacement for Kakkou.

And she couldn’t become like her magnificent friend Tachibana Rina, either.

Far from it, even if she just tried acting as a single Mushitsuki, she couldn’t save anyone.

Because Shiika’s power—could do nothing but destroy.

“I can’t save anyone…”

Smoke started filling the fuselage again. The passengers started clamoring.

A small presence appeared behind Shiika.

“Sorry for being late, Snow-sama.”

Hearing this innocent voice in her ears, Shiika nodded.

“—However.”

The moment Shiika mumbled, their sight literally dispersed.

“…!”

Even the faces of the surprised Aria and the other passengers vanished like mist, and the next moment—

A bright light filled their sights.

“—”

The wounded cookie girl.

Shiika who held her head.

As well as Aria.

All three of them retrieved their forms in the airport’s arrival lounge that was filled with light.

Namie and the crewmen were busy guiding the passengers out of the broken fuselage. But what surprised Aria wasn’t them—but the state of the lobby from how it was a few minutes ago.

Many doctors, nurses and paramedics rushed around the scene of the accident. The passengers were being carried outside on stretchers one after another, and the crucially injured received treatment on simple beds installed on the spot. Large movable lights illuminated the area.

Even as Shiika cried, she held the cookie girl’s head.

“My comrades can definitely save her…!”

Seeing the perfect acceptance state developed in the lobby, Aria groaned in shock.

“’Why… how, all this… it’s almost as if you knew this would happen—‘”

Saying this, he gasped.

Noticing that Shiika and the others appeared in the lobby, several people rushed to them.

Seeing one of them, Aria grimaced.

“’—Chiharu… I see, you knew this…’”

Akasegawa Nanana appeared as well. She also brought Lucifera and other Mushibane members with her.

“Come here, a few of you! It’s urgent! I’ve even arranged for lights for Chafer, so work already!”

“I’m not one of your fucking employees, Akasegawa!”

Even as he cussed, the Mushitsuki boy who had heling abilities sat down next to the cookie girl.

“O-oh, what a cutie… looks like things are really bad, though.”

Seeing her comrades arriving, Shiika lost all strength. She was relieved and tried leaving the girl.

However.

Someone grabbed Chafer’s shoulders from behind as he was about to begin treatment.

“W-wait a minute.”

She was Lucifera. While looking at the cellphone she held in one hand, she asked in a mutter.

“H-has she already been turned into a Mushitsuki?”

Shiika looked up at Lucifera’s face with surprise.

“If she’s not one yet—Sanbikime-san, hurry up and make her a Mushitsuki already.”

“—!”

Shiika was speechless.

Lucifera didn’t remove her eyes from the cellphone. —No, she tried not meeting Shiika’s eyes.

“We must defeat Oogui. If a Fusion-Type Mushitsuki is about to get born here, they will become indispensable fighting power. They might even go beyond Kakkou or Sleeping Beauty.”

“Lucy-san…?”

“Allow me to state this clearly. There’s no guarantee Mushibane alone can beat Oogui. Reason being, you’re our strongest fighter, Snow-san, and your ability—”

Lucifera found it difficult to speak further, so she stopped. She continued as though forcing it out.

“Can be used by Oogui as well.” 

“…!”

Perhaps surprised at Lucifera’s words, the gathered Mushibane members’ expressions were beyond unexpected.

Because only Shiika was surprised, while everyone else just bit their lips.

“Eh…? Y-you guys—”

“If we get more fighting power, our chances of winning will increase too. All the more if it’s an ability Oogui doesn’t have!”

No one there denied Lucifera’s words.

Seeing the expressions of Lucifera, Nanana and some others, Shiika noticed.

“—Y-you thought this all along?”

Her mouth moved on its own.

“All along… you didn’t think we can win…? Against Oogui…”

“…”

“Finding Sanbikime as well… was because you wanted more allies…?”

''Of course not—

Shiika wanted to hear this chain of words the most of all, but it came from no one.

Not even from Namie or Aijisupa, who left the rest of the evacuation efforts to professionals.

It felt so heavy.

Shiika had never felt this kind of heavy impact before.

“No one… believed in me…?”

“No!”

Namie denied it.

“We do believe in you, Fuyuhotaru! It’s just that—”

“It’s just lip service, right?”

It was Satou Youko who suddenly cut off Namie’s words.

“By adding a Fusion-Type Mushitsuki as an ally, you might win against Oogui. And it might cause less Mushibane victims as well.”

No one there should have noticed the presence of this girl sitting on a suitcase until now. She was a girl with so thin of a sense of presence—but she was always next to Shiika.

As if gouging the doubts and anxiety born in her heart.

As if seeing through their black hearts and drawing them further into the darkness.

“You know this well—so it’s odd using trying to save just a single person, right?”

Satou Youko wore a casual sneer.

“No, rather than paying lip service… aren’t you just being selfish?”

Selfish.

Right—

Shiika agreed.

Thinking about it as Mushibane’s leader, there was no choice in the first place.

So for Shiika to feel like going against that now—it was nothing more than simple selfishness.

“As the SEPB, if we focus on fighting Oogui—as well as C—we do want the strength of a Fusion-Type Mushitsuki.”

Saying this was Kabuto, the SEPB combatant.

“And speaking personally… also as a power to go against Miguruma Yaeko.”

Even the SEPB, who were enemies to Mushibane, wished for the birth of Mushitsuki.

There was no longer any doubt.

Having the cookie girl become a Mushitsuki was definitely the right answer.

And what Shiika wished for—was the wrong answer.

Looking at Aria, he grimaced in pain.

“’It can’t be helped, if no one will stand in my way… I will probably eat her dream.’”

Unable to resist his own hunger.

That was the Original Three.

They had no other choice.

“You know it’s not just fighting power being born here…”

Shiika looked at the cookie girl.

If she became a Mushitsuki—she’d be very strong.

Although only briefly, she saw the girl’s strength that assured her of this.

“You know she’d be a Mushitsuki…”

“—!”

Several people were agitated.

However, the right answer wouldn’t change.

If there were a hundred people there, a hundred people would go against Shiika.

Any people other than that—didn’t currently exist. If Kakkou or Tachibana Rina were there, what would they have done? Would they go against Shiika as well?

Clinging to these delusions was undoubtedly part of Shiika’s weakness.

“I know that… but… but…!”

As she shed tears, Shiika recalled the face of someone who was completely irrelevant to this place.

Kusuriya Daisuke.

He wasn’t a Mushitsuki—but he approached Shiika also not as a Mushitsuki, thinking she was a normal girl.

She promised she’d meet him again.

“But—I hate it…!”

Unable to withstand it, Shiika started crying.

If she let a Mushitsuki be created her—if she had no choice just to reach the right answer…

Shiika felt like it would mean crossing a line.

“Right now, we’re the ones deciding whether she should become a Mushitsuki… and not the Original Three…! But making a Mushitsuki just for our sakes—”

Growing too excited, her voice became shrill. Shiika groaned.

“That’d make us the same as the Original Three…”

She felt that someone got agitated again.

Even while saying all this, she knew.

She was a coward.

“I understand… that I’m selfish… but I hate it…!”

Not only was she selfish, she was raising a tantrum.

She was acting without any responsibility, choosing a wrong answer based on emotion.

However, she had the feeling that if she suppressed those emotions, they were going to go past the point of no return.

“—You should elect a new leader.”

Once again, it was Youko who spoke suddenly.

“If she doesn’t prioritize the organization first and foremost, isn’t she a failure as a leader?”

The atmosphere froze.

“Fuyuhotaru-chan… if you want your selfishness to prevail, you should quit Mushibane.”

''C’mon, don’t be there, come over here—

Satou Youko’s kind smile looked to her as if she was beckoning to her.

“…”

Shiika hugged the cookie girl’s head and grimaced.

Shiika didn’t have the makings of a leader—she knew this from the very beginning, but it now turned into a situation where she had to acknowledge this.

With Shiika there, the very organization of Mushibane itself would collapse.

She would destroy the people that her friend entrusted to her care by her own hands—

“—Step away from Fuyuhotaru, Satou Youko.”

Taking this unexpected action was Namie.

She stood in front of Shiika as if to protect her from the other girl.

“Namie-san…?”

“Sorry, Fuyuthoaru… I’m so sorry…!”

Namie turned back to Shiika, biting her lips.

“Once again, I couldn’t see anything but the battle ahead…! I’m so pathetic…!”

“Even if can’t stay in the Mushibane that Rina left behind—”

Aijisupa approached Shiika and spun his body as well.

“It’s still my job to stay at your side.”

“A-are you insane?”

With Mushibane members to her back, Lucifera’s face froze.

“Are you going to betray Mushibane in such a situation?”

“I won’t let you turn this girl into a Mushitsuki. If you say you don’t allow it, that’s what happens.”

“Chafer. Once you finish the minimum amount of treatment, you step back too.”

Shiika was confused at Namie and Aijisupa’s sudden actions.

“Namie-san, Aijisupa-san, I don’t really—”

“I thought about doing this later, but this might be a good opportunity.”

Kabuto spoke while crossing his arms.

“Fuyuhotaru, why don’t you join the SEPB—the East Central Branch?”

“Eh?”

Along with Shiika, everyone there looked at Kabuto.

“We won’t let Central Headquarters have you. We at the East Central Branch have been talking about this before; to have you join us not by capturing you, but formally become our ally. —If you leave Mushibane and become a SEPB combatant, we’ll forget about that girl.”

Lucifera looked flustered.

“W-what are you saying… Snow-san will leave Mushibane? Letting the chance for creating a Fusion-Type slip away? And what’s more… for her to join the SEPB? W-what on earth are you all talking about!”

“—”

It was just like Lucifera said.

Shiika couldn’t immediately understand the reality created by her own actions.

The Mushitsuki that she thought were all her allies moments ago now became her enemies.

All because of Shiika—

Although the Mushitsuki were finally all united, they were going to split off again—

“Come here, Chafer.”

“Hey, this is—pretty bad!”

Chafer’s anxious-dyed voice echoed in the lobby full of tension.

“The light… no, it’s—”

The lights illuminating the lobby showed a bizarre change.

“…!”

Shiika finally noticed it as well.

The lights—were moving.

They were bending and curving, morphing and changing their shape.

Small balls of light were gushing out of the sources of illumination.

Looking more closely at them, they were swarms of butterflies—and had the letter C on their wings.

“C—”

As she mumbled this, Shiika recalled that their battle against C had already begun.