Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 15 Chapter 1 (section)

== 1.01 Arisu the Last ==

''She'' stood atop a large wharf.

There were cranes and lifts meant for hauling catches scattered here and there on land, and several vessels were anchored. Thin clouds covered the orange-tinted sky as the curtain of darkness began to descend.

Many figures took violent movements within these premises.

These weren’t the fishers or marketplace people.

They were Mushitsuki.

Fighting defensively while covered in blood, they were the combined forces made from both former members of the SEPB as well as Mushibane. —They were also those who had gathered to annihilate the calamity known as C, had lost as a result and now had to retreat.

On the other hand, the Mushitsuki who surrounded them were the assassins sent by C. Either those who’d once lost their Mushi and became Fallen or else died, had their dreams being controlled by C, turning them into the Revived.

The Mushitsuki were attempting to escape to sea.

The Revived attempted to pursue and root them out.

After their series of battles, they were all dirty with soil and mud, and it was impossible to tell how many were even dead.

“As long as I’m strong—isn’t that enough?”

She smiled, looking down the transport truck being protected by the Mushitsuki. Her familiar scarf and the sensation of the silver spear grasped in her hand stirred up her drive for a fight inside her.

She didn’t need a mirror to tell how she looked now.

Right now, she was fused with her Mushi, the silver Morpho butterfly, and had a silver pattern over her entire body. Her face and thin limbs, constantly deathly pale due to fighting with an illness for a long time, were glowing silver, and her long hair was set afloat by the scales gushing out from the silver spear. —She looked exactly the same as back then, when she’d expired from her disease.

And a boy covered fully in a rusty, dark red was standing in her way.

“Right now—you aren’t Arisu.”

His SEPB-issued long coat was in tatters, discolored by dried blood and scorch marks. The goggles on his face were cracked, and his Mushi, the checkered beetle, stood on the automatic pistol dangling from one hand.

She knew well who this boy was.

Kusuriya Daisuke—Kakkou.

A Mushitsuki who supposedly already had his Mushi killed and became a Fallen.

“Then who am I, then?”

She was supposed to be dead.

Kakkou was supposed to be Fallen.

She couldn’t understand why two people who weren’t supposed to be there now faced each other like this.

It was also unnatural how the surroundings became extremely quiet since a while ago. She could see the Mushitsuki fighting on the wharf, but their voices wouldn’t reach the pair of people glaring at each other.

While they were at the same place, it was also like they were in different worlds.

In fact, wasn’t this situation purposely crafted by someone?

But she cared nothing for that.

“You should know who I am.”

Saying this, she glanced behind her.

A long girl was lying inside the cargo of the transport truck stolen from the military. She was sleeping while covered by a blanket and a jacket.

Sleeping Beauty, Arisu.

Right now, the Mushitsuki in the harbor all fought to the death, prioritizing her protection over their own survival.

“You alone. Right, Kusuriya Daisuke-san?”

“You are Arisu’s friend, as well as the first host of the Morpho butterfly… Hanashiro Mari.”

Turning ahead again, Kakkou spoke to her in a hoarse voice. She had no idea why he was already so injured, but apparently he could barely even stand.

She—Mari—grinned.

Right. Although she died from her illness in the past, she still remained inside the Morpho butterfly and kept protecting her best friend, Arisu. The number of people who knew about this could be counted on one hand.

No, this had nothing to do with the past.

No matter where she was, no matter when it was, if Arisu was there—

Mari would become Arisu’s guardian.

That was Mari’s duty and the only possible response for the friendship the girl gave her.

However, Kakkou looked at Mari and spoke.

“…But you’re not Hanashiro Mari right now. Never mind your appearance.”

The tip of Mari’s spear twitched. She wore a provocative smile.

“Then who is it standing right here, then?”

“…”

“And in the first place—who are you, even?”

Kakkou gave no answer to her question.

“I’ve seen it all through the Morpho butterfly. —You became a Fallen, right?”

After getting saved from the Central Headquarters’ Underground Fort, she saw everything. She already knew that the Mushitsuki called Kakkou retired from the battle between Mushitsuki.

“And yet I’m here. What a strange space… is this an attack by C as well?”

Other than Mari and Kakkou, everyone on the harbor were fighting.

She could see a huge tanker anchored in the backdrop of this soundless, mortal combat. Since she’d watched everything until now, she also knew that this was the only way for these Mushitsuki to escape C’s pursuit.

“Even Kasuou, Neiko-san or Himeko-chan are still fighting.”

Some of the desperate fighting Mushitsuki were people she knew.

“They’re still fighting…”

She unconsciously put strength into her arm holding the spear.

Although they were right next to them, no one seemed able to see the figures of Mari and Kakkou.

“—We’re here now not because of C’s attack.”

Standing there listlessly, Kakkou spoke.

“If you really were Hanashiro Mari, you were supposed to notice at least this much.”

“…”

Mari glanced behind her wordlessly. She looked at the sleeping Arisu behind her again.

“They’re trying to wake up Arisu because they need strong Mushitsuki, right?”

“…Yes, true.”

“I am Mari. If they need strong Mushitsuki, I will fight.”

She glared at Kakkou and put herself on guard.

“So—please don’t try waking her up.”

A massive quantity of scales gushed out of the spear in her hands. Pushed back by the raging surge of scales, the wounded Kakkou staggered.

“You’re just pretending to be your strong friend…”

However, Kakkou did not collapse.

“It was the same during the night of the meteor shower. You wanted to challenge Oogui, but once you saw your comrades collapsing, you got so scared you tried running away. —With how you are now, even if you’re slapped awake, you’ll probably run away again…”

“…!”

As Mari grimaced with fright, Kakkou’s eyes stared at her from behind his goggles.

“Hanashiro Mari’s gone. Stop clinging to your friend.”

“And you—who are you to say this, anyway?”

Anger welled within Mari. Was it because her friend Arisu was being ridiculed, or was it to hide other feelings inside her? Even she herself wasn’t sure.

“What’s up with you? I don’t know what you’ve been fighting, but you are too pathetic, unsightly and pitiful. —What have you been doing while Arisu was gone? She believed in you, and yet… you haven’t been able to do anything, right?”

This time Kakkou was the one who went silent.

Silence befell the two—but the boy finally opened his mouth with a small breath.

“I did it my own way—nah, I acted completely unlike myself and tried fighting the Original Three to finish everything before finding you. However—”

She wanted to believe that Kakkou’s breath was due to his fatigue.

If it was a sigh, then—it would be much too sad.

This pair had a chance meeting once, parted, and then met again in this state.

Rather than shed tears, hearing this sigh resounding over their reunion made Mari’s heart clench.

“I haven’t managed to beat them. Not even a single time.”

How should she call the feelings gushing out inside her?

Rage? Or perhaps disappointment at having her hopes betrayed? If she used a simple name—despair.

It was a sensation like the ground crumbling under her legs and such grim resolve she felt her vision darken made her want to scream. Mari clenched her jaw and swallowed back her indignation.

“Arisu told you to wake her up at the continuation to her dream, right?”

Looking at her friend sleeping inside the transport truck, Mari spat.

Her sleeping face was much too peaceful.

Even if Mari wasn’t her friend, she would feel it was too cruel to wake her up at a place like this.

“Why…?”

She furiously spat abuse at Kakkou who couldn’t answer her.

“Erii’s already gone, right?”

Horiuchi Erii.

This young Mushitsuki, who had once been close to Arisu—had lost her personality due to losing control of her ability. She now became their strongest enemy in the form of C, the Super Class Rank 1.

Waking up Arisu would mean that she had to defeat Horiuchi Erii by her own hands. Although she was now a mere shadow of her former self, she thought of this girl that doted on Erii as a younger sister.

“Kasuou and the others also lost, right?”

These Mushitsuki, like Kasuou and others, who challenged C and lost.

They now had less than half their numbers, compared to back at the domed base in Akamaki City. Even the surviving Mushitsuki were exhausted; with dark circles under their eyes, they rushed through the hellish battlefield like demons.

“And even you, of all people, became a Fallen, right?”

Mari already knew for a while now that the Kakkou in front of her eyes wasn’t the real deal.

Even that powerful Kakkou—even that man feared as a pitch-dark demon, who had once been Arisu’s trusty partner—even that Mushitsuki became a Fallen.

“Arisu’s here only because that kid called Kanon sacrificed himself—”

In a past battle, Arisu became Rank 1 but fell into a long slumber.

She did it in order to seal a single source of despair.

She thought that by the time she’d wake up again, it’d be because a way to block that despair had been found—but it didn’t happen like that. Someone simply subbed in for her.

“I-is that… true?”

Mari asked the phantom of Kakkou.

“Are you saying that this is really—the continuation of Arisu’s dream?”

Although she fell asleep during the battle everyone forgot about, Arisu still had hope. Even if she fell asleep along with that source of despair, strong Mushitsuki like Kakkou and Harukiyo existed. And there were many Mushitsuki who would fight in order to make their dreams come true.

Arisu had supposedly gone to sleep because she believed that—

She dreamed that all fights would end by the time she woke up, and yet—

“Saving all Mushitsuki. This was Arisu’s dream.”

Kakkou suddenly sighed and spat this.

“Right. That is—the continuation of your dream.”

“—”

Mari felt strength leaving her entire body.

Widening her eyes, she felt the boy’s words echo within her again and again—

“…”

She slowly readied her spear.

Standing in front of the transport truck to protect Arisu from Kakkou.

“Stop.”

Kakkou spoke.

“I wanted to apologize for being unable to do anything… but if you’re going to act like that—you’ll make me unable to keep my promise.”

“…I won’t let you wake her up.”

Still standing frozen, Mari shook her head to the sides.

“This situation isn’t the ‘continuation’ Arisu wished for.”

“No, you’ve said it yourself, Arisu…”

As Kakkou spoke by himself, the checkered beetle sank into his handgun. Transforming its body to tentacles, the Mushi fused with the gun and Kakkou’s body.

“You asked me to wake you up at the continuation of her dream.”

There was a silver flash.

Mari kicked the ground and thrust her spear at Kakkou. Even that simple action instantly closed the distance between the two to zero, and the blowing silver scales severed land and ocean into two.

Violent tremors and water sprays assaulted the harbor, but no response came from the Mushitsuki fighting around them. As expected, it appeared like the space that Mari and Kakkou inhabited was separated from their original world.

“…!”

Kakkou twisted his body to dodge the spear, turning his gun to Mari.

She calmly drew an arc with her spear tip. Kakkou’s arm holding the gun was pushed down, and she kept going to sweep up his legs.

“Gwah…!”

As Kakkou tumbled and got pounded against the ground, she tried dealing an additional blow with the scales. Silver brilliance burst with the boy in its middle, causing the asphalt ground to cave.

Mari was stunned at this being so effective.

The collapsed Kakkou raised an arm. He pulled the trigger, aiming at Mari.

She moved just one step aside and easily evaded the gunshot.

Kakkou used this brief opening to stand up. He leapt inside the dancing water sprays and dust, vanishing from Mari’s line of sight.

“You seem to have forgotten that my Morpho butterfly has sensing capabilities as well.”

Being led by the spear she held in hand, she swung her arm to the right without even turning.

She tore through the curtain of water and dust. Surging silver scales captured Kakkou who was hidden on the other side.

“—!”

Pulverizing a warehouse, the boy was flung into the distance.

Mari calmly jumped. She leapt over the ruins of the warehouse with superhuman leg strength.

“For you to not only become a Fallen but come here to wake up Arisu in such a beat-up form…”

She found Kakkou. He was half-buried in the wreckage.

“Since Arisu fell asleep, you’ve made such a horrible ‘continuation’…!”

Leaping high, she pounded her silver spear down at Kakkou using the momentum of her fall.

Silver light burst and the surrounding buildings were destroyed all around her.

“Aren’t you just pushing everything to Arisu?!”

Red sprays mixed in with the silver light filling her sight.

“—Yeah, that’s right.”

Kakkou blocked the spear’s tip with the grip of his pistol. However, he was unable to fully stop the strike, so his worn coat was fully ripped and fresh blood streamed down his brows.

“I couldn’t do anything… so I wanted to apologize.”

Mari arched her eyebrows in disappointment and anger, seeing how spineless this boy was.

However, receiving the kick unleashed from his leg, Mari grimaced.

“Ugh—”

“Well, only if you weren’t like this, though.”

While glaring at Mari who leapt back, Kakkou stood up, swaying.

“You’re just making excuses for not wanting to wake up. You even imitated Hanashiro Mari…”

Mari returned Kakkou’s glance.

“I am Mari.”

“No, you’re completely the same as when you fell asleep. An idiot who never thinks of anything, a coward who becomes scared once she sees her friends falling… a spoiled brat.”

Both Rank 1 Fusion Types changed their expressions.

Mari made the silver pattern covering her entire body glow, calmly readying her spear again. Within that silver spear dwelt the power that one of the Original Three—Sanbikime—had once called the strongest.

On the other hand, Kakkou—was a mere shadow of his former self. His coat was ripped at the chest area and there were no traces of the air of intimidation he had when he was known as the pitch-dark demon.

“—”

“—”

The fight of these two opposites opened silently.

It was a chain of nothing but unexpected happenings for Mari.

What she first found surprising—was that Kakkou was way too weak.

“Give up and vanish already…!”

Kakkou just barely dodged Mari’s attack, but it took everything he had. Where on earth had he gotten hurt so badly? He literally threw his body to the ground in order to dodge, then stood up with a grimace full of agony.

Even his belated gunshot counterattack was repelled by the wall of scales protecting Mari.

Mari had hit with her attacks many times now.

She thought Kakkou would easily fall in his state.

However, seeing that her estimations were far from reality, Mari was confused.

He wouldn’t collapse—

Although he definitely should have gone way past his limits, the boy did not give up on approaching Mari.

“Stop already…!”

Slowly but steady.

Covered in blood like vengeful spirit, Kakkou kept approaching Mari.

No, he was trying to get to what lay behind her—

The transport truck, where a girl was still sleeping.

“I won’t let you wake up Arisu…!”

Finally, the most unexpected thing of all happened.

At that same time, it could also be called the natural conclusion.

Kakkou—could no longer dodge Mari’s spear.

“—”

Her thrust spear pierced Kakkou deeply in his stomach.

It was such a simple attack that not only Mari, but probably Kakkou himself thought he could dodge. As evidence of this, both froze with the spear stuck in him, unmoving.

It was a fatal wound.

No, speaking about fatal, then even the wounds he’d incurred before they fought—

“…!”

Mari’s body twitched and shuddered.

Kakkou grabbed the hilt of the spear stabbed into him.

He started walking as if to push Mari back.

“L—let go!”

Although Mari resisted, she couldn’t put strength into her arms.

With every step Kakkou took, the spear stabbed deeper into the boy.

“Let go…!”

“—Are you afraid of your friends being defeated, just like what happened during the night of the meteor shower?”

While walking and pushing Mari back along with the spear, Kakkou let leak a hoarse voice.

Mari grimaced.

“Or are you afraid of the Morpho butterfly Maturing the moment you wake up?”

An endless amount of blood kept gushing from his stomach as the boy advanced with a lowered gaze.

“Since you haven’t even been a Mushitsuki until that fight it’s natural, though…”

Unable to stop Kakkou from advancing over the debris, and not even being able to inflict the finishing blow, at some point Mari—

Found herself pushed all the way to the front of the transport truck.

“Stop—”

Mari’s shaking arm became lighter.

Kakkou let go of the spear. She could feel the nasty sensation of the blade being pulled out through her arm.

“I—don’t want to see Mushitsuki die anymore…”

Tears rising to her eyes, Mari still reached out to stop Kakkou.

And the boy—didn’t even turn to look at the girl.

With neither mercy nor pity, he left Mari behind and got on the transport truck.

“—There are still surviving Mushitsuki.”

Kakkou got on his knees and drooped his head toward the girl sleeping on the floor.

This posture was much like a pilgrim praying for forgiveness in front of an idol.

“And even if—even if only a single person survived, saving them would still be your dream, right?”

“…!”

To save Mushitsuki—

That was the dream that made Arisu a Mushitsuki.

When her friend Arisu—no, when ''she'' wished for this, she never gave any thought to how hard and cruel of a dream it was.

[[File:Mushi Uta 15 p048.png|thumb]]

“Since I couldn’t do anything, I don’t have the right to say this—but that’s also the continuation of your dream.”

Although Horiuchi Erii was on good terms with her, she became an enemy.

Even her reliable partner was gone.

The Mushitsuki kept losing, and it seemed like they’d get annihilated before long.

“Don’t run away.”

In this situation, if this was the continuation of Arisu’s dream—it was too cruel to bear.

If she needed to wake up in order to save Mushitsuki—it was too hopeless to bear.

“Don’t lose to your Mushi.”

Even so, he was trying to wake her up.

She wouldn’t go as far as to say she wanted a good morning kiss.

He could simply shake her gently awake, but instead he was going to forcibly slap her awake.

“Wake up, Arisu.”

The boy’s words sounded like a plea.

Or perhaps they sounded like him apologizing for his powerlessness.

“You’ve tried gathering your comrades since you’re so useless alone, right? If you open your eyes—you’ll find out you have so many of them.”

The boy slapped the sleeping girl again.

Comrades.

Even now, Mushitsuki such as Kasuou were fighting against the Revived at the harbor. They were wounded and tired—but they never gave up.

Nothing changed from before she fell asleep.

They were the people called Mushitsuki, all fighting to make their dream come true someday.

“You need to make your dream come true by your own hands…”

The boy’s voice as he struck the girl’s cheek was becoming feebler and feebler.

Even so Kakkou kept persistently slapping the girl—

“—Guh.”

Then held his stomach, rounding his body.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t bear the wound received by the spear any longer.

Perhaps it was because something far more painful struck him—a white fist.

The girl who supposedly asleep moved her arm and punched the boy’s stomach.

“…Arisu Punch.”

The one who mumbled this wasn’t the girl who kept her eyes closed, but the girl in the form of Hanashiro Mari.

“That’s enough… you went overboard.”

She looked at the boy with disgust.

The pair glared at each other wordlessly.

They fought together before and parted.

If they ever met up again, what would they discuss?

Both of them should have prepared many words. She didn’t know about the boy, but she herself had way too much time to think about that.

However, right now with her borrowing the form of her dead friend, she made no attempt to mouth them.

The boy also said nothing.

Therefore—she said what needed to be said.

“—Please call me.”

She had no idea who prepared this world, but it was apparently the deadline.

The form of the Kakkou in front of her eyes was becoming transparent as if he was melting into thin air.

On the hand, her part that was in the shape of Hanashiro Mari, and the part of her that kept sleeping even after hitting the boy back—

The mind and body of Sleeping Beauty, Arisu—were not fully awake yet.

However, she would no longer hesitate.

If her past partner told her that many of their comrades were fighting—she might be able to believe it and wake up.

“If you do that, I will wake up.”

Kakkou’s mouth loosened.

“Yeah… I’ll call you.”

“Let me say this in advance, but it has to be you as well, right?”

The moment she said this, the boy erased his smile.

“I’m…”

The wounded, exhausted boy leaking sighs would vanish at any moment.

She spoke to him.

“I only managed to gather two Rank 1s and a limited number of Mushitsuki.”

“…”

“But if I could really assemble all of them—”

She had no idea if he actually heard the rest.

However, the moment he vanished, the boy wore yet another weak smile—probably because he heard her voice.

Thinking this—no, believing this, Arisu fell into another temporary sleep for the time being.