Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 2nd Episode 05 (section)

===Part 1===

“You’ll definitely regret and complain that you shouldn’t have gone.”

The youth walking next to her grumbled with a sigh.

His name was Kusuriya Daisuke. He was the same age as Arisu and attended Horusu Seijou Academy Middle School in the same class as her. His facial features and hairstyle were nothing but ordinary, and even his appearance in usual wear seemed like it was designed to blend into the background. The only thing that could be said to be his defining characteristic was the plaster on his cheek.

“What do you mean I’ll regret. You can’t stop me with that kind of threat.”

On the other hand, Arisu’s appearance was contrastingly eye-catching. Her long hair was tied to her back and she wore an extravagant order-made coat. Even with her petite figure, her pompous attitude made her extremely conspicuous everywhere she went.

An out-of-season butterfly danced above the heads of the two. It was a morpho butterfly with brilliantly shining wings.

They were walking along an ordinary residential district. Seeing as they were getting further away from the city centre, they must been heading to the outskirts of Akamaki City.

In counter to Arisu’s high spirits, Daisuke’s face was covered in gloom.

“In order to quicken with the investigation of Hanashiro Mari, I even arranged for another observer to replace me, but… you really need to reign in your wilfulness.”

“The Special Environmental Preservation Bureau… the underground organisation created for the purpose of managing Mushitsuki. This is a chance for me to enter their secretive hideout! How can I possibly miss out on that!”

“I’m begging you, just don’t cause any uproar over there. Keep in mind my condition for bringing you along.”

“I know that already, stop harping on it. …So, what’s the emergency mission? It’s for that reason that you were relieved from monitoring me today, right?”

She stared at him with sparkling eyes, only drawing a deep sigh from him with a sour look.

There was a reason why Daisuke was living with Arisu.

The ordinary-at-first-glance middle schooler, Kusuriya Daisuke first met her a month ago.

''Mushi''—an existence that infests youths and feed on their hopes and dreams in order to grow. Nobody knew when rumours about them first started being whispered around, but presently, those infested by Mushi, the ''Mushitsuki'' are widely abhorred.

The official stance by the government is that Mushi does not exist, but Arisu knows the truth.

That is because, the morpho butterfly fluttering above her head currently is none other a Mushi.

The morpho butterfly’s original host was Arisu’s close friend, Hanashiro Mari. However, it had not disappeared even after the death of its sick-ridden host one year ago, and currently follows Arisu. To find out why did the morpho butterfly follow her, and also Mari’s dying wish, Arisu set out to search for other Mushitsuki.

And then, she finally found a Mushitsuki apart from Mari. However, that was when Kusuriya Daisuke interposed. He belonged to the Special Environmental Preservation Bureau—the SEPB in short, a governmental organisation that captures and isolates Mushitsuki in order uphold the stance that ‘Mushitsuki do not exist’. After a series of events, Daisuke became an observer to Arisu, an ‘irregularity’, and had to stay by her side closely at all times.

“It’s to convince a captured Mushitsuki.”

Walking ahead of her, Daisuke spoke.

“Convince… in order words, to get them to join the SEPB? Like that time with Neiko-san?”

“Yea.”

Neiko referred to a Mushitsuki that Arisu met the other day. She had been apprehended by Daisuke and was to have her Mushi killed originally. But, she had agreed to SEPB’s terms and joined them in order to avoid that.

“Hmm. But, why do they have to ask you to do it specifically? Can’t it be done by others?”

“Fight fire with fire, to neutralize a monster, just pit another monster against it, it’s probably something like that.”

“A monster…?”

With that, Daisuke was silent.

They came to a stop before a white three storeys building. There was a dirty-looking nameplate attached to the rusted gate.

“Akamaki City Folklore Museum?”

Arisu read the words on the plate out loud and raised her head to look at the building. It was a simple rectangular building without decorations.

“Ah, wait for me, Daisuke…!”

Daisuke just walked through the ajar gate and entered the premises. Arisu followed after him in a hurry.

He pushed opened the door and entered the building.

Inside, there was a staircase, an elevator, a glass window which acted as the reception and a pathway which leads to rooms further inside. Arisu thought that there was nobody around this floor, but a figure appeared from beyond the pathway just then.

It was a young woman dressed in a suit, most likely an employee here.

“''Hii…!''”

The woman had let out a shriek unknowingly when she saw them and cowered her body.

Looking at her reaction, Arisu realized.

''—This person knows that Daisuke is a Mushitsuki…!''

At a glance from Daisuke, the woman immediately turned to her back and ran down the passage.

“Hey, just now that person…”

“She’s the liaison here.”

Pressing the button for the elevator, he flashed a sardonic smile.

“She was probably in the midst of changing shift, but she had bad luck. Normally, she’d be behind the bulletproof door, observing us through the monitor without coming into contact with us directly at all.”

“Liaison? Monitor?”

“You didn’t notice whatsoever? There’s cameras everywhere in the foreyard and throughout this building.”

The elevator door opened before the speechless Arisu.

The moment they entered the elevator, Daisuke reached into his shirt. He retrieved a pair of goggles hidden at his back and put them on.

The piece of SEPB equipment was big enough to cover half of his face. A red spot flashed on the display surface.

“By the way, I heard that this elevator has a mechanism that vents poison gas if anything happens. I have no idea if it’s true or not though.”

“P-poison gas…?”

“Don’t call me by my name from here onwards. Members of the surveillance team are forbidden from even revealing their real names.”

The elevator moved.

''—We’re moving underground?''

Experiencing lightness of her body, Arisu surmised that they were not moving upwards. However, there were only floors 1 to 3 on the lift display.

Seeing the silent Arisu, Daisuke scoffed.

“Ha, already getting the cold feet, are you. Usually acting so tough, it sure didn’t take you long to chicken out—”

“''Arisu Final Attack~!''”

“…!”

Daisuke clutched his shin that was kicked powerfully by Arisu.

She wondered how far down they had gone. Without making a sound, the elevator door opened.

A huge platform spread before their eyes.

Below and ahead of the platform was a tunnel that led into darkness. There were railway tracks on the floor of the tunnel and two trains stopped at the platform. Daisuke headed for the closer one.

“Hey, is there no one around? Not even security guards?”

“There’s no way there would anyone around.”

“Why is that so?”

“Because there’s no one who’d want to get close to Mushitsuki, even if it’s for their job.”

In front of Arisu who furrowed her eyebrows, Daisuke’s goggles lighted up again.

The door to the train opened.

There were only two rows of seats facing each other inside. The moment they boarded, the sound of gasps could be heard.

There were prior riders in the train. They were a group with both sexes wearing different clothes from Daisuke, but a similar-looking goggles covered their faces as well. From their statures, they seemed to be around Arisu’s age.

All of them looked at the two—no, they were looking at Daisuke in shock.

Whispers of, ‘T-that guy is…!’, and, ‘Why is he in Akamaki City…’ could be heard. They moved further into the train as if trying to distance themselves from Arisu and Daisuke who sat close to the train door.

“H-hey, Daisuke… are they also.”

“They’re Mushitsuki.”

The train moved with a jerk and started accelerating.

“I understand that ordinary people like the one we saw at the building would be afraid when they see Mushitsuki, but… why are these people scared of us too. Even though they’re fellow Mushitsuki.”

“Ah, it’s the same thing.”

Daisuke smiled with a grin and looked at the Mushitsuki sitting further inside. Just by doing so, their shoulders trembled in surprise and they averted their eyes from him.

“No matter who it is, anybody would be afraid of monsters, that’s all.”

“…?”

Daisuke gave a simple explanation about how the Special Environmental Preservation Bureau worked to Arisu.

It appears that those people belonged to the jurisdiction of the Central Headquarters based in Akamaki City. However, Daisuke belonged to the East Central Branch which is situated in the east, at Ouka City. In addition, the SEPB ranks Mushitsuki based on their level of risk, and he was apparently quite highly ranked in this regard. The fact that other Mushitsuki fear Daisuke stemmed from these reasons.

“What’s with that. Are you actually someone that amazing? I couldn’t have imagined that from seeing how you that got all that flustered just because Ena and Takako hugged you.”

“S-shut up.”

“If you’re from another branch, not to mention so highly regarded, then how come you were sent to monitor me?”

“Like hell I’d know. That’s what I want to know as well—”

Saying so, he came to a start. He looked down as he mumbled in thought, ‘now that you mentioned it, this is definitely strange. Why is it…’

The train came to a stop.

“Are we there? What is this place…?”

“We’re somewhere deep underneath Akamaki City, that’s all I know. The only ways to come here from the surface are the train we took here, and the exits used exclusively by the employees. Apart from those, there’s only the vents for ventilation, I guess. …More importantly.”

Daisuke stared intently at Arisu and spoke.

“I’ll say this for the last time, prepare yourself. Because you’re definitely going to regret coming here.”

“B-bring it on!”

With those words, Arisu got off the train.