Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 3rd Episode 10 (section)

===Part 1===

They were in a certain park on the way to school.

Sitting on a small bench, Arisu looked up at Daisuke standing in front of her.

"This is Kusakabe Rinka, a high school freshman living in Higano City. Before I came here to Akamaki City, I'd caught her as she ran into Ouka City and handed her to the Central Headquarters."

Daisuke explained with what was one of his most sullen face. Arisu's bag seemed to have inflicted more damage than expected, and his nose was stuffed with tissue.

The jurisdiction of the Special Environmental Preservation Bureau—the SEPB in short—was divided into different regions. Akamaki City, where Arisu lived, and the neighboring Higano City, were under the control of Central Headquarters. And the further Ouka City was under the control of the East Central Branch which Daisuke seemed to have originally belonged to.

"That looks painful, are you fine? Is it my fault? Is it my fault, I wonder? Does it hurt? Hey, does it hurt?"

Rinka's voice came from a grove of trees adjacent to the park ahead of Arisu. By straining her eyes, she could see the figure of the girl hiding among the trees.

"Obviously it hurts! Actually, stop hiding and come over here!"

"No! I don't want to! Don't force me to do such a horrible thing!"

"Aahhh, you're so annoying! Also, stop talking in such a way that can cause misunderstandings!"

"Uuh… you called me annoying again…"

Daisuke grabbed Rinka's arm and forcibly dragged her out of the grove.

As Arisu watched their exchange, a cold smile crept up on her face.

"Oh? So you did her something wrong the other time, huh. …Why don't you pay for it by dying?"

"Arisu… I don't know what you're imagining there, but stop giving that look…"

"When I said that I don't want to become a Fallen, Kakkou-kun saved me by telling me to join the SEPB, right? Did you forget? You didn't, right? Please don't do it?"

Unable to relax, Rinka looked around. She found a street light nearby and immediately hid behind it. But, since it wasn't enough to hide her whole body, she looked at Arisu and Daisuke while fidgeting restlessly.

"I see. I understand the details now."

What Rinka said about "Daisuke doing to her" meant her apprehending, and the "invitation" was him recommending her to join the SEPB, apparently.

"So, what is this responsibility you were talking about? Anyway, will it be solved if Daisuke dies?"

"Why are you trying to kill me! You didn't understand a single bit!"

Daisuke glared at Rinka as he raised an angry voice.

"In the first place, what's this about taking responsibility. How many Mushitsuki do you think I have turned into Fallen and I've probably sent about that many to isolation facilities. Adding on your grudge now is not gonna make any difference. Or if what you're saying…"

His expression changed. Wearing a provocative smile, he approached Rinka.

"If it's revenge you want, then I'll play along with you. I'll finish it up in three seconds."

"Wait, Daisuke—"

"Revenge?"

Yet, Rinka stared at him in puzzlement. It soon turned into panic and she shook her head frantically.

"N-no way…! I couldn't possibly do such a scary thing…! In the first place, I'm no match for Kakkou-kun at all and I hate pain! You also don't like pain, right? Or do you like it?"

"Ah, geez, so annoying! Then what is it! Speak up already, school's about to start!"

"I-I just want to make friends!"

"…Haah?"

"Ever since I was captured, I haven't been able to go to school at all… And, since I'm a little overly shy…"

"You have the gall to say 'a little' when you act like this."

"T-that's exactly why! I can't make any friends even at Central Headquarters… So I thought about asking you to help me make friends…"

Rinka explained along with a flurry of gestures. It was as if she didn't feel cautious even against the one who had caught her before.

Daisuke grabbed Rinka's sleeve.

"If you don't want me to shoot you, go back to HQ right this instant."

"Nooo! I don't want tooo! Help me make friendsss! Take responsibility for causing me to be unable to meet other people openly!"

"I told you to stop making it sound so scandalous! You're definitely doing it on purpose!"

Arisu moved in to stop Daisuke from trying to drag the other girl out.

"W-wait a minute, Daisuke. She's gone all the way to ask you for help, it'll be so pitiful if you just drive her off like that."

"Am I annoying?"

"Huh…?"

"Am I really that annoying? There's no way right? Right?"

Clinging to the street light, Rinka turned her upturned eyes at Arisu. With these tear-filled eyes gazing at her from behind the street light, Arisu inadvertently averted her gaze. 

"Umm… I-it's fine! I think it's within the acceptable limits! …Probably."

"Uuh… Don't reject me…"

"Aren't you misunderstanding something?"

Daisuke asserted with a cool tone. 

"We're Mushitsuki. We're beings that spread misfortune around us just by living. Could we even have friends? Even if we do make friends, it'll only cause more misfortune."

Rinka gulped. She opened her mouth apparently intending to say something, but ended up sobbing and casting her gaze down.

"If you understand, then quietly go back to—"

Before he could finish his sentence, Daisuke separated himself from Rinka with a look surprise. He barely evaded Arisu's bag cutting through the air along with her grunt.  

"There's no way one wouldn't be able to make friends just because they're a Mushitsuki!"

Readying her bag, Arisu glared at Daisuke.

"I was friends with Mari and she was a Mushitsuki!"

Hanashiro Mari.

A girl who had left her Mushi to Arisu and passed away. Kusuriya Daisuke is accompanying Arisu not just to monitor her; it was also to investigate the irregular Mushitsuki known as Hanashiro Mari.

"Hah, I wonder about that."

Daisuke sneered.

Mushitsuki would never think of normal people as friends. There was a Mushitsuki girl that said the converse was also true. And now Daisuke said the same.

Arisu could never accept that.

"This person can't make any friends not because she's a Mushitsuki! It's because of her personality! Because she's annoying!"

"She's definitely annoying, but it's not just that. The very act of a Mushitsuki trying to make friends itself is wrong!"

"If she wasn't annoying, she would've made countless friends!"

"No, even if she wasn't annoying it would be the same."

"Uuh… So I really am annoying…"

Ignoring Rinka who broke down in tears, Arisu pounded her own chest.

"Then I'll become her friend! You'll see then!"

"That won't do it. You're only feeling pity. At least that's what it looks like that to me."

Next to the two arguing, Rinka rose up.

"I-I… want to fix my personality."

Perhaps perceiving Arisu as her ally, she clung to her arm instead of Daisuke's.

"By doing so I'll be able to make friends, right? That's what you're saying, right? Will you… take responsibility? Because I'll resent you if you won't?"

"Uh… Y-yeah! I'll prove it!"

Arisu declared in a loud voice while unconsciously forcing Rinka's head back.

<br>

It was lunch break.

Daisuke looked outside the classroom's window, sighing.

"So, what're you trying to do?"

"What do you mean what I'm trying to do… I said I'll prove that even she can make friends."

Arisu pouted.

Horusu Seijou Academy Middle School had a strict security. Only members of the school received identification cards, and one couldn't enter without them. In addition, the school had tall fences surrounding it.

Along Arisu's line of sight, on the other side of the sports ground beyond the fence surrounding the tennis court, was a suspicious figure.

A girl stood in the shadow of a power pole near the road staring at their direction. Oblivious to the passersby raising their eyebrows at her, she wore a smile and waved toward Arisu and Daisuke.

[[File:Mushi_Uta_Bug_3rd_p053.jpg|thumb]]

They obviously did not wave back.

Incidentally, she had been watching them from inside the thicket in the backcourt during gym class. 

"S-she's somewhat… how do I put it, too pure. She needs to become, uh, more independent?"

"In short she's annoying?"

"…Yeah."

"Why do you always have to poke your nose into stuff unrelated to the investigation of Hanashiro Mari… So, what are you actually going to do?"

"That's—"

As Arisu sank deep into thought, two girls approached them.

"What are you doing? The two of you are doing something in secret, right. Let me be a part of it too."

"Is something the matter?"

They were Saionji Ena and Kujou Takako.

Looking at her two friends, an idea struck Arisu.

"Ena, Takako."

Grabbing their shoulders, she grinned.

"You two aren't shy, right? You have lots of friends after all."

Ena and Takako tilted their heads in puzzlement. Having a bad feeling about this, Daisuke grimaced.

"Hey, you can't possibly be going to involve them—"

"What are you saying? It's not just going to be them, you're also going to help."

"Huh? Why me?"

"Do you want to have a stalker like that for all of eternity?"

Arisu gestured at outside the window with her eyes.

Rinka was gleefully waving her hands from the shadow of the distant power pole.

Resigned to fate, Daisuke held his head and sighed.