Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 6th Episode 24 (section)

=== Part 1 ===

Although only for a short while, he had lived along with the man called Sehateno Harukiyo.

At the very least he shared time with him and could speak of Harukiyo’s life. He could pride himself on living through the various “disasters” that plagued the boy’s life.

Despite this, even now he couldn’t really understand Harukiyo’s actions.

Nothing changed in the devil of flames ever since they first met.

“Oogui is—”

The sun passed over Akamaki City’s public sports ground, starting to sink into the darkness.

Walking through the demolished area, he could see a boy and girls leaving the place.

They were Ichinokuro Arisu, Kakkou and Kasuou. While these wounded people conversed about something, they left the sports ground.

“So you can use the abilities of all Minion-Type Mushitsuki you’ve created, you bitch.”

He saw it.

Hiding himself in the back stand behind the night lighting that turned on due to the sun setting, he’d watched over Arisu’s group’s battle against Oogui.

Sehateno Harukiyo.

He had wild hair like blazing fire and a flame tattoo on his cheek. A thin but firm chest peeked from the open shirt of some high school’s uniform.

“Since she’d also used a Mushi I’m familiar with, it’s practically confirmed.”

Harukiyo wasn’t the only one to watch this unfolding battle.

Next to Harukiyo also sat a girl of about elementary school age. She was dressed in all black, rubbing her cheek against Harukiyo’s right hand with a doll-like expression.

Also, another petite person sat on one of the higher seats. Wearing bondage pants with a miniskirt attached, “he” was a few years younger than Harukiyo.

“The one that reflected Kakkou-san’s bullet back at him was literally my own ability. That’s creepy.”

Holding his chin in hands on top of his knees, Kusezaki Ume puffed his cheeks.

“Haha, you’re getting used by her. So unsightly.”

“Hmph, that’s not the point. I would’ve used it much more efficiently.”

“Not the point, huh. —Yeah, it’s not the point at all. But you’re the only one who thinks about that. Ain’t she now just a little bit more interesting?”

“What d’you mean?”

“I think I finally got something. Anything and everything, all sorta things, the whole package.”

Ume couldn’t understand him at all.

Harukiyo removed his gaze from Ume, looking down the now-empty playground. He didn’t even look at the girl still rubbing against his hand, Sakaki Haruka. He was already used to this.

“Hanashiro Mari knew about Oogui’s ability. And she was looking for the Undying Mushitsuki.”

While sneering to himself, Harukiyo mumbled.

He heard the sounds of sirens from afar. Soon, the police and firefighters would arrive, and then the SEPB would take control and seal the area.

“Since Hanashiro Mari had been looking for the guy, the Undying Mushitsuki has to be in town. And since Oogui’s still got that ability, it means that the Undying’s still livin’. —Welp, that’s why they’re called Undying.”

This Sehateno Harukiyo, who talked like he was having so much fun, had many peculiar people that called themselves his comrades.

Their one common point was that they were all Mushitsuki.

And—all of them were notorious, or at the very least shady villains.

“But no matter how much I looked around the SEPB, I found nothin’ like that. So does that guy not exist? Is that who Hanashiro Mari was looking for? No freaking way. If so—then the information’s being purposely erased. Got it, that’s how it is. Now I see what kinda organization that SEPB is. Ha, makes me laugh.”

For example, one of his comrades was a girl called the Librarian. She was a con woman who specialized in classic books. She was a collector who could forge important books or buy stolen goods.

Speaking of collectors, there was also Robber. True to his name he specialized in robbery, but when he was turned to a Fallen by the SEPB, Ume actually felt relieved. He was viscerally disgusted by the guy’s obscene personality.

Ume disliked them, but couldn’t look down on them.

They were all birds of a feather.

Villains, all of them.

A garbage dump of criminals.

Those were the Mushitsuki who built a certain kind of network around Sehateno Harukiyo.

And the first of them—had been Kusezaki Ume. Nothing more, nothing less.

“Won’t you give up on this already?”

Looking at the back of Harukiyo’s head, Ume sighed.

“Let’s try something else already. It’s only a rumor, but there’s this really evil dude up west. He’s got lots of underlings and even the police’s at a loss. I’m pretty sure his name was… Endou Iori, maybe? Why won’t we go there? Unlike now, he’s definitely still living.”

“But he’s not even Mushitsuki. So it’s useless.”

“Look who’s talking. You’ve been strong even before you became a Mushitsuki.”

“Well, I guess so.”

“…She’s already dead, you know.”

Ume spoke matter-of-factly.

“She’s not a ghost; Hanashiro Mari’s just plain dead.”

Harukiyo wore a smile. He easily affirmed it.

“Right—Hanashiro Mari’s dead. What a disappointment. A fucking let-down. I’m usually so gentle but it made even me flip the fuck out and beat some SEPB asses… made me look real childish.”

“You’re childish 24/7, though.”

“But, when I saw the ‘Hanashiro Mari’ possessing Ichinokuro Arisu, I became convinced.”

Harukiyo raised his left arm, the one not held by Sakaki Haruka. As he raised his palm toward the sky, a small red light rose from it.

“Ah, it’s her—is what I thought.”

The light transformed into a flame, gradually swelled and lit up their surroundings.

“Her eyes seemed to be saying, ‘I really do hate this world’. She wanted to kill everyone apart from her. She looked like she was wondering how people could even bear on living like this.”

“…”

“She’s just the kind of person who’ll think like this until the very moment before her death; that’s how Hanashiro Mari is. No doubt about it. As long as nothing extraordinary happens—nah, that’s impossible. She prolly used to hide that expression, but those eyes will never change no matter what happens.”

“…”

“Lying on her sickbed with no one to visit her or notice her, what was Hanashiro Mari thinking about? She was focused on cursing, begrudging and hating all other humans… lookin’ at things from her point of view, all other people were monsters who ‘just lived their lives meaninglessly’, haha. She was like a ‘disaster’ in human form.”

Harukiyo felt younger than Ume when he spoke about this so enjoyably.

“But, well—there’s something I just can’t accept.”

“Eh?”

“Since Hanashiro Mari created so many Fallen left ‘n right, why didn’t she kill the Undying bastard?”

Ume raised a brow.

“Isn’t that because they’re undying? Never mind that it sounds fake as hell.”

“So they’re undying and that’s why she gave up? That’s what you’re sayin’? Nah, doesn’t fit her at all. If they’re just hard to kill, normally you’d just use your head with some trial and error and try to kill them again and again.”

Harukiyo spoke about Hanashiro Mari as if they were old friends. At the very least, this sort of thing seemed to count as normal among them.

“And so, I’m going to—make sure of it.”

The moment Harukiyo uttered those words, an explosive sound rocked the playground.

The flame in the boy’s palm burst and a blazing Mushi—a Great Yama tiger beetle with tusks of differing lengths took flight. The moment after the Mushi flying above shook Ume’s eardrums with its roar, hands of fire rose here and there on the sports ground.

“M-make sure?”

As Ume hurriedly rose up, he pulled on Haruka’s arm to separate her from Harukiyo. The temperature of the air around the sports ground sharply rose and the plastic-made spectator stands started melting.

“Depending on the case, I might end this with disappointment. Well, depends if the Undying bastard would rise to my challenge or not.”

Harukiyo himself, while speaking casually, was swallowed by a sea of flames. However, the flames avoided him alone in a certain distance.

“You two get outta here. Haruka, after charging this much you oughta be able to pretend to be me for a few days. Go and play with the other small fish. You can take some of my power too.”

Haruka nodded.

The entirety of the silent sports ground ruins was covered by a curtain of flames. It transformed to a crimson blazing dome, and the Large Yama tiger beetle swam through it like a solar flare raging on the sun’s surface.

Even with his entire vision dyed in flames, Harukiyo alone stayed calm.

“Starting now, no normal people can enter this place.”

Harukiyo sneered.

While running through the barely remaining safe passage, Ume turned back. It seemed that the only way to get out would be to head up to the very top of the seats, grab his own Mushi and fly to the sky.

Normal people—

The people who gathered around Harukiyo, including Ume himself, were all bad people.

However, when compared to Sehateno Harukiyo, none of them actually left the frame of “normal people”.

“Not being able to die probably sucks for that Undying Mushitsuki bastard.”

Ume, who’d been living with the devil of flames, thought of him like this.

Sehateno Harukiyo was the flame lighting up the darkness.

The invisible darkness—filled with all kind of sins and dirt, the flame shining brightly in this world.

Only those who housed darkness inside their bodies could see that flame. They gathered around it, enchanted by its glow.

However, what waited them there was not salvation.

Sinful more than anyone.

A burning karma beyond any compare to those who were simply drawn to it.

“Let’s have a frank discussion between us two bastards who can’t die even if they’re killed.”

While watching the devil sink into the sea of flames, Kusezaki Ume recalled the days he’d spent with him.

The life of the person called Sehateno Harukiyo—was like a flame.

He kept on scorching and burning sinless people.

Burning those who simply chanced near him, he turned them into fuel to keep burning.

Those lonely flames have reached their zenith a few years back.



Until he met “that”, Kusezaki Ume thought of himself as special.

He was smart for an elementary schooler and was good at dealing with things for an elementary schooler. He wanted to spend his days pleasantly switching, reordering and assembling the circumstances surrounding him for his convenience.

And so Ume thought that he had the right for a special kind of “game”.

No one had noticed him doing that. He’d always plan things carefully, investigate in advance and check the places he’d go through. Whether these had an effect or people couldn’t think that an elementary schooler was the “culprit”, Ume continued doing so.

Consequently, his conviction of being special grew stronger.

However, one day—he came to know that this was nothing but his own assumption.

He ended up realizing that it was nothing more than child’s play that caused him to get carried away.

“—Hey, you’re in the way.”

Someone had called to Ume when he was watching over a building engulfed in flames.

It truly was an ocean of fire. Smoke and flames poured out one of the open windows. He did hear the siren of firefighters, but it would probably take them some time to arrive. The front of the building, directly adjacent to a large road, was probably clamoring now. But no one came to the narrow path on the backside of the building.

“Can’t you hear me? Move.”

It didn’t take long for the fire to spread from the karaoke shop to the entire building. Because he’d calculated it to circulate this way.

Ume, dressed in the uniform of a private elementary school, watched over the building burning down with a grin on his face. In hand he held an oil lighter.

“Heeey, I’m telling you to move. It’s so hot, geez, I’ll say it only once more. If you ignore me again, I don’t give a fuck what happens to you.”

“…!”

Coming back to his sense, Ume raised his face.

His hearing taken by the sounds of flames bursting and sirens, he hadn’t noticed the voice directed at him.

A human body fell in his line of sight.

“Wah!”

He reflexively dodged to the side. —At the same time, he hurriedly hid the lighter in his pocket.

Raising a thud, a suited men fell to the ground. Perhaps breaking some bones as he fell, he rolled around the ground, holding his shoulders while groaning “Ugyah…”

As the astonished Ume looked down at the man, he felt another stare from above. He raised his face again.

“You’re in the fuckin’ way!”

How could he describe the person he saw standing there?

Almost the entire building had been monopolized by the flames. Just one, single place, the emergency staircase of the third floor, was safe. Yet since there were flames both up and down, it would probably burn up in seconds.

Standing in this safe spot was a boy wearing a shirt that looked like some middle school uniform.

No, Ume hesitated for a second on whether he was actually a human.

After all, in this current situation—the boy was sneering.

The boy jumped.

Sneering inside the violent hellfire, jumping down from the third floor with a wide smile—Ume’s life was not so special that he could call such a person a human.

“Haha!”

Leaping through the sky with loud laughter, the boy who was sneering like a devil fell down in front of Ume. He felt as if the ground beneath his feet actually shook.

“Wha…”

''What the hell’s up with him—

Ume’s thoughts operated in speeds it hadn’t ever before.

''Can humans actually safely jump down from the third floor? No, in the first place… I mean, the place was burning until just a moment ago. Isn’t it weird how he could laugh at this kind of situation? It is because of fear? But since he’d told me I was in the way, he was jumping down in order to survive—''

Whether or not he was aware of Ume’s inner turmoil, the boy grinned at him.

And then—he staggered to the side, hitting his head against a power pole.

“Ouch! O-oh… I musta swallowed some smoke if the world looks like it’s spinning! And I think I twisted my legs a bit when I landed! It was a really close call this time too! Thought I was a goner for sure!”

''This time too''?

Curious words. His head was again filled with question marks, but he pointed at the back of the boy crouched on the ground.

“Excuse me…”

“Hmm? You bastard, you shortened my life by not moving! Apologize!”

“I’m sorry. Err—your back’s burning.”

“Liar!”

“…”

“Yowch! You weren’t lying! It’s freaking hot! Hey, put it out! I can’t reach it! Should’ve done my calisthenics exercises! Please do it already, I beg you!”

Since leaving him there as a human—as a normal elementary schooler would be a problem, Ume approached the boy. “Ouch! What’s with your way of putting out a fire! You’re a messed-up person!” Although these complaints rose, he used his shoe to put out the fire successfully.

He really was apparently on the verge of burning to death. Even so, he exhaled a tired breath and by the time he raised his face—the boy was wearing an innocent smile.

“You saved me. I operate logically. What would you like as my thanks? Can I pay with my body? Guess I have no choice.”

Now that he looked at the boy again, he realized that he really was a striking boy.

His hair was ruffled to the extent it didn’t even seem like he was burning just a moment ago. He could see a glimpse of a robust body through the scorched holes in his shirt.

“Don’t say that sort of thing.”

On the other hand, he—Kusezaki Ume—was nothing more than a normal elementary schooler who went to a private school. Because of his androgynous-looking face, he worried that his gender wasn’t apparent at a first look. He thought that the mole on his collarbone was sexy and charming, but no one ever noticed it. —Well, he definitely didn’t want to get noticed by the kind of person who’d peek down an elementary schooler’s chest and say “that’s sexy”, though.

“Don’t look so embarrassed. By the way, that mole on your chest is sexy.”

“…”

The boy who was the kind of person Ume never wanted to meet got to his legs. He apparently recovered from smoke-inhaling symptoms quickly. He had no limits.

“Haha.”

So happened the first meeting of the sneering boy and the cautious Ume.

He remembered that, despite them being right next to the burning building, he was for some reason able to forget all about the heat while next to the boy.

“Wait a minute!”

He also perfectly remembered the boy blowing off a fuse without any advance warning. He finally thought that this was a dangerous being.

“I was just having fun speaking to the chick in the reception desk without having any money for karaoke, so what the hell was that! I can smell a case here! I’ll become a great detective! The culprit must be nearby!”

He thought this boy came to the karaoke with a friend or lover, but apparently he’d been in the building for a much more painful reason.

“Uwah, are you talking about arson? So scary.”

“Haha, don’t play innocent. —I’m talkin’ about you!”

The boy’s kick hit the chin directly. He’d put in so much force into it that a heavy sound, like crashing headlong into a car, reverberated in the back alley.

“…”

Being blown away like a soccer ball and crashing into the nearby building—was the man who fell out of the building before the boy. He was a plump business-suit wearing man.

The man was completely unmoving, but the boy kept kicking him with his toes.

“Asshole! You wanted to kill me? Don’t fuck with me! As if I’d die like that! Wanna go at it for real? If you’re gonna do it then prepare to die! Kill while prepared to die! Die!”

Ume wanted to say a lot of things, such as ''that person isn’t feigning anything'' or ''he’s already foaming at the mouth from the first hit'', but stayed silent.

While staying silent, he lowered his body ever so slightly.

As he did, the boy stopped his movements. He asserted without even turning back.

“If you wanna kill me then do it seriously.”

“Eh? You’re talking to me?”

“Told you not to pretend. From your movements, is that a knife? My flesh’s hard, d’you feel confident you could stab me? I was slacking off on my calisthenics, but never skipped out on gaining muscle.”

“…You can tell how I move without even moving?”

“Nah, I just tried saying it.”

“…”

“But you did know this man’s the arsonist. —Right?”

The boy turned back only his torso.

The eyes staring at Ume made him freeze. He never had this kind of feeling—something like paralysis rushed through his spine.

A gaze more scorching than flames.

A glint even more vivid than flames.

Although Ume’s mouth had not gone dry in front of the real flames burning the building, it was now parched. Even so the nape of his neck broke into cold sweat.

“Although I caught this arsonist on the scene of the crime—well, while pushing him the fire spread around, and while running I got lost inside, but anyway, despite this guy being the criminal… you were here so conveniently, and so conveniently held a lighter. Isn’t that strange?”

He was seen. Although he stood holding the lighter inconspicuously and immediately hid it when he heard the voice, that boy had apparently watched him.

No, perhaps—he was guessing that as well?

And he was right on the mark.

As if the boy had seen through Ume’s desire to use the hidden knife and fling it at the boy’s back.

“By the way, didja know?”

Throwing the arsonist away, the boy turned to look at Ume.

“I only heard it in rumors, but apparently there was someone outrageous ‘round this area. Apparently, this person was even bigger of a villain than a mere arsonist. I’ve gone to check about it at the police station and stole their documents, but when I ran away they popped some in me and I nearly died.”

Everything the boy told him sounded too contrived.

However, he couldn’t fully say whether it was a lie or not. Seeing the boy so calmly approaching him, then perhaps—he really wouldn’t die even if they shot him.

Although they’d only just met, Ume had seen this sight that made him believe so.

“That guy would search for villains and then take care of them. He’d take an animal abuser and do the same thing to them, and he would steal from a thief’s house… that kinda stuff. They also did a lotta other things, but telling that to a grade schooler would probably be too much of a shock. There are some truly dangerous people around.”

While exchanging glances against this flaming gaze, Ume came to a realization.

The fact that the boy in front of his eyes was there—was no coincidence.

“The guy’s evil even for a copycat criminal. I mean, using the criminal’s method against them… as if telling them to go look in a mirror. Scary as fuck. —Now, if he was here, what would he do? If he found this arsonist, what would he have done?”

So he was aiming for “him”—

Researching the arsonist’s modus operandi and arriving at the crime scene was not only the copycat criminal.

“Dunno what you’re talking about, mister… but at the very least, I don’t think it’s a child like me.”

While smiling on the surface, he looked for any sort of opening.

If he didn’t kill him, he would be killed—

He didn’t know why the boy was aiming for the copycat criminal, but there no longer any doubt. He’d come there to find that criminal.

“An elementary schooler? What does that matter?”

Ume despaired.

He couldn’t find any.

There wasn’t even the slightest of openings. No matter how he simulated this in his mind, all he could imagine was that guy tearing out his throat.

The copycat criminal searching for prey ended up facing a monster who’d eat him—

“If that copycat criminal comes to face an even worse villain than this arsonist, what would he do?”

No—he couldn’t. He couldn’t give up.

He felt it instinctively. Even before deciding whether to run away or fight, making the decision to give up would shorten his lifespan.

He had to get out of there no matter what, and he had to take care of that guy no matter what.

No matter how many years it would take. No matter what ways he had to use, he had to finish him off before getting finished off himself.

Ume erased his smile the moment he saw the change in expression—

“No, maybe it does matter?”

The monster started smiling broadly.

“You’re still a brat, after all. I feel like I can look forward to your future growth.”

The murderous air about to swallow Ume’s spirit whole scattered.

Starting to breathe again, Ume recalled the heat around. Thinking about it, the building nearby was burning.

The boy casually put his hand on Ume’s head, speaking as if he really found it strange.

“Looks like you have a great future, so why are you an idiot? Why are you having fun chasing after criminals?”

Ume puffed his cheeks.

This boy really was like a flame. Ume had no idea what made him explode and what caused him to extinguish. In the first place, why had he “ignited” here?

However, Ume somehow managed to narrowly escape death. He wiped the cold sweat off his forehead.

“That should be my question. What’s so fun about chasing that idiot?”

Ume walked toward the unconscious man, putting his oil lighter next to him.

And then he casually lit the lighter and set the man’s leg on fire.

His line of sight was dyed in red, and the man who came back to consciousness due to the heat was screaming. Well, he probably wouldn’t die.

“Haha, that kinda idiot obviously doesn’t exist. —Wait, you talkin’ about me?”

“Well, I have a feeling it was some reason like me feeling I’m special and hating people forgetting who they were. …Maybe I was wrong? I’ll stop this.”

From that moment, the notion that Ume was special vanished from inside him without trace.

In the end, he simply disliked people similar to himself. The one who truly forgot who he was, was Ume himself.

Special. Unique. Abnormal. Transcendent.

[[File:Mushi_Uta_Bug_6th_p213.jpg|thumb]]

There were various fitting words, but now he met their destination.

The boy in front of his eyes—he didn’t think he’d be able to turn into a being like him.

“What? Aren’t you pretending to be an ally of justice? Don’t you feel any guilt?”

“Justice? Guilt? Why?”

Seeing Ume goggle at him, the boy sneered with a “Haha”.

“I knew you had a promising future, brat. Alright, let’s test it by beating each other’s lights out.”

“I-I don’t want to. And why’s my future promising anyway?”

“According to my experience, those who lack common sense—those who lack something important to be human, are relatively strong. Or maybe I should say it’s those who lack certain emotions.”

“What the hell?”

“I’m talkin’ about people who lose something and become stronger for it. —Conversely, people who have everything they need and think of becoming stronger without losing anything can only keep on piling experience while risking their lives. I rather like how obstinate these kinda guys are, but it’s tough telling them at a glance. Oh, and there’re those who’re strong with talent alone.”

“Hmm. Ah, by the way, why were you looking for the rumored copycat criminal?”

“Don’t fucking ''hmm'' my pet theory… my reason’s no big deal. It’s so small it’s useless.”

No big deal.

Saying this and turning his back to Ume, the boy actually looked disappointed at something. Most likely, Ume wasn’t the sort of opponent he’d been looking for.

He could hear the sounds of flames and firetrucks’ sirens as they began extinguishing the fire. As well as the scream of the man whose legs were burnt.

Ume found himself following behind the boy who, for some reason, minded none of these sounds.

A monster with an unpredictable path, just like a flame.

Meeting that kind of person, Ume’s feelings were all over the place.

But the one he felt in the end, his most honest impression was—

“What a strange guy.”

“Huh? What’s strange about me? I’ll violate you.”

“Do you know my age? Or even my gender?”

“To be frank, I feel like it doesn’t matter even if I don’t know.”

“Wow, you’re the real deal.”

“Is there someone pretending to be me?”

“What’s your name, mister?”

“…If I don’t tell you, will you keep calling me ‘mister’ and all that?”

“…I’ll say it without any reservation but you really are a pervert, mister.”

Sehateno Harukiyo. —Thus the boy introduced himself and, after shaking Ume off, vanished.

However, using his mannerisms as a hint, Ume soon found him again. He thought that he would perhaps go looking for another criminal, just like what led to Harukiyo’s meeting with him.

“Yo, brat.”

Greeting him as if he’d just encountered a classmate in the street, Harukiyo had his face dyed in red by another person’s blood.

He probably wasn’t pleased. A person looking like the criminal who Harukiyo was dragging by the cuff was beat up as if a garbage truck ran him over. Thinking that he himself might have ended up like that, Ume even felt a bit of pity.


“Why are you going around looking for criminals, Harukiyo?”

“Well, it doesn’t have to be criminals. They’re just easier to find. I said this before, but those who lack something as human beings can easily become strong. Just like you, sexy brat.”

“I’m not sexy.”

“You’re sexy, brat.”

Being told that only bothered him. Ume was not sexy—and more importantly, he didn’t think he was strong.

The truth was that even now Ume was seeing Harukiyo decided to keep beating the living shit out of criminals, but no matter how he used his brain and body, he knew that he would never even come close to him.

“Why are you looking for strong people? Trying to become some sorta champion? If so, you should know you’re already a champion pervert.”

“No, think about it as them growing stronger to kill me.”

Huh?

What was this man even saying?

Did he really think all strong people existed to kill him?

What on earth had brought this sort of prideful thinking?

“So I’m purposely going against them—”

Harukiyo’s expression instantly changed. Without thinking, Ume froze.

Those eyes.

The pair of blazing eyes hotter than flames.

“What d’you think this guy said? ‘Save me’? Huh? What’s that? Why’d I have to save you bastard? You save yourself on your own! Why’ve you decided to give up? Are you stupid? If you don’t feel like saving yourself, then don’t cry for help! If you don’t feel like living, then don’t try living in the first place! Don’t you go living so half-heartedly!”

While cussing, Harukiyo kicked the criminal again and again. Watching that happen, Ume was glad from the bottom of his heart that he hadn’t given up.

Raging like a fire, what was the boy angry at?

What had stirred him to come this far?

Ume had no idea.

And since he didn’t—his interest in the boy called Sehateno Harukiyo did not end.

“—Oh, it’s you brat again. We’ve been meeting a lot.”

At some point, looking for Harukiyo became Ume’s daily routine.

Using his uniform as a clue, he finally found one middle school. It was a completely normal public school in a normal town.

“What’re you doing, Harukiyo?”

When he’d visited the school’s town, he immediately chanced upon his target.

Sehateno Harukiyo hid behind a power pole.

“Can’t you use your own damn eyes? Are you stupid? Obviously I’m tailing a hot chick from my grade and going to barge inside her house.”

How was he even supposed to tell that?

Ume only uncharacteristically cussed in his own heart without thinking.

“What’s up with that cold expression? I’m weak against the cold. Wait, idiot! If you don’t hide she’ll see you!”

“You know… I’m probably an idiot for asking, but… why are you even doing this…?”

“Huh? This is the basics of youth! Checking the house of a hot classmate! Oho, I see, so you’re inexperienced, brat? Well, you’re still a kid. Don’tcha worry, everyone goes through the same path to become an adult.”

“Only no-good adults would follow that path, though… I wonder why you’re doing that.”

“Sit right there. Yeah, seiza-style—no, for your type of character it should be like sitting at gym class with your knees hugged. Right, like that. Get it? The most important thing is imagination. Once I figure out where’s her house, my imagination will expand. I can imagine her all I want. After all, every day that girl spends her time at her home. Also, she has her room up in the second floor, and every night in bed she—”

“Wah! Wah! I can’t hear you!”

“Haha, your face’s red. Teaching this to a brat who doesn’t want to makes me kinda excited. Don’t worry, your big bro will tell you everything in detail. Every night, she… haahaa.”

“Pervert! Pervert!”

The more he met Sehateno Harukiyo, the less he understood him.

He thought he was superhuman, but there were times he was too human. He thought that he was lacking common sense, but he was also oddly brimming with life.

Even so, Ume heard that Harukiyo stayed at an orphanage and even properly went to school. He even had friends and got decent grades. That much was the same as Ume.

“Will you tell me… your mail address?”

“Not like I was hidin’ it or anything. You’ll come back anyway, right?”

He was surprised at Harukiyo giving him his mail address so easily. Ume had no interest in card games, but perhaps that felt similar to drawing a rare card. He thought he’d treasure it.

“Come to kill me at any time.”

Killing Harukiyo. Before getting killed himself.

There was a time when he thought so, but for now his pure curiosity was stronger. But since he felt like Harukiyo would give up on him if he said this, he decided to leave it be.

Ever since then, the days of Ume visiting Harukiyo continued.

Just like always, Harukiyo kept looking for people who seemed strong and beat them into submission using obviously superior strength.

There was only one time that Ume tried helping him.

“Hey—why didja save me?”

However, Harukiyo glared at him.

“The one you’re actually helping is my opponent. Right?”

An acquaintance, a friend, a comrade.

He knew that Harukiyo went beyond such definitions.

“But if push comes to shove and I ask you for help, help me. —Because that’s also part of my power.”

Ridiculous. At the very least he didn’t seem to be stuck on the idea of a one-on-one fight.

Meaning, apparently both Harukiyo and Ume could either cooperate or betray each other based on how they felt at the moment.

It was a rather difficult relationship.

However, it was not uncomfortable at all.

As always, he didn’t understand in the least how Harukiyo was thinking, but there was one thought on his mind.

“Haha!”

He always looked like he was having fun.

It was true both when he was wielding violence as well as when he spoke about going to school—and even when he was angry, he really seemed to be having fun.

He used his full strength to enjoy this world.

Ume, who never knew the feeling of having fun, began to have fun following him; he was infectious.

As he watched him—he started thinking that certainly, in comparison to Harukiyo, everyone was living shoddily. Ume felt that before meeting him he too lived while saving some of himself.

Harukiyo was sneering enjoyably and Ume was following him and smiling as well.

The pair were neither friends nor comrades, neither enemies nor allies—

How long would their bizarre relationship continue?

Heading toward Harukiyo’s region like always, Ume found him leaning on the fence of a walking bridge.

He wore the uniform of the high school he’d just gotten into.

“What’re you doing, Harukiyo?”

He was probably waiting for his favorite gashapon to fall from the sky. With him that sort of thing was possible.

“Wait? Bandages? Are you hurt?”

“Ah, a little. Well, the same as always.”

Since it really was like always, Ume just mumbled a “right”.

“Say, what were you doing here? Oh, you were probably chasing after that beauty again, right? Did she get into the same high school as you?”

“She’s dead.”

Harukiyo said plainly.

Without thinking, Ume glared at the boy in front of him. He returned this gaze.

“…Dead?”

“Yup, she’s gone.”

Harukiyo sighed. He started scratching his head, as if it was all a bother.

“Geez, I really felt good about our prospects. Now I gotta look for someone else, and fast… man, what a disappointment.”

As Harukiyo mumbled, he kept walking on the bridge with his back to Ume.

He acted as if it had nothing to do with him, not having any strong feelings. If someone unrelated saw him then, they’d probably only think of him as a boy sent for some minor errands at the local supermarket.

But after having lived with him to a certain extent for a while, Ume felt something strange.

It was unbelievable, but that devil looked depressed. On top of that, he was hiding it and trying to act normal—

Watching Harukiyo’s back, Ume felt it was quite silly; even if that was him saying that.

But, what if.

What if that guy, who had superhuman strength and a perverted way of thinking…

Was, actually—the kind of normal boy you could find anywhere?

However, something mysterious was urging him on—

“D’you know Kodoku? The one’s written with the harder Kanji of ‘bug’.”<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodoku </ref>

He was wrong.

Starting that day, Harukiyo looked even more inhuman to him.

“Read about it in a manga. —By the way, that manga magazine started an interesting new series. Mahou Shoujo… what was it?”

“It’s fine if you don’t remember, just go back to what you were saying.”

While having their lunch at a family restaurant, Harukiyo calmly recalled what he was talking about. He was loading up his cheese hamburger with more and more tabasco.

“In the past, to cast a curse or whatever, they’d stuff a pot or whatever full of bugs, make ‘em eat each other, and the remaining bug will become a monster. Scary, right?”

“That’s pretty freaky.”

Did something happen to the girl Harukiyo like? Ume had kept asking persistently and it took a few days to receive an answer.

Harukiyo went with his group of friends for a middle school graduation trip. Apparently there was some incident there. Harukiyo did not speak about it in detail, but it ended up with Harukiyo as the sole survivor. Ume, who loved reading newspapers, started recalling articles and trying to guess if it was them.

That was all—the incident was over far too easily, and after narrowing it down to a single option, it was a mere unfortunate incident.

“And then?”

“And then what? That’s pretty much it.”

However, as he heard Harukiyo’s story, Ume was paralyzed.

Apparently, the hospital Harukiyo had been born in went up in flames along with his mother. And he was the only survivor.

After that, even the orphanage that took him in was burnt to the ground. Once again, Harukiyo alone survived.

And that wasn’t all.

For some reason, Harukiyo was often involved in “disasters”.

“You have bad luck,” Ume summarized.

Ume would never think that it was destiny or that Harukiyo was cursed. In actuality, there were simply people with bad luck.

Harukiyo should also be the same. He knew just from watching him that he wasn’t going to bemoan his own circumstances.

''—However.

Without even being sad about his tragic birth, without even rejoicing the fact that he alone survived, the boy, who extoled life itself, added something.

''—In the end, I alone remained alive.

And what about it? Harukiyo wouldn’t say. So he also didn’t ask for any advice.

Ume didn’t think of the fact that only Harukiyo survived as strange. His fate was simply that strong, and he himself was strong as well.

However, he could look at it from the other way around.

If Harukiyo hadn’t become that strong, perhaps he wouldn’t have survived.

''—In the end, that’s how it was.

Harukiyo repeated.

Ever since telling that story, Harukiyo changed. He kept becoming even more superhumanly strong and destroying strong people.

Meanwhile, he stopped getting worked up when facing trash like that arsonist before. He wasn’t simply aiming for anyone and everyone anymore; he narrowed down his targets, becoming deliberate. 

In a certain sense, taking a philosophical view of his way of living, perhaps he was actually—trying to step into the domain of a devil.

“Eh, so does that story end like that?”

“Haven’t I told you it’s scary? Oh, that looks really good.”

“Stop it. I left it for last.”

The survivor becomes a monster.

A short, casual conversation.

The fact that it had a deep meaning, way beyond Ume’s imagination—became apparent only later.

At the time, Ume thought that his association with the boy called Harukiyo would just continue forever.

Meaning, he was naïve.

About the fact that “disasters” followed Harukiyo.

But Ume soon—came to know their true meaning.