Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 7th Episode 26 (section)

=== Part 1 ===

Horusu Seijou Academy’s cooking class was noisy.

“Say, Ena… what is that supposed to be?”

Arisu, wearing an apron on top of her school uniform, was looking up at the tower in the center of the room used for cooking practice. Not only the other students but even the teacher in charge of home economics looked up at it.

“I did think it was strange Ena-san worked so hard even in a lesson meant just to make a simple cake, but even so…”

The one leaking a voice of astonishment next to Arisu was Kujou Takako. Her calm manner and polite words were a model for this school full of the sons and daughters of the wealthy.

Arisu and the rest were looking up at a five-layered cake loaded with luxurious decorations.

As if just finishing a hard task, the girl with a full smile plastered to her cheeks turned. This girl with her distinctive short hair and refined atmosphere was Arisu’s classmate as well as her good friend, Saionji Ena.

“This is the trial version for my wedding cake with Kusuriya-kun!”

“Please don’t speak as if there’s going to be the real thing! It was strange enough the moment you decided to make a wedding cake during cooking class!”

The one unable to withstand this and raising his voice was, as expected, the apron-wearing Kusuriya Daisuke. He had plain features and a medium build, so this boy looked completely normal other than the band-aid on his cheek.

“If it really was that strange, you should’ve noticed that when it was made, Daisuke. Aren’t you in the same group as Ena?”

“I just thought she was making a lot of cakes! It’s normal not to expect her to pile them together! —Heeey, don’t take pictures with your phones! Not you too, Kujou-san!”

“Oh, I apologize. I just thought it would be great to post it in the ‘Kusuriya Daisuke Love Club’ newsletter.”

“What the heck is that club?! This is my first time hearing about it!”

“The club is dedicated to finding novel approaches to make you flustered. It’s limited to just inside the school, but the number of members is steadily rising. Right, club president?”

“Right, we’re in the era of plain faces over hot boys.”

“So Saionji-san’s the club president! I can only say that I expected nothing less! Geez, please give me a break! I’m getting really angry here!”

“H-having Kusuriya-kun mad at me…”

“This isn’t something that should make you swoon! Geez, I hate this…”

Daisuke crouched, holding his head, while Ena showed an expression of ecstasy. Takako was taking photos with her phone. The teacher also stood up in shock, unmoving. Perhaps he’d been struck down by a sense of loss at the cake’s splendid workmanship.

Arisu mumbled to herself.

“Was cooking class always this chaotic…?”

—Even after class ended, Arisu, Daisuke, Ena and Takako stayed behind.

They needed to take care of the cake that even the entire class couldn’t finish, but it became a pretext to have a small party.

“Well, but still…”

Daisuke, who was fighting against a plate with clearly more cake in it than the other three, mumbled something.

“I’m glad you look so energetic, Saionji-san.”

Arisu and the rest stopped their chatting completely.

“I mean, lately, you’ve been saying you feel like someone’s following you. So you seemed kinda down because of that.”

Perhaps already completely full, Daisuke spoke while just poking his cake with the fork.

Arisu, Ena and Takako exchanged glances. The latter two looked surprised, and looked back at her.

Noticing the three girls turning speechless, Daisuke flinched.

“W-what? Have I said something strange?”

There wasn’t anything strange.

If anything, it was natural for a friend to say this.

However, they hadn’t expected those “natural” words to come out of his mouth.

“D-Daisuke’s worried about Ena…? W-wait, Ena! If you put something in the cake you should’ve told us! I’m so surprised it’s already affecting him!”

“It is not some illegal substance, is it? Were the portions we ate fine?”

“No no no, why are you so shocked from just hearing me worry a bit!”

Perhaps Daisuke had only uttered that unconsciously. He raised his voice and tried to hide his reddening ears.

“I’m so glad Daisuke’s worried about you, Ena. I’m sure he’ll propose to you soon.”

While grinning, Arisu turned to Ena.

“Ena?”

She was sure Ena would be in high spirits, but she was stunned again. As she came back to her senses, she lowered her face to hide it, perhaps unsure what expression to make.

“Oh no, what am I going to do… I’m so happy.”

This was also an unexpected response. Arisu and Takako surprised exchanged glances and soon wore a smile.

Daisuke was the flustered one.

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“N-no, no no no! Don’t say something that big! Worrying about a friend is normal! Right, Saionji-san?!”

“Oh… I’m going to get a nosebleed.”

“Why?!”

Ena raised her face, trying to hide her blushing cheeks by wearing her usual listless smile.

“Have I not told you yet? It’s actually fine already. But I made such a big profit because I reported it late…”


Speaking casually, Ena waved her hand. Her expression was carefree as carefree could be.

Arisu tilted her head.

“You’re fine?”

“Actually, someone reliable gave me some advice. I was lucky.”

“Someone reliable?”

“Yup. Someone I knew at this party that dad took me to before. He always left all that formal stuff to my older sisters, but I think it’s fine, once in a while. And I ended up being friendly with someone big there. Ufufu, you’d be shocked to hear who.”

“Someone big? Who is it, some actor or something?”

“Akasegawa Nanana.”

Arisu’s fork about to stab into the cake froze midair.

Akasegawa Nanana was a mere teenager and yet served as the Chairman of Akasegawa Group, with many big companies under her. She was a big shot in the business industry.

Arisu could see that Daisuke froze as well. His eyes turned ever so slightly sharper.

“See? I knew you’d be shocked. What a surprise, huh? But it’s true.”

“She’s Akasegawa Group’s Chairman, right? But, well…”

“Yeah, you know it, Takako. You probably heard some nasty rumors about her, right? But when I actually tried talking with her, she was reaaally interesting. Seeing as both of us have bad manners we might be getting along fine.”

“What have you talked about with her—with Akasegawa Nanana?”

Arisu asked in a low voice.

Akasegawa Nanana.

Arisu had already met this girl. And in a unique situation.

''—I will definitely become a Mushitsuki.

Akasegawa Nanana’s face when she said she wouldn’t give up and left rose to Arisu’s mind. Ever since then, Nanana had not appeared in front of Arisu.

Ignoring Arisu’s and Daisuke’s agitation, Ena started talking as if reminiscing about something funny.

“We had the most fun by badmouthing the rich people that came to the party. And she told me that since us meeting feels like fate, she’d help me if I had any trouble…  so I asked her for advice. Then, she told me she’d investigate it. It’s obviously already solved if that Akasegawa Group’s handling it, right?”

“Well, true… Akasegawa Group has an established reputation for investigation.”

Ena seemed to fully believe in Akasegawa Nanana, and Takako nodded.

Even while hiding the doubts in her heart, it took everything Arisu had to wear a bitter smile.

“Why are you so stand-offish? You should’ve asked us more for advice.”

“Well, yeah, but… you know, you’ve been really busy lately. I don’t really get it, but you’re going to get it over with soon, right? I wanted you to focus on that rather than on me, so we could all play together as soon as possible!”

Saying this, Ena wore a carefree smile at Arisu and Daisuke.

“Thank you for worrying about me.”



There were the beings called Mushi.

They suddenly appeared around ten years ago, possessing adolescent boys and girls. In return for granting their hosts supernatural powers, Mushi fed little by little on their host’s wishes and dreams of becoming something or doing something.

The existence of Mushi was being concealed by the government, but since there were more and more eyewitness reports and testimonials by the day, the rumors never died out. As a result, people possessed by Mushi—called Mushitsuki—became targets for increasingly more fear and discrimination.

“What d’you think, Daisuke?”

After school, Arisu and Daisuke waited for a certain person on the road next to school.

A single butterfly alighted down overhead, landing on Arisu’s shoulders.

A silver Morpho butterfly—

It was the Mushi of Hanashiro Mari, her friend that died from sickness. After her death, that Mushi started following Arisu for some reason.

“Even if it’s just a coincidence, I can’t help by feel that any involvement with that girl Akasegawa Nanana won’t end pretty.”

Daisuke said while sitting on the guardrail and watching passersby.

“There’s no way anyone who actually wants to become a Mushitsuki is a decent person.”

His tone was completely changed from when he feigned being an honors student at school.

In order to hide the existence of Mushi, there was an agency that trained Mushitsuki and led them to capture wild Mushitsuki, the Special Environmental Preservation Bureau. It was called the SEPB for short, and Daisuke was a member.

Kusuriya Daisuke was the combatant dispatched from the SEPB in order to monitor Arisu, an extremely irregular case of someone who not only began being possessed by another person’s Mushi, but a dead person at that.

“We should be careful; she might be planning something if she got in contact with Ena. Even without her being a brat, she has the power of money. Geez, she’s causing us so much trouble without even being a Mushitsuki—what is it?”

Daisuke furrowed his brows.

Arisu, who looked intently at his face, softly opened her mouth.

“’It’s normal to worry about your friends’.”

“Huh?”

“You finally acknowledged it. You think of Ena and Takako as friends.”

Arisu grinned. Daisuke grimaced and spoke bluntly.

“…This isn’t my first time pretending to be friends. I just thought those words fit the occasion.”

“Hmm. Ooh. Pretending to be friends, huh.”

It wasn’t just Ena who was happy seeing Daisuke worry about her.

Arisu was also happy.

Even if he was monitoring her, Kusuriya Daisuke was the first Mushitsuki Arisu had met other than Mari. The Morpho butterfly left by her friend called him.

Ever since meeting Daisuke, she started her journey to look for Mari’s will.

Along with him she fought many Mushitsuki and barely avoided death many times. And it wasn’t just that. Her school life while living with him—for him, acting as her classmate was suffering, but Arisu found these days fun.

“Well, and weren’t you complaining about what I’m trying to do? It has nothing to do with Mari’s investigation. Well? Weeell?”

“Your expression pisses me off… Akasegawa Nanana wants to become a Mushitsuki. It’s obvious for me to be cautious, as a member of the SEPB.”

“Is that so? It’s obvious?”

“…Stop pissing me off even more. If I was Kasuou you couldn’t have complained if I launched a full-scale battle right here and then…”

While he was rambling incoherently, a car parked near Arisu and Daisuke.

It was a limousine as white as snow. The gazes of people around gathered on this expensive car, twice the length of a regular one.

In front of Arisu’s stiff expression, the limousine door opened.

“Come inside.”

Obeying the invitation coming from inside the car, Arisu and Daisuke entered it.

The spacious interior was unchanged from when they last saw it. However, the stench of alcohol permeating the inside was many times stronger. Arisu grimaced.

“Yahah. How do you do, Ichinokuro Arisu-san and—Kakkou-san, was it?”

In the end of the car that started silently driving, a girl was wearing a slovenly smile.

Clad in a beautiful dress, at her feet was a stick in the shape of an upside-down letter J.

The young leader of Akasegawa Group, one of the leading conglomerates even within the country, was Akasegawa Nanana.

“I am honored to have the ancient and most noble house of Ichinokuro visit me. What business do you have with this humble upstart, that you went through the trouble of getting in contact? Yahahah.”

“Aren’t you drunk? Stop drinking so much.”

While sitting on the frontmost seat, she raised a brow not at Nanana’s undisguised cynicism but at her drunken manner. With only a year or two of difference in their ages, it was probably useless to reproach her about drinking.

Daisuke apparently had no intention to even try arguing with Nanana. He sat wordlessly next to Arisu.

“Say, Nanana. I want to ask you something.”

Arisu went straight to the topic.

Unlike the last time they met, this time Arisu was the one to get in contact with her. She had one and only goal.

“We’re not even friends and yet you’re calling me without any honorific? You’re sure acting overly-familiar, missy.”

Nanana puffed her cheeks as Arisu inquired her.

“You know Saionji Ena, right?”

“Saionji? Who was that?”

“Stop playing with me.”

Arisu stared at Nanana playing dumb. The drunk girl glanced at Arisu happily and wore a suggestive smile.

“Oh, I just remembered. That girl I met in a party a while ago was called that. Saionji Ena. Really sounds similar my own name. Sooo, what of it?”

“Ena’s my friend.”

“Oh my! What a coincidence. Or should I instead praise the Ichinokuro House’s networking? Yahah.”

“…”

“What’s with those eyes? Are you doubting me, perhaps? For example, let’s see… do you think I’m going to threaten you with a friend to make you tell me how to become a Mushitsuki? What a scary thought. I can sue you for slander.”

She was cackling, but in a moment Nanana grimaced with vexation. Narrowing one eyes, she spat while exposing her hatred.

“If only you weren’t an Ichinokuro I could have bullied you until you surrendered… I would throw you out of school just like Kirari until you regretted it…”

Kirari?

That unfamiliar name also caught her attention, but she was far more worried by Nanana’s change.

“You… something about you changed from when we last met.”

Even if she was drunk, the girl looked like a completely different person from the last time they met. When she appeared trying to find the way to become a Mushitsuki, Nanana was at least prudent and calm.

It hadn’t even been months since then. Thinking back, she went back to her home region in a hurry, so did something happen?

“It doesn’t have anything to do with it, leave it alone.”

Looking displeased and averting her gaze, Nanana poured more wine into a glass.

“You’re the one who needs to not involve unrelated people.”

Daisuke spoke in a low voice, glaring at Nanana.

“If you’re scheming something, stop it right now. You’re going to regret it otherwise.”

“Yahah. You’re the one who should watch your mouth, you know? Using friends to threaten you... —I wonder if I can or cannot do it. What do you think? Try using that shriveled up brain of yours.”

“Stop it, Daisuke! We’re not here for a fight!”

“…Tch.”

“Nanana. I do think you meeting up with Ena was a coincidence.”

“Yahah, really? But you’re actually doubting me. You’re obviously trying to butter me up. —I’m tired of that.”

“I’m serious. Ena herself said she went on that party on a whim, and if you wanted to do something, you’d come straight to me. You could do it if you wanted to, definitely. But you surely—didn’t do it.”

“Yahah. Who knows?”

“What I wanted to ask about is the advice you gave to her.”

“Oh?”

“If there’s anything we can do to help, let us help. I came to request this.”

That was why Arisu sought audience with Nanana.

Ena worried about Arisu and Daisuke and she kept evading about the advice even after the cooking class.

Arisu was glad for her feelings. However, this didn’t mean she could let it go. In the worst-case scenario, if her friend was in any danger, she didn’t want to regret not doing anything.

She didn’t want to feel the same way she did after discovering that Mari was crying in secret—

“The advice I gave to Saionji Ena? Hmm, what was it? I do remember she was interesting. She’s not acting pretentious, unlike most rich people, and it’s true we got along well. …Yup, she wasn’t bad at all. I only rarely listen to people talking without getting paid for it, you know?”

While Nanana was speaking all self-importantly, Daisuke’s expression harshened. It was only a matter of time before his patience reached his limits.

“Please, Nanana. What advice have you given her? Tell us.”

“Please? Yahah. What are you even talking about, you sheltered young lady unaware of the ways of the world? If you want something, you have to provide the proper compensation for it. Is it not foolish to give out information for free? Come to think of it, I have yet to receive reparation money from you after you pushed me a while ago.”

She was apparently holding a grudge. Arisu groaned.

“You… don’t get carried away.”

Daisuke was growing excited, but was stopped by Arisu’s hand.

Nanana narrowed one eyes, folding her legs calmly.

“Let me say this, but Ena will never approach you for advice.”

Arisu widened her eyes.

“That girl said it herself. She is waiting to be able to hang out with you two again. She didn’t want to stand in your way. She started thinking this way especially since a certain exchange student came along.”

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Nanana looked at Daisuke happily. The boy stiffened his expression, puzzled.

“Me…?”

“As long as you’re friends—because you’re friends, Ena will never talk to you. I really… pity you.”

“Pity us? What do you mean by that?”

Seeing Arisu lean ahead, Nanana giggled. Arisu scowled.

“What do you want? It’s not money, right?”

“You should already know what I want.”

As Nanana sharpened her eyes, Arisu glared back.

“The way to become Mushitsuki—the method to meet up with the Original Three… is unknown to me.”

Daisuke continued.

“No one knows where the Original Three will appear and who they target. That’s why the SEPB hasn’t been able to defeat them. If there was any way to ambush them, I’d like to know it, too.”

“I already know I can’t just meet them. What I want to know is… how can I get them to target me. The conditions to be allowed to be made into a Mushitsuki, what sort of person.”

“What sort of person… people that have dreams—”

“I get it! That’s what I’m asking!”

Suddenly, Nanana raised her voice. As she struck the table, droplets of wine scattered from her glass.

“How can I get this thing called a dream!”

Seeing Nanana grimace and shout, Arisu and Daisuke froze.

“How can I get a dream? Where should I go? Where can I buy it! How much money does it cost!”

Arisu could do nothing but stare at Nanana in blank amazement. Hearing the girl’s ghastly screams, she felt her chest constricted.

This girl—

This was what Akasegawa Nanana was aiming for after losing the Kind Magician—

She obviously had no answer.

She was looking for something that couldn’t be bought with money.

“…What’s with your face, idiot? It’s a joke. Isn’t it funny?”

Spitting this, the girl grabbed her glass again, her face looking extremely bored.

“Right. If you don’t give me what I want, I’ll make you work and pay for it.”

“Work?”

“Are you really such a sheltered young lady that knew no hardships? But rest assured. You’re good at this job, right?”

Seeing Arisu raise a brow, Nanana narrowed one eye, looking amused.

“Mushitsuki extermination.”

Saying this as if in jest, the girl curled her lips and sent a flying kiss.