Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 7 Chapter 3 (section)

== 3.02 Youko Part 4 ==
From her father's diary.

The counseling of the chaining smile girl finally reached its final day.

Her father and the girl faced each other in the small analysis room.

They both looked down one box.

Until now in all of her miniature gardens she would place the figures of a woman and two men.

Yet something that day was different. In the center of the three dolls she created something.

She took the utility knife she put to the side and started carving a doll from the material shelves. She whittled down the buildings, vehicles, animals and imaginary things. And when she finished gathering them all into a single spot, she surrounded it with the three dolls.

In her father's memoirs, this was the first time where a patient broke down the materials and created new ones.

He wrote that the girl thought for a bit. Afterwards, she suddenly removed the three dolls.

Remaining in the garden was a single unfathomable round object.

Her father asked what is was.

''—Who knows? Who can tell what form it will take?''

He asked her if she wasn't going to put anything else there.

''—There is nothing else needed. This is everything.''

When he asked her if that was perhaps the thing that lies inside humans—the girl nodded.

''—It will never be destroyed or vanish… it will continue to exist forever. Perhaps this is the only thing that can realize it in reality. I have noticed this fact.''

Her father was very confused at her words; this apparently went over what he was able to analyze. He had written that he'd given up long ago on deciphering this girl's too well-protected heart.

A world with nothing in it.

A world with a single thing in its center.

When she was young, Touko had undoubtedly seen this miniature garden. Even though her father hugged her, she was so scared she couldn't even cry.

The girl took everything away.

The girl made everything one.

So she thought.

Her father prefaced the final question that would wrap up the counseling session. He thought that if they continued like this then even his very heart would gouged and lumped up, and after the girl finished playing with it, it would merge with everything else.

''What is that''? Youko's father asked.

Wearing a chaining smile, the girl slowly moved her lips.

''—A dream.''

On the final records regarding the girl, her father wrote thusly.

It was like facing a Demon Lord who wanted to recreate the world.

The girl with the chaining smile.

So ended the analysis of the girl known as Miguruma Yaeko.

White particles were illuminating the night road.

There were only Youko and another girl standing in the empty road.

A miniature garden had been made inside the suitcase placed on the rack. A world where a girl-doll was being seen by many other dolls. At the girl's feet was a small flute and she was surrounded by spotlights and TV cameras. A mirror world where she played the flute in a concert hall.

Standing in front of Youko was a girl of the same age. Perhaps having practiced in school until late, a flute was sticking out of her bag.

Youko's eyes sparkled with strong will and confidence, her black hair dancing like the wings of a fallen angel. Her shirt was opened to expose her ample cleavage, and from her short skirt her long legs were exposed.

The pure-white Loci was hanging from Youko's shoulder. It was completely changed from before, when it was transparent, and now it could even sparkle.

"Just a few more until Genius is ready, right Loci-chan?"

She smiled at Loci.

Her miniature garden attack today was her shortest one on record yet.

She sought and dragged out the dream of the girl facing her, exposing it to her.

It had been several months since she felt so great. Ever since the time when she'd turned three people to Mushitsuki at the same time behind the mountain.

Loci on her shoulder began trembling. Its red eyes shone, gazing up the night sky.

"Fufu, so you prepared some dinner for me again?"

From above, purple-colored scaled danced down.

With movements that ignored gravity, a beauty clad in a crimson coat landed on ground.

It was Oogui.

"Please just eat it already."

Youko grinned. While wearing a smile, she surveyed the monster in front of her.

''I wonder if getting her into a coffin will grow Genius immediately… but she's a bit different from Mushi so maybe she won't be nutritious?''

The more Spirit Zones she created, the less Youko feared Mushi.

This time, even while facing one of the Original Three she felt nothing.

"—Thanks for the meal."

Oogui ate the girl's dream.

"Loci-chan."

Immediately a coffin came out of the ground and grabbed the girl's Mushi in the blink of an eye. The coffin that turned large and stout didn't even give the Mushi time to raise a death cry. The fact it was becoming so strong was evidence of Genius growing well.

The girl whose Mushi had been trapped by the coffin staggered away. Once the effect of Loci's pheromones was gone, she'd go back to her normal life as if nothing happened. Forgetting even the fact she was turned into a Mushitsuki, she would exhaust little by little.

"I'll see you again, great Hero."

Oogui turned to Youko, smiling enjoyably.

"Oh, sure."

Cleaning up the miniature garden, Youko didn't even look at Oogui. ''Just go already if your business is done''—even while thinking this, she closed the lid of her reassembled trunk case.

Folding the rack, she raised her face as she grabbed the suitcase.

Cold fingers touched Youko's chin.

"Your dream seems to be coming along nicely as well."

Having approached her at some point, Oogui brought her face closer to Youko's. The enchanting rainbow-colored eyes peeked at her from up close.

"…What?"

Youko scowled. She returned her gaze with her black, shaking eyes. —Did Oogui really think her enchanting attack would work on Youko as she was now?

''Annoying… should I eat her right now?''

It happened just before she intended to order Loci in her mind.

"Hehe. It doesn't look like you have the flavor I'm most fond of."

Soundlessly, Oogui separated from Youko. The beauty covered in purple scales melted into the night.

"I wonder if you'll stay ''as you are'' until the next time we meet…"

Leaving these parting words behind, Oogui's presence completely vanished.

"Hmph. I'm just going to eat you the next time we meet."

Sighing, Youko placed the suitcase on the ground. Sitting on top of it, she gazed up the night sky.

"Tch, I took too long and now the Demon Lord's subordinate is here."

On top of the rooftop of a house, a person controlling an abnormal monster appeared. He was a boy equipped with a familiar jacket and visor. Leaping along with his Mushi, he landed on ground.

It was probably the new monitor squad member dispatched by the North Central Branch. Since Youko turned Orion to a Fallen, the SEPB would send their subordinates one after another.

The Mushitsuki boy called to Touko who was folding her legs on the suitcase. "Are you… a Mushitsuki?" he asked cautiously. Playing with the fingernails of her right hand, Youko made no reply. Perhaps having scraped her finger on something while creating the miniature garden, her pretty painted nail color was starting to peel off.

Growing impatient, the boy sent his Mushi flying at her.

She sighed and got off her trunk. A large coffin came flying from the ground.

By the time she'd shaken off the dust from her skirt, the coffin had already caught the Mushi. The boy grimaced, falling on his knees.

"Are the armies of darkness not here yet?"

Catching the Mushi and quickly consuming it, she looked down at the boy. He didn't appear to understand what she was saying.

"If a lot of them came at once it'd be much easier to get nutrients."

The boy didn't seem about to speak out. He looked up at Youko with rebellious eyes. Finding his expression unpleasant, she swung her leg to kick his teeth.

"Loci, you can digest it."

Once, she would have tortured him for information, but now she was tired of it. Obeying her orders, the coffin completely digested the Mushi. Without even raising a scream, the boy collapsed on the spot.

When she'd killed Orion's Mushi, she first noticed something.

When she killed Mushi inside the coffin, they wouldn't become sustenance for Genius. Perhaps Genius didn't use the Mushi themselves as sustenance but simply took the sustenance that the Mushi already possessed. But were there any other Mushi that could eat other people's dreams?

They couldn't become sustenance. Even if she took the abilities of the SEPB agents and turned them to Spirit Zones, there was the chance her ability would be discovered by the enemy. The most important thing was to turn all of them to Fallen.

Fallen.

Those whose hearts and minds broke down.

They were undoubtedly alive, and could understand orders. However, they showed no reaction regarding their memories and emotions. They were an extraordinary sample, but Youko had no interest.

"It really was a shock, though, finding out Akatsuki was the Demon Lord's underling."

Muttering to nobody in particular, Youko walked down the hill. With the suitcase in her hand shaking, she enjoyed her nightly stroll.

She'd heard about the identity of Ogata Akatsuki from the North Central Branch member she'd tortured before.

She received a shock as comparable to when she'd found out he had a girl he liked.

Youko was a normal girl.

So obviously her heart was broken.

"But he's definitely being deceived by the Demon Lord. Someone as kind as Akatsuki-kun would never submit to the Demon Lord."

But now the current Youko was unlike her previous self.

"I have to save him. That's definitely also the job of a Hero."

Pumping both fists, she renewed her resolved.

Youko was definitely approaching her ideal form of a Hero. At first she was scared stiff even against Mushitsuki, but she gathered experience and power. Now she was not afraid even of Oogui.

''— Your dream seems to be coming along nicely as well.''

The words Oogui told her earlier rose to her mind.

"My dream, huh…"

Youko's dream.

She'd already decided on one long ago.

"I want to become the Hero that defeats the Demon Lord soon."

Reading her father's notes, she recalled the fear engraved into her young self.

The miniature garden, created by the Demon Lord with the chaining smile, had nothing inside of it.

Nothing but a single mass of chaos.

''—A dream.''

Youko had the intuition that Yaeko had been referring to Mushi that day.

Youko herself had also heard the rumors about Mushi and Mushitsuki that travelled from ear to ear.

The supernatural being that ate dreams—Mushi.

They weren't supposed to have existed during the time when Yaeko underwent counseling.

The girl with the chaining smile definitely made a prophecy that day.

Using the dream-eating monsters—Mushi—she was trying to create that world with nothing in it.

The Demon Lord, Miguruma Yaeko.

Even Youko, who knew her identity, carried the burden as a hero to defeat her.

"I have to save the world."

She mumbled, and suddenly thought.

Using Mushi to change the world—

"Huh?

She felt a small doubt.

Inside Youko's heart, in a quiet place like a deep, deep ocean, she could feel something stirring.

A miniscule movement, barely a stir.

Yet it definitely moved Youko's deep heart.

The slight shaking born inside the water for just an instant—

"Using Mushi, I can change the world…?"

—Gave birth to a ripple.

There was a wave, and then a being was invited by it.

Feeling a vibration in her pocket, Youko raised her face with a start.

"Loci-chan?"

Loci returned to the strap, cluttering. She'd seen this vibration, much stronger than when he'd find Mushi, many times before.

"Why…? Is Oogui coming again?"

Loci's red eyes looked above Youko. Following them, she raised her face to the heavens.

"—What's, that…?"

What Youko's eyes saw was a large image of a building floating in the starry sky.

Both walls and door were decayed and rusted, and some grass grew on top of the triangular roof. There were small windows decorated with tainted glass, but they were cruelly smashed.

"A church…?"

It was like the church near Youko's place. Yet the real church in her knowledge wasn't this vacant, and had a cross on the front.

"Ugh—"

Much like when something hit a broken metal, an ear-splitting sound reverberated around.

The hill was immediately covered by black fog—miasma. The large amounts of miasma blocked the moonlight, and a viscous air wrapped around Youko's legs.

Holding her ears, Youko struggled to keep herself.

"Loci-chan…!"

Loci understood her order faithfully. As if enclosing Youko's surroundings, countless coffins flew from the ground. White particles blew the miasma apart, and so Youko's mind was protected a moment before she was completely entranced.

Loci's eyes turned to another direction.

A lone human figure slowly came from the hill road.

The figure dressed in a tattered robe spread miasma around, approaching Youko without moving their legs. She couldn't see their face well due to the hood, but judging from their skirt and long hair visible within the robe it was probably a human. Yet her skin was so black she didn't seem alive.

"I see… I know who you are. Because I'm the Hero."

She asked anything and everything from the North Central Branch member she'd tortured before. Including about the characteristics of the Original Three other than Oogui.

"Have you come to eat my dream of becoming the Hero?"

While blocking the miasma with the white particles, Youko calmly folded her arms.

"Shinpu-san?"

A corrupted bell noise echoed.

The area encroached by the miasma was swallowed into a different space.

The black miasma and white particles competed in the two domains.

"Pray upon me with thy new aspiration…"

Inside the hood, the woman raised her face. Her dried, peeled lips didn't appear to be moving. The hoarse voice of an older man was heard from the church floating midair.

"A new aspiration…?"

Youko furrowed her brows. One of the coffins surrounding her was swallowed by the black miasma.

Between the two domains, apparently Shinpu's one was slightly superior. The coffins were being swallowed one after another, and the tongue-like miasma crawled up Youko's feet.

She didn't understand what Shinpu was saying.

Yet right now, Youko was being pressed for a decision.

''I'll lose, at this rate… do I have no choice but escape? But this is an opponent I have to fight someday. Genius is not grown up enough yet, but do I need to wake it up to defeat this? But if I wake up the imperfect Genius right now…''

The option of becoming a Mushitsuki herself was out of the question. The Hero must never submit to the power of evil.

"Discard thy adornments and picture thy true dream…"

"Shut up. You're just another ally of the Demon Lord."

Clear voice leapt from Youko's mouth.

"…!"

Surprised, she covered her own mouth.

Was the voice just now really Youko? It was a clear, beautiful voice that she'd never heard before from herself.

She looked at her feet in surprise.

All of the coffins protecting Youko evaporated, and the tongue of miasma licked her legs. Without her even noticing, she was receiving Shinpu's enchantment attack.

"So I can't escape anymore… oh well."

''I'll call Genius—''

Through Loci perched on her shoulder, she was about to call to the main body slumbering deep underground.

Loci suddenly took an action regardless of Youko's will.

With its red eyes shining and its body cluttering—it was the sign of sensing a Mushi.

The next moment, the miasma covering Youko's sight was cut into two.

"Wha—"

In front of the screaming Youko the outer world appeared again, full of soaring dragonflies.

Greeted by the remnants of the vanishing bell sounds, a lone boy stood there. He wore an unfamiliar uniform and carried a large hockey stick on his back. A silver so1o was parked nearby.

"Hellooo? Are you fine there? Are, you, O.K.?"

The boy called toward Youko with a casual tone.

"Oh, lucky me. I went after Shinpu's power field and met a hottie. A nice bonus indeed."

Swinging the hockey stick with no wasted movements, he readied it toward Shinpu. While speaking nonsense his eye showed no mercy, much like a "warrior" who went through countless battles.

"Hihah."

The boy whose entire body was wrapped in an orange glow wore a broken smile.