Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 7th Episode 28 (section)

=== Part 2 ===

It is time to speak of the girl called Hunter and the youth called Sensei.

This happened shortly before he met his bizarre partner called Aria Varei.

He met a single girl.

Cicada chirping could be heard from the open window.


Their cries were much too loud.

The thin girl lying on the bed looked so ephemeral that she might easily break.

“May I ask your name?”

''What a pretty girl—

That was his first impression.

Turning to him, the girl’s sense of existence was too thin. He even wondered if her body was transparent. He remembered how her shapely features exposed an otherworldly atmosphere.

“I am Patricia.”

A name different from her nametag came from the girl’s lips.

“Patricia…?”

Perhaps she thought from his very first question that he was treating her like a child. The girl went silent with a cold expression. As he turned to look at the attending physician, he wore a sour expression.

As he turned back to the bed, the girl was looking at the bookshelf. His eyes followed there and he understood.

“Do you understand Patricia’s feelings?”

On the bookshelf was the picture book called ''The Magic Potion''.

He’d also read it before, and since it left a deep impression on him, he remembered it. The girl in the book was supposed to be called Patricia.

“…?”

The girl raised her brow at his question.

“That’s fine. You can take your time looking for the answer.”

He thought he’d stop treating her like a child.

He only heard that she was a young lady of an affluent family and suffered from a serious sickness. However, she seemed to understand herself better than people thought.

“Unlike her, you still have plenty of time left.”

“…”

“Will you not tell me your name?”

The cicadas were noisy.

He vividly remembered something so inconsequential.

The cicada noises, loud enough as if to interrupt the girl from introducing herself—were not enough to fully block her murmur.

“—Hanashiro Mari.”

He wore a full smile.

“Nice to meet you, Hanashiro Mari-san.”

“…Your hair.”

“Hmm?”

“I think you’d better get a haircut.”

He scratched his unkempt hair while she gazed at him coldly.

Was their meeting as an intern and a patient inevitable?

He always thought of that.

If it was inevitable—then perhaps his wish as someone who wished to do the minimal resistance against fate came half-true.

The pair’s meeting was sure to twist the fate that kept flowing unobtrusively until then.

Him and Mari drove crazy the fates of so many people afterward, that he could actually believe it—

“We don’t know when her heart will stop.”

After the attending physician introduced him to Mari, he disclosed this when the two were walking in the corridor. As the other man walked in front of him, he couldn’t see his expression.

“If it stops even once… resuscitation will be likely impossible.”

“—I see.”

After seeing the medical records and speaking with the actual girl, he somewhat had a hunch.

The atmosphere clinging to Mari was the same as the friends he’d helped take care of.

“You father’s also a doctor and you go to this hospital a lot, right?”

“Yes.”

“Can you come and talk with her? Doesn’t have to be often.”

So he was going to see someone off once again—

Suppressing the indescribable feelings rising up within him, he clenched his fist.

In the end, even if he became a doctor, nothing changed. There was an unavoidable fate.

And so—he thought of doing the same thing as before. He would speak to Mari with a smile, listen to her with a smile, and speak of their future.

This would be the minimal resistance against that fate.

So he thought.

“Got it.”

The next event was a few days after he said this and nodded.

He encountered the blue cocoon called Aria Varei.



Ever since fusing with Aria Varei, coming to meet with Mari became a bit painful.

“…You still haven’t gotten a haircut.”

As he came for an unexpected visit at her sickroom, Mari’s sigh greeted him.

The same cold face as always.

She probably felt some deep-rooted distrust of the doctors she knew would never be able to save her. That Mari wasn’t opening her heart to him might have been due to the white lab coat he was wearing.

How ironic. Although he’d met Mari because he was an intern, his being an intern did not allow him to shrink the distance to her.

“…”

Even as he smiled, he silently gritted his teeth. He desperately held back the impulse swelling inside of him.

It was similar to gluttony—so he thought. And it was powerful.

A sickly-sweet smell emanated from Mari who sat on the bed, seeming to invite him. The same kind of feeling like not eating for a few days and having a full-course meal in front of you.

“Aaah, I’m so hungry. Let me eat already.”

He heard his own voice from somewhere.

However, it was not made by his own mouth, and he was the only one who could hear it.

“I want to gobble down her dream.”

“…You can’t,” he mumbled.

“…?”

Mari tilted her head. He smiled at her.

“No, it’s nothing. —I just don’t have the time to get a haircut. I’m so busy I might collapse.”

“Then just come here less.”

“She’s right. If you don’t want to eat her dream, why do you purposely come to meet her? It hurts you.”

“Please don’t say that. Oh, I brought you a new book. I’ll put it on the shelf.”

Mari didn’t seem interested in that new book either. She soon opened the picture book next to her.

''The Magic Potion'' again. She seemed to really like it.

“Is there anything you want?”

“Not really.”

“You don’t have to restrain yourself.”

“I don’t need anything.”

While opening the window to ventilate the room, he sighed.

Although several months passed since he met her, Mari still hadn’t let her guard down.

“You’re allowed to be just a little selfish.”

“Even if you act all cheerful because I’m the first patient you’re in charge of, nothing good will come of it.”

He smiled bitterly.

It was exactly like Mari said. Although he was an intern, there was no doubt that meeting for the first time with the life he was to save had special meaning.

Therefore, he’d acted much different with Mari than when he’d met the patients in his dad’s hospital.

“Or else, if what you want is money, tell my parents. I don’t have any.”

“She thinks you’re after money? Such a cynic. It makes even me angry. Hey, why don’t you tell her? That I can eat her dream.”

Mari was—strong.

She was ephemeral and brittle, but he knew that something powerful was supporting the girl called Hanashiro Mari.

What was it?

The monster living inside him knew the answer.

“Ah, it smells so delicious. This girl’s dream…”

A dream.

A strong wish to become something or do something.

As he became one with Aria Varei, Mari’s dream became like a violent charm that assaulted him.

“Mari…!”

The girl was suddenly assaulted by violent coughing fit. Holding her chest, she grimaced painfully.

“Are you alright? Here, take your medicine…”

“—What’s your…?”

“Don’t speak yet. You have to take long, deep breaths—”

“What’s your goal? Why do you come here every day?”

Mari grabbed his white coat. Looking at him with eyes like a lost child, he realized.

Being smart as she was, Mari probably realized why this intern was coming to visit her. She’d apparently understood intuitively that he had to some goal there.

“We’re here to eat her dream, of course! Right?”

He bit her lips, grabbing Mari’s arms.

“I want—to save you.”

“…”

“That’s all…”

It was his true opinion.

His helpless, completely pure, one and only wish.

However, he had no idea how he could save Mari—

Seeing him so lost, Mari snorted.

“—Why are you the one who looks like he’s going to cry?”

Albeit unwillingly, he was able to see Mari’s smile for the first time.

“You look like you’re the one who wants to be saved.”

“…”

“If you’re going to become a doctor—you’ve got to become better at lying.”

He gulped.

“It’s not a lie. I—”

“Then you’re hiding something.”

“…!”

“You look like you’re trying to say something. But you still haven’t said it.”

It wasn’t Mari who didn’t open her heart, but him—

She probably always thought this.

Mari had long since seen through what he tried to desperately hide.

“You’re very kind, but you’ve been looking at me with scary eyes from time to time… what’s up with that?”

“I-I—”

“Isn’t it possible that I’m doing something very cruel to you…”

He widened his eyes.

No. Obviously not. What agonized him was his own selfishness—

“—Don’t tell her.”

Aria reminded him.

“I understand you don’t want to eat her. You can think about looking for a different dream.”

What was that?

He almost spoke without thinking.

“I just got a really bad premonition. This girl—Hanashiro Mari—is too smart. If I make her a Mushitsuki, it might cause something unthinkable…”

“Please tell me. The truth…”

The whispering Aria and the entreating Mari.

Being assaulted by these two voices, he—

“—Listen carefully, Mari.”

Opened his mouth.



The roof was nice.

No one came there, so he could speak with his partner freely.

“Why did you tell her!”

Aria became sullen, speaking in a loud voice that only he could hear.

“Why did you tell her!”

Sitting on the resting bench, he put the back of his head on his two hands crossed behind his head. He looked up at the blue sky, just as blue as the cocoon Aria Varei had when they first met.

The wind felt good.

“Aaah, come on! Why did you—”

“Alright, I get it. It’s my fault. Sorry, Aria.”

“What do you mean, you’re sorry! You’re not feeling bad at all! You’re not even reflecting on it! You told her every single last detail! Aaah, aaah! Now we’ll have to be careful of her as well! It’s gotten real complicated now!”

He was stumped, and wore a bitter smile.

He told Mari everything.

About the beings called Mushi that ate the dreams of boys and girls. People getting possessed by Mushi became Mushitsuki, and in exchange for them getting supernatural abilities, their dreams were eaten by the Mushi.

And, about the fact that his body was dwelling to one of the Original Three who created Mushitsuki.

Aria Varei—

The Monster that produced Fusion-Type Mushitsuki, called Sanbikime.

“Aren’t I apologizing? You’re so stubborn. Are you really a copy of my personality?”

“Right! Since I’m stubborn, it means you’re stubborn as well! Geez, why are all of my vessels always so selfish…”

Unlike the other Original Three, Aria Varei couldn’t exist independently.

He continued existing in this world by waking from his slumber by the scent of dreams and choosing a person close to that dream’s owner as a “vessel”.

The personality known as Aria Varei was apparently already lost. Because of that, it could communicate by copying the personality of his host, he said. He apparently repeated this process many times before.

“I don’t even know if she believed me.”

“Maybe. —She might’ve not believed you if you hadn’t used her abilities right in front of her.”

“…”

“She believed. She’s smart.”

Even hearing his story, Mari was half dubious. No, perhaps she was 90% dubious.

Therefore, he used a certain ability in front of her.

”—This isn’t just Mari. Everyone wonders what kind of person the one next to them is. So I spoke honestly to her.”

As he mumbled this, his hair glowed in pure blue. The light flowing through his unkempt hair became a bundle of light and extended through the bench to the one hand grabbing the fence.

And plunged.

His arm draped in the blue light slipped through the metallic fence. Although it was supposed to be hard, it felt just like jelly.

“To be honest, I also know Mari was scared. But—”

The ability to fuse with inorganic matter—

This was Aria Varei’s ability. It could also be called the power of permeation. It could fuse with any material and pass through it. Even though his body’s regeneration ability was strengthened and his body became healthier—monstrous attributes to be sure—it was only at this level. Unlike the other Original Three, Aria had no power related to combat.

The blue glow vanished and his hair returned being unkempt like before.

“She wasn’t scared.”

“…”

“Not only that, but even as she saw you using the power of a monster, she said this.”

He was prepared for her to be scared of him.

However, Mari widened her eyes—and of all things, laughed.

“—’Right. So you came to meet me to eat my dream’.”

It was a complete misunderstanding. Well, Aria Varei did intend on doing so, though.

On top of having that scary misunderstanding, Mari, of all things, looked relieved.

“Not only did she believe us, but she was relieved. A 13-year-old kid faced with a monster who’d eat her, smiled happily.”

“…”

“Being monster feed. —Such a scary reason for one’s raison d'être.”

“…Until now everyone tried to consider her feelings. Both family and people from the hospital tried to connect with her, all of them.”

“It’s tough being a young rich lady.”

“But what you—Aria Varei—aim for, has nothing to do with money.”

“Yeah. What I want… is simply the dream belonging to the girl called ‘Hanashiro Mari’.”

“And you’re still going to eat her dream despite knowing that.”

“I don’t have emotions, so I also have no mercy. I’m simply a being that eats dream. A really horrible monster. All I have is the desire to eat her dream and go to sleep again.”

“And… I’ll forget about Mari.”

That was one rule of Aria Varei’s dream eating system.

After turning his target to a Mushitsuki, Aria Varei would convert to a cocoon again and fall asleep.

And the human that was his vessel would lose all memories related to the person made Mushitsuki. At the same time, he’d also forget about the existence of Aria Varei.

“What a horrible thing that is.”

“This is salvation. At least in regards to you.”

“What salvation are you talking about? I will bear the sin of making Mari a Mushitsuki and only I will be saved. How odd. Sinners ought to receive their punishment. Them being saved instead is out of the question.”

“I’m the sinner. Me, Aria Varei. —From my side calling yourself a sinner just sounds silly, and besides, you’d be snatching my mission like that.”

“Then I… what am I, exactly?”

The blue sky that filled his sight had white clouds that looked like they were feeling good swimming there.

“Aria Varei will eat Mari’s dream, turning her into a Mushitsuki. —What’s my reason for being here?”

“You—simply have bad luck.”

Aria’s tone was cold. Although it was his own voice, it sounded like another person entirely.

“You just so happened to be near Hanashiro Mari’s dream, and you just so happened to catch a monster’s eyes. You’re nothing but a man with bad luck. You should begrudge me, your fate—and Hanashiro Mari. You have that right.”

“…Even so, I was the one who decided to touch you.”

Silence fell between the two people—no, between the human and creature.

For a while, they simply let the wind intoxicate them.

With his unkempt hair illuminated by the son, his lab coat’s hem was touching the floor.

“Say, about that picture book. What’s that ‘Magic Potion’ thing?”

Aria suddenly inquired.

“It’s a picture book from abroad. I read it before as well. —Actually, it’s thanks to this book that I’m so average.”

“Oh… what’s the story? Tell me.”

It was a short book. He started speaking what he remembered of the plot.

The sick Patricia was visited by a witch.

The witch spoke thusly.

''Here I have a potion given by an angel and a potion given by the devil. If you drink the angel’s potion, in exchange for losing the person important to you, you will heal from your illness and live forever. If you drink the devil’s potion, you will die. However, the person important to you will always console you at your side. Which will you choose?

Patricia spoke thusly.

''I want the devil’s potion.

The witch fulfilled Patricia’s request.

While watched over by those important to her, Patricia fell into an eternal sleep.

However, she did not feel lonely. The girl sitting on top of the hill was always being watched by those important to her—

“This isn’t really a story you should tell to children.”

The moment he finished the story, the creature inside him plainly asserted this. He smiled bitterly.

“Indeed. Children would probably only tilt their head. Why did Patricia purposely choose death? —Reading it again as an adult, you finally understand why.”

“You said you were average because of that book, right?”

“I knew that life had many different flavors.”

He knew that dying didn’t have just one shape.

Patricia did not choose literal death. It was another way of living.

It all seemed very mysterious, but he finally understood it once he became an adult. If he hadn’t, his heart might have broken long ago with so many deaths in front of him.

However, although he could understand the picture book’s meaning, he still couldn’t agree with it—perhaps became he hadn’t fully become an adult?

“Mari probably doesn’t understand the meaning of that book yet.”

She definitely desired the angel’s potion.

That was natural, and definitely not a mistake.

However, a single sentence was obviously not enough to describe the thing called life.

“When she becomes an adult… she should read that book again.”

“So that book’s the reason you give Mari special treatment, then? I thought you’d already seen countless children like her in the hospital—oh, I finally understand.”

“What do you understand?”

“Ever since I heard about you becoming friends with many children in the hospital, I thought it was strange. I mean, if you really went through that again and again, it’d be a miracle you’re so average now. If anyone other than you went through the same thing, wouldn’t they become, unlike you, apathetic towards death? Or perhaps they’d try to take their distance away from death. They’d never try to become a doctor.”

“Really?”

“Even so you’re just like a complete novice intern. Like a brand-new car without any scratches.”

“I am a novice intern.”

“You’re already—covered in scars.”

He sank into silence.

“You don’t even think of hurting yourself? While clenching your fists in despair so hard that your nails dug into your skin, you saw off your friend’s deaths with a smile? Even those scars are important for their tombstones. —Oh, you’re such a fool.”

“…”

“Even becoming a doctor is nothing more than to say, ‘well, at least I tried the minimal resistance’.”

“You’re incredible, Aria.”

Becoming extremely amused, he laughed.

“I really am a fool—but this is the first time someone’s seen it.”

“It’s obvious. I’m so close to you, you know? You’re an unbelievable idiot.”

“And you’re a good guy.”

This time Aria sank into silence.

“We’re talking about me, and yet you’re as angry as if this was about you.”

“Have you already forgotten that I have your personality? Saying I’m angry means that you’re angry as well. At death, or something like that.”

“Really? Well, and you’re saying you want to eat Mari’s dream, but at least to me it doesn’t sound like you really mean—”

“I am a merciless monster. If I still look like a good guy to you…”

Aria’s tone was hard.

“It means that you’re the good guy here…”

He smiled and closed his eyes.

The creature living inside of him was quite obstinate and apparently also quite shy.

It didn’t seem like his copy. Wasn’t it wrong, the idea that Aria’s personality was already long gone?

The lying monster, Aria Varei.

He didn’t hate him at all.

“Then I’ll try praying. Please give up on Mari, oh great Aria Varei.”

“That is a wish that can never come true, mortal. I once said I’ll give up, but that was a lie.”

“I also have my own will. If you don’t eat Mari, you can do nothing but keep being inside this idiot forever.”

“Everyone who becomes my vessel is an idiot. How many times do I have to say it until you get it?”

Aria’s voice, that only he could hear, had some lonely laughter mixed in it somewhere.

“Forever, huh… this isn’t just nostalgic, but a very difficult request.”

Him and Aria Varei.

The doctor intern who never gave up easily and the cynical monster.

Although this pair of human and creature were incompatible, they weren’t a bad combo for banter.

Even while he kept talking pessimistically, it wasn’t bad.

However.

The time for the two of them to part was inevitable—



He couldn’t let it happen.

Would a crime committed like that really be called a crime?

If he had to carry a sin that didn’t fit him—wasn’t it already a crime?

If that was true, it meant that he’d already committed a different kind of sin.

“Someone! Is someone there?!”

When Mari had said that she wanted to talk a walk through the courtyard for a change, he was happy.

He was happy at her finally being selfish. Therefore, although it was his lunch time, he’d helped her secretly escape the hospital ward.

However, that was a mistake.

“Come here, someone! Can’t you hear me?!”

He wrung out a voice louder than ever before.

In his arms were thin, trembling shoulders.

“Hah…! Hah…!”

Holding her chest and gritting her teeth was Hanashiro Mari. Next to her the completely useless bottle of medicine rolled away.

“Hold yourself together, Mari! I’ll call a stretcher—”

As he tried rising up, she held his lab coat and wouldn’t let go.

“…!”

He understood.

He knew why Mari was so desperate.

She was so, so lonely. Unless she felt someone’s warmth, she’d be too scared and helpless, as if the world itself was distancing from her.

Since he saw countless people like her before, he knew it immediately—

“Hah…! Hah…! Uuh…”

As Mari trembled and bit her lips, he held her with all his power.

This wasn’t the first time she had an attack.

However, something was clearly different about it, this time. It didn’t look like the medicine helped at all, and as she collapsed atop the grass, her complexion was deathly white.

“Mari…! Hold on, Mari…!”

It was such nice weather, too. This fact almost made him angry.

He felt an out-of-place anger toward the sun floating in the sky.

If only it hadn’t invited Mari outside—

Also, it kept mercilessly shining on the sweating, groaning girl.

Although he knew it was nonsense, he couldn’t help but hate this sun.

“Hah…! Hah…!”

“Mari…! Mari…!”

Even if someone who remained in the hospital during lunch noticed them.

Even if he didn’t go out for a walk and remained in the room.

He knew that a large seizure like that was already guaranteed.

With her heart weakened by illness, if Mari suffered a large seizure even once and her heart stopped, there would be no saving her. No matter the method of resuscitation, the possibility of moving her heart again was despairingly low—

“Haa…! Ha—ah…”

Mari’s breathing grew gradually weaker.

He tightly gripped Mari’s hand grasping his coat. She widened her eyes. He could feel Mari’s body warmth on his shoulders getting colder.

“He—”

Mari no longer even had the energy to groan. Her pupils looking up at him weakly, she shed tears.

“He—help—”

“…!”

He clenched his teeth hard, holding back a scream.

It wasn’t him who wanted to scream right now.

How painful was this?

How scary was this?

Why did the fate called death bare its cruel fangs against such a small girl?

“Mari—”

He was powerless.

Even though he was an adult.

Even though he always associated with doctors.

He couldn’t even answer the one girl who first sought his help—

“I wonder why… it always ends like this.”

Aria Varei, until then quiet, mumbled.

“Every time I dwell inside someone, I think that maybe this time it wouldn’t happen—but it’s always the same. Is this the thing called fate?”

“…! So you’re telling me to give up because it’s fate? Don’t make me laugh! That sort of thing can eat shit! What are you saying Mari did?!”

He shouted what he always wanted.

From when he was little, he always groaned in his heart.

Right now, he couldn’t help but let it out of his mouth in the form of curses.

“I’m sick of it! Why does it have to be Mari?! Why does it always take weak people! Who the hell created this twisted thing called fate!”

He could shout curses as much as he wanted.

He would cuss with the foulest language possible.

If these foolish yells would bind Mari’s consciousness to this world even a little.

There was nothing else he could do—

“—”

Mari’s breathing became thinner.

Her heartbeat weakened. Her temperature dropped.

He knew that her life was slipping from his arms.

Although he was so close, he couldn’t touch it. Even if he gathered it, he could do nothing else than support her body that became heavier in his arms.

[[File:Mushi_Uta_Bug_7th_p241.jpg|thumb]]

“Mari—”

He hugged Mari even stronger. He wanted to share as much body heat as he could.

He couldn’t do anything—

Was that true?

There was just one thing he could do.

“Mari…”

He spoke in a trembling voice.

“I know this is useless, but I’ll say it just in case… I—Aria Varei—do not know what happens if I turn a sick person into a Mushitsuki. I know it’s a bit late, but that was one of the reasons I hesitated…”

Aria spoke calmly.

As long as she said it herself.

“What’s your dream?”

Mari’s eyelids moved. She stiffly raised her chin, looking at his face.

“I don’t know whether or not I can save her. And even if we save her, there’s no telling what’ll happen.”

“Tell me, Mari…”

“This might cause something to overturn the very existence of Mushi and Mushitsuki—twisting the thing you hate most, fate. Because of that, there’s a chance even the world might get destroyed. I’m not exaggerating.”

Right, he got it.

Aria Varei stopped him.

But he wouldn’t stop.

Then he would carry that sin.

In exchange for his right to avenge destiny, he would snatch Hanashiro Mari’s life away.

“I…”

Mari wrung out barely a whisper. Tears came gushing out of her eyes.

“Want to live—”

These words squeezed out the literal last drop of life.

And he heard it.

His unkempt hair was wrapped in an azure glow.

“Live—”

So small.

So pure.

As Mari spoke her very short dream, the trembling on her lips was gone.

The girl’s eyelids—closed.

The pulse he could feel in his arm stopped.

“Let’s see the continuation of your dream together…”

Hanashiro Mari’s destiny stopped once there.

This small dream vanished.

Therefore, so that he could redo it—

He made the minimal resistance.



As a result, Hanashiro Mari was reborn as a Mushitsuki.

But that was all.

Nothing else changed.

Nothing at all—

“Say.”

Sitting on the edge of the dreary sickroom’s bed, Mari turned to him with a cold expression.

No one came to visit.

The girl living in a cell no one knew about.

It was surprising how little this scene changed from before she was a Mushitsuki.

Also—

“Is Aria Varei still inside you?”

“…”

While switching the water in the vase, he wore a bitter smile.

No, it really was a lot of trouble.

By turning Mari into a Mushitsuki, her body was reborn as a Mushitsuki, so she just barely came back to life. Although it wasn’t enough to heal her sickness, it managed to give her another chance to see her dream.

If he turned Mari into a Mushitsuki, Aria Varei would go back to sleep and forget about her—

Or so he heard, but he too was unchanged from when he’d turned Mari into a Mushitsuki.

Although he was resolved for it, it felt like a slap on the wrist.

“Wasn’t he supposed to vanish because you made me a Mushitsuki?”

“That Aria. Such a liar.”

“This irregularity’s the first time for me! I told you this already!”

The Aria Varei inside him argued fiercely.

Although this monster had given birth to countless Mushitsuki, this was apparently the first case like this.

“’This irregularity’s the first time for me! I told you this already!’ is what Aria says.”

“So it’s irregular… because I was sick?”

“Aria thinks so. The moment someone becomes a Fusion-Type Mushitsuki, their body is remade. Therefore, he thinks that if someone’s body was abnormal from the get go and they become a Mushitsuki, it’d give birth to some sort of error. —Since you were reborn anyway, I wish your disease healed as well.”

The room full of stagnant air had only the two of them, speaking calmly.

Nothing changed from the period when they’d just met.

The only thing that changed was that he bore a sin and that Mari became Mushitsuki.

Adding to her sickness, now Mari was assaulted by the pain of being a Mushitsuki. Because of that, Mari might resent him. She might punish him one day.

However, he was able to defy fate.

If that was the price to pay, he was glad for it. That was the ultimate proof that he’d been able to catch fate off-guard.

“I managed to defy fate—is what you’re thinking, right?”

“Am I wrong?”

He suddenly answered out loud. Mari was already used to it, though, so she didn’t mind it, still reading the book on top of her knees.

“You really are carefree! I—have a very bad feeling. It’s impossible for nothing to change with me despite having given birth to a Mushitsuki. I’m supposed to be sleeping, but I’m still here. Something had to happen to cause this inconsistency.”

Aria’s tone transmitted his shock.

“Somewhere, something—turned out funny. That’s my feeling. Haven’t we done something outrageous? In the end, is Hanashiro Mari—a normal Mushitsuki?”

“You’re overthinking this.”

He said this and laughed. No matter what happened, he’d been able to overturn the fate of Mari’s death once. There was no mistaking that.

He’d been viewing this so optimistically—probably because he was, just like Aria said, too carefree.

Although this daily life was unchanged, it began to slowly…

And yet surely…

Accelerate—

“…”

The sickroom’s clock indicated it was past 1 AM.

The girl sleeping in bed suddenly raised her body. She opened the closet and pulled out a modified white coat.

The girl wearing the coat and using a wool hat and a scarf to hide her face put her hand to the window—

“—Stop with this already, Mari.”

Her arm about to touch the window stopped.

The girl turned to the young man standing in the corner.

Under the moonlight peeking from the window, him and Mari faced each other.

“You’ve made a promise with me. Your dream’s continuation—”

“I know well enough about my body.”

Mari’s sharp eyes pierced him.

“At least let me do as I please in my last moments.”

“Those aren’t your last moments at all. You’re still…”

Every night, Mari started running around Akamaki City.

Her power as a Fusion Type Mushitsuki gave Mari temporary special abilities. Just for when she used her abilities, she gained superhuman stamina.

Mari had started going around at night due to a slip of tongue he’d had when talking about something with her.

“Also, haven’t you said it? That I might be able to defeat the Undying Mushitsuki. Is there any other Mushitsuki that could do it?”

“But that doesn’t mean it has to be you…”

He’d blurted out the existence of the Undying Mushitsuki.

He’d also told her that this being was part of the chain of phenomena that led to the birth of Mushitsuki. As well as the fact that it might be possible for Mari to cut off these shackles.

However, it wasn’t any sense of duty that moved Mari. He knew that.

Mari searched for the Undying Mushitsuki—probably due to envy.

A being that would never die.

He couldn’t give Mari that power, which was what Mari wanted most of all—

“You were the one who gave me this power. So you have the responsibility to watch me until the end.”

He couldn’t stop the girl from jumping out of the window after asserting this.

Hanashiro Mari kept hunting the Mushitsuki lurking in Akamaki City—she was called Hunter and became feared. No one could stop her.

“Just like she said. We can do nothing but watch…”

Aria whispered.

“I’ve given birth to the Mushitsuki called Hanashiro Mari—who I no longer doubt is a mutated Mushitsuki. Since I’ve lost half of my powers as Aria Varei at the time, we no longer have the power to stop her. It’s hopeless…”

“No! Never mind all that!”

He shouted in the empty sickroom.

“Mutant, Undying Mushitsuki, I don’t care about any of those! I just can’t stand seeing Mari getting weaker and weaker! Can’t you do something, Aria? If we keep this up Mari will eventually—”

“I already told you. At the time we met.”

He clenched his fist.

“I can only save her once…”

She spent her days fighting with her illness and at night she hunted Mushitsuki.

These days mercilessly exhausted Mari.

“What’s wrong with my body! Why is it so worn out! Why am I the only one…”

As Mari sobbed on top of her bed, he could do nothing but clench his teeth at his powerlessness.

“Give me the angel’s potion… please…”

He couldn’t do anything.

It was impossible even for the monster called Aria Varei to save Mari a second time.

Could they really do nothing but wait for the repeat of this tragedy?

It happened when he felt his body being ripped apart by those thoughts.

The possibility of salvation came in an unexcepted form.

“—Hello!”

A ray of sunlight took the form of a cute girl with a bouncy ponytail.

“I’m Ichinokuro Arisu.”

“Sorry. I don’t know any of my classmates by faces and names…”

“Oh, right. So, nice to meet you.”

“…Nice to meet you.”

Mari was confused at this sudden visitor. However, as Arisu started coming there every day, her confusion melted and vanished.

Her accelerated destiny calmed down.

At the same time Mari’s expression became gentler to a surprising degree—she’d started smiling from time to time.

“You’ve changed a bit, Mari.”

“Ah… it’s actually you who’s been changing, Arisu.”

“What, seriously? I’m changing? Is anything strange?”

He could hear Mari’s laughter.

She didn’t need Mushi or Aria Varei’s supernatural power.

With a mere smile, Ichinokuro Arisu managed a great achievement that he couldn’t.

He could imagine Mari’s smile, that he wanted to see no matter what, through the wall separating them.

“Nothing for you to do, eh.”

Outside the room, sitting on a protrusion coming out from the wall, he smiled. His hair was glowing blue.

“It’s fine. I don’t really care…”

Every time Arisu came, he’d always retreat from the room like this. He was unneeded in this space where Mari and Arisu smiled together.

“But Ichinokuro… no way, she’s that—”

“What did you say?”

“No, it’s nothing. …Looks like she’s a good girl.”

“Yes, true…”

Arisu did what he couldn’t.

He could do nothing but make Mari a Mushitsuki, but Arisu was different.

She also changed the girl called Mari.

How should he let Arisu know he was grateful?

“This aspiring doctor totally lost face.”

“Truly. I’m happy. I should leave Mari already.”

“And then do what?”

“Hmm, what should I do… what about you?”

“Me? Why’re you asking me?”

“I think I should honor my resident’s wishes. Looks like you’re not going to get out of my body anyway.”

“Right… naturally I want to sleep—”

Aria Varei’s voice had a nostalgic tone to it.

“But before that, I’d like to see the sea…”

“The sea, huh… not bad.”

He was with the monster Aria Varei.

Mari was with her friend Arisu.

It happened just after they set on their separate paths.

Destiny accelerated again.

“Sensei.”

Inside the silent sickroom, Mari called him.

Her expression—was as ephemeral as when the two of them first met.

“What is it?”

“Here’s a present from me.”

He was handed a necklace. Its chain emitted a silver glow almost as vivid as the wings of Mari’s Morpho butterfly. It had a gold ring hanging on it.

''I’ll treasure this.

He thought so from the bottom of his heart along with the happiness and loneliness gushing out from him.

“Another proof I lived…”

Mari’s condition returned being that from before she became Mushitsuki.

No, according to a recent scan, her condition was even worse. The god of diseases certainly ate into Mari’s body, trying to take her again.

His “minimal resistance” simply postponed fate for a while.

Now it resumed, trying to reach the same result—

“And I have another one for Arisu… If she knew my dream, she’d definitely hold a grudge.”

“A grudge…?”

“Arisu’s kind, so my wish will…”

He’d been bothered by the meaning of Mari’s words at the time.

He had a bad feeling about it.

However, he had way too little time to ask Mari about this—



That time came again.

He could do nothing but watch it.

“…”

On top of the roof of a certain building lay an indescribable figure.

The blinding morning sun blessed the girl who’d expired with a faint smile on her face.

Hanashiro Mari.

Fighting her illness, fighting loneliness, fighting Mushi—while seeing off her irreplaceable friend, the girl passed away. Now he was carrying her.

She was surprisingly light.

This small girl lost her battle against her sickness.

For her dream to live, she kept desperately living.

She was such a splendid girl, and he—

“—Uuh…”

Would someday forget her.

The moment he separated from Aria Varei, he’d forget about Hanashiro Mari.

That was his payback for attempting “the minimal resistance” against fate.

He could do nothing but carry her empty husk back to that lonely room—

“UuuUuuh…!”

His feet couldn’t head back to the room.

Still holding her empty husk, he broke into tears.

“Waaaaaah!”

What had Mari done to him?

Although he was a mere intern, he was unable to even treat her illness.

He even branded her as a Mushitsuki.

In the end, could he really say that he managed to save Mari?

If she was beyond saving, then at least—

“Aaaaaah!”

''Someone, please remember her.

Since he’d already deceived fate, he wasn’t allowed to ask for another selfishness, but he still strongly wished for it.

Since he’d definitely forget one day—he wanted someone to remember.

About the girl called Hanashiro Mari who desperately lived her short lifespan.

About her life.

“Aaaah…”

He could do nothing but scream as her parting gift. It didn’t matter who. He wanted to let at least one more person know about Mari’s passage.

But his voice grew hoarse.

He had one more job.

“…I wonder if you remember.”

The monster inside him, Aria Varei, spoke in a kind voice.

“I said I wanted to see the sea… and you said it wasn’t a bad choice.”

Holding Mari, he turned on his heavy heels.

His final role was to carry her back to the sickroom—and then leave the city.

So he swore.

Thus, the man called Sensei continued his journey.

However, the twisted fate couldn’t even forgive his escape—