Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 8 Chapter 3 (section)

== 3.02 The Others ==
On the suburbs exactly opposite from the substation ruins was an industrial zone.

Even this place, bustling with workers during the afternoon, was creepily quiet at night. Also, since the parking lot was far from the factory, there weren't any guards coming.

All of the workers employed in the factory used only that parking lot, so it was spacious.

A large mark was drawn in the center of that dark parking lot.

A Coatl Head.

The youngsters of the city, gathering there from time to time, drew it. Perhaps unwilling to go to the trouble of painting it over, the mark had been just left there.

"…"

Ikarino Kirari was carefully watching the parking lot from within the shadows of the factory.

She could hear nothing but static from the earphones attached to her ears. The wireless listening device set up near the mark transmitted the silence around. 

There were only few Coatl Head marks remaining in town. Among them, the one in the parking lot was especially large.

The phenomenon of Mark Hunting, now at the forefront of public attention—Kirari had been sneaking there to ascertain its identity for a few days now.

"They'll definitely show up…"

She mumbled.

There were countless of these marks around the country.

However, Kirari was convinced that the Mark Hunter would appear there.

That was because there were an abnormally low amount of victims from all over the country when compared to those in town.

Perhaps the very act of inciting this Mark Hunting everywhere was the goal. Due to that, there were plenty of marks left unattended.

Those in this town, however, were being actively destroyed. No matter small or big. They were being meticulously erased without a trace.

"I don't think it's just someone trying to get rid of the fad…"

A nasty premonition grew inside Kirari.

Another formless searcher moving behind the scenes—

Kirari could hear footsteps.

"Perhaps they noticed the meaning of Coatl Head…?"

Muttering to herself, Kirari narrowed her eyes.

Two shadows appeared in the parking lot with the mark.

The moon was covered by clouds, so she could only see their silhouettes. However, Kirari was convinced due to the fact she hadn't felt their presence until they arrived and that their posture had no openings.

''—They're here.''

As Kirari watched, one shadow swung their hand.

That simple action caused the ground to rumble. The ground was gouged and the mark was cruelly torn off.

She listened carefully to the noise-filled earphones.

"With this, we should have erased most marks in this town…"

A woman's voice. She felt as if she'd heard that gloomy, husky voice somewhere before.

"Now, what's going to happen…?"

Since it was a low voice, she couldn't hear it well. Pulling out her small binoculars, she focused on the silhouettes.

"—a guest?"

The woman's voice suddenly grew sharper. Thinking that something happened, she readied her binocular.

"…!"

Startled, she lowered it.

There was only one remaining silhouette. There should have been two just now, though.

By the time she felt danger and tried getting away it was too late.

"I knew you weren't unrelated to this…"

As she turned around, although there shouldn't have been anyone behind her, there was now a person clad in a long coat.

"Tell me everything, Handyman."

She was caught between the two black figures, one behind her and one in front of her.

She had—nowhere to run for.

"I can sense something! A Mushitsuki is approa—i-it's fast…!"

She heard a nervous voice from the headphones.

The coat-wearing woman raised her face, and then she also turned to the parking lot.

A black object approached with the speed of a bullet from afar.

"Hurgh!"

An ear-grating voice echoed. The black person in the parking lot brought out a Mushi on their tongue, shooting sharp claws from it toward the black shadow.

Although it was assaulted by these countless claws, the shadow dancing through the air managed to instantly weave through them. Due to its excessive speed it wasn't even possible to see the route it was taking. —If felt as though the flow of time was faster only in the area around that black object.

Leaving an afterimage, the black object rose to the sky. Drawing an arc, it approached Kirari.

A dark-colored needle passed above Kirari's head.

The woman standing behind her transformed part of her coat into needles and shot them at the sky.

The flying shade weaved through the needles, went into a tailspin and landed on the ground.

Blowing wind made Kirari's hair flutter.

Landing next to her was a girl wearing a turban on her head. A black pattern grew on her head and arms, and the wings fused with her coat grew from her back.

It was a Mushitsuki Kirari didn't know. She couldn't even tell if she was an ally or an enemy.

"—This might be a bit rough, but will ya hang on?"

Immediately after saying this in a sweet voice, the turban girl hugged Kirari.

However, Kirari's body stopped moving.

"…!"

The needles shot from the coat transformed like living beings, tying around Kirari's legs.

"I won't let you."

The coat of the woman muttering in a low voice instantly morphed. It became a tight bodysuit that covered everything from head to toe. The bodyline of the tall and long-limbed woman was prominent.

"Were you the one controlling Biribiri, Karasu? …Die."

The pitch-black phantom raised an arm.

Kirari and the turban girl froze their expressions it happened.

"I sense something!"

The voice echoing through the listening device, stopped the woman from moving.

"From the direction of the substation… this reaction is… t-too strong—"

The voice heard through the earphone was probably heard by the bodysuit woman as well.

Unlike the agitation in her ally's voice, her response was calm. With creepy movements like a doll's, she turned just her upper body toward the station.

"So you finally appear… Mushitsuki of the Substation Ruins."

Kirari also turned to the same direction.

In the far distance, she could see a light illuminating the black sky.

A rainbow-colored light piercing the heavens.

It was the same as that time, when Kirari gazed up full of despair.

''I wasn't able to stop it—''

Seeing the far sky, Kirari gritted her teeth.

She knew this would happen if Coatl Head was gone.

''No, maybe I can still make it in time—''

Not giving up, Kirari pulled out a knife from her pocket as the next thing happened.

"I s-sense—"

Once again she heard the shaking voice.

[[File:Mushi Uta 8 p233.jpg|thumb]]

"A new reaction just as strong as the Mushitsuki that appeared at the substation…!" 

Kirari widened her eyes.

"W-what's going on in this town—"

"No, this is just as planned."

The bodysuit woman was calm.

"I won't let you interfere… Kakkou!"

The gloomy-sounding phantom's voice turned sharper.

"I don't know why there are other people than us who know about the Mushitsuki of the Substation… but it's convenient for us to have all the dangerous Fusion Types in one place."

Raising just the top of her head, the suit-clad woman looked down at Kirari.

"I will completely erase all Fusion Type Mushitsuki from this town tonight."

"…!"

When Kirari tried cutting the wire catching her leg with the knife, the woman swung her arm at the same time.

Her vision blacked out.

Explosions.

Wind.

Dizziness and a sense of floating.

Finally—an impact.

"Ugh…!"

She had apparently momentarily blacked out.

Kirari, coming back awake due to pain, rolled on the ground.

"You moron! Don't doze off!"

Becoming covered in dirt and feeling her momentum stopping, finally she noticed she was in the middle of a field.

The turban-wearing girl also came falling from the sky with Kirari. She was collapsed, with half of her body buried in the ground.

Raising her face, she could see the factory was far away. A large column smoke was rising from it.

The turban girl had apparently taken Kirari and ran from the enemy at the nick of time.

"I already told you that the longer you're under my ability's effect, the larger the burden becomes!"

Approaching Kirari and the other girl were several girls.

Among them a petite girl wearing glasses seemed to be dragging something.

A red smoke rose from the turban girl stuck unmoving in the field. The smoke became a glittering queen bee in midair, and was then reabsorbed by the bespectacled girl.

A girl wearing a casket hat called "Ubuki-chan!" and rushed toward the turban girl.

"R-Red Bee-User…?"

The bespectacled girl's expression changed.

"You… know me?"

"…"

"There shouldn't be anyone who knows about me anymore… well, never mind that for now. More importantly, I gotta ask you something. I didn't save you from the kindness of my heart, y'know."

There was another girl behind the bespectacled one. Wearing her hair in the shape of two buns, she wore a jacket with pin badges on it. Her face was as pretty as a singer's, but she stared into her cellphone with extremely cold eyes.

"Do it, Lucy!"

"Roger. Okay. Got it."

The buns girl ran her fingers on the cellphone.

"I will have you tell me… the secret hidden behind this marking fad."

Kirari startled preparing her body but was too late.

She was assaulted by a sensation as if her chest was being grabbed from inside. And something was being pulled out of her, slithering—

A "you've got mail!" echoed from the cellphone. It was apparently a ringtone.

"Despite being a civilian she'd been trained against mental assault… there's a lot of corrupted text, but I managed to receive it one way or another. Now, let's see here—"

Looking at the screen of her cellphone, Lucy's expression froze.

"Chami-sama… this is…"

The bespectacled girl called Chami also peeked into the screen, and then widened her eyes.

"What the hell—"

Chami, Lucy, Ubuki and the casket-wearing girl.

Kirari didn't know who they were.

However, they were apparently searching for the Mushitsuki born at the substation just like the mysterious person clad in black.

Why had they found out about existence of the Mushitsuki of the Substation Ruins?

How have they come to know of the truth hidden behind the marking fad?

Kirari didn't know the answer.

"Yikes… This is really bad… What're we supposed to do about this…"

Chami mumbled, raising her face.

Kirari understood even without being told.

The Mushitsuki of the Substation, once gone from this world—

If that grave had been ruffled, it would become something irrevocable.

"A Mushitsuki like that… should obviously not be allowed to exist!"

A Mushitsuki that should have never been born.

Right, and that was why—they decided they make it so ''they weren't born.''

"…"

Kirari started trying to walk to the direction of the substation—

And collapsed to the ground, powerless.