Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 13 Chapter 4 (section)

== 4.03 OPS3 Part 18 ==

“All members, equip your goggles! Those who can fly, take as many as you can with you and head to the museum!”

Namie shouted.

All Mushitsuki equipped the goggles they’d been supplied in advance. Shiika also let a pair dangle from her neck.

“All others are to board the vehicles prepared by Akasegawa! We have no time! Hurry!”

A giant five-horned rhinoceros beetle appeared in front of Shiika.

This was Kabuto’s Mushi.

“Get on!”

Her arm pulled by Kabuto, Shiika climbed the rhinoceros beetle’s back. Aijisupa, Namie, Lucifera, Recall, Peedwood also came, and following after the Mushibane admins, Nanana also forced her way to the Mushi’s back.

“I’m going as well!”

“N-Nanana? It’s dangerous!”

“Grab on! We’re taking off!”

There was no time to convince Nanana, so Kabuto made his Mushi fly.

The artificial grass was blown by the sudden gale, and weight pressed on Shiika’s entire body from above. After a moment this changed to a sensation of floating, and Shiika found herself in the sky above the dome.

Following the rhinoceros beetle, more and more flying-type Mushi rose from the surface one after another. They were about 30% of the entire forces. The rest all took into large vehicles and could be seen from behind leaving the dome.

“There’s just about 10 minutes until the space debris falls!”

Inside the blowing hellish wind, Kabuto put his hand to the goggles and shouted.

Namie raised her voice even further.

“How long will it take from here to the museum? Can we get there before it falls?”

“I can’t say we’ll make it for sure!”

Perhaps he was the kind of person who didn’t like speaking with optimism, or it really was this severe of a situation. Kabuto’s tone of voice indicating he was clearly pushing down his feelings fully showed how difficult the present state was.

“Have all the employees evacuate!”

Nanana, who was clinging to Shiika, brought out her cellphone. Shiika strained her voice. “A-Alpha-san also needs to be transported somewhere...!”

“We can’t! Do you want to gouge part of his body? If we get him out of the life support system without any preparations, he’ll die on the spot!”

Meaning, they couldn’t even move him with Recall’s teleportation ability, either. The situation was just getting worse and worse.

“Konoha-san has confirmed that Yuu-san—I mean, Erii has reached the museum on the surface!”

With her hair going wild in the wind, Lucifera looked at the cellphone.

So Erii’s goal really was Alpha—

Although no one said this, everyone grimaced and looked convinced of this.

“Uh—”

Lucifera changed her expression.

“At the same time and quite far away—Oogui’s appearance is also confirmed!”

“…!”

A sense of tension spread all over the back of the rhinoceros beetle flying in the dawning sky of Akamaki City.

Oogui appeared.

There was no doubt now. She was being lured by Ebina Yuu’s dream.

“We’re closer to the museum—but apparently Oogui’s heading there as well!”

All became speechless. Only the shout of the rushing wind shook their eardrums hard.

“—We should give up on Alpha.”

Everyone turned to look at the person who suddenly said this.

It was Aijisupa. Even within the blowing wind, his calm voice carried well.

“Rather than trying to stop the debris—which we don’t even know if we can in time—we should focus on our original goal, Oogui. We can’t exhaust ourselves unnecessarily and end Operation 3 in failure.”

“W-wait, I can’t allow that! I’ve bought Alpha! I’ve kept looking for that person… for the Magician and managed to get it! I won’t allow you to give up on him!”

“W-what are we going to do about Sanbikime, too! We can’t move it from the boy to Chiharu-san unless we get the Erii that’s in the debris…!”

After Nanana’s and Lucifera’s fierce rebuttals, Shiika followed as well.

“T-they’re right! We won’t be able to save Erii like this, either…!”

“You know this already. —Erii’s not our ally.”

Aijisupa’s calm expression was like ice.

“B-but…”

Shiika couldn’t say anything in reply.

“We don’t know if we can make it in time. I don’t think Erii will cooperate. Also, Oogui’s approaching from nearby. —Those are enough reasons to give up on Alpha.”

There was only little remaining time.

This extreme situation required a decision—

“’If I can just touch the debris… I’ll try whatever I can…’”

A pained voice echoed.

“’I’ve done it before… made a mess of everything… and fused it together… yes, just like I did when I was born…’”

“Aria… san?”

Shiika put a hand on her goggles.

It was the voice of Sanbikime—Aria Varei. She couldn’t see it from above, but the transport van was probably headed to the museum. Apparently, he’d heard them talking through the wireless.

“’I’ll do what I can… I’ll lump it all together with C’s power or whatever her name is… this body’s at its limits anyway…’”

That disconnected voice had clear pain in it.

“It’s finally the time for me… to try this minimal resistance thing, too…”

“I’ll help Aria as well!”

It was Chiharu’s voice. Shiika could imagine her desperately hugging Aria.

“Never mind me going into Chiharu or waking up Alpha… I do not know what happens to C without her receptable, either…”

Shiika bit her lips.

Erii. The girl who relied on Kakkou and so ended up hating Shiika.

Why would she sacrifice her own body to try and erase Alpha? Shiika couldn’t understand why Erii would use even those she was supposed to hate to accomplish her goals.

Didn’t she want—to be saved?

Since Erii was somewhere far away and far below her, Shiika couldn’t even ask this question of her.

“Even that being said, I don’t think we have the time to let Sanbikime go near the debris!”

Namie’s voice cut through the wind’s sound.

“Even if we send Recall to the skies from here, she won’t make it in time! —If she’s aiming for Alpha, then fixing the slight inaccuracies in the trajectory won’t mean anything… we can’t do anything about the timing! If we want to stop it, we must reach before the debris falls!”

There was barely any time until the debris crashed.

Even so, not only were they not ready, but they were separated and desperate to even reach the museum.

“We can only wait for a miracle… will you still do this? Fuyuhotaru!”

Everyone on the five-horned rhinoceros beetle looked at Shiika.

She wasn’t blaming Shiika. Although those eyes were certainly full of despair, they also exhibited her will to go along with whatever Shiika said.

“—”

Shiika opened her mouth but she felt no words could leave her throat.

She was about to choose the wrong answer again.

Operation 3 had started, and although it was different from their schedule, they could engage Oogui now.

Even so, for Shiika to be saying she wanted to stop the debris right now—would be nothing but her sentimentality.

“What’ll we do? I’m against this, but if you tell us to do it…”

“Shiika-chan!”

“Shiika!”

“Snow-san!”

“Three more minutes…!”

Some wanted to complete Operation 3 even with some sacrifices.

Some wanted to stop the debris and fulfill their own duties and accumulated wishes.

Pressed to find the right choice for both, Shiika—

“…!”

Held her tongue.

She couldn’t choose.

She could choose nothing but the answer of silence; the most foolish to choose as a leader.

Their feelings, their duty to finish the fight, anything and everything—

Were too heavy for the weak girl called Anmoto Shiika, and she couldn’t carry all of them.

“What? Look at the surface—”

As Shiika couldn’t speak, she heard Kabuto’s surprised voice.

There was no need to ask, as the change was as clear as day.

“Something’s shining!”

It was just like Nanana said.

Since an evacuation order had been issued to Akamaki City, there were so few lights there it didn’t look like a capital.

Even so, spots of lights were suddenly born here and there. Buildings, houses, alleys and such were suddenly flooded by golden glows, looking as if they were floating above the surface.

As if they were replacing the glowing stars that vanished with the approach of dawn.

These countless stars on the surface were all moving to a certain direction.

“—Butterflies.”

The one who realized their identity was Namie.

Shiika also narrowed her eyes and looked down—feeling a chill run down her spine.

Those lights born on the surface were swarms of butterflies. They were familiar ones, glowing in gold.

“C—”

That shaky voice was erased by the wind, so it wasn’t clear who it belonged to.

Golden C-butterflies filled Akamaki City, joined into swarms and aimed at a certain location.

And where these C-butterflies were heading to—

“They’re heading to the museum…?”

Starting with Shiika’s mumble, her comrades became agitated.

“They’re all going to the museum…?”

“So she noticed Oogui’s presence…!”

“T-these numbers are insane—is this really possible with a Mushitsuki’s power?!”

While Shiika and the rest looked down, the number of butterflies only kept increasing. The glow emerging from any and all electric lines became fairies and added to the swarms.

Akamaki City in its entirety was being overrun by fairies and butterflies—

Just like Lucifera said, this went way past the limits of a single Mushitsuki.

“I can see the museum!”

Aijisupa’s voice brought everyone back to reality.

Raising her face, Shiika could see the lights gathering from far in the building.

The rhinoceros beetle accelerated.

Shiika and her comrades.

Oogui.

C.

All were heading to the museum, and the first one to reach—

“—We didn’t make it in time.”

Kabuto grimaced and looked up at the upper sky.

“The debris… is falling!”

Shiika gasped and looked up.

There was a lone line of light running through the sky dyed with dawn.

“Ah—”

Shiika’s unconscious mutter became the cue.

Following the first line of light, another and yet another line of light joined it—

“—”

It was a shower of lights.

Probably because they were right below where it was falling, the lights showering on Akamaki City spread in a radial formation.

Everyone including Shiika lost their words not due to the despair of not making it in time—but rather being taken away by such a beautiful sight.

“Once again… stars are falling—”

Nanana’s voice, sounding somewhat sad, rang especially clear in Shiika’s ears.

“The debris fragments…”

She felt like she could even hear Namie grit her teeth with this mumble.

A miracle—would not happen.

They didn’t make it in time.

The one who first reached the museum where Alpha and Ebina Yuu—

Was the burning lump coming down from the heavens.

“The debris’ main bulk is coming!”

“My ears…!”

Crackling in the atmosphere was a sound like an earth tremor.

At the very center of the fragments burning up in the atmosphere that would never reach the surface was an especially bright light.

This tremor—no, the sound shaking the air was growing larger and larger.

“Erii…!”

Shiika grimaced.

There was nothing to be done now. There was no longer any way to save Erii, and Chiharu and the others’ wishes would not come true, either.

In a few more seconds, the debris would strike the earth.

It would knock down the museum where Alpha slept without leaving a trace.

While everyone could imagine this sight, an unforeseen change occurred.

“Something’s odd! The fairies on the surface…!”

“Eh—”

Hearing Lucifera’s voice as she looked to the surface, Shiika saw that the swarms of fairies all held hands.

No. Looking closely, a golden light surged and connected all fairies and C-butterflies. These all gathered at a single point on the surface, then burst with a loud roar.

“—!”

Lightning.

It was a massive lightning strike, shot from the surface to the sky.

It spread through the sky above the museum in the literal speed of light.

A gigantic C-butterfly.

Emitting golden electricity, it spread its wings toward where Shiika was looking—

“The debris—”

The shooting star that didn’t vanish from the sky while falling.

She realized that this was the debris—because something impossible happened.

The C-butterfly floating above the museum stopped it.

No, rather than saying it stopped it, to Shiika it looked as though it absorbed it.

After all, the vibration shaking Akamaki City’s sky, the shockwave that hurt her ears, all vanished into thin air as if they never existed.

“The C-butterfly… stopped Erii?”

“No, something’s odd—”

“T-the debris… is still falling…”

She felt all her comrades were confused.

Yes, Shiika could see the exact phenomenon just like someone said.

Although it clashed directly against the C-butterfly, the debris—from afar it looked like a lump of metal burning pure red—kept falling down while leaving an aura of flames.

It kept falling despite not moving from the spot.

“—An isolated space.”

Battle-experienced Namie realized this.

The C-butterfly closed its wings and its form melted into the air. The stopped debris also was vanishing while continuing its eternal fall.

Aijisupa groaned.

“It’s going to vanish… so she’s going to take even Erii’s remaining personality.”

“Will C become even stronger…? If so, this is a situation even worse than Erii self-destructing!” said Lucifera.

Among the Mushitsuki who gazed at that sight while stunned—

Shiika alone thought of something else.

No miracle came.

The one who obtained Erii’s debris was their enemy, C.

While having the enemy they needed to defeat crush their hopes, Shiika actually—felt power welling up within her.

Her doubts—

Her weakness at being unable to choose the right answer—

Cruel reality struck them all down.

“We now have some time to prepare…”

As Shiika mumbled this, the next action she took—

Was taking Recall’s hand.