Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 3rd Episode 11 (section)

===Part 3===

''Badump—''

Arisu's heart pounded in her chest.

"Oogui…?"

She unconsciously repeated the words that Daisuke mouthed.

"The Original Three…?"

The Prototype Mushi that gave birth to Mushitsuki, the Original Three—so Daisuke called the woman that faced Minato on top of the stage.

—What are Mushi?

—What are Mushitsuki?

Arisu had fought so far in search for answers. After inheriting Mari's Mushi, she had met and parted with many Mushitsuki.

And now right in front of her was a being who should know the answer. The reason for Mushitsuki to fight so desperately was smiling calmly.

"Is she also the one who made Mari into a Mushitsuki…?"

"No, the one who turned people like me or Mari into Mushitsuki is a different one called Sanbikime. Until now Sanbikime produced only a handful of Mushitsuki, but she—"

Daisuke nimbly took out his SEPB coat from the bag, wearing it. Equipping mechanical goggles to his face, he readied his handgun again.

"She keeps birthing Mushitsuki endlessly. She keeps single-mindedly eating people's dreams. That's why she's Oogui, a glutton."

His tone was cool, but she knew Daisuke was suppressing his anger.

"Don't do anything. —I'll defeat Oogui."

She was continuously birthing Mushitsuki.

Mushitsuki who would be scared of their Mushi completely devouring their dreams every day, fighting each other, collapsing—and Oogui produced them one after another.

And now, right in front of Arisu's eyes, she was trying to produce another, new Mushitsuki—

"…Oogui!"

Coming back to her senses, she shouted loudly. She picked up one of the bonfires' pedestals that fell to her feet.

The silver morpho butterfly alighted down. Its body morphed, and while emitting silver scales it fused with the vessel, turning into a spear.

The sound of a mask falling to the floor echoed. Removing her eyes from Minato who stood completely expressionless as if entranced, Oogui turned her face away.

"—What a coincidence, how are you doing, Daisuke-chan? And the small one near you… has brought quite the nostalgic Mushi along, hasn't she?"

The woman narrowed her rainbow-colored eyes behind the round sunglasses. Daisuke bent over, assuming a battle stance.

Yet Arisu strained her voice to stop him from leaping out.

"What are Mushi?"

She turned the spear in her hands toward Oogui.

"And what are Mushitsuki? Why do they have to—"

''Keep fighting like this?''

—She tried inquiring this, yet her chest was so full of emotions she couldn't speak properly. Including her best friend Mari, Daisuke and the other Mushitsuki fought each other, hurt each other and collapsed. Just thinking about their fate made her want to cry.

Yet Arisu bit her lips and preserved her self-control.

"Why do you give birth to Mushitsuki?"

She glared at Oogui with teary eyes.

"Answer me, Oogui!"

Having the tip of a spear directed at her, the woman curled her lips in enjoyment.

"—Because there is such a delicious dream right here."

Oogui brought Minato's face closer with her fingers as if sniffing a rich wine. She cast a sidelong glance full of enjoyment at Arisu.

"Do I need any other reason for devouring dreams, hmm?"

Arisu widened her eyes.

''—If I was gone, would you be sad?''

Mari's transparent smile rose to her mind.

What are Mushi? What are Mushitsuki? Although she had yet to find out the answer, all of the Mushitsuki Arisu had met so far have fought with something.

Hanashiro Mari should've also been fighting. With the disease gnawing at her—and with the Mushi eating her dream.

If she weren't a Mushitsuki, perhaps she would've still been alive. Perhaps she would've been able to go on the school trip along with Arisu and laugh together with her.

The reason for the monster called Oogui to take people embracing their dreams and turn them into Mushitsuki—was asserted by a single word.

It was mere "appetite."

"For such—a reason—"

It was so infuriating and intolerable that she couldn't speak properly.

Was there anything as unreasonable as continually creating Mushi for nothing other than hunger?

Her clenched molars creaked. Her vision blurred due to tears.

"I won't forgive you…"

As if responding to Arisu's fury, the silver spear she was grasping shone.

—The Original Three.

If Arisu was unable to defeat this being right now, she would keep on birthing Mushitsuki—

"I won't forgive you!"

Arisu shouted, running toward Oogui.

"…! Wait, Arisu!"

Ignoring Daisuke's voice, Arisu kicked aside the audience seats and got up onto the stage. She pushed aside Minato who stood frozen, leaping toward Oogui's chest.

Arisu's eyes blazing with hatred crossed gazes with Oogui's rainbow eyes.

"—Disturbing my meal like that, aren't you a naughty girl?"

Immediately after Arisu's spear sliced Oogui, a high-pitched ear-grating noise pressured her eardrums.

Air expanded and her vision distorted.

"Perhaps you need to be punished."

A shockwave with overwhelming destructive power blew apart the kagura stage.

Unable to do anything, Arisu was blown away along with the audience seats. She was pounded into the floor, broke chairs, bounded around several times like a helpless doll and crashed with her back against a pillar.

"…Kha…!"

The bones of her entire body creaked with an unpleasant noise. Blood was dripping from her forehead as she kneeled on the floor.

All of the spectators and actors had already escaped the blazing stage. The only ones remaining were Arisu and Daisuke, as well as Minato and Oogui.

"Stupid Arisu…! This isn't someone you could fight against directly!"

As Daisuke tried rushing toward Arisu, Oogui directed her rainbow-colored eyes at him.

"Fufu—so another nostalgic child was here, huh?"

"…!"

Another boy leapt out in front of Daisuke.

He wore a business suit and glasses. —He was the mysterious boy that had snorted at Arisu on the Shinkansen. Was he simply hiding somewhere until now?

"What's up with you! Move!"

As Daisuke charged toward him, the boy merely brought out a hand of his pocket. Immediately after Daisuke's arm had been grabbed as he was trying to shake off the other boy, he could feel his body rotating 180 degrees in air. Even Arisu, who underwent martial arts training, couldn't tell what the boy had done.

"Ugh—"

Daisuke also seemed confused as to why he was pounded against the floor. Unable to even assume a safe falling position, he was lying wide-eyed on the floor.

"Your training is lacking, Kakkou."

The first words to come out of the boy's mouth sounded grown up in contrast to his appearance. Shaking his braided hair, he passed his gaze from Daisuke to Arisu.

"Since I was finally released from the business trip, I came here to try and see Sanbikime's Spear-Type or whatever with my own eyes, but—"

"Gha…!"

The bespectacled boy's flowing movements turned the joints of Daisuke's arms to their limits. 

"—This was a good opportunity. I will probe Spear-Type's performance. Kakkou, you stay quietly here."

"Fufu…"

Glancing at the battle of Daisuke and the unknown boy, Oogui turned around again to Minato squatting on the stage. He still stood frozen and she approached him.

Forgetting about her pain, Arisu rose up. Grasping the spear that never left her hand, she rushed ahead.

"I won't let you turn him into a Mushitsuki…!"

She had no idea who that bespectacled boy was, but right now the fact that Oogui was trying to turn Minato into a Mushitsuki robbed Arisu's reason.

She would definitely not let a Mushitsuki be born in front of her eyes.

She would never let someone like her late friend Hanashiro Mari be created—

"Run, Arisu…!"

"—Didn't I tell you not to disturb me, little one?"

Without even looking at her, Oogui raised one of her hands. The purple scales blowing around assembled, bringing birth to a strangely-shaped Mushi.

It was a large centipede with two heads. More than half of its split body was made of jaws sporting sharp fangs. 

The double-headed centipede assaulted Arisu.

"Ukh…!"

Stopping the monster's jaw with her spear took her everything she had. Since she had no chance of resisting with her arm strength, she collapsed onto the ground.

One of the monster's heads sealed her spear, while the other attempted chomping her.

Since Arisu couldn't move her body she had no way of evading the incoming fangs.

The fear of death assaulted her.

''Mari—''

She suddenly thought of her late friend's face.

''I might not be able to see the continuation of your dream''—just as she thought this, Arisu could feel something other than herself pulse inside her.

''—Ba dump.''

The switch has been made.

So she thought.

''It's fine, Arisu. We have yet to lose—''

She sneered inside her heart.

"—So this isn't enough."

Hanashiro Mari wore a smile. A calm voice leaked from her mouth.

The spear she was holding in her right hand emitted a silver glow. The tentacles bursting from the spear stabbed her right arm. The morpho butterfly's body permeated Mari's skin, encroaching all the way to her elbows and fusing with her.

"If my opponent is this mere small fry… this should be enough."

The spear that she grasped in the right arm fused with the morpho butterfly spouted silver scales. The centipede biting into the spear raised a cry, detaching its mouth. Immediately leaping aside, Mari dodged the other head.

"You—"

"Hmph."

Daisuke's expression became that of surprise and the bespectacled boy snorted disinterestedly. 

Mari brandished the spear above her head.

''Fwish'', along the sound of cutting through air, she drew silver arcs of light in the gloomy stage. She aimed the spear directly at the centipede.

Gazing to the side, she exchanged glances with the bespectacled boy.

The morpho butterfly merged with the spear told her of the boy's identity.

"So you remember me? Seems like you have memories from before your death."

"…"

"But reminiscing isn't a good idea right now, Hanashiro Mari's ghost."

The bespectacled boy said coolly, gesturing at the centipede with his cheek. The double-headed monster was again attempting to attack Mari.

She slightly winced, moving her gaze from the boy to the centipede.

"Hah!"

She thrust her spear forward with a spirited yell.

The pattern etched to her right arm glowed and a tempest of scales gushed out from the spear. Shaving the floor and destroying the ceiling, the silver scales swallowed the double-headed centipede.

By the time she had annihilated the centipede and opened up large holes in the walls as well, Mari had started dashing toward Oogui. The woman tried assaulting her with the shockwave that drove Arisu back, but it didn't work on Mari. A flash of the spear cut off the whirlpool of impact.

"Fufu…"

Leaping toward the sneering Oogui, she swung the spear's tip from directly above.

The spear fused with the morpho butterfly pierced Oogui's chest. The purple scales enveloping the woman repelled the silver scales.

"I'll annihilate you, Oogui!"

As Mari wore a brutal smile, her right arm increased in glow.

The torrent of energy unleashed from her spear opened large holes in the floor. Breaking through both Oogui's body and the wooden beams, Mari gathered her whole power in her right arm.

Starting from the highest floor of the five-storied pagoda, she pounded and destroyed the floors that appeared one after another. The glow emitted by Oogui and the morpho butterfly mixed, repulsed one another and broke through the surface and the night sky in a straight line.

Along with a thunderous roar, the now-exposed ground caved in.

Mari's spear destroyed Oogui's body, piercing all the way from the highest floor to the ground. 

However—

"—So, Minato-kun?"

Oogui sneered with the spear still stuck in her. From inside the destroyed right half of her body, several hundreds of small insects crawled out. Gathering and taking the form of Oogui's missing portions, they melted into each other.

"…!"

Having restored her form in mere moments, Oogui smiled while standing on the ground. Her rainbow-colored eyes gazed over Mari's shoulder at the highest floor of the five-storied pagoda—at Fuyuki Minato who stood on the edge of the hole.

"Will you tell me your dream?"

Minato raised his face with a twitch. As if being controlled, he slowly opened his mouth.

"Kh…!"

Mari swung her spear horizontally. The morpho butterfly's scales blew, bisecting the ground. Oogui's body was also split to two from her waist, but once again the insects crawled out of her body, stitching it together.

"I—"

Taken aback, Mari looked at the ceiling. The boy far above her muttered.

"I… want to spread 'Mitsuhara' through the country one day… That's my dream…"

The moment when the boy answered Oogui's question—

A gale swallowed the pagoda. The storm of purple scales covered Fuyuki Minato and something shining in gold overflowed out of his body.

The golden light pierced through the holes, being sucked into Oogui's mouth.

''Gulp''—they could hear the sound of Oogui swallowing. Her crimson tongue licked her lips.

"Thank you for the meal. It was a delicious dream."

Next to the boy enveloped by the sinister colored scales a single Mushi was born. Minato's new Mushi landed atop the shoulder of its unconscious host.

Mari grimaced.

It happened—just as Minato became a Mushitsuki.

"Fufu, goodbye… sad Mushi-san."

Oogui sneered in enjoyment at Mari at her feet. She immediately readied her spear, yet before she could repeat her attack the woman's body was enveloped by scales and vanished.

''I let her get away—''

Mari clicked her tongue and looked up at the opened ceiling.

"Just like I thought… I have to defeat him first."