Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 3rd Episode 12 (section)

===Part 3===

Japan, Ouka City.

In this city that was still rapidly developing even in this age, Lady Mitake had a villa.

On the way from the airport to the mansion Anneliese looked at the townscape, but it didn't seem to possess even one element that she might come to like.

There were no stone paving that would make leather shoes squeak, nor old buildings with the smell of sunburnt bricks. Everything was brand new, and it was all clustered together as if stealing her very air.

Everything was greatly different from Munich, the capital of art and music. At least on the surface, Ouka City hadn't a shred of education in it.

And above all—there was not even one thing here that Anneliese needed to protect.

"…"

In the spacious room that had nothing in it but minimal furniture, sitting in an Italian-made chair, Anneliese was doing nothing except breathing.

Her white dress was of the highest quality, and if she looked outside the window the mansion was even more gorgeous than the one in Munich. The bed, the shelves, the table as well—although this was Japan there was nothing Japanese-made to be seen around. Did Lady Mitake hate Japan despite being pure Japanese?

In the room's corner lay the violin she had been given by Lady Mitake. Yet for the last days ever since coming to Japan Anneliese hadn't even touched it. No matter how fine of a product it was, it couldn't rival the one she had grown attached to, the one that had been given to her by those important to her.

She also didn't touch the food left on her desk. Anneliese simply spent her days in idleness and absentmindedness.

She became unexpectedly depraved.

Although once she hated it more than anything, now Anneliese enlisted to it.

''…So I really wasn't even a doll or a bird in a cage, huh?''

She spoke in her heart to her classmates, including Erik.

''Because… what I am now—''

What did Anneliese's classmates think about her vanishing one day like that? The Mitake family's scandal probably spread through all of Munich in no time. And even if her parents' innocence would be proven, they wouldn't be able to return to the brilliant business world. The Mitake family collapsed.

No, her family's honor didn't matter anymore.

She was worried about her parents' well-being.

How were they treated ever since being apprehended by the authorities? Were they not facing anything terrible? Were they not worried about Anneliese?

She was also anxious about what was going to happen with her from now on. It might have even been fear.

Ever since they arrived in Japan, Lady Mitake hadn't showed herself in front of Anneliese. Would the old woman have loved her as an adopted child if only she hadn't shown her smarts? Perhaps the childless Lady Mitake was raising Anneliese to become her successor. That was also horrifying, but since Anneliese had noticed the darkness in her heart, she was also scared about her treatment.

The heart of the thirteen years old Anneliese was being crushed by despair and fear.

The education her father had pounded into her in order to protect her was of no use at all. Rather it was the very reason for that sly old lady to have an eye on her. Lady Mitake took everything from her. Her parents and house, her hometown, and even her very freedom.

As she was denying all meals, even her body was withering away.

"…"

Anneliese's body inclined forward.

Even as she was about to reach her limits and lose her consciousness, her unneeded cleverness caused her to notice something.

''Ah, I see—''

Anneliese closed her eyes, a smile rising to her mouth. A smile like she never had before, mixed with hatred and rage.

She knew Lady Mitake's true, dark nature. Perhaps she would take revenge against her before long. She didn't think that old woman would show mercy against her enemy.

''At this rate I'll be slowly killed—''

It happened just as Anneliese felt as if the last thread of her life was about to snap off.

"…!"

She opened her blue eyes wide.

Although she was about to collapse, her body sprang up like a coil. Just like a sleepwalker, she paced around the room, looking around the ceiling and the closet.

She definitely heard it.

That sound.

That mist-like voice that protected her ever since she was young—

''Creak—''

"…!"

It wasn't an auditory hallucination. She didn't mistake that sound.

She could hear the sound from the ceiling. It made the ceiling creak as if by some invisible person's footsteps.

Deathwatch.

Shibanmushi. 

The watchers of death that never showed themselves.

Her whole body started shaking.

"Uu… Uuuuh…"

With her face pale, a low groaning spilled from Anneliese's mouth.

The specters' footsteps called back her robbed memories.

Her important parents. Her important house. Her important hometown Munich and its scenery. And her precious violin—

"UuuUuuh!"

She started shouting and ruffling her hair.

"UAHHHHHH!!!"

For the first time ever since coming to Japan, her blue eyes shed tears.

—She wanted it back.

Everything.

All of it.

While Anneliese wished for this along with the whirlpool of emotions in her heart, she didn't notice the air around her decaying and covering her.

As she kept shouting, the vision around her distorted. Not because of her tears, but because part of Lady Mitake's mansion was sucked into another space.

The remaining rational part of Anneliese's mind recalled.

The sound of the Easter bells Faust had heard in Goethe's play. 

Anneliese could definitely hear those now.

The filthy sounds of a bell echoed loudly.

<br>

—When she came to, Anneliese found herself in front of a small church.

It was an exceedingly simple place.

There was a single withered tree and a crumbling church. —That was all there was.

Dark clouds hanged over the sky, concealing the sun. Damaged stone steps sprouted from the bare ground, but they didn't feel like they were actually there. It was because there was no smell of ground or rocks.

''Where on earth am I—''

Looking around her absentmindedly, Anneliese felt as if it she wasn't really there.

The violent emotions that drove her crazy just moments ago vanished like a puff of smoke. Here she couldn't feel anger, hatred or fear.

She could only feel one emotion.

''I don't know where I am, but—''

Anneliese's white face distorted. She narrowed her blue eyes, glaring at the church in front of her.

"I feel sick…"

It was irritation.

Some dark mud-like emotion was squirming inside her heart.

Bell sounds echoed.

Far from its common description of sublime, it was a cracked, horrible sound. For this girl who had pursued to perform the best music, that sound grated on her ears as if sticking inside. In the play, when Faust heard the bells of Easter he gave up on killing himself, but Anneliese felt the opposite, that she would like to throw her life away. 

Was this also somewhere in Japan? She had no memories about when and how she had come to this place. Even so, being there felt natural, much like a mysterious sense of déjà vu. 

As if she was inside a dream.

—No, she probably was dreaming. Or perhaps after her long house arrest in a foreign land she was starting to lose her sanity.

Yet right now both of them were the same—

Anneliese snorted in laughter. Whether it was a dream or a hallucination, the conclusion was the same. What awaited her was a lonely death. She couldn't escape it.

"O stray girl…"

Anneliese raised her face with a twitch.

"Come to me…"

She could hear a hoarse man's voice mixed with the bell coming from somewhere.

Anneliese unconsciously looked up at the church. The pointed roof only had one broken stick on it, with no sign of the cross supposed to be there.

"…"

Inside her chest she felt sick and the irritation only worsened. She didn't like the dirty air around, and the old man's voice got on her nerves.

"O stray girl… come to me."

''I'll come, so just shut up—''

The words that came from someone or something, whether they were German, Japanese, or perhaps something that transcended language itself, rubbed her the wrong way.

Pushing open the destroyed door, she stepped into the church.

There were lines of old wooden benches inside. There were lit candles on one wall, and on the altar stood a hunchbacked person. Since he wore a dirty hood she couldn't see any of his expression other than his mouth.

''He looks so dirty—''

Anneliese looked down on the man in her mind. She had never felt such scorn even for the beggars on the streets during the time she lived in Germany. It was because she knew that they had their own circumstances.

Yet the appearance of the old man in front of her got on her nerves for some reason. Perhaps because he made the ear-grating bell sounds, or perhaps her remaining brains could feel something evil from him.

"Thou art full of hatred—"

The hooded person smiled. He spoke in a worriless voice of ridicule.

Anneliese grinded her teeth.

''Why you… someone like you has no right to laugh at me—''

"Thou art full of hatred toward the one who took everything from thee… Thou hate everything about the one trying to take everything dear to thee…"

''Shut up—''

Along with her irritation toward the old man, violent hatred was revived in her heart.

She hated it. She hated it.

It was obvious. Anneliese had been, for some unfathomable reason, robbed of everything.

Even her education was of no use. Anneliese had no intention of relying on something as powerless as that.

"Thou hast been deprived of it all due to thy weakness… Weaklings are robbed by the strong. That is the unavoidable providence of this world…"

Anneliese's eye became sharp. Her eyes, blue like those of a pedigreed cat, shining with anger and hatred, changed to those of a predator watching their prey.

"…Who are you? On whose authority do you say this to me?"

Anneliese spoke for the first time. She wrung her last remaining reasoning power for this question.

The old man laughed without concealing his scorn. Anneliese was starting to lose herself to rage again.

"Such good-mannered speech… A beautiful voice… Hast thou truly believed thou were protected by these thus far?"

"…!"

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"There is nothing for thee to protect here. Even though there is naught for thee to protect anymore… why dost thou still wear this mask of falsehood?"

"…I'm—"

"Thou should have lost it all. There is no longer any need to hold back thy words…"

"Shut…up—"

"Thou art no longer a doll."

The old man's words caused everything Anneliese believed in to crumble to pieces, one by one.

She had nothing to protect anymore.

And so she had nothing to hold back for.

Anneliese was no longer—just a doll who saw how people feel.

"—Shut the fuck up."

She exposed her molars, spitting out these words with a low voice the likes of which she had never put to her mouth before. Her blue eyes emitted a light full of killing intent.

The rationality inside Anneliese was decisively destroyed.

She didn't need any education.

She also didn't need her useless violin.

What she wanted right now was unshakable power. Absolute power that would allow her to retrieve everything important to her without being robbed by anyone.

There was no longer the Anneliese that had been admired like an angel.

She threw herself into decadence and revenge; she was now a misfortunate fallen angel.

"I've been asking who you are, you piece of shit."

As if she was becoming someone else—no, as if she was being turned inside out, a weird sensation took control of Anneliese. Her other self that was brought out by the old man's whisper spoke on its own.

She was still slightly confused about her new self. Yet since her other self broke free from her desires and impulses, it suppressed her reasoning power.

"If I declare mine true name thou shalt not comprehend it, thus—"

The old man spoke while staring at the changed Anneliese with satisfaction.

"Shinpu… I am called this along with Oogui and Sanbikime…"

Shinpu?

Since Anneliese could understand a little Japanese, she knew it was pronounced the same as the word referring to a Catholic priest.

For the first time in her life, Anneliese wore a smile of clear scorn. She couldn't bare such a filthy messenger of god. That old man in front of her rather felt like he was on the side opposite to God—

"Power… I shall give thee power. If thou wish for it…"

—Shinpu said with the whisper of a devil.

''Hmph'', Anneliese snorted.

"You'll give me power, you say?"

Anneliese only came to know the identity of the supernatural being in front of her much later. 

She only found out later that this country had beings that grant the power known as Mushi in exchange for dreams and that those possessed by it were called Mushitsuki.

Anneliese was yet to know who the being standing in front of her was.

The beings that gave birth to Mushitsuki and were known as Prototype Mushi.

One of the Original Three.

Wandering along with the territory known as a church, the evil prophet that gave birth to Special Type Mushitsuki.

His name was Shinpu.

"Oh, I know your real name."

At the time, Anneliese named the hooded devil without any hesitation.

"Mephistopheles."

The demon that hated light.

The fallen angel drawn to the greed of humans who tempted them by offering them power.

Anneliese was trying to walk the same path as Faust who was degraded and heard the bells of Easter. Just like with him, a swindler offering a contract appeared before her.

She had no doubts that this was the identity of the devil in front of her right now.

"If you even possess that kinda power."

Anneliese reached out toward the devil.

She was betrayed by the contract she had made with education and art. The power she had cultivated by believing in her parents' words stole away everything she had.

And so Anneliese reached out for a new contract.

"If I can use that power to retrieve anything and everything."

If she could enact revenge upon the one who took everything from her.

If she could gain absolute power the likes of which she had never seen before.

"Hand it over. Give me power that won't lose to anyone."

She was trying to make a contract with a demon without any hesitation. 

"Thou hast accepted me—"

The devil wore a sly smile under the hood's shadow.

"…!"

A mist of darkness burst from Anneliese's body.

That mist was nostalgic, warm, and felt like it possessed unparalleled power. Making her golden hair bristle, she felt like she could hear the familiar formless footsteps near her ears.

''I will regain everything I've lost by my own hands—''

This was the earnest wish embraced by the doll that broke out of her shell.

<br>

—There was a hall made for parties even in Lady Mitake's villa. 

Anneliese sat in a chair she had brought from her room all alone.

While a crunching voice was coming out of her mouth, a dark mist was drifting around the girl.

From the ceiling came the creaking footsteps of the unseen neighbors.

Anneliese had finally come to know the identity of the invisible footsteps. They weren't specters or friends. For years upon years they watched vigilantly, waiting.

For the moment Anneliese would fall.

For the moment she would despair from the false powers of education and art and yield herself to her cursed fate.

Now that Anneliese realized this, she had no doubts or regrets.

"Ooh… What is this shameful behavior… Anneliese!"

Appearing in the dim hall was an old woman dressed in kimono, Lady Mitake.

She probably came to check on Anneliese's condition after hearing she was growing weaker. Or perhaps she came to sneer at her wasting away and dying?

By saying shameful, Lady Mitake probably referred to the girl sitting in the hall like that. 

The sleeves of her white dress were torn, and by hugging her knees her white thighs were boldly exposed. Cold food lay on the floor and she used her hands to stuff her cheeks full of it. Her beautiful blonde hair stayed the same, but her blue eyes glinted with a light so sharp she looked like a completely different person.

"How do you do, you old hag?"

Wiping her ketchup-dirty mouth, Anneliese stared at Lady Mitake.

"How vulgar…! Is there no-one here? Why have you let Anneliese out of her room?"

The old woman possessing the absolute authority called, yet none answered her.

Instead, the mansion itself replied.

From the ceiling, the wall, the floor, from every possible place echoed a creaking sound. As if cornering the residents of the mansion, the sound grew gradually louder.

They were not Anneliese's friends nor her audience—but her devil messengers.

At last they were joined together.

"There's nobody here. They all got scared and ran off."

The floor near the grinning Anneliese suddenly caved in. From the hole opened up as if by a drill, black mist erupted and vanished.

"…!"

Lady Mitake turned pale. She suddenly looked around the hall.

At some point its entirety became filled with the black mist.

"Oh no… Have you been possessed by evil spirits, Anneliese…!"

Another impact smashed the hall's floor. With the third and the fourth, what looked like the footprints of a giant left gaping holes as it approached the old woman. Unable to hold back the expanding mist, the hall's window broke.

"Ah…! Ahhh…!"

Mist was rapidly converging in the empty space the trembling Lady Mitake looked up to. Near the ceiling with a hanging chandelier, it materialized into dark blades.

The sharp claws of a formless devil were formed. Without any head, chest or stomach, the dark claws started filling up the hall.

—No. They did have a body.

The filthy yet beautiful girl showered by the moonlight shining from the broken windows—Mitake Anneliese—was the mistress of the countless claws. The blue-eyed beauty opened her mouth wide in laughter.

"AHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

"EEK—"

With giant holes opening up at her feet, Lady Mitake fled the hall. She ran through the corridor, heading to the stairs. 

"{{furigana|Stirb|Die}}, you old hag!"

The mist drifting around the mansion changed into claws and assaulted the old woman's path. They played with Lady Mitake while destroying the walls and breaking the floor. While using every slang curse she knew, Anneliese walked calmly after her.

"Uuh…!"

Lady Mitake rolled down the stairs, attempting to crawl toward the front door. Yet by making use of claws stabbing into the walls instead of her legs, Anneliese floated in air and blocked the old woman from the front.

Lady Mitake rolled on the floor with a deathly pale face. While breathing so hard she seemed to be hyperventilating, she gazed up Anneliese who was wearing a twisted smile.

"S-save me—"

Anneliese, who was about to inflict the finishing blow, opened her blue eyes wide.

"Forgive me—Please, do not kill me…"

The old woman known as Lady Mitake and feared by everyone rubbed her head on the floor and begged for her life. She trembled pitifully and lowered her head in front of the 13 year old Anneliese.

"Please do not curse me—"

It was Anneliese's victory.

The filthy power that had nothing to do with either education or art thoroughly trampled the old woman's authority. 

"…Ha."

A loud laughter erupted from the girl's mouth.

"AHAHAHAHA!"

Anneliese's laughter knew no stop. Her half-crazed voice echoed throughout the destroyed mansion. 

—What had she done this far?

While looking down at the old woman and laughing, various feelings welled up inside Anneliese.

Her mother and father taught her that education would become a power to protect her.

Anneliese believed her parents' words and devoted herself to them. Striving in her studies without even making friends, she acquired education. Devoting herself to operas and literature, she learned art. She also practiced etiquette so that she wouldn't embarrass herself on her debut in the high society. Blessed with the talent of music, Anneliese's violin was supposed to be become world-famous through Munich.

Yet it was all taken away by the old woman in front of her.

She was robbed clean.

And now, even that power of authority was easily defeated by the power Anneliese had gained by her contract with the devil.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

While she held her stomach laughing, Lady Mitake desperately crawled past her on all fours.

As Anneliese couldn't help but laugh, the old woman was already nowhere to be seen.

"Ahahaha…"

Even now that she had expelled all air in her lunges by laughing, tears streamed down Anneliese's cheeks.

Anneliese gained power.

She gained the cursed power from her deal with the devil.

It was very powerful. Yet at the same time, the clever Anneliese despaired.

Was this filthy power really stronger than anything—

"Haha, ha, ha…"

Lady Mitake dashed out of the mansion and disappeared. Yet she didn't even care about Lady Mitake anymore.

She covered her face with both hands.

Her ceaselessly spilling tears stained the floor that creaked although no one was there.

The power Anneliese had gained was taking away something precious from her even now.

Her extremely precious parents' faces, the scent of her hometown, the melody of her violin—

Even now, they were vanishing from inside her.

"Ha, ha…"

''Father—''

''Mother—''

"…"

The formless footsteps comforted Anneliese who was crying while laughing.

It was the voice of welcome.

The devils, who corrupted Anneliese for their own greed, bound her with the chains of sin.

Now that she had been cursed, she could no longer go back.

"…I can no longer go back…"

Now that Anneliese became someone else, she would never see her parents again.

She could never go back to the beautiful mansion on Munich.

Anneliese couldn't regain anything.

She had been taken in by Mephistopheles's lies—

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