Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 5 Chapter 4 (section)

==4.03 The Others==

In the underground of Akamaki City was the base of the Special Environmental Preservation Bureau's Central Headquarters. 

Reaching to the depths of dozens of meters below ground, in the deepest part of a certain facility in the eighth layer.

A room lined up with monitors and control boards was enveloped in shrieks.

Certain objects were destroying the equipment, slicing up the people wearing white coats running about and defeating the combat personnel sent to stop them.

They were a swarm of disks covered by a shining pattern that flew in the air.

The one controlling these disks was a boy with black lines drawn under his eye.

"[Rin is confused]! [Rin is confused]!"

Every time he yelled frantically with a pale face, the disks flew around the room. The lights were destroyed by the disks slicing up the ceiling, so the room was shrouded in darkness. A shrill alarm resounded.

Soon the emergency lighting went on and the room was illuminated by white-bluish lights.

By the time the lights have returned, the eyeliner-wearing boy could see a woman standing in front of him.

This suit-wearing woman didn't even move an inch when faced with the boy's abnormal destructive actions. She calmly looked at him with narrowed eyes and wore a thin smile.

"…!"

Seeing the woman smiling under the emergency lights, the shoulders of the eyeliner boy twitched. He became frozen stiff with an expression of fear as if the woman's smile was an invisible chain.

"—So you have lost your normal thinking ability, Rin. I believe you are under the effect of an enemy's attack."

Showing him her chaining smile, the woman–Miguruma Yaeko–spoke in a calm tone.

People wearing black masks gathered around her.

The boy raised a small shriek inside his mouth. He reflexively controlled his disks and tried to attack Yaeko.

"Ri… [Rin is confused]! [Rin is confused]!"

The black masks promptly defended her. Yet the eyeliner boy's attack was faster than all of them. Slipping between the materializing Mushi, it aimed for Yaeko's brows.

Just before the sharp blades of the disks tore her to shreds…

Crimson flames filled her sight.

A roaring Great Yama tiger beetle evaporated the disks, also swallowing up the Mushi protecting Yaeko as if saying it wasn't enough.

Burning all the disks to a crisp, annihilating all Mushi, the Great Yama tiger beetle burst and disappeared.

Not budging an inch, Yaeko could see the eyeliner boy bending backward.

His eyes that were rapidly losing their light gazed at her. He muttered as if talking in delirium.

"Re… 'Remember this'…"

Leaving that word behind, the boy collapsed on the floor with a thud.

Starting with that boy, the black masks surrounding Yaeko also fell down listlessly.

"Please make a bit of an effort to restrain your power, Harukiyo."

Yaeko's smile was unperturbed in the slightest. Despite the fact she was a single second away from losing her life, she moved not an inch from where she stood at first.

In front of her was a strangely-dressed boy.

The boy's face was fully covered by tape. Sitting on the desk he rested his chin on his knees, smiling. It was a fierce smile that would make anyone feel goosebumps were they not Yaeko.

Irregular Class Rank 1, Harukiyo.

He was one of the Mushitsuki possessing the strongest battle power just like Kakkou or Fuyuhotaru.

"'Remember this'–is what he said. Aren't those words too late?"

"This is probably something like a war declaration from someone. He had apparently just finished his mission, was finished off by some small fry and returned. However—"

Wearing her chaining smile, Yaeko looked down at the collapsed boy.

"I am interested in that ability. If I ever end up meeting with it then I will make use of it."

The black masks that arrived too late stopped as they saw Yaeko and Harukiyo. They stood in place as if fearing these two smiling at each other.

Yaeko looked around the destroyed room.

"Urgently check the security of the bottommost layer, please. Raise the alertness level to the maximum."

Following her orders, the black masks immediately started moving.

"I thought that Kakkou taking independent action was far too convenient. But there is someone who gave him that opportunity. Who on earth was that?"

Yaeko turned her smile toward Harukiyo.

''Kuku'', laughed the boy whose face was covered by tape.

"Leaving you at my side was apparently the right call. Your comrades are probably heading down the lowest layer about now, right? Or perhaps – if things went well, you would have joined forces with Kakkou and tried to defeat the Original Three?"

"What're you talking about?"

Keeping his chin on his knees, Harukiyo raised the edges of his lips.

Yaeko and Harukiyo crossed their gazes.

"What a pity. You still do not know the precise whereabouts of 'that', and Kakkou himself cannot beat Oogui alone."

Harukiyo erased his smile. His searing eyes penetrated Yaeko. She received that gaze which seemed like it would burn her from the front with her chaining smile. 

"All is well. So you intend to keep trying to outsmart me, Harukiyo."

Yaeko walked around the room illuminated by the emergency lighting.

Within the blaring alarms she passed in front of Harukiyo with an air of composure.

"Even when you stubbornly refuse to obey the Special Environmental Preservation Bureau–I will still love you."

The chaining smile stood out in the space illuminated by the emergency lights. 

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