Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 5th Episode 19 (section)

=== Part 3 ===
Accelerating his kick scooter to its limits, Kuuga rushed through the streets.

"Ugh, I shouldn't have said that. I forgot she's my enemy…"

As Kuuga passed near students going back from school, a line of blood ran down his brow. The legs of his shorts were ripped and a small part of the scooter's handlebar had also been cut off.

Seeing the sharp cross-section left on the handle, he felt a chill.

"To think that the West Central Branch's product could be cut so easily…"

Then it would probably also cut through Kuuga's living body like a katana through vegetables. When he imagined his head and torso coming to a tearful farewell, he grew pale.

He took a sharp curve at incredible speed.

"Ugh."

There was a spacious road ahead. There no cars or any pedestrians.

Empty places were dangerous.

But if it was a place one could overlook from—he might be able to obtain a hint to expose the identity of his enemy’s ability.

When he entered the shadow of a three-story building he stopped, looking back and forth the road.

"I should be able to tell if she's approaching right away—"

It happened just as he got ready for the enemy.

"Chop—"

A cheerful girl's voice echoed from above him.

"…!"

By the time he noticed, Kuuga was already on the conehead cricket's jaw—on the guillotine stage.

It wasn't an issue of speed.

He hadn't even noticed when the cricket was approaching.

"Off."

Standing on top of the guillotine, Yuuko laughed while holding her round hat.

Presently the thick blade fell toward Kuuga.

"Waaah!"

Activating the kick scooter, he managed to escape the guillotine by a hair's breadth. His tie was cut off and the analog clock fell to the ground.

"I've been wanting to check something for a while now. Is it true that if I chop off your neck from below, your body liquid would flow backwards and the decapitated head would cry?"

The conehead cricket made no move to chase after Kuuga who was running away in a straight line. Letting its host sit on top of it, it simply watched Kuuga go.

It happened the exact same way so far.

Although it had such long legs, the conehead cricket never moved even a single step toward him. Even so, it would appear without any warning and the guillotine would capture Kuuga.

There was no way to escape like this. On the other hand, if he stayed still, he would become prey for the guillotine anyway.

He looked at his remaining digital watch.

"At this hour there should be—"

Changing his course, he aimed for a street corner a bit removed.

"Like I said, I won't chop you off if you just leave that bag behind."

The moment he entered the shadow of a building that was lengthened by the sun, Kuuga was on the guillotine again.

"If you think you can run away without even summoning your Mushi—"

When Yuuko on top of the guillotine said this, he suddenly raised his face.

There was a high-pitched honking sound.

A road bus was about to crash with the cricket.

"All of the bus schedules of the area are inside my head…!"

"Tch…!"

Apparently she couldn't let a bus crash into her. Yuuko clicked her tongue as her figure vanished along with the cricket's.

The suddenly decelerating bus passed near the released Kuuga.

"I'm sorry!"

Apologizing to the bus, he looked around him.

"It's there—"

The cricket was in the road ahead. It stood inside the shade of a persimmon tree in a garden.

[[File:Mushi_Uta_Bug_5th_p177.jpg|thumb]]

Kuuga looked where he was now and the place the cricket newly appeared.

And searched for their common point.

"…It's the shade!"

Kuuga finally noticed it.

The conehead cricket possessed the ability to move from shadow to shadow—

"Hmph."

While holding down her hat, Yuuko pouted.

As long as he understood the enemy's ability, it wouldn't be impossible to run away. Kuuga changed the route of his kick scooter, accelerating.

From here he should just head directly toward Akamaki City. As long as he passed through places with many people, his pursuer would probably give up. Once he entered the jurisdiction of the Central Headquarters, he could ask for help.

The dusk time street was a treasury of shadows. Any and all covers extended their tongues of shade toward the road.

The edge of the kick scooter touched a building's shadow.

"Chop off."

When his vision became dark, the cricket put Kuuga in its jaw.

"Now!"

But Kuuga had already leapt off of the kick scooter toward the sunny spot.

He heard the sound of the guillotine's blade cutting through air.

"If you just stay still I'll forgive you and take only about one arm."

"I don't want that!"

If he entered any shadow, he would be assaulted by the conehead cricket.

As long as he knew that, he could dodge. Kuuga avoided the shade as much as he could, and whenever he entered a shadow he would step out into the sun.

"Ah… yes!"

He entered a road with the setting sun at his back.

Because of the angle, there weren't any shadows on the road.

"…"

Inside the last shadow, Yuuko stood motionless along with the cricket. Without seeming pained in the least, she looked at Kuuga from beneath her hat.

Not much after his worry about a sudden attack was lifted, he accelerated his scooter.

"Wow, that was close. It sometimes hurts that despite all these good functions the battery life is so short."

The relief at having escaped the assassin brought back his smile.

There was still some distance to Akamaki City, but once he finished this road he would finally attain some peace of mind.

Of course, there was a reason for that, but only Kuuga knew it.

“If I properly deliver this, will Ichinokuro Arisu-san be glad?”

As Kuuga mumbled and smiled to himself, he felt something cold on his cheek.

Wind blew.

It was simply a gust of wind created from passing between two tall buildings—

"Who cares about that?"

Kuuga's smile froze.

He hadn't entered any shade.

He was running in the sunlight all along.

Even so, he heard the familiar girl's voice from overhead.

The large conehead cricket—caught Kuuga's head in the guillotine.

"No—way—"

Yuuko's eyes glared down the frozen Kuuga while holding down her round hat.

The girl's mouth wore a cruel smile.

"—Chop off."

The fact he was able to move his body was nothing short of a miracle.

Abandoning the kick scooter that lost its acceleration, he leapt out of the guillotine reflexively.

"Ngah!"

But he wasn't able to fully avoid that thick blade.

A deep laceration was engraved on his body from shoulder to elbow. It had avoided his vitals because he'd unconsciously shielded his luggage.

A stain of blood burst around Kuuga who was thrown to the ground. Abnormally sharp pain reached even the nerves of the wound. Perhaps a tendon was also severed.

"Uh… Gah…!"

The girl riding the guillotine looked down at Kuuga writhing on the asphalt.

"Everyone always thinks it's an ability used to move from shadow to shadow."

Raising both hands, Yuuko cut the air with her fingers.

"A normal grasshopper can leap several times its height… so my Mushi can also leap to high places. However, the position it can leap beyond isn't determined by physical height—but by the difference between high and low temperature."

Leaping to places with high air temperature—meaning, leaping through the wall of temperature.

That was Yuuko's Mushi's real ability—

"The wind now made the temperature around just slightly lower. If places lit by the sun create a high wall, then in the shadow, where temperature is lower—"

Yuuko stopped in the middle of speaking.

"…What're you doing?"

"Nnngh…!"

Kuuga wasn't listening to the girl. He wrapped the remainder of his tie around his wounded left shoulder and grasped the end using his right hand and mouth.

"Nnnnngh!"

While enduring sharp pain that seemed to stab directly through his head, he used his mouth and right arm to fasten the tie.

"Bhah! Hah!"

Having stopped his bleeding, Kuuga tried crawling out of this wind passage.

He hadn't the time to smile at all. He was tottering due to the blood loss, but still managed to somehow get up. —The kick scooter already received the blow instead of Kuuga and so was cut in half.

"You're a sore loser."

Yuuko grimaced, leaping down from the guillotine. She was walking after Kuuga who left a trail of blood as he advanced in the road.

His vision blurred by a sudden jerk.

The girl grabbed the bag on his back.

Kuuga turned around, trying to shake off Yuuko using his right arm.

"…It hurts."

Holding her struck arm, the girl pouted.

"Haa… Haa…"

While putting a hand on the wall to support himself, Kuuga advanced slowly in the alley.

Just a little bit more.

"That place" that only he was able to see was just a step ahead.

"You’ll never be able to run away already. Once the sun sets you'll have nowhere to run to."

Then she had the confidence she could defeat the wounded Kuuga at any time? Yuuko walked from behind, matching herself to his staggering pace.

"After being heated by the sun during the entire day, asphalt will quickly cool down and emit heat once the sun sets. That situation creates a wall of temperature difference all over the place. The moment the suns sinks, there's no place my Mushi can't jump to."

On the other side of the residential street, the red setting sun was still sinking.

Even so Kuuga didn't stop.

"Hey, can I ask you a simple question?"

Yuuko inquired.

"Which is more important, your package or your life? You probably don't even know what it is, right?"

"…I do."

"Really?"

"It's a final weapon meant to save the world—"

"That's just your delusion."

Yuuko directly denied Kuuga's words.

"Or actually… maybe I shouldn't deliver it? Aki said some troubling things. He said that it might make a lot of people unhappy or something like that."

"…Perhaps."

His face streaked with greasy sweat, he smiled wryly.

"But that's an undeniable 'connection'. I just need to connect it…"

"I still don't really get you."

"It's a simple mission. Just delivering a package I've been given to a certain address…"

Just like yesterday, he was going to fulfill this easy mission today as well. It was simply the delivery of a package.

An obvious job that anyone could fulfill.

Because of that—

"Delivering it is obvious. That's why I have to…"

"Delivering it won't get you anything, though."

"No, I will gain something…"

"Something like a sense of accomplishment, right? So boring."

"I wanted it for so long… if I complete this mission, I'll be able to have it…"

Seeing Kuuga muttering with hollow eyes, Yuuko scowled.

"It's useless. You're not going to deliver this package, so you'll not get whatever it is you want."

Kuuga moved further and further ahead with unreliable steps.

"The sun sets soon. If you won't surrender during this countdown, I'll chop off both you and that package. Ten, nine…"

The girl's voice counting down echoed in the road lit by the sinking sun.

Kuuga raised his head with a twitch.

Looking at the rapidly darkening sky, he mumbled absently.

"…It's connected."

Yuuko raised an eyebrow.

"You finally accepted it? But it's a bit too late. Three, two, one…"

Kuuga widened both eyes. He pulled out the board from his back with nimble movements.

And the sun—sank.

"Zero!"

As the girl shouted this, the giant conehead cricket appeared there.

At almost the same time—

"Now then…"

A resin bee appeared from overhead.

Its small body glowed.

Kuuga opened the folded wooden board and threw it ahead with all of his strength.

Immediately following this, a wave of light surged around.

With the bee that landed on his shoulder at the center, an explosive locus of light was produced.

"Wha—"

Yuuko gazed up the sky in shock.

High above a line of light came out of nowhere, stretching out to the surface.

Kuuga jumped, riding on the wooden board being pushed by the whirlpool of light.

Created out of a light alloy, the board was like a miniature surfing board. It was created just for him, and Kuuga called it an "airboard".

"…Let's go!"

Raising his voice to his Mushi, Kuuga kicked the wave of light.

"I won't let you escape!"

The conehead cricket leaping past the wall of temperature difference captured Kuuga on the airboard.

However, by kicking up the waves of light, Kuuga performed a backflip and escaped higher.

Now jumping onto a different midair line, he bent his body and leapt to yet another line.

"Chop off!"

Now that the sun had set, she could use her ability to its fullest—the girl's words appeared to be no lie. The grasshopper was stubbornly chasing Kuuga even as he flew through the air.

However, Kuuga held the board down with his right arm and performed a sideways rotation, at times spinning around and kicking lines, dodging the fierce attacks.

"Chop! Chop!"

—It wasn't that Kuuga had hidden his Mushi.

Ever since being chased by Yuuko he let it drift in the upper air. The resin bee zigzagging around had continuously left lines of light in the sky.

Those lines haven't disappeared. Once it passed there, the lines would remain indefinitely.

Kuuga's ability was to glide along these lines.

Why hadn't he used that ability thus far?

Because the road he'd taken thus far was one that Kuuga went through for the first time.

At the end of that single road was a large line that Kuuga had left in the past, connecting from a different town to Akamaki City. These could be called Kuuga's special highway that allowed him to travel from any city to any city.

Normally there wasn't any need to use these lines.

Because his ability was always conspicuous and he had a memory equivalent to a car navigation system—he knew the schedules of all public transport around the country by heart—using normal vehicles was enough.

"Chop! Chop!"

Kuuga riding up the night sky and Yuuko chasing after him. The pair's attack and defense continued so high up that the buildings around looked like rice grains.

"Ugh—"

It happened when he decided to perform a high jump. Perhaps as a result of losing too much blood, he felt dizzy and his pose was thrown off-balance.

"Chop!"

Yuuko didn't miss the opening created by this. The cricket's guillotine captured him.

The blade trying to slice off Kuuga and the airboard kicking up the lines of light crossed each other.

"Augh…!"

The one to raise a scream was Yuuko.

Evading the blade by a hair's breadth, the airboard made a cut on the cricket's triangular head.

"Why you…! Snip!"

Yuuko glared with rage at Kuuga as he rose again.

But the cricket didn't move.

"Cho—"

She was out of time.

The time for her Mushi to bring its ability to the fullest probably passed. Yuuko biting her lips in regret was left behind.

"I'll never… let you get away…!"

Leaving behind the girl spitting these words, Kuuga leapt further into the sky.

Soon he reached a thick line of light.

That line connected to Akamaki City.

"Hah… hah… I can finally reach Akamaki…"

As he smiled with a pale face, Kuuga's knees buckled. Since he moved too much while having lost vast amounts of blood, he knew that he was about to go into shock.

"This package… Ichinokuro Arisu-san…"

The mumbling Kuuga's pupils were losing their light.

He was still conscious.

However—his body was stopping moving.

"I have… to deliver… this—"

The boy gliding through the upper air tilted.

Kuuga was slowly collapsing.

The airboard riding on the lines of light—

The airboard carrying a single deliveryman—

Sliding through the silent air, it was being led toward the lights of the capital visible from afar.