Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 6th Episode 21 (section)

=== Part 3 ===

Being led through the corridor, the girl who seemed to be the library’s staff mumbled to herself.

“So many cute girls around me… Nihi.”

For some reason a chill ran through Arisu’s back. Perhaps the AC was too effective.

“Umm… are you employed here?”

“You can just call me the Librarian. Well, I’m doing this part-time, though.”

Turning back, the Librarian spoke calmly.

“…Haa.”

As Arisu turned to look at the others, Kasuou and the rest began gesturing with their mouth and hands. Trying to decipher them, they were apparently frantically trying to convey: “She’s definitely not normal,” “She doesn’t look like a librarian…” “I feel sick.”

She felt pretty much the same. They only just met, but the girl who introduced herself as the Librarian produced a peculiar atmosphere.

“If they were pretty boys… then it’d be a staple to make the leader and the blond one a couple, nihi.”

“…”

The place they were taken to by the girl who kept mumbling was a block without any nameplate at all.

Opening the door, they stepped inside.

It was a very large archive. Just like the name indicated, as if it was a warehouse of books, the orderly shelves were arranged in countless collections.

Arisu now realized why she felt so discomforted.

These thousands upon thousands of books all had the exact same binding. Books of the exact same color, size and shape were all lined here—

After manipulating some sort of device near the entrance, the Librarian handed the card that came out of it to Arisu.

“These are the numbers and titles of the publications from your inquiry. The shelves also have these numbers, but if there’s something you need help with, please call me.”

When passing the card, Arisu’s fingertips brushed against the Librarian’s.

“…Nihi.”

Was there anything as disgusting as that beauty’s broken smile? Leaving behind Arisu feeling extremely chilly, the Librarian turned toward the reception desk and sat on a chair.

Arisu and the rest instantly formed a ring.

“L-let’s open the 2nd Arisu Conference! W-what’s up with her? Is she Harukiyo’s comrade? Right, that’s why she’s so creepy!”

[[File:Mushi_Uta_Bug_6th_p041.jpg|thumb]]

“We have two choices. Searching this archive or questioning her… what’s up with this title? ‘Harukiyo in the Nick of Time’, this is definitely a joke, right? It makes me want to find it and tear it.”

“If you’re gonna question her, you do it. I don’t wanna talk at all. I definitely ain’t interacting with her at all.”

“She’s talking about something to herself again…”

When Arisu and the rest glanced toward the desk, the Librarian seemed to be scribbling something. While writing, she mumbled to herself.

“The child’s either the character that makes you want to protect her or the coquettish one. …Shuddup, don’t interrupt me, I’m finally writing my masterpiece. …Ha? Why’d you have to meddle even in my hobby—yup, I’m definitely using that part. Eh? I don’t want to, I’m only a supervisor. A guard? What are you talking about, shut up for a bit. Don’t push me, I’ll crush you with my foot.”

She kept mumbling at length.

“Why has it turned out like that? I’m an indoor type and bad with fighting, I want to be a shut-in. …Nihi. —Wait, you have to tell me the rest of that story. What? I obviously know. Because what if they’re saying it? Because I don’t want to?”

At that point she finally noticed the gazes from Arisu’s group. She gasped and returned being expressionless.

“Oh, do you need the stepladder?”

“…”

“We have a wheeled one there, so please try it. Don’t forget to lock it while you climb…”

She gave this explanation calmly and businesslike as if nothing happened.

If possible, Arisu didn’t want to dig any deeper than that, but she just had to ask.

“Do you… know Harukiyo?”

The Librarian blatantly scowled.

“Are you possibly… Harukiyo’s comrade?”

Although she was puzzled at being shown an unpleasant expression far beyond what she imagined, Arisu asked again.

The bespectacled girl made a big, big sigh. “…I know,” she mumbled to someone, staying calm as she raised her face.

“Who would be that pervert’s—ouch. …Yes, I am certainly acquainted with him.”

Although she acted quite suspiciously, it was a surprise she was so frank about it.

Even so, they knew that Harukiyo’s comrades would be inside the library. Arisu and the rest were cautious against the bespectacled girl.

“We’ve heard that this is the base of Harukiyo’s comrades, but is that true?”

“Well… right. If you’re talking about the network that a few Mushitsuki including Harukiyo are using, then it is supplied here. However, since I have only dabbled in knowledge about digital systems—apparently the SEPB has already found us.”

As she glanced at Erii, the Librarian laughed with a ''Nihi''. Erii’s shoulders twitched.

She apparently already knew that Erii was an SEPB member.

However, she made no move.

Having their questions answered so readily was convenient, but at the same time ominous.

“However, it would be really great if you abstain from using that designation of ‘Harukiyo’s comrades’.”

“…?”

“I’ll give you an example that’s easy to understand. The SEPB found a strong Mushitsuki. So powerful that they have no need to gather allies or hide. So the SEPB said, ‘you’re Harukiyo’s comrade, then’. And the Mushitsuki thought, ‘who’s Harukiyo? I’ll try looking for him’—several Mushitsuki in my network are like that.”

Suddenly hearing this tale, Arisu raised an eyebrow.

“We are simply using one another for our own goals, boasting about our own interests, and playing with each other. Simply, the one who’s the strongest and stands out the most is Harukiyo.”

''Nihi'', laughed the Librarian.

“’Harukiyo’s comrades’—do not forget that if anyone created the gathering of Mushitsuki called like that, it is only because the SEPB believes it to be so.”

“So you’re not actually Harukiyo’s comrades…?”

“We can be, depending on the time and place. —Incidentally, in exchange for me supplying this network, I receive information about happenings that weren’t exposed yet or possibly in the process of being deleted. You could say that I protect and manage the so-called ‘informational endangered species’.”

Saying this, the Librarian looked around the dreary shelves.

“Books are nice. Their feel, their smell, and above all the emotions they contain. If I manage them properly, nothing is ever lost or stolen. Please read books. You may peruse them at your pleasure. Yes, especially children like you.”

Being glanced at again, Erii turned sullen. Perhaps annoyed by being treated like a child, she spoke back.

“This is the digital age. As long as we have digital information, there’s no need for any analog mediums.”

“Nihi. …I have no intention to turn this to a competition. It is simply that digital information is too pure. Since it lacks feelings, making errors is easy. —Do not forget that those of us who govern over information are always challenged by those. If you read anything wrong… it all becomes distorted.”

“…”

“Even if you don’t understand this now, maybe in one or two years… you will notice it one day. It’s a waste for pretty girls to be corrupted, nihi.”

Wearing a creepy smile, the Librarian put on white gloves. She closed the notebook she was writing something in, mumbled ''well then'' and raised up a book.

“You’re the SEPB’s underlings and I’m ‘Harukiyo’s comrade’. —Oh no, you’re going to capture me, I’m so scared!”

“Eh?”

The Librarian suddenly began speaking in monotone as if quoting something.

“Nooo, I have nowhere to run to. —Where shall I go next? Perhaps a secondhand bookshop? Or thinking about it differently, maybe a large bookstore would be good—oh no, but before all that, I have to defeat the enemy right before my eyes.”

“W-wait a minute…! We don’t want to fi—“

“But fighting all of you at the same time would be too bothersome. Right, then I shall slaughter you one by one.”

The Librarian said this casually and opened the book in her hands.

“…!”

Then, the line of shelves nearby began moving extremely fast as if slipping on the floor.

As Arisu turned around in surprise, even Kasuou and the rest were moving away in incredible speed. They reached out toward Arisu while shouting something, but soon she could no longer hear them.

It wasn’t only the shelves. Even the machine the Librarian took a card out of and the reception desk were slipping away.

“Eh—“

The wall vanished, the ceiling vanished, even the floor vanished. Her footing uncertain, Arisu was assaulted by a sharp sense of falling.

“Eek—”

Something bumped against her head as she started raising a shriek. She reflexively raised her head, seeing that countless books were falling from above. Old books were dropping like a rain or hail.

A quantity of books enough to fully cover her vision went past the falling Arisu, piling under her feet—

“Welcome to my Library Room.”

When she came back to, Arisu was standing on a carpet made of books.

Kasuou and the rest who were supposed to be right next her were already gone without a trace. On the sea of books there was only Arisu—as well as the Librarian.

“Is this your first time in an expanded domain? Well, if we leave aside one of the Original Three, Shinpu, not many can do this.”

Pulling it out from somewhere, the Librarian was holding a wooden chair.

“Well, I believe that I’m so-so, but apparently there’s also a monster who can use an entire building as his domain even without any medium, you know? It really looks like you’re not used to fighting powerful Mushitsuki.”

The Librarian spoke as if they were simply discussing the weather. Putting her chair on the sea of books, she sat down.

“Now then—”

Elegantly opening the book on her lap, she brought out a feathered pen.

“Let us do battle. Don’t let your attention wander or you’ll die.”

The pen started dancing inside the book.

The next moment—there was a noise and tremor.

Looking toward that noise, Arisu widened her eyes.

Although it was supposed to be a sea of books, for some reason it became a large quantity of water and waves, pursuing her.

The tsunami wave pressed closer to Arisu.

“Wha—”

Something hit the frozen Arisu on the head.

It was the silver Morpho butterfly. Letting out a blinding light, it was restlessly dancing overhead.

Arisu gasped and brought out her silver rod.

“I see, so that’s… the weapon created by the tool maker that Robber had been stalking, right?”

She didn’t have the leisure to listen to the Librarian’s mumbles.

The Morpho butterfly landed on the rod that became many times longer while in her hand.

The butterfly’s body explosively transformed into tentacles that stabbed into the rod as it fused with it. The delicate pattern etched onto the surface glowed and the entire rod emitted phosphorescence.

“Why you…!”

Feeling impatient at the silver spear not forming fast enough, she swung the rod toward the incoming wave.

A moment of silence.

And—scales glowing in silver blew a storm.

The colossal wave was torn into half, passing on both sides of Arisu loudly.

“Listen to me! I don’t want to fight you! I just want to find out where Harukiyo is—”

With water dripping from her hair, Arisu turned to face the Librarian.

However, staring back at her was a revolver handgun emitting a cold light.

“’Then, while I felt the revolver’s hard sensation in my hand, I pulled the trigger’.”

As the Librarian mumbled to herself and let the pen run on the page, in her other hand she held a gun.

Gunfire echoed.

The Morpho butterfly’s spear spouted silver scales. The wall of scales repelled the bullet before Arisu was hit.

“’The revolver did not work. I switched to a machinegun’.”

The gun vanished from the bespectacled girl’s hands, and instead she now had a machinegun.

“I’m telling you to listen to me!”

Shouting this, Arisu swung the spear toward the Librarian’s legs.

“’The spear-user’s attack avoided me’.”

The storm of scales changed directions before reaching the Librarian, stabbing into the wrong direction. The books piled at their feet were blown away and paper scraps spread around.

As if in revenge, machinegun bullets came raining down on Arisu. The silver scales repelled each and every single one of those.

“Since we’re surrounded by so much of my Mushi’s medium—books—I can create this isolated space, but… whatever I write in here becomes reality. However, I can’t directly affect my opponent’s state. To put it bluntly, this is a battle of speed between my shorthand writing and your attacks.”

While shooting bullets, the Librarian spoke in a businesslike tone.

“If you are able to attack me or the book I’m holding, you will win.”

“Stop it already! How many times do I have to tell you that I don’t—”

“You don’t. But I do. I believe that is all that matters. Have you never fought against someone you can’t speak with?”

The Librarian tilted her head, puzzled.

“Or did you perhaps think that you could talk it out with any opponent? How strange, after all you’re looking for Harukiyo… and he’s a guy that cannot be reasoned with, much more than me.”

“…!”

Seeing Arisu clench her jaw, the girl sitting in the chair laughed with a ''Nihi''.

“Or perhaps I should make the following promise. —If you beat me, I’ll tell you where Harukiyo is.”

“…Got it.”

“Nihi. Nihi. —Those pure enough to believe what their enemy tells them are the best. So now I’ll really keep my promise.”

“…”

“To be honest, I’m bad at fighting. —Because once I start writing I can’t stop. Please do your best to not die.”

“Fine. I’ll… do it…”

It happened as she resolved herself and tried rushing at the Librarian.

Feeling something at her back, she turned.

Appearing there was a monster with a body several times larger than Arisu. Its green body sprouted two abnormally long arms, there was a horn on its head and its mouth was lined with sinister-looking fangs.

“Writing imaginary beings takes some time… but it helped me that I could buy that time while we were talking. Yup, not bad at all. How should I make the second one?”

She barely dodged the monster’s swung fist by leaping to the side. The impact of hitting the floor caused many books to leap to the air.

“W-what’s up with this…!”

Even while being shaken, she managed to land safely.

She would have never expected that she’d end up fighting a real monster at any point in her life.

Dodging the monster’s repeated attacks, she managed a counterattack with her spear and sliced off one of its arms.

However, meanwhile another strange-looking monster was born.

By the time she bisected the one-armed monster, yet another one was birthed.

By the time she defeated one, two monsters were created—while continuing this cycle, it started taking everything she had just to dodge attacks. If it kept like this then the number of monsters would only keep growing and growing.

It would never end.

No. Inevitably at some point Arisu wouldn’t be able to fully dodge the monster’s attack.

The swarm of monsters assaulted her.

“…!”

There was a voice in her mind.

''—Arisu…

The familiar voice of her dead friend.

Every time Arisu was in danger, Mari’s consciousness would take over her ego.

If she switched with Mari, she’d probably be able to handily defeat this opponent. Just like Daisuke, also a Fusion-Type Mushitsuki, she could beat down any enemy and win with overwhelming power.

However, even so, Arisu grinded her teeth.

She put strength into her grip on the spear.

“Take… this!”

The spear swung up from a low position spouted more scales. The whirling attack swallowed three monsters at once.

While breathing heavily, Arisu shook off her feelings of trying to rely on Mari.

It was just like the Librarian said.

For those she would stand against from now on, like Harukiyo, the Original Three, and perhaps even the SEPB, she needed strength rather than reason.

Mari wasn’t the one who sought them and their cooperation.

It was none other than Arisu herself who had to become powerful.

“Nihi.”

She started running toward the distant laughing Librarian.

Mowing down the pursuing monsters, dodging attacks, sliding on the books at her feet to slip between their legs, she made her mad dash toward the Librarian.

However, when she got near her, several monsters stood in her way. She couldn’t find any route to slip through them.

She knew to a painful extent that this was her current limit.

And so—she needed to burrow power from the Morpho butterfly.

“Lend me power…! Just like that strange power from before!”

While running, she called to the spear in her hands.

But the silver spear was silent.

The enemies also kicked the ground, aiming for her.

“Please—”

Arisu glared at the spear.

Powerfully.

And above all else, preserving her heart.

“—Lend me power.”

Opening her eyes wide, she spoke toward the spear.

The Morpho butterfly’s response came in silence.

The entire rod was wrapped with gentle light.

It couldn’t be seen without straining one’s eyes, but an extremely faint light ran through the pattern etched on the surface.

[[File:Mushi_Uta_Bug_6th_p055.jpg|thumb]]

The same thing happened when she’d used this weapon for the first time.

Brighter scales were leaking from the glowing rod. Rather than being spouted, they spread over the surface as if permeating the surroundings—

“Nihi. This next one is a big one. I’ve written my masterpiece.”

Unheeding the scales filling the Librarian Room, the bespectacled girl smiled.

Silence.

Nothing appeared.

“…Nihi?”

The Librarian, finally noticing the abnormality, raised her face from the book. Seeing the spectacle in front of her, she turned speechless.

Covered by scales, the monsters did not move a single muscle as if they were petrified.

Slipping between the monsters that were now only glorified statues, Arisu headed directly toward the Librarian.

For the first time she seemed to be shaken.

“No way… Have you overwritten my domain? No, if you did that then the Librarian’s Room would be gone as well. You haven’t attacked my Mushi. The ability’s been sealed… no! If it’d been sealed then, like I said, the Librarian’s Room would be gone… So it’s time for me to become serious!”

She began vigorously running her feathered pen on the book’s page.

“My ability won’t activate… this is… ''the Mushi is sleeping?''”

It was the Morpho butterfly’s new ability—no, was it its original ability, actually?

Even without knowing the truth, Arisu managed to corner the enemy in front of her.

She thrust the tip of the spear against the astonished Librarian’s forehead.

“Hah… hah… I win? Right?”

The Librarian raised her head—suddenly checking the watch on her hand.

“Yup, that’s enough.”

“…?”

“I surrender. As expected from a Fusion-Type Mushitsuki. Someone like me wasn’t a match to you at all.”

An exceedingly honest declaration of lost. The bespectacled girl raised both hands, said “You win!” in English and laughed.

“So, will you lower that spear? If you keep it up… It’s a bit strange—but I can’t even cancel my own ability.”

“…”

Arisu wordlessly lowered her spear. Probably understanding its master’s will, the Morpho butterfly split from the spear, returned being a butterfly and danced above her head.

“Nihi. You’re so pure, doing what your enemy tells you to.”

“Even if we do this again I would win, after all.”

“True. That’s the spirit.”

What did she mean by that? The girl laughed a ''nihi'' again, and the moment after it the books at their feet began flying away like a film being rolled back.

“…!”

As the books filling her vision vanished, the familiar shelves and reception desk appeared. As if putting together a puzzle, the former library quickly returned to itself.

And—

“Ah, you! Arisu!”

Kasuou, who’d apparently been for some inexplicable reason searching inside a garbage can, turned around. Perhaps hearing her voice, Neiko and Erii also appeared from within the shelves and corridors.

“Arisu-chan…”

“Where have you gone to, Arisu-san?”

Apparently everyone had been looking for her. The girls now looked relieved.

“We’ve come to an agreement. She’s going to tell me where Harukiyo is.”

Returning the rod to its original length, Arisu grinned.

“Right, Librarian-san?”

“So you’re just going to call that an agreement? Nihi. Yes, I will tell you. That was my promise.”

Returning to the reception desk, the Librarian pointed at her feet.

“He was ‘here’.”

She spoke plainly and with a calm tone.

“”Huh?””

Arisu and the rest’s voices overlapped.

The Librarian kept talking without a hint of shame.

“He was here. Until just now. Moments ago, in fact. Sitting here while hugging his knees.”

For a moment Arisu was confused—

“…!”

Practically jumping toward it, she peeked over the other side of the desk. Now she got it; there was a space where one person could hide inside easily. But now it was empty.

The Librarian dabbed at her eyes. Since she did it over her glasses, there were no tears.

“I apologize. To be honest, he’d threatened to kill me unless I buy him enough time to escape. That devil’s scary enough to appear under that word in a dictionary. I was really, really scared.”

There was no way that was true. Anyway, Arisu now suddenly realized that the Librarian’s strange way of talking at first was her conversing with Harukiyo, so that kind of pleasant chat was no threat at all.

“…!”

As Arisu turned to look at Kasuou, Neiko and Erii, the three all awkwardly averted their eyes.

“Sorry. I only searched trash cans and vases and stuff.”

“I wondered if you were there in the darkness… so I only looked there…”

“I focused my searches on the manga corner outside…”

“It’s quite shocking how obvious it is that you had no motivation and only took a break or looked around! Why haven’t you seriously been looking for me! Because of you Harukiyo ran away! —No, but more importantly.”

Turning back toward the Librarian, she asked her.

“Why was that guy here!”

“Sometimes he appears here even when he doesn’t have any business, but this time it was a bit different.”

Stopping her pretend crying, the Librarian spoke.

“He wanted to try investigating the Original Three. And he was being serious, for a change.”

“…!”

“He also looked for other materials related to past Mushitsuki, but… in the end, he was simply angry and shouted ‘all of these fuckers are lying to me!’ and started throwing books around violently, so I slapped him twice or thrice.”

“Harukiyo’s also looking for Sanbikime…?”

Harukiyo was the one who turned finding out Mari into a competition.

Since he himself knew about the possessor of one of the clues, Sanbikime, why had he—

Arisu had her doubts, but also anger.

“Even if that’s the case… why’d he run away from us! He always appeared whenever he wasn’t even called!”

“’As if I’d meet someone stupid enough to tell things to their enemy’, is what he said, obviously trying to act cool. While he was hugging his knees.”

“That man… He’s trying to meet Sanbikime by himself again and ask about Mari!”

“That is—probably not possible.”

Arisu’s words were easily rejected by the Librarian. “However, I can’t meddle in this,” she added.

“Sensei’s gone—”

Arisu widened her eyes.

“That was what he said. —He’d been looking for Oogui, as well as—another special type of Mushitsuki. Something like ‘Undying’…”

“What… does that mean?”

“Since I’m also gathering information about the Original Three, I’ve been asking Harukiyo for details about Sanbikime, but he’d always stay silent. So, if you promise me you’d ask him about even the slightest bit of information pertaining to Sanbikime…”

Seeing Arisu and the rest sink into silence, the Librarian spoke.

“I’ll look into where he is through ‘Harukiyo’s comrades’ and get in contact with you.”

The thread she’d grabbed looked likely to tear at any moment—

A mere step before despair.

As Arisu and the rest wordlessly looked at her.

“Nihi.”

The bespectacled girl wore a creepy smile.