Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 7th Episode 26 (section)

=== Part 4 ===

“Oh, you survived. So boring.”

As they came back to the limousine, Akasegawa Nanana greeted them with a sigh.

Arisu was grinning and reaching her hand toward Nanana.

“You looking so disappointed is just my imagination, right? Since it’s definitely my imagination, I’ll make you smile, smile!”

“W-what’re you doing! I’m your employer! Hey!”

The two girls pinched each other’s cheeks on the seats. The impatient Daisuke was stripping off his equipment and stuffing it all haphazardly inside his bag.

The Mushitsuki girl occupying the facility had been taken by an SEPB member that Daisuke contacted. She would become a member and be forced into fighting again.

“Hah, hah… if only you’d died, I might have become a Mushitsuki…”

“Hah, hah… what do you mean by that?”

As the two opponents took their distance and looked at each other, Nanana narrowed one eye.

“I investigated this. That Mushi—had originally possessed a different person.”

“…!”

“So if you’d died, maybe that Mushi would’ve become mine.”

“What—was that?”

Knowing of Akasegawa Nanana’s scheme, she became speechless.

Nanana’s real aim was neither the facility’s release nor the expulsion of the Mushi. She brought Arisu into danger as an attempt to snatch her Morpho butterfly—

“So that was what you aimed for from the beginning?!”

“I’m so disappointed you survived. It won’t work unless you’re dead.”

“Why you…!”

“—Never mind all that talk about disappointment or dying or whatever.”

Having stripped his equipment and appearing in uniform again, Daisuke stopped Arisu from leaping on Nanana.

“We’ve done what you’ve asked us to do. You will honor your promise, right?”

“You’ve done what I asked—you say?”

Nanana pouted in anger.

“Are you idiots?! I told you to keep damage to a maximum of 20%! —The entire floor has been demolished, so you’ve got some nerve saying that! And it’s not just the building, about a third of the entire facility was blown to smithereens! And the forest nearby was fully scorched, ful-ly scorched! Look outside the window! Yahahah, the western sky is completely red! We need all the firemen of Kurobishi Town!”

“Ugh,” groaned Arisu.

According to what she heard later, Rina’s and Daisuke’s battle destroyed half of the department that the Mushitsuki girl had occupied. Even the remaining parts were destroyed splendidly by Rina when she’d rushed through to escape.

Then Aki’s attacks turned the premises into a terrible state, and the explosions in the forest nearly caused a mountain fire.

“—If you try to get involved with the Morpho butterfly, next time it won’t end just with that.”

Daisuke, however, was not ashamed in the least.

“And even if you don’t get involved, as long as you don’t talk about Ena, we’ll come to meet you again.”

“…So you’re threatening me, this time?”

Nanana grimaced, drinking her cup of wine in a single gulp with excessive anger.

“Hadn’t you called Ena poor? What on earth did that mean? Tell us, now.”

As Arisu leaned at her, Nanana looked to be thinking. Pouring wine in her glass, she played with the rippling red water surface, displeased.

“…Right, oh well. Since the fish didn’t take the bait, I was about to give up anyway. Maybe it’s fine to try shaking my bait a little—”

“Bait? Fish?”

Glancing at Arisu who furrowed her brows, Nanana grinned.

“Saionji Ena. Looks like that girl is being targeted.”

Arisu and Daisuke gasped.

“Who’s targeting Ena…?”

“Who knows?”

“Hey. After toying with us so much you say you don’t know?”

“Yes, I don’t know. Most likely, no one knows their identity. Because no one can tell when and where this person appears…”

“…?”

“My hired investigator confirmed one time that someone suspicious was watching Saionji Ena. The figure’s characteristics were the following: a tall woman—”

''Twitch.

Daisuke’s expression froze probably because he was blessed with intuition.

“Wearing a crimson-colored long coat—”

A tall woman.

A red coat.

Hearing just this, Arisu still had no clue. However—

“Wearing round sunglasses—”

Round sunglasses.

Hearing those features, Arisu’s head blanked out.

But that name didn’t readily rise to her mind. Perhaps her emotions rejected her understanding.

“With rainbow-colored pupils—”

She could hear the beats of her own heart. A fierce palpitation struck the inside of Arisu’s chest.

Her throat became dry and, feeling something like dizziness, she put her hand to the window to support her weight.

“—Also, while we’re at it.”

Nanana looked at the paralyzed Arisu and Daisuke, seeming amused. Her smile with one eye narrowed stabbed into Arisu’s heart.

“Ena sounded like she was having so much fun. Ever since a certain boy became her classmate, every day was fun. Along with her two best friends, she wanted to keep playing forever. —Oh, have you done that conversation before?”

“Is this—”

Daisuke wrung out a hoarse voice.

''No, Daisuke—

''You can’t say that.

Although Arisu wanted to say this, her mouth was unmoving.

“Is this my fault…?”

“Yahah.”

Looking at the astonished Arisu and Daisuke, the rich girl narrowed one eye.

“Saionji Ena. —She’s caught Oogui’s eye.”

Akasegawa Nanana’s short declaration overlapped with the distant siren of a firetruck.


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