Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 7th Episode 28 (section)

=== Part 4 ===

It is time to speak of a certain tragedy and the devil of flames.

This island was surrounded by a pretty sea, covered in green and had a pleasant wind.

Aoharima Island was beautiful.

Even so—

“What on earth is going on! What’s happening?!”

He rushed through the sea of flames.

Until just now, he was supposed to have been at Aoharima Island.

However, what he could see right now—was nothing but hell.

“Is this reality…?! Hey, Aria! Am I going insane?!”

He could hear a huge explosion from somewhere again.

The residential houses facing the sea built on slanted ground scattered, their fragments flying in air. Even the harbor viewed from afar raised a huge pillar of flames. All the warehouses used for the market were burning.

The island residents that finally got used to him became silent figures in the flames.

Flames, flames, and flames.

Everything was being swallowed by the bright red hellfire—

There was no way this scene belonged to real life.

“Why’s the island being attacked? Why…”

A missile pierced nearby. Flames filled his sight again and the steel column several meters long was aiming for him.

However, his glowing blue hair body slipped through it. Not even the flames could press against him.

If he was a normal person, he would have already died five or six times.

He couldn’t think of any way the completely normal residents of the island would survive this scorching hell—

“Ah… Aaaah…”

He fell to his knees. He simply couldn’t accept the hideous thing happening in front of him.

“It’s burning… stop… don’t burn… why…”

He reached out and another explosion occurred there.

What had they done?

The people of Aoharima Island just lived there, scraping along. They lived peacefully.

Even so, why—

Why were they being taken when they were sinless—

“Hey! Look over there!”

His partner’s voice made him raise his face.

He couldn’t see the sky anymore.

He could only see black smoke.

For just an instant, a hole opened in the curtain of explosive wind.

On top of that hill that could overlook the entire island—was a thin figure.

“That—woman—”

Aria Varei inside him was scared.

He couldn’t see the woman he was told about. It was too far and his vision was blurry with tears, so he couldn’t really tell.

“Damn it! She’s back, then! So that man also—shit! Why would she come back now?! She’s—she’s the one behind this, then?!”

“That… woman…?”

“She’s Miguruma Yaeko!”

It sounded like a familiar name. He was pretty sure he heard that name in Aria’s past story—

“Wasn’t she one of those you told me about? The first Hun—”

His vague mumble was drowned by an explosion.

“She knows my—Aria Varei’s identity! No, she probably doesn’t know it in full, but… damn! Dammit! So she came here after us?! To kill me! Why now…?!”

“She came… after us?”

“But how can that woman do this… there’s no way, that man—the Undying Mushitsuki being at Akamaki was also because of that? They’re in that organization—”

He didn’t care at all about what Aria Varei was mumbling.

“Is this… our… fault?”

His face distorted more and more.

“Because we’ve run away to this place—it’s now—”

This was no good.

He couldn’t bear this sin.

This enormous sin of causing one island to burn down to a crisp and taking the lives of the many residents there was enough to shatter his sanity.

Someone came from the sky and landed on the hill on the other side of the smoke.

That silhouette with black wings—

“Ubuki—”

On top of the hill, he could see Ubuki getting caught by Miguruma Yaeko.

“STOOOOOOOOOP!”

He rushed toward the distant hill.

“I’m right here!”

“Idiot, don’t go there! That girl’s fine, she won’t get killed—”

“Aria Varie’s here! He’s inside me!”

He stumbled and fell.

His ability was unstable. Engulfed by the explosion, he pounded against the wall of a burning building. But he soon rose up again, yelling hard as he tasted blood.

“Take me away! Take just me! We’re your target, right!”

His hair was wrapped in a blue glow again.

He couldn’t die here.

He couldn’t allow himself to die in front of the girl on the hill.

“Why are all people other than me taken away!”

“Calm down! You can’t do anything even if you went there! It’s—too late.”

“WOOOOOOH!”

He tried rushing away, but his body was blown off by an explosion again.

He didn’t remember absolving his ability—

He was pounded against the ground, and even when he raised his face he saw nothing but flames.

How much time would it take him to reach the hill?

How many lives would be lost?

No, perhaps there no longer remained anyone living on the island except for him and Ubuki—

“Aah… AaaAAAaaah…”

Even as he clung to a power pole and raised his body, he no longer had the strength to stand up. Covering his soot-covered face with both hands, he could do nothing but cry.

He didn’t want to see that anymore.

He couldn’t bear it anymore—

“Why… why is this… damn…”

“Stand—before I… fall asleep again…”

Aria’s voice was very weak.

The azure glow was vanishing from his hair. Due to suddenly using a lot of power, Aria Varei’s sleep was probably being hastened.

“Stand up… please…”

He cursed Aria Varei.

He told him to stand?

He told him to stand up again on his two legs to see this sight?

These were the cruelest words he heard in his life.

“Aaah… what have I even done wrong…”

He covered his face with both hands and wailed.

“Come on, stand up…”

“Why did it have to happen to me… forgive me already…”

“Stand up…”

“Whose fault is it…? Is it all my fault…? Was making Mari into a Mushitsuki a sin…?”

“I’m the one at fault for everything… so…”

“Was making Ubuki into a Mushitsuki, a sin…? Or was it my very meeting with those two girls? No, perhaps the issue was meeting with you…? The fact that you’re still inside me…?”

“You’ve done nothing wrong… you just had bad luck…”

“Or is everything… my punishment? Even the fact I’m suffering right now…”

It was useless.

The important things supporting him all snapped off.

He was going to die here.

If it would end his suffering, if it would balance everything, he wanted to die as soon as possible.

However, the unceasing explosions as well as the raging flames just sneered at him without swallowing him. At this critical moment, his bad luck didn’t manifest.

Fate would never forgive him for attempting even the tiniest bit of resistance—

“Stand up… already…”

“…”

“I’m already… at my limit…”

“…”

“But if this… continues… it will be too much hopeless…”

“…This is your fault—”

His tears stopped. He grimaced.

“Everything—is your fault. You monster.”

“Yeah, it’s my fault… these sins are my own…”

“How dare you speak like that at this point? Go away.”

“Don’t act so conceited, mortal… how ridiculous. Don’t get carried away, thinking everything’s your own fault…”

“I wish I hadn’t met you.”

“You were an idiot to be taken in by me… what was it that you said at the time?”

“…”

“Oh, right. The minimal resistance—was it?”

“…”

“It really was useless. Just saving one or two kids wouldn’t even—”

“—What was that?”

These were words that must not be said.

He wouldn’t allow them to anyone, be they god or devil.

Whether his deeds were good or evil—was postponed.

The only ones allowed to judge him were Hanashiro Mari or Shirakashi Ubuki.

He’d allow only them to decide this—

“Useless… you said…?”

“Yes, it was useless… and it was none other than you who decided it was so…”

“…I never decided anything like that…”

“No, you’re not even trying to stand up. You’re trying to quit here.”

“Quit, you said…”

“Right. Quit doing your minimal resistance…”

“…”

“—There might be some people still alive.”

He widened his eyes.

Removing his hands from his eyes, he stared at the sea of flames.

People still alive in this hell?

That was—

“Impossi—”

“See, you just decided on your own. That it was useless…”

“…!”

“You wanted to make the minimal resistance against fate, death or whatever, right? —If you decided to not do that here right now, then everything you’ve done in the past… would be worthless… You yourself would be taking away those girls’ right to decide…”

He stood up shakily.

It wasn’t his own will. He was supported by what was already long broken.

As if something else pulled him up, he put both legs on the ground.

“You were the one who decided to become a doctor, right…? And yet you’re throwing that away right here?”

“…”

“You’re—a Sensei, aren’t you?”

His legs stepped in awkwardly.

He’d already lost his reasoning power.

Something just moved him.

His body was moving on its own.

He ran.

“…!”

Giant bullets filled with death rained down on him.

His hair glowed blue as he weaved through the persistent bombardment.

He ran through the island filled with despair with a ragged breath.

However, he couldn’t sense any signs of life anywhere—

“UuhUUhh…!”

Within the rain of bullets, he kept running while sobbing.

The fragments that leapt to him from the side ripped his entire body.

His ability as Aria Varei couldn’t be kept indefinitely. If he activated it for several seconds, there was a time lag until he could use it again. Furthermore, as Aria’s powers were currently weakened, the ability was unstable.

“Guh…!”

Although his heart had already broken.

Although he’d already yielded to despair.

The smile passing through his mind moved him.

What made the two girls into Mushitsuki was Aria Varei’s power.

What made Aria Varei do that was their beautiful dreams.

There was no meaning for him as a person.

He was just a medium.

He simply got involved with this monster and his prey as a spectator.

“Uugh…!”

However, he undoubtably existed there.

''—Thank you, Sensei…

Hanashiro Mari smiled.

''—G’morning, Sensei.

Shirakashi Ubuki smiled.

The two girls called his name.

Never mind that it wasn’t his actual name.

They called the name “Sensei”.

Therefore, he had to be Sensei who saved lives—

“Left, Sensei!”

As if pulled away, he turned to the left.

“Something moved… I’m definitely not wrong!”

He kicked at the ground—no, at the sea of fire powerfully.

And he found it.

Near one of the collapsed houses was a collapsed boy. He’d somehow escaped from the window, but apparently got knocked out by the explosive wind.

The wind wailed.

“Oh no—a missile—”

He ran.

A large explosion blew the house to smithereens.

“—”

On top of the flame-covered ground, him and the boy were engulfed in azure light.

He’d managed to protect him in the nick of time. He hugged the boy and checked his pulse.

“Uh…”

The boy groaned.

He was alive—

“WOOOOOH!”

Wringing out his strength, he held the boy and ran.

Weaving between explosions, passing through the sea of flames, he rushed out of the hell in a straight line.

He came to the place that used to be the clinic. It was already blown to smithereens, and there were no traces even of the small shack.

He activated his power where the shack used to be.

He sank into the ground along with the boy—

''Thud'', he landed inside the underground cellar. It was sturdy enough to escape the bombardment.

The boy’s condition was not severe. He had a slight concussion and breathed in some smoke. If he stabilized the boy here, he would probably soon wake up.

Putting the boy on the floor, he rushed away. He used his powers to pass through the door cut out of the ceiling.

And—he ran into hell again.

“Ugh…”

“You can’t sleep yet, Aria!”

While passing through the wall of flames, he shouted.

“You have to accompany me to the very end—”

His minimal resistance.

To make that come true, he offered his own body up to the monster called Aria Varei.

“I won’t let you get away alone after all this time—”

“I—know this…”

How many times had he passed through the flames?

He felt as if it was an eternity.

But in actuality, it was perhaps not even an hour.

He ran through the island, and yet only managed to save—

“…”

Other than the boy he’d saved at first, there was only one baby.

The baby’s crying echoed in the underground cellar.

He lay it down gently next to the boy.

“Live… please, even if only the two of you…”

Speaking as if in prayer, he turned his back to the boy and baby. There was enough food here, too. They could survive until the flames on the surface all died down.

“The SEPB extermination troops might be sent here soon… Even if they can’t escape on their own, they might be found by them… they probably wouldn’t be killed…”

“…That is reassuring to hear…”

Mumbling this, he went back to the hellish landscape.

He ran through the island. He did whatever he could.

Even so—there were only two people.

No, if he included the girl he’d turned into a Mushitsuki, there were three, perhaps.

Only three people survived.

“Ah… oh god…”

He looked over the completely transformed Aoharima Island again.

The smoke was cut into by explosions.

His eyes locked with the woman looking up the hill.

Miguruma Yaeko—

“Looks like I finally found you… Aria…”

The long-haired woman spun her body.

That woman was coming to kill him—

“Why couldn’t you have held for just a bit longer…”

There was one more being he could have saved.

Aria Varei.

If he’d lasted just a bit longer, perhaps he’d have been able to see off the kind monster inside him.

“In just a short while, he would’ve fallen asleep…”

He lost his strength and fell to his knees.

“So at this point… you’re trying to save even me…”

“Even though I said I wasn’t going to run away and don’t have any power to resist…”

If he’d pretended that Aria Varei was still inside him, it might have ended with just him being killed. That was—his only regret.

“What’s my fault here? You were trying to save me before too. So I lied. I pretended everything was my fault, and even at the edge of despair, I could be the only one to escape… even that was what you call the minimal resistance…”

“…”

“I talked a lot with you, but in the end, I have the feeling we were both pessimistic…”

“Yes, exactly. I have the feeling we’ve discussed nothing but despair…”

In front of his battered body, an angel of death alighted down.

He was clad in flames, swam through the flames, and had shining, flaming eyes. It was much scarier than a grim reaper, like a devil.

“—Damn, this is really terrible. Just like when I was born. Is this my nostalgic hometown, my guardian deity?”

That boy was apparently called Sehateno Harukiyo.

Hearing this was a fight to exterminate Aria Varei—Sanbikime—he landed on Aoharima as if going for a pleasant trip.

Sensei and the devil.

The two sinners conversed for a short while inside the flames of hell.

“Kill me… Wishing for this is definitely illogical… we can’t die until killed by the those who should kill us…  I don’t want to be killed by a mere passerby, of all people…”

He spoke with a hoarse voice.

Killing him—was the right that belonged to those he turned Mushitsuki.

Would they begrudge him for this?

Although he was resolved for it, he was simply worried by this sentence coming down on him one day.

“I’ll forget my crime. I won’t have any sensation of it. Is there anything—as sinful as that?”

Harukiyo twitched. He erased his smile.

“I also think that.”

“Perhaps I was simply involved in fate, misfortune and all that. But as a result I’ve had a carefree life…”

“Yeah, you’ve been the only one surviving. That’s the result.”

“But when I turn back on it, I end up thinking. Perhaps everything is my own fault…”

“It’s so useless that there’s no sense in keeping thinking about it. I’ve thought about it thousands, millions of times.”

“In the end, I found no answer…”

“Obviously. An answer that comes out just ‘cuz you feel like it is no answer at all.”

“…Perhaps it was just a ‘disaster’. Perhaps I just have slightly more bad luck than people… even so—I tried doing something.”

Right.

He simply resisted.

He just did the minimal resistance against the thing called fate trying to drag him to death.

When he made Mari into a Mushitsuki, Aria Varei stopped.

But he didn’t stop.

“But it was all for naught… so I started thinking that was my sin…”

In the end he couldn’t save Mari.

Had he been able to save that girl in the true meaning of the word?

Ever since coming to Aoharima Island, it bothered him all along.

Were there any people who’d remember her as she was fighting her disease and living desperately?

Thinking just this—and was then shocked.

“I’m looking for Hunter.”

That name flew from the mouth of the devil in front of his eyes.

Tears welled up.

Coming here, he met someone looking for Hanashiro Mari.

Mari’s dream ended up connected even now as it was trying to die?

Then perhaps it continued.

Perhaps her dream’s continuation connected with someone at a place he knew nothing about?

He embraced this expectation.

“Her name’s Hanashiro Mari…”

“For real…? Wait, wait, wait, for real, for real, for real, for real?! If you’re lying then I’ll fucking kill you!”

When he saw the boy’s eyes gleaming as if he was in love, he decided to play a little prank on it.

“Her sickroom—is in Akamaki City.”

He even gave him some hints about her diary. He couldn’t tell if the boy elated with his zeal heard it or not.

“—Go west. The boat I’ve taken is there.”

Harukiyo said.

“I’ll draw out the enemies ‘till you get there. I’m letting you live on a whim.”

“…”

“I dunno if your sin really is a sin! You don’t even feel guilt! No matter how you think, you don’t find an answer! So I decided—I’m going to let the result decide it all!”

Let the result decide it, huh.

He agreed.

Since he was so sinful, he wasn’t allowed to decide by himself whether to live or die.

There were other people that should decide that—

“—That’s what I recommend. You do it too.”

Asserting this, the boy in love added another sin to his collection. Once Harukiyo knew that Hunter was no longer alive, he’d definitely be angry.

Meaning, he took the right to choose death from him, and gave it to Harukiyo too. If Harukiyo came one day to kill him, that would be fine.

“—Let’s go, Aria,” he said. “Our sins are heavy… it seems like we need to try living desperately before our deaths.”

Man and creature then conversed for a while.

“I see… then I… will sleep again.”

''Aria. If we ever meet again, call out to me. Let’s live together again—

He inquired in his heart.

Living together with a kind-hearted monster wasn’t bad at all.

“Well, that is unfortunate. I have had a prior arrangement. A certain girl obsessed with her younger brother. Thinking back on it, even this personality might be some remnant from her.”

''I see, what a pity. I even had a great idea about this—

“Oh? What is it…?”

''You’ve got a good nose, right? I thought that once you become a cocoon, you can go into that necklace I gave to Ubuki. If I find it, I might remember—

“Well… work hard on it.”

''Even if I can’t do it, someone will definitely come to you. Someone who lived with you before—

“Why are you thinking of living with someone like me again… everyone I ever possessed were all such idiots. Ah, I’m so happy.”

''I’m going to forget you now—

“Yeah…”

''Then… take me too. You said there might be some effect from your previous host, so take something from me, Sensei, as well—

“…”

''The life of the girl called Hanashiro Mari as well—

“…”

''The next time you’d be in someone, we’ll all be one Aria Varei—

“Got it.”

When Aria was gone, he would lose that name.

The name of Sensei.

He’d go back to being himself before becoming his internship.

The man called Sensei who continued the minimal resistance would be gone—

“Goodbye, Aria Varei.”

“Goodbye… —Sensei.”

They then parted into one person and one creature.

Aria Varei became a cocoon somewhere and resumed sleeping—

And as for him—

“…Where am I…?”

In the burning Aoharima Island, he lost the name of Sensei.

If he went west, there would be a boat—

He accepted this odd premonition and was saved from the scorching hell.

Being carried to the hospital where he landed ashore, he spent more than a year to heal his expended fatigue, stamina and hurt body.

When he finished his rehabilitation, he thought about heading to the place directly ahead of him.

He had the feeling that he had to.

Guided by this strange sense of duty, his feet took him to the capital of Akamaki City—