Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 10 Chapter 2 (section)

== 2.05 Tamaki Part 6 ==

''What the—

''What the hell is going on?

She had no idea why the situation became like this.

Tamaki, transformed into Konoha, grabbed onto her leaf-shaped Mushi and rushed along the wall of the Underground Stronghold.

Using her camouflage ability, she hid herself. The white coats in the corridor did not notice her running on the wall and kept going.

“Kh…!”

Gritting her teeth, Tamaki raised her speed further. Konoha’s Mushi’s spying ability was superb and even while it ran on the wall as if stuck to it, it was nearly noiseless. Also, its optical camouflaging ability meant that it would be invisible without the usage of special abilities or devices.

“Ha!”

At the end of the corridor, she leapt off of the Mushi. The moment she landed on the floor she became Mizuchi and the snake-form Mushi exhaled its gas.

The stereoscopic image showed no one other than Tamaki.

“I g-got away…?”

Tamaki wore a relieved face for an instant. However, noticing within the image that something was filling the corridor behind her with incredible speed, she gulped.

“W-what’s that? The corridor’s being—”

Turning back, Tamaki saw the origin of the irregularity and became speechless. Her survival instincts moved her body on its own.

“…!”

The moment after she practically fell into the corridor to her right, the scenery was dyed in crimson.

A roar and a vibration. The conflagration filling the corridor with an explosion and the sounds of the floor and ceiling swelling from the heat, being crushed and melting away, all sounded just like the screams of hell.

A living human would be turned to ashes instantly if hit by that.

“Ah… ah…”

Tamaki sank down to the floor.

A crimson fireball rose where she’d been standing just moments ago. Many sparks and hot air spread around as a lone man appeared from within the fireball.

Even while wrapped in flames, the man wore a calm sneer. Actually, that red hair and eyes with a powerful glint were just like blazing flames. Standing upright even while enveloped by a violent whirl, the man’s figure was much too removed from reality, vivid and beautiful that one could almost be enchanted by it despite the occasion—as well as brought out fear from the depths of one’s heart.

''He’s not human—

Her body wouldn’t move as though paralyzed.

He was like a real devil from hell.

“Just when I thought to go outside for a walk, I found a much more fun way to kill time.”

The man smiled. Even as he just stood there with his arms crossed small balls of flames produced and burst around him, spreading heat around like small bombs.

“So you’re that intruder? It’s kinda amusing how you keep changing your form, but—”

The devil of flames, Harukiyo—

He was a Rank 1, a level that signified the very strongest, of which there were only five. In comparison to the survivor, the pitch-black demon Kakkou, as well as Fuyuhotaru, who’d once brought the SEPB to the brink of destruction, this Mushitsuki was rumored to be much eviler.

Apparently in the past this man was the leader of a third force comparable to the SEPB and Mushibane that was made of a few elites, but his actions nowadays were shrouded in mystery.

While knowing that much, Tamaki hadn’t been able to copy his ability until now. That was because she hadn’t met any people who knew about his appearance or his abilities.

“You have some guts getting into the Central Headquarters, but wouldn’t strugglin’ so hard at the entrance waste all of my hopes for you?”

“Uh… Ah…”

With the flaming pupils staring at her, Tamaki’s body froze completely. Her legs were shaking.

She had to acknowledge it. It was certain she’d made a huge error.

She took the Central Headquarters—the enemy known as the SEPB—much more lightly than she should have. She simply got carried away by copying Kasuou’s ability and defeating some combatants, but this wasn’t the kind of opponent she could handle.

Whatever the circumstances may be—she never thought she’d come up against this kind of monster.

Why was the notorious Harukiyo inside Central HQ?

In the first place, the Harukiyo she’d heard about would hide his face using tape. Even so the devil in front of her showed his masculine visage without any grievances. She made so many mistakes—

“Is it over yet? C’mon, try running away.”

Looking bored, Harukiyo waved his right hand. Even just this casual gesture as though shooing away a fly made her vision distort. Enormous heat pursued her.

“…!”

Hurriedly transforming to Kasuou, she used mist to cover her entire body like a shield—

“…! Gah! Ugh! Aah!”

Harukiyo’s form instantly vanished. An impact like getting hit by a tank blew Tamaki along with her mist far away. She heard her bones creaking every time she rebounded on the floor. If there was a wall behind her perhaps she would’ve broken her entire body.

“Uugh…!”

Shedding blood from the corner of her mouth, she roused her upper body.

She saw the heat haze approaching her and shuddered.

“Wow, the real Kasuou could’ve defended against that, y’know?”

“Kh…!”

If she lost her focus, she was likely to faint. But if she fell unconscious right here, it would mean death. Tamaki changed into Konoha and leapt on her Mushi. She turned her back to the pursuing Harukiyo and ran away.

“Eeeeek!”

A shotgun of flames fired on her. Grazing the running Tamaki, like firebombs covered the floor and ceiling with flames.

She no longer thought about where in the Stronghold she was. She had no idea if she was heading even further below or approaching the ground level.

“…I-I’m sorry… Kanon…!”

With her teeth chattering, she apologized to her childhood friend who wasn’t there.

Everything about her mission to beat Kasuou and go back home vanished from her mind.

It had nothing to do with truth or lies.

Right now, she was simply desperately running away from that monster.

“I… I…”

She looked around her frantically while running.

Were there no members around?

Unless she found someone who knew a Mushitsuki that could beat this devil, she had no future.

“I might… not be able to go back…”

Running away with utmost effort while dodging Harukiyo’s playful attacks, she rushed through the corridors.

However, no matter how much she ran, for some reason—

There was no one around.

“—”

It felt like hours, but it might have been just minutes. After running and running Tamaki stood in place as she reached a certain spot.

It was a dead end.

“Why is there no one…”

As Tamaki mumbled this in shock, her hair sizzled and was singed from behind.

She knew even without turning around.

This was the end.

“I created a ‘wall’ to not have anyone disturb our game of tag… but isn’t that boring, actually?”

Tamaki slowly turned around.

The flame devil approached Tamaki casually as if he was just out on a walk.

“So your ability’s useless if there’s no one around? How far will you disappoint me?”

“…”

“After playing catch, shall we play torture next?”

As the devil approached her step by step, their bodies were finally close. Harukiyo’s right arm grazed Tamaki’s cheek, hitting the wall behind her.

She’d already passed all the way through fear and couldn’t feel anything.

The distance between them was about ten centimeters. The devil advanced so much that there were only few centimeters between their faces.

In her sight there were only flames, flames and flames—

She had no place to escape whatsoever.

''Ah, I’m dead—

She was so beyond fear that she felt as if she was watching something unrelated to her. The overwhelming anxiety might have shocked her nerves.

“So, what’s your goal here?”

From the distance of several centimeters, the devil of flames sneered at her.

Perhaps these were normal flames or they could be used for different purposes, since Tamaki was enveloped in them and yet suffered no burns.

However, it was hot.

If flames that were hot but didn’t burn actually existed—was there any better way of torture?

“Stayin’ silent? I’ll subtract a point.”

She already knew she couldn’t escape.

Even if she found another member—what sort of Mushitsuki could even beat Harukiyo?

It didn’t matter how good of a liar Tamaki was.

She could never mimic what didn’t exist in the first place.

“Augh!”

Her consciousness, about to drift away due to the heat and her resignation, was pulled back by a sharp pain. She looked at her fingertips.

The nail of her index finger was broken. Her flesh was burning and the nasty smell of boiling blood reached her nose.

“If you don’t answer my question I’ll burn ‘em off one by one. And if you lie to me. Even if you tell me the truth, I’ll still burn ya unless I like the answer. Once you run out of nails, I’ll burn your ears. Next your nose.”

“Uh… uugh…!”

“Do your best to tell me true things I like—or lie carefully.”

The flame devil used his blazing eyes to stare at Tamaki, wearing a sadistic smile.

At any rate, he seemed to have no intention of letting her live. He was going to play with her to death.

“So what’s your goal?”

Sweat emitted from Tamaki’s forehead, caused by the revived sensation and pain of fear. However, it soon evaporated and vanished.

The rumors were right.

The devil of flames was too strong.

On top of that he was capricious and merciless and cruel, a monster that would drop anyone into scorching hell—

“AAAH!”

Her middle fingernail was blown off by a small explosion.

“What’s your goal?”

“Uuuh…!”

“It’s the most boring of all if you answer nothin’ at all.”

“Uaah!”

Her sight fully blanked out. She nearly fainted from the sharp pain and heat.

“Hey, say something.”

Another explosion. But she could no longer feel pain. Her eyes were blurry, and the devil’s face wearing a sadistic smile was being twisted—

''—Hey, say something!

It changed to the face of a middle school girl shouting angrily at Tamaki. There were five in all.

On the rooftop of the public middle school, she remembered the rays of the summer sun being so hot they almost scorched her. The concrete floor especially was as hot as a frypan, scorching Tamaki’s forehead.

''—Thought you could just make a move on someone’s boyfriend and get away with it?

An eighth grader at the time, Tamaki was receiving a lynch from five girls of the same school.

The reason for that was Tamaki’s lie.

At the time Tamaki was also a liar, and she was especially addicted to lies related to romance. Since she was blessed in looks, she would act suggestively with boys wooing her and rip them off for all sorts of money and goods.

Her lies would be things such as “my parents need money”, “if you buy me those clothes, I’ll think about dating you” and the like. Thinking back, these were really low level.

''—I didn’t do anything. He just gave me some money.

She said this after receiving a kick in her stomach and received a slap in return. Even while feeling that pain, what Tamaki thought only amounted to something like, “Ah, damn, I shouldn’t have told the truth, I should have just lied again”.

It wasn’t like she really wanted money. It was simply the result of her lying while trying to see how far she could deceive someone.

Perhaps it was because of all the stress. Tamaki’s parents both hid their cheating from each other for a long while—meaning, they kept wearing their masks of husband and wife. Feigning to be in a good relationship in front of the kid Tamaki, they piled up small lie after small lie, but the intuitive Tamaki saw through them.

Tamaki was tired of this family environment, but on the other hand, she was also sometimes impressed. Her father’s and mother’s lies were truly luxurious, at times easily fooling the other, and when they felt they were being doubted, they managed to make a brilliant recovery with another lie. Although Tamaki was tired of her parents, she became curious enough to want to try it out for herself, thus becoming a liar, but—

''—You’re fucking dead!

Seeing that one of the girls beating her to a pulp brought out scissors, she truly regretted it.

''I should have told just a slightly better lie—

She imagined her picture appearing on the front page of tomorrow’s newspaper under the headline “a middle schooler stabbed”, but then something happened.

''—S-s-s-s-so sorry!

A person came there as if rolling—no, they truly stumbled and fell there.

At first Tamaki couldn’t remember who it was. They spoke while in the same neighborhood and elementary school, but once middle school started the two became estranged.

Her childhood friend, one could say.

But definitely not her friend. That was the extent of their relationship.

That very same Nakayama Kanon then spoke desperately.

''—Tama-chan didn’t mean it!

Oh, she definitely did. Fooling boys and getting money was fun; it was like killing two birds with one stone.

More importantly, being called “Tama-chan” was awfully nostalgic.

''—Umm… Tama-chan didn’t mean anything wrong… r-right! She did all of this for Kanon!

''Eh?'' everyone was shocked. Including Tamaki.

''—Since Kanon’s so poor, Tama-chan tried helping! R-right, that’s it! There’s no doubt about it!

No doubt? There was nothing ''but'' doubts. Everyone would realize it was a shitty lie.

However, even such a lie—was believed by those girls.

Perhaps Kanon’s family really was poor. Perhaps they were simply happy they had someone other than Tamaki to be mad about.

Naturally, Kanon also became their lynch target as a result.

However, now that there were two attack targets, the girls’ violence lessened, and they were somehow able to end it without being killed.

''—Are you an idiot? Why’d you save me?

As she asked this while holding her swollen cheek, Kanon smiled with eyes full of tears.

''—Kanon found you by chance, and got scared… Kanon didn’t know what to do… so…

''—So you told that lie? That was so unneeded…

''—S-s-s-sorry…

''—You could’ve called the teacher or something, there were many other better ways than telling that bad lie.

''—Ah! Kanon could have done that!

Was Tamaki’s childhood friend really this much of an idiot? So she thought.

She would have told a much better lie, and wouldn’t have wasted her efforts like that.

However, her thoughts had been overturned after a few days.

Kanon’s lie changed Tamaki’s school life completely.

First, for some reason the two became known as best friends. And the entire school now knew that Tamaki was trying to save her friend.

Since Tamaki normally acted like a model student, people were starting to treat her with sympathy and admiration.

On the other hand, Kanon who usually floated away from the surroundings—became a villain who got a friend into trouble, and kept having a lonely life while being watched coldly by everyone.

Tamaki obviously went around to correct everyone.

But it was useless.

Rather than the truth Tamaki was telling them, her classmates wanted to believe the cheap drama.

Tamaki couldn’t understand what was going on. Believing such a shitty lie meant they were crazy. She herself could’ve made a much better one—

The moment she thought of it, she noticed.

She was the better liar? Was that actually the case?

Tamaki’s lie hurt those she deceived, enraged those involved, and in the end brought danger to her alone.

On the other hand, Kanon saved Tamaki.

The one hurt from it was a single person—just Kanon.

Noticing this truth, Tamaki was overwhelmed with a sense of loss. That vexation meant she had to say her thanks to her childhood friend. Being so friendly, perhaps Kanon really did feel like the whole thing was unnecessary just as Tamaki said. Tamaki’s childhood friend avoided her upon seeing her, perhaps feeling bitter.

In the end, she never spoke to Kanon again. With her relatively fun school life she forgot about the incident, and when compared to her friend’s slightly harsher familial situation, perhaps what happened was just a drop in the bucket.

But they have reunited.

Since they met again, she thought of repaying the favor from back then.

But even so—

“Hey, wake up.”

The low voice and pain that ran through her brought back Tamaki’s consciousness. She recalled her state, being in a much worse state than that lynch back in her middle school days.

The flame devil was right in front of her. Was there any bigger predicament in the world?

Even while her face was twisted from the pain, it formed a smile.

“I just wanted… to save you…”

As Tamaki mumbled this like a last testament, another one of her fingernails was blown away.

“Nope. Say something I can understand.”

He was probably angry at Tamaki giving him not even one proper answer. Harukiyo spat.

“Should I just kill ya?”

Twitch.

Tamaki’s body shook like it received an electric shock.

''—Should I just kill ya?

How strange.

That was definitely strange.

After all, according to the rumors Tamaki heard, Harukiyo was—

“…You’ll… kill me…?”

“Yeah, I will. I’m sick of you already.”

“Harukiyo’s… strong… and merciless…”

“Ah? What’re you saying?”

“And ruthless…”

Tamaki absently raised her face. Her eyes, blurry with tears of pain, looked back at Harukiyo.

“You seem… kinda off…”

Harukiyo raised a brow.

Tamaki kept mumbling to herself, not minding him.

“Saying that you’ll kill me… almost as if… there’s also an option you wouldn’t… isn’t that strange? Harukiyo’s supposed to be a ruthless devil…”

Tamaki’s listless forehead touched Harukiyo’s.

“Say—the Harukiyo you know… what kind of guy is he?”

“…!”

Harukiyo pulled away suddenly. He distanced himself from Tamaki.

“He—hehe.”

It was too late.

The whirl of information already passed through their foreheads and flowed inside Tamaki.

Harukiyo. Harukiyo. The information about the Mushitsuki called Harukiyo overflowed.

Tamaki’s ability was to copy.

However—she couldn’t rob an ability from its owner.

“Ahahahahahaha!”

Opening her teary eyes, Tamaki laughed loudly.

She hadn’t lost her sanity due to fear.

It was simply too funny. After all—

“You are—also a fake!”

Tamaki’s hair was dyed in crimson as if going up in flames. Her face changed and her body grew taller. Countless black tapes appeared to conceal her face.

“You little…!”

Feeling the danger, Harukiyo swung down his arm at Tamaki. The mass of flames holding great heat assaulted her.

Tamaki forcibly blew away Harukiyo’s arm that came from overhead. She produced an even bigger mass of flames and the two canceled each other.

“You’re not the real Harukiyo either! You have a transformation ability, just like me!”

Transformed into the tape-covered Harukiyo in an instant, Tamaki shouted.

Great power was coursing through her body right now. It was on a whole different level from any other power she’d mimicked before.

“But even if we can both transform—”

The Harukiyo with an exposed face grimaced. Thrusting his arm toward Tamaki, he unleashed a Great Yama tiger beetle made of flames.

“The Harukiyo in your mind’s even greater than your ability!”

Wearing a devil’s smile, Tamaki too thrust out her arms. Another large Great Yama tiger beetle swallowed the pursuing flames, pushing them back.

“Gah…!”

Tamaki’s flames overcame her opponent’s. The man’s chest was burned and gouged, revealing another face buried within his body.

It was a girl who looked in her teens, clad in Lolita fashion, who was buried inside the Harukiyo that looked made of clay.

“Kh…!”

Being pushed by Tamaki’s repeated flame attack, the fake Harukiyo fused with the girl was blown backwards.

“Ahahahahahaha!”

Tamaki wrapped herself in flames. She pushed herself using compressed heat, becoming a large fireball springing through the corridor. She already spared no thought to the other Harukiyo she’d blown away.

This was her worst predicament and yet she managed to obtain her strongest power.

As long as she had this, she was unbeatable.

[[File:Mushi Uta 10 p133.jpg|thumb]]

There was nothing to be scared of. She could even destroy Central HQ and then go home.

It happened just as she thought this.

Tamaki, who turned herself into a fireball and rushed through the Stronghold, suddenly felt herself weakening.

“Ugh—”

The power coursing through her body was rapidly growing weaker. The flames extinguishing from her entire body felt as though they were Tamaki’s lifeforce itself.

“Uaah…! Uuugh!”

Losing her balance, she crashed into the wall and rolled on the floor.

''This is bad—

An instinctive sense of danger stuck Tamaki’s chest.

Tamaki’s limits as a Mushitsuki were unchanged when she transformed. Harukiyo’s unparalleled power was exhausting Tamaki’s dream in the blink of an eye.

She was about to faint, but the blaring alarms woke her up.

“Guh…!”

She couldn’t even destroy the Central HQ. Unless she got out of there immediately, even coming back alive would be difficult. She had no choice but to give up on Kasuou’s assassination.

The flames which were no more than a fake were trying to burn her own body.

“I-I have to cancel the transformation and run away… no, before that—”

Biting back her pain, Tamaki looked at the ceiling.

She couldn’t last much longer.

She must escape the Underground Stronghold as soon as possible and go back to her childhood friend waiting for her.

However, she couldn’t just go back.

She needed to take a “souvenir” back so that she could save Kanon—