Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 5th Episode 17 (section)

=== Part 5 ===

"…!"

Noiru’s movements were swift, her figure black from head to toe. She stuck out the heel of her palm toward empty space.

Immediately afterward, Arisu heard the sound of the tuning fork near her.

Penetrating through the silver-colored scales, a shockwave pierced her.

"Ugh…!"

Unable to do anything, Arisu was hit by the invisible blow. She felt an impact as though something hit her but without any solid sensation. Much like standing in front of a loud speaker.

"Impact sound"—

When her body felt the identity of the domain controlling the surrounding it was too late.

Noiru leapt into the air.

The girl's legs kicking at empty air created ripples in space. Along with the tuning fork's sound, Noiru advanced upward as if being launched.

Kicking the wall of impact sound, Noiru instantly leapt toward Arisu's chest.

"Impact scaleee, plus oneee."

Sticking out both arms, she pounded something invisible against the spear in Arisu's hand.

The explosive impact sound pierced the silver Morpho butterfly. Arisu was thrown into the air along with her spear, crashing on the hard ground.

"Kuha!"

Rushing up the invisible stairs created by the impact sound, she climbed in air.

"Impact scaleee, plus twooo."

The sprawled Arisu's right hand was driven into the ground by an invisible strike.

The Morpho butterfly wings forming the tip shattered.

"Impact scaleee, plus threee. Plus fourrr. Plus fiveee."

The tuning fork kept echoing.

The Morpho butterfly's wings were ripped and the spear rampaged about as if writhing in pain.

 Arisu herself also withstood pain, grimacing while seeing the hurt Morpho butterfly.

"S-stop—"

It was the first time she thought of the Morpho butterfly left by her friend as scary.

But even that was undoubtedly proof that Mari had been alive.

The floating Noiru sneered.

"'Don't call people's friends monsters'!"

Noiru mimicked Arisu’s tone.

"But will you allow yourself to become a monster despite saying that?"

"…!"

"If not, then please stay still. I will release you from the Morpho butterfly."

Release her from the Morpho butterfly—

For an instant, Arisu's heart shook.

The sound of a tuning fork echoed from Noiru's hand in the night sky. The ripples spread among the stars.

"Impact scaleee…"

Confronting the Mushitsuki who lived in the battlefield was very scary.

She had no choice but acknowledge that already.

However—

Mari's smile rose to her mind.

''—My dream, can I entrust it to you?''

She put strength into her hand gripping the spear.

"Plus ten!"

She hated being scared.

She definitely hated feeling pain.

Arisu couldn't bear having the dream entrusted to her by Mari being taken here—

"Mari…!"

Arisu called the name of her dead friend.

The impact sound assaulted the silver spear.

And responding to Ichinokuro Arisu's call—was her own mouth.

"Arisu…"

When Arisu's mouth mumbled this, Hanashiro Mari moved to behind Noiru.

With the silver pattern emerging on her right arm, right cheek and left leg, Mari swung the silver lance.

Immediately the surroundings were filled with silver scales.

"Emergency situation confirmeddd. Danger scaleee, plus ten million!"

With her impact sound having been evaded, Noiru kicked the air to get distance from Mari.

Still angry, Mari grimaced with Arisu's face.

"A child of Diorestoi attempting to erase me… unforgivable."

"Mobilityyy, plus fiveee. Judgment capabilityyy, plus sixxx. Ability control scaleee, plus eighttt. Tentatively, Blaze Class Rank 3!"

Mari's spear slashed through empty air.

At the same time Noiru's tuning fork also echoed.

The scales attack and the sound impact clashed.

In the instant when the two waves repelled each other and vanished, Mari kicked her Mushi-fused leg into the ground. Moving toward Noiru with the speed of a bullet, she swiped with her lance.

However, Noiru fluttered above using her sound impact, dodging the spear attack. Revolving once above Mari's head, she stuck out her palm heel.

Mari instantly leapt to the side.

Along with a great vibration, the ground that Mari had just stood on caved in.

"What a restless and troublesome ability you have…!"

"Impact scaleee, plus twelveee!"

Mari and Noiru's battle proceeded like a seesaw.

Offensively Mari was overwhelming, but Noiru had an edge in speed.

However, the situation of the battle soon changed.

"Ah…!"

Unable to fully dodge Noiru's attack, the silver lance was blown away from Mari's hand.

"Here's my chanceee. Impact scaleee…"

Noiru, finding a good opportunity just like she said, leapt toward Mari. She let her tuning fork echo, creating ripples around her readied palm.

"Plus tennn!"

Mari grimaced at this predicament—or so she wanted the other girl to think, but she looked at Noiru coldly.

"You've been caught rather easily."

"…!"

Mari, with the exact same movements as Noiru, swung her right arm and made the silver pattern on the spear glow.

The two girls' arms crossed.

The sound of the impact bursting echoed around.

"—Cough…"

Breaking through the wall of impact sound and burying her palm in the opponent's solar plexus was Mari.

“The weapons of a Fusion Type aren’t just their strengthened equipment, you know.”

The current Mari was different from how Arisu was until now.

It wasn't just the spear being fused with the Morpho butterfly. Even her body covered by the pattern was strengthened the same way.

Noiru held her stomach, kneeling on the ground. Her impact sound halved the strike's force, but even so her flesh and blood body couldn't stand against Mari's attack.

Mari picked up her spear and swung it.

"…Even if you strip I won't forgive you, alright?"

She grinned and lowered her spear—

But then, feeling pressure at her back, she turned around.

Mari could see in her vision a bullet spewing fire flying directly at her.

"…!"

She hurriedly intercepted it with her spear.

Yet the bullet's power was fearsome. This time it was not acting; the spear really was blown out of her hands.

Mari herself was also thrown against the ground, but she soon stood up and raised her face.

"Why are you shooting me—"

She spat, gritting her teeth with anger.

"Kusuriya Daisuke-san…!"

The pitch-dark demon approached.

It was Kakkou—Kusuriya Daisuke. The form holding the large gun fused with the checkered beetle wouldn't allow any counterattack.

Daisuke slightly moved his face. She couldn't see his expression due to the goggles, but he appeared to be glaring at Noiru lying on the ground.

"So you weren't going to inspect anything in the first place then, Kanakana. Your goal was to provoke Arisu, put her life in danger and make her go wild in order to eliminate her, right?"

"I-I've judged Spear-Form to be dangerousss. Kakkou, please destroy Spear-Form at onceee."

"By whose orders? Director-General Ichiku? Vice-Deputy Miguruma? …Either way, it means that now the Central Headquarters views Arisu as trouble."

Saying this with a harsh tone, Daisuke turned back to Mari.

"Why did you come out, Hanashiro Mari?"

Mari grimaced. Anger welled inside her for the boy in front of her.

She couldn't forgive him for unhesitatingly firing at her. Right now Mari was fused with Arisu. Arisu thought of him as a friend, and yet he’d shot a bullet at her body.

"Because Arisu's body was in danger—"

"Tell the truth."

With the muzzle still pointed at her, Daisuke coldly pushed aside Mari's answer.

Mari was speechless.

When she'd cornered the striped bumblebee's host, Arisu was no longer in danger.

[[File:Mushi_Uta_Bug_5th_p073.jpg|thumb]]

Even so, pushing her consciousness aside, Mari tried coming to the surface in order to—

"…If Arisu forgets about it, wouldn't it be as if I hadn't even existed in this world in the first place…?!"

Mari held her head.

Even her memories of approaching her death without meeting anyone and without being noticed by anyone were engraved into the Morpho butterfly.

Hanashiro Mari had definitely lived. Even so she was helplessly scared of being gone from this world without anyone remembering her and without leaving anything behind.

"That is way too horrible…!"

"I thought this every time you appeared instead of Arisu, but… in the end, is that really so? If, in order to keep living, you want to take over Arisu—"

"No! It's just that I chose the devil's medicine…!"

Daisuke raised an eyebrow.

"The devil's medicine… is that the picture book from your hospital room?"

"I just wanted to live with Arisu… But there was something I had to do…"

"Something you had to do? What was that?"

"—I can't remember."

Still holding her head, Mari strained her face. The pattern emerging on her face emitted silver light. The Morpho butterfly fused with the spear was starting to go berserk.

She didn't want to be forgotten by Arisu.

"What am I trying to do…?"

The more these feelings strengthened, the more Mari lost her ability to think. The more her fear for loneliness deepened, the more Mari's head blanked out.

"So even Hanashiro Mari's memories are becoming unstable."

Daisuke groaned in a low voice.

"Anyway, go away for now. Return to Arisu. If you don't… I'll kill your Mushi."

"…!"

Mari raised her face with a start.

What expression was she making at that moment? Even the merciless demon seemed obviously agitated for a second.

"Don't make that face."

"…"

"Arisu will never forget about you. —You'll just be a memory."

Mari looked at her right arm covered in the silver pattern. Due to the Morpho butterfly's forceful fusion, it was already numb.

She hurt her friend's body. When she realized that, she grew weak.

"Say, Kusuriya Daisuke-san. What are you going to do with me and Arisu?"

She asked this with a serene expression. The readied gun’s muzzle twitched.

"If you want to save Arisu, you just need to kill the Morpho butterfly. If you sympathize with me, you wouldn't tell me to go back, right?"

"I will simply monitor the Morpho butterfly."

"Tell the truth."

The black demon fell silent against Mari's smile. After waiting for a while, there was no response.

"You're also hesitating. You're unsure of what you want to do, then."

"…"

"We are all a gathering of stray children."

She felt a bit like she was saved.

Hesitating and worrying were proofs of being alive.

While where people surrounding Arisu hesitated, Mari kept existing. Even if the memories left to her Mushi were vague and even if she was beginning to lose sight of who she was.

''Arisu—''

She slowly closed her eyes. The Morpho butterfly split from the weakening Mari's body.

"—Nngh…"

She felt as if she'd heard someone calling her name somewhere.

Ichinokuro Arisu retrieved her consciousness, opening her eyes.

"Daisuke…?"

When her eyes opened, she saw Daisuke directing his gun at her.

She couldn't see the boy's expression, but was it her imagination that he looked relieved? Lowering his gun, Daisuke approached Noiru collapsed on the ground.

"Did you see it just now, Kanakana?"

"Spear-Form is dangerousss. Spear-Form is dangerousss."

"No, I'm still holding it back. If it doesn't seem like her rampage will stop, I'll take responsibility and annihilate the Morpho butterfly."

Walking closer, he grabbed Noiru's head with his green-patterned arm.

Bringing the girl's head to him, he glared at her from the distance of a few centimeters. As if trying to plant his own power and fear into her, he asserted from up close.

"Put this matter on hold."

"Uh…"

"Tell this to the one giving you orders. Don't do anything unneeded. If you were to ignore this warning—"

Arisu felt like she could hear a cracking sound from Noiru's skull.

"I'll kill you."

Daisuke let go of the girl's head. He looked down at the shaking girl with a truly devilish smile.

"I won't forgive you even if you strip."

"Uuuh… I don't wanna be killeddd… please don't kill me. I knew Kakkou was a demon… I don't want to be killed… on hold, on hold…"

Hugging her own body, Noiru shook like a leaf in the wind.

"Arisu."

Daisuke turned back to Arisu.

Her shoulders twitched. She looked as if her mind was foggy.

"That Morpho butterfly is becoming unstable. Same goes for the Central Headquarters—they'll surely play dumb if we ask them about it, but they started regarding that Mushi as dangerous."

"…"

"We may have no time."

Daisuke extended his hand to Arisu.

"If I kill the Mushi now, you might be able to return to your former life. —Shall I take you there?"

Arisu looked up at the night sky.

Having split from the spear and returned to the form of a butterfly, the Morpho butterfly was dancing.

Perhaps it would be better to turn her best friend into a mere memory.

Getting involved with Mushitsuki only hurt her.

Getting hurt was painful, and hurting other people was just as well.

However—

“Do you really not have any clues about people who know Mari? Please tell me everything without hiding it.”

If she stood back there, she would definitely regret it.

When the Morpho butterfly was nearly killed by Noiru, Arisu became painfully aware of it.

Mari believed in Arisu, and so she bequeathed to her the crystallization of her dreams—her Mushi.

If so, then all Arisu had to do was just keep moving.

She grasped Daisuke's hand.

"There's the possibility that Sanbikime came in contact with Hanashiro Mari."

The mysterious Prototype Mushi that created Fusion-Type Mushitsuki. Since Arisu had previously received this explanation, she knew that.

"So we have no choice but reach out to the Original Three."

Daisuke mumbled. It was apparently an opponent of a caliber that made even this boy hesitate, but he still looked resolved as if it related to him directly.

Since her right arm and right leg were numb, it was very painful for Arisu stand up. Daisuke stopped her from falling when her knees buckled.

She didn't know what was waiting ahead.

But Arisu could still move forward.

If she could take even a single step ahead, she thought that she'd be able to keep moving without hesitating.

Doing this alone was hard, but she had this reliable boy at her side—

Thinking of this and looking at Daisuke, she suddenly recalled something.

"Even though I went out of my way to help you get up, what's up with that face?"

"If you do anything weird I'll kill you."

"What's that supposed to man?"

"Don't touch any part of my body…"

As Daisuke's expression stiffened up, he was pierced by Arisu's look of scorn.

Underneath the moonlight, the shadows of the pair walking shoulder to shoulder stretched all over the vacant factory. 

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