Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 15 Chapter 2 (section)

== 2.06 The Others ==

The night sky of Aoharima Island was full of twinkling stars.

The gentle wind mixed the scents of the sea and trees. This nostalgic air never changed ever since she was born.

Shirakashi Ubuki was born on this island.

“…”

As she circled around the island’s skies, moonlight reflected on Ubuki’s goggles, sparkling. The four black wings sprouting from her back were created from her Mushi fusing with her coat. The turban wrapped around her head was used to gather up her hair so that it wouldn’t get in her way while flying.

Ubuki made a sudden rise and raised her angle.

She then did a forward somersault, this time lowering her head, spun horizontally and let herself fall.

This was her favorite way of flying that she repeated constantly even during the time she only just became a Mushitsuki. She found the sensation as if the island was rotating above her, as well as being able to watch the entire ocean surrounding the island, to be very enjoyable.

As she approached the surface, she raised her head and kept her body level as though gliding. By doing this she almost felt like she could use the small island as a bed for an afternoon nap.

As Ubuki indulged in this nostalgic play, memories about Aoharima Island resurfaced in her mind.

It was her hometown, and many things happened on this island.

Her losing her parents shortly after being born was one especially sad event among them. Aoharima Island subsisted mostly on fishing, but there was rarely any fishing boat accidents. Ubuki was, however, one who lost her parents due to this rarity.

She’d been sent to the island’s orphanage and lived with other similar children as a family. They weren’t rich at all and they lacked plenty, but Ubuki loved her new family. They didn’t have the latest gaming consoles, but they always found things to play with in the nature around them.

Playing with the few children of her age, going to the very small school and before long even working in the marine food processing plant on the island, she lived as part of the island—

She wanted to live her life like that, without being dissatisfied with anything.

However, a while after Ubuki became a middle schooler, a certain person came to the island.

A young doctor.

Ever since meeting that person, Ubuki and Aoharima Island’s future changed.

Ubuki became a Mushitsuki.

This was something she only found out later, but the youth who came to the island—the one she was on friendly terms with, called only Sensei—was actually the monster called Sanbikime.

Unbeknownst to her, Ubuki had been turned into a Mushitsuki by him, and spent her days innocently making walks through the sky.

However, that did not hold out for long.

In order to erase Sensei (who was Sanbikime) from this world, a grand-scale massacre was carried out on the entirety of Aoharima Island. By that narrow-eyed woman, Miguruma Yaeko.

The residents were slaughtered by fire, and only Ubuki the Mushitsuki had survived, becoming a member of the SEPB.

She lost her beloved Aoharima Island.

She left it.

Betraying the SEPB, she created her small revenge against Miguruma Yaeko.

Along with new friends and comrades, she gained a new dream.

For some reason, although she returned to Aoharima Island, it was again covered in flames.

Right now, this island would become the land of the counterattack that would change the world.

“…I can hear your voices, y’all.”

While freely flying in the nighttime air, Ubuki closed her eyes.

She said “all”, but it wasn’t the voices of the many Mushitsuki beneath her.

It was the people who used to live on Aoharima Island.

The voices of Ubuki’s family, friends, and other workers—the people who lived here more freely than anyone, who spent their last moments here in an unwanted way.

If this was the period where she lived only for revenge, she’d definitely hear voices of resentment. The curse created by the murdered island residents would probably spur on Ubuki’s revenge and desire for destruction.

However, what Ubuki heard now—was laughter.

Only fun memories with the island residents who raised Ubuki passed through her mind as she danced through air.

The only resident who knew about the tragedy that befell the island was Ubuki.

But at the same time, the only one who knew how freely the people lived on this island was also just Ubuki.

She became able to think like that probably because she herself had changed.

“I’ll bring back this island, y’all. The same island from that time…”

That was Ubuki’s new dream.

To make Aoharima Island just like it was before, a place overflowing with smiles—

It was a much more difficult dream than mere revenge.

However, it wasn’t impossible as long as she was alive.

She was taught this because she had important friends.

“But I’m sure—y’all can wait just a little.”

Opening her eyes, the scenery of the island completely changed.

Both island and sea were enveloped in a vivid ruby color.

It was as though it had been instantly encroached by an entirely different world. Looking down on the surface, she could see the figure of Haji Senri clad in a cloth of flames, struggling.

“Before making my dream come true… I gotta save my friends.”

There was something Ubuki had to do now.

She’d infiltrated the shelter and gave Haji Keigo what she needed to.

And she was able to have her fill of flying above the island like in the old days.

All that remained was to fight.

“Because you’re my friends… as much as everyone on the island.”

She started falling toward the wharf.

The crimson world was starting to regain its normal color. The red glow dyeing the ocean surface and Aoharima Island was slowly vanishing.

Haji Senri managed to designate C’s location.

She was convinced of this even without checking.

Ubuki controlled the wings at her back, landing next to the hugging Haji siblings.

All the Mushitsuki around seemed shocked at Ubuki’s appearance. However, neither Haji Keigo nor Haji Senri moved a muscle. Even Ubuki wasn’t about to say something unneeded at this stage.

“Coordinates?”

Ubuki asked just this one word.

Being hugged by her brother, Senri looked at Ubuki sadly and shook her head. Her blazing eyes appeared to return to how they were, but her robe of flames wasn’t gone. It didn’t seem to hurt her brother—but it was obvious at a glance she already lost control of her Mushi.

“We don’t need coordinates…”

Prefacing with this, Senri mumbled.

“The place is…”

That land.

The place of the Ark, where C’s main body resided.

Ubuki knew it.

“…!”

Haji Keigo showed an expression of surprise. There was no doubt that seeing someone as rational as him be speechless was rare.

“—I’ve been such a fool…”

He mumbled only this.

Ubuki nodded, then raised her voice toward the many Mushitsuki behind them.

“Recall-tan!”

“…”

Not a moment passed since she was called that mist gushed next to Ubuki. It condensed, forming the form of a girl in her early teens. Her short hair and expressionless face coupled with plain clothes gave her the impression of a girl people would often ignore.

“We’re going.”

As Ubuki hugged the girl called Recall, a red glow rose from her.

It was a crimson queen bee.

Ubuki’s wings grew many times their size, creaking. The black pattern caused by fusing with her Mushi encroached up to her face and covered her eyes. Her pupils became sharper.

“Transfer condition—only Mushitsuki.”

As Recall muttered this, a queen bee appeared behind her as well.

The lower torso of the girl being hugged by Ubuki literally dispersed. The mist instantly propagated, covering all the Mushitsuki at the fishing harbor.

“Recall…? You—”

Mushibane’s admins, Namie and Aijisupa, wore expressions of shock.

Recall reached out a thin arm from within Ubuki’s embrace and lightly waved it.

“Bye-bye.”

With this farewell greeting as the signal, Ubuki leapt into the air with Recall in her embrace.

Reaching a high altitude, she then started flying horizontally.

And—accelerated.

Faster.

Faster.

“…We gotta go quickly.”

The form of the smiling Ubuki became something unsightly. Her wings kept growing larger and gradually the coat and wings melted into each other. Her face became pure black, and behind the goggles, her eyes were becoming compound eyes, like those of a dragonfly.

“You’re working too hard, Shiika-tan.”

[[File:Mushi Uta 15 p198.png|thumb]]

As she increased her flying speed, Ubuki felt important memories inside her gushing away. She could tell that her dream, a source of power much unfitting for such a powerless, unranked combatant Mushitsuki like her, was being devoured by her own Mushi.

However, she didn’t mind it.

The important people who lived on Aoharima Island and the new friends she’d made.

As well as her important—Sensei.

She knew the memories of these irreplaceable people would definitely remain with Ubuki to the very end. Ubuki would never lose to her Mushi.

“Recall-tan, you okay?”

Even her voice became much lower, sounding like a different person.

The girl protected from wind pressure by Ubuki hugging her was losing her lower torso. Not only that—but the further away from Aoharima Island she went, the more her body began vanishing. Just like a scarf being unfurled by its threads, her body already vanished all the way to the chest.

“As long as my head remains… probably.”

“…”

“I can only transport people to places I can see… it’s a bit far, though…”

The girl mumbled this expressionlessly.

Ubuki felt like lowering her speed—but she gritted her teeth and accelerated further.

“Shiika-sama—”

Recall kept mumbling.

“Taught me… that it’s fine to fight even if you’re weak.”

Ubuki hugged hard the girl who was becoming lighter and lighter.

“Yeah, that’s right.”

All she could do was fly.

She had no other abilities.

Therefore, doing that—was her way of fighting.

“Shiika-tan’s also fighting now, y’know.”

As she gained speed several times—no, dozens of times past her limits, the scenery visible to her also changed.

There was no difference between the starry sky and the sea, and she couldn’t even see the waves undulating.

Ubuki and Recall cut through the interval between black and black as though sliding.

“So we gotta—go faster—”

Ubuki’s consciousness was dimming.

Could she hear something crumbling because her body was also crumbling along with her dream?

Even so she kept accelerating in this world where she lost not only recognition of color, but even of time—

Ubuki certainly felt it.

The fragrant, nostalgic air above Aoharima Island sky.

And that day.

''Thank you…

On the island’s solitary clinic, herself from when she received the necklace.

The presence of the smiling youth—

“—!”

She just barely managed to hang to her consciousness.

She fought with her own efforts—no, it was the feelings she’d received from those important to her that helped her resist the Mushi feasting on her dream.

As she wrung out her very last powers, her sight retrieved colors.

The world where only black and black existed now changed.

She arrived at the mainland.

Ubuki strained her eyes, climbing above and looking for the place that would serve as the landmark, aiming for her goal in a straight line.

Then—

“—!”

Ubuki flew down to a land in the city far away from Aoharima Island.

She didn’t have the leisure to soften her momentum. Rolling on the hard asphalt, she hugged Recall tightly to protect her from the impact, crashed against a wall—and stopped.

“—”

She felt the very last drops of her dream fall out.

Within her vanishing consciousness, reflected in Ubuki’s faintly open eyes was—

A swarm of glittering neon lights.

As well as something turning toward her somewhere nearby—the face of a precious friend.

“—Ubuki!”

An innocent face with a white blizzard surrounding her.

There was no doubt.

She was Ubuki’s precious—

“Transfer location—”

Recall’s head came rolling from Ubuki’s embrace. The girl’s face changed.

The surrounding mist shrouded over.

“—Here.”

The remainder of the girl’s head dispersed without trace.

The phenomenon that occurred at the same time looked like changing the TV channel.

Where only the blizzard-clad girl stood before, now many figures suddenly appeared.

Seeing this, Ubuki reached her limit.

Anmoto Shiika infiltrated it, Haji Senri found it, and Ubuki carried them there.

Everyone sent there knew that place.



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