Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 11 Chapter 2 (section)

== 2.00 Immortals ==

Mikko, Kii-kun, Rui, Kasshi.

Due to those four, this country was going to be filled by Mushi and end—

This ominous prophecy heard within the mist made Daisuke’s anxiety swell.

“Alright, eat as much as you’d like!”

The expensively-dressed youth, Rui, spread his arms with a full smile.

Daisuke, Mikko, Kii-kun, and Kasshi all sat in front of a luxurious dinner.

“Woah, never seen anything like this before!”

“Cough.”

''—How about we talk while grabbing some dinner? My treat, of course.

Daisuke accepted Rui’s invitation, because he judged that he couldn’t allow himself to remove his eyes from him.

Since he’d spoken as casually as if he’d invited them to some ramen place, however, he never expected it to be a fancy hotel restaurant.

There were no other customers. Apparently it had been all rented out.

“…”

Kii-kun and Mikko were eating without any caution. Watching them, after he made sure there wasn’t any strange drug inside, Daisuke also grabbed the fork. Seeing that, Kasshi followed suit.

“Rui, was it? You’re awesome! Who are you?”

“Just a rich guy. It’s inheritance from my parents, though. If I don’t use what I got it’d be a waste, right?”

“Oh, so a deadbeat, then. Like some snotty young lord.”

“Uhaha, watch out your words, brat. I’ll charge you for the meal otherwise.”

Kii-kun and Rui exchanged words with smiles, looking cheerful. It was apparently solved easily.

“Quite the hobby you’ve got there, indulging in your sense of superiority by using your parents’ money on strangers to gain their gratefulness and respect. It seems that you possess quite the twisted personality, but I don’t hate you. And the food is scrumptious.”

“There are so many wrong things in how you said it just now, but thanks.”

Rui accepted even Mikko’s disagreeable comments with a smile. At a glance, he was a mere dandy, but his black hair was like a jewel that glowed differently based on the light going through it. Even so, he wasn’t acting with any pretense, so it felt as casually as if you talked to your college classmate.

After trying all sorts of food, Daisuke put the fork aside.

“Hmm? Is that fine, Daisuke? If you don’t eat a lot, you won’t grow.”

“My purpose is coming here isn’t just to get treated to dinner.”

Filling his mouth with mineral water from the glass, he glanced at Rui and Kasshi.

“I’m here to ask those two suspicious people about the dark woman.”

“Nothing’s about me suspicious in the least.”

The boy who called himself Kasshi stated. Although he lowered his hood, he apparently had no intention to remove the goggles hanging from his neck.

“But he is suspicious. The one who took the dark woman away on the pier was him.”

“…!”

Daisuke, Mikko and Kii-kun all looked at Rui.

“So you did see me. You really came at the worst possible timing.”

Rui readily admitted it. He scratched his cheek with a finger, looking awkward.

“We’ve used a bit of forceful method, but that’s our right. Originally we would have paid reward money and buy that sort of commodity.”

“Cough. …The Round Table.”

Mikko mumbled. Kii-kun looked confused.

“The Round Table?”

“A secret club of rich people. They’re the patrons of my father’s research… and his partners in crime. I heard that they were secretly bidding on who would buy the results of the research.”

Rui raised a brow.

“Your father’s research? Meaning, you’re the doctor’s…”

“Daughter, yes.”

Seeing the girl lower her head, Rui wore a painful smile.

“Aren’t you the one who let the guinea pig run from the facility…?”

“Could you please return my family?”

“They sent me—the youngest among the Round Table—running in order to do just that. Well, we need to return it not to you, but just to the research facility. Honestly, what a bother this all is. I already hopped off this train a long time ago, I was supposed to go on a trip with my beloved daughter.”

“Eh, you have a kid? When you’re so young?”

Being asked this by Kii-kun, Rui’s expression changed. His eyes sparkled and he reached into his breast pocket.

“Oh! She’s still small, but I can say she’s an angel—no, a goddess! Will you see the pictures?”

“I don’t really care. More importantly, please tell me more about—”

As Daisuke sighed, Rui rose from his chair.

“You say you don’t care about my daughter? Hey, you punk. Try saying that again.”

“I don’t care, I don’t care, I don’t care, I might as well die rather than care about your daughter.”

The two stuck out their noses and glared at each other.

“Cough… you’re like hooligans. Try to understand your own vulgar natures—ow.”

“Hey, Daisuke! Stop hitting Mikko like that, for god’s sake!”

“Will you look at the picture? Hmm? Or do want to hear my recording of her? Or the footage of her walking for the first time?”

“I’m sorry. I’ll apologize, so don’t show me that stuff. I really don’t care in the least.”

“…What a bunch of children.”

As Kasshi mumbled this, he was glared by everyone else.

“Ha! Then, why were you in a place like that? Leaving aside the doctor’s daughter!”

With a vein bulging on his forehead, Rui returned to his seat. Although he was the oldest there, it didn’t mean that he was adultlike in the least.

“I just so happened to go there after saving Mikko.”

“M-me too…”

“I just ended up there on my running course.”

Rui laughed at the three boys’ excuses.

“Liars. You were definitely hunting the dark woman to get a reward from the Round Table. Or perhaps you have another reason to aim for that. There were several people like that before. We call those people Hunters.”

Daisuke’s chest suddenly hurt. This familiar term made him recall painful memories from the past.

“It’s true, regarding me and Kii-kun. You can just ask Mikko. We were just dragged into this.”

“So, will it be farewell here? Doesn’t look like it, though. Kasshi too.”

At Rui’s words, the three boys affirmed with silence.

“Simply be honest. You shouldn’t get involved anymore.”

“—I am interested in the research of the Undying.”

He apparently needed a reason to stay with Mikko. Daisuke spoke.

“So I don’t intend to back down at this stage.”

“Me too… that dark woman might have done something to me. I want to know what that was.”

Kii-kun bit his lips. He was probably afraid of being abandoned.

“Undying—you say?”

Daisuke didn’t miss Kasshi’s eyes growing sharper.

“Now you’ve got my interest. Since I decided to tag along on my own, you don’t need to mind me.”

“This is ridiculous—”

Drinking all his wine, Rui placed the glass down violently. His expression was dyed in anger.

“Have you heard from Mikko? About that failed research…”

“Failed?”

Daisuke looked at Mikko. He heard nothing about the research failing.

“Cough… some people thought it was no failure. That’s why I took my family and ran.”

“Just like the people throughout history who attained fortune and fame and then at last sought the secrets of immortality… there were many people like that in the Round Table. What did that lead to, though? Never mind the Undying, it simply created an unknown monster.”

A monster that could birth Mushi—

No, more precisely it was Imperfect Mushi.

Although removed from the original purpose which was “immortality”, if it gave birth to an entity that could become the next Original Three—

Daisuke couldn’t ignore that research.

“But… the dark woman was run over by a car and didn’t die. Meaning—”

Perhaps recalling a scary sight, Kii-kun’s voice was shaking.

Rui spat out, his voice full of disgust.

“She’s just hard to kill. And it was gained by methods no normal people would benefit from. This convinced me and I first gave some money, but I also got off that train. I was forced to deal with the aftermath, and then I plan to end this silly research.”

“To end it, you say. —Really?”

Coughing, Mikko looked at Rui.

Her almond eyes and the youth’s jewel-like black hair faced each other.

“If you put an end to my father’s research and release my family with me… I will help with your ‘hunt’.”

“That’s a promise.”

Rui nodded with a serious face.

The smile of the girl who narrowed her eyes kindly—looked truly happy.

“Then I will tell you about the ''other'' test subject that ran away with me.”

What was that?

Since he couldn’t fully understand her, no voice came out.

Another test subject—it sounded to him as if Mikko said this.

“I hate your patronizing way of speaking… but do you have any idea about them?”

“Cough… I do not know his current location. But he would definitely head there.”

“He, you say?”

Daisuke rose up from the seat without thinking.

A “fourth” of the Original Three might be born.

Since the “dark woman” who held this possibility had been captured, all he needed to do was investigate the research.

He really thought so, and yet—

“Don’t tell me that your family has more members…”

“Yes, I ran away with two people.”

Finishing the meal, Mikko returned her mask in place.

“But my family’s larger than those two.”

The girl smiled as if introducing a happy family.