Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 14 Chapter 1 (section)

== 1.00 The Others ==

“Big brother.”

Hearing this small voice, Taiki opened his eyes.

As he opened his heavy lids and tilted his head, he saw his little sister Ririe peeking through the door. She had her hair in twintails and wore her middle school uniform.

“Mom says you need to hurry up and eat breakfast.”

After saying this, Ririe closed the door. He could hear her going down the stairs.

“Nngh…”

Rising from the bed, he groaned with his eyes still closed.

“—That weird dream again…”

He saw a bizarre dream.

He saw this same dream a lot lately.

No; to be more precise, the dreams themselves were different, but those that appeared in them went through the same things—

“…Ngh.”

He tried recalling his dream, but nearly fell asleep again. Taiki forced his eyes open again and exited his room with a sluggish gait. As he came down the stairs, his mom turned to him.

“Finally awake? Now, eat your breakfast already. You’re the only one left, Taiki.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Taiki, please remember to wake up on your own already.”

His father was glaring at him while putting on his suit. He worked in a management position at some company.

“Ah, you’re finally awake, big brother.”

Appearing from the corridor was the middle sister, Noa. Their father turned to her, his eyes narrowed.

“Noa, how many times do I need to tell you… tie your hair or cut it. It’s too long.”

“…Yes, dad.”

Watching from the side of his eye Noa obediently tying her hair with an elastic band, Taiki scooped up the miso soup on the table into his mouth.

It was a sight he was used to seeing every morning in his household.

His strait-laced dad would get dressed just on time while his methodical mother would take care of everyone’s preparations to leave for work or school. Taiki, the completely normal high-schooler in his second year, would oversleep, Noa who was one year his junior would get just about half-dressed, and middle-schooler Ririe would finish getting dressed perfectly.

Taiki’s family included five souls; two parents, then a boy and two girls.

Their family was just as always, but Taiki felt something was odd today.

“…”

It wasn’t Ririe, who was sitting on the sofa in the living room and watching TV. Everything about her, starting from her slender limbs to her hair tied into two pigtails, was the usual. She was meek, but she was a difficult little sister who often acted on her own, all the while wearing a composed face.

He was rather more interested in his other sister, Noa. She wore her school’s uniform properly and her conduct was fine. She supposedly had decent grades in both studies and athletics, but she apparently chose to live her life in school without standing out, not even entering any club. She released the hair she tied just now and was wondering whether to make it into a braid. That was the extent of her sense of fashion.

“Noa… did you grow taller?”

“Eh?”

She turned to him, her face in complete shock. Taiki got flustered without thinking.

“Ah, no, I mean… I guess it just felt this way?”

“What is this all of a sudden, big brother?”

Both Taiki and Noa tilted their heads.

“Ririe, please lower the volume a bit.”

Warned by her father, Ririe operated the remote control.

Shown on the screen was a scenery removed from normal life.

A swarm of armored military vehicles were blocking some roadway.

Residents were standing in front of the inoperative train station and the press corps were interviewing them.

A townscape full of tall buildings was filmed by aerial photography—

“…”

Taiki’s entire family went silent. They felt how tense things were even through the TV.

“—Unbelievable…”

His father sighed, sounding annoyed. His mother frowned in worry.

“It’s just horrible, what’s going on in Akamaki City. We’re fine since we’re far, but…”

“What’s the government thinking about, not even telling the citizens what’s going on?”

Akamaki City, the capital where the country’s central functions were gathered.

Just the other day, the residents had been issued orders to evacuate. As they were forced to evacuate just like that, and possibly because all news were suppressed, even the mass media was unable to pass along accurate information.

Since even the country’s functions were at risk, the TV obviously constantly focused on news programs. They reported about the state of the evacuees and the interest starting to gather from the international community.

In actual fact, Akamaki City and surrounding cities were in chaos.

But as Taiki’s region was far from it, they couldn’t stop schools or business. Just like always, most students went to school and most working adults went to work.

“It’s not Akamaki City, but is the neighboring Ouka City fine, dear?”

“What about Ouka City?”

“Isn’t he over there? You know, your sister’s kid. Kusuriya—”

“We’ve cut off ties. I don’t care about her kid.”

“But… it’s your nephew.”

Ririe twitched in her place and their father turned to her.

The reception was probably bad. For a split second, the footage showing the aerial photography of Akamaki City from the live broadcast camera was disarrayed. Static that lasted just a second shook the screen.

“—”

Both parents looked at each other wordlessly—and, perhaps not wanting to get into a fruitless topic, they both closed their mouths.

Taiki was quite a bit shocked. It was the first time he heard about his dad having a sister. And her having a kid meant that he’d be his cousin.

While seeing off their parents that headed to the front door as if nothing happened, Taiki asked Noa.

“Hey, Noa. Did you know we have a cousin?”

“Eh?”

Noa turned to him, surprised. For a moment she thought seriously—then shook her head.

“Nope, I didn’t know anything about it.”

“Right.”

Just in case he also looked to Ririe, but the girl shook her head to the sides.

The existence of a cousin—

While still pondering this small question, Taiki finished preparing for school and headed out.

His path to school, going along the national road, seemed quieter than usual to him. Even the cars running through it and the numbers of passersby were less than yesterday.

Taiki’s high school had a high deviation score in the area, with its alumni having high acceptance rates for university. The uniform blazer was quite popular too. Last year, Taiki—and his little sister Noa this year—managed to just barely squeeze through the fierce competition and get admitted to this popular school.

Even the school gate that was usually drowned in these blazers now almost looked empty.

The damage caused by the disaster striking Akamaki City did not reach all the way to Taiki’s region. However, it seemed like the anxiety and sense of danger definitely spread through the entire country.

Taiki was able to experience that by entering his classroom.

“Yo.”

The number of classmates that turned around to respond to Taiki’s greeting were about half their number yesterday.

“Heya, Taiki.”

“G’morning!”

“Oh, Taiki-kun’s here…”

About half the seats were empty.

A tall boy spoke to Taiki while putting an arm on his shoulder.

“Surprised? Everyone’s gotten scared of what’s going on in Akamaki and shut themselves home.”

“This isn’t an issue of being scared, is it?”

Taiki wore a wry smile and put his bag on his seat. Another friend approached him.

“Well, that’s right. Even if it’s far, you can’t tell what’s going to happen next. At least until things become clearer, it’s normal for parents to not send their kids to school, huh?”

“What does that mean about our parents, then?”

The girls also gathered.

“They should give us vacation time, then.”

“Teachers and parents are the same. No matter what’s going on in Akamaki, it’s important to not let our studies get affected.”

“So what’s going on there, anyway? Anyone here knows?”

“No, a lot’s being said online but it’s all fake news—”

His classmates talked about this and that.

Taiki sat in his chair and sighed.

They had no way of knowing what went in Akamaki City.

He found it difficult to believe something would happen in this region, so far away from the scene. He wasn’t intending to mock those who felt anxious and stayed home, though.

Taiki couldn’t feel anything changing around him. No matter what happened so far from him, Taiki’s daily life remained unchanged.

He had his parents—although they were a bit strict, he was never in want of anything, he had two little sisters, and schoolmates that studied together. Taiki had nothing to complain about. If anything, he was extremely blessed.

However, inside that blissful daily life—there was a small ripple, or rather a confusion.

This wasn’t related Akamaki City.

In fact, the reason Taiki sighed was completely different.

“What’s up, Taiki? Thinking you shouldn’t have come to school?”

A friend of his laughed while looking at him. Taiki put his chin on his palm.

“Not that. I just had a nasty dream…”

“A dream?”

Several classmates asked, and Taiki turned to them.

Should he tell them or shut up?

For a moment he hesitated—but he thought this was probably nothing to hide, so he opened his mouth.

“Say, have you guys—ever heard about Mushitsuki?”

A heavy silence befell the classroom.

Saying that they became even more anxious than when speaking about Akamaki City in a certain sense, Taiki felt flustered.

“Oh, err, it’s nothing. Sorry…”

So he apparently shouldn’t have said anything.

After all, those people called Mushitsuki were nothing more than a rumor yet caused some fear among the people—

And these people appeared in Taiki’s dreams.

In his first such dream the Mushitsuki that appeared was a beautiful girl.

“Yeah, never mind…”

Mumbling this, Taiki thought about that Mushitsuki girl—

He recalled that beautiful Mushitsuki who was could control a seven-spotted ladybug.