Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 14 Chapter 3 (section)

== 3.00 The Others ==

The American journalist, John Mash.

His interpreter and assistant, Ikarino Kirari.

So named themselves the two people who appeared in front of Taiki while he was on the road to school like always.

And his younger sister Noa also appeared with a delay.

“Big brother? What is it?”

“Mr. Matthew wishes to interview you.”

Ikarino Kirari the interpreter said this.

“More precisely, regarding your cousin. That person’s name—is Kusuriya Daisuke.”

Kusuriya Daisuke. A name unfamiliar to Taiki.

No—for some reason, that name caught his attention.

The surname Kusuriya was something even his parents mentioned before. He was pretty sure they said something about his father’s little sister, meaning Taiki’s aunt, and the fact that she had a child, making it Taiki’s cousin.

However, even other than that, he felt like he’d heard that name somewhere.

“Or perhaps—have you felt anything strange around you?”

At Ikarino Kirari’s words, his heartrate picked up.

There was obviously something bothering him as of late.

However, he felt like the sudden appearance of these two people was suspicious, so Taiki grabbed Noa’s hand.

“I-I’m sorry, but I don’t talk to strangers. —Let’s go, Noa.”

“Eh? I see…”

Ikarino Kirari started walking right behind them.

“Do you find the name Kusuriya Daisuke familiar? —Taiki-san.”

“I don’t. Stop following me.”

“Despite him—being your cousin? You don’t know his face or voice? Or what he’s doing?”

He felt pissed off at her method of questioning that sounded as though she was blaming him.

She was just like some reporter trying to rise up a scandal he would see on TV. Had his cousin performed some kind of crime that would shake society? Was that going to be the subject behind the interview?

“I told you, I don’t know. As for what he’s doing… has he done anything bad? Even if he did, it has nothing to do with me.”

As he turned around and spoke, he saw only Ikarino Kirari there.

The youth called John merely remained in his original position, scratching his head. He called out something in English toward his attendant.

“…I see.”

The girl with diagonal bangs lowered her eyes. She seemed quite disappointed.

“Then will you at least accept this?”

Ikarino Kirari grabbed his hand.

Being touched by a person of the opposite sex, Taiki felt startled. He was made to grasp a small memory device.

“Eh… w-what is that?”

“This is a copy of the footage made by Chronicler. He possesses the original, though.”

Ikarino Kirari pointed with her head at the foreigner man behind them.

“Please watch it. Not with your cellphone or anything, but preferably with a standalone terminal with no connection to the outside…”

“Haa?”

He started feeling creepy, so he tore his hand from Ikarino Kirari’s and hastened his pace.

The two mysterious people didn’t try approaching him after this.

“That man… he’s saying ‘Is he really that important?’ and pointing at us.”

His sister walking next to his side said with a suspicious expression. Since she had an exchange student friend, she could understand some English.

“So he’s talking about you? What did she give you?”

“I dunno. I don’t get it…”

He spat this curtly. He was still shaken at this sudden event.

Parting with his sister as he arrived at school, he headed to his own classroom.

“Yo.”

“Morning!”

Surprisingly, the number of classmates that greeted him was not much changed from yesterday. They were slightly above half their numbers and the number of absentees stopped going up.

“Good morning.”

Should he try get their advice about meeting with that journalist or whatever before?

For a moment he thought this, but decided against it. His friends would definitely be curious, but if his cousin really was some dangerous person—this might hurt Taiki’s reputation in his daily life.

Although something happened to Taiki, the chime announcing the start of lessons sounded the same as yesterday.

All lessons in all subjects were simply solving questions on printouts.

They were probably going to deliver the same to the missing students and progress the lessons.

“…”

Unable to solve over 70% of the problems, Taiki quickly gave up.

As he ended up absentmindedly staring out of the window, he recalled what happened that morning.

''—You don’t know his face or voice?

He was certainly fed up with everyday life and wished for some thrills.

However, that seemed to be naïve.

He felt angry at a complete stranger barging into his life so forcefully like this.

He felt anxious at being unable to imagine what was going to happen to him from now on.

If he was going to feel all that, then repeating the same daily life as always was much happier.

“…”

Unconsciously, he put his hand on his uniform pocket.

The memory device handed to him by Ikarino Kirari.

It was the sort of trouble that was unimaginable and not part of daily life in the least, but he’d lie if he said he wasn’t curious about the contents. He was told not to watch it on any terminal connected to the outside, but—did that mean it had a so-called computer virus, then?

Taiki didn’t think handing over something like this to him had any meaning—

Classes kept moving quietly, and during break he discussed rumors about Akamaki City with his friends.

And classes started again.

Nothing changed from the days he’d spent this far.

If there was one thing that changed, it was only the strange dreams he’d had recently—

“Hmm?”

In the middle of the lesson, one of his classmates sitting next to him raised his head.

Wondering what was up with him as he looked at this classmate, Taiki raised a brow.

Everyone in class looked above them with vacant faces. Even the teacher who was writing equations on the blackboard stopped his hands, frowning as he looked at the ceiling.

“…?”

Taiki wondered what was going on when the students suddenly laughed.

“Are they having a wedding somewhere?”

“Wouldn’t it be in a church, then?”

“That was so loud.”

“It was a nice sound…”

“Please be silent. It’s probably just some strange advertisement car. Let us continue class.”

The teacher put a stop to it, but he heard even neighboring classes clamoring about it.

With Taiki completely befuddled, classes ended free of further incidents.

“—What was that just now?”

As the break started, Taiki asked a friend.

“Oh, that thing. It was so loud.”

“You’re saying it’s loud but… what was it?”

As Taiki asked this, his classmates goggled at him. Then soon laughed.

“What, you didn’t hear it? It was so loud!”

“Probably slept throughout.”

“Are you the kind that won’t notice even an earthquake?”

Seeing the confused Taiki, a female student spoke.

“It was the sound of a bell.”

As he looked confused, they just laughed at him again.

A bell? Taiki hadn’t heard it, but—

Had he simply missed it because he really was sleepy? That was probably all that was.

“—Taiki, where are you going?”

“I have something to do.”

As the next break came, Taiki headed to the audio-visual room.

He could no longer hold back his curiosity regarding the memory device in his pocket.

He was anxious about its contents, but was also scared to bring an unknown like that back home. He didn’t have the courage to plug it into his personal computer at home, either.

“If it’s some gory footage I’ll just throw it away…”

Leaping into the empty audio-visual room, he turned on the computer at the far-most corner.

“Outside connection… I can just plug this off, right?”

He removed the LAN cable from the device. —Taiki picked a PC that was used by the research club, but it was actually just a gaming PC. His friends had invited him to play with it before.

He logged in using the PC research club credentials, putting the memory stick in the right slot.

“I really hope it’s not gonna break the computer all of a sudden…”

It automatically displayed the contents of the memory device.

Apparently it was a video file.

''— This is a copy of the footage made by Chronicler.

Ikarino Kirari’s words passed through his head.

Taiki had no idea who this Chronicler person was.

Did they have anything to do with his cousin?

Although he felt a bit anxious, he clicked the file—

“—“

Taiki watched it.

These were records of people Taiki hadn’t known about.

However, from time to time he found faces of people familiar to him.

No.

They were—people Taiki knew though there was no way he could.

Even after the bell chimed, Taiki couldn’t tear his eyes away from the footage.

Even after it ended, he remained seated there, entranced—

When the bell for the last lesson chimed, Taiki pulled out the memory device.

He came back to his classroom and started preparing for heading home.

“Hey, Taiki. Where were you?”

“Ditched class?”

Not even minding his puzzled friends, he took his bag in hand and left the classroom.

As he exited the gate, a girl greeted him.

“—Have you watched it?”

Saying this and smiling was a person wearing the uniform of Taiki’s high school.

Although this morning she wore a suit, this was the interpreter girl—Ikarino Kirari.

“Chronicler’s video, that is…”

Where had she gotten her hands on it? Ikarino Kirari, clad in the uniform of the same school as Taiki, inquired him in a tone as if she was his classmate.

“What do you think?”

“—What do I think… who were they? Are they really Mushitsuki…?”

Taiki frowned and spoke.

“…”

Apparently, his answer once again disappointed Ikarino Kirari. Her expression clouded over.

However—

“But… I knew some faces.”

“Eh?”

The girl twitched.

“That can’t be… after all, they appeared in my dreams—”

“Dreams…”

Ikarino Kirari thought for a moment, then spoke.

“Can you tell me more?”

“…”

“If you tell me more—I might be able to give you answers.”

“Answers…?”

Seeing the questioning Taiki, Ikarino Kirari smiled.

“I mean the meaning of your dream—as well as why you’re seeing it.”

In front of the frozen Taiki, Ikarino Kirari looked up the sky. —As if she was being asked something he couldn’t hear.

“As well as why these bell sounds started.”

He mustn’t ask.

If he asked, he’d no longer be able to go back.

Whether or not she knew about that baseless anxiety—

No, she definitely knew and yet spoke in a merciless tone—

“It started… ever since those dreamers failed the three operations at the same time.”

Bitterness and sadness, and a lone ray of hope.

Speaking clearly, Ikarino Kirari showed him a gaze that possessed all possible emotions.

“It started ever since among those Mushitsuki who are designated Rank 1—Kakkou alone rejected the fight.”