Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 8 Chapter 4 (section)

== 4.00 Marker-user VS The Annihilators' Ashimaki Part 1 ==
The rainbow jewel beetle emitted great light, transforming.

It inflated, then became countless tentacles.

"No—"

The glowing rainbow feelers enveloped Momo's body.

"Nooo!"

Momo tried desperately running away, but the rainbow jewel beetle didn't allow its host to escape. The feelers pierced Momo's entire body.

Stabbing her skin, the feelers permeated her body, becoming a pattern on her skin.

Her body felt like it was burning. As if molten magma was coursing through her veins.

"WAAHHH!"

She covered her pattern-covered face with her hands.

It was as if she was turning into a Formula One car. Forcibly stuffing her into the engine that contained great power, she felt like she could immediately run at several hundred kilometers per hour.

Yet Momo was a normal high school girl.

She had no brakes to control this bursting power.

She had no steering wheel with which to control this belligerence and her fear.

She was simply thrust into the cockpit of this machine possessing an unmanageable output.

"WAHHHH!!!"

Her right arm, turning by mere impulse, bumped into something.

An earthquake-like impact shook the substation ruins.

Momo's wildly swinging arm caused a transmission tower to be torn from its base and get blown away.

The cables connected to the other tower ripped apart, scratching against the ground and spreading sparks.

"Aaahhh…"

With tear marks on her cheeks, Momo folded her knees on the ground.

Momo didn't have enough fuel to move her body that was in control of this power.

It was the thing consumed in order to borrow the power of a Mushi.

The mental energy known as a dream.

Instead of overflowing with superhuman power, Momo was losing something important from within.

"Ahh…"

While hugging her own burning body, Momo recalled something.

Sepia, her childhood friend, began taking her distance from her one day.

It was around the time she'd gone to the high school in the capital. She said she'd bought a necklace with a ring and showed it to Momo.

Yet before long, Sepia had started avoiding her. When Momo asked her about it she had replied the following.

''—I became Aria Varei, so I might do something horrible to you, Momo.''

So she said. Obviously Momo couldn't understand her words and tilted her head.

And… was it around when they entered high school?

Momo came to know the meaning of Sepia's words firsthand.

Sepia had turned her into a Mushitsuki.

Momo didn't know how she'd done so. Even so she felt that Sepia, with her starved face, had "eaten" something from inside her.

And so Sepia was released from the burden of Aria Varei—and forgot about Momo.

She didn't know why.

It was probably something like this.

The mysterious being called Aria Varei was gone from within Sepia.

On the other hand, Momo who became a Mushitsuki was attacked by other Mushitsuki. The people wearing strange goggles introduced themselves as the SEPB.

"Nn…gah!"

Her heart was beating violently. As if a bomb exploded inside her chest. Her uncontrollable body moved on its own, pounding both hands against the ground.

Along with a tremor, a crack large enough to split the entire substation in two was created in the ground.

"Gh…Ah…"

Right—the same situation as now.

Momo had given in to her impulses, turning the tables on the Mushitsuki coming for her. The gap in their powers was clear, so it was just like swatting a simple fly.

What had been created back then was the trace of the explosion on the ground—the large crater.

She had despaired that she was turning into a monster.

She had known she couldn't go back to her normal life.

Yet the girl who had appeared in front of the beaten Momo denied that.

That girl was carrying a suitcase around. She wore glasses and her face was hidden by her bangs. She had a plain appearance, and the only thing eye-catching about her was her being tall.

Even when she looked at the monstrous Momo, that girl that appeared suddenly remained calm to an abnormal degree.

''—U-umm, I'm… Satou Youko.'' 

Although she hadn't even been asked, the girl had introduced herself.

''—Umm, I will save you. I promised to do so.''

While Satou Youko was speaking as if she was making small talk, Momo had seen her eyes for an instant. These dark eyes that had no glimmer in them made Momo feel that she was being paralyzed and dragged into the abyss. 

''—This is… an experiment I've devised.''

Giggling to herself as she added this, Satou Youko had stood on top of the mark she drew on the ground.

That was Momo's meeting with Coatl Head.

This simple, single mark drawn on the ground was burned into Momo's eyes.

"Uugh—"

Groaning, Momo suddenly raised her face.

It wasn't Momo herself that noticed. The Mushi fused with her just moved her out of survival instinct.

The writhing Momo's sight was filled with countless sharp claws. The thin claws coming from afar fell around her like rain.

"Ee—"

Raising a mumbled shriek, Momo took a light jump back to evade the claws.

Or so she intended.

However, Momo's body covered by the rainbow pattern managed to instantly clear the crater with a single jump. Leaving the rain of claws behind in the blink of an eye, Momo was unable to stop her momentum and plunged into the forest of steel.

"AAAH!"

The large steel tower was crushed and the network of cables overhead rippled.

Being hit hard, the bones of her entire body creaked. Momo raised her tear-stained face.

"Kii—"

She could see in the darkness the red, glowing eyes of a giant Mushi. It was an insect only in shape, as both its size and its wickedness were far removed from normal. It was just a monster.

The large Mushi opened its maw, trying to crunch Momo with its sharp fangs.

"Eek!!!"

Succumbing to her fear, she thrust the Mushi away with both hands.

The Mushi assaulting her was blown away as if she was throwing a steel ball that weighed several dozen tons. It knocked over transmission towers one after another, breaking them into pieces thrown to the sky.

"Haa, Hah! …Wah?"

She couldn't understand what was happening at all.

Her own physical powers were heightened to an absurd degree.

Conversely her mind was being eroded swiftly and her mind felt misty.

"Uuh…Aaah!"

She fell into a state of panic. She simply understood she was being attacked by something and she wanted to run away with her legs.

Her superhuman leg strength working for nothing, she hit her shoulders against the ground. Even so her momentum didn't stop and she bounded a few times on the hard asphalt, her body flung away from the forest of steel.

"Ugh… Uuh…"

She could only utter meaningless sounds for a while now. As if she'd lost her rational thinking and became a beast.

Raising her sand-dirtied face, Momo stood on top of Coatl Hot.

"Aah…"

The black people surrounded her. Their faces were hidden by goggles and masks.

A Mushitsuki that should never be born—

Who was it that called Momo like that?

She knew that the people surrounding her were trying to kill her.

"No—"

Trying to escape, she kicked the ground.

One of the men in black opened his mouth wide. A small Mushi clinging to his tongue extended thick, gum-like claws. It launched the pointed end of these claws endlessly, raining them down on Momo.

"Aagh!"

The claws hit her leg and Momo rolled over again. Ahead of her lay waiting yet another black-wearing person.

Being attacked by a Mushi with a fiendish expression, Momo hurriedly turned on her heels. Thanks to her kick, powerful enough to make the ground fissure, she managed to barely avoid the Mushi's attack.

She lost her balance and slipped on top of Coatl Hot.

She couldn't escape the encirclement.

Not only that, but it took everything Momo had just to resist the hot impulse coursing inside her.

"UUUhhh…UUUUhhhuuu!"

From outside she was being surrounded by many people with killing intents, and from the inside she was tortured by a searing agony.

Grimacing at the two inescapable fears, she hugged her own body tightly.

The boy with a Mushi perched on his tongue approached.

"Fusion Type Musitsuki are dangerous. They sould be annihilated while they're still in zeir confused wild state…"

Since she was a Mushitsuki who should have never been born, she'd be killed—

The suitcase girl Satou Youko had said this, but was this what she meant?

Momo herself hadn't done anything wrong.

She'd simply been made a Mushitsuki by her friend—were they going to rob her of her life just for that reason?

Why was it so unreasonable?

"Uuu…"

Raising an animalistic groan, Momo glared at the black-wearing people.

''I have to run away—''

The choice of running away came to her mind.

She didn't want to die here.

However, on her own, she couldn't muster the courage to run away.

"Dai…ske—"

The moment she chose to run, she recalled that boy's face.

''—In exchange… if that Mushitsuki comes out again, let's run away together, yeah.''

And he had accepted her after saying that.

''—Sure… let's run away together.''

He had promised her with a smile.

If she was with that boy, with Kusuriya Daisuke, she could run anywhere.

Right now Momo should be able to run faster than anyone. She only lacked the courage.

If she was with Daisuke, she wouldn't fear anything—

"Daiske…!"

She felt as if she hadn't spoken human words in a very long time.

Kicking the ground, Momo tried breaking through the encirclement.

However, she was again assaulted by claws. She desperately dodged them, but the other Mushitsuki came in front of her.

She didn't know how to dodge or land safely. She simply ran recklessly to try and escape from the Mushi surrounding her like a child playing tag.

"I won't letch you go back to him—"

The black-wearing man said while extending claws from his mouth. Since he was speaking while controlling the Mushi perched on his tongue, his voice came out as a mumble and the pronunciation was difficult to hear properly.

"What's going to happen if you both combine your powers… mabbe you'll become a threat that could destroy de the entire country."

Being pounded on top of the Coatl Hot drawn on the ground, Momo was stunned.

Destroying the country?

A threat?

She didn't care about that sort of thing.

The most shocking of all was the fact that the people in front of her wanted to block even her reunion with Daisuke.

She wasn't even trying to destroy anything.

She wasn't even trying to kill anyone.

She simply wanted to go to Daisuke, so they could run away together—

"…Uuu—"

Momo's expression changed. A flammable anger rose to her pupils as she glared at the black-wearing people.

At this rate she wouldn't be able to run away.

At this rate she'd be killed.

Momo's haphazardous movements weren't able to run away from these guys.

She needed a different power—a stronger one.

"Waaah…! Nn…! Nngh…!"

She recklessly swung her arm.

The ground rumbled as the stepped on it, and the gale created by her arm kept the black-wearing men away.

"Aaugh! Iyaah!"

She tried every possible movement like a baby having a tantrum.

Unable to even come close, the black-wearing men seemed agitated. Yet seeing Momo was just moving her arms and legs, they mocked her.

"Iz she crazy…?"

While dancing her strange dance, Momo scowled.

"Uuwah!"

No, it wouldn't do it.

Not with these idiotic moves.

She felt like she could do something much more incredible.

She had the premonition that she could use to energy running through her body to do something unthinkable.

"Agh!"

Hit by the rain of claws, Momo was thrown to the ground again.

As she raised her head, her eyes reflected the figures of the Mushi coming to finish her off.

''These guys—''

All expression vanished from Momo's face.

''I'll kill them—''

She'd erase all of them until nothing remained.

All those who stopped her from seeing Daisuke should die.

She was unkind—so unless it was someone she could be kind to, she would show no mercy.

"Uuu—"

Leaking a bestial roar, Momo's hand touched something hard.

It was the marker case hanging from her waist.

As she widened her eyes, the swarm of Mushi pressed on her.

"…!"

The vibration of the large Mushi clashing rocked the substation.

"Wha—"

The black-wearing man with a Mushi in his mouth was astonished.

Momo avoided the Mushi's attacks with movements like a different person's. She nimbly kicked their bodies, jumping atop an especially large Mushi.

This wasn't made with Momo's will.

The Mushi inside her was controlling her body.

"Uu—"

But starting there she acted out of her own volition.

When she roused her body, she drew out a single marker. A tentacle extending from her arm fused with it, and the tip was glowing in blue.

Her actions were already complete.

It ended in an instant.

She drew the exact same mark she'd already drawn many times, dozens of times—hundreds of times before.

She ran her marker on the Mushi at her feet to draw a symbol made of an arrow intersected with two straight lines.

That mark was drawn in vivid greyish blue—the color called baby blue.

A blue light with the meaning of "purification" came bursting from the symbol drawn by her.

"W-what's zat…? Run—"

Having a bad feeling about this, the black-wearing men all turned away to run.

But it was too late.

Since she was unkind, she was merciless.

Aiming for the night sky, the newly-born Fusion Type Mushitsuki—Marker-user Tanaka Momo—howled.

"Coatl Heaaaad!"

As the glowing mark burst, the Mushi's surface started bubbling as if undergoing some chemical reaction.

The blue glow that could purify anything pierced the substation ruins.