Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 11 Chapter 1 (section)

== 1.01 The Others ==

Kii-kun.

That was his most used nickname in his fifteen years of life.

Never mind his friends, but even his parents called him that.

“You sure have a lotta free time, Kii-kun.”

In the convenience store located in the suburbs of Akamaki City, another person called his name.

“Let’s go play somewhere, Kii-kun.”

And yet another person under the clear sky.

Sitting in the corner of parking lot and glaring at his cellphone, he mumbled to himself.

“—Say, I wanna ask you, though.”

Kii-kun, high school freshman. His height and weight were average as if on purpose, and even the structure of his face was plain. The white T-shirt and slacks that were his school’s uniform were size M. His only attractive feature was the grown bangs that he pushed up his forehead and bundled in the form of a topknot.

“I got an email saying ‘sorry, I can’t do this anymore’… what does this mean?”

Still seated as he held up his phone and showed it to the others, the blinding sun leapt into the eyes.

It was afternoon after school, so the sun was still high.

“Who is it from?”

His friend that had his collar open answered.

“His girlfriend that he started dating just last week.”

“Oh, Kii-kun’s actual first girlfriend.”

His friend who wore glasses sighed.

They both then spoke together.

“You got dumped.”

“But whyyyyyyyyyyy?!”

Kii-kun shouted and his two friends grabbed him.

“A week! It’s been just a week! I’ve been talking to her a lot, finally felt things were going well, confessed and started dating her! We still only went on one date! It was the kind of pure relationship where we didn’t even hold hands, and I thought everything was just starting…!”

“No sane person would go for a hike as a first date. Not to mention it was raining and you climbed the mountain in complete silence… was this some kinda training montage?”

“It’s that magazine’s fault! ‘The amazing view from the summit will create an unforgettable anniversary’… it wrote things like that!”

“It wrote nothing about using a ropeway, right?”

“I-I made up for it properly! I apologized and I even sent her emails from early morning to late at night, and I went back home with her every day…”

“I’m so glad I wasn’t your girlfriend. You’d probably show up in my dreams. In a bad sense.”

Sobs leaked from the depths of Kii-kun’s throat.

“Ugh…! Oooooooh…!”

“H-hey, don’t start bawling over something like that…”

As Kii-kun crouched and broke into tears near the trash can, his two friends put an arm around his shoulders from both sides.

“Cheer up. You’ll definitely find another good girl soon.”

“You’re basically a good guy. You just end up getting carried away and do some nonsense.”

“Ooohhh… Thank youuu…! You’re also good guys…!”

A good guy.

He was often told that by the people around him.

Since he wasn’t good at studying and wasn’t particularly good at sports, that might have been his one and only strong point. There were also times where he got told “but you’re a good person,” and had his advances rejected, but…

He would most definitely keep living a normal life as a “good guy”.

He suddenly embraced this premonition, but found it satisfactory.

“Wanna go to karaoke or something? My treat.”

“Ugh, your nose is leaking. You’re dirty, c’mon.”

“Yeah…! I’ll go…!”

Wiping his nose on the tissue paper he was given, Kii-kun raised his face.

Then, there was an immensely loud car honking.

Following that, a high-pitched breaking sound, and a hard impact.

Kii-kun and his two friends watched the road, gasping.

They could see a car that suddenly stopped and a dark figure thrown ahead.

It was obvious what happened at a glance.

“An accident…?”

Kii-kun twitched at his friend’s words.

“T-they just jumped into the road!”

From the driver’s seat came a middle-aged man. The pedestrians around all clamored and people also appeared from the convenience store Kii-kun was nearby to see what it was all about.

''Are they dead…?

Witnessing this unimaginable accident, Kii-kun felt himself go pale.

However, his nervousness ended up being needless.

The dark figure rose up and started walking.

And headed toward him.

Not only the driver, but even the curious onlookers were shocked. Although the victim flew about 10 meters from the impact, they didn’t even turn to look at the car.

“Looks like some homeless person…”

Just like his friend said, the dark figure was covered in mud-stained clothes. They dropped their gaze and moved as if they were crawling, so he couldn’t really see their face. Their long hair dragged after them.

This dark person was trying to approach the trash can.

“They’re hurt—”

Kii-kun noticed a dark spot left after the person moved.

“Huh?”

“Err… is that blood on the ground…? Should we call an ambulance…?”

Timidly approaching the black mass, he raised his voice.

“Hey, stop that, Kii-kun.”

“No, but…”

He was just another onlooker, but he felt sick just overlooking a wounded person like that. At the very least he wouldn’t be in the mood to sing in karaoke like this.

However, this was apparently a needless worry for this dark figure.

“Ouch!”

The thin arm extending from within the clothes pushed Kii-kun aside. The person ignored Kii-kun who fell to his butt, and started fishing inside the trash can.

“Wait a minute! He was worried about you!”

The tall boy raged, putting an arm on the dark person’s shoulder.

“…!”

Seeing the face of the person turning around, Kii-kun and the rest froze.

This dark thing was a woman. She had discolored, swarthy skin and very thin ankles and neck that looked like withered trees. Her long, dry hair was like wires, and her eyes were dyed in the red of blood—

A demon.

It was much more realistic than anything Kii-kun had seen before in movies, manga and stories.

Was this due to starvation?

Her face looked like she had neither food nor water for a long, long time and reached the zenith of famine. She was so starved that her mouth constantly flapped open and close in search of something, and her eyes couldn’t distinguish between people and objects—

“—…ya…ee…oh…”

The women mumbled some incomprehensible words. At the very least this wasn’t Japanese. As she grabbed back Kii-kun’s friend’s arm, she clung to him desperately.

“Eek! What’s up with her…!”

“Hey, stop that!”

“Eeep…! This is seriously creepy…!”

Along with his bespectacled friend, Kii-kun tried forcing the woman away.

However, the next instant.

The woman’s head rotated like a doll’s and her wide eyes stared at Kii-kun and his two friends.

“—!”

Being stared by the woman’s starving eyes, he felt as if something was grasped inside him—

That sensation assaulted Kii-kun.

“Something” grasped inside him was being sucked away, absorbed into the woman’s flapping mouth—

Just like Kii-kun, even his two friends were completely paralyzed. Onlookers around and the cars on the road were completely still, as though time was frozen.

Being seized by an indescribable fear, it took Kii-kun every nerve he had to resist.

“…uWAAAH!”

Forcibly moving the arm that wouldn’t listen to him, he thrust the woman away.

The flow of time resumed.

However, his two friends weren’t able to come back.

They lost their strength and collapsed to the ground. They closed their eyes as though sleeping and stopped moving.

It wasn’t just that.

A huge object was floating above the collapsed two. A shape several times thicker than a telephone pole was split into three joints, ending in pointy tips.

He thought it was ridiculous as well, but if he had to liken it to something—they were probably insect legs.

There was no body or a head. The giant insectile legs were split into black and white and floated in air.

“Ooh… aah…?”

He was dreaming.

It was definitely some nightmare or an illusion.

He was about to faint, but the woman’s starving eyes and the screams around brought him back.

A large tremor shook the convenience store.

The spot where Kii-kun stood a moment ago was stabbed by a black leg, reaching deep. Fragments of concrete rose as though exploding, the entire parking lot had a crack run through it and the ground swelled.

“…oh… ka… mikko…”

He had the feeling that he heard this mumble among the screams flying around as the dark woman looked to a different direction.