Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 12 Chapter 3 (section)

== 3.01 OPS2 Part 2 ==

Inside the gloomy underground path, the walls were so clean that they could serve as mirrors.

In this space wrapped by silence several footsteps echoed. Seeing that the elevators and doors they passed from time to time made no move, apparently this facility lost all of its functions.

Since the emergency lights were on, the supply of electricity should have kept going. It served as proof that the new “master” of this massive maze was still definitely breathing.

A certain corridor deep inside the underground of Higano City.

Walking there were seven people of various appearances.

A young man dressed in a jacket, and an androgynous boy who wore sailor uniform. A girl dressed in Gothic Lolita fashion followed by a tall, blonde woman and a person wearing a hoodie that had bunny ears. There was also a girl wearing a triangular hat sitting while hugging her knees on a trolley, as well as the bearded young man pulling it, so from the side they might have looked like some sort of circus troupe.

“I’m already tired of underground dungeon delving. Can we find any treasure chest?”

“…I want an antidote…”

“Need toilet, toilet.”

“It’s your turn, old man.”

“Hey! Who’s an old man? And why is this my turn anyway, please hold it in until we find the next prison. —You too, Witch-san, please give me a break and walk on your own already.”

“How rude! How rude! Old men who verbally abuse ladies should go to hell!”

“Hey! You’re still a teenager. Haa, we will need to procure some food soon.”

The corridor was so narrow only three people could walk in it side by side. As for its length, it seemed so long as to seem infinite; anything ahead was just swallowed inside the darkness.

“…!”

Being at the very rear, Lop-Eared fell down.

The jacket-wearing man came back there, grabbed the hoodie’s collar and pulled. Lop-Eared nodded, apparently thanking him.

“Hey, Harukiyo. Let’s leave this kid behind already.”

The sailor uniform boy, Kusezaki Ume, spoke.

“…A liability… and another mouth to feed… a freeloader…”

The girl clad in Gothic Lolita fashion, Sakaki Haruka, mumbled curses.

“If you don’t like it you can go back. I don’t remember tellin’ any of you to follow me.”

The young man in a jacket, who was hiding his right cheek with many tapes—Harukiyo—spoke this, then went back to the road. He walked ahead in large strides.

Discontent and grumbling came at him at once.

“I even gave up on playing with Shinpu to come here. No way we’re going back at this stage. —Well, in hindsight it’s a disappointment to be just walking here for an entire day like this.”

“Bummer…”

“Fuck you.”

“It’s boring, it’s boring.”

“Shuddup. I’ll burn you, old man.”

“Hey! Same goes to you. I have said nothing, though.”

Inside the line of those complaining, the only ones who knew Harukiyo for a long time were Ume and Haruka. With the blonde girl, the witch hat girl and the bearded man, their relationship was just one where they tagged along because they felt like it. Leaving Ume and Haruka aside, he didn’t even know how the abilities of the other three worked. —The remaining person, Lop-Eared, was just a companion he’d met for the first time the other day.

Harukiyo knew long ago that his companions would get angry.

However, the angriest one there was Harukiyo himself.

“I’m pissed off…”

Special Class Rank 1, Harukiyo.

He became known as the leader of a third-party force comparable to the SEPB or Mushibane, consisting of few elite members.

However, that faction didn’t actually exist. Harukiyo went where he pleased, and the Mushitsuki that got interested in him and moved along with him just happened to be strong. —Well, there was also the fact that any weak Mushitsuki who appeared in front of Harukiyo got turned into Fallen.

“I’m the angry one here. Can’t you be a little thankful to us?”

“Right, right. We just wanted to grant our comrade’s wish. Go to hell.”

“Might! Beautiful!”

“—I told you, we’re not comrades.”

As Harukiyo turned around with blazing eyes, everyone there twitched and their faces froze.

“Idiot…”

“Stop it, Witch-san. ‘Comrades’ is the word Harukiyo hates the most.”

“I-I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Please forgive me.”

“My only rule’s that anything interesting goes. It doesn’t feel like we’re comrades sharing some sort of goal.”

“I’ll seriously burn you, old man.”

“Hey! But I supported you.”

Clicking his tongue, Harukiyo faced forward again.

Belonging nowhere and never getting too close—

Although Harukiyo always lived like this, lately he’d been called a lot by another name.

Ooenma, the leader of the Annihilators under the direct control of Central Headquarters’ Vice-Deputy.

Meaning, he was Miguruma Yaeko’s lapdog.

This was what it meant for someone to not care about their appearance.

Even while pretending to be the pet of someone he disliked, disgracing himself, and obeying the SEPB’s orders, he kept waiting for a chance—

And the time for it finally came.

Shinpu’s unleashing, as well as—C’s unexpected ascension to Rank 1.

Taking advantage of the chaos, Harukiyo threw away his mask as an Annihilator. Now that Miguruma Yaeko was unconscious, she couldn’t move what he looking for to another location.

Now Harukiyo returned being a lone Mushitsuki without any obligations, and started moving to find what he wanted for many years now.

Even so—

“I knew it, it’s definitely in Akamaki City’s Underground Fort, right? We haven’t gone to the deepest layer where C is. Using common sense, wouldn’t she hide something so important deep?”

“I’ve already gone through there. For an entire year.”

Harukiyo spat.

Having pretended to follow Miguruma Yaeko’s orders, he’d fully investigated all the Underground Fort’s important facilities. She was probably aware of his goal. However, even considering this, he couldn’t grasp even a single clue.

And then came the chaos created by Shinpu. Harukiyo, who waited for this chance, realized this was the moment and went around all areas of the Underground Fort he hadn’t investigated, and yet—

It ended in failure.

What he wanted was not in Akamaki City’s Underground Fort. He had to conclude that.

Following this, Harukiyo came to this isolated facility.

The place commonly referred to as the Prison.

Its vast size rivalled Akamaki City’s Fort.

“Still though, still though, this is a facility for isolating Fallen, right? Why’s nobody here? Did they all evacuate?”

Asked this by the trolley-riding witch, Harukiyo answered curtly.

“There were barely any Fallen here in the first place.”

“Eh? Then what’s this huge space for? This is a waste of tax money!”

“Might be an estimation that there’s gonna be a lotta Fallen? I don’t give a fuck about Miguruma’s plans.”

“Hey, Harukiyo. This is a bit hard to say at this stage, but…”

The sailor uniform boy, Ume, wore a bitter smile. He scratched his cheek awkwardly.

“Haven’t I told you that we already investigated this place too? Maria-san was with me, too.”

The Caucasian woman nodded in agreement. She was wearing the blazer of some high school.

Ume was right.

It wasn’t just there. They’d already gone and searched through every facility managed by the SEPB.

However, they could never find her.

Harukiyo’s objective—Sleeping Beauty.

“…”

This chain of failures brought a certain discomfort within Harukiyo before he noticed.

Something was weird—he was missing something.

This intuition brought Harukiyo to this place.

“I can accept that she wasn’t in the Fort’s deepest layer. Because they wouldn’t be able to respond if anything happened while leaving her right next to C or Shinpu. That being said, they wouldn’t hide her too far away, either.”

“And so she’s in the Prison? Certainly looks like a fitting place, but still.”

Following Ume saying this, the triangular hat girl and the others also looked puzzled.

“At first, sure, at first. But isn’t it impossible for us to fail to find it after looking for so long? With Harukiyo’s information network and Maria’s sensing abilities, as well as my own fortune-telling. We can even find a tyrant’s secret stash together. It seems too simple so I won’t do it, though.”

“What about the possibility it’s being hidden by the ability of a powerful Mushitsuki?”

“…It can’t be…”

“Haruka’s right, old man. That would cause all sorts of contradictions. First of all, using someone so strong just to hide Sleeping Beauty is odd. Also, if there was a Mushitsuki that strong, we would’ve never missed them. Because we’re always secretly watching battles between Mushitsuki in order to not miss them. When we do find them from time to time, we use some vague pretext to have Harukiyo go test them.”

Right, Harukiyo always paid attention.

Even watching the battles between Mushitsuki was for the reason Ume said.

Because he was so high-strung, he could assert this.

SEPB, Mushibane, and wild Mushitsuki.

None of them had the kind of Mushitsuki who could hide Sleeping Beauty from Harukiyo. At the very least no one had the kind of ability to be able to perfectly conceal her like that.

Ume sighed.

“If we couldn’t even feel their presence, they’re quite something. I’m pretty sure no one like that exists in the SEPB—and even if they were in Mushibane, I don’t think we would’ve missed them.”

“I see. However, this does not mean there is no answer to that contradiction, right?”

The young man pulling the trolley spoke while rubbing his short, unkempt beard.

“What about, for example—if there’s a traitor among us?”

“…!”

Everyone walking there gasped. They began feeling tense.

Any feeling that this was a nice walk vanished, and everyone started checking the others’ expressions.

“…”

Harukiyo erased his expression.

This was certainly—not outside the realm of possibility.

“W-wait a minute! So this means—”

Flustered, Ume looked around everyone’s faces. 

All the remaining others also stared at each other nervously—

And then changed expressions as if on a signal.

They grinned.

Ume wore a smile like a crescent moon.

“—It’s super amusing.”

Haruka, Maria, Witch, and the bearded young man all sneered, looking happy.

“Nice one, old-man. This is such a heart-pounding situation.”

“Uwa, uwa, it’s possible if I lie about my fortune-telling! I’m too suspicious. This is so fun.”

“If we’re going by the element of surprise, then I’m the suspicious one, since I suggested this. There is also the fact that my abilities are the least known here.”

“Me! Me! I’m traitor! I’m most strong!”

“…Isn’t Harukiyo also an option…?”

“In case any of you are tryin’ to deceive me, let me just say this now.”

Harukiyo turned toward the line and spat.

“If you do that, I’ll letcha decide whether you prefer yourself medium rare or well-done.”

His blazing eyes glared at everyone. They should have known based on their acquaintance so far that this was no empty threat.

Therefore, it had the opposite effect.

Those glared by Harukiyo just sneered happily.

“Tch.”

Just giving them threats was useless. He clicked his tongue and kept walking.

Originally, each and every one of them was powerful enough to easily play around with the SEPB assassins sent after them. Also, they were a gathering of weirdoes of the kind that didn’t want a boring death but wouldn’t mind an amusing one. They had no concept of betrayal in the first place. If they wanted to be enemies on a whim, their rule was just to go and do that.

He allowed them to accompany him only in order to find his quarry as quickly as possible.

As long as Miguruma Yaeko wasn’t there—

“Sorry, I got a message from Miguruma Yaeko. On the line reserved for Harukiyo’s Annihilator job.”

While pulling the Witch on the trolley, the bearded man spoke. He had no cellphone, and no other communication devices could be seen anywhere.

“What, so that hag didn’t kick the bucket after all?”

“…Smiley hag…”

“—What’s she said?”

Harukiyo grimaced.

So he didn’t make it in time—

Although he tried searching in any possible way, he wasn’t able to escape from Miguruma Yaeko.

“Apparently they managed to annihilate Shinpu on the surface.”

“Wow, they won. Since Kakkou-san and Fuyuhotaru were fighting together I did imagine they wouldn’t lose so easily, though.”

Ume smiled casually, but his expression froze at the young man’s next words.

“And in this fight—Kakkou has apparently become a Fallen.”

A heavy silence befell the underground corridor.

A complete stillness wrapped them, as if the temperature went down by several degrees.

Ume wore a strained smile.

“No way…”

His mumble permeated the silence.

“There’s no way he’d become a Fallen… right, Harukiyo? You said that Rank 1s are all ‘immortal’, right? Then even Kakkou-san…!”

“Kakkow? Who that?”

“Seriously? Seriously? I was so proud of myself because I once managed to barely escape from that demon… was it really that bad of a fight?”

“I’m having our comrades—sorry, our acquaintances—that are still above surface collect evidence, but there doesn’t seem to be any mistake.”

“I know—Miguruma did something to him! It’s obvious! She actually feared Kakkou for being a Fusion Type! Otherwise there’s no way Kakkou would become Fallen! Right, Harukiyo?”

Tears welled up Ume’s eyes as he clung to Harukiyo. The latter violently stroked the head of the former.

“You really liked him, didn’tcha.”

“Harukiyo…! You did, too!”

“I gave up on him long ago. —Ever since that meteor shower night.”

''At least as much as I gave up on myself—

He added this in his heart and tore away from Ume.

“Let’s head to the next area already. We’ve got not time.”

Although Shinpu was defeated, the fight shouldn’t be over yet. While the SEPB focused on the next battle, they should be able to move freely.

While walking in a fast pace, Harukiyo scowled.

“Well, that’s one less reason to hurry, though…”

Kakkou.

He’d clashed against that man more than once or twice.

However, the battle he recalled at the moment was that of the night of the meteor shower.

“If you’re useless, only I can do it—”

As Harukiyo mumbled to himself, the bearded man called to him again.

“Harukiyo. There’s still more.”

“Ahn?”

“The SEPB’s switching their strategy to the annihilation of the newly-designated Super Class Rank 1, C.”

Harukiyo clicked his tongue while walking.

“I realized it was C’s fault Shinpu got loose, but she became a Super Class Rank 1, eh. —If she’s a Rank 1, it means… ha, I’m so happy I have some more accomplices.”

“As the first operation of annihilation.”

The bearded man’s voice was dyed with immense tension.

“We will be told the location of our quarry—of Sleeping Beauty.”

Harukiyo stopped in place.

“—”

As he turned around, everyone’s shoulders twitched. Harukiyo had no idea what kind of face he was making right now.

“What was that?”

“I was sent the coordinates. Let me confirm on my GPS. The coordinates are—”

Telling him where Sleeping Beauty was hidden?

Harukiyo was supposedly being used by Miguruma in order to gain that information and Miguruma was supposed to control him by hiding him. Yet now she of all people was about to give him Sleeping Beauty.

What was Miguruma Yaeko’s goal?

Harukiyo instantly realized it.

“…So that’s how it is.”

“No way—”

Ume raised his voice. He apparently also noticed Miguruma’s aim.

“She wants to take Sleeping Beauty—and put her in place of Kakkou-san…?”

No mistake about it.

There should be no other reason.

“In this current situation… she’d probably happily replace Kakkou.”

Harukiyo grimaced in anger.

“If she’s the same as she was before, that is.”

This was the kind of woman she was.

Harukiyo knew this very well.

And Miguruma Yaeko as well—

“This is Miguruma’s final message. She told us to deal on our own with the likely uncontrollable Guardian.”

“What does she mean by a Guardian? —Huh?”

As the Witch got out a device and fiddled with it, she widened her eyes.

“I made sure of those coordinates or whatever—and looks like it’s here.”

The Witch pointed at their feet.

“It’s a bit far… but it’s inside the Prison.”

Harukiyo widened his eyes.

Ume grimaced and held his head.

“What the hell… doesn’t that mean we’ve been dancing to Miguruma’s tune all along…? What’s going on? Harukiyo…!”

“Maria, Witch. You really feel nothing?”

As Harukiyo glared at them, the blonde woman and three-cornered hat hurriedly shook their heads.

“No! No!”

“I’m being serious, I’m being serious! My fortune telling’s got nothing… this is the first time that’s happened!”

Sakaki Haruka and the bearded man exchanged glances.

“Guardian…”

“This probably means there’s a Mushitsuki protecting Sleeping Beauty. Being able to hide from us means they are quite the monster.”

A monster?

Was it really true, in the end?

The sense of discomfort born within Harukiyo just kept on swelling.

He felt as though he had all the hints and yet was unable to find the answer—it was this kind of a bad premonition. He also felt angry at still being unable to escape from Miguruma Yaeko’s grasp.

Even so.

“—We’re going.”

Harukiyo stepped forward.

Behind him, Lop-Eared once again tripped where there was nothing at all.