Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 14 Chapter 2 (section)

== 2.01 Harukiyo Part 1 ==

Harukiyo took in that nostalgic smell.

“This is—what you’d call a coup d’etat.”

It started at the very moment Haji Keigo said this and turned the flag of revolution against the government.

There was the unpleasant smell of flesh and blood burning. Harukiyo had the feeling that this scent clung to him ever since he was born.

What one might call the scent of hell.

“—Time to go.”

Harukiyo spat, his voice mixed with a sigh.

The domed facility, serving at the Mushitsuki’s temporary headquarters, was now filled with hustle and bustle. Following Haji Keigo’s announcement of a coup d’etat, Lady Bird’s appearance caused the confusion to reach its peak.

“You really plan on letting that woman go free?”

Said Kusezaki Ume, his long-time companion. The boy clad in an androgynous-looking sailor uniform was looking toward the still-smiling Miguruma Yaeko.

“How many years has she been toying with the Librarian and the Custodian for? I gotta wrack up my brains to think of the proper punishment for her.”

“Let’s ask everyone for ideas on torture! I believe you’re going to use mine, though.”

As Ume spoke excitedly, a large mirror bug appeared at his back. The mirror surface on the insect’s back reflected Harukiyo and his comrades.

Harukiyo looked to the side, speaking to Kasuou who was carrying Sleeping Beauty.

“Give her a message from me once she wakes up, Kasuou.”

“Ah?”

“Look—this world is the continuation of your failed dream.”

Hearing this, Kasuou and the girls called Nene and Tamamo all turned harsh eyes to him.

“You can also tell her that she has to pay for it sooner or later. She and Kakkou never even noticed how dangerous C was. They shoulda let her participate in the night of the meteor shower—and kill her.”

They all became speechless, hearing his words. However, Kasuou soon spoke back to him.

“Why’re you even bringing that up in that stage? You’ve lost your edge, too.”

“I’m just stubborn. You know that, right?”

The moment after Harukiyo asserted this, the scenery visible to his eyes changed completely.

It was the townscape of Akamaki City spread out, with a side gale blowing.

Harukiyo was standing atop the very summit of the dome’s ceiling.

He was instantly transported to the rooftop like that through the use of Kusezaki Ume’s mirror bug. Since he could control multiple mirror bugs, Ume was able to take a person’s reflections and reflect them from one mirror bug to another, thus transporting them to different location.

Standing next to Harukiyo were his several companions, including Ume and Haruka.

“So what are we going to do now, Harukiyo?”

The youth with a scraggly beard asked while stretching. Harukiyo’s friend, alias Santa Claus, was a another powerful Mushitsuki.

“Nothing. Playtime’s over.”

“Really? Really? What on earth have you been trying to do, Harukiyo? …Uh, my wounds feel like they’re opening again. I have to rub in more medicine.”

The girl with a pointy hat started rubbing some suspicious medicine on her own stomach. Her alias was the Witch.

“Nothin’ much. I just wanted Sleeping Beauty to wake up and crush me like a bug.”

“Ooh, so hentai…!”

The blond woman—aka Maria—started panting for some reason, sounding excited.

“And that’s why you’ve been looking for her for more than two years…? Hardcore…”

Sakaki Haruka, who wore the kind of clothes classified as Gothic Lolita, mumbled to herself.

At that moment, the dome shook violently.

Along with a roar, dust blew from the edge of his vision.

He wondered if a missile exploded or something, but that wasn’t it. Apparently, some impact broke through the dome’s walls. He could see the Mushitsuki all busting out of the dome within the screen of dust.

“Oh, so it’s over? Then I’ll be heading back home. I got to enjoy the rate sight of seeing Harukiyo almost dying, after all.”

“Right, right. We also almost died, but that always happens. I gotta go back and watch the anime I was recording.”

“I is sleepy…”

Even among Harukiyo’s acquaintances, they were especially powerful Mushitsuki. They were never threatened by anyone; a gathering of people who were as free as they were peculiar.

They were all going to scatter as casually as after going to late-night karaoke, and Harukiyo didn’t have the right to stop them. Nor a reason for doing so.

“Eh, we’re leaving already? But it still looks fun. It’s a war out there!”

Only Ume seemed displeased at this. Apparently he hadn’t played enough.

“I get the shivers, working with groups of people numbering more than two digits. I might vomit.”

“No can do, no can do. You’re calling it a war, but isn’t it a witch hunt? I have enough of people beating me after I try to get close in class. Ah, I hope the world gets destroyed so I get a vacation from school…”

“War bad! Love & peace!”

Ume pouted at their friends’ cold behavior.

“Then at least leave a little of your powers for Haruka! Maria-san’s sensing ability and Witch-san’s medicine and fortune-telling are useful. We don’t need you, Santa Claus, so you can go.”

“Hey! What the hell? Am I not actually the most useful? Well, I am not going to reveal my hand even if you ask me to, though.”

“No! Fakkyu!”

“Sorry, sorry. I’ll give you my remaining medicine, so please let me go.”

Complete rejecting Ume, the three friends ended up leaving. And in a ridiculous manner, too; the Witch pulled out a broom from somewhere and the three of them rode it into the sky.

“Can this not go any faster?” “Lessgo!” “Can’t you fly with your own powers, Maria…?” These voices grew further and further away in the skies of Akamaki City.

“Aw, they’re gone. Is that fine with you, Harukiyo?”

“Huh? What is?”

“Shouldn’t we make them help us in defeating C? Or are we really finishing here now?”

After being asked this by Ume, Harukiyo sat down on the spot.

“What’s defeating C has to do with me in the first place? I only wanted to settle the score with Arisu.”

“And yet you’ve let even Arisu-san get away.”

“I’ve done it all properly, so it’s fine. She came to kill me without any hesitation, without a goal and while using her full powers. Sure, she might’ve been sleepwalking, but that’s fine. She told me two years ago she’d do it, and she finally did. We’re even now.”

“…”

“And since I’ve survived—it just means I’ve won again.”

Under his eyes, a fierce fight was unfolding.

The revived Lady Bird served as rear guard, trying to let as many Mushitsuki escape as possible.

“You don’t look very happy about your victory, though.”

“Ah, it’s just that once I think about having to look for the next… ‘disaster’, I feel kinda down.”

Those were his real feelings.

He’d never been able to get used to that—the absurd disappointment and everything feeling so meaningless. Even though he’d experienced those countless time to this point.

“I don’t really get it… but your dream sure is a bother, Harukiyo.”

Harukiyo’s dream, mentioned by Ume.

There was one, single time he’d ever spoken about it out loud. Even he thought it was a bothersome dream, and in fact, the person who heard about it—Arisu—was shocked.

No, that was wrong.

Once she heard Harukiyo’s idiotic dream, Arisu—had cried.

She never revealed the reason for her tears.

“I’m seriously sick of this…”

Recalling this silly moment, Harukiyo clicked his tongue.

An abnormal scene spread overhead.

A gigantic shrine appeared from between the clouds.

“…Ah… something’s coming…”

The moment Haruka muttered this, Harukiyo glared at the shrine floating in the sky.

A red-hot heatwave was emitted around Harukiyo. It scattered the abnormal presence that approached as though to engulf them.

“Did C try a mental attack just now? Is this Shinpu’s ability gained by absorbing him?”

“If she’s just attackin’ randomly, I don’t feel like playing along. Welp, that woman down there will surely take care of it.”

As the displeased Harukiyo spat this, Ume turned to look at him with a puzzled face.

“Say, Harukiyo. You want to fight powerful opponents, right? Isn’t C ideal for that, then? I do have some interest in this fight against C.”

“I don’t feel really excited about this… sure, strength-wise it fits, though. But I don’t think there’s any way for me to beat this alone.”

His answer was apparently unexpected. Ume looked surprised.

“Oh, so you are interested.”

“Not while working together with that lot down there, though. All the more if I fight seriously.”

“Although you can’t win alone… you won’t join forces with them…?”

Haruka also tilted her head. Harukiyo spoke calmly.

“No matter how you look at it—it’s a losing battle.”

Overhead, the shrine kept emitting a divine glow.

Having thought about ending all of this already, Harukiyo was now even angrier.

“Kakkou’s gone. Fuyuhotaru’s also missing. Dunno if they’ll be able to use Arisu. Their final hope’s that fake Lady Bird. There might be like maybe five or six other usable people? They’re just gonna get in my way if I join up with them.”

He could see a seven-spotted ladybug flying to the sky.

Along with an impact, the giant shrine was finally eliminated.

“Lady-san sure is strong. —Oh, but look.”

Ume, who was watching over the state of the battle, saw how things went on the surface and wore a bitter smile.

“Looks like she’s acting on her own. I guess she wants to help all those weaklings escape? She sure hasn’t changed a bit…”

“If she’s still the same even after getting revived, there’s really no savin’ her. She’s just gonna carry everything on her own, not rely on anyone and die along with all those weaklings.”

Harukiyo also knew a little about the Rank 1 called Lady Bird.

Most likely, this goddess bravely fighting for the sake of others was going to embrace that pure spirit of hers and die with her people again. Her remaining believers were going to then idolize her, praying for her to get revived again.

“Meaning, there’s no way for us to defeat C at this point. Picking up a fight against someone you can’t win against is plain suicide.”

While watching over Lady Bird and others who ran on the surface, he spat.

“I wanna live. For that sake—I’m goin’ around crushing all the ‘disasters’ that have the potential to kill me.”

Both looking resigned, Ume and Haruka exchanged glances.

“So, we’re heading back?”

“…Let’s leave…”

“Yeah. —First, though, there is a little something that’s been on my mind for a while now.”

Harukiyo rose up and looked at Ume.

To be more precise, he glared at the person standing between Ume and his mirror bug.

“Who the fuck are you?”

A business suit-wearing woman stood there completely still. She was a beauty who looked to be in her mid-twenties, but for some reason she hugged a teddy bear to her chest.

Ume and Haruka both turned to look at this suited beauty with a startled face.

“Eh! Harukiyo also saw her? She just went and jumped into my Mushi when we were moving and it did seem like she came with us… but since everyone just ignored her, I assumed I was hallucinating her!”

“…So she wasn’t a ghost… what a letdown…”

Having come up from the surface up to the top of the dome wasn’t just Harukiyo and his companions.

Yet another unrelated person had been there from the start.

“I do apologize for disappointing you. I am a live person, and I serve as the secretary to the Chairman of the Akasegawa Group, Miss Akasegawa Nanana.”

After she smoothly introduced herself, the woman made the teddy bear bow its head.

“And he is Septem Punctata-kun.”

“What business does the secretary of Akasegawa Nanana and her teddy bear have with us?”

Harukiyo didn’t care about the woman’s eccentricity. He was used to weird people.

“Harukiyo-sama. Chairman Akasegawa would like to offer you a job.”

Saying this, the woman introducing herself as a secretary spoke.

“Please secure a certain object and deliver it to a certain place.”