Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 15 Chapter 3 (section)

== 3.01 The Others ==

Pointing the gun at Chiharu, Kirari spat in a cold voice.

“Don’t move, Ayukawa Chiharu-san.”

Standing at the garage door, Ririe glared at Ayukawa Chiharu and then mumbled.

“Aria Varei—”

“You too.”

Ririe stopped as Kirari looked to her as well.

“Tell the Revived outside to also show themselves and stay still.”

Ririe was speechless.

“If you don’t—I’ll kill Ayukawa Chiharu-san here.”

Chiharu shuddered. Taiki didn’t know what to do at this sudden development.

“Kirari-san…? What are you doing?”

Ignoring Chiharu’s question, Kirari spoke to Ririe.

“You want to absorb the Original Three—Aria Varie—that’s inside her, right? But if the vessel dies here, then Aria Varei who’s fused with her will be gone as well.”

“…”

“By killing the vessel, I could kill Aria Varei. Miguruma Yaeko knew them to be such a fragile existence—which was why she attacked Aoharima Island, trying to kill Sanbikime along with the vessel.”

Kirari and Ririe glared at each other.

“All I want is to have a little talk with you. —However, if you’re not willing to talk, I’ll kill Ayukawa Chiharu. Before she gets absorbed by you and you become an even larger threat.”

“Talk…?”

Chiharu was shocked, turning her face to Ririe.

“With her—with C?”

C.

This time it was Taiki’s turn to shudder.

He heard this name so much every night in his dreams that he was sick of it.

The C he knew and his sister weren’t alike at all—no, perhaps there were a few traces of that in her face, but they were definitely different people. He couldn’t understand the meaning behind Ikarino Kirari’s actions, but he could understand Chiharu’s words even less.

“You know what kind of person I am, right? Even if you know, you can’t say this is an idle threat, right? Since you’re C—you can think logically about it.”

She definitely wouldn’t lose against Ikarino Kirari’s resolute actions. However—

“…”

Ririe’s eyes softened and she became expressionless again. Behind her, many boys and girls appeared in front of the garage. All of them were expressionless as if they were mimicking her.

“Ririe…?”

Seeing his little sister commanding all these strange people, Taiki felt like he didn’t know her at all.

“Thank you very much for agreeing to talk.”

Ikarino Kirari thanked her and bowed politely.

Now retrieving her calm, Chiharu glared at Kirari. There was a very unsettling atmosphere throughout the garage.

“…Can you explain what you’re doing? Kirari-san.”

“Thank you very much for using my services. I am Handyman Kirarin✩.”

Still holding the gun, Kirari bowed again.

“I am currently fulfilling two requests. However, their contents are one and the same.”

The girl who managed to seal the movements of both Ririe and Chiharu looked at Taiki.

“That is, returning a certain Mushitsuki to the frontlines—namely, Kakkou.”

Taiki was confused.

He had no idea who Ikarino Kirari was, and he didn’t care for her goals.

However, for some reason—she looked straight at him and started talking.

“He continued fighting ever since he became a Mushitsuki. For a long time… he hurt many people and he also saved many people. Like, Fuyuhotaru, Lady Bird, as well as… a certain Marker-User. Without him, perhaps the entire country would have gotten affected by their rampage.”

Kirari’s tone was detached. Was she speaking about some stories from the past Taiki knew nothing about?

“—But he then exhausted himself.”

This had nothing to do with him.

Even so, strangely—he felt something stir within him.

“Just as he was about to Mature… he got his Mushi killed by Fuyuhotaru, and his life was saved. In return, he became a Fallen with neither memories nor feelings… but even in that state, he was still needed. By the queen bee’s group, including Ayukawa Chiharu right here.”

“I—I’m not like Chami-chan—”

Ayukawa Chiharu tried denying it, but soon wore a pained face and went silent.

“However, Kakkou rejected Chiharu-san’s call. Because he knew that if he woke up, he’d have to fight again. He was… too tired.”

While Kirari spoke matter-of-factly, Chiharu averted her face.

“However, the queen be—did not allow Kakkou to sleep.”

“Thinking that if calling him wasn’t enough, she could let those who knew him well try to convince him, the queen bee split the personality she pulled out of Kakkou and sent it to his close acquaintances or those of the same power level—to the Rank 1 Mushitsuki. If they resonated with each other, they might be able to forcibly wake up Kakkou… this was her gamble.”

Taiki’s heart felt like it jumped inside his chest.

Resonating with the Rank 1s—

Hearing these words, the bad premonition inside Taiki was growing worse.

“Letting Kakkou’s personality come in contact with the Rank 1s and recollecting it was Ayukawa Chiharu’s job—and I was requested to deliver it to Kakkou’s body. It also overlapped with a request I’d been given by another person before…”

“—W-wait a minute—”

Wait.

Taiki wanted to stop her, but Ikarino Kirari continued forcefully.

“Kakkou’s body was found by the queen bee’s comrade, who could use an ability to see afar—but two unexcepted things happened.”

The girl’s eyes watching Taiki narrowed in sadness.

“Firstly, apparently Kakkou-san’s fragments I collected had some of the Rank 1 memories copied into them—”

The memories of the Rank 1 Mushitsuki—Tachibana Arisu, Harukiyo, as well as Sleeping Beauty, Arisu.

For some reason, their names rose to Taiki’s mind.

It was because he dreamt about them every night—because he watched parts of their memories.

“And another miscalculation—was that Kakkou’s body was living as a completely different person.”

“—”

Ririe’s brows twitched and she tried moving her arm.

Ikarino Kirari immediately put power into her hand holding the gun, keeping Ririe in check.

“I did think I was mistaken at first. There’s been such an ingenious, careful falsification of reality. —I couldn’t believe it had been done in so short of a time.”

Falsification of reality—

Taiki heart beat to a painful extent. Even so his body felt heavy and he couldn’t move even a single finger.

“With none the wiser and with no one noticing—a certain household suddenly had ''two'' more kids. Starting with those parents and their only daughter, to the people living nearby and even classmates, any and all humans related to them had their memories manipulated. She created two fake lives, carved those into everyone’s memories, falsified the family register, grades and all other relevant digital data, and even prepared rooms. There was even an album with composite photos…”

It was there that Taiki’s thought short-circuited.

He simply couldn’t understand what the girl was saying. —Or wouldn’t.

While holding the gun, he didn’t know why she was making such a sad face.

“I just barely managed to find an old official copy of the family register… not a digital one, but one that was no more than yellowed paper. If I’d been just a little late in finding it, it would’ve been purged as well.”

“…”

“There was only three people’s worth of information written there. Among the two not written there, one was the body double of the falsifier herself, C—”

Ikarino Kirari looked at the girl standing at the entrance to the garage.

“Takashiro Ririe.”

Ikarino spat this, then tried turning toward Taiki—

“And the other one is—”

“Wa—wait—”

He blocked her sight with a hand, as if he didn’t want to look at Kirari’s face.

“…Please wait…”

He repeated this, his eyes widened.

Ikarino Kirari’s explanation were too hectic, something that could just be laughed off.

Even so—the heartbeat pounding inside his chest wouldn’t let him do so. Cold sweat erupting all over and the sounds pounding in his chest urged Taiki violently.

Get out of here, quickly—they seemed to be saying this.

“Why would you do that…”

After being rejected by Taiki, Ikarino Kirari turned her face to Ririe.

“If you were just scared of Kakkou-san, you should’ve just hidden him somewhere no one would find him—no, you even had the choice to kill him! So why would you go through the trouble of doing all that…!”

“K-kill…?!”

Kirari blamed Ririe, while Chiharu blamed Kirari in turn.

“—I do not fear Kakkou.”

Seeing his little sister suddenly say this, Taiki felt his breath stop.

His little sister, who he was so used to see, started transforming. Golden lines surged around her and her hair ends and fingertips became covered in glowing lines of electric flow.

“—”

Seeing his little sister transform into something inhumane, Taiki felt the very last traces of his rationality crumbling away. His head became blank.

“I am not afraid of anything. The system called C is to make all of humanity into Mushitsuki, make them Undying, and lead them to eternal rest. Leaving aside the Mushitsuki of the old generation trying to eliminate me, I have the right to screen all other people with my Deluge.”

All human emotions were gone from Ririe’s expression. She was looking at her supposed brother Taiki with doll-like, round eyes.

“There are no exceptions. No one is special to C.”

“If he’s not special, then why…!”

“Since the Mushitsuki called Kakkou stood in my way, I have eliminated him. If he was a Fallen, I could revive him into the Undying and thus saved him.”

Ririe’s mouth did not move at all. Even so her voice kept echoing.

“However, when I picked him up, he was empty.”

“…!”

Ikarino Kirari and Ayukawa Chiharu widened their eyes—and looked at the shining necklace.

If the story from before was true, Kakkou’s personality was in there.

Originally, it should’ve been inside the owner’s body.

“This was my first time handling an empty body. Since this was an unprecedented case, I had to experiment. It was needed in order to gain more data for the creation of a new world, too.”

“An… experiment—”

As Taiki muttered this unconsciously, Ririe’s eyes passed at him.

“Creating a personality and giving it to an empty body.”

Finally—

What Taiki already understood for a while now, those words that would ruin him—

“The personality called Taiki didn’t exist until now.”

Came right from the mouth of his little sister Ririe.

His memories of living with his two sisters ever since he was young.

His memories of playing with childhood friends as well as other friends he made while growing up.

All of them—were simply fabrications.

He wanted to laugh it off, say there was no way it was true—but right now Taiki was surrounded by far too many unrealistic things.

Right, to the extent that the balance between reality and fiction was reversed—

“Apart from giving you a personality, I gave you the right to be chosen by the Deluge. —So there’s no exception, and nothing special about you.”

Ririe’s mechanical tone sounded terribly creepy to him.

“That is also a needed process in order to create a new world. Once I eliminated all the failed products and bequeathed rest to everyone turning them into the Undying, there would no longer be any need for humans to fight. —Then, as long as life activities are preserved, I can reconstruct the world.”

Although no one was even listening, Ririe continued talking.

“By controlling the memories of the new mankind called the Undying, the very concept of death will be gone. As long as life activities and breeding will be preserved, I will give everyone personalities lacking any violence, preserve birth rates and make the newborn into Mushitsuki as well—and recreate the world as one without any fights or fear.”

Ririe recited her own duty disinterestedly.

“Everyone will continue forever without losing anything. —The world will become Undying.”

Neither Taiki, Ikarino Kirari or Ayukawa Chiharu could say anything.

They were probably all thinking the same.

Taiki especially noticed it with pain that felt like his entire body was being twisted.

“And the failed products are resisting the world where no one loses anything.”

“—Then why?”

Taiki’s mouth moved on its own despite his intentions.

He didn’t want to say this—but he ended up spitting what he shouldn’t.

“Why is… nothing happening to me now?”

Kirari and Chiharu probably understood.

Therefore, both averted their eyes from his with pained-looking expressions.

“That Deluge or whatever already started, right? But I can’t feel anything… I can’t even hear the bells… Does that mean I’m not being selected…? I’m not even a Mushitsuki, so why am I the only one…”

That was the biggest reason why Taiki couldn’t believe in his existence.

“Why do I feel so sad, hearing all of this now…?”

The world that Ririe—no, C created shouldn’t have any pain in it.

Taiki himself was supposed to be a personality created by C.

The fact he was feeling pain was a contradiction.

“…”

The thing that took Ririe’s shape looked at Taiki and thought.

After thinking, she mouthed her conclusion.

“You’re a failure.”

“—”

These three words seemed to cut off the being known as Taiki and throw him away.

Just like trash.

Just like a used teabag, his life was thrown into the trashcan.

“My personality-fabricating program was standardized based on the memories and feelings from the Mushitsuki I touched. I should have given you enough years’ worth of memories to have a dream, but it was unexpected you would have no reaction to my Shrine. And since you are physically fine, bearing no wounds or mental stress, it’s also abnormal for you to feel pain. I shall now fix—”

“Stooop!”

Shouting loud, Taiki leapt back from Ririe who was raising an arm.

“Don’t do… anything else to me…!”

“Why are you rejecting me? I only want to remove your pain and fear—”

“I told you—don’t try anything.”

Ikarino Kirari put strength into her finger holding the trigger. Ririe stopped moving.

“You’re not the one to decide here, C. Also—it’s not you, Chiharu-san, either.”

Chiharu’s face froze.

Shaking her diagonal bangs, Kirari looked at Taiki.

“The one to decide is Taiki-san.”

“…!”

“Right now, only the person called Taiki-san has the authority to decide what to choose.”

Choose?

Being suddenly told that, Taiki was confused.

What did Taiki need to choose right now?

“Chiharu-san, I have the same goal as you. However, you can’t just ignore the opinion of a ''completely unrelated'' person.” 

Chiharu became speechless at Kirari’s words.

“Since you were trying to sacrifice someone who wasn’t given the choice to try and call him back—I doubt Kakkou will respond to your call.”

“…!”

“You don’t wish for it either; you’re just forcing yourself due to your sense of duty and responsibility, right? You want to carry all sins on your back. —Since Kakkou had done the same until he exhausted all his powers again and again, he would definitely not wish for this.”

Chiharu’s expression became more and more twisted. She looked like she wanted to deny it, but her body shook so much that no words came out.

“C.”

Ikarino Kirari turned to Ririe next.

“To me it does look like Taiki-san’s special to you. You may call it an experiment, but I don’t believe you needed to make such meticulous preparations, in that case… not to mention you putting your own body double as his sister. If you just wanted to watch over him, you had plenty of ways.”

“I am C. There are no exceptions. I have no one special to me.”

Ririe spoke naturally.

“A family living together is the most popular arrangement.”

“…Eh?”

Taiki let out a stupid voice without thinking, glaring at Ririe.

The girl who was but wasn’t his sister spoke.

“I am a special body without any personality either. Therefore—me and Taiki are siblings.”

Siblings.

That was too much of a leap in logic; there was probably another way of saying that.

However, if there were only two similar existences in this world—

Perhaps they could be called family.

He could almost believe this—since Taiki felt like he was going to stop breathing from loneliness, he had the sense like this was a very small salvation.

“…I can only think of what she’s doing—of the world she is trying to create as a boxed garden that uses people as playthings. If you abandon people who aren’t Mushitsuki, you won’t last long anyway…”

Ikarino Kirari spoke.

“But I myself want to accept the person called Taiki-san.”

The girl with a gun changed her expression, glaring at Ririe.

“It’s been only for a short while, but the Taiki-san I’ve seen was definitely human. That’s why I believe he should be the one to decide. —C. If you claim you two are siblings because of this experiment you’ve conducted on him, then his next actions should also be data for you. I don’t mind what you do to us after he makes his choice. How about that?”

Ririe looked between Kirari and Taiki’s faces.

“—Agreed.”

Her response was quick.

“However, C declares that she won’t attack anyone here after Taiki’s choice. Showing any hostility toward you two might end up influencing his decision, after all.”

“Thank you very much. …Chiharu-san.”

Ikarino Kirari turned her face to Chiharu.

“The one you see now isn’t Daisuke-san. It’s Taiki-san. He also has a family. —Even if it was fabricated, it’s becoming reality.”

“—uh.”

Something like a hiccough leaked from the depths of Chiharu’s throat. Looking at Taiki desperately, her face ended up distorting painfully.

“He has the right to live a life without fighting.”

Chiharu’s hand holding the necklace—grasped it. The ring’s glow was vanishing.

“…I don’t get it…”

Hugging her clenched fist, Chiharu squatted down.

“I mean, Daisuke… probably wished for this life…! If I steal it from him again, I… but if I don’t do that, Daisuke will…! I don’t know anymore—”

Rounding her body on the ground, Chiharu raised her tear-stained face.

“Sorry for being such a lousy sister…!”

Sister.

Taiki looked at the sobbing Chiharu with a start.

She was—the older sister of the person called Kakkou. There was something so ghastly in her eyes looking at him because she looked at her family member inside him.

“Taiki-san, tell us what you want to do.”

Kirari looked at Taiki.

Ririe and Chiharu also looked at Taiki.

“Eh… what I want to do—meaning—”

The girls said they’d let Taiki choose.

They asked him what he wanted.

Wasn’t there only a single thing he wished for?

“But that’s—”

He wanted to go back to his previous normal life.

Did they think he had any other choice?

Or were they thinking that he was about to hand over his body to the one called Kakkou? If so, they considered Taiki too much of a fool.

“I, I want things to be like they were until now—”

Ikarino Kirari was made no reaction.

Ayukawa Chiharu twisted her face.

Ririe—was expressionless, much like she was watching something on a screen.

Seeing his sister’s unknown figure, he started muttering.

“I, I…”

Just like they were until now?

Even though—he now knew that these were nothing but fake memories created by C?

No, he didn’t mind that. Well, he did mind it, but it wasn’t a problem. Even if all of this was a lie, Taiki had been able to live his life just fine. Because he had been given this choice.

If so, then why did Taiki hesitate so much?

“Taiki has no reason to lose his personality and return being Kakkou.”

Ririe spoke.

“If you say you’re hurt, I will remove that pain.”

That voice sounded somewhat kind—because Taiki finally understood something.

Ririe—no, C—wasn’t Taiki’s enemy.

She didn’t have any intention of hurting Taiki; rather the opposite. She was trying to save him from pain. It was true that he had no reason to reject her at all.

However—

“…”

Seeing the people behind Ririe, Taiki couldn’t help but feel anxious.

The Revived. Since he saw them in the Rank 1s memories, he knew what they were very well.

The were the Undying, revived by reusing the power called a dream.

They also said that they were given personalities like Taiki to create a painless new world.

And these people also looked extremely creepy to Taiki.

“…Thanks, Ririe.”

Taiki smiled at his sister Ririe.

It was a very awkward and forced smile—and he had the feeling that he smiled for the first time in a long while.

“You’re my family. …Noa, dad and mom, too.”

“Yes, true.”

Her mouth was unmoving, but Ririe nodded.

What Taiki wished for was a peaceful life like what he had until now.

Even if it was manufactured. Even if he had fake memories.

His father was a bit strict, but he prided himself on protecting his family. His mother was noisy, but she supported her husband and children. Although Noa was starting to show signs of being rebellious, she never troubled her family, and he was looking forward to see the smart Ririe’s future.

That was Taiki’s family as he knew it.

Unlike those people behind Ririe who had expressions like dolls—

“…I wonder. Can this guy called Kakkou…”

His legs started shaking as though convulsing.

Fear and anxiety made even Taiki’s voice shake.

“Win against C…?”

Ririe remained expressionless.

Ayukawa Chiharu slowly raised her face.

Ikarino Kirari—shook her head to the sides.

“—I don’t know.”

Right.

He saw the memories of the Rank 1s to a painful extent.

He knew there was no guarantee to win against the unprecedented threat called C.

Even so, he had to make sure.

“My family… would they have helped, before becoming like that…?”

If not, he would feel like he was going to get crushed by the action he was about to take.

If he had even the smallest excuse—he would make it into a reason why he couldn’t do this to protect his family.

Then, he’d have C erase even this guilt and live his life to the fullest.

Was it the human decision to make?

But it made him feel sick.

For Taiki to not only pass over the one and only method for someone like him to protect his family—but even forget about this fact and start living a normal life.

Not feeling sick about it—

Would surely mean he wasn’t human.

“…I don’t know.”

Ayukawa Chiharu, who wrung out this honest answer, probably felt the same.

She could lie and she could trick him.

However, she’d obviously feel bad as a human, doing something like that.

Taiki looked at Ririe.

“…You’re also my family. But—I do believe that people should decide for themselves…”

It scared him to even think about what happened, and mumbling this took everything he had.

He was deathly scared of what would happen to him now.

At this moment, his head was filled with excuses and doubts.

Even so, he extended a hand to Chiharu.

“…”

Chiharu made a befuddled face, but she timidly presented her arm forward.

Her clenched hand opened slowly.

Taiki unconsciously averted his gaze from the ring glowing a pale azure.

“Can this guy called Kakkou—”

He raised his voice, trying to force himself to find his resolve.

He looked at the lines of creepy Revived who blocked the exit from the garage.

Everyone had dreams.

The scenery he saw until reaching the garage taught him that. All humans had dreams, whether big or small, of wanting to become something.

Therefore, everyone responded to C’s Deluge.

There was probably only a single person in the entire country who hadn’t—

“Hold this pain of not even having a dream…?!”

Nothing happened—to Taiki alone.

Even his hope of living a normal life was perhaps no more than a wish created by C as well.

Maybe it wasn’t.

However, this hopeless sense of loneliness threatened to crush Taiki.

Enough to make him feel so happy that Ririe referred to them as siblings.

Taiki turned back, his eyes full of tears.

Ikarino Kirari and Ayukawa Chiharu.

Both girls looked straight at Taiki.

“Yeah.”

“Yup.”

They said this and nodded.

If these two honest girls—the girls who could have just as easily lied to him to force him to fulfill their goals and yet kept being honest with Taiki to the very end—said this, it was probably the truth.

It meant that Kakkou was that kind of person.

He even starting feeling a little—

That he wanted to become like that.

“—”

Taiki grasped the ring held atop Chiharu’s palm.

A whirl of emotions passed through his arm like a violent storm.

Anger, hatred, pain burned Taiki from the inside like roaring flames. At the same time, a cold sadness and pain froze his legs, making him unable to move from the spot.

And there was a small handful of warmth.

''—I want to see you again, Daisuke-kun.

A certain girl’s smile shook off the flames and melted the ice.

“Yeah, I understand, Daisuke—”

Chiharu touched Taiki’s shoulder, and made a gesture as if she sucked in something large.

“Mushitsuki can recall their dreams again and again…”

Something born within Taiki—something important that he recalled—fell down.

He felt it getting absorbed into Ayukawa Chiharu’s mouth.