Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 3rd Episode 11 (section)

===Part 1===

Ichinokuro Arisu breathed, loosening her mouth. Brushing up the hair on her ear, she elegantly closed her eyes.

"An ace four-of-a-kind."

Sending a sidelong glance at the seat next to her, Saionji Ena smiled. Ena, who had a sophisticated atmosphere to her even among her classmates, stuck out her tongue.

"Full house."

Sitting on Ena's other side, Kujou Takako sighed with a troubled face. She shook her short hair, revealing her card with graceful hand movements.

"I have a straight."

Arisu, Ena, and Takako's line of sight focused on one spot. Their eyes all settled on the completely ordinary boy, Kusuriya Daisuke.

"…Trash hand…"

—The sparkle in Ena's eyes was probably only Arisu's imagination. Or so she wanted to believe.

"So it's your loss again, Kusuriya-kun! As for your penalty game, lose another piece of clothing! Come on!"

"…That's definitely odd! Ever since you started dealing, Saionji-san, I haven't been able to gather even a single meld! W-wait a minute, stop, Saionji-san! More than that and I'll—"

"No!"

"…Huh?"

"You should have tears in your eyes and say, 'S-stop it, Saionji-san…' right? Do it over!"

Arisu and Takako averted their eyes from Ena joyfully grabbing onto the innocent boy.

"It feels like Ena-san is going on a rampage lately…"

"You can't look. We can no longer stop Ena's Daisuke addiction…"

Outside the window next to the desperate battle enfolding between Daisuke and Ena was a mountain range with its summit covered in snow.

Not only Arisu's group was clamoring.

The bus stuffed with the students of Horusu Seijou Academy Middle School truly became a battlefield.

Arisu's group was on the Shinkansen<ref>Japan's high-speed bullet train.</ref>. Since the train had been reserved so that each car was for an entire class, uniform-wearing students were running about.  Although Horusu Seijou Academy had many upper-class girls, Arisu's class had especially many energetic students.

It was the customary event of the second year of Horusu Seijou Academy Middle School, a field trip.

Their destination was the former capital where culture and tradition gathered, Gosen City.

"—I wish Mari could've come here, too…"

As a representative of the students that couldn't calm down, Arisu looked outside the window and sighed.

Hanashiro Mari. She was Arisu's friend that passed away without attending Horusu Seijou Academy even once. Succumbing to her illness, as she lay on her sickbed, she had said that she wanted to go outside once she got better.

"Do you feel unwell, Arisu-san?"

"No, it's nothing."

Arisu smiled at Takako who made a worried face probably thinking that seeing Arisu so quiet was rare.

Silver scales poured down outside the window. Although she couldn't see its form, the thing that Mari had left behind for Arisu was following her.

''Right, Mari's still with me even now—''

It happened just as she muttered this in her heart and smiled.

The voices of students around suddenly stopped.

Thinking it strange and raising her face, she saw that the gazes of the students were all turned toward the car's entrance. Even Ena, busy with the half-naked Daisuke, stopped her movements with a puzzled face.

A boy entered from the automatic door. He seemed to be a few years in age above Arisu and the rest, about high school. Part of his forelock was braided and he wore strange glasses.

The boy wore a business suit with an excess of belts at various places. With both hands inside his pockets he advanced through the corridor rather insolently.

"He… doesn't appear to be a teacher. This is the first time I have seen this man."

Takako muttered while tilting her head.

The Shinkansen Arisu and the rest were boarding was reserved for second year students. The car was supposed to have only people related to the school or the crewmen.

The bespectacled boy looked around the car expressionlessly. His gaze then stopped on Arisu.

Arisu and the boy shortly gazed at each other—

"…Humph."

[[File:Mushi_Uta_Bug_3rd_p089.jpg|thumb]]

The boy scoffed at her, snorting. Arisu stiffened. Leaving his sneer behind, the boy passed through the other direction and vanished from the car.

Arisu stood up, her fist shaking.

"He was picking up a fight with me, right? Right? Fine, I'll take him on."

Daisuke hurriedly stopped Arisu as she was about to pursue the boy.

"I-Idiot! Ar—Ichinokuro-san, if you go on a rampage, you'll break the Shinkansen!"

"I think the time has come for me to use the secret technique of the Ichinokuro family. It's called Arisu Corkscrew."

"Isn't that the one you're always hitting me with? Was it supposed to be secret?"

Daisuke did his best to drag Arisu back as she tried advancing through the corridor with a low laugh. Ena clung to him and Takako watched over them, smiling.

As the inside of the car turned noisy again, an announcement of their arrival resounded around.

<br>

The schedule for the first day of Horusu Seijou Academy Middle School's second year field trip was going around temples.

After disembarking the Shinkansen, Arisu and the rest rode on separate buses, reaching a vast park. The park was dotted with many shrines and temples, and there was also a pond with a garden and a museum.

Coming all the way from distant Akamaki City, Arisu's hair was caressed by the wind of the former capital. The faint fragrance of old trees probably came from the Buddhist temple and wooden pillars seen from afar. There were also the smells of grass and animals let loose. Different from the modernized Akamaki City, it was the smell of a capital living in harmony with nature.

"Wow, what's that? It's so big! It's so dirty! Let's go already!"

The one to raise a loud voice immediately after getting off the bus was a student from another class than Arisu's. She frolicked around while pointing at the distant pillars and shaking her blonde hair. Arisu grimaced thinking about the girl's ferocious true nature as Kasuou. 

"Say… is that acting?"

"She's completely forgotten her position. Leave that idiot alone."

Next to Arisu, Daisuke sighed.

Although not to Kasuou's extent, the other students also looked around excitedly.

In this age, where public middle schools would even go overseas for field trips sometimes, why had the prestigious and renowned private school of Horusu Seijou Academy gone for a field trip inside the country?

The reason was simple. —The majority of the students were already tired of overseas trips. There were many from families that went on overseas vacation ever since they were young, so on the survey about the destination of the field trip it was actually sightseeing within the country that was popular.

They split into classes inside the park, all going to different places. Arisu ended up observing the park along with Ena, Takako and Daisuke.

"Who's that! What a weird face!"

They first arrived at a Buddhist temple with a large statue of Buddha. The large Buddhist temple at the center of the premises was made of wood, and there were also a lot of other shrines and temples scattered around.

"There're a lotta animals here! Is this Africa?! …Kyah! You bastard—"

Next they came to a garden with free deer. They walked past the blonde girl as she disappeared in a herd of deer.

Passing through the deer park, the line of Horusu Seijou Academy students entered the road to a large shrine. Going along the shrine treasury and offices, they visited the inner sanctuary with its lines of vermillion-lacquered courts. 

Seeing the blonde girl getting reprimanded for ripping the shrine ropes, Arisu noticed a gaze being directed at her. It was Daisuke.

"What is it, Daisuke? Looking at people like this… it's creepy."

"You're the creepy one here."

Asserting this rude thing, Daisuke looked at Arisu's face as if it really was unpleasant for him. 

"Leaving that idiot Kasuou aside, I thought that you'd definitely cause a commotion… Why are you so quiet? Have you eaten something bad?"

"…Seems like we need to have a nice long talk about just what do you think about me."

"Or are you still mad about what happened on the Shinkansen?"

She recalled the incident on the Shinkansen where an unknown boy had laughed at her. In the end she let him escape as Daisuke restrained her, but if she were to see him again, she fully intended to properly ask him what his deal was.

But the reason for why Arisu seemed to be quieter than the usual lay elsewhere.

"…I've dreamt about Mari again this morning."

Arisu mumbled, gazing at Ena and Takako who went around the temple compound.

A silver glow alighted from overhead.

It was an out-of-season morpho butterfly with four antennas.

Mushi—that was the name of the unknown beings that ate people's dreams and granted them supernatural powers in exchange. The boys and girls possessed by these Mushi were called Mushitsuki, and although the government had officially denied their existence, people whispered about them as targets of fear and discrimination.

Arisu's friend who had passed away from an illness last year was a Mushitsuki. Her Mushi had clung to Arisu for some reason after her death. According to Daisuke, this was the first case of a Mushi remaining even after its host passed away.

Daisuke was a boy who had been sent to live along with Arisu so he could monitor that Mushi, and her as well. The Special Environmental Preservation Bureau he belonged to was a government agency whose true duty was capturing Mushitsuki. The blonde girl frolicking before was also from the same agency as Daisuke.

"So… I just thought it would've been nice if she could come with us… that's all."

Looking up, the morpho butterfly circled around her, soaring high again. Blinded by the afternoon sun, Arisu narrowed her eyes.

"Why were you thinking that."

Daisuke slackened his shoulders with a cold face. More than being relieved, he seemed tired. He normally played the part of an honors student to blend with the student lifestyle, but when he was alone with Arisu he acted very bluntly.

Arisu was sullen and Daisuke spoke while looking at the morpho butterfly.

"Being sentimental is your own choice, but if you're unable to enjoy things because of it then stop. Hanashiro Mari would probably not want this."

"Daisuke…"

Because he was bad at speaking, Arisu couldn't judge if those were his true feelings or if he cared about her. But these were definitely rare words to come out of his mouth.

"When you say such kind things… it's really creepy."

"…Right. Seems like we really need an opportunity for a nice, long talk."

Arisu lightly pounded Daisuke's chest as he wore a stiff smile.

"If so then you should enjoy yourself too. Forget about keeping watch over me, okay?"

Seeing her smile, Daisuke made a complex expression. —Kusuriya Daisuke was a Fusion Type Mushitsuki, just like Mari. Seeing him never voice any complaints was similar to Mari.

"I get the feeling that rather than watching over you, my job is more like taming a wild beast."

"Ena! Seems like Daisuke is planning on sneaking to the girls' room tonight."

"Welcome!"

"…Ena-san…"

As Ena turned around with her eyes sparkling, Takako sighed with a resigned look.

Abandoning Daisuke who was caught and flustered by the two girls, Arisu looked around the compound. The students received a few tens of minutes of free times, so they occupied the area. Some of them were jotting stuff down to be used in their reports of the trip for later, and some people left the shrine to go to other places.

"…?"

Arisu found a person sitting down hidden by the hanging lamps in a corner of the main shrine. 

Thinking it was suspicious and approaching them, she saw a boy dressed in gaudy clothes—the clothes of a Noh play—shrinking and hugging his knees. A Noh play was a type of performance from ancient Japan.

He was probably a bit younger than Arisu. From his pale profile it was obvious something was wrong.

"U-umm… is something the matter? You look unwell, but is everything all right?"

Seeing his overly weak appearance, she spoke unusually polite.

The boy's shoulders twitched and he looked up at Arisu. He stared at her face then shook his head.

"I don't know…"

…He seemed to not be fine.

"U-umm, I was asking about you, though… do you have any problem with your condition?"

"I don't know anything about myself…"

The boy shook his head to the sides while still looking at Arisu. It seemed to be a serious illness.

He was attired in a happi coat on top of a hakama<ref>Both are traditional Japanese clothing.</ref>, the costume of a Noh play. This boy that had a handsome face despite being pale also grasped a folding fan.

Arisu was bewildered as if she was looking at an abandoned puppy. If she just abandoned him like this she would definitely regret it.

"A-are you performing in a Noh play somewhere? You're wearing Noh clothes, right?"

"What, Noh…?"

The boy seemed to come to his senses. Looking down at the clothes he was wearing, he turned his increasingly pale face at Arisu.

"What should I do…?"

"Even if you ask me that…"

She was actually completely at a loss as to what to do. When she turned around, she could see Daisuke and the rest still frolicking about. They didn't seem to notice her missing.

Thinking a while, Arisu sat right there.

"What is it about?"

"Huh…?"

"The plot of your Noh play."

Meeting there was also destiny. She thought that she didn't mind going along with this unknown boy until Daisuke and the rest noticed her.

"Oh, umm… the one I'm playing is—"

Having some unknown person speak to him just as he was worried about something seemed to induce a state of panic in him. Probably unconsciously, he ended up replying to Arisu's question as if reciting it.

"Tonight in the large shrine inside the garden we will be offering up the ''Housei''-style play 'Mitsuhara'<ref>Probably based on ''Houshou'', a Japanese theatrical school specializing in Noh—both ''Housei'' and Mitsuhara don't seem to exist in reality.</ref>… In this story, after Akisame Sadanobu—a general from the Warring States Period—died in battle, his friend and subordinate Arihara Shirou Muneyoshi takes revenge for him, but because my older brother who's playing Arihara Muneyoshi suddenly collapsed, I was chosen as a replacement… Aaah, what am I supposed to do…"

Perhaps becoming anxious again while speaking, the boy held his head.

''I see, so that's how it is—''

Arisu understood the boy's circumstances. He seemed to be anxious and tense, falling into a state of panic after suddenly having to act out the main role in the Noh play.

"He takes revenge for his friend…"

She mumbled. Looking up at the sky, a silver morpho butterfly was fluttering there.

Arisu's friend, Hanashiro Mari, had passed away a year ago.

—Her heart suddenly throbbed.

An unpleasant imagination rose to her mind.

What if Mari's cause of death wasn't just due to her sickness? Mushitsuki had their dreams eaten and consumed by their own Mushi. Mushitsuki whose dreams had been completely devoured would die—what if the reason for Mari's passing from this world had to do with Mushi…?

What killed Mari had been the Mushi flying above Arisu's head—and the one responsible for turning her into a Mushitsuki as well. 

If Mari hadn't become a Mushitsuki… would she have perhaps not died…?

"The Original Three…"

Arisu mumbled unconsciously while looking at the silver butterfly.

She had heard about them from Daisuke. Those who turned people into Mushitsuki were the three beings known as the Original Three.

Arisu's pulse quickened.

"Aaah, what am I supposed to do…"

The boy's groaning brought her back to her senses.

Getting interested in the story about trying to avenge one's friend, she called toward him.

"Did he manage to avenge his friend in that story?"

The boy raised his face. He looked back at Arisu quizzically, but shook his head.

"…No, Muneyoshi gives up on revenge in the middle."

"Huh?"

"One of Sadanobu's vassals was the one to strike him down. Sadanobu was a strict, calm person. His vassal, afraid of being punished for a failure, killed him and defected to the enemy side. In contrast to Sadanobu, Muneyoshi was someone who honored emotions and duty… That's why he persisted on his revenge. But—"

A smile rose to the boy's pale lips.

"When his friends were being defeated in battle one after another he finally noticed. Rather than letting the people important to him die for the sake of his revenge, what he needed to do was succeed his friend's ambitions. The late Sadanobu had wished for a peaceful world with no fighting. That's why Muneyoshi defeated the vengeful spirits of his enemies and allies instigating the revenge, and went toward the decisive war of Mitsuhara."

"…"

"'Mitsuhara' is my favorite story. It's not very well-known, but my dream is spreading it throughout Japan someday… So I've been practicing it ever since I was little."

At some point, the boy's face as he was looking ahead seemed quite imposing. Arisu chuckled.

"Then you first have to beat your vengeful spirit."

"…Huh?"

"Because just now you looked like you were possessed by an evil spirit."

She said, pointing at his happy face. The boy blushed.

"B-but I'm still—"

"This is something I only heard second-hand, but apparently 'everyone's dreams are definitely connected somewhere'. Muneyoshi succeeded Sadanobu's dream… and if you splendidly perform that, your dream might also connect to that."

The Noh-costumed boy gulped. Biting his lips, he gathered strength in his hand grasping the folding fan.

The voice of the teacher calling all the students echoed around the shrine. It seemed like Arisu's short free time was over.

"Do your best, Muneyoshi-san."

Saying her farewell to the boy whose name she didn't even know, Arisu rose up. She headed for the court where Daisuke and the rest were waiting.

As she tried joining the lines of students when the roll-call began, she heard a war cry from behind.

"UOOOHHH!!!"

Surprised, she turned around.

"I'll do it! I will! I'll definitely do it! This is just the beginning!"

Although the boy teared up and shook of anxiety, he shouted. Just as Arisu thought he was bowing at her, he turned on his heels and rushed toward the exit of the shrine.

"Arisu… please stop getting involved with weirdoes…"

While the gazes of all of her classmates including Daisuke followed the back of the leaving boy, Arisu smiled.