Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 4th Episode 15 (section)

===Part 1===

People who were useless no matter what they did could be found anywhere.

In short, the girl known as Kidou Tsukasa was probably also one of them.

She didn't know her father, and her mother hated her. Tsukasa didn't know why, but apparently her mother disliked her very existence. Since she'd often beat her up for trivial reasons, once she graduated from elementary school she ran away from home.

The ones who accepted Tsukasa were a small group of boys. Making the room of a musty old apartment their headquarters, they were a gathering of those with similar circumstances to her.

"Ha… Ha…"

Tsukasa's group was the lowest in the hierarchy of the world of violence and crime.

They made money from purse snatching or thievery and "paid" percentage of that to higher-ranked groups. By doing this they were allowed to live around.

The youngest among her group, Tsukasa was also the weakest.

At "jobs" she was a nuisance, and since she was bad at housework and the like she wasn't very useful.

No matter where she was, no matter what she did, she was useless.

Within a year of her joining the group, she even lost the motivation to try and make everything better.

Since she couldn't do anything, she could only gain her comrades' sympathy and live—

"Haa… Haa…"

Yet Tsukasa was even about to lose even that pitiful way of living she'd chosen.

Entering a merchant storage to steal like always, Tsukasa made a blunder and was discovered by the police. Also, this time their leader was also caught by the police.

Running through a dark alley, Tsukasa was in despair.

Even if she came back to their hideout, she probably no longer had a place there. All that awaited her was lynching by her comrades. This time they'd probably beat her to death.

She couldn't live by herself. If she were to be caught by the police she'd be sent to a correcting facility, and her "seniors" there would be much scarier than her comrades.

''What am I supposed to…!''

She could think of only one answer.

She had to somehow escape the police and somehow beg her friends for forgiveness. Whether by stealing or by blackmail, if she offered a tribute to cancel out her huge blunder—

"Kyaaa!"

When she passed the corner, she bumped into someone.

She hurriedly stood up thinking it was the police, but she was wrong.

It was a girl younger than her wearing a lavish coat. Bumping her shoulder against the wall and looking at Tsukasa, she made a frightened face. She didn't look the type of person to wander around back alleys.

It was a gift from the heavens. Perhaps God sympathized with Tsukasa.

Tsukasa looked around with dazzled eyes. She couldn't see any guardians or figures of adults. Only Tsukasa and the girl were there.

"H-hello… I got lost… How do I get back to the main street…?"

Tsukasa carelessly grabbed the coat of the girl who squeezed her voice.

"Kyaa!"

Uncaring the girl was afraid of her, she started searching in all her pockets.

If she came back with enough money then perhaps her comrades would settle with only beating her halfway to death. She was determined.

"…H-help me…"

Tsukasa let go of the teary girl. Although she looked rich, she didn't have anything like a wallet.

Clicking her tongue, she violently grabbed the girl's arm. She pulled her through the alley.

"Umm…?"

If she returned this girl to her guardians, perhaps she'd receive a small compensation. No, she had to get some money no matter what.

Tsukasa, who couldn't do anything, had no other choice left.

She'd do whatever it took to keep her life. She would probably be treated like a slave—even more useless than she'd been until now, but she had no other way to keep living.

"Ah!"

Walking through the silent alley, a sudden gust of wind suddenly blew at them. A potted plant left on the veranda of a dirty apartment fell down. 

The girl raised a shriek because Tsukasa had noticed that and covered for her.

She was able to push her aside but couldn't escape herself. The heavy pot hit her shoulder, bloodying her torn clothes. —She wasn't able to do anything well.

"You're bleeding…!"

Pulling the flustered girl's hand, she kept walking as if nothing happened. She'd be beaten up until she couldn't sit down anyway once they came back to the hideout. Compared to that, if she'd let the girl get hurt her compensation would suffer and it would have a greater effect on her life.

Seeing blood was probably a shock for her. When the girl walked with Tsukasa she looked like she didn't know what to do.

But when they passed the corner of the hill road, her expression changed.

"And to think I was completely lost a minute ago…!"

The large main street was visible ahead. They could also see people walking between large buildings.

"Amazing…! It's like magic!"

Tsukasa tilted her head. She couldn't understand what the girl was so excited about.

"Thank you."

Turning back, the girl wore a carefree smile.

Tsukasa had her breath taken away.

''Thank you—''

It was the first time in her life someone had thanked her. To the extent she couldn't immediately understand what these words meant.

A small emotion was born in Tsukasa's torn heart like a ripple.

"I'll be fine from here. —Ah, but please wait here! I need to give you something as thanks, and take care of your wounds…"

The girl spoke such that her good upbringing was obvious. She was now bright and happy, completely different from how she was scared just before.

—Tsukasa's heart was shaken.

The small emotion that filled her heart seemed about to vanish.

She bit her lips.

She desperately clung that unknown emotion.

"…I don't need anything."

Tsukasa muttered.

"Huh?"

She lightly pushed the surprised girl's back toward the main street.

With Tsukasa glaring at her, the girl made another somewhat frightened expression. She walked toward the visible main street as if pushed by Tsukasa.

Yet on the way she stopped, turned toward Tsukasa and lowered her head.

"…"

Illuminated by the sun sinking on the city, Tsukasa stood still, watching the girl's back.

Since she wasn't able to go back home with money, she'd be killed.

And yet, if she received money, she would feel as if—as weird as it was to say it—her very first great achievement would be gone.

She couldn't do anything well.

She couldn't accomplish anything.

But even someone like Tsukasa—

''—Thank you.''

Would she be able to save someone ever again?

"What a lovely dream."

Standing in place, Tsukasa noticed a purple glow raining down toward her.

The glow was shaping itself in front of her, finally converging in the form of a woman.

She was a beauty clad in a crimson-colored long coat and wearing round sunglasses. No matter how sudden it was for her to appear, Tsukasa didn't think it strange.

Oogui—

She discovered the fact that the one in front of her was one of the Original Three, the beings that birthed Mushitsuki, only much later.

"Will you tell me your dream?"

Her sweet, otherworldly voice shook her eardrums.

—Thinking back to this later, she was stupidly simple.

She thought of this just by accomplishing one small thing.

So she ended up wishing.

From the depths of her heart.

"I just wonder if even someone like me—"

Born that day and that moment was a helplessly simple Mushitsuki.

She simply got carried away and was born as a Mushitsuki who was about to commit trifling failures.

"Can help people…"

And so, this Mushitsuki would end up being called as such.

"The Kind Magician".