Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 8 Chapter 1 (section)

== 1.01 The Others ==
For a moment, a swallow traversed right by the window.

Cutting through the early summer air, the figure of it swallowed by the sky was burned into her eyelids.

"Hmm…"

Pondering this, Yamamato Rau turned back to the canvas. From the look of the nearly-perfected painting, she had apparently let her inspiration take over.

Gathering the paint on the paper palette, she let her brush express the image in her mind.

When had she started drawing oil paintings?

Lately, as an example to her students, she used poster colors to draw basic designs or tinkered with the materials prepared for sculpting lessons; only these kinds of things.

She was just a tiny step before completing her work this time.

Along with the sound of the sliding door, a bright voice pushed at her.

Just by being in this high school that had a special arts course—rare even in this country—the students appearing one after another all had unique appearances. Although all of them were wearing white work clothes, they all had eccentric hairstyles or accessories forbidden by the regulations, so they were stupidly conspicuous.

Especially the students of Visual Design Year 1—VD1 for short—that enrolled this spring were a gathering of problem children that even the teachers were sick of.

"Ooh, Yamamoto-sensei, what're you drawingwing?"

After appearing in the classroom, the representative problem child poked her head between Rau and the canvas.

Having her work stopped, Rau furrowed her eyebrows.

"Wingwing?"

"Like wingdings? Non, what're you drawing?"

Seat no. 28 in DV1, Tanaka Momo. At times her speech and conduct were incomprehensible. Unfortunately, all of VD1's students were incomprehensible, so she didn't mind that anymore.

"Whoa, this feels really genuine. I can feel its soul, yeah."

Although Momo was asking her, she apparently hadn't intended on quietly hearing her answer. Using a peculiar speaking style where she put accent on the "yeah", Momo clung to the canvas.

She could see the nape of this young, 15-year old through the gap in her pink-colored jersey's collar. Her lively cheek was plastered with paint spelling "momo".

"Is this a woman? No, a man maybe? Well, looking from afar… an animal? Actually, looking from even further, it kinda looks like wings…"

Giving up on finishing it, Rau put her brush into the oil jar. With a sigh, she started clearing up the art tools.

"This is rubbish… just some boring trick art."

"Eh, that's not true. It's quite creepy."

"So in your mind, trick art equals creepy… Not necessarily wrong."

''What a suspicious way of talking'', she thought in spite of herself. Even just mechanically shaking her vocal cords would be better, but speaking like this felt as if she sucked the energy of anyone who listened to her.

"Go and wear your work clothes before the bell rings… if you don't, I won't give you marks for this lesson."

"Boo, it's fine like this though. My theme is the fusion between a modern class, freedom and fashion, yeah."

Rau grabbed Momo's head, forcing her away from the canvas.

"Don't let me repeat myself…"

Being lenient on this kind of student even once, they would keep pushing their luck. Individuality should be respected in this kind of school, but teaching regulations and cooperativeness were also part of a teacher's job.

Tanaka Momo in particular had a precedent. On the very day of her enrollment ceremony she incited the other students to gather carnations in celebration of their enrollment and spread them all over the floor in the corridor in front of the staff room. She had insisted it was flower art, but if they let influential students do whatever they pleased they wouldn't be able to restraint themselves.

"You don't sound very convincing when you say that, yeah."

Yet Momo didn't back off. Standing shoulder to shoulder with the plaster figures on the wall, she changed her tone.

"It's just like you said, Momo. Every day her beautiful form is so blinding that you can't bear to look at her."

That was the wrong meaning of "can't bear to look at".

Pointing this was also stupid, but she was curious after being told that. Pretending to check the oil in her bottle, she glanced at her figure reflected on the glass surface.

Her skin being somewhat dark was due to hailing from Southeast Asia, so she couldn't change it. The highlights in her hair created a black and silver striped pattern. Underneath her work clothes she wore a respectable suit, although its chest part was open. It was made of plastic though. 

"The image of the legendary 'female teacher'! …is how it feels, I guess? This is poison to the eyes of a teenager, yeah."

Saying this exaggeratedly, Momo covered the eyes not of herself but of the statue.

Responding to her would be too troublesome. While Rau ignored her and gathered oil painting supplies, the displeased-looking Momo left the class to get her work clothes.

Soon the bell sounded and the lesson started.

"Today's lesson will be about methods of expression within modern techniques… Such techniques include dripping, stamping, and marking, but—"

Yamamoto Rau, 23 years old, was a new substitute teacher, so she wasn't the homeroom teacher of any class.

However, she was still in charge of many lessons such as self-expression, design theory, structure theory and art therapy. Also, because she was surrounded by problem children, she was very busy as a teacher.

"—And these styles all have their own idiosyncrasies. But what's important here is that this is merely technique… there's no need to fit the mold, meaning what to express or how to depict it."

She didn't simply give her students knowledge; she also taught them how to advance the lesson with their own thinking.

"And although breaking the mold sounds easy, it is very difficult. As long as you're human you always end up comparing things using your own prejudices. And that's why—"

Looking at one of the sitting students, Rau narrowed her eyes.

"Perhaps you should forget about being human…"

All students had their eyes sparkling in excitement as they were about to put it into practice, but Tanaka Momo alone wasn't even looking at the teacher's podium. Burying her fingers in paint meant for stamping use, she was happily drawing something on her own work clothes.

A strange mark with a single arrow and two intersecting lines.

Rau remembered seeing that symbol before.

If she recalled correctly, it was a good luck charm currently popular in town.

As Momo drew this mark, Rau's feelings grew gloomy. It was a mere symbol, but due to a certain incident, Rau felt that she was being made fun of whenever she would see it.

"Staying within the line means killing your potential. If you try destroying that frame even once, you might be able to see things that you'd never seen before—"

However, if she didn't cut the lecture short, everyone might get infected by Momo's behavior.

Seeing the rest of the students also started playing with their materials, Rau sighed.

Yamamoto Rau began her new job at the school only a month ago.

Due to her gloomy personality and gaudy appearance, her impressions among the teachers were especially bad. Since being in the staff room meant that they would temporarily focus on her demeanor and clothes, she preferred holing herself inside her assigned classroom.

During the lessons she coldly read text. She made a few arrangements to it, but if she started adding things outside the textbooks she knew those too-energetic students would make trouble for her.

She thought of the children coming to school as simply annoying. They all took nothing but illogical and unproductive actions. They did pointless things. By being in the same space as them, Rau felt exhausted both physically and mentally.

She seriously started considering creating a law that a teacher could, as special privilege, kill a student they didn't like. Even only once a day. It could be even be just this school's local rule.

That's how Rau was—or at least she thought of herself like this, but she seemed to be popular with her students.

Perhaps this was because she was closer to her students in age than the other teachers. Or perhaps it was because other teachers told them to focus on this or that while she gave them a free reign, thereby causing these contrarians to approach her. 

Thinking about dealing with the children outside of lessons made her want to puke. Having said that, since she was teaching, she had to listen and give them advice when they came to the classroom.

And that advice wasn't limited to questions about the lesson or the course. At times they would even tell her of love problems or interpersonal problems, or even serious things they couldn't talk with their parents about.

Since Rau needed to tidy up the class, she would mechanically offer them the most realistic solutions. At present, most of those problems had been solved by that. Since the immature kids confronted their problems and lost their common sense, they simply worried without even thinking of those kinds of simple solutions. Or perhaps they just didn't have the courage to take the first step toward them.

Although begrudgingly, she listened to their problems and solved them. —Repeating this process, without any adult to confer with, the students naturally gathered around her.

"A classmate is… harassing you?"

That day too, after school, she was visited by a student.

She apparently had troubles with her friend in class. It was a common problem she had encountered.

"Is it not bullying?"

''Then do something about it yourself'', she cursed in her mind, but there was something a little bit different this time.

"I believe it is different."

The female student of VD1 responded with a clear tone.

Both her hat that was in the shape of a horn and her hair being colored in sepia were against regulations. Rau knew that this petite girl—who could be said to be representative of VD1's average appearance—was nicknamed "Sepia" by her classmates. The marker case in the pouch hanging from her waist was also one of her characteristics.

That girl was known among the teachers as well.

She possessed extraordinary talent rare among students—a prodigy.

"So are you being stalked?"

"No, nothing like that either… also, I'm talking about a girl."

The world was vast. There were also women chasing women, but she said nothing.

"This might seem obvious, but you just need to clearly tell her off… or is she too scary for you to do that?"

"I told her to stop. But she seems angry at me, and she's stubborn too…"

''Oh dear, sounds like trouble''. Rau sighed once then spoke.

"Got it. I'll try to indirectly talk to her about it soon…"

Rau's impression was that the other girl was jealous of Sepia's talent, but Sepia wasn't weak enough to be bullied over that.

And Rau also knew about the girl making trouble for her. Her impression of her wasn't the sort of malicious person to do this.

Although she felt something was strange, that was it. It'd probably get solved if she asked the other party about it.

"Thank you very much."

Rau herself was also like that, but she felt that Sepia's speech and conduct were very emotionless. She lowered her head without any trace of a smile, turning to leave the classroom. The moment she moved, the marker case on her waist clattered.

Something silly interested Rau, so she called out to the girl.

"What a strange case…"

"Huh?"

"The marker case on your waist… is that foreign-made?"

Turning around, Sepia looked down at the case hanging on her waist.

"When I went to take the test for another school in Akamaki City, I found it at a large art supplies store… it was an impulse purchase."

"I see…"

There was still something strange. As far as Rau knew, there was one other person who had the same marker case—

She didn't need poke her head too much into the students' stupid problems.

Telling this to herself, she saw off the girl with an annoyed face.

"Watch out…"

"What?"

"Because recently even this town in dangerous. I meant for you to be careful when you go back home."

"Oh, dangerous… is it?"

"They haven't yet found the cause for the explosion at the electric substation ruins… there's a rumor that it was man-made incident."

"Oh, you mean Coatl Hot… but that happened quite a while ago."

Sepia muttered this emotionlessly, so Rau felt confused.

"Coatl…?"

"But maybe you're right. There was also apparently some explosion near the river as well."

"River? Oh, that—no, but the Coatl… was it?"

Like a gunman, Sepia drew out the marker from her pouch. She drew a certain symbol on the blackboard in white.

''Who do you think is going to clean that? Use chalk or I'll kill you''. —Turning toward Rau whose expression darkened even further, Sepia recited some sort of incantation.

"Coatl Coatl Para Emile."

The drawing on the blackboard was the same charm that caused Rau to become disheartened.

"…?"

"They keyword is—Coatl Head."

Coatl Head.

Was that the symbol's name? It was a term she wasn't sure if she'd heard before.

"I think you should look more into trends and new fads, sensei."

Rau sighed at the girl doing things in her own pace.

"I'm saying this because I believe you can solve anything with a single warning, but… next time, please use chalk."

"I'm sorry."

Never mind reflecting on her actions, it only looked like the apologizing Sepia was making fun of her. As if saying her business was done she turned on her heels, with her Sepia-colored hair shaking, and left the classroom.

''I wish some terrorist would come to plant bombs in the VD1 classroom'', Rau thought nonsensically.

Until she recovered enough energy to move, she simply sat at the desk and absentmindedly gazed at the courtyard outside of the window.

The time was already dusk. She could see the figures of students striving for their club activities.

Because she had a VD1 lesson today, she was especially tired. Teaching them to break the mold went without saying, but she let the students have much more freedom than was needed. Stopping Tanaka Momo from plastering the entire classroom with papers was especially time-consuming.

In the first place Rau loathed children. On top of being ignorant and not thinking at all, they didn't even realize they were causing problems to others. Even so they were always shining with hopes and dreams that lacked any basis.

Helping them achieve the dreams that they couldn't by themselves was apparently one of the duties of a teacher.

Rau suddenly recalled her student that broke their paintbrush. They sounded too sensitive when they said they felt wrong using another brush, but their works actually declined in quality because of that.

"She's not even good enough to be so fussy about what tools to use…"

Perhaps an old art supplies store would have the brushes made by the minor company that the student used. It would a detour on the way back home, but she decided to try dropping by. It was troublesome, but it was also annoying to think for how long that student could blame her bad achievements on the paintbrush.

How was she, when she was her age?

Her adolescent self rose to the back of her mind like a flashback.

Sparkling with hopes and dreams—she felt as if she stopped being like that ever since the moment she'd come to this country.

Since then there were only anger, pain, despair, and blood.

Perhaps her present form had been decided back when her aspiration painted over her dream.

A teacher helping with their students' dream—

''Good grief, how hopelessly ridiculous.''

"Bzzt."

As the door of the classroom opened a uniformed girl appeared.

She was of the same school year as Sepia, but her tie color was different. The bangs of her long hair were decorated by a jagged, yellow accessory—in the pattern of lightning—and even the bangs themselves were zigzagged.

"Bzzbzzt. Bzzbzzt."

Apparently something good happened. The girl hummed to herself with an incomprehensible rhythm while starting to skip around clumsily. Ignoring Rau's presence, she started circling around the classroom.

"Bzzbzzt. Bzzbzzt."

"…Keep your voice down. Someone'll hear you."

"Bzzbzzt."

"Don't jump on top of the desk. My teaching materials—I'll forgive you about the hairspray you just broke, so stop moving, Biribiri<ref>Japanese onomatopoeia for electric zaps, etc. Translated in dialogue, but she speaks the same word as her codename.</ref>. No, don't hang from the lighting…"

She was focused at the girl reflected on the window when another person entered the class.

Now it was a uniformed boy. He had sharp eyes and a body that was long and slender; he looked like he could become a basketball player, had he belonged to such a club.

"Close the door, Ashimaki."

As Rau turned around to face him, the boy opened his mouth to reply—

"Hurgh."

Along with a groan, he spat countless insect-like feelers from his mouth. —No matter how unrealistic this scene sounded, long and narrow objects really came spilling out of the boy's mouth, clattering and bouncing as they hit the floor.

Looking closely, a strange creature could be seen sticking on top of the boy's tongue. The surface of its spherical body had flickering light colored blue and red. The ejected feelers were this creature's legs.

"Don't bring out your Mushi so carelessly…"

As Rau glared at the girl and the boy, her suit bloated like a balloon. It changed its form, instantly transforming into a pitch-black coat that covered her from head to toes.

"I will only warn you once. Although you weren't seen by anyone, if you lower your guard again and lose control of your Mushi… I'll execute you."

Receiving Rau's gloomy gaze, Biribiri and Ashimaki's faces twitched with fear.

The zigzag girl straightened her back and Ashimaki instantly put the thin insect legs inside his mouth.

"Good…"

Rau sighed, her coat returning once again to the form of a suit.

Yamamoto Rau's real identity—was Shera the Head of the Annihilators, under the command of Vice-Deputy Miguruma Yaeko of the SEPB's Central Headquarters. It had been a long time since she showed her true nature like that.

The last time she had fulfilled her duty as an assassin was right before she'd infiltrated this town as a teacher; at a rural, relatively unknown town, she had erased a girl who proclaimed herself to be a journalist.

She'd also been given a mission in this town.

However, every day was peaceful.

Her provisional job as an arts teacher was filled with much more suffering.

Information regarding Mushitsuki spread easily among teens. Because of that she'd infiltrated this high school as a teacher in order to collect information, but—apparently both this town and this school were a huge failure.

"Was there any change?"

"Bzz."

"No."

The two subordinates standing next to each other shook their heads.

They were Annihilators members sent along with Rau. They were only wearing the school's uniform; they weren't actually students.

Rau sighed deeply again.

The bad premonition growing inside her was likely true.

''Do I have any reason to stay here anymore…?''

Wasn't everything over already? That was the only conclusion to this situation.

Starting when Rau came to town and until now, she'd been unable to grasp any clues related to her goal.

"The Mushitsuki of the Substation Ruins, huh…"

She pulled out a memory device shaped like a cellphone from her suit.

She manipulated the terminal with her fingers, uploading a digital photo to the LCD screen.

A rusty transmission tower, electrical lines that were ripped here and there, cracked asphalt and ground, a large hole that seemed to have been created by an explosion, as well as—the mark called Coatl Head drawn with paint.

This was the event that made them send Rau to this town.

One day in the suburbs of town, at the abandoned electrical substation—

There was a large explosion.

To the public, the cause was unknown. They gave it flimsy reasons such as an unexploded bomb detonating or perhaps a discharge from the abandoned electrical machinery, but people have already forgotten about it.

In the first place the substation's functions had already been transferred to a new underground facility in a different location. Because there were no human casualties, even in the news it wasn't such a big incident.

A single Mushitsuki had been in town.

Newly born Mushitsuki were mentally unstable and prone to rampage.

As feared, the Mushitsuki born at the substation had rampaged. Immediately discovered by the local SEPB branch, several members were dispatched on a capture mission.

—Or so it was thought.

"So there are no eyewitnesses' reports of any Mushitsuki like that…"

"Bzz."

"None."

So it was thought. Meaning, it was conjecture.

The reason they couldn't decide was due to all of the SEPB members having had the tables turned on them. Since they'd all become Fallen, thereby having lost their memories and feelings, no information could be gotten from them.

The Mushitsuki born at the substation was probably powerful. Although it was rare for members dispatched for capture to be defeated, the remaining traces—the thing Rau was looking at, the evidence photo collected from the police, spoke of that fact.

The facility was wrecked and destroyed all over, and a large cavity opened in the ground. From the scale of that damage, one could expect the opponent was quite powerful.

Something trifling was left on the photograph.

Near the hole was a large drawing of what was apparently a symbol popular among young people.

Coatl Head.

From what Sepia had told her that was apparently its name. Meaning, the substation was a gathering spot for youngsters, so one of them had probably drawn it there.

"Ashimaki. You haven't felt any Mushitsuki, right?"

"Bzz."

"I didn't ask you."

"Right. Ever since that incident a few days ago…"

Rau continued manipulating the terminal, switching from photos to video.

It was the remaining footage left in the goggles of a combatant dispatched for the capturing mission of the "Mushitsuki of the Substation Ruins". The other members suffered terrible injuries, so this footage was the only one they'd been able to recover.

No, it would be wrong to call this footage.

The only thing recorded there was sound, mixed in with noise.

Whether it was the Mushitsuki or someone else, someone was probably trying to erase evidence. They thought that someone knew about the goggles' recording function since they were damaged unnaturally.

Even the remaining sound had only recorded the scream of the goggles' owner.

Due to all the noise in the background, it couldn't be listened to properly.

However, reproducing the sounds with SEPB technology, they finally understood what was being screamed there.

"…"

A short scream.

Consisting of a single term.

That term moved the Central Headquarters.

In order to not let information about the incident leak to the outside they'd actively sealed the local branch, and Rau, as the Head of the Annihilators, had been sent to town.

They knew that the "Mushitsuki of the Substation Ruins" was powerful.

Yet without that scream, they wouldn't have directly dispatched Rau.

If the Fallen's death throes were true—

Then the enemy was Mushitsuki whose existence couldn't be forgiven.

After discovery, they had to be erased from the world.

However—

"The Mushitsuki of the Substation Ruins… does it actually exist?"

She mumbled so quietly that her subordinates couldn't hear her.

Following the incident, the Mushitsuki thought to have been at the substation was gone.

Once the SEPB discovered a Mushitsuki, it was near impossible to hide them. Even if they tried escaping, they would get caught by the information network encompassing the entire country, and even if they hid, some ripple in society would definitely be caused by their becoming a Mushitsuki.

Was it possible to perfectly conceal their presence for such a long time?

Or had they simply blown themselves up along with the capturing combatants?

Or perhaps they managed to escape to some unknown place but exhausted themselves and breathed their last?

After consulting with all possibilities, Rau reached a conclusion.

"The Mushitsuki of the Substation Ruins is no longer here. —At the very least, not in this town."

She continued mumbling to herself.

A few days.

If she couldn't grasp the presence of the aforementioned Mushitsuki, she was going to announce that to Vice-Director Miguruma Yaeko.

However, when she'd come here, another problem appeared.

"Despite that… Why have you come to this town? Kakkou—"

Hearing Rau's subdued voice, Biribiri and Ashimaki trembled.

East Central Branch member, Blaze Class Rank 1 Kakkou.

Most Mushitsuki would get scared hearing the name of that strongest demon, her subordinates included.

"The reaction you'd felt at the riverside a few days ago… it was definitely Hakamori, right?"

"There were two powerful reactions at about the same time—according to the information from HQ, it corresponds to the same place where Hakamori had been sent to in order to annihilate Kakkou, so it's probably true."

The Annihilators' member Hakamori.

As Head of the Annihilators, Rau obviously knew about this Mushitsuki.

Although he was the lone survivor of a certain experiment, he'd lost all of his rational thinking. He was a mere failed product, awaiting some chance to measure the battle prowess he'd gained as a result of the experiment.

Meaning that chance—was the annihilation of Kakkou.

The overly powerful Kakkou was designated dangerous by the Headquarters long ago. If the failed product Hakamori was able to defeat Kakkou it would be well, and even if they killed each other, they'd be able to gain valuable data about his battle prowess.

"The Fragment of Diorestoi implanted in Hakamori allowed him to know the location of the King or whatever… on top of that, that guy had been ordered to aim for the moment when Kakkou left the East Central Branch. Because Hakamori was there, there's no doubt that Kakkou was there as well…"

Rau mumbled things that no outsider would understand.

"Their reactions vanished at almost the exact same time."

"Since the Fragment at HQ wasn't able to achieve resonance to discover the other Fragment's location, we must assume that Hakamori had been erased. —Or had he been able to fully suppress his Fragment…? No, he was a failed product because he couldn't do that…"

The incomplete Fragments of Diorestoi could establish resonance with one another. —The origin of this phenomenon that caused the parts of the Prototype Mushi to be drawn to each other had yet to be ascertained.

"It is believed that Kakkou merely hid his Mushi."

"Or maybe they took each other out. Well, it's better for us to assume that demon survived…"

Rau scratched her silver-streaked hair, raising her face.

"Kakkou appearing there means that… has the East Central Branch noticed the existence of the Mushitsuki of the Substation Ruins?"

It wasn't impossible. Yet she thought it was unlikely.

Their information blockage was perfect. Perhaps Kakkou had just coincidentally passed in town while on a mission.

"Hmm… if we end up not finding the Mushitsuki of the Substation, maybe we should just eliminate Kakkou and go back."

They would probably end up fighting Kakkou at some point.

If that man had truly rebelled against the SEPB and they received the order to eliminate him, she'd be the only one able to accomplish it. —Although Harukiyo also outwardly belonged to the Annihilators just like her, Rau saw that he wouldn't fight seriously against Kakkou. 

Although he was a Rank 1 Mushitsuki, Rau would be able to defeat him. She had a certain ability that allowed her to decide this.

"We will continue the search for the Mushitsuki of the Substation. …And for Kakkou as well."

Seeing off her subordinates who left after nodding, Rau once again looked out of the window.

In front of her was a peaceful scene.

Time just kept flowing slowly and calmly just as it had been yesterday as well.

"How ridiculous… this is like looking for a ghost."

Was the Mushitsuki actually hiding in town or already gone? She couldn't even tell that much.

She only knew what she had to do.

"The Mushitsuki of the Substation Ruins".

Or Kakkou.

If they were really there, then following their discovery, Rau herself would lop their heads off.

She would mercilessly eliminate anyone that might endanger this country.

That was the only way for her to make her dream come true—

Her job as a teacher that helped dreams and her title as Head of the Annihilators were simply parts of what she used to make that a reality.

"The art supplies store… is probably closed already."

Looking up the darkening sky, Yamamato Rau sighed with a tired expression.