Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 11 Chapter 1 (section)

== 1.02 Daisuke Part 2 ==

Apparently only very few people used the parking lot under the elevated railway.

Since it was far from the business district, there wasn’t a lot of traffic. There were barely any cars parked there, so it was probably a private enough spot.

“Can’t even use my cellphone… really, what’s going on?”

Clicking his tongue, Daisuke lowered his cellphone from his ear. He was trying to reach his comrades outside Akamaki City, but it didn’t connect.

“The goggles…”

He tried operating his hidden goggles but the result was the same. There was no wireless response.

This situation was bad.

Since Daisuke infiltrated into Akamaki City and had no way to communicate, Touko and the rest would definitely get cold feet.

If even the Blaze Class Rank 1 Kakkou had breathed his last in this situation that happened in Akamaki City—

If they misinterpreted it and got cautious, they would move out too late.

In actuality Akamaki City was the very image of peace, and he wanted to break into the city with a great number of forces as soon as possible to check on the Central Headquarters’ safety—

“Hey, you. You have a cellphone?”

He called toward the girl who rested next to a vending machine.

“—No, I don’t.”

The girl called Mikko retrieved most of the color of her face.

“Really? Why don’t you have one?”

“You’re doubting me… you really are the worst.”

“…”

“More importantly, can you give me some spare change? I’d like for you to show me that even a person like you has enough for at least a can of juice.”

He couldn’t see her mouth due to the mask, but from the way her almond eyes narrowed she was probably smiling.

“Also, I have a cold. Meaning, I’m sick. You should be at least humane enough to care about me a bit—”

Daisuke’s hand moved without him thinking, but surely there was no reason to blame him. The sound of a cheek being slapped echoed and the girl’s head turned aside.

“Ow…”

“Ah—sorry, I just suddenly became mad…”

It was true he felt mad.

Originally Daisuke wasn’t the kind of person to hold back just because the other party was a girl.

Therefore, even disregarding that, he was confused at himself acting like this, even if this was more like a mere caress.

He certainly was annoyed at the other party’s actions, but was he really that short-tempered?

No, rather than being short-tempered, when he saw this Mikko girl’s face he felt, how to put it—

“What a scary person you are…”

The girl held her cheek while shaking.

She was around his age and a beauty. She seemed to have an idiosyncratic personality, such that if he met her even once she would remain in his memory—but he felt a strange sense of Déjà vu.

Had he met her somewhere before?

How to put it—her very face made him angry.

He couldn’t recall why, though.

“Hitting a woman is the worst and the lowest… but I guess it cannot be helped. Since I am not going to start hating even such a person beyond saving as you, you’d better feel thankful.”

“Oh, I’m sorry…”

“Ow.”

He lightly struck the opposing cheek. The girl’s neck turned the other way.

Daisuke looked at his hand and groaned.

It really did seem that he lost all self-control the moment he saw this girl.

Was this someone he couldn’t accept on a visceral level?

“The worst… you really are the worst…”

“This time I really did it unconsciously, but anyway… I’m not kind to people just ‘cause they’re girls, and I didn’t save you out of my goodwill.”

Regaining himself, he asked Mikko.

“I’d like to ask you something.”

“…”

“What was that Mushi just now? Why was it chasing you?”

Taking up Mikko’s chin, he glared into her eyes.

“Mushi?”

“That monster just now.”

“Cough… oh, I see, it did look like an insect. I see, Mushi…”

“…”

“Starting now, I shall call those things like that.”

The way she said this and nodded many times, it didn’t look like she was feigning ignorance.

“If you ask me what that thing—that Mushi—is, I can only answer this.”

A shadow befell Mikko’s expression.

“A monster that my family gave birth to.”

He couldn’t immediately understand the meaning of the girl’s words.

“…There’s no way.”

After a long silence, he finally uttered words of rejection.

Mikko smiled sadly.

“That is fine. Expecting you to believe so readily—”

“It’s impossible.”

He interjected into the girl’s words.

Those who gave birth to Mushi were the beings called the Original Three.

There wasn’t even a single report about anything other than them creating Mushi.

At the very least, until now.

“Or are you saying that the Original Three are your family?”

“…? The Original… Three?”

Miko furrowed her brows.

“I do not know who you refer to, but my family… they were with me since I was little, and are very important to me.”

“…”

“Due to certain circumstances, we have run away together… but we got separated. On the way, that child couldn’t hold back and ‘ate’ someone unrelated, and then…”

“…”

“Err—are you alright? You are looking pale.”

The girl’s voice made Daisuke realize that he became speechless.

This was a made-up story.

Or possibly, it was nothing more than this strange girl’s delusion.

Otherwise—

It was a happening that couldn’t be foreseen.

“Does that mean there’s someone other than the Original Three that can create Mushi…?”

That Mushi which was nothing but wings was of a type that he’d never seen before.

It only had part of the body, and no host.

A so-called “Imperfect Mushi” that did nothing but rampage.

“Does that mean there’s a fourth one…?”

No—it was too early to decide this.

He only one found Imperfect Mushi and just heard that someone gave birth to it.

However—

There was probably a need to confirm this.

There was a need to investigate it, perhaps with the same priority as ascertaining what happened to Akamaki City—or possibly even higher.

This problem was simply that important.

“—Was that what you meant by that creepy prophecy?”

“Cough… huh?”

“’Because of us, this country will get filled with Mushi and reach its end”—”

“…?”

“You definitely said this. To a suited man.”

Mikko tilted her head, looking absolutely confused. It didn’t look like acting.

“A suited man…? And I said this to him?”

“Don’t play dumb.”

“—I am sorry. You must be mistaking me with someone.”

Saying this, Mikko coughed.

If this girl really wasn’t playing dumb—what was that scene Daisuke saw?

That milky mist showed Daisuke an illusion?

However, if it was an illusion, the Mikko he saw at the time and the girl in front of him were too similar.

He simply couldn’t process the chain of incomprehensible events fast enough.

Despite things outside his expectations happening, that he couldn’t get any contact with the outside was also a problem. The things he could do were limited.

First, he had to get in contact with the SEPB.

The moment he decided this, Mikko was looking at the faraway sky.

“…Did you hear it?”

“Yeah.”

There was a huge impact sound coming from afar, as though something exploded somewhere.

“My family possibly ‘ate’ another person…”

Mikko bowed to Daisuke.

“Thank you very much for saving me. It was quite a violent method and I will never forget the atrocious way you struck me later my whole life, but since I am more of an adult I will have to thank—”

''Slap''. “Ow,” the girl wailed.

“…To thank you. Well then, let us part here.”

“No, I’m coming as well.”

Turning toward the direction where he heard the sound, Daisuke spoke.

“I can’t just leave it like this. Your family or whatever… and you.”

For the first time, the girl called Mikko showed something else then a smile—she made a face like she was terribly confused.