Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 13 Chapter 5 (section)

== 5.02 Another OPS2 ==

Kurobishi City underground, the facility for collecting Fallen.

Commonly known as the Prison.

Harukiyo’s group who were in charge of Operation 2 finally managed to reach Sleeping Beauty.

They even succeeded in waking the girl inside the cocoon from her slumber.

However, as a result—

“Ah…”

A spear glowing silver pierced Kuzesaki Ume’s chest as he stood in place, shocked.

Sleeping Beauty—Arisu—who was watching him from nearby had a neat face. Her stark-naked body was glowing with a silver pattern, one eye was dyed in silver, and even her long hair shone in silver—if she hadn’t just cruelly killed Ume, one could call her an eye-catching beauty.

“Arisu—san—”

Ume widened his eyes, cracks running through his body.

The thing that shattered with a high-pitched sound wasn’t Ume—but a mirror bug with a large mirror embedded in its back. As it smashed to fragments, another mirror bug appeared in an entirely different direction.

“Harukiyo! Harukiyooo!”

After appearing in front of the newly-created mirror bug, Ume shouted.

This Mushitsuki, who was called the devil of flames and hailed as a peerless Rank 1 Mushitsuki, was collapsed on the floor. His entire body was torn into pieces, he fainted and was unmoving.

It wasn’t just Harukiyo.

His comrades—no, friends—were also completely devastated. Witch appeared to be unconscious, while Maria, Santa Claus and even Sakaki Haruka were on the ground, barely leaking groans.

Only Ume and another person were just barely safe.

“—Why did you even come here!”

Ume couldn’t hold back as he glared at a corner of the planetarium-like space.

This child wearing a lop-eared hoodie was rounded and shaking from head to toe, making no attempt to either help Ume and the others or stand up against Arisu.

“Haruka and Maria-san took the hit to protect you!”

Harukiyo told them to protect Lop-Eared. Ume and the others did their best, following his words.

Even so, Lop-Eared was merely afraid of Arisu and did nothing but shake.

“You useless little…!”

While Ume abused Lop-Eared, Arisu swung her spear horizontally.

Silver scales gushed out and assaulted Ume while causing the ground to swell.

“S-shiiit!”

Ume brought a mirror bug in front of him.

The scales reflected in the mirror were shot back to Arisu.

“—”

Arisu instantly formed a wall of scales. Then, another mirror bug appeared in a different location and changed the course of the scales. Successively other mirror bugs appeared, reflected the scales and unleashed them right at Arisu’s back.

Arisu stabbed her silver spear into the ground.

“UWAAAAH!”

The scales gushing out from the ground whirled Ume into the air. The scales attacking Arisu from behind easily dispersed as well.

“D-dammit!”

A moment before crashing against the ceiling he put a mirror bug there. Ume’s reflected figure was reflected toward the inside of another mirror bug that appeared elsewhere and he was transported in front of the mirror bug on the ground.

“Uh—”

Just as Ume landed, Arisu pursued him.

He didn’t even have the time to evade as his body got cut into two right from his head.

“—Harukiyo, c’mon!”

Instantly transporting himself to another place with the exact same method, Ume kept shouting. A mirror bug that became his replacement and was bisected shattered in front of Arisu’s eyes.

This was his last clone. Although Ume’s ability was of the type that controlled multiple Mushi, if this next one was killed it wouldn’t end well for him.

“Save me, Harukiyo!”

Approaching Maturation, Arisu’s strength was inhuman. The fact that some parts of her body were not yet dyed silver was perhaps evidence of the host girl barely holding on to her life—but once her entire body glowed, she wouldn’t be the only one to die.

Ume and the others and even unrelated people above ground would probably become her prey.

Furthermore, Arisu wasn’t the only crisis.

“…!”

Ume felt a chill as though a cold hand touched the back of his neck.

As he turned around, he could see something black gushing out from the cocoon Arisu slept inside.

“Undying—”

Just like Harukiyo said.

''—If he comes, we’ll probably die.

Ume’s group was about to die here. No matter what he thought, there was no way to overturn it.

They touched something they shouldn’t have.

And every person living in this world would pay the price for it.

This disaster was going to strike the whole world—

“Harukiyo—”

Only that name leaked from Ume’s mouth during this despairing situation.

“Stop pretending to be dead and get up alreadyyy!”

“—Why’d you blow my cover, idiot.”

As Arisu was still trying to kill Ume, the shade of a tall man appeared behind her.

Arisu reflexively turned around, but—

“—!!”

An impact not unlike a meteor strike shook the planetarium. And it came not from the sky, but from right next to her. The shockwave caused all the surrounding air to explode and an intense hot wind knocked off the remains of the asphalt.

Harukiyo’s fist wrapped in flames grabbed Arisu’s forehead.

Ume understood. This was the flame devil’s—full-powered strike.

“Or actually, I almost died out here but you’re sayin’ I was pretending?”

Even the fresh blood wetting his entire body evaporated as Harukiyo smiled boldly. It was obvious at a glance he was badly wounded, and his eyes were blazing more and more.

“Harukiyo…!”

Tears coming to his eyes, he looked at the man.

The devil had not died. He could never die.

That was why he was Harukiyo. That was why he was one of the Rank 1s.

“—”

Arisu shook for a second, but then immediately swung her spear.

However, she couldn’t.

Harukiyo grabbed it hard.

“Burn.”

Within the hand of the sneering devil, the spear was instantly dyed red.

Arisu’s hand grabbing the spear instantly scorched. Her palm sizzled and raised black smoke.

“—”

Arisu’s eyes turned sharp. She dyed her spear with silver again.

The scales gushing out of the spear cut Harukiyo’s arm. The demon sneered.

“Haha!”

The devil and Arisu.

A fierce tug-of-war over a single spear began among the two Rank 1s and turned into a fierce struggle.

Theys struck each other with fists and kicks, creating roars and shockwaves.

Although he protected his body using a heatwave, he was at a disadvantage against a Fusion Type opponent in hand-to-hand combat. At first they’d been about equal, but soon Harukiyo was on the losing side.

“…Harukiyo…”

Soon realizing that Harukiyo was just being unilaterally pummeled, Ume groaned.

Harukiyo had returned, but the situation remained unchanged.

Ume simply couldn’t think of any way for them to get out of there alive.

However—

“—I’ll stop her! Get moving already!”

While spitting blood, Harukiyo smiled like he was having fun.

“You lying bastard!”

Ume couldn’t immediately understand what Harukiyo was even talking about.

However, as he saw the figure pitter-pattering at the edge of his vision, he gasped.

Lop-Eared was running alongside the wall while avoiding the battlefield and heading to—

The remains of Arisu’s cocoon.

Right in front of the crawling, black Mushi—the swarms of tardigrades.

“Eh? H-hey, it’s dangerous over there!”

Unheeding to Ume’s call, Lop-Eared approached the tardigrades, removed the hood and revealed the face within it.

For a moment Ume thought it was a girl.

But no. Ume knew that person.

“What are you planning? I’ve heard nothing about this!”

Nakayama Kanon—

Ume had already noticed his identity. That was why he cursed him as useless.

Kanon was a liar who’d gathered many people by claiming he could erase Mushi. The organization he’d created this way swelled until it became a threat even to the SEPB and Mushibane—but then vanished like a popped bubble.

“What are you planning to do by going there!”

Kanon. As well as the Mushitsuki gathered under Mimic—the Kanon Cult.

Not only could Kanon not erase Mushi, he was a below average person who couldn’t do anything.

And the one who exposed this truth—was none other than Kanon himself.

“The letter you’d handed over to me was quite interestin’!”

Harukiyo sneered even as Arisu pummeled him.

“It said that if I brought you to the Undying, lies will become truth!”

The tardigrades swarmed over toward the helpless Kanon. They began climbing his legs as though to eat the petite boy.

“C’mon, let’s see what you can do, Kanon-sama!”

The original founder of the Kanon Cult slowly crouched on the spot.

Grasping his hands as though in prayer, his lips moved.

He apparently couldn’t speak. However, Ume read his lips and understood his silent words.

''—Goodbye, Tama-chan.

As he muttered this, the tardigrades quickly covered Kanon entirely.

“T-turning lies into truth… there’s no way he can do anything like that!”

Seeing Kanon transformed into a black mass, Ume shouted.

Kanon had only ever told one lie.

That was—

“There’s no way you can erase Mushi—”

It happened just as Ume moved to rescue Kanon.

Next to the black lump that used to be Kanon, a small light was born.

It was a light brimming with a gentle warmth. It gradually grew larger and transformed into an odd object.

A large tree glowing in white.

Looking closely, it trembled as though a pulse ran through the branches.

“W-what the hell’s that…?”

Seeing that large tree that exuded divinity, Ume gulped.

Becoming overgrown with leaves, it bore a single fruit.

It was an apple.

“I-is that a Mushi? I’ve never seen anything like it…”

And that wasn’t the end of the oddities.

The tardigrades stopped all movement in front of the gently glowing apple tree. Just as it seemed they were all silent while bathed in this gentle light, they started climbing it.

Even the tardigrades biting Kanon all started moving toward the tree.

“…”

Revealed again, Kanon bore bite marks all over his body. However, his face wasn’t twisted in pain, but he still calmly assumed a prayer position.

The tardigrades all climbed the tree together and got to the branch as though lured by the apple—

“N-no way…”

Ume unconsciously leaked that mumble.

The tardigrades on the branch all gathered into a single point, condensed—and became a black apple.

All these large swarms started transforming one after another, becoming a black apple one after another.

“—”

Finally, all the tardigrades were apples hanging from branches.

Finishing its role, the apple tree was slowly vanishing while leaving behind blinding light.

Kanon who was left behind remained still praying.

“A Mushi… meant for sealing Mushi…?”

Ume finally understood why Kanon hadn’t used his Mushi thus far.

Not only could his Mushi not fight, it couldn’t even move.

A Mushi that wouldn’t hurt anyone—

Ume had obviously never seen anything like that. All people would often get in conflicts with others and have the will the fight. However, Kanon didn’t. —Was there any other person in the world like him?

“Haha! You did it, Kanon-sama!”

Harukiyo sneered.

“Then it’s time for me to finish my business here, too!”

The devil was smiling, but—

He was already in tatters.

His arm was tired and the spear finally slipped from his grasp—

“Haru—”

Ume saw it clearly.

Arisu’s spear stabbed Harukiyo’s chest.

However—

“Lemme put you to bed again until you manage to come back to your senses, Arisu.”

The devil clenched both burning fists.

At that moment, to Ume’s eyes—it looked as though half of Harukioyo’s face was covered in flames. No, rather than being covered, it was more like his face became flames themselves, and his right eye was scorched like a sunspot—

“Oraaah!”

The two fists burning red struck Arisu’s temples from both sides. Heatwaves and impact struck the girl’s head, and the aftershock made literal cracks run through the floor and ceiling. A roar that sounded powerful enough to be heard not only through the planetarium but to the entirety of Kurobishi Town shook the air.

“—!”

Arisu, who was hit by this attack, opened her mouth wide and emitted a soundless scream.

That was—the end.

Arisu crumbled down in front of the heavily-wounded Harukiyo who was just barely standing.

This match between the two Rank 1s ended.

Sleeping Beauty woke up and the Undying was resealed—

Ume was alive.

“I’m saved…? We’re still alive…”

Ume started to cry from relief, while Harukiyo was calm as calm can be.

“Yup… still alive.”

He put his tattered jacket on top of the collapsed Arisu and carried her on his back. He then approached Kanon.

“R-right, Kanon…! You really did it, Kanon-sama!”

Ume also rushed to Kanon.

However, the boy remained praying and completely unmoving.

“W-what’s wrong, Kanon-sama?”

While Ume was confused, Harukiyo peeked at Kanon’s face. He touched his wounded cheeks, spoke into his ears and tried all sorts of things—

Then put a hand on the boy’s head, emitting a momentary heatwave.

Kanon lost consciousness and fell.

“Eh? W-what are you doing?”

“He feels nothin’. Better for him to sleep.”

Saying curtly, Harukiyo put Kanon on his other shoulder.

Ume gasped.

Even as a Rank 1, Arisu had to fall asleep herself to seal this huge threat. So there was obviously not way for Kanon to do the same without paying the proper price—

“She’s gonna raise hell, once she finds out someone sacrificed himself to serve as her replacement so she could wake up… makes my head hurt just imaginin’ it.”

Never mind his head, it looked like his entire body should hurt, but Harukiyo seemed fine.

“Harukiyo… are you really okay?”

Ume inquired timidly.

However—

“Ah? What d’you mean?”

The gaze of the sneering devil that turned to him allowed him no more questions.

“N-no, never mind.”

Ume shook his head and dodged the question.

It was probably just a hallucination due to the extreme situation.

It was impossible for Harukiyo’s face to become flames.

Also—

“Haha, we were Operation 2, were we? —It’s a huge success!”

Although Harukiyo was now laughing to himself, when Arisu’s spear had pierced him before—

It looked as though his body transformed into flames and let it slip through.

But Ume made no attempt to ask about that stupid illusion.

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