Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 8 Chapter 1 (section)

== 1.02 The Beast and Momo Part 1 ==
He somehow ended up in a strange place.

While seated on the sofa at the office of "Handyman Kirari☆", he was absentmindedly watching TV. Although 80% of his bandages were taken off, he was still forced to rest.

The owner of the office had left early morning. Apparently she had work.

He knew that the girl called Ikarino Kirari took on varied jobs. The very fact that she was handling an office at the mere age of 17 was abnormal. The same went for accepting someone as suspicious as him, never mind doing a favor for her acquaintance. She also knew that he was a Mushitsuki.

''Who are you, Ikarino Kirari?''

Unable to grasp why she was like this, his confusing days continued.

"Do you know of the phenomenon now popular among middle and high school students? They keyword is 'Coatl Head'! Let's ask the townspeople about it!"

When had he started watching midweek talk shows?

Inside the LCD screen the woman reporter was conducting street interviews. Regardless of age or gender, all of them were asked "Do you know about Coatl Head?" 

After several replied "I don't", some girls with dyed brown hair finally knew the answer.

"We know all about it! We're also doing that."

Excited, the girls showed the mark on their arms, clothes, or accessories.

"Huh, it really is popular…"

He muttered.

As the camera zoomed in, he could see that the symbol was identical to the one Tanaka Momo had drawn a few days prior.

"Coatl Coatl Para Emile."

As if doing a display, the girls recited this incantation.

"As you can see, Coatl Head is when you draw this mark along with the incantation, and all your problems will be solved. For example, perhaps your love will come into fruition… this is an all-purpose charm! This current fad continues to grow even now!"

Recalling Tanaka Momo's face, the boy grimaced. Because he wasn't able to move, Momo did as she pleased. Now that his wounds have healed, he had been released from her awful bandaging.

"I wonder if that idiot'll come here again."

He didn't know whether that girl was an assistant, a part-timer or what, but she was bad at it. He didn't know what she thinking about and couldn't foresee her actions.

"I just have to bear with it… I have no other choice right now."

The fact that he was sighing like this probably meant that he was calm.

Perhaps thinking so meant he lowered his guard.

"Uh."

His vision suddenly blurred.

"—Guh…! Uah… Aaah!!!"

Falling from the couch, he writhed violently on the floor.

Acute pain shot through his entire body. It wasn't pain from his wounds. In his depths of his body—another living being was rampaging there as if trying to eat him from the inside out.

This creepy feeling, as though countless caterpillars were crawling under his skin, went beyond his body and began gnawing into his mind. His vision blacked, and he was assaulted by violent noise.

His fingers grasping the carpet paled.

"Gah…AHHH!"

His struggle against the horrible pain tearing his mind and body ended before long.

"Hah! Hah! Hah…!"

His body, curled up in a fetal position, shook with small shivers.

Somehow going through the pain, he kept breathing heavily.

"Hu… Hahah…"

After his palpitations calmed down, he started laughing.

"…I can't hold it back any longer… so it's only a question of time…"

Right about now, perhaps the pursuers from the SEPB were searching the area. The only reason that he hadn't been found yet was because Ikarino Kirari had sheltered and concealed him.

However, he couldn't escape the signs of his power going wild and trying to take control of him.

Also, he probably couldn't escape from that monster—the Mushitsuki he'd fought against at the riverside—as well. He'd been able to get away once, but he had the feeling he would see that monster again.

Was that Mushitsuki also part of the place prepared for him to die?

He was on the verge of death countless times, yet still lived. At the very end he could be killed like trash by a monster he'd just met—

Perhaps this was the perfect ending for a coward like him that succumbed to his fear and tried running away at the very end.

"Coatl Head? Oh, that thing. Wait, is this for TV? The national network? Live broadcast? Yay, I look great on camera right? I welcome any and all scouts!"

As the boy lay on the carpet, unmoving, a stupid-sounding voice reached his ears.

They apparently chose the wrong person to interview. The reporter looked confused at the boy talking in his own pace.

"Well, my grampa's will said not to appear on TV, but never mind that. I'll just choke back my tears and head out for my Hollywood debut—"

Since he was carrying a worn hockey stick, he was probably a hockey player. The boy didn't know any other sort of people who would use hockey sticks. Although he spoke frivolously, the guy on TV had a well-trained body, so he was probably an excellent player.

"…Hihah."

The boy suddenly looked at another direction and wore a bizarre smile. It wasn't quite distorted. Rather, it was on the verge of breaking—an unnatural smile that could be expressed like that.

"Uh…?"

For just an instant, the boy watching could feel something sway inside him.

Rather than paralysis, perhaps it resembled fear. As if the thing inside him gazed at its archnemesis—a vague impression that he couldn't understand.

Seeing the interviewed boy suddenly run off, the reporter hurriedly smoothed it over.

"B-but on the other hand, there are also some voices of protest from residents about this marking fad. That is because due to its popularity, the amounts of graffiti on shutters and doors of the merchant districts have been on the rise—"

The voices from the television overlapped with a light ringing tone.

At first he ignored it. Yet as it continued multiple times, he finally roused his body.

Just by moving a little his entire body ached. With movements like those of a rusted tin toy, he finally opened the glass door.

"Yes?"

Seeing him in his pajamas, the visitor looked like she was taken completely by surprise.

"Eek."

She was a girl with long bangs and glasses that hid her face. She looked to be around his age. Her slim body was clad in a plain dress.

"I-I'm sorry. Umm, it said it was 'CLOSED', but I just have something to take care of…"

"N-no, I'm also sorry. Is it some request?"

"Umm, y-yes. Ah, no, I already made the request, but—"

The girl nodded her head and lifted a large suitcase she'd left outside. However, bumping into the door's threshold, the suitcase opened and its contents spread on the floor.

"Eh—"

She let out a strange voice without thinking.

Expelled from the classic leather suitcase were small toys in the shape of trees, buildings and people.

Not only that. Mixed with the dolls spread on the floor was also—a large amount of rolls of banknotes.

"I-I'm sorry!"

The girl started hurriedly picking up her stuff. Someone as plain-looking as her didn't seem like someone who'd walk around holding that much money.

He also helped her pick up the dolls and the bills. When he raised his face while crawling on the floor, his eyes met with the girl's.

"How kind of you."

A sudden chill assaulted him.

Her bangs and glasses concealed her eyes that were black like the deepest abyss. This gaze, that seemed to swallow him whole, stop his breathing and toy with him—was one that he felt as if he'd seen somewhere before.

"A-also… you might be a-about… as handsome as Akatsuki-kun…"

Mumbling this while hanging her head the girl returned to collecting.

"T-thank you. S-sorry, for making you help me…"

After they finished picking up the suitcase's contents, the girl's tone quickly became overly-familiar.

''Wh…what's up with her—''

Even after being released from the spell of her incomprehensible eyes, the alarms inside him kept ringing.

He shouldn't get involved with the girl in front of him. Such a premonition rose inside him.

"Is the boss here? I've asked for a job…"

"Sorry, the boss is not present right now… I believe she'd come back by night."

"I see… since she hadn't contacted me, I guess she didn't find that person yet."

The girl raised her face, looking at the corridor behind him.

Turning around and following her gaze, he saw that he'd left the TV on.

"How far will this Coatl Head marking fad spread, and when will it end? We will continue to follow the fad at the forefront—"

The bespectacled girl smiled. Raising her arm, she poked her index finger in the boy's chest.

"Coatl Coatl Para Emile."

While glaring at his eyes, the girl started talking.

"It is an abstract symbol. The people of old worshipped a large symbol that they couldn't carry by hand, so they believed they could seal that power or perhaps borrow part of it. Even psychologically, the act of marking it meant they could control, conceal and manifest new power…"

Pierced by the girl's abyss-like eyes, the boy couldn't move a muscle.

"The Coatl Head symbolizes the morning star in Mexican mythology… the god of revival. How happy would they have been if the power hidden beneath that symbol hadn't been exposed?"

Giggling, the girl distanced herself from him.

"Tell Kirari-san I said hi."

Putting half her body outside, the girl whispered.

"My Burial Method should've worked perfectly… so I pray that you will do your job perfectly as well… tell her that."

Leaving those words behind, the girl weaved out through the office door and was gone.

Now that he couldn't see the mystery girl anymore, he finally slumped in exhaustion. Just by handling a somewhat creepy visitor, his recovered vitality and spirits were taken away.

"What was this just now…"

Grumbling to himself and attempting to go back to the living room, there was another doorbell sound.

''Does nobody see the sign?''

Although he was angry, he was left with no choice and so returned to the corridor.

Opening the glass door, a girl holding a plastic bag with bread inside puffed her chest.

"The kind lady Momo has purchased the famous fruits custard, yeah! Telling the story of how I managed to sneak away from school during the lunch break is sure to bring tears to your eyes—"

"…"

"Ah! Don't close the door, hey! You're a freeloader! Hey now! Doctor, it's an emergency case! Manager!"

Perhaps he was going to be killed by stress before his wounds fully healed.

While collapsing on the couch, he had a sense of an impending crisis.

The intersection near the station was crowded. Every time the traffic lights overlooking the large billboard changed color, people and vehicles moved ahead like an avalanche.

A large symbol appeared on the billboard's electronic screen.

Coatl Head—

That fad had apparently spread throughout the whole country. Displayed on the billboards were advertisements with pop songs taking advantage of this fad. The lyrics of the song themselves were a commonplace love song, but judging from television it sold well.

And it wasn't just on the billboard.

"Coatl Coatl—"

A girl who looked to be about middle school age passing on the way muttered something to her ring that had the symbol on it. She recited the charm with a serious face; what sorts of emotions was she putting into it?

In bookstores there were magazines with special features about the fad. There was also graffiti of it on power poles, covered by letters that appeared to contain wishes.

"Daiske."

When Tanaka Momo called his name it felt to him slightly different from how it was normally pronounced.

Standing near the crossroad absently, he raised his face.

"Didja see that? On the billboard? That 'Love Charm: Coatl Head' advertisement! That song's great, so listen to it now. It's already my thirteenth time this day, yeah."

While doing meaningless actions like skipping around, Momo pointed at the billboard.

''Was that the title…?''

He instantly guessed that it wouldn't fit him.

"The only problem's that they're underestimating Coatl Head, I guess. Never mind love, that symbol can solve ''any'' problem, yeah!"

This time Tanaka Momo wasn't wearing her usual pajamas. Since it was her day off, she wore a casual shirt and skirt. —However, the design and material of the shirt differed from left to right, and the skirt had seemingly nonfunctional belts hanging from it, so her individuality shone through.

"Hmm…"

He had no interest in the topic, so he simply ignored it.

Although his wounds have healed, he was far from being at full health. He wanted to stay put in the office, but in the end he'd been forcibly dragged out by Momo.

The sleeves of the t-shirt and cargo pants he'd borrowed from Kirari were a bit short, but he was able to wear them with no issue. The gauzes and bandages around his arms and face would probably not stand out that much.

"They're even doing movies, yeah. A pair of star-crossed lovers, reunited by Coatl Head… I've seen it three times already, but if you're really interested—"

"No, not really…"

"If we go this way we'll reach my school. Well, they're still having lessons, but will you come with me? I don't like the design of the totem pole in the staff room. If we want to color it the way I'd like it we have to do it now, while the teachers are not there, yeah."

"If an outsider like me goes there it'll probably cause problems, so nah…"

"Then how about something to eat? I know this really good ramen p—"

"I'm not hungry… and I don't have any money."

"Then where ''would'' you like to go?!"

Momo swatted the paper she was holding on the ground. It was a movie ticket.

"I just thought that if you holed up in the office all day you'll grow mold and I even skipped school to take you out! At least make a happy face, yeah!"

"As if I'd grow mold! I was going to house-sit today too! But you've dragged me out here! Stop making people do what you want!"

The pair glared at each other in the middle of the road with people walking around them.

"Do you really wanna house-sit that much? Do you have a house fetish? Why don't you marry that house?"

"Yeah, I'll marry it! I love houses! You've got a complaint about me and the house?"

"You cannot marry houses. Also, I know that Kirarin gave you some money. You thought you'd pretend you don't have any and pull the wool over my eyes but that's not gonna work, yeah."

"You've just started caring for me, so I have to at least watch the house."

He averted his eyes, scratching his head.

"And as for money… I know the office can't spare it. Can't just use it recklessly."

In addition, he'd also seen Kirari paying Momo for her part-time work. That payment, coming in the form of wrinkled bills and small coins, was all the money that the office could muster to pay.

"…"

Momo became silent, picking up the ticket and returned it to her pocket. "I'll pay for it, yeah." Momo had rejected the payment back then.

"Well, we can just talk while walking. Let's go."

"…Sure."

Momo urged him and he nodded. Side by side, they started walking through the crowded street.

Ikarino Kirari had also gone on "errands" and left the office early morning. Day after day, she would only come back late at night. 

Noticing a gaze, the boy raised his face.

"…?"

Momo was glaring at his face.

Unlike how she normally was, her eyes were completely locked onto him. He'd seen her like this many times until now, but it caused him a chill this time.

The world Tanaka Momo was seeing was probably completely different than his.

"Say, Daiske."

When she uttered this, her face regained its usual brightness.

"Was one of your parents a foreigner?"

"No—"

He averted his eyes from her.

"They weren't."

"But your eye color is a bit pale. Your body also looks a bit leaner than a pure Japanese. You're as uniquely handsome as Mars, man."

"Mars?"

"A popular figure used as a model for statues. You were probably popular with girls, right?"

"N-not really…"

"You don't have to hide it. Or wait, maybe… are you a runaway, Daisuke? So you don't like going out because if someone recognized you things could turn ugly? Sounds likely, yeah."

"No, that's not—"

There were only very few people who knew his real face. As long as he didn't use his powers as a Mushitsuki, going out just a few times wouldn't get him found, probably.

"Anyway, nobody knows how I look in this town…"

Raising his face, he looked around the town with only his eyes.

Not only there.

No matter where he went, there would probably be no people who knew his "real face".

"—Your profile also looks pretty nice, yeah."

Simultaneous with Momo's voice, something touched his cheeks.

"But sorry to say this, Daiske… Kirarin and I know you!"

The girl wrote something on his cheeks. She did it so quickly he was too surprised to dodge her.

"Wha…?"

"I wrote 'Daisuke' in English. Now you're like me."

"Ah, wait, this is oil-based! I-I can't get it off!"

"Your name is Kusuriya Daisuke. Now everyone will know you, yeah."

Momo held up the marker, raising her index finger.

Giving up on erasing it, he sighed. It was a common name anyhow. Also, there shouldn't be any people in town who know his real name instead of his SEPB codename.

"Now we look like a weird couple…"

"A cou…? T-that's not what I meant to do… yeah…"

Hearing his nonchalant whisper, Momo's cheeks reddened and she lowered her glance.

The pair walked through the crowd aimlessly.

How many hours passed? While looking at the clothes hanging outside second-hand shops, Momo opened her mouth.

"Kirarin is… y'know. She's too kind."

He stayed silent.

"At times even those who came for requests are angry at her. Well, that's understandable. Once she'd been asked to search for a lost cat, but she saw that it made a family with a stray cat, so she let it go. When she investigated a cheating husband and found where it happened, she spoke to the husband in secret to solve the matter. Now that there was no cheating and they became a happily married couple, there was no longer any need to pay her."

There were probably countless such examples. Momo started counting on her fingers.

"She was asked to remove illegally dumped trash, and after wasting time on something that should be done by volunteers, she went over the allotted time, so the money was forfeit. During the construction of an event hall, she fell for the sponsor's sob story and her reward money had been halved. Et cetera, et cetera…"

"That's a serious illness…"

"Also, from time to time, she would hide somewhere and then return very tired or hurt. I think she's taking very special requests. And probably without any compensation."

"Special requests?"

Seeing him questioning this, Momo grinned. She put her finger on her lip, whispering to him in a low voice.

"We accept special requests related to 'insects'—"

"…"

"That's Handyman Kirari☆'s special advertisement. You're ''also like that''… right Daiske?"

As they glared at each other, he couldn't answer.

"You don't seem surprised, yeah. I've met a Mushitsuki once."

Since she didn't fear him, it meant that the Mushitsuki she'd met wasn't a bad one. However, if he'd been the one she met, Momo wouldn't be able to forgive Mushitsuki like this.

"I'm—"

When asked if he was a Mushitsuki, he couldn't answer. Rather than being cautious, he couldn't even reply with yes or no.

"I was a Mushitsuki… would probably be better to say."

"Was?"

"I can't use my power anymore… if I do, I'll never be able to regain control."

The spams that signaled the rampage became fiercer by the day. Kirari had watched him writhing countless times.

Completely losing control of the power inside him was only a matter of time.

"Where I came from, if you had no power you were useless… I don't want to return there, so I ran away… I have no other place to be in."

Strangely, the words came out of his mouth easily.

The fate entrusted upon him, and his dream—he ran away from it all, and exposed his shame. He wouldn't care if anyone saw his pathetic form now.

Momo gazed at his profile. He couldn't possibly tell what she was thinking about and how was the world she was seeing.

The girl extended her hand, touching his chest with her fingertips.

He couldn't see the mark she was drawing with his eyes, but its shape was clear.

Coatl Head.

God's charm that made all wishes come true.

"She'll not throw you away, yeah."

Momo said with a powerful yet clear voice.

Looking at him slightly widening his eyes, she smiled.

"Since Kirarin is endlessly kind, she will not abandon you, Daiske."

"…"

"I might abandon you, though."

With a satisfied smile, Momo said something cold.

"Because I'm not kind. Even my part-time job right now is just making sure Kirari wouldn't be deceived by clients and that she actually gets money. To protect Kirarin I'll be as merciless as I need, yeah."

He smiled wryly.

"Looking at it from Kirari's perspective, aren't you even kinder?"

"I'm not kind at all. I'm a wretched villain."

"Wow, you're blushing."

"I-I'm not! Well, it's fine. For the sake of the argument let's say I'm kind, yeah."

"What do you mean…?"

"If you want me to be kind as well, you'll need me to like you very much. If I like you, then perhaps just a little bit—I'll be colder to other people, and kinder to you, yeah."

Ikarino Kirari was kind to anyone.

Tanaka Momo, meanwhile, would make 100 enemies for the sake of a single person.

Possessing two types of kindness, perhaps these two made a nice combo.

"Still, sounds really tough for her to work as a handyman with that personality."

He spoke as he started walking again.

It was his honest impression. It wasn't a job one could do while simply being kind. Even age-wise it was tough handling an office. Even just working in some fast food restaurant would allow her to make much more money.

Momo's profile suddenly became sullen.

"That's the fault of Akasegawa Group, yeah."

"…Akasegawa Group?"

He recalled there was a company with that name. He heard that the late founder had so much influence that he practically held the business world by their ears.

"They're harassing Kirarin. Her being unable to go to school and working properly are both because they're standing in her way, yeah."

"Why would they…"

"She won't tell me any more than that even if I ask. Apparently something happened in the past between her and the current Chairman, but… Kirarin doesn't resist them no matter what they do and that's just weird, yeah."

Momo jabbed her right and then left fist at the air aiming at the backs of the people walking ahead.

"…"

People had both their past and present.

Kirari also had her story that reached this far. He couldn't meddle in it, and he didn't think he'd be any help, either.

"Ah—"

Momo suddenly changed her expression.

"Sorry, but can you wait a bit?"

She ran ahead, perhaps finding someone she knew in the crowd.

Momo was heading toward the CD shop on the edge of the road. The boy saw her slipping through the automatic door and call out toward a girl inside the shop.

She was a petite girl with an outfit peculiar enough to rival Momo's—wearing a horned hat. She had a marker case like Momo's hanging from her side.

He wasn't able to see clearly from afar, but when Momo called out to the horned girl, she seemed uncomfortable. As if following that, Momo also looked mad. Before long the horned girl shook Momo off and ran out of the store. She rushed toward him, her sepia-colored hair swaying.

Their eyes met.

For an instant, he had an extremely nasty sensation. There was no doubt that he'd never seen her, so why did he feel disgusted as if he just met his lifelong nemesis?

Even the girl herself bared her hatred as she saw him. Perhaps not liking his glare, she grimaced.

Him and the horned girl.

They felt an incomprehensible hostility as they passed one another—

"Momo…?"

Averting his face from the horned girl, he rushed toward Momo who was standing outside the shop.

"What's wrong?"

As he called her, he unconsciously gulped.

"It's—it's nothing—"

There were large tears forming in the sides of her eyes cast down.

"Did that girl… do something to you?"

Black hatred welled up inside him. Just seeing such a cheerful girl start crying made the hatred he felt for the other girl even stronger.

"Don't make that face."

Raising her face, Momo looked at him. Seeing his face reflected in her misty eyes, he gasped.

"It's fine… I just had a bit of a fight with my friend…"

Unable to do anything but stand, he watched Momo biting her lips.