Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 9 Chapter 3 (section)

== 3.02 The Others ==
He first met the girl called Tachibana Rina at a certain high society party.

Something bumped against his back and the formal wear-clad Munakata turned around.

“I apologize.”

Seeing the girl look up to him while rubbing her forehead, he thought to himself that she was beautiful.

She was probably on the higher grades of elementary school. Her long hair was meticulously arranged and her face was even prettier than that of a pop singer. Her dress looked great on her.

“As long as you’re not hurt.”

He could only understand the girl’s following actions because it was him.

At first she turned around the venue. She was looking at a young man who seemed to be looking for someone.

The girl tried approaching Munakata and then stopped. She sighed as if resigned on something, and started walking toward the man.

Understanding the meaning of her actions, Munakata stepped in front of the girl.

He hid the girl behind him so that the man would not be able to see her. The young man looked all around him and then went away, looking troubled.

“Is that fine?”

“What is?”

As he turned around and smiled, the little lady feigned ignorance.

“You were hiding from that young man. You thought that it would be possible to hide behind me. —But you probably didn’t wish to cause me any trouble, right? So you gave up.”

“…Thank you very much, Munakata Kaiji-san.”

The girl’s behavior was pure. Without thinking anything about the fact she had been seen through, she dropped her expression and said her gratitude.

“Do you know me? Have we ever met before?”

“No, Father taught me about everyone here.”

“Oh, and here I was thinking I was special.”

“I’m good at remembering people’s names and faces. Even though I was bad at memorizing stuff for school.”

He purposely cracked an obvious joke there, but apparently the girl didn’t understand him. She let his words flow and reached toward the dishes on the table.

“Sorry for bothering you during your meal, but can I ask you something?”

“My name is Tachibana Rina.”

“…”

“I thought you were going to ask my name; was I mistaken?”

“No, you were right on the mark. —So you’re Tachibana-san’s little lady. Well, you do look exactly like your parents.”

Saying this, Rina visibly cringed. Her face suddenly took a childlike sulk and she ate faster. Apparently he’d insulted her somehow.

Even Munakata knew about the Tachibana family’s circumstances. He’d exchanged greetings with the current family head—the adopted son-in-law—and his wife before. The young man from before probably worked for the Tachibanas.

Actually, now that he looked at her, this girl in front of him looked like she inherited the good parts of her parents. —That convenient fact caused him some anxiety.

“What did your father tell you about me? He probably gave a short addendum, right?”

The girl hesitated for a moment. She had difficulty speaking.

“…He said that you ‘don’t trust other people. Don’t get involved with that man’.”

“Sheesh… This is the first time someone saw through me like that. As expected.”

That was his true opinion.

At the time Munakata had no enemies.

He flawlessly succeeded in business, stocking up on many assets. The common sense of the industry was that the more you profited the more enemies you had, but he was an exception.

That was because everyone was his “ally”.

Even if enemies appeared, Munakata did not fight them. For those who would become his enemies, he would present them with a different moneymaking idea, thus defending against them before they opposed him. He employed many other methods as well, and so without the other party even noticing, they began to think of Munakata as their “comrade”.

''Don’t turn him into an enemy. Making business with him is way more profitable—

By the time people were being told so, Munakata had become surrounded by allies.

All of them decided by themselves to move along with their “comrade” Munakata. They would leap at the business opportunities they set their aims on, and if there was any trouble they’d take the fall instead of him. Then, the actual profits would come falling at the lap of the survivors, including Munakata.

He wasn’t doing it consciously. Because of that, no matter who became a victim, he wouldn’t stop them. They had to take the fall instead of Munakata—there was no other way except for not getting involved with him.

“Can I also ask you something?”

“I’m Munakata Kaiji.”

“I know that. Nice to meet you. —Are you alone?”

“Yes, at this age I’m all alone. I wasn’t blessed in relationships.”

It was a lie.

Munakata, who had all the relationships with the other sex he needed to, also had an escort at the time. But he didn’t feel like bringing her there, or marrying her for that matter. If he could marry and start a family, it would definitely go well—but just because he thought so it wasn’t a reason to actually do it.

Right, at the time he didn’t think that a family was anything special.

“I see. You look like you’d be popular, what a waste.”

“…It rather hurts when a child compliments me like this. Will you please stop speaking like that? Kids should talk about what they want to.”

“Only if you promise not to tell on me to Father. I was told not to get on anyone’s nerves here.”

As Rina finally showed him a childlike smile, he vowed to keep the promise.

Following that they spoke for a while.

It was strange for him to talk with a child so far removed from him in age—but Munakata never forgot the fun he had back then.

It felt like talking to an old friend. Technically, since he never had anyone like that, he felt like that was how it would be if he had.

That was why he was glad at what Rina said to him.

“We’re comrades, right?”

She told him something so childish.

“Comrades?”

“I mean, Munakata-san, it’s clear from your face that you don’t belong here. Although you look down on your surroundings, you’re smiling at escaping boredom.”

“…”

“It feels as though you’re building grand sandcastles to appease the people around you despite not finding it interesting at all. And you actually want to go right back to the park and build a real castle. Although you could do that, you feel elated that you supposedly protect the peace of the park.”

This was a merciless evaluation—but it was true.

He really had no people who’d become his enemies—but also no one he thought as comrades. In that sense, perhaps he really wasn’t blessed in relationships.

“Yeah. I really do think so. But it’s a secret, alright?”

“Now we both have secrets. So we’re even.”

“Do you have any other place you belong to?”

“I… at the very least, I hate my home. I loathe it.”

“Oh.”

“I don’t know if there’s any other place for me, but at the very least I’d like to try going to school normally. I do go to school now, but I can’t speak to friends or go shopping or eating stuff and all that.”

She wanted to have normal school life where she could laugh and play around—

Much later, when Rina would chase after Kakkou and go to Ouka City, Munakata would offer, “Well, why don’t you try going to school normally?” as a suggestion—this would happen a few years later.

“We’re both people who are unsatisfied with where we belong. So we’re comrades.”

“Comrades… right, we are.”

Munakata repeated those words countless of times.

Comrades.

He supposedly had many “comrades” up to this point.

Even so, it felt like a completely different word when it came from Rina’s mouth. That was because, to him, those so-called “comrades”—didn’t matter to him whether they were there or not. He had nothing in common with them, and never thought of them as useful.

But when Rina called him a comrade—it was the most reassuring thing he’d ever heard.

[[File:Mushi Uta 9 p277.jpg|thumb]]

The first comrade he had since he was born was still young, but she was surprisingly reliable. On top of seeing through his true self, she said she was the same.

''Oh, so I was lonely until now—

He only just noticed something so obvious despite his age.

The silver lining was that Rina now became his comrade. If he’d noticed that he had no real comrades—he would feel that his inability to notice something so simple was pathetic and lonely, and perhaps he would have lost his will to live.

“This is my first time having a comrade. Not bad at all…”

“Right?”

The middle-aged man trembling in a way unbefitting his age, and the proud girl puffing out her chest.

“One day, let us find our place to belong to.”

Thinking back, this was the time when Munakata had been charmed by the girl.

Since then, many things happened.

The girl became a Mushitsuki, gathered plenty of allies and fought against the SEPB. She met her archnemesis, Kakkou.

Even so, Munakata felt that as long as he was with her, his strongest comrade, he could do anything.

However—she had lost.

And the reason for Rina’s unreasonable conclusion was that very perfection.

Everyone relied on Rina and she accepted it. Even so, that meant she was so perfect she had no one to rely on. She carried the hopes of all Mushitsuki and tried saving them.

Munakata lost a comrade more precious than anything else and became despondent.

However, he was brought back by the boy called Aijisupa and became part of Mushibane’s resurrection.

Bringing up Shiika as the new leader was the least he could do. Even the perfect Rina couldn’t have done it. Which was why this time, he thought, a girl who possessed “weakness” and was far from perfect should lead them now.

Mushibane was reborn.

He’d fulfilled his duty to his past comrade.

Thus he was finally able to really accomplish what he needed to do.

He and he alone needed to do it.

Munakata Kaiji had that responsibility for the sake of his one and only comrade, Tachibana Rina.



The entrance to the Akasegawa Offices was wrapped in silence.

The ground was cracked and the glass windows of several floors were completely broken. The boys and girls collapsed around were the Mushitsuki that served as Akasegawa Nanana’s bodyguards. All of them became Fallen, but a single one of them, the boy nicknamed Pochi, lost his life.

Looking down this horrible sight, Munakata Kaiji in his wheelchair mumbled to himself. He did think that it wouldn’t be a light punishment, but never considered that anyone would die.

“So this is the penalty…”

The woman in the evening dress called Christy was no longer there. When she tried chasing down Nanana, Aijisupa stood in her way, so they probably kept fighting at a different place around now.

“Does it mean that those who are unable to fulfill their part in the bid pay with their lives instead?”

Although an unexcepted sacrifice, this was the result of his own actions. He would carry that sin.

Munakata meant on betting his life from the first place. He was ready to fight against obstacles.

That was the difference between him and Akasegawa Nanana.

This auction was not a game—

He never thought it was possible to obtain the roots of Mushi with such a lukewarm determination as hers.

“So this means that Akasegawa Nanana’s bidding now became invalid.”

Munakata glared at the strange auctioneer next to him.

“Based on the orthodox rules, we would return to previous bid, and I would gain the authority to win.”

He pulled out the member card from his pocket.

The seemingly impossible thirteenth Round Table member—

Munakata had obtained it a long time ago.

Although it was the Round Table, at present about half its members were simply stupid people who had money. They were grandchildren of investors or at times lucky people who managed to get a lot of money. Winning those people over was easy as pie.

All important decisions in the Round Table were made by majority vote.

The suggestion to set up the thirteenth seat that never existed before was easily decided by the “comrades” dragged in by Munakata.

“Now, please announce my win.”

Munakata spoke to Sotheby.

Him getting in contact with the Round Table to investigate the origin of Mushi was no lie.

His prediction that three economical movements from a decade ago—Enclosure, Bubble and Paradigm Shift—were related to it was right on the mark.

And the same time that he joined the Round Table, the auctioneer Sotheby appeared. He didn’t know how, but apparently he’d sniffed out that Munakata was looking for the source of Mushi.

He came to know of Alpha at that point at well.

Alpha existed.

The exorbitant member fees of the Round Table were apparently used to hide them. They had been handled and sealed so that they stayed hidden from people’s eyes and that the SEPB did not notice them.

Those who knew of this truth never tried speaking of it. They were the members who remained at the Round Table even now, knowing what events took place a decade before. These were the few genuine members of the Round Table.

Although Alpha had been thoroughly hidden like that, the unknown person called Sotheby decided to try selling them on his own. There were hints that Sotheby had also invited the other members of the Round Table to participate in the auction as well, but it was doubtful whether they would. To Munakata it looked like he was trying to outwit the Round Table.

“Unfortunately—”

The servile Sotheby bowed even further down.

“Since you have declared your folding, the auction will be reset, and I will invite bidders again…”

“Reset?”

Munakata’s expression distorted.

“Just how greedy are you… still looking for competitors to raise the price?”

“I am just an auctioneer who follows the rules to the letter…”

“There will be no other Akasegawa Nanana.”

Bringing that overly confident girl to the Round Table was Munakata’s idea.

When he’d brought up this idea, the man at the Round Table’s lowest seat readily agreed to it. Perhaps believing in the offer of his “comrade” to crush the Akasegawa Foundation, or perhaps he thought of using this to try and take over Munakata’s assets. Just like he planned, Munakata pretended to have been kidnapped by him.

He knew that Akasegawa Nanana had been trying to get in contact with him for a while now. She would probably be interested in his disappearance. He’d also left some hints with Shiika, so Nanana would interfere with the Round Table.

She then rescued Munakata, joined the Round Table and finally obtained the right to participate in the auction.

Why had he acted in such a roundabout way?

“Even if I looked through the entire country, there’d be no other person stupid enough to join this auction but that girl.”

That itself was the reason why Munakata chose to draw Nanana into the auction.

Munakata had no naïve outlook of this girl who was blessed with money.

Rather, from the very beginning he was looking at everything other than Akasegawa Nanana.  Even when the auction started, it was obvious all the Round Table members were scared and ran off. No other rich person would know of Alpha’s value, and even if there were ones, none of them would be as powerful as the Round Table.

There was no one but Akasegawa Nanana.

That woman was curious about Munakata’s movements. If he attempted to bid, she would definitely sniff out the “scent” of his moving money. Since she would use any methods available to her to gather information, he knew very well she’d notice the auction.

He also knew about her deep relations to Mushi. If she participated in the auction and became Munakata’s rival, he would lose to her since his assets were inferior.

And so he’d purposely led Akasegawa Nanana to this auction in advance.

He purposely had her save him from the make-believe kidnapping so that he would owe her a favor—inviting Nanana to be his “comrade”. By doing so, he managed to avoid being blacklisted by her.

“I have not colluded with Akasegawa. If you are still unpleased with the current price, no one would ever be able to win the bid.”

Not fighting along with Akasegawa Nanana was because he was afraid of being outwitted by her. Since his full assets would lose to hers, the authority to bid would be with Nanana. By doing that, there was the possibility that Nanana would monopolize Alpha. And so Munakata would never be able to obtain them.

It was obvious. Even now, Munakata used his own style of business that he used even in the past.

Other than his real comrade, Tachibana Rina, he would never trust anyone—

“It is, indeed, true that you have splendidly raised the price, Munakata Kaiji-sama… this is but the mere final confirmation… if no one claiming to be a bidder appears, the rights to bid would return to you…”

Sotheby spoke impudently.

Making Akasegawa Nanana into a bidder was fine, but it was meaningless if he couldn’t win.

Kicking Nanana off was simple. She probably completely thought that he was her “comrade”. She was not cautious of Munakata and got carried away in success of her business. She didn’t even know that Munakata was actually helping her behind the scenes.

The violent success also caused anxiety to swell. When it finally reached the limits, Munakata had informed the Foundation’s board members about the auction. The fear of the Chairman being fully resolved to go bankrupt to get something that was a complete unknown reached her subordinates in no time at all—this affected their stocks, and by pressing it even further the large fallout began.

And the responsibility for that—was directed at the Chairman Nanana.

Thus Nanana lost everything in a single night and Munakata obtained victory.

A throb ran through Munakata’s chest and he coughed.

“When’s the next payment?”

“Please await my news three days from now… And now I bid you a good night…”

With the torn leather shoes dragging behind him, Sotheby left.

There was no need to hurry.

Munakata’s victory was as good as decided. No current member of the Round Table would want to violate Alpha’s seal or had the courage to touch the core of one of this country’s secrets.

He heard his cellphone ring. The secretary was getting in contact with someone.

“The Board has decided. They will welcome Munakata-sama, who’d bought back most of the stocks lost in this event, as a member. Will you accept it?”

“I will. Tell them to wait for things to cool off before they publicly announce about Akasegawa Nanana dropping off.”

Glancing at Munakata who said this and coughed, the secretary conveyed his orders.

“From now one, when you’re doing something related to the Foundation, I will accept your orders as a secretary. Pleased to be working with you.”

Cutting off the call, the secretary lowered her head. This woman, who moved not a single muscle in her face even after seeing Nanana’s complete loss, watched the coughing Munakata coolly.

“Should I call a doctor? I believe that you being in a wheelchair is not simply because your stamina has not recovered yet.”

“No, there’s no need for a doctor. —The truth is I have a heart disease. It is incurable.”

The secretary said nothing.

''Oh, so this one’s a bust as well. I need to find another one—

Her face seemed to be saying this. Munakata smiled bitterly.

“You look like you have no interest in other people. Do you live only for yourself?”

While saying this, Munakata looked around the entrance.

Among the many collapsed boys and girls, the expired boy’s face alone was peaceful. It was as if he’d fulfilled the meaning of his life by simply protecting his master—his face looked that satisfied.

“What do you live for?”

The secretary inquired, only turning back the question at him.

“For love and revolution—who was it that said it? <ref>”Man was born for love and revolution” seems to be a quote from The Setting Sun by Osamu Dazai.</ref>That’s exactly how I feel.”

Munakata loved a single girl.

For his love, he begun a revolution with that girl.

Thinking about it now—he felt extremely unsure if it was really love or just a father-like relationship toward a girl much younger than him.

So the word “comrade” fit perfectly.

“Since I failed with both, at least I can—”

His one and only miscalculation was to deepen the bonds between Nanana and Mushibane. He’d saved Mushibane due to his duty to his former comrade, but they probably think he’d betrayed them.

But he already finished his own part in Mushibane.

Starting now he’d do what he needed to.

“I wanted to find out the identity of the thing that had cornered her like this…”

Removing his sight from the cruel scene, he raised his face toward the starry sky.

The city sky had no stars, simply a curtain of darkness.

What were Mushi?

Munakata had no intention to hand that secret over secret to anyone else.

“For that, both money and the current Mushibane—do not matter to me in the least.”

As Munakata monologued, he looked ahead.

Although the sky did not have any stars, he had the feeling he could see some small object going away.