Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 11 Chapter 1 (section)

== 1.03 The Others ==

A huge shadow fell to Kii-kun’s feet.

Following a black leg, a white leg lowered its claws and swung toward him.

“Waaaah!”

Crawling on the ground on all fours, he dodged the claws at the last moment.

The roar and tremor broke the asphalt, and onlookers ran away, screaming.

Kii-kun rose up and flew into the road.

“Eeee—”

Turning back, the nightmare was coming.

Black, white, black, white—stabbing the ground alternatively, these “legs” assaulted him.

Meanwhile, the dark woman didn’t seem interested in Kii-kun. Not even turning to look at his collapsed friends, she returned to the trashcan, fishing its contents and looking hungry.

“W-what the hell is thiiiiiis!”

Kii-kun ran away from the two legs.

The sounds of people’s screams and vehicles getting skewered and the vibration of asphalt breaking pursued him from behind.

“W-what the hell! What happened to them…! P-police…! Waaaah…!”

Until just now, he was supposed to kill time with his friends.

His heart was broken, but he wanted to relieve his sadness with karaoke.

Even so, why now was he chased by a monster?

“Ughuuuuh…!”

As he turned in the corner of the crossroads, the “legs” changed their direction as well.

The pedestrians he pushed aside raised screams behind him.

Perhaps there were victims of this “legs” chasing him.

But if he were to stop, he’d end up skewered. He could imagine his body torn off, flesh flying about.

“I don’t… want to die…! I don’t wanna die yeeeeeet!”

He didn’t want to die yet.

Until yesterday he lived a normal life. He wanted to keep living like that.

Him dying—he wasn’t prepared in the slightest for that.

“Haa…! Haa…!”

''Why me—

He was out of breath. His heart felt ready to burst.

''Go for someone else—

Somewhere in his heart he wished for that.

He was fine with being called inhuman. Everyone other than him was fine. Even if he had to exchange with a complete stranger, he didn’t want to die.

“Help…!”

He didn’t matter paying any price if it ended with him not dying now.

It happened right after he embraced this wholehearted wish to not die.

“Ouch…!”

Strength left his legs. The momentum made him tumble down.

While grimacing, Kii-kun looked at his own legs—

“—”

He froze.

His right leg was gone.

There was no blood. Everything down of his ankle crumbled down like sand.

“What are you doing! Run away!”

Someone shouted near his ear.

Someone held him up as he fell on the ground.

“Don’t just freeze! Run!”

This was a boy, around Kii-kun’s age or a little bit older. Clothes, hairstyle and face—he had no distinguishing features whatsoever. About the only unique thing about him was the band-aid on his cheek.

“Even if you—tell me to run—”

Kii-kun looked at his own leg—and was startled.

He had a leg.

Had fear caused him to imagine otherwise? His supposedly crumbled leg returned to itself and there wasn’t even a single scratch on it.

Roars and screams approached.

Kii-kun came back to his senses and started running with the mystery boy.

“How much longer do we need to run!”

“How much longer… I’m already… at my limits…!”

Looking at the monster chasing from behind, the pedestrians on the road all ran away and scattered around.

There was only one figure standing ahead.

A girl with a mask hiding her mouth coughed.

“Idiot! What are you doing there! Move, Mikko!”

The boy next to him shouted.

“Cough… from the moment we heard the first sounds, 5 minutes and 32 seconds have passed.”

The girl who was completely unmoving faced Kii-kun and the other boy.

“—It should be gone any moment now.”

The girl’s glazed eyes—perhaps she had a fever—looked toward the “legs”.

Kii-kun and the boy stopped in place and turned around.

As they did, the girl’s prophecy became reality.

The two legs, black and white, were vanishing right before Kii-kun’s and the pedestrians’ eyes.

Nothing remained of the monster that destroyed the asphalt like it was mere tofu. All that remained was the scenery of the destroyed national road and the pedestrians standing around, stunned.

“…”

It felt like waking up from a bad dream. He couldn’t understand what just happened.

The boy next to him pressed closer to the girl.

“How did you know it’d vanish?”

“Cough… because it’s rare for Mushi to survive for more than 5 minutes.”

“What?”

“You there, I apologize for involving you in this.”

The girl turned to Kii-kun.

“However, it was a nauseatingly shameful way of running.”

“…Ha?”

“With you pushing unrelated people out of the way like that, I realized at a glance that you operated under a self-centered thinking of wishing to be saved, even if it was you alone. It was horrible, seeing you act like you wanted to sacrifice other people… cough.”

Kii-kun’s face became red.

It was just like the girl said. He was willing to go that far to get saved.

He didn’t know he was that much of a selfish person—

“T-that—I mean, you know...”

“However, I do not dislike you.”

The girl narrowed her eyes in a grin.

He couldn’t see her mouth due to the mask, but her eyes were definitely smiling kindly—

He realized that, although he’d shown her his ugly self, she really did forgive and accept him.

“…”

“What are you looking all happy for? I’m going to get mad.”

Being coldly told that by the other boy, Kii-kun felt his face heat up again.

“I-I-I-I-I’m not happy!”

“Why were you chased by the monster?”

Being stared daggers by the boy, Kii-kun recalled.

“My companions… a-ah, wait! They’re…!”

Were his two friends safe? Without understanding anything, he abandoned his collapsed friends.

“Wait, I’ll go too. Looks like there’s a need for information.”

“My name is Mikko. And you?”

Being looked by the unknown boy and girl, he gulped.

Was Mikko a nickname? It seemed like these two weren’t just passersby.

“I’m… called Kii-kun.”

Just to be safe he gave his nickname, then looked at his leg.

It was right there.

What if his leg vanished just like that monster—he felt anxious.

“Kii-kun, you said?”

For some reason, the boy changed his expression. Startling, he looked at Kii-kun’s hair.

Was his topknot hairstyle so rare?

“Mikko… do you know this guy?”

The girl tilted her head, looking confused. Looking at Kii-kun, she narrowed her eyes in a grin.

“Nice to meet you.”

“…Nice to meet you.”

He somehow answered with a strained smile.

There was no doubt that this was his first meeting with the person called Mikko.