Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 11 Chapter 3 (section)

== 3.03 Daisuke Part 8 ==

''—If I could return to the past—I would have probably killed all of you the moment we met …

Next to the dying Kii-kun, Mikko prophesized this.

Those were events about to happen.

Mikko said that Daisuke was there to see them unfold.

''—If you are unable to reach the finish line—what would happen to you, I wonder?

The girl smiling with narrowed almond eyes.

Since this was an unforeseeable “reunion” he’d been unable to connect her to the person he knew, but—

Daisuke knew her.

He finally arrived at her identity.

“—Please wake up.”

He felt a numbness pass through his mind.

Although he recalled Mikko’s identity, he couldn’t easily believe in it.

“You must head toward the ‘finish line’…”

His head was numbed again.

A familiar voice shook the confused Daisuke.

“Kakkou-san—”

Blaze Class Rank 1, Kakkou.

This designation would not allow him to keep on sleeping.

It didn’t allow him to avert his eyes, no matter how strong his enemy and no matter what scary thing he had to face.

“—!”

Retrieving his consciousness, Daisuke leapt up.

Readying his body and being wary of the environment, there was no one in the dirty alley. He couldn’t see Kasshi and Mikko who knocked him out.

“Shit… how long have I been sleeping?”

While he lost his consciousness, he had the feeling as if someone was whispering at his ears—but apparently that was just his imagination. The only one there was Daisuke.

“Mikko… is she really ''that woman''? If so—”

He rushed through the narrow alley.

The sun sank and the curtain of night fell on the city. There was no doubt he lost quite a lot of time.

As he leapt toward the main road, shouts of people running away from Imperfect Mushi echoed around.

Never mind Mikko and Kasshi, but he couldn’t see even Kii-kun anywhere. They probably found a car long ago and headed to the ship.

“I’ve made an outrageous misunderstanding…!”

Not only did he misunderstand it, he was put into a fatal situation from the very beginning.

“Mikko—what’s up with that woman? Does she understand the situation? If so, she might die as well…! No, but unlike me—”

Daisuke held his head, his thoughts running all over the place.

His breath quickened and his heartbeats hastened. Excessive anxiety made cold sweat erupt from his whole body.

“Calm down… I need to organize everything I understand. What is this situation?”

He spoke to himself.

“Right now… I’m in the enemy’s trap. And completely, at that. That’s also probably why I can’t use my Mushi power. But I don’t know who the enemy is… and what ability is it.”

Daisuke wasn’t the type for difficult reasoning and calculations in the first place. Even so, he desperately gathered the clues he’d been given.

“What can I do in this situation…?”

As he became convinced again, the despair of it all crushed Daisuke.

This sight of abnormal Mushi unleashed in town, with people’s death throes flying about—

This was no mere nightmare.

“I really fell for it, hook, line and sinker… what does the perpetrator want for me to do…?”

Mikko looked as though she knew the answers to his questions.

''—It means that the one who did this wants you to reach the ‘finish line’. That is their goal.

Was it really just that?

It wasn’t just reaching it.

What if…

Even if it was stupid thinking this, if he believed the lone hope in his heart…

“Do they want me to stop Mikko’s prophecy…?”

To put a stop to Kii-kun and Kasshi’s death and Mikko’s prophecy of destruction.

Did this mean that was the mission given to him?

However, even if that was true—Daisuke didn’t know where the ship was.

“What’s going to happen if I can’t reach that ship…?”

Right now he was mumbling to himself about things only he himself knew. Even if he asked anyone else, they’d never understand him.

However, he had conviction.

If Mikko’s prophecy was the truth, he had to stop it from becoming reality—

“Where’s that ship…!”

Raising his face, he started thinking of ways to look where he was heading to.

He already knew that it was useless trying to get in contact with the SEPB.

Then what about the Round Table?

No, Daisuke didn’t know Rui’s number, and he had no connection to other members. He didn’t have the time to look for ways to get in contact with Rui right now.

''This is bad, I’ve got no allies—

The Round Table held an immense power and authority.

The facility researching the secrets of the Undying was a secret among secrets, so there wasn’t any way he’d know someone who so conveniently knew about its location—

“—”

Daisuke’s breath caught.

There was someone.

No, more precisely—there might be.

He was shocked at himself thinking about that person.

He only knew one person who was so ridiculous as to know all the convenient things and then conveniently and calmly make them happen.

“Please…! Answer!”

He took out the cellphone that Rui never took back from him and pushed in a certain number.

As he desperately listened to the ringing sounds, after a few dozen seconds…

“—Hello?”

He got an answer.

He actually got it.

He unconsciously held the cellphone harder and couldn’t speak.

“Hello?”

The other party said again, puzzled. The voice still sounded young. About the same age as Daisuke.

“Please don’t hang up!”

He suddenly spoke loudly.

He couldn’t think of any way to explain the situation to the other party and make himself understood.

“You probably don’t know about me! But I know you! Even your name and other things—oh, no, since it’s you, you’d just say something like ‘all that is perfectly possible with a bit of investigation’. …Don’t hang up!”

“…”

“I don’t know where you’re living now or what’s your way of life. You’re probably in high school at Ouka City. You’re hiding your awful personality and doing well on the surface. That’s for sure. Because you’re the most twisted person in the world! Don’t hang up, alright!”

He just started badmouthing him. But he didn’t want to get hanged up.

“…”

“But you should know! You said you knew nothing, but that had to be a lie! You love lying! You definitely know! Even feigning to be a mere high schooler, you’d notice any small abnormality, and investigate it in secret. You’re that kind of guy. Then you should have also noticed what they’re doing! And investigated it!”

Even he couldn’t understand what he was saying.

However, the other party definitely listened to him.

“Investigated about the Round Table—and the research about the Undying!”

“…”

Daisuke didn’t know a way to accurately explain the current situation.

If he explained the particulars in detail, it might actually cause the other party to hold doubts. That was who he was.

“Please tell me! Where’s that abandoned ship that they’re using as a research facility or whatever? I have to get there as quickly as possible!”

“—eve—”

“’Even if I knew, what would I gain from telling you that?’ is out of the question! If you don’t tell me—you’ll regret it your entire life.”

“…”

There was no way he wouldn’t get affected by Mikko’s prophesized destruction. It would bring harm not just to the person himself, but to his family as well.

“This is no time for your lies, nastiness, cynicism, jokes in bad taste or badmouthing you’re so good at! If you know, then hurry up and—”

“Northeast to Akamaki City, there’s a landfill in the suburbs.”

A simple sentence.

That calm voice gave the answer Daisuke was looking for without a shred of hesitation or doubt.

So he really did know about it.

Rather than happiness about obtaining this answer—he instead felt nostalgia and bitterness.

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“—What are you doing…”

A hoarse voice leaked from his mouth.

“Allow me a prophecy—”

Preluding with this, he shouted toward the cellphone.

“While pretending to be smart, you’re going to collapse at the most important junction! And even when things are really… and I mean really important, you still haven’t woken up! You always spoke as if you knew anything, and you told me you’d end everything with that… and yet you just went and gone to sleep without waking up!”

“…”

“You’re… a liar…”

As Daisuke crouched and wrung out his voice like this, the other party probably couldn’t understand the meaning of his words.

Silence continued.

Just when he thought he got hanged up, the other party suddenly spoke.

“Allow me a prophecy.”

Preluding this, the other party spoke calmly in a jesting tone.

“Your prophecy will not come true.”

“…”

“Me not waking up when it’s important… how pleasant, just imagining it.”

“…”

“Even you, who for some reason seems to know more about me than I—was deceived by me.”

Daisuke gulped. His body froze as though paralyzed.

“Wha…! What do you—”

He could hear the phone being hanged up.

He wanted to call right back, but stopped.

He knew where the ship was.

He needed to find a vehicle as soon as possible and head there—

If he called again, he’d definitely be told that.

And if he was ''ordered'' so—he would just make it come true.

“…”

Daisuke raised his face, running through the city swirling with destruction and screams.