Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 12 Chapter 3 (section)

== 3.03 OPS2 Part 4 ==

About ten hours passed since they came to the spot indicated by Miguruma Yaeko.

And they stopped in place for about several hours.

Even so, Harukiyo was unable to get reunited with Sleeping Beauty.

“…”

Leaning against the corridor’s wall, Harukiyo was vaguely thinking to himself.

A space resembling a wall remained only around him. All other parts—the place that used to be the Prison’s corridor—was nothing more than debris with exposed, bare ground.

“She’s here again! The one attacking with sound shockwaves! Kanakana, was it?”

“So stubborn! Goad her into my firing range already! My killer move will strip her naked!”

“…Too nimble…”

“This is bad, this is bad! My fortune-telling says several enemies are coming… Ah! And this rabbit-eared bastard’s sleeping! Wake up and help with something already!”

“Ah, I’m sho sleepy…”

“Maria-san, the real you’s showing.”

“—I very tired.”

“Eh? Eh? Maria wasn’t a foreigner? She wasn’t some noble girl from England?”

“You didn’t know this, Witch-san? Maria-san’s a bonafide Japanese. It’s actually unbelievable that someone fell for her horrible English in the first place.”

“…What a bother…”

Mumbling in an annoyed tone, Sakaki Haruka stretched both arms ahead. On her palm rose a toxic-colored moth—an American moth-butterfly—and its surface swelled like clay.

This clay quickly spread from her arm to her shoulder and from her shoulder to her entire body, forming the shape of a different person after a few seconds.

“I’ll fry ya.”

It was Harukiyo. Whole body wrought in flames, he dashed to the end of the corridor with super speed.

Left behind were the real Harukiyo and his companions.

“Once Haruka-san turns serious, we can rest easy a little. Maria-san, do you think she could capture the enemies?”

“Oh no. Car chase? Play tag?”

“It’s going to take time, then. Your English is horrible, by the way. —Although she’d been doing hit-and-run attacks so persistently, we can’t beat her so easily. She really is annoying.”

“We don’t have time to rest. A new pursuer’s coming soon—is what my fortune-telling’s showing me. They don’t appear to be too strong, though…”

Harukiyo watched everyone making complaints.

“So, about to get any flash of inspiration about Sleeping Beauty’s hiding place?”

Asked this by the bearded man, Harukiyo stayed with his arms crossed, not answering.

Ume sighed.

“We took an entire day to get to Sleeping Beauty’s hiding place but there’s nothing. Still, even if Miguruma just lied to us, we have zero other clues. Harukiyo said something about us missing something, but what is that, then? That’s how it is.”

“Yeah, I’m dead tired too. How about we just call our other comrades?”

Harukiyo glared at her as she sat hugging her knees on the trolley.

“Eeek! I-I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Don’t stare at me like that.”

“I told you, Witch-san, the word comrades is taboo.”

Glancing at Ume who said this, Harukiyo opened his mouth.

“…Ume. You had some sorta technique that let you escape if you were about to die.”

“Oh, he’s finally talking. —Secret technique #15, ‘You idiot, that was only a fake reflection!’; is that what you’re referring to? Right, I can avoid being killed about ten times or so. I made it so it’ll activate automatically.”

“Can you use that on little bunny ears here?”

Other than Harukiyo, all members looked at the kid in the hoodie. Lop-Eared was on the floor, sleeping soundly. Even when poked by Witch’s wand, Lop-Eared showed no signs of waking up.

“…I think so.”

“Then please do so. I dunno what’s gonna happen once I wake Sleeping Beauty.”

Saying this, he indulged himself to thinking again.

However, noticing an evil gaze upon him, he glanced at Ume and his other companions.

“What?”

“We’re just a bit mad, you know? No matter how much you rattle on and on about us not being comrades, what’s up with you ignoring us for this kid who you met only just yesterday?”

“I’m jealousy.”

“If you don’t like it—”

“You can go back, right? We understand that. I’m starting to seriously consider this. Because there has been nothing interesting for a while now.”

As the bearded man said this, his face was already completely sober. The others were the same.

“This isn’t about entertainment.”

Harukiyo himself was already pissed beyond compare.

Had Miguruma Yaeko lied to them?

No—that couldn’t be. His instincts told him this.

It wasn’t just intuition. In his life so far, whenever he achieved such perfect intuition that verged on conviction, it was always while he already had all the needed information. After he figured things out, he realized that he already possessed all the hints.

Miguruma Yaeko said that there was a Guardian hiding Sleeping Beauty.

This Guardian was a Mushitsuki, probably?

However, could a Mushitsuki powerful enough for them to not even feel their presence really exist?

Why did Miguruma not reveal that Guardian’s identity to Harukiyo?

“Then, then, tell us about Sleeping Beauty.”

Harukiyo’s eyebrows twitched at Witch’s words.

“I don’t know about the others, I never heard about her in detail. I only know she’s a woman you’re really interested in… ah, i-it’s not like I’m interested in your past lovers or anything, alright? I’m serious.”

“…”

“D-don’t look at me with these eyes. Really, there’s no way that I have the hots for you… uh, I ended up remembering the time they used a fake love letter and ridiculed me. Someone like me being interested in romance sounds odd, doesn’t it…”

“Haa, isn’t it good you changed? You’d be wasted on that sorta trash.”

As Harukiyo laughed, Witch blushed.

“Eh? Eeeh? R-realllly? I know, right? Teehee, ehehe—”

Pulling down her hat to hide her face, Witch was suddenly blown off to the side.

A shockwave coming from the corridor assaulted her.

Seeing Witch roll away with her trolley, everyone other than Harukiyo almost died laughing.

“Gyahahahahaha! Didja… did you see that? What a perfect arc she flew in!”

“Uwahahaha! Looks like after getting chased by Haruka-san, Kanakana managed to come from the other way around! Bwah!”

“O-ouch, it really hurts…! Please stop laughing! Maria, if you sensed the enemy coming back, you should’ve told me!”

“I sorry, I sorry. Serves you right.”

Ume and the others started fighting against the returning enemy.

“She’s in tatters already. Feels like she just barely escaped from Haruka.”

“Since there’s apparently a new enemy coming, we need to clean up everything before that.”

Sakaki Haruka in her original form also came back.

“…Out of gas…”

Grabbing Harukiyo’s arm, she ran her tongue on it. Harukiyo could feel his ability’s flames getting sucked out by the girl.

“About Sleeping Beauty, eh… it’s just reminiscing about the past, and it wasn’t like she was my woman or anything.”

Everyone turned to look at him while fighting.

“But it’s no longer just a story from the past.”

“It might give us some idea to where they’re hiding her.”

It was no longer just a story from the past—

Maybe that was right. Harukiyo only kept looking for Sleeping Beauty so he could settle the score for a past battle, but despite this—

“Gotcha. Then you might as well listen.”

Perhaps—if Kakkou hadn’t retired so half-heartedly, it would have remained a story of the past.

Harukiyo opened his mouth.

“I’ve got no parents, siblings, or lovers… well, it’s ‘cause whoever gets close for me dies, for whatever reason.”

He briefly explained the destiny bounding him since his very birth.

As if it was Harukiyo himself who burned down those close to him.

All people trying to approach him were burned down and vanished.

Harukiyo’s entire life was a repeat of that scene.

“I don’t think I’m cursed or anything. Anyway, that’s part of the reason I spent most of the time lookin’ for tough guys who won’t die. That was also when I became Mushitsuki.”

“Oh, I met you back then. I almost died, obviously.”

While fighting the new Revived, Ume lifted his hand happily.

“That’s when I heard about there being a really strong Mushitsuki. After looking around, I found out their name was Hunter, Spear-user and all sorta names.”

Dodging from attacks along with the trolley Witch sat in, the bearded man then spoke.

“Spear-user… I see, so that was Sleeping Beauty.”

“No, that one’s already long dead.”

His allies all stopped in place.

Nearly getting hit by the enemy’s attacks, they all hurriedly kept evading.

“W-wait, wait! What’s up with that? Is Sleeping Beauty dead already?”

“Nah.”

Harukiyo narrowed his eyes. He rubbed the head of sleepy-looking Haruka, who just finished eating his flames.

“Hunter’s dead, but the Mushi remained, possessing a person who wasn’t even a Mushitsuki. A woman who wasn’t just not very strong, but also an idiot.”

“Ha? I never heard about any Mushi that remained after its host died, though. Is Sleeping Beauty that kind of ghost story?”

Following the bearded guy, now Witch also turned doubtful eyes to Harukiyo.

“Once a Mushitsuki dies their Mushi always vanishes. If there’s some trick, reveal it.”

“I’ve heard all that so much that I was tired of it at the time, and I’m also tired of thinking about it myself.”

It was natural for them to suspect this story. Harukiyo himself always was in doubt.

In the end, though, there was no lie or trick.

It was just a certain Mushitsuki who wished for life—and the one who made her a Mushitsuki.

As well as the girl who reached for those feelings, who was an unexpected irregular.

Nothing more than a small defect—a bug—created by the Mushitsuki system.

“But it really happened. Also, since the host was stupid, she joined Mushitsuki’s ranks of her own volition. She even started thinking of saving Mushitsuki.”

“…Saving Mushitsuki… how…?”

The one to ask the most pertinent question was Haruka.

“By defeating the Original Three—”

No one turned back at Harukiyo’s words.

However, he knew that they started listening to his story more seriously.

“Well, a lot happened, I did something like a deal too, and ended up lending a hand. Not just me. Kakkou and Lady Bird too. …If Fuyuhotaru wasn’t a Fallen she would’ve been invited as well for sure.”

“A-all Rank 1s…?”

Watching Witch shudder and groan this from the corner of his eyes, Harukiyo continued.

“We set up a trap and challenged Oogui. There were more than a hundred Mushitsuki there. Apparently Lady Bird had to cancel at the very last moment, though. —There was a major issue then. Oogui’s ability.”

Oogui’s ability. That was—

“Oogui can use all the abilities of those she made Mushitsuki.”

“—”

The bearded youth, Witch, Maria all froze their expressions. Since Ume and Haruka already knew this secret, they were reactionless.

“At the time, among those that Oogui—Elvioréne—had turned into Mushitsuki there was an especially annoying one. The Undying Mushitsuki, who wouldn’t die no matter how much you killed him.”

“Ha? Never dying even when getting killed… is that actually possible?”

“Since the Undying Mushitsuki existed, Oogui was also immortal. Me and Kakkou—and even the second-generation of Spear-user who became a Mushitsuki herself—the three of us couldn’t defeat her. Also, even the Undying himself sided with Oogui.”

“W-wait a minute, wait a minute, I can’t keep up with all of that…”

“We were wiped out. The only survivors were me and Kakkou… as well as Kasuou and a few small fries.”

This was the decisive battle from the past. The night of the meteor shower.

Although they reached for the earnest wish of defeating the Original Three, it ended in an untenable loss.

Many Mushitsuki were lost that night.

“If you were among the only survivors… what about Sleeping Beauty?”

Harukiyo answered the bearded man’s question.

“Her nickname is literal. She’s got the power to make Mushi sleep. So she fell asleep, using that power along with the Undying Mushi.”

Harukiyo’s expression became naturally harsher.

The reason for her to remain asleep even now—he would never accept it.

“She said that Mushitsuki will be able to win their next fight against the Original Three for sure.”

The fight that occurred in the past had without any doubt ended in crushing defeat.

However, despite all they had lost, they were able to grasp a thin string of hope.

Oogui was currently not immortal. No matter how strong she was, now the possibility to defeat her was not zero.

Therefore, never mind Harukiyo, but Kakkou—

“Even I was on the verge on the death and it took a bit of time for my wounds to heal. During that time Miguruma took Sleeping Beauty and hid her somewhere.”

“T-this is quite the unbelievable story I just heard… b-but, if that’s true…”

Forgetting to fight, Witch was stunned. Maria now had more enemies to handle, so she cussed a loud “Fuck you!” at her.

“M-meaning that such a ridiculous Mushitsuki is still alive—and so close by?”

“A Mushitsuki who had attempted to save all Mushitsuki… is this not the best entertainment ever?”

Even the bearded man was like this. Although his face was cold until then, he looked lively now.

Harukiyo clicked his tongue.

“That’s why I didn’t wanna talk about it. That stupid woman’s stupidness would spread to other stupids.”

“What, you’re wrong, you’re wrong! I’m not cheating on you! Harukiyo’s the only one for me… wait, what are you making me say!”

“Die, pipsqueak.”

“By the way. It struck me as odd, but why did that Undying Mushitsuki or whatever side with Oogui? Shouldn’t all Mushitsuki hate Oogui?”

“Because he’s on the same side as Miguruma. He prolly wanted to keep fiddling, defeating and playing with Mushitsuki for all eternity.”

While speaking, Harukiyo felt bothered by something.

He didn’t enjoy getting all sentimental about the past. Once he tried recalling the fight, an indescribable anxiety and impatience welled within him.

“Or, rather than them being on the same side, he was the actual Director of the SEPB.”

“…Eeeeek.”

“…I get the feeling that I heard something I really shouldn’t have.”

Witch and Santa Claus fought the Revived, their expressions awkward.

However, Ume looked displeased.

“Oh boy, I really wanted to be in that meteor shower fight too. Why didn’t you invite me? Harukiyo, you idiot.”

“How many times do I need to say it? With how you were at the time, you would’ve obviously died like—”

As he said this, Harukiyo’s expression froze.

It was a divine revelation—

No, all the hints that were already inside Harukiyo suddenly combined.

“—”

“My grudge will last a lifetime. —Wait, Harukiyo? What’s wrong?”

Harukiyo couldn’t even hear the boy’s question.

Right—

The hints were already there.

“I-I was… so stupid…”

He held his head with both hands.

Miguruma Yaeko.

The Undying Mushitsuki.

The battle on the night of the meteor shower.

C and the experiments using her.

Shinpu who could control corpses.

The Mushitsuki supposedly serving as the Guardian that he couldn’t find no matter how much he looked for them.

And—the Revived.

“I was so fucking stupid…!”

Not only the hints, he already had the answer.

And from long ago.

Harukiyo simply hadn’t noticed it.

He couldn’t—have noticed it.

“W-what is it, Harukiyo! Does your head hurt? Want my medicine?”

“What’s?”

“…Harukiyo…?”

Harukiyo’s companion all looked at him, worried.

It just made him angrier.

Half of it was anger directed at himself.

He couldn’t call anyone other than himself an idiot anymore.

“I’m the stupidest person in the entire world…! I had the answer since forever…!”

Releasing his arms, he raised his face.

Anger caused his hair to stand up, and unrestrained flames spouted out from the corners of his mouth.

As for the remaining half of Harukiyo’s burning anger. It was directed at—

“MIGURUMA YAEKOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

His unleashed flames blew everyone away, be they enemies of allies.

“Uwaaaah!”

“Eeek!”

As Harukiyo put strength into his right arm, it became covered in crimson flames.

His eyes blazing in rage looked around him as if searching the surroundings.

He was already able to feel that presence.

“YOU PIECE OF SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!!!”

Harukiyo thrust his hellfire-clad right arm with great vigor.

Harukiyo found that presence—that subtle twisting of space—because he knew about it.

Because he alone of all people in the world knew about it.

And the only person to know its mechanism and how to dispel it was also just Harukiyo.

Reason being, this was someone from his past. Someone so close to him that they were able to make requests of each other—

“—!”

All the others widened their eyes.

Harukiyo’s thrust right arm tore through empty space.

He stuck his left hand into the hole as well. He tore it open by force.

“Wha…!”

Witch and others raised confused voices.

As Harukiyo forced it open, the scenery instantly changed.

Until a moment ago they were inside a completely ruined corridor.

Now, however, they were dragged into a completely different world.

In this vast space that were lines upon lines of rotting shelves—specifically, bookshelves. Each and every book there was so weathered and moth-eaten that it was on the verge of crumbling to dust.

A vast sea of bookshelves.

And not just that. Wrapped around those shelves were also countless tropical trees.

“—”

As Harukiyo and the rest watched them, the bookshelves started moving on their own. They slid in all directions as if this was some puzzle game—

And a wide space was formed in front of their eyes.

“No—no way—”

Ume was speechless.

Appearing in the created space were two wooden chairs with two people seated in them—

A pair of a woman and a man, their faces deathly pale.

“This is—too much—”

As Ume mumbled this in shock, large tears poured from his eyes.

“They were here all along…? All just to hide Sleeping Beauty—”

The woman seated in the chair wore a fancy suit. However, her hair was frayed and her clothes were old. Her face, once adorned by glasses, was equipped with what looked like mechanical goggles.

And the man also had the same goggles. He was casting his deathly pale face down listlessly.

“Who… are they…?”

The bearded man looked at Ume, confused.

[[File:Mushi Uta 12 p386.jpg|thumb]]

Ume spoke, half-sobbing.

“They’re Librarian-san and the Custodian-san… they were our comrades… Librarian-san participated in the fight of the meteor shower night with Harukiyo—”

“—I told you, they’re not comrades.”

Sparks scattered from between Harukiyo’s clenched teeth.

It was obvious that he couldn’t find the Guardian no matter how much he looked.

And it was also natural for Miguruma to not reveal their identity. If he knew this beforehand, Harukiyo would first go back and kill her.

Because for Harukiyo, these two Guardians were his—

“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY FUCKING FRIEEEEEEEENDS!!!”

The howl of the enraged devil reverberated through the otherworldly space full of bookshelves.