Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 14 Chapter 2 (section)

== 2.03 Harukiyo Part 3 ==

Harukiyo grabbed Alpha from inside the pool. He tore off the mask covering the youth’s face.

“Explain it to me so I can understand.”

He glared at the man’s face that was as pale as a wax doll’s from up close.

“You wanna get killed, right? Why you think so? Is there someone preventing you from living? Got a short lifespan or somethin’? So you need to kick your enemy’s asses to extend your life, right? But you want someone to kill you?”

After being yelled at from up close, Alpha opened his eyes thinly. Leaking a weak sigh, he moved his line of sight.

“Where’s… the girl…?”

“A girl? You blind or something? I’m the only one here. We’re alone.”

“She said… she’s like me… if she’s gone—”

Apparently Alpha’s life was leaking away with every soft yet long sigh of Alpha’s.

“I won’t talk anymore… let me sleep… that’s enough…”

“…”

It happened just as Harukiyo narrowed his burning eyes.

“He refers to Fuyuhotaru.”

He could hear a woman’s voice from outside the semi-trailer.

Another Harukiyo appeared there, carrying both Kusezaki Ume as well as Akasegawa Nanana’s secretary under his arms. After letting both get down, Harukiyo’s imitation melted to unveil Sakaki Haruka.

“Akasegawa Nanana was the one who bought him, but it was Fuyuhotaru who woke him up. He’d apparently been having some sort of sympathetic bond with her since then.”

“I don’t fucking care.”

Harukiyo spat, turning back to Alpha.

“I really don’t like you, bastard… you’re somewhat similar to those Original Three assholes. Since they’re self-aware about all sorta things they’re better, though.”

As Harukiyo spat this, he could sense some sort of nasty presence.

“Harukiyo! This is bad, this—”

Golden electrical discharge suddenly appeared at the ceiling. It took the shape of small C-butterflies that started fluttering around the warehouse.

“C found—”

Before Ume could finish his words, the air inside the warehouse changed.

The atmospheric pressure lowered as if the air itself was choked, and in the next moment there was an explosive roar and a gale.

“I’m currently busy—having fun talking with this son of a bitch.”

Harukiyo and Alpha’s hair was fanned by the wind.

In a position visible from the cargo, Ume, Haruka and the secretary looked around them, stunned.

Except for the semi-trailer Harukiyo and others were inside of, everything around them was turned to barren, flat ground. Everything around them simmered, with only the area where the collapsed mercenaries lay escaping the effects of the heatwave.

“You can’t go and blow up the entire warehouse just because you’re annoyed…”

Hearing Ume’s groan behind him, Harukiyo looked down coldly at Alpha.

“—Did C target me just now? Or were you the target? Well, at the very least it looks like there’re many people who’ll target you, so it’s got nothing to do with me.”

Alpha gave no answer. His slightly open eyes were listless and directed at Harukiyo’s chest.

“So many people target you, gang up on you and thoroughly bully you, eh? That wouldn’t happen unless you’re quite the bad guy, right? Have you killed hundreds of people? Or maybe you used some dirty means to squeeze money outta people? Or maybe you played with the hearts of innocent girls or trampled the dignity of weaklings and treated them like trash?”

Alpha gave no answer.

“You get what I’m saying, right? If a bastard like you feels anguished and tired and all—it’s a sort of punishment. You wouldn’t suffer so much if it wasn’t a punishment, right?”

“…”

“So you wouldn’t go all like… ‘I did nothing wrong, they just came up and started abusing me for no reason’ at this stage, right?”

Alpha finally closed his eyes.

“And if you still insist you did nothing—then your life itself is a sin.”

Harukiyo kept hurling abuse at him.

“Have you no shame, then, to be using all this machinery to keep living if it’s a sin? You’re causing so much trouble to people and you’re not even aware of it. You goddamn sinner, you shoulda died long ago. Aren’t you ashamed to still be alive?”

“…”

“Just so you know, it’s the worst of the worst criminals who don’t even know what they’ve done and yet look all like ‘I’m innocent, they are all just trying to kill me’, while you’re just chilling here, causing trouble for other people and trying to get punished for it. How much of a fucking coward are you?”

Alpha was speechless.

However—there was the smallest wrinkle formed in his brows.

“Oh? You mad? Am I being a bother? You’ve got some cheek, looking so uncomfortable at that. You wanna get killed, right? So isn’t me whispering some abuse to your ears a rather cute punishment, in comparison? Those who are content getting punished don’t resist, right? I won’t allow you talkin’ back to me, either. You’re spoiling the mood of all of us who wanna live, you living trashcan.”

Looking at the devices installed on the walls, the secretary warned Harukiyo.

“Alpha’s heartrate is rising. He is an important witness. He’s an irreplaceable person for Mushitsuki. Treating him so violently is—”

“Witness? I don’t give a fuck, I don’t need to ask him anything. —You said you’re a secretary, right? Just get behind the wheel and drive already.”

“Drive?” she asked with a tilted head.

Ume and Haruka came to the semi-trailer’s cargo.

“Uwah… Alpha-san, was it? Since Harukiyo loathes suicidal guys, he’s got his eyes on you. It’s way too early to find the next Sleeping Beauty.”

“…And now he’ll definitely not stop until you say ‘please, just let me live’…”

Golden electric discharges started forming around them again.

Understanding the situation, the secretary headed to the driver’s seat along with her teddy bear.

“I do not have license for large vehicles, though…”

“You can just pay a fine later, right?”

“…Just ignore it…”

“If you wanna die, you’re not gonna complain about whatever way you die, right? If you say you wanna get punished, keep cursing me till you run out of breath. Just as a mood cleanser.”

The large semi-trailer holding Alpha suddenly went in reverse.

Ume and Haruka rolled and bumped their head against the walls, but Harukiyo never let go of Alpha.

“If you say you wanna get punished, you gotta acknowledge your own sin, right? I’m not having a loser like you retort, and I don’t wanna hear any testimony comin’ from that dirty mouth of yours.”

Slapping Alpha’s mask back on his face, Harukiyo pushed his head into coffin-like bed again.

“Those pushing their sins on you aren’t gonna listen to you either, anyway.”

Changing directions, the semi-trailer flew out of the warehouse area.

“Therefore, your own means of resistance—are to keep living.”

Harukiyo felt like Alpha’s head twitched under his hand.

At the same time, the semi-trailer made a sudden brake, stopping in place.

“If you’re going to abandon even that and get punished, that’s quite the great sin in itself, right? Now I’m finally interested. I’m gonna watch your sin with my very own eyes and decide. I’ll be like Yama-sama down there in hell and give you my judgment. Don’t dare dream of an easy death if it ends up being something half-assed, though.”

The semi-trailer’s ceiling above Harukiyo’s head glowed dark red. The inner part was blown away as though from an explosion, opening up a circular hole.

He wrapped himself in heat and leapt. Landing on the semi-trailer’s roof, he scratched his chin.

The warehouse was being surrounded by multitudes of Revived.

“Hey, you bastards. You’re aimin’ for me? Or is for this living corpse?”

Harukiyo’s emitted heatwave instantly mowed down everything around. Containers and empty vehicles were all blown away, rails included, and the Revived were thrown backwards.

“Step on it, teddy bear lady. I dunno where to, though.”

He tapped the ceiling.

“I hit an idea on how to check this guy’s sin. And until then—I’ll keep him alive.”

The semi-trailer accelerated abruptly. 

As they rushed out of the warehouse area and into the city proper, they came to a large road. There were some armored vehicles blocking the road, but Harukiyo just waved his hands to make these heavy cars flip over and clear the path.

Apparently, the secretary’s destination was distant. Passing through a great junction, the semi-trailer entered the highway connecting Akamaki City to other towns.

The semi-trailer broke through the toll gate’s bars.

As it rushed full speed on the empty highway, golden lights were formed around it.

They were countless C-butterflies. —Since Harukiyo weren’t running away or hiding, C wasn’t going to lose them.

The C-butterflies gathered in one spot and slid right beneath the semi-trailer.

“Haha!”

Harukiyo wrapped his body with a red fireball. Throwing himself midair, he grabbed the semi-trailer’s roof.

By Harukiyo yielding himself to the heatwave that struck from the side, he forced the semi-trailer to drift.

The next moment, huge lightning rose from below the semi-trailer.

Sliding on its side, the cargo box only just narrowly avoided direct impact.

“Fighting me from afar like that without showing yourself means you’re lookin’ down on me, C?!”

Following this, the second then third strike assaulted the trailer.

However, Harukiyo shook the vehicle to the side, avoiding each one.

“B-bleeeeh…! Harukiyo, is there no other way? I’m gonna hurl…!”

“…I hit my head and nose…”

He heard complaints from the cargo area, but didn’t let it bother him.

A barricade of armed vehicles and Revived blocked the path. However, the heatwave Harukiyo unleashed blew them away, opening the road again.

“That’s just not cutting it! Gimme your best shot, C! Since you’ve absorbed that disgusting Shinpu, there’s gotta be a better game you can play!”

The lightning stopped.

On the road ahead a human figure glowing in gold appeared on top of the noise barrier.

A young girl with a tiara on her head and cloak on her shoulders—C.

However, this wasn’t her real body. Her silhouette warped, the girl exchanged glances with Harukiyo as he passed by her.

“I must purge the Ark—”

C’s voice reached Harukiyo’s ears.

Another C appeared ahead.

“From the old generation of Mushitsuki—”

Not moving her mouth, C glared at Harukiyo as he passed.

“The Deluge will wash away all past Mushitsuki—”

Three Cs appeared and vanished behind Harukiyo’s semi-trailer while staring at him.

“And then I will release the Dove…”

While watching off the vanishing C, Harukiyo sneered.

“I don’t really get it—but I see now, so that’s the next ‘disaster’.”

Standing atop the cargo, Harukiyo calmly let the wind hit him.

“I’m not gonna die, though. Not even Sleeping Beauty managed to kill me.”

All lightning attacks stopped, and when C vanished—the overhead sky underwent a change.

A sublime radiance peeked from between the clouds, and something large was trying to show itself.

“Me or that suicidal guy below me… I dunno which of us this ‘disaster’ is meant for, but don’t lump us together. Unlike that guy, I’ll keep on living at any cost.”

A pure bell’s sound echoed on the highway.

A sweet sensation of drunkenness encroached his mind.

“Right, that’s the one.”

Smiling, he leapt inside the semi-trailer.

Ume and Haruka were collapsed on the floor. They were apparently downed rather quickly by C’s mental attack. They’d probably wake up on their own before long.

Forcing his increasingly heavier body to move, Harukiyo grabbed Alpha.

He raised the youth’s head from inside the tub once again.

“—I’ll never agree to this. As long as I’m alive, the fact of my life is no sin.”

Alpha frowned, opening narrow eyes.

“You’re formally invited, suicidal guy. I’m gonna show you the difference between us.”

He was purposely letting the bell noises affect him at this stage.

He grabbed Alpha’s head tightly. So he could take the suicidal guy in front of his eyes along for the ride.

“Once you’re on my level, you can even hijack a mental attack and take it over.”

Spitting this at his fellow sinner, the flame devil—

“Probably, anyway.”

Let C’s mental attack take over his body.