Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 3rd Episode 09 (section)

===Part 3===

The window to Mari's room was not locked.

Arisu opened the window with a clatter and quietly stepped into the room. 

"Whew…"

After shaking off Kasuou, Arisu headed straight for the main building. Peeking through the window of each room one by one, she finally found what seemed to be Mari's room.

She could hear the voices of the servants, having noticed the commotion, going toward the greenhouse.

"Sorry for barging in like this, Mari."

Wearing a smile, Arisu looked around the room.

Since she couldn't turn on the lights, her only source of illumination was that coming from outside. Nonetheless, she was a bit happy to find that in contrast to the sickroom where the two had met countless of times, the dim room looked suitable for a girl of Mari's age. There were plush toys all over the spacious room.

They probably left it as it was when Mari had been alive. There was no longer the presence of people, but she could somehow feel the vestiges of someone having lived here.

This was where Mari had lived. 

Feeling that for certain, Arisu felt her mood lightening.

Yet, this wasn't the time to be spacing out. She didn't know when someone would come, and so had to accomplish her goal before she was discovered.

With a slight sense of guilt, Arisu searched through the desk Mari had been using.

She soon found out a diary. A bookmark made of a small flower pressed onto Japanese paper, perhaps from the greenhouse, was lodged in it.

She hesitated over looking through a friend's diary like this. But, the silver morpho butterfly perched on her shoulder and gently brushed against her cheek with its shining wings.

It seemed to indicate as if Mari was allowing her to do so, and she smiled. She slowly leafed through the pages.

"Huh…?"

Looking at the page she opened, she involuntarily leaked out a voice of surprise. She flipped through another page and then another. However—

"It's probably empty, huh."

A wave of heat hit her back.

"…!"

Turning around, she saw a youth sitting on the edge of the opened window. With his hands of top of his folded knees, he gazed intently at Arisu.

It was Sehateno Harukiyo.

Yet, the atmosphere around him was completely different from when she had met him at school this afternoon. He glared at Arisu with a serious expression.

"After fighting Kasuou, seeing the flower garden, and coming here, let me ask you one thing."

Heat.

It might have been an illusion. However, Arisu could feel an abnormal heat emanating from the boy sitting at the window. Starting to feel as though even the act of breathing scorched her throat, her whole body stiffened.

"—Who the hell are you?"

She couldn't understand the meaning of his question.

However, Harukiyo didn't seem to be joking. Arisu replied him clearly.

"Ichinokuro Arisu."

"…I see."

Instantly, the heat dominating the room dispersed.

His expression looked as if a shadow befell it for a second. An emotion akin to loneliness seemed to crossed his prideful visage just as it did in the afternoon.

Yet when he raised his head again, the grin has returned to his face.

"Seems like I failed this time. But unexpectedly, you also seem to be quite interesting, Ichinokuro Arisu."

"Failed?"

"I knew that Kasuou gal was combative. That's why I purposely induced her to fight against you. —All in order to meet the Hanashiro Mari inside you."

Arisu widened her eyes.

"I've also only found out about this lately. When that Kurisaka Ayuyu gal used her ability to dig out the morpho butterfly's memories, you had turned into 'Hanashiro Mari'."

"I… became Mari…?"

Arisu knew nothing of the sort.

Daisuke never mentioned anything about such happening.

Yet there was what happened in the garden earlier.

Although this was supposed to be the first time she came here, she knew the inner structure of the conservatory perfectly—

"I thought that Hanashiro Mari would come out again if you were to fall into some dangerous situation. But, I guess things don't always go well."

"…And who are you exactly? That part about being Mari's cousin is a lie, isn't it."

"I'm a man with one-sided feelings for Hanashiro Mari. —Not that I've ever met her, though."

Harukiyo said while smiling calmly. Arisu looked at him sitting at the window and then her gaze dropped toward the diary in her hands.

"So you're also the one who'd unlocked the window. …Is this diary also a fake that you used to draw me in? Was it all made up by you."

"No. This undoubtedly belonged to Hanashiro Mari. I did hear that she had a diary, but it's not like I knew about its contents."

"Didn't you look inside? Even though you've supposedly come here before me?"

"I'm merely a stranger. I just thought that you as her best friend should have a look at it before I do."

"You sure are caught up in weird areas."

"I didn't lie and it all went as it should. But—"

Harukiyo grinned. Arisu felt once again as if heat was surging from his entire body.

"I'll use any means necessary."

Arisu clenched her fist.

Daisuke hadn't told Arisu the truth. Kasuou had purposely let her meet up with Harukiyo, and he made use of that fact in an attempt to fulfill his own objective. 

And in the center of everything were Arisu and Mari.

But, Arisu still knew nothing. Without her realising, each and everybody's ulterior motives intersected with one another. —And she did not like that even one bit.

"If you had ever become a Mushitsuki, you definitely would've been a Minion Type. Those tend to be emotional and stupidly good-natured."

Seeing Arisu glare at him in anger, Harukiyo said this, amused. He looked around the room, wearing a cynical smile.

"Yet Fusion Types, although they normally seem harmless, are actually cruel and merciless. They never show other people their feelings. …And that's why associating with them requires a certain kind of resolve."

Hearing his words, Arisu recalled something.

"Even the man I'd heard this from knew that Mari bought a diary, but also hadn't seen her actually write anything in it. She probably hated exposing her weakness. Even if it just in her own diary. —Or could it be she'd spent such boring days she didn't even bother writing them down, perhap?"

Mari had always been quiet and docile. But, what if she was in fact the same person as the "Hunter" she's been hearing about recently?

''—That'd be the same as Daisuke. He usually acted well-natured, but is exceedingly cold during SEPB missions.''

They were both Fusion Type Mushitsuki.

"…You also mentioned it this afternoon. Who's this man from which you heard about Mari?"

She fixed her gaze on the boy and inquired.

"He's—"

It happened just as Harukiyo narrowed his eyes and was about to speak. A black mist grazed by his cheek.

"So you were here! And with a bonus, it seems!"

It was Kasuou.

"You're that guy who said you were Hanashiro Mari's cousin. I don't know how you managed to evade the other monitors… but you're irrelevant right now! If you don't get lost right away, the next one won't miss and I'll really kill you!"

The bandage on his cheeks fell down, sliced into two cleanly by the black claws.

"Guess I've left out that part about Special Types, huh. They're all twisted fellas like that."

A tattoo with a flame pattern was revealed on the cheek of the smiling youth.

A tattoo on his face—that was the feature of the person Daisuke had said was the enemy. And there was also Kasuou's response. Meaning, he was an enemy of the Special Environmental Preservation Bureau. 

"Just like us. Right, Kasuou?"

Arisu's field of vision was dyed in crimson.

Fire spewed forth explosively from the arm Harukiyo stretched towards Kasuou. In an instant, it spread outside, swallowing the entire garden.

"UOOH!"

The vortex of flames that seemed to pierce into the night sky changed into a strangely shaped Mushi. Kasuou compacted the mist around her body to defend herself within the flaming pillar.

''This guy's also a Mushitsuki…!''

Arisu gulped. Harukiyo was a Mushitsuki too. Furthermore, he was dominating Kasuou which Arisu herself had so much trouble against.

She froze in place, her hair fanned by the scorching wind.

Arisu had never seen such a powerful Mushitsuki before—

"Those flames, and that tattoo on your cheek… You're the one from Aoharima Island! That piece of shit who ran around all over the place, before crushing the Headquarters and escaping…!"

While desperately defending herself, Kasuou grimaced. 

"I'll take care her. You faster get outta here."

Turning back, Harukiyo wore a bold smile.

[[File:Mushi_Uta_Bug_3rd_p039.jpg|thumb]]

"This is now a contest. You or me—which of us is going to find Hanashiro Mari first."

Finding Mari.

Arisu had indeed come all the way here for that. She had fought several Mushitsuki thus far, and reached this place in pursuit of what Mari left behind.

She had no idea who this guy called Sehateno Harukiyo in front of her was. She also had no idea what the organization known as the Special Environmental Preservation Bureau was scheming.

But, what had Mari been thinking about? Just what was her dream?

There can be none other to reach that answer first apart from Arisu.

"Bring it on."

Seeing her declare as such clearly, Harukiyo smiled in enjoyment.