Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 4th Episode 15 (section)

===Part 3===

The wake ceremony was grand.

There were countless funeral bouquets arranged inside the spacious hall, with people wearing mourning clothes coming and going. Among the guests were also some government officials she remembered seeing on TV.

"''Hearing Rapport''…"

It was the residential district of her hometown.

From the roof of an empty building, Kidou Tsukasa looked down on the mourning crowd. The thread extending from her fingertip was connected to the house dog raised by the late master of the house.

"It was a horrible way to die…"

"Turning all bloody inside his car all of a sudden… how scary. I heard he had many dodgy dealings, but is such a thing possible?"

The whispers the dog could hear were transmitted to Tsukasa through the spider's thread.

Tsukasa smiled.

She had won the bet—

"…"

Suddenly her smile warped. She held her mouth and grabbed the railing. Her shoulders shook and she felt nauseous.

She killed a person—

She, herself, and none other, killed.

The fact that she'd killed a human being agonized her. Although until now she'd hurt enemies using her Mushi, she never killed them. Yet this time she acted with clear killing intent and did it.

Yet Tsukasa suppressed her nausea and straightened her back.

"…"

She tried forcing herself to smile.

What was agonizing her? She finished her business.

"Hehe…"

It was something impossible for anyone other than her kind magician self.

It was refreshing. She had nothing left to do.

"…Uuh."

Her smiling face warped.

Because of that she had to do something about this crushing guilt—

She desperately thought of the faces of people she'd saved. The first that came to mind was obviously the smile of that girl.

''—Won't you stay in this city?''

Right. She promised herself that she'd stay in this city once this job was done.

Feeling saved, she swore.

Starting tomorrow she'd become a normal girl again. She'd look for a place to live in, use her Mushi power only for small savings, and look for a proper job. She could forget everything about the dark world.

Finally her sense of guilt lessened.

After achieving this huge job, Tsukasa went to leave the wake ceremony.

"Grandpa!"

Her feet stopped in place.

"Grandpa! Grandpa!"

This voice was heard by the house dog. It was the cry of a girl.

Tsukasa's eyes widened to their absolute limits. She sharply turned around to the house.

Her heart pounded so hard it felt like it would break.

Staggering while she walked toward the house, she bumped against the railing.

"Seems like even that wicked man was kind to his granddaughter…"

"Looking at her it seems like he really was a kind grandpa."

"What a pity…"

Tsukasa opened her mouth. Yet she couldn't speak.

"S… s…"

Flapping her mouth like a fish, she finally recited the chant to use her ability.

"S…''Sight Rapport''…"

The senses exchanged with the dog turned from hearing to sight.

"…!"

Tsukasa's Mushi activated its ability in turn.

The first thing she could see was a girl clinging to the coffin—the same girl that Tsukasa made the promise to stay in the city with.

Her emotions obstructed her ability. Losing control of her Mushi, sight, hearing and all other senses came and went from the dog.

"Ua… Aahh…"

Her knees folded. She bumped her head against the railing, holding her mouth with both hands.

"Agh—"

Tsukasa had killed.

She killed the grandfather of the girl who was her benefactor.

Once, she heard that both her parents passed away in an accident.

Even if he was undoubtedly a villain, to his granddaughter he was the one and only family member who loved her.

"AaaAAAHHH—"

Tsukasa from the past was revived in her screaming mind.

Unable to do anything right—

Incompetent—

Did Tsukasa stay exactly the same despite gaining the power of magic? She had brought pain by her own hands to the girl that had once given her a small sense of accomplishment. She'd committed the unforgivable crime of killing.

"Uuh… Uuhhh…"

She curled, clinging to the railing.

She was useless.

She couldn't do anything right. She'd always fail. Even with magic nothing changed. 

Tsukasa lost any and all reasons for living—

"—But will she be fine from now on?"

As she lost control of her Mushi, Tsukasa received the voices from the wake ceremony mixed in with noise.

Her shoulders twitched.

"Had he not written in his will that if the worst happens he would pass all of his assets to that girl? She'd already lost her parents to an accident, so if someone wants the seat of the next chairman…"

"Shhh, don't speak of that. There are many dangerous people around the chairman…"

"But still, no matter how much money you have, being targeted for your entire life is a bit…"

Like a puppet—Tsukasa raised her face with mechanical movements.

Opening wide her tear-stained eyes, she stared at the house.

"…"

Tsukasa should've had no reason to live.

The Kind Magician known as Kidou Tsukasa died long ago.

She died when she jumped from the hanging garden of Akamaki City.

What killed her was the power of magic.

"I will soon realize that this wasn't magic at all… oh, right."

Only now did she understand the meaning of Hunter's words.

"You're… not my ally. You were simply playing with me, sneering when you saw me being elated…"

Mushi—

It was nothing like magic.

The only thing is did was give her a much worse way of living than before she gained power.

But even so—

"You can keep watching to the end."

Tsukasa smiled.

From now on she'd become a ghost that did nothing but protect the girl.

A Mushitsuki who accepted the suffering of others as much as she could.

''Watch over me with your red eyes.''

"Look and laugh at the stupid Mushitsuki that couldn't become a Magician."

That day—

The Mushitsuki known as Kidou Tsukasa quit being a magician.