Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 6 Chapter 2 (section)

==2.03 Inuko Part 2==

As soon as the girl known as Rio had left, Inuko grabbed Shachito's ear and dragged him out of the store.

"Come on, go back to your training already. You still have one more round trip to go."

"I get it, don't pull me!"

When they arrived near the parked Vespa, Shachito resisted violently.

"It doesn't hurt anyway, right? It doesn't matter where I pull you."

"It does matter! You'll tear it off!"

Shaking off Inuko's arm, Shachito glared at her with an unsatisfied face. Since he was one head taller than her, just matching their gazes was a pain. 

"By the way, Shachito. —What is that girl to you?"

"What do you mean by what? She's an underclassman from school. I met her just a while ago, but she's a good kid. Being with her is fun… or rather teasing her is amusing. She said her dream was to become an actress."

Apparently getting back into a good mood, Shachito spoke while grinning.

"…"

Inuko looked to the direction that girl had run off to, thinking.

Judging by his behavior, at the very least it didn't seem like they were romantically involved. Yet judging from Rio's flustered behavior, there was no doubt that she was conscious of him.

''What a nuisance. Depending on the situation, I might need to act without his knowledge and take care of her—''

Looking at Inuko silently squinting, Shachito tilted his head.

"Inuko?"

"—Just now you've said that you have no dream. Even though you're a Mushitsuki."

Turning again to look at Shachito, she asked about something completely different. He nodded with a "yeah".

"That's right. Whenever I try to recall it I feel like my mind is going to fly off somewhere. My mind becomes blank and I can't think of anything."

"You don't have to recall it."

"…?"

"This is something that happens a lot with us Special Type Mushitsuki. Our dream gets distorted and we forget about it. It doesn't hinder us from fighting as combatants."

These words were not a lie.

Yet according to Inuko's conjecture, his "nearly broken" condition was due to another cause.

For long years, Shachito had continuously suppressed his abilities as a Mushitsuki. Yet even during that time his Mushi kept feeding off its host's dream little by little. The host's spirit locked up inside his mind was gnawed into, which caused him to stray away from the healthy mental condition as a human being.

If he were to recall his dream, his broken spirits would be exposed.

If his "nearly broken" condition crumbled, Shachito would obtain a major defect as a fighter. 

"Don't worry. If you listen to me you'll definitely be able to become a strong warrior."

Inuko hit his shoulders as if encouraging him, but Shachito made another unsatisfied face.

"Look here… about being a combatant or warrior or whatever? I really don't think I'm well fit for that sorta thing. I was until recently just a normal high school student after all."

"If you can't do it, I'll simply send you to an isolation facility as a rejected applicant. If that happens you won't be able to stay a normal high school student right? You will also be unable to go and hang out with that girl from earlier."

As Inuko spoke in a causal manner while smiling, Shachito looked at the main street dyed by the setting sun's light.

"Well, that would be troubling."

Scratching his cheek with a finger, he spoke in a completely casual tone. There was no sense of tension.

Yet Inuko felt a certain sense of danger from his response.

''Masaki Rio… like I thought she might become an obstacle—''

Hiding the murmuring in her heart with a smile, Inuko wielded her hockey stick.

"If so then go already. Don't forget the way of running I've taught you."

"I'm so hungry I might die though. Can't I eat something on the way?"

"You moron. Lick this and try to endure."

"Huh, what the hell's that? It's obviously suspect."

What Inuko threw at him was a lollipop. It was the same kind she was always sucking on. Although he received it with an unsatisfied face, Shachito started running.

In contrast, Inuko had a satisfied face while seeing him off.

The motives of her newfound student Shiohara Shachito regarding the training were quite vague. Probably due to this, he had the habit to slack off the moment she took her eyes off of him. He also lacked self-awareness as a warrior.

Not to mention his physical abilities, but she had nothing to criticize about his flexibility in thinking about the usage of his Mushitsuki abilities, his ability to instantly judge the situation, as well as of his ability itself.

Actually, the training he was going through right now was three times the amount that Inuko had thought up originally. However, even while complaining all the time Shachito completed all of it easily. It was as if he was making up for all the time he concealed being a Mushitsuki.

She had trained countless Mushitsuki until now, but Shachito's natural disposition was outstanding.

She felt as if she was looking at her past self.

There was value for Inuko to pound all of her fighting techniques into him. She intended on raising him into a first-rate warrior no matter what she had to do.

Inuko felt as if she finally found what she was always looking for.

"He'll be able to become my successor easily."

Inuko could only stay in Holland City for a short while. So she definitely had to polish off Shachito into the greatest masterpiece. 

She equipped her goggles and wore her helmet. She got on the Vespa and turned the throttle.

Aiming for a certain place, she rode through the town center where the curtain of night fell.

Was it because the sea was nearby? Even the roads in the town center smelled like seawater.

"…What a nice place. Although it's a big city, there's no feeling of being trapped."

Riding through the lines of cars, Inuko started smiling spontaneously.

It wasn't that she hated the countryside, but cities agreed with her more. When she was surrounded by many people, their many waves mixing together felt good to her.

Thinking of it, she started considering the city's atmosphere and the wind as pleasant because she was on a journey wandering through various places. 

Inuko went around the country with the mission to find out many Mushitsuki all on her own. Due to that she didn't stay in the same place for too long, but she unexpectedly became attached to the atmosphere and people of each place.

This wasn't something she thought about during the time she had belonged to a battle unit and spent all of her time on her duties.

At the time she was merely drunk on her own power. The only things she laid her eyes on were enemies, and the only things that made her rejoice were the blood and shrieks of those enemies when they were destroyed.

—Yet the price she had to pay for rushing continuously all the way to one step behind the title of the strongest was large.

"I have the feeling my hometown was also similar to this city."

Inuko didn't remember her own birthplace.

As Mushitsuki continued using their abilities, their dreams— and consequently their spirits—were being eaten by their Mushi. Ever since becoming gravely injured during a certain mission, Inuko lost her resistance toward her own Mushi. Even at times like these her mind and body were being exhausted slowly yet surely.

Now she couldn't even clearly recall the faces of her family.

She could only remember the time she had become a Mushitsuki. As she was young at the time she should have had countless fun memories. Even so, she was only unable to forget the worst moment of her life as if it was burned into her retinas.

"No, I also have the feeling I'm completely wrong… Oh well, it doesn't matter."

Muttering to herself with a tinge of cynicism, she stopped the Vespa.

She came to a large building on a certain corner of the town center. With a thick wall creating some distance from the other buildings around it, she could see a guard office inside the premises behind the metal-made front gate.

Inuko got off the Vespa and lowered her goggles to her neck. As she did the gate opened, and a suit-wearing middle-aged woman approached her.

"Nice to meet you, Asagi. So you really are dressed that way. I immediately recognized you."

"Greeting, branch director assistant. It is an honor for you to personally come and welcome me."

In contrast to Inuko's smile, the middle-aged woman made a complex expression. She was probably bothered by the word usage of a girl who was less than half her age. Apparently giving up what she wanted to say, she nodded with a "yeah".

That building served the local branch of the Special Environmental Preservation Bureau that had the area of Holland City under its jurisdiction. Publically it was apparently a governmental investigation agency of some sort.

The one to greet Inuko was the woman who worked as the assistant of the branch director. She heard that right after her contact with the branch's intelligence division, that woman volunteered to guide her around the facility.

Shinpu had given birth to multiple Mushitsuki in this city in a short span of time—hearing this fact from Inuko, the local branch hurriedly entered a state of alert.

Consequently Inuko was summoned as a person of interest as she was an eyewitness and had abundant battle experience.

The two entered the gate, heading toward the building. She realized there were surveillance cameras and infrared ray sensors concealed here and there on the premises. More than preparation against an outside enemy, this was a precaution against the escape of the Mushitsuki members who resided underground where there supposedly were housing and training facilities.

"Although late, allow me to thank you for preparing a place of residence for me. However, the shower in the hotel is poor. I wonder if there wasn't any better place."

"Since each branch needs to support a member of the Central Headquarters' Special Squad, there is no need to thank us, Asagi. If you have complaints about what you have been offered, should we exchange your room with a first-rate tent or sleeping bag?"

"During the current season I would like not to sleep outside if possible… But it's a great difference from the reception at the East Central Branch I dropped by recently. There was my great student Himiko there, and most importantly, the new acting branch director is a reasonable person. It is a pity I wasn't able to say goodbye due to the turmoil caused by Fuyuhotaru's escape."

"Yes, that Goroumaru Touko… Based only on hearsay, she is apparently so incompetent—I mean quite inexperienced that one can't think of her as Haji Keigo's deputy."

She could sense some thorns in the woman's words. It was possibly dissatisfaction toward Inuko's grand way of speaking and perhaps envy toward the young newbie elected for such an important office.

"Since the branch director is waiting, let us hurry. Also…"

While walking toward the entrance to the building shoulder to shoulder, the woman frowned.

"We have received the item you had told us about from the West Central Branch's development team, but is that really it? It looks like mere candy."

"Oh, great. I only had a few more left."

With a smile, Inuko shook the stick inside her mouth. The candy she was eating was of a special kind, and the West Central Branch was in charge of its development. It was a special candy manufactured just for Inuko's use.

"Without this I won't be able to live long."

"…? At any rate, it is safeguarded by the branch director so please pick it up later."

As they entered the building, there was a reception desk at the front. There were also gun-wielding guardsmen standing watch in the spacious first floor.

At a glance it seemed like a normal building, but it was obvious this wasn't so. On top of there being a thick partition wall in the passage leading inside, there was also an abnormal number of highly-sensitive cameras concealed in places people wouldn't notice.

According to what Inuko heard, there were training and housing facilities underground while the intelligence division and the few guard station operated by civilians were located above ground. Not only was each floor separated by countless partition walls, but the Mushitsuki members would enter and exit through different areas as well.

From the outside it was an impregnable stronghold and from the inside it was a secure prison— 

It was incomparable to the Central Headquarters' underground fort or the East Central Branch's 'GARDEN', but each branch had their own ways of dealing with the Mushitsuki members.

"Let us go."

Led by the branch director assistant, they passed through the reception desk and headed to the elevator. While Inuko sent gazes around, she noticed countless small holes in the ceiling. Would they fire tear gas in the case of an emergency? It couldn't possibly be poison gas.

"There is something I would like to confirm before speaking with the branch director… is that fine, Asagi?"

"Hmm? That's fine, ask me anything you want."

While waiting for the elevator, the woman spoke as she looked up at the light indicating the floor number.

"Is Shinpu really in this city?"

"…What do you mean?"

"From what I heard, you… when you arrive at a branch you go to oversee the combatant members' training and receive a reward for it, right? Furthermore there were times where, due to your intense training, some members were driven to a point beyond any recovery."

"Since the Central Headquarters is so stingy about money, I end up wasting all of the funding for my journey rather quickly. So there were times I worked part-time as a teacher in some branches. It's also true there were people who were unable to endure my training. Should I train the members here too?"

"—Even if you sponge off of our branch, nothing will come out of it."

The branch director assistant glared at her with cold eyes.

Still smiling, Inuko squinted.

"'Shinpu has appeared. Instead of helping with the search hand over the money'. —Did you really think I would make such a fake announcement for that? Did you send out the branch director assistant herself as a warning?"

"…"

As the woman remained silent while turning again toward the elevator door, Inuko erased her smile.

"I see, so that's why you're in such a state of alert. You've devoted yourselves far more to my actions this far and looking for evidence of my report rather than looking for Shinpu."

Among the Mushitsuki who belonged to the Special Environmental Preservation Bureau, since Inuko had gained the special right to freely travel around the country, there were quite a few people who displayed their wariness of her. Since she had met all sorts of people this far, she was not childish enough to feel resentment at the branch director assistant's upfront impolite attitude.  

Inuko was angry for a completely different reason.

''Why are the SEPB so passive toward the Original Three—''

Although the organization known as the Special Environmental Preservation Bureau feared Mushitsuki, they made no attempt to touch their originators which were the Original Three. The Central Headquarters actively gathered information only regarding Sanbikime, while each branch only wanted them to leave the areas under their jurisdiction as soon as possible.

"—I will give you a single piece of advice as a special service."

Inuko's raincoat rippled. Sparks scattered from the button on the wall in response to a sudden magnetic field disruption.

While the other woman gazed at her with a start, Inuko directed a fierce smile at her.

"You are the second person to stand before me without any escort or anything while knowing of my past as Asagi. The first was the woman you've called incompetent just now—the acting branch director Goroumaru. If you want to live long will you trust me just like her and bring out about a dozen escorts from now on?"

''Thud'', the elevator reached the first floor along with this heavy impact. It probably landed with more force than the usual due to it being pulled by Inuko's magnetism.

Noticing the abnormality, guards immediately rushed there. They reached for their guns.

"I will attack you for self-defense even before you're able to draw that. Not only will bullets not work on me, missiles probably won't, either."

As she glared at them, the guards seemed as stiff as if they had been paralyzed. Inuko's magnetism could obviously alter the trajectory of bullets, and it possessed enough power to destroy the sensors of missiles.

Inuko boarded the elevator with her raincoat fluttering. Yet the other woman didn't move even an inch from that spot.

As the branch director assistant stood in place with a pale face, Inuko pulled her arms and forcibly brought her into the elevator.

"Are you that scared of being closed in an elevator with a kid like me? I don't know what floor the branch director is on, so press the button already. You were the one who said we should hurry."

As she kicked the elevator with her boots, the branch director assistant's shoulders trembled. Shaking in fear, her body didn't move the way she wanted it to.

"Do press it already. Do press it."

No matter how many times she kicked the elevator, the branch director assistant didn't move. "P-please cease this…" she commanded her with a feeble voice, but Inuko kept kicking the wall while calling her to "do press it!"

"How incompetent of you to be unable pressing a single button. And since you're incompetent there shouldn't be any problem even if you were to break."

Inuko reached for the hockey stick on her back expressionlessly. The branch director assistant's face distorted in fear.

Once she was truly angry, she couldn't stop—

That was Inuko's characteristic as a pure warrior. During the period she had belonged to the fighting squad, there were times when she was covered in the blood of both enemies and allies, and not just once or twice.

Normally she was a cool-headed warrior, but when angry she became a ferocious berserker.

"You failed."

It happened just as she was about to unsheathe her stick while glaring at the deathly pale Assistant. 

''Thump—''

Inuko's heart leapt.

"…!"

Widening her eyes, she looked at her feet.

''That wave I've felt just now—''

Inuko, having lost control of herself in anger, came to her senses along with the quickening of her pulse.

"No way…!"

Her entire body was covered in goosebumps.

Inuko's ability to sense abnormal magnetic fields perceived a large wave from far under her feet. And once she had felt a certain wave, unless a considerable time has passed she would never mistake it.

Immediately after this, a piercing alarm resounded through the building. 

An announcement notifying of damage to the building echoed, and the countdown to operate the partition walls in each floor started. Red warning lamps were turned on, and the power to the civilian-use elevator Inuko boarded was cut off.

"W-what…? What is going—"

Ignoring the flustered branch director assistant, Inuko clicked her tongue.

"The Mushitsuki members are underground, right? What Rank is the strongest member of this Branch?"

"Huh? W-why would you ask…"

"Do answer!"

Being rebuked, the Assistant replied with a frightened face.

"R-Rank 5…! Right now they're holding a briefing underground regarding their next mission—"

"How weak. —They've already been finished off."

The waves of the Mushitsuki she could feel from below ground were vanishing one after another.

As the branch director assistant widened her eyes, her figure was concealed by something resembling a black mist and grew blurry.

"…! Ah… ah…"

Smoke-like black particles—a miasma poured out from the floor at their feet. When the miasma touched the Assistant's face it instantly lost all color. The guards and the receptionists were being drained the same way.

''Mental Pollution…! This is bad, those without any specialized training wouldn't be able to resist—''

Inuko's expression toughened. She rotated the hockey stick she drew off her back and stood on guard.

"I'll make the building my domain. It's going to sting a little but please bear with it."

Widening her eyes, Inuko deployed her ability.

"Uh…!"

With Inuko in its center, a ripple of purple lightning expanded. Blown by the impact rushing around the entire building, the branch director assistant and guardsmen grimaced.

The miasma that covered their entire vision burst as if blown away by wind. The polluted domain was offset by Inuko's expanding domain. Everyone except for Inuko who wore an insulating raincoat was shocked by the static electricity she produced, but that was better than having their minds polluted. 

"…!"

A chill ran through Inuko's body.

The subject of the chill moved. As if stabbing through her toes and up to her brain, the polluting wave ascended from underground to the surface. It probably had other ways to go to the higher floors even other than the staff-use elevator.

"You're in the way. Get off."

Grabbing the branch director assistant's collar, she flung her outside the open door. "Eeek!" the woman raised a shriek and Inuko spoke at her.

"Do check out the damage quickly. Shelter all the civilians inside the building outside immediately. Find the members from below who are unhurt, form a team that could move at any time and make them stay in standby. Right this instant."

"Wha… wha…"

"Give it a rest and do understand the situation already, you moron. This branch is being attacked."

Equipping the goggles hanging from her neck, she looked up at the elevator's ceiling.

"I, Asagi, will now commence annihilation."

The Assistant's astonished face was gone behind the wall that appeared instantly.

Inuko used her ability to make the elevator ascend immediately. She caused the magnetic fields of the floor and the elevator, which stayed with its door open, to become of the same pole and repulse one another, using that the climb up the building in a speed of 10 kmph.

Reaching the same altitude as the wave she'd felt didn't take even 3 seconds. She reversed the poles of the elevator and the reinforced steel around, making it instantly stop. She also didn't forget to alter her own body's magnetic pole to match the elevator's to protect herself from bumping her head against the ceiling due to inertia.

By repulsing away the building-side door, her field of vision opened immediately.

Inuko reached the highest floor. Emergency lights blinked through the passageway and the alarm rang in the highest possible volume.

Gas came pouring in from the holes in the ceiling.

Realizing it was sleeping gas, she covered her mouth with a scarf. The automatic system probably considered her an enemy due to her forceful way of arriving there.

"—So it's further inside."

The figure of Inuko standing on guard inside the elevator vanished while leaving an afterimage. By making the iron bars embedded beneath the floor repulse her body she teleported ahead.

The countdown by the mechanical voice reached zero. One after another partition walls began blocking up the corridors.

Inuko who moved in high speeds ran through the passageway exactly before it was blocked.

As she approached the source of the wave, the overly powerful wave hit Inuko's body.

The air became uncomfortable and sticky.

It was a foul wave that almost made her choke.

"I can't feel any Mushitsuki being born…"

Heading towards the door at the end of the corridor, Inuko swung her hockey stick. With a large magnetic field enveloping it, the stick pulverized the wooden big door to pieces. 

Suddenly, a fearsome miasma blew around.

It was a spacious room that had an expensive-seeming foreign-made table inside.

A large amount of people were collapsed in the carpeted room. Figures that seemed like Mushitsuki with SEPB equipment were also there. Yet they all seemed to be unconscious.  

In the center of the room a middle-aged man wearing a business suit was collapsed. She realized it was the branch director from the fact she could see traces that the other members had tried to protect him.

A bundle of crushed paper bags were pinned under a collapsed bookshelf. From inside the ripped paper bags Inuko could see crushed lollipops. These were the candies supposed to have been supplied to her.

"What's your goal here—"

With this gruesome sight right in front of her eyes, Inuko confronted the figure standing in the center of the room.

"Shinpu…!"

A cracked metallic sound rang through the highest floor. 

It was the foul sound of a bell.

The sound of the curse Inuko had heard when she was turned into a Mushitsuki.

"So thou choose to inquire about mine purpose, my child…"

The one looking down on the other man who was stretched out as if offering himself as a sacrifice to some god—the completely changed figure of the branch director Inuko was supposed to have met with, was a person clad in a black robe.

A sudden gust of wind blew from the window that had been thrown open. 

The filthy robe fluttered, and the man's concealed face was revealed for an instant.

"Thou should consider it a warning… as well as revenge."

Inuko opened her eyes wide.

"W-what's going on…?"

A black robe and a hoarse voice… and the face of an old man.

These were the special features of one of the Prototype Mushi as designated by the Special Environmental Preservation Bureau, Shinpu. Even Inuko herself, as one turned into a Mushitsuki by him, remembered his appearance.

And the wave she felt was also that of Shinpu.

Yet the one in front of Inuko's eyes was—

"Henceforth thou should fear my very shadow, mortals…"

The one looking at Inuko with his pupil-less, wriggling white eyes, was a pale-faced ''young man''. For an instant she could see caterpillars crawling around as well as a blue shirt and a black necktie inside the robe.

"Y-you… who are you…?"

Inuko's dry mutter echoed in the room smelling of blood.