Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 8 Chapter 4 (section)

== 4.03 The Annihilators' Hakamori VS The Annihilators' Shera ==
He felt as if he could hear Momo's voice calling for him.

"Momo—"

He walked through the now-silent alley.

Until now many glowing lights engulfed the distant sky above the substation.

A melody rang in his chest pocket. It was a prepaid cellphone that he had been made to carry during the day in case he needed to get in contact.

"Please save Momo-chan…"

Pressing the call button, he soon heard a shaky voice. It was Kirari.

"She has remembered that she was a Mushitsuki, so please…"

He closed his eyes, biting his lips.

''—There was a Mushitsuki here… but she's gone now.''

On top of that mark in the substation.

On top of the original, the one and only Coatl Hot.

Lying next to each other, while gazing up at the starry sky, Momo had said this.

''—She was a coward and a weakling… just a normal kid unsuited to be a Mushitsuki.''

So it was Momo.

She was the Mushitsuki born and gone at the substation.

The Mushitsuki that mustn't be born was none other than Momo herself.

"Please… Daiske-san."

Kirari called his name as if clinging to him.

And so, having his name called, he nodded silently.

"I know…"

He cut off the call with a smile. The already unneeded cellphone that he knew he wouldn't ever use again fell to the ground. He already didn't have enough power to hold it despite it weighing only a mere few hundreds of grams.

Opening his eyes, he looked up at the distant light. He began walking again.

He had to meet up with Momo as soon as possible. She was waiting for him.

''—If that Mushitsuki comes out again, let's run away together, yeah.''

''—Sure… let's run away together.''

She was definitely waiting for him.

To fulfill their promise to run away together.

He had defeated all of the Annihilators that surrounded him. The black-wearing Fallen were collapsed here and there in the gloomy alley. 

In his hand, with its cracked skin, he grasped a scarp of black cloth ripped during his battle with the Annihilators. Unconsciously holding it in hand, he dragged his legs to get out of the alley.

There was the sound of someone stepping on gravel from behind.

"I won't let you… You are going to die right here—Kakkou."

A gloomy woman's voice called him.

He ignored it. There were marks of him dragging his legs on the asphalt.

"…Momo…"

When he had been about to die there, Momo had found him.

After that, although he was living on borrowed time, Momo hugged him tightly and didn't let go.

That was why, this time, it was his turn to save Momo.

She had acquired a supernatural power and went on a rampage, so he had to go and hug her with his own hands.

"I'll first kill you, then also kill that other Fusion Type."

Kill Momo—

Those words made him turn around.

His bestial eyes glared at the trench coat-wearing woman standing in the alley. All of the liveliness in his face was already gone, and his skin began turning black.

"—"

The woman's expression inside the hood froze.

He knew that woman's name.

Head of the Annihilators, Shera. She was an excellent assassin, and unlike the other Annihilators, even her original power was enough to make her ability be near the strongest.

"Y-you—"

Shera was supposedly always calm, but she widened her eyes more than ever before.

As he slowly turned toward the woman again, he looked directly at his foe.

"You… who the hell are you?"

Kakkou—

The woman in front of him called him that.

Yet that very person was surprised when she saw his face.

Was it that his appearance was unlike what she was expecting?

Or did she have the wrong person?

"…"

He unconsciously wore a smile.

Shera was supposed to know him, but her reaction was laughable.

Although he'd always hidden his face using a mask, Shera was supposed to have been one of the few who knew his real face. She was different from the small fries who just stood in the way while thinking that he was Kakkou.

Even so, was the fact she hadn't immediately recognized him perhaps due to his appearance changing that much? Or perhaps she simply thought that he'd already died like a wild beast somewhere.

He took the black cloth in his hand and wrapped it haphazardly on his face. —Hiding his face was a habit he had before coming to this country. He'd also been educated to hide his true identity as much as possible.

He wrapped the remaining cloth around his elbow and wrist, using his mouth to tie it together.

Now that he regained the fighting posture his body was used to, his felt the exhalation before a battle. As if exposing these dark feelings, a corrupted miasma started gushing out of his body.

Seeing his stance, Shera finally recalled.

"Y-you are—"

"Fuhaha!"

As he laughed self-derisively, white objects appeared at his back. They scattered in air and started swelling.

It was a white-colored scarab beetle. A grotesque Mushi divided to six legs, head, torso and abdomen—fitting for him, it was an empty carcass with nothing inside of it.

The hollow scarab head covered his head like armor. In exchange for his arms, now robbed of their movement, claws were floating around.

"You're Hakamori!"

Shera shouted.

''Call me whatever you'd like''—he muttered coldly in his art.

His name had no meaning anyway.

"—Lend me power, Diorestoi."

As he erased his smile, black miasma burst from his body.

It was as if the scenery around was being painted over into a completely different space.

The expanding darkness of the night that didn't let any light sneak in was the same as it was before. Yet jutting out from the exposed ground came countless grey slabs—tombstones.

The ability to expand a domain and create a different space.

It was equivalent to the Church, the unreal space created by Shinpu.

Shera's groaning voice reverberated throughout this space that was transformed into a desolate cemetery.

"I thought you were killed by Kakkou… have you managed to recover your self-will?"

Black miasma coiled about the scarab's hollowed carapace.

"Also, that ability… does that mean you're in full control of Diorestoi's Fragment? So that's why you managed to disappear without resonating with the Fragment at the HQ…!"

"Hakamori… is that the name of the Mushitsuki who'd been ''purposely captured'' by the SEPB a few years ago?"

Shera's expression froze.

"Or perhaps—the name of the person who, despite infiltrating the Annihilators, became a guinea pig for Central Headquarters, a failed product that merged with Diorestoi's Fragment…?"

"What… did you say?"

"Or are you referring to the disposable pawn made in order to kill Kakkou that recovered his self-will and ran away from the SEPB?"

"You—"

"Or maybe… you refer to me, the one called Kusuriya Daisuke in this town?"

The one who made him a Mushitsuki, Oogui, perhaps did it only on a whim.

If she ate only sweet things, she wanted to try other flavors once in a while—perhaps she had that much of a human sensibility.

Sent to this country for a certain mission, he immediately caught Oogui's eyes.

''—Will you tell me your dream?''

His answer to Oogui's question wasn't even a dream in the first place.

''It's cold here… I wish for someplace warmer—''

Unlike his motherland, this country was cold no matter where he went.

That time, he was already exhausted.

And so he wished.

''…Give me a place I can die in—''

A slipshod, idiotic dream.

He didn't need a place to live in, anymore.

He simply wished for a place that would warm his heart, where he would feel no fear or anxiousness, and where he could die blissfully.

''—Such a bitter dream's not bad, either.''

Oogui had turned him into a Mushitsuki.

And, just like his original goal, he became a Mushitsuki, infiltrating into the SEPB.

However, something had been planted inside of him by the secret experiments of the Central Headquarters.

Diorestoi's Fragment—for some reason, the Central Headquarters were in possession of those being which were a single part of Shinpu who was able to split himself. The experiments using these Fragments were diverse. Many effects and side-effects were confirmed, but still not fully understood.

He'd become a guinea pig because it had been estimated that the effect on him would be the largest even among the numerous experiments.

They made the Fragment itself react to his Mushi, fusing them—

Amplifying his power like that was unlike the other Annihilators. He was also different from the escapees Minmin or Centipede, who'd been controlled by the Fragment itself and vanished while unable to adapt to it. —To say nothing of Shinpu's body doubles that were wandering around.

The other guinea pigs expired following rejection of the Fragments, but he survived. Even though his mental faculties were on the verge of destruction, eroding both mind and body as he was unable to fully suppress the large power, he still lived.

However, in exchange for that he carried the fate of turning into a living corpse.

"You—who the hell are you…!"

Shera repeated the same question.

It was a foolish exchange.

She herself called him Kakkou and yet asked him who he was, called him Hakamori and then repeated the same question.

"Originally, we should've been the same…"

"…"

"I somehow realized it by your smell. You're a person who came from outside… you feel no loyalty for this country. You were probably sent here by some higher-ups to secretly look for Mushi, right?"

Shera's movements stopped as if her body froze.

"Now the world's watching this country… both you and I are just part of that."

"…"

"But that doesn't matter at all. Right now, I'm—"

The reason he managed to survive the experiments was definitely not due to him being strong.

It was because he made a contract with Diorestoi's Fragment he fused with.

—Becoming the King of Mushitsuki.

He didn't understand the meaning of that term. He couldn't even tell if it meant a literal king.

Yet as one of the conditions, he needed to defeat the current King candidates.

And one of those—was Kakkou.

His ability to sense the location of those people like Kakkou and Fuyuhotaru who had the so-called qualifications of a King by Diorestoi's Fragment was viewed as important data even by the Central Headquarters. They also realized they could resonate the still-unstable Fragment inside him with another neutral Fragment. This meant that no matter where he was, the SEPB would be able to sense him. 

However, as they were unable to get any more data, they ended up doing one final test.

A simple measuring of annihilating power.

"I have no name right now…"

He would aim for the moment when one of the King candidates would make an independent move—

The one who first fulfilled this condition was Kakkou.

He'd immediately been dispatched to annihilate Kakkou who left the East Central Branch.

And then he fled.

Unable to suppress the power of his Fragment's power, he went on a rampage, and Kakkou went on a rampage as well. He could do nothing in front of that monstrous strength, but a lucky hit made Kakkou flinch. Perhaps being exhausted as well, Kakkou tried desperately controlling his own Mushi. He stole Kakkou's goggles perhaps because he was trying to unconsciously substitute for his destroyed mask.

Consequently, as he ran away from the frontlines after this apparent tie, he managed to recover his rational thinking. Influenced by his battle with Kakkou, the control of Diorestoi's Fragment weakened.

Suppressing the Fragment's power, he escaped the SEPB.

And, he'd been picked up by Ikarino Kirari and Tanaka Momo.

"No—"

When he'd been asked by Ikarino Kirari if he was Kusuriya Daisuke, he answered unconsciously.

''—If I said I was… what would you do?''

He himself didn't really know why he was becoming Kakkou.

However, he also felt vaguely resigned.

Although he'd supposedly escaped from the clutches of the monster known as Kakkou, he wandered into the clutches of another monster. He thought that perhaps he couldn't run away from destiny.

He thought that might be his place to die.

When he gave up, another emotion welled inside him.

The happiness he felt at having a name.

Even in this faraway land, the desire that someone would know his name.

''If I'm going to be killed anyway, then at least until then—''

''I'll take your name—''

He stole that monster's name with such mean, ugly envy.

"I'm… Kusuriya Daisuke."

The Fragment he'd suppressed didn't tell him Kakkou's location anymore. However, since he was with someone who knew Kakkou, he would find him before long.

When that moment came, it would his last.

Yet until then—he was Kusuriya Daisuke.

The girl who called to him by that name was in this town.

More than any other time he was called by any other name, when she called him by that name he felt he was the most like himself.

"It wasn't that I was given this by someone… I called myself that."

Expelled from his motherland, he had been sent to this country to investigate what was going on. Yet his allies had been erased by the SEPB one after another, leaving him as the sole survivor.

He'd already lost his reason to live by the point he'd been exiled from his motherland.

He searched for a place wherein he could at least die happily, but every place he found was full of suffering. When he was young he was often laughed at for being weak against the cold, so the cold wind kept chasing him about. The fact that this coldness wasn't gone even when it approached summer… was probably due to his body and mind reaching their limits.

Yet in this town—

Only in this town—

There was warmth.

"No, at the very least, you're not Kakkou."

Shera recovered quickly from her agitation. The coat wrapping her body shrank, transforming to a body suit clinging to her slim body. The smooth, black material even covered the face of the woman with dark bags under her eyes.

"However, you're dangerous. —And I will eliminate any and all danger."

The arm covered by the suit that stretched toward him changed. Countless needles were fired as if from a gun.

"No matter who you are… I will not allow anyone to snatch this country."

"Diorestoi…"

He made no move. The scarab emitted miasma that swallowed the needles.

Touched by the foul miasma, the needles decayed and fell apart.

Yet the needles were just Shera's feint. He saw her kicking the dust and the next instant she evaded the miasma to directly approach.

Her fist covered in lustrous black was blocked by the scarab's hollow leg.

Shera's strength was beyond the average human. The strong impact blew his body away along with his Mushi. Crashing against a tombstone, the shell of the scarab covering him shattered.

"Die."

He heard her gloomy voice behind him as he fell to his knees with an expression of pain.

The pitch-black phantom swung her arm with artificial doll-like movements. It was as if he himself jumped backwards faster than he'd been blown away.

"…!"

As she tried attacking his defenseless body, Shera turned around with a start.

She managed to stop the white object swinging toward her at the last second.

An impact rivaling Shera's blow from before made her bodysuit sink into the ground. Earth flew around as though by an explosion, creating a large crater.

"Mmgh…!"

Shera had stopped the scarab's leg that was supposed to have been broken.

There was nothing inside his Mushi. Even if she broke its carapace, the fragments could gather and restore again. As long as this scarab wasn't completely exhausted, since it was an empty husk in the first place, it couldn't be defeated.

"—Vanish."

Even while being crushed by the hollow leg, Shera turned her palm up. A rectangular object flew from within the suit.

"Diorestoi…"

Using his scarab as shield, he launched the miasma toward Shera.

The foul miasma and whatever Shera launched clashed directly.

They caused a large explosion.

The explosive wind knocked over the tombstones stabbing the ground.

"Kh—"

Even while blown away, he somehow managed to climb on top of the ground. The scarab's smashed body parts assembled in air and began regaining their form.

The smell drifting in the desolate graveyard was that of gunpowder.

"Was that amount not enough?"

Despite calmly mumbling this, Shera was not unhurt. One part of her body suit that had been touched by the miasma rotted, exposing her skin.

"Plastic… no, vinyl?"

Seeing the suit's cross-section, he mumbled.

It was his first time seeing the ability of Head of the Annihilators, Shera. The way her suit that covered her entire body from head to toe crumbled was more like it was solid rather than made of threads.

"It's resin. My ability as a Special Type takes the medium of artificial resin. The plastic or vinyl I control can block and support weight several hundred times its own."

The strongest assassin among the Annihilators didn't even try to hide her abilities. Other parts of the suit expanded, instantly filling up the exposed part.

Her ability was already strong, but by supplementing her own body she achieved a fighting style like that of a Fusion Type. Although she mainly used it for hand to hand combat, the usage of her ability could be said to be logical and without any blind spots.

Her movements becoming superhuman after donning the body suit probably originated from not using her own muscles to move her body. What made Shera move was her very suit itself.

"Even if you try controlling the powers of a Minion and a Special Types at the same time… you will never defeat me."

Kicking off dirt, Shera pursued him.

The repeated punches and kicks pulverized the defending scarab's body. She didn't give the broken parts time to regenerate.

Now that he couldn't defend himself, the phantom's charge assaulted him.

"No, it's enough for me to know that you're a Special Type."

Black miasma blew.

"—Tch."

Clicking her tongue, Shera leapt back. The part of her suit touched by the miasma started rotting away.

"This graveyard is my domain… once drawn into it, a Special Type can't create its medium. Once I destroy all that currently exists of your medium, you'll be no different from a flesh and blood human."

"You don't look like you want a drawn-out battle, though."

Shera's suit began quickly repairing itself. —Outwardly it looked like it was regenerating, but he knew that she just made the material covering her body slightly thinner.

The calm assassin's conclusion was correct.

"—Ugh…"

The more he used his powers, the more his skin turned black. Even controlling Diorestoi's Fragment reached his limits. Having his ego destroyed was only a matter of time.

His goal was to run away with Momo.

He needed to defeat the assassin as soon as possible and head toward the substation.

"Diorestoi… grant me more power!"

"Ooh!"

The scarab's claws clashed with Shera's fists.

The impact created by the clash of these overwhelming powers caused the ground to swell and explode.

With broken fragments of tombstones pouring about them, his battle against Shera continued.

They were about equal in attack power. He was inferior in defense, but his sole advantage was that when push came to shove he could nullify Shera's attack using Diorestoi's ability.

Even so, there was a decisive and unbridgeable gap between them.

"Guh…!"

With the scarab's leg pulverized, the boy fell to his knees. He was exhausting physical and mental energy so suddenly that it was becoming difficult for him to even support his own body weight.

By him flinching, a momentary opening was created.

When he raised his tired face, he saw that Shera's form was suddenly gone.

"Wha…?"

As long as he didn't absolve his domain, it was impossible to escape the tombstone space.

Even so, looking around he could only see the ruined lines of tombstones.

"Die."

The voice came from behind.

When he turned back, he saw Shera who wasn't wearing anything.

Wrapped around the nude woman was an inflated, transparent mass of artificial resin—a large lac scale insect.

She had apparently concealed an ability that allowed her to change the color of the resin to blend in with the surrounding scenery. The lac scale insect instantly shrunk, transforming again into a body-hugging suit.

When he readied himself, the small lump thrown by the assassin was in front of him.

"Gwah!"

He immediately defended using the scarab's shell, but was unable to fully block the impact.

The resulting large explosion blew him away along with the tombstones around. Like a pebble skipping over the surface of the water, his body landed on the ground and kept rebounding and rolling.

"If you mix artificial resin with gunpowder inside small pipes, you can create a synthetic plastic bomb. —If you'd been hit from point-blank range, even you wouldn't end unhurt…"

His and Shera's fighting styles resembled one another. Their Mushi would protect the host, which was originally their weakness, and would be used to attack as well.

Yet Shera had other things as well.

Not only her body suit granting her superhuman strength. At times she controlled sharp plastic needles, or used camouflage to vanish. At time she would mix her hidden gunpowder with resin, creating the normal weapon known as a bomb.

These weren't the kinds of abilities she could gain in one or two years of training.

He'd never seen such a mold-breaking Mushitsuki whose ability was so protean and malleable.

"Gh… Ugh…!"

Although he barely managed to stand up, he didn't have power left to control his Mushi. The scarab, shattered to smithereens, scattered on the ground without regenerating.

"So you can barely stand… Retaining your ego from being controlled by Diorestoi was hard, I see."

He blankly gazed at Shera who was walking toward him.

''Momo…''

While he stood there frozen, Tanaka Momo's face rose to his mind.

When the Mushi ate his dreams, his memories were rapidly dimming.

It was the sign of his dream nearly being fully eaten.

"Fuhaha—"

An unfitting laugh rose from him.

The moment before Mushitsuki had their dreams fully eaten, it was said they would see memories regarding their dream.

Like the so-called life flashing before one's death.

However, the scenes that rose to and vanished from his mind were not past happenings.

There was Momo.

Kirari as well.

The three of them lived in a today that was the same as yesterday.

After forgetting the duty he'd been sent to this country for, running away from his duties as an Annihilator, losing even his own name and becoming an empty husk—these were days of happiness.

No battles. No fear of killing one another.

His figure when he lived through the same today as tomorrow—

He was smiling happily at living toward an impossible future.

"Fuhaha, haha…"

He had no regrets.

The proof he had been living remained in Momo and Kirari's memories.

Not the illusory tombstones surrounding him.

Momo and Kirari would hold the days they've spent together in their hearts and keep living.

For that purpose, he didn't fear to stop there.

"Shera…"

Standing in place like a puppet, he mumbled.

"Do you know what Diorestoi—the fragment of Shinpu who's still wandering around, needs to possess in order to give birth to Mushitsuki?"

The black phantom stopped her legs.

"…It's dead bodies."

Although he couldn't see Shera's expression, with it being covered by her suit, he knew she was agitated.

The contract he'd exchanged with the Diorestoi's Fragment wasn't simply beating Kakkou to become the King.

The Fragment had given him a time limit.

In exchange for letting him use these abilities, his body would approach death while he was alive.

"The more my body approaches death, the more the Fragment retrieves its true form…"

When he was finally overtaken by the Fragment, when he became a living dead—

He would completely become one of Diorestoi's body doubles.

''—The owners of dreams that cannot come true no matter how much they struggle and writhe are fit to become my vessel.''

Once, when he was being controlled, the Fragment whispered this to him.

"You told me to die. But it's not like that."

He had no regrets.

He'd lived a dreamy life up to the very, very end.

He gained a peaceful daily life that held enough value for him to put his life on the line.

"But the one's going to die—will be the both of us."

This place was where he searched for.

''Despite being empty and nameless—''

''I have—''

''Managed to find a place he could die happy.''

"I'll give you my dream… Diorestoooooooi!!!"

As he was shouting, he was swallowed by the foul miasma.

The desolate graveyard changed again.

The perfectly-sealed darkness started swallowing the tombs.

"…!"

Shera looked up the starless sky.

The sound of a bell echoed.

That cracked sound was incredibly ear-grating, and every time it rang the air seemed to decay. In this dark space, depriving her even her sense of direction, something sticky wrapped her body.

The unseen clouds cleared.

A light rose in the moonless sky.

Slightly revealing itself overhead was—

"This is… Shinpu's Church…!"

The bodysuit assassin groaned in shock.

The image of a decaying church floated in the sky.

The corrupted bell sounds permeated everything in this controlled space.

"—"

The boy felt his body slowly dying, starting from his very fingertips. All of his cells were dying and he began losing his pulse and all sensations.

That was fine.

Once he completely turned to Diorestoi, he should be able to defeat Shera.

He had no other way to save Momo.

He wanted to lose his consciousness while he still felt satisfied.

However—

"I waited for this."

Shera spoke in a gloomy voice. She lowered her body to the ground like a bug.

"I knew that even if I killed you the Fragment will just go out of control. —To erase the Fragment, I needed it to take a physical form first."

Shera stretched and leapt high.

By the time she rotated in air, the black phantom passed over the church.

"And if it's just right after materializing… Even Shinpu's ability would be unable to defend against a preemptive attack."

The assassin produced two bombs in her hands, pounding them against the church.

Explosion on a completely different scale than before swallowed the desolate church.

Simultaneously—cracks formed in the dark space they both resided in.

The space created by Diorestoi's ability crumbled down loudly.

"…"

His knees fell on top of the dirty pavement with a thud.

The blinking city's lights lit his profile as he became frozen there.

In the world of reality they came back to, it was raining.

The scene in the empty alley was distorting.

"—"

Looking up the sky like a statue, his expression was gone.

He no longer felt anguish.

He no longer thought of anything.

Being pelted by the merciless rain, Shera landed next to him.

"So you're a Fallen…"

The bodysuit covering the phantom transformed to a long coat.

For some reason—there was a while of silence.

Shera gazed down at him, apparently thinking of something.

Yet she soon stopped.

"Just who the hell were you…"

Leaving this melancholic mutter behind, the cold assassin's footsteps grew distant.