Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 8 Chapter 5 (section)

== 5.03 The Beast and Momo The Last ==
The crimson light of life—signal red carmine—was vanishing.

Momo's body swayed. She fell straight down from the steel pole.

The fact she stayed fine even after falling from that height was probably due to the pattern still glowing on her body. Around her nothing was left except ground.

"…"

Slowly rising up, Momo looked around her.

The place that was supposed to be the substation became a desolate field. —In a movie she'd seen once, there was a scene where they landed on a planet without any water or trees on it. It resembled where Momo stood now.

All that remained was Momo and the pole she was standing on, as well as the black-wearing people collapsed on the earth. There was also the half-naked Yamamoto Rau.

Among the collapsed people, there was also the beast she'd been fighting just now.

His name was, if she recalled correctly, Kakkou.

Originally, she would have been completely decimated by his bombardment.

"…"

Momo looked down at the large hole carved at her feet.

The substation transformed into a wasteland was ripped to two.

Thanks to that—Momo had been saved. The instant before she activated her ability, Kakkou lowered his gun. Instead of hitting Momo, the cannonball tore the ground asunder, dispersing the signal red carmine mark.

Because of that, her ability lost its effect an instant before activating. Kakkou, Yamamoto Rau and the rest were still alive, and the destruction spread through the substation only. Also, Momo hadn't yet exhausted herself, so she was able to "extend" her time.

"—I hafta go…"

While hit by the violent rain, Momo recalled this and raised her head.

Dragging her legs, she walked through town. The rainbow-colored pattern on her body flickered on and off, looking ready to burst.

She felt something rising up from behind.

Looking back, she saw Kakkou rousing his torso on the ground. His goggles were broken, and his normal face was exposed. Even his monstrous body returned to normal.

"…"

The two Mushitsuki exchanged glances.

Now that her rampaging state was gone, Momo knew that Kakkou had been trying to save her.

Kakkou smiled.

Momo smiled as well.

"Go."

"You too, yeah."

They had just this one, short exchange.

The two Fusion Type Mushitsuki parted like this.

Kakkou said the same as Momo. He told her there was a person he wanted to see.

Since he said this, he would probably keep going. And as long as he continued forward, she knew that he would also probably never see Momo again.

Momo slowly but surely made her way to a certain area in town.

The wounds on her entire body hurt.

She was exhausted and her legs felt extremely heavy.

Her mind, still being devoured by the rainbow jewel beetle, was rapidly blurring.

Even so, a smile rose to Momo's face.

"Haa… Haa…"

She'd left the area of the electric substation ruins, but how much time passed? She walked through the silent road, but how much fatigue she could bear? As she entered town looking all beaten up, there were probably a few bystanders that turned to look at her.

Yet she didn't care about such things at all.

She had butterflies in her chest.

Her heart beat loudly.

"Haa… Haa…"

Almost all energy froze inside Momo. The very last remnants of the hot impulse were burning, but even those were forgotten.

When she was an elementary schooler, on the day before a trip, she was so excited she couldn't fall asleep.

When she was a middle schooler, after being greatly moved at an overseas museum she'd visited with her family, she started on the path of artistic design.

Immediately after becoming a high schooler, she attempted to create a masterpiece. She thought herself a genius.

All of the emotions she once had were beautiful.

Yet these all couldn't even reach the legs of the happiness now filling Momo.

"—"

Entering the darkened alley, Momo found that figure.

He was facing the sky in the center of the alley.

Just like the first time she'd met him—no, it looked even more beautiful than how she felt with her first love. So much that she wanted to depict it. She should create a statue.

Yet Momo chose none of those.

Following her instincts, she leapt at him for a hug.

And their lips pressed together—

Smiling at each other.

"Daisuke, your complexion is weird, yeah."

Momo spoke in a jesting tone with tears falling from her eyes.

"…You're the weird one."

"Kusuriya Daisuke" also moved his hardened mouth, shedding tears.

"Ehehe."

"Haha."

While crying, they smiled.

They had no idea what made them happy.

They had no idea what made them blissful.

It was obvious there weren't any words to express what they felt now.

Because nobody had ever felt as fulfilled as this pair before.

Momo's fingertips drew a mark on the boy's forehead.

Coatl Head—the very same mark of happiness she'd drawn at their first meeting.

"Coatl Coatl Para Emile."

The pair chanted.

The wish the pair shared at that time definitely came true.

Momo saved him, and he was also saved by Momo.

"Do you remember our promise? If you forgot I'll never forgive you, yeah."

While being hugged by the boy, Momo's pattern started sizzling and raising smoke. The glow of signal red carmine leaked out of her wounds.

"I do remember."

Hugging her back, Daisuke's eyelids lost their life. The movements of his mouth became sluggish.

"Let's run away together."

"Where to?"

"To where you came from…"

"It has to be further than that."

"Okay, so let's run away to the ends of the earth, yeah."

"Right, to the ends of the earth."

"To the ends of the earth, yeah…"

"To the ends of the earth …"

They hugged each other so strongly there wasn't even a millimeter between them.

The rain was stopping and the eastern sky turned white.

The alley starting to get lit by the peeking rays of the sun was wrapped in a crimson glow.

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