Editing Mushi Uta:Snowy Day of Dawning Dreams (section)

== 1.02 The Others ==

Gil was wondering while peeking through his sniper rifle’s scope.

Had his little brother Siamo completed their mission safely?

“Just like we investigated, the target’s headed for the station. He’ll probably reach the planned location within several minutes.”

His comrade’s voice transmitted through the earphones sounded quite anxious.

Naturally, considering the target being what it was.

Right now, Gil and his group were attempting to capture a Mushitsuki who could be called a legend.

“Is everyone in positions? Don’t make the mistake of getting within 100 meters of the target.”

A chain of “Roger”s came from Gil’s comrades.

He was currently occupying the room of a gym on the 15th floor of a certain building. It was a swimming pool.

He opened a hole in the full-glass window and hid himself while poking his muzzle through it.

He could clearly see the entrance to the subway station a few hundred meters away through the scope. Surrounding buildings were covered in Christmas decorations and there were many people walking around on this holy night.

“…”

Why had they chosen the Mushitsuki hypothesized to be the strongest of all people?

He himself didn’t know the reason. But his home country apparently wanted to capture all five Mushitsuki who were regarded as special.

Those acknowledged as the Undying by the SEPB—the so-called Rank 1 Mushitsuki.

They therefore focused on the target that they judged to be the least destructive, unprotected by anyone and at present probably the least cautious.

It took them a year to find their target.

“Confirming our target is still on the move. He should enter your line of sight within a minute.”

“…”

Dressed as a cleaner, Gil kept staring into the scope while thinking.

Their preparations to capture the Rank 1 Mushitsuki were already complete. They carefully gathered information about the target and conducted way too many simulations for today.

No, even that wasn’t enough—

Gil’s intuition spurred his body. He raised his body, handling his gun so well it could be said to be a superhuman feat to switch out the muzzle for another one of a special make. He took out the tranquilizer bullets from the machinegun and switched them with normal bullets.

Although his opponent was a child, he was a veteran warrior. Mere tranquilizers weren’t going to cut it against that sort of opponent—

“Target seems completely unsuspecting from his gait. He’s going to reach the entrance to the subway in about 30 seconds.”

“I’ll shoot his legs first… as long as I stop his movements it should be fine.”

Gil readied again the rifle that had real bullets now.

It would be sniping in the middle of the day. Once he shot their target, the surrounding passersby were sure to cause an uproar.

Taking advantage of the chaos, his comrades waiting underground would use every piece of tranquilizer bullets and stun guns to shoot him. There was no way their target was going to anticipate getting shot smack dab inside the city.

“Ten more seconds. Nine… eight… seven…”

His comrades started the countdown.

Feeling a healthy amount of tension, Gil waited for his target to appear in the scope.

“Three… two—”

Gil put his finger on the trigger.

However—

“—Eh?”

Gil couldn’t see the supposed target in his scope at all.

“The target’s, vanished…! There’s no way! He was there just now!”

“Calm down! Everyone, be cautious of your surroundings!”

They might have been noticed—

Although Gil clicked his tongue, he didn’t remove his eyes from the scope. His comrades all stood guard in their own locations.

“If the target noticed us, there’s a chance to attack! If you confirm his whereabouts, let me know immediately! While you’re engaged in battle, I’ll shoot through him!”

The entrance to the subway was surrounded by several teams within the distance of at least a hundred meters.

Even if the target got away from the area, he should eventually get captured by one of the teams.

“He shouldn’t be so far from the entrance! It’s fine, I can see all teams from my position! There won’t be any surprise attack—”

Gil heard the door to the pool open up behind him.

“…! Excuse me, this place is still being cleaned—”

Hurriedly hiding the rifle with a sheet, he turned around.

It was supposed to be the gym’s day off. Wondering whether one of the employees came for a swim, Gil reached for the gun hidden on his back—

Unlike his expectations, the person that appeared in the pool wore no swimsuit, but a duffel coat.

Their hood was lowered so that he couldn’t see their face.

Neither stopping after Gil’s words nor seeming to suspect anything, they calmly walked by the pool.

“Err, excuse me—”

Gil called out to them, realizing he might need to silence them—

He glanced what looked like a band-aid inside the hood when an electrical-like impact ran through his entire body.

“—!”

Gil instinctively prepared his gun, but at that moment…

The person in a duffel coat approached him as if teleporting. Were their legs really that strong? The tile right near the pool broke and flew away as if by an explosion.

Stripped from the hoodie by wind pressure, the exposed person’s face now glowed with a green pattern.

Other than that glowing pattern, the face itself was completely ordinary. It looked like an average high schooler, but that form served as no consolation for Gil.

The boy’s left hand grabbed Gil’s neck. Gil’s hand grasping the gun was grabbed by the boy’s right hand.

“…!”

Gil’s back slammed against the wall. The glass wall had large cracks running through it.

How did he figure out where Gil was hiding?

How did he sneak through the network of Gil’s comrades and appeared in front of him in so short of a time?

He no longer cared about these doubts.

Right now, the only thing clear was that Gil’s mission ended in complete failure.

And the target he was aiming for now stood right in front of him.

“Ka… Kakkou—”

Unable to breathe, Gil spoke as though in a groan.

Kakkou.

A Blaze Class Rank 1 member of the SEPB, and someone who was known as a “demon” even by his fellow Mushitsuki.

“—Who are you guys?”

Kakkou’s eyes glared at Gil’s face.

Those black eyes filled with a murderous impulse looked as if they continued down to hell. Gil couldn’t move a muscle, as though both arms were held by large lumps of steel.

“Uh—UuuUh…!”

Gil was the best operative among his comrades. He had plenty of battle experience, too, and he always succeeded in his missions, whether they were field operations or assassination of VIPs.

But exactly because it was him—he stopped understanding the boy in front of his eyes right now.

“Why have you targeted me?”

Although this interrogation could be called calm, it still brought out Gil’s instinctive fear.

There was a killing intent, or perhaps hostility. Or was it something completely different that boy possessed? The surrounding air seemed to crackle, and the pool’s water swayed. Part of the cracked glass broke, fell to the floor and shattered.

“Answer.”

This wasn’t the kind of aura emitted by a human. Perhaps showing the very roots of the fear welling up inside Gil, he even suffered a sort of visual illusion where the boy seemed to become a black whirl, grow larger and look down on his scared self.

He made a mistake.

Both his country’s judgment as well as his capture plan aiming for success were all a mistake.

It had nothing to do with whether Mushitsuki—no, this boy—was strong or weak. Was he even human in the first place? Perhaps they had mistaken him for those inhuman “Original Three” or whatever they were called? It wasn’t just the fact he ruined Gil’s plans, but him seeing through Gil’s hiding place so easily meant that he was undoubtedly someone used to combat. No, but reaching Gil in an instant like this was something no human could have done— 

“Fu… Fufu—”

Cornered by his fear, Gil started crying and unconsciously let out these groans.

“You, monster—”

Even the experienced Gil had never met someone like this.

A monster. A creature. —A demon.

After killing so many people, Gil finally met a real one of those.

“The entire world’s looking at you—”

That boy who was a monster, a creature, a demon said nothing.

“They won’t—let you get away.”

He tried cursing him as his very last act of resistance.

This was the last attempt of the operative called Gil to preserve his sanity.

“Fu… fufufu…”

Seeing that Gil could do nothing but laugh, the boy erased his aura.

Removing his hand from the unresisting Gil, the boy’s atmosphere changed immediately.

As the green pattern on his face vanished, he now looked like the kind of high school student you could find anywhere.

“Those lines… there was someone else who told me them before.”

Speaking as if he recalled something, the boy shook his right hand haphazardly.

“Someone—who’s quite like you.”

Gil heard this boy’s monologue, then an impact struck his chain.

Those were the operative called Gil’s last memories of this country.



The number of surviving Mushitsuki:

286→286.