Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 11 Chapter 4 (section)

== 4.05 Daisuke Part 15 ==


A dessert covered in pure white sand—

Daisuke felt as if he’d wandered into a completely different world.

However, that was wrong.

The swelling hills used to be buildings.

Covering this sight was not sand—but white caterpillars.

“We… can’t go back anymore.”

Daisuke mumbled.

Since damages were on this scale, it was impossible to hide the existence of Mushi not just from normal civilians, but even from people around the world.

The world was going to change again tomorrow.

It would become a world where everyone was aware of Mushi.

However, whether this meant there was hope or only despair—

Would be determined today by Daisuke and the other Mushitsuki’s fight.

“Central Headquarters will unfold a battle formation centered around the team made of Yakugami, Yotsuba, Tamamo and Toramaru.”

Miguruma Yaeko passed orders through the microphone.

The white coats that only just escaped the Stronghold formed lines with trained movements.

A voice echoed from the goggles.

“We will send 5 combatants from the North Central Branch. Orders, please.”

Mushitsuki with grey coats and visors appeared behind the white coats.

“We dispatch Sakura from West Central Branch.”

Yet another voice. A tall girl clad in jumper-style equipment joined the ranks.

“South Central Branch. …Since we have no members of Rank 3 or above, we will focus on minimizing the damages caused by Shinpu.”

The South Central Branch once had a team made of high-rank members. However, Daisuke recently heard that that team had been annihilated.

“E-East Central Branch sends Kaguya, Himiko and Kakkou!”

Daisuke felt the presence of people at his back. Clad in their pitch-black coats, Kaguya and Himiko—Ogata Akatsuki and Haji Senri—appeared.

Just as SEPB’s elites gathered, the caterpillar swarm pushed.

He could see Miguruma retreat along with some of the combatants.

“I will assume command of all branches and supervise damage prevention. Central Headquarters combatants as well as the high-ranking members of each branch are to quickly proceed with the operation to annihilate Shinpu. The one in command of this operation will be—”

Miguruma Yaeko’s voice echoed through the goggles.

“Kakkou.”

No one argued against it.

There was simply no other person with battle experience as abundant as his, as well as someone who could grasp the power of all branches, excluding branch heads.

“Also, we will add Mushibane to our current operation.”

In a distant place, a storm of steam blew.

On the rooftop where caterpillars were blown off several figures appeared.

It was the group centered around Shiika. Mushibane’s nucleus fighting power. Among them was also the figure of a woman who once belonged to East Central Branch.

“Namie—”

The woman who used to be his comrade exchanged glances with Daisuke. He already knew for a long time that she’d betrayed the SEPB and joined Mushibane.

“—Begin operation.”

Miguruma issued orders.

“North Central Branch. Secure this place.”

Daisuke put a hand to his goggles and ordered.

A Mushi as thin as paper took flight in air. Centered around Daisuke’s group, after this Mushi passed all caterpillars in the path were blown to smithereens.

The clouds filling the sky were dyed a reddish-brown.

Dark-red raindrops started softly raining.

The red rain became fiercer, and the caterpillars touched by it writhed in agony, melting and vanishing. The rain that dodged Daisuke and the rest gradually increased its vigor.

“Erect a barrier around us, Tamamo. Including where Mushibane are.”

“Got iiit!”

A giant swarm of green millipedes crawled on the ground. Fearing this circle of millipedes, the caterpillars stopped their advance.

“A mental attack’s coming. Terasu, defend.”

At the moment Daisuke ordered this, a change came to the upper sky. Space warped and the silhouette of an old building with a triangular roof floated there.

It was the Church.

And not just one.

More than ten Churches rang the rusty bells on their roofs.

However—

“So you’re still treatin’ us North Central Branch as throwaways, Kakkou, huh…! Sense Isolation!”

A great volume of noise that could numb the brain echoed throughout Akamaki City.

The ear-grating bell sounds were struck by the noise and dispersed.

SEPB combatants and Mushibane all prepared to attack the Churches overhead, thinking this was their chance.

“Don’t move!”

Daisuke shouted loud enough so it could reach even Mushibane.

The movements of the Mushitsuki about to act all stopped.

“This isn’t the main body. We can just let Kaguya attack for now. Handle it as you see fit.”

Daisuke had been fooled before as well.

He thought that destroying the Church meant that he’d defeated Shinpu.

However, the scene in front of them showed that it wasn’t really so. It was nothing more than a part of Shinpu, and his real body received no damage.

“Understood.”

Akatsuki’s voice came from behind.

A golden light dyed his sight. Countless laser beams launched in a fan spread pierced through the floating Churches one after another.

“—Alright, now we wait. Preserve our current position.”

“…!”

All combatants turned to look at Daisuke, surprised.

“Right now, it’s meaningless to randomly attack the caterpillars. —There’s about three people here with sensing abilities. For now, try and find out where Shinpu’s main body is hiding.”

Daisuke heard a gasp from straight behind him.

Haji Senri was also one person with sensing abilities.

“Despite the fact an entire city had been swallowed by the caterpillars… finding the main body among them…”

This absentminded voice appeared to belong to one of those sensers.

“Do it.”

He instantly shut off all arguments with a calm voice.

Among the SEPB, Daisuke was probably the least popular Mushitsuki.

He mercilessly annihilated his enemies, a demon that allies could never trust—

However, that was fine.

The important thing was for everyone there to unite under their fear toward him.

The Original Three would never get defeated by just one or two Mushitsuki.

Daisuke came to know this through his countless battles.

“Or do you want me to shoot you down before getting killed by Shinpu?”

All the breathing he heard through the goggles went back to silence.

Kakkou the tyrant.

Being hated did not make him suffer.

Daisuke feared all Mushitsuki there being annihilated.

Right now, if the Mushitsuki there were gone—it would probably be impossible to gather the Mushitsuki forces to oppose the original three.

“—Understood. Beginning search of Shinpu’s main body.”

From behind, he heard Haji Senri agreeing.

Although Senri obeyed, her look of anger that could scorch skin was still there.

But it was worth it in exchange for erasing the fear from Shinpu and banding all units together.

“Miguruma. Give us some information about Shinpu’s main body, no matter how little.”

“Right now, it is unknown what form he takes. His main body, or rather the human vessel he requires, can also use the ability of camouflage.”

Daisuke grimaced.

If he could hide within this many caterpillars and even alter his appearance, it was immensely annoying.

“At present it was the right call not to needlessly waste your powers. If we don’t defeat the main body first, we wouldn’t be able to decrease the caterpillars no matter how much we attacked.”

Miguruma’s words unexpectedly caused the combatants to falter.

They were told that as long as they couldn’t find the main body, what they did was meaningless.

For the Mushitsuki facing an overwhelming number of caterpillars, this was not good news.

“It’d be too hard if we restrict this just to sight… Konoha, for now, search the entirety of Akamaki City.”

“…Understood.”

There was an inevitable gap between them.

At some point Daisuke’s forces were surrounded by caterpillars from all directions, becoming completely isolated.

The red rain and unseen impacts only just barely stopped the caterpillars’ momentum. Even the barrier of millipedes protecting the combatants from the reduced numbers of caterpillars was shrinking by the minute.

More and more Churches appeared in air, but the noise cancelled their ringing, and shining lasers shot them down.

However, it was obvious to everyone at a glance that those were just a drop in the bucket.

They were like a lone island stuck in the middle of a raging, storming sea.

It was only a matter of time before their defensive net, growing weaker and weaker, was punched through.

“We can’t do this…! Let’s retreat and regain our position…!”

“I told you to wait, Terasu.”

Daisuke cut her off.

He knew at a glance they approached the limit.

The circle of millipedes gradually tightened around them and the combatants all started gathering around Daisuke who was in the middle.

As he looked up, Mushibane was also shaken. They were confused at SEPB not moving even a single step from the spot.

The only one who remained calm among Mushibane was Shiika.

While between the Mushitsuki engaging themselves in the counterattack against the caterpillars, she looked at Daisuke.

“I’m telling you it’s impossible…! At least get some branches to defend us…! Do you want to kill the North Central Branch?”

“Kakkou-san…! My millipedes are already…!”

“This is Konoha… even when I look at the entirety of the city, I can’t see anything relevant…”

The voices announcing their limits flew through the comm.

Even the combatants preserving their waiting state started clamoring. They couldn’t stand the pressure caused by their island shrinking within the space fully dominated by white.

“—Enough being scared already.”

Daisuke’s voice overlapped with the many complaints filling the comm.

“You should’ve been scared plenty until now. Of your own Mushi and other Mushitsuki’s Mushi. Because you became a Mushitsuki you suffered, you went through pain, and went through hard days. But you’re sick of it, right?”

Crossing his arms, Daisuke took an upright position.

Even now that he was being surrounded by caterpillars, he could vividly recall it.

The time he became Mushitsuki.

Since he became Mushitsuki he fought, got hurt, yet even so clung to life. They were these kinds of days.

It wasn’t just Daisuke. Everyone there was supposed to be the same.

“Part of the reason for that is right in front of you.”

All signs of agitation vanished from the comm.

“Now—is the time to be mad.”

Someone howled.

Daisuke didn’t know that voice. It might have been someone of Rank 3 or below from the Central Headquarters.

However, that howl, so full of anger, began to infect other Mushitsuki there—

“—!”

One after another their shouts overlapped.

The Mushitsuki’s voices became a tremor and even caused the pushing caterpillars to sway.

Perhaps there were even some cries mixed in there.

Everyone in this place—no, each and every Mushitsuki shared this shout as if their body was one.

And, just as the combatants’ morale reached its highest peak—

The curtain rose.

The sign for counterattack came with Haji Senri’s voice.

“—Found it! 20 kilometers to the southeast! A small ‘flame’ response moving the caterpillars is there!”

All of the Mushitsuki in the lone island turned to the same direction.

Daisuke leapt. He landed in front of the combatants.

He swung his glowing fist, fused with his checkered beetle, toward the great swarm of white caterpillars.

“All units—”

Daisuke’s attack blew the caterpillars blocking their sight to smithereens.

“Let’s gooo!”

The Mushitsuki’s anger, kept pent all this time—

Now exploded.

“—!”

Angry shouts and war cries shook the ground.

With Daisuke at the front cutting open the walls of caterpillars with his glowing fists, the angry Mushitsuki advanced through the streets of Akamaki City.

All kinds of Mushitsuki abilities blew the caterpillars away, and they were able to advance to a certain direction in a straight line.

“Kaguya! Yotsuba! Open up a road!”

“Roger that!”

Golden lasers mowed the caterpillars at the front. A large number leapt up, vanishing after being engulfed in flames created by explosions.

“Full power! Super-Poison Puuunch!”

A girl leapt even further than Daisuke. Carrying a red cross mark on her back, she struck her fist at a single caterpillar—

Then, all caterpillars they could see were spotted by black dots. The infected caterpillars burst from the inside, rotted, melted into a muddy liquid and vanished.

Their view opened up. Daisuke accelerated further.

“Don’t lag behind! If you get isolated you’ll die!”

The SEPB’s Mushitsuki rushed through the gaps in buildings or else leapt over them, rushing ahead as a single unit.

“—”

As he checked on Mushibane, they also rushed with their full power next to Daisuke’s group. Creating a circle around Shiika, the hairband boy who ran at the front blew the caterpillars away as they advanced.

“The main body’s still at the same spot, right!”

“Yes…! But it might have noticed our approach, and it’s getting away…!”

Senri’s voice had painful-sounding breaths mixed in it. It was surely hard on the sickly girl to run for such long distances. However, she voices no complaint.

It wasn’t just Senri.

No people lagged behind Daisuke.

Shinpu was right ahead of them.

There was no Mushitsuki in existence who couldn’t run at this time—

“Run! Ruuun!”

Daisuke’s shout brought the tremor-like howl again.

The place of where Senri had sensed Shinpu was displayed as a red dot on the goggles.

And that red dot—

Aligned with where Daisuke’s group currently was.

Senri shouted.

“We have arrived…! He should be hidden somewhere around…!”

Daisuke stopped. Following this the other combatants also came to a sudden stop.

Senri said he was nearby.

However, all he could see around him was caterpillars.

Shinpu was hiding among them—

“What a bother—we just have to annihilate all caterpillars we can see!”

At Daisuke’s order was exactly what the combatants wanted.

As if spewing out their pent anger, a simultaneous attack struck the caterpillars. Ear-grating sounds of impact overlapped, and all kinds of attacks combined, turning into a white glow that dyed their vision.

Seeing that the combatants were all out of breath, Daisuke raised his voice.

“Stop the attack!”

As the combined attacks stopped, the surrounding scenery instantly changed.

As far as they could see, all caterpillars in the area around them vanished.

Their attacks’ aftermath destroyed buildings, cracked the asphalt, and broken water pipes spouted water. City lights were broken and the remains of metal fragments that were probably cars spread around.

“What about Shinpu!”

Daisuke turned toward Senri, who was at the very back of the unit.

“His presence—”

Senri closed her eyes to concentrate—and gasped. Opening her eyes, she looked to a certain direction.

Daisuke followed Senri’s line of sight and noticed it.

In the shade of a power pole broken down to half its length, something moved.

“—”

His body moved before he could think.

His legs clad in a glowing pattern kicked the ground. Recoil caused the asphalt to cave in, and a green afterimage instantly drew toward the power pole.

As Daisuke went around the power pole in speed that even he couldn’t believe, he readied his pistol.

“Shinpu—”

A person clad in a tattered hoodie was sitting down.

The checkered beetle fused its jaw with the gun, and he turned the muzzle spitting tongues of hellfire to that person.

Daisuke knew his face.

He was Kasshi.

Although his skin rotted and his form was completely different, the form of the boy who journeyed with him in the world of the past was there.

“Did you really think I was going to hesitate from seeing this face, at this stage?”

The hatred toward the Original Three far overcame his pity for the first Fusion Type.

Daisuke widened his eyes and drew the trigger.

A bullet spreading explosive flames around blew the Kasshi-form Shinpu into smithereens.

“—”

The body beneath the neck was engulfed in fire and collapsed.

Trailing notes of this gunfire echoed throughout the desolate Akamaki City.

No one moved.

No one uttered a word.

The entire area was wrapped in silence.

“…”

Daisuke slowly lowered his arm.

They defeated one of the Original Three, Shinpu.

Someone convinced of this raised a whoop.

It was no illusion, and it definitely felt real.

Therefore—

“—!”

The fact he felt an inexplicable chill and turned around was nothing more than an intuition.

Captured in Daisuke’s eyes were the Mushitsuki moment before swelling in victory. Combatants of both SEPB and Mushibane smiled and looked back at Daisuke’s face.

However, Daisuke wasn’t looking at them.

“—Shiikaaa!”

Without thinking he shouted that name.

Everyone glared at Daisuke with surprised faces.

Even Shiika herself couldn’t understand why Daisuke—Kakkou—knew her name and stared at him. 

Not even she herself had noticed.

Not even Mushibane who were next to Shiika to protect her noticed.

Only Daisuke noticed that faint presence.

“Ruuun!”

Right behind Shiika who was standing still—

Something was bobbing.

A bizarre figure was formed as if it came out of Shiika’s shadow.

Its face—was of the boy called Kasshi.

However, his skin was white like a doll’s and both his eyes were dyed in pitch black.

On his head he wore a small loop made of gold—a crown—and he was clad in an embroidered cloak.

“Thou have done well… to welcome me… thou, who possesses the qualification of the King…”

As the boy moved his mouth, a hoarse voice echoed from somewhere.

With that voice finally everyone noticed his presence.

Shiika also turned around—but it was already too late.

The sounds of a bell ear-grating enough to break one’s head open echoed.

At some point, the silhouette of a large building floated above everyone’s heads.

It wasn’t a Church.

It was much larger and decorated with sublime carvings—it was a Castle.

With the towering Castle high above his back, Shinpu raised a shrill laughter. It didn’t sound human; that voice was as sharp as needles piercing one’s eardrums.

“Anmoto Shiika… I bestow thee the honor of becoming my vessel.”

A childlike laughter and an old man-like hoarse voice.

Black miasma gushed out of the boy possessing these two conflicting voices. It invaded Shiika’s body through her mouth and ears.

None could resist, were they Shiika or Mushibane who were supposedly protecting her.

Daisuke was the same.

As he was watching, all signs of life vanished from Shiika’s eyes—and she turned to face him.

“Child of Aria Varei… among those who possess the qualification of a King, I have chosen not thee, but this lass. Thou should be able to understand the reason for this…”

Shinpu’s hoarse voice echoed.

Moving the mouth—was Anamoto Shiika.

Her somewhat immature face twisted into an evil smile and a golden crown appeared above her head. With a flap, a sublime cloak covered her back.

“Because she is much more feared as a King than thee…”

Kasshi’s body at the feet of the transformed Shiika suddenly deteriorated with great speed.

At the same time, Shinpu’s body burning near Daisuke became countless caterpillars. Apparently, what Daisuke shot down was no more than a decoy.

“Ah…”

This was bad.

It was only Shiika—

Out of anyone in this world, it was Shiika alone—

That Daisuke could never attack.

“Gaze upon my form and despair…”

The gun fell down from Daisuke’s arm.

It wasn’t just him.

Even Mushibane could do nothing but stand there, stunned. With faced full of disbelief they were unable to move a muscle.

On the other hand, the SEPB—couldn’t move either, as expected.

Originally, Fuyuhotaru was a symbol of fear for the SEPB.

Since she was overtaken by Shinpu, it was natural for them to lose their fighting spirits.

“Truly wonderful… this scent… it belongs to someone who trampled others, who stood on top of corpses more than anyone else… that is exactly the King’s vessel…”

A shrill, soprano laughter overlapped with a voice full of joy.

“—”

What happened next supposedly took only a moment.

However, to Daisuke’s eyes, he saw it clearly as if it was in slow motion.

It was the scenery of despair growing more and more.

The first to become prey were Mushibane.

The hairband boy reached toward Shiika but his arm was ripped from the shoulder and blew away.

What did this was a single flake of snow.

Snow kept increasing its vigor, one flake at a time—

And a blizzard blew with Shiika in its center.

No one in Mushibane could resist this blizzard of despair.

The boy who lost his arm was wrapped in the blizzard and was dyed in blood, raising death throes.

Namie, who used to be Daisuke’s comrade, exhausted upon seeing Shiika’s form—and she also became prey to the blizzard. Blood spurt from her entire body and she expired in a horrible state.

Seeing Mushibane’s member turn into nothing more than scraps of blood and meat, the SEPB finally regained their senses.

Using all power in their possession, they attacked the crowned girl.

However, it was sadly meaningless.

The snow of fear that twisted space itself shot down all attacks. Those who were nearby got swallowed by the blizzard one after another and expired, raising a bloodcurdling scream.

“…”

Daisuke watched that sight, absentminded.

Ah—

Ogata Akatsuki confronted it.

However, it was useless as expected.

The moment the laser beams touched the snow, they distorted and broke with a sound, or else an impossible phenomenon happened and they were shot back.

He saw the boy trying to protect Senri, and yet both of them were swallowed in the blizzard, spraying blood—

Something inside Daisuke broke down.

''We lost again—

Until now he’d challenged the Original Three to decisive fights many times.

There was no one who fought them more than Daisuke.

And every time he fought, he tasted defeat.

However, now that was over.

Now the most important thing was taken from him.

Now it was over.

He would no longer fight or even lose ever again—he felt relief.

“—”

As a flake of snow fell on his chest, and while feeling an ear-grating sound breaking his body—

Daisuke.

Understood his death like he was an external observer.

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