Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 14 Chapter 2 (section)

== 2.05 Harukiyo Part 5 ==

He was the most blessed in the world.

That was because he witnessed the most beautiful sight of all the moment he was born.

Namely, light—

Although his eyesight had yet to solidify, he felt it engulf him along with a blissful warmth.

As the light vanished, he started crying.

Losing this warmth-filled light made him hopelessly sad.

He realized on an instinctive level that he would never get to touch it again.

“—”

While he was crying his lungs out, a bearded man was watching over him.

From behind the bearded man appeared another man. Then another woman appeared, and another—one after the other, adults pressed together to see his face.

After all this time, he didn’t even know where he was born.

However, he did remember that he was born inside a dirty, small cabin. It was quite the shabby place, with its walls nearly ruined.

It was there that people pushed their way inside one after another to visit him.

Their eyes.

Eyes.

Eyes.

He remembered many, many eyes peeking at him.

They probably all came to see the light that wrapped him as he was born. As he tilted his head, he could see people on their knees, praying to him.

A blinding light and eyes that peeked at his face.

And the next thing that remained in his memories was a high-pitched sound of rupture that stimulated his ears.

It was a gunshot.

Coming from afar, this small sound was pregnant with misfortune. Even the newborn could instinctually understand that fact—but he couldn’t do anything.

As he cried loudly, he was purified and blessed.

The people surrounding him were also smiling, and they gently touched him one after another. Within this warmth that he felt for the first time, he could feel their wishes of happiness.

And they were most likely—wishes regarding their own happiness.

“This child—has been blessed by God—”

Everyone would say such things.

He couldn’t count on his childhood memories, but their expressions seemed to say this.

Hope.

It was all entrusted to him, who was just born.

Among the people living in a harsh environment, a child wreathed by light was born.

What else could they call it, if not a miracle?

They rejoiced, they caressed him gently, and they offered him a pledge-like blessing.

This was the first love he felt.

And also—his last piece of bliss.

“—”

It was the ominous sound.

Gunfire was approaching, and the celebrations of his birth changed.

The small hut became full of activity and the bearded man took him away from the cradle. He was yelling something at the other surrounding people as he leapt out of the narrow room.

After all this time, he didn’t even know what country this was.

He remembered the open air being full of dust and there being lines of shacks built directly into the ground. The sort of place a person from the outside would probably call a slum.

A beautiful light and the people celebrating his birth.

Right after witnessing those, the next scenery was in the form of countless black dots floating in the sky.

Following this, other smaller objects began falling like raindrops—

“—”

Explosions and screams.

After that, a violent shaking, making him completely lose his sense of direction.

The bearded man ran while hugging him. —Was this man his father? If so, he could understand why the man risked himself to protect him. If he wasn’t his father, he could respect this man trying to rescue someone who wasn’t even his child.

As he escaped from the explosions, the slum’s residents cleared the path.

The baby’s miraculous birth apparently already passed between them. Many of them even simply kneeled while seeing him, not looking at the destroyed houses or the carriers of misfortune dancing in the sky.

While receiving the gazes of the residents offering their prayers, the bearded man was focused only on running.

Escaping the slum, he kept running even through wild land—

And the man exhausted his strength.

Apparently he was already wounded, because the collapsed man’s back was dyed in red.

“—O light—I beseech you to guide us—”

The moment before he breathed his last, the bearded man was smiling.

It was a satisfied smile, looking like he believed he’d fulfilled his duty.

Remaining alone, the baby cried.

Although he was scared of being alone, he kept crying for the sake of the people who left him and left this world.

Hearing his cries, many unfamiliar people appeared.

They picked him up as he continued crying and left with him.

There was obviously no way for him to have understood who these were at the time.

And there was someone else other than those who took him—

Starting from the moment of his birth and until the bearded man dyed—there was someone who glared at him while watching the whole thing.

In this world where the line between past and future was vague and he didn’t know anyone, someone was always with him.

While watching the miracles and misfortune clinging to him, he wore an expression—that was very much like a sneering devil.

“—Not bad at all for a ‘disaster’.”

It was a creepy man, his face covered in tape.

He had hair that was as red as flames.

“Well, show me what happens next. Using C’s powers really is a piece of cake—”

He was about to say this, but the demon erased his smile.

A golden light was formed between the devil and the baby.

It instantly formed a fairy. Her nude body was clad with a fanciful cloak and she wore a tiara on her head instead of a crown.

The baby’s expression turned severe and between him and the devil—

The golden fairy emitted blinding light.



“—!”

Harukiyo opened his eyes in an instant.

He was locking gazes with someone.

With none other than him—Alpha, who was lying inside the life support system.

He also saw Harukiyo.

And his gaze—looked like he was trying to ask Harukiyo for something.

“Haha—”

As Harukiyo sneered, a fairy’s beautiful face appeared right in front of him without any advance warning.

Appearing upside down as though she was about to kiss him, C reached out with her slender arms.

“Tss—”

Receiving an electrical shock, Harukiyo was blown off from the opened door and outside the trailer.

“Harukiyo…!”

Ume, who had regained consciousness with a delay, extended his hand to Harukiyo, but he was too late.

As Harukiyo was flung out from the speeding trailer, he fell to the ground behind it. Immediately unleashing a heat wave, he stopped himself from crashing headlong with the asphalt.

Just as he tried catching up with the semi-trailer, he was surrounded by a swarm of C-butterflies.

“Tch—I still have business with that suicidal guy! Don’t hand him over to C, Ume and Haruka!”

He didn’t even know if his two companions were able to hear his voice. The distancing semi-trailer was heading to the highway entrance, and he could see it using the emergency brakes. The secretary had probably judged that she couldn’t break through the barrier on the highway without Harukiyo.

“Well, those two aren’t gonna get done in so easily… but more importantly.”

His hair fanned by his own heatwave, Harukiyo sneered.

Now the C-butterflies surrounding him were joined with fairies made of electricity—C’s body doubles.

“C… you little bitch, are you trying to—''separate'' me from that suicidal bastard?”

They numbered four, one in each direction of the wind.

“C. I get you’re trying to pick up a fight with me. I also understand you’re targeting that Alpha guy, more or less. So normally—wouldn’t it be easier for you to kill us when we’re together?”

“I will wash away the failed Mushitsuki—and then release the Dove—”

“Yeah, whatever. I understand it’s the goal Miguruma put into you. And you’re waffling on and on about me being a failed Rank 1. If you wanna kill me because I’m an eyesore that makes two of us, but—”

All lights in the vicinity of Harukiyo were flickering.

Electricity was gathering at this spot. Creating four body doubles meant she wanted to defeat Harukiyo right there and then.

“But seems like that Alpha bastard’s different. Looks like you don’t wanna kill us together—meaning, you wanna catch him alive?”

“I will use the Deluge to wash out the old world—”

“You’ve made a little mistake though, stupid brat. It’s me finding out you’re giving the suicidal guy special treatment.”

He sneered at the fairy who kept repeating incomprehensible words expressionlessly.

“I’ve started to gradually—get interested in Alpha.”

His two eyes flaring red, Harukiyo leaned forward.

Responding to him assuming a battle position, the fairies and C-butterflies emitted a harsh light.

“I have no plan of how to catch up to the semi-trailer, though… I should’ve asked where we were going.”

It happened just as he grumbled and was about to try breaking through C’s encampment.

A light melody began playing.

“…”

It came from nearby.

Next to the highway’s noise barrier was a cute-looking pink cellphone. He heard the light melody from it.

Still glaring at C, Harukiyo waved a hand. He controlled a heatwave to blow the small device right into his hand. He then pressed the call button.

“The owner’s missing. If you lost it, you should give it up.”

[[File:Mushi Uta 14 p212.jpg|thumb]]

He spat this and was about to hang the call.

“—I’ll be tracking the semi-trailer’s coordinates from here... don’t lose this cellphone.”

The voice of a young girl announced this. It was a voice that made him recall his anger.

“I can’t say who I am... but I’ll help you protect Alpha for now...”

Harukiyo narrowed his eyes.

An unknown person suddenly offered him help in this situation—

Harukiyo quickly deciphered what this meant.

“You can’t say who you are? —But I know about you. Because I know about practically all Mushitsuki of note. Didja really think I wouldn’t the high-ranking Mushitsuki from the SEPB?”

“…!”

He could hear the other party gulp.

“Never mind the SEPB, though. This isn’t being done on Haji Keigo’s orders, right? He should be too busy at the moment—and besides, this fossil of a phone hadn’t been there a moment ago. I don’t know any Mushitsuki who can just leave a cellphone over there without me noticing. Meaning, it’s neither the SEPB nor Mushibane.”

“—”

The other party said nothing. However, the breaths she barely leaked were tinged with impatience and tension.

“Konoha—what’re you scheming, going around with people I don’t know?”

The moment Harukiyo named the other party, the call was hanged up.

Being exposed within a few moments probably made her panic. Harukiyo clicked his tongue and put the cellphone in his pocket.

“Don’t hang up on me, you weakling. Can’t imagine this sort of small fish made this move on her own. —Konoha’s got some kinda boss in control of her.”

As he turned back to the front, he could see that C’s body doubles looked at empty air.

“But we’re against C here, y’know? She probably immediately bugged and identified the call, judging you were allied with me.”

Two of the fairies surrounding him suddenly vanished.

Heading to the distance, street lamps vanished one after another in a straight line.

“Huh? You chasin’ after someone? Is it the one who left the cellphone there? If you’re leaving even me here to go after them, they must be a Rank 1—nah, there’s no way.”

While mulling over this, Harukiyo turned back to the two remaining fairies.

Seeing the C-butterflies emitting light as though pulling themselves together, Harukiyo sneered.

“Dunno who you’re playing with—but you’ve hurt my pride. How dare you underestimate me like that, you stupid brat who doesn’t even show her true self.”

Harukiyo howled, his entire body engulfed in crimson flames.