Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 8th Episode 31 (section)

=== Part 5 ===

''—My dream, can I entrust it to you?

That day, on top of the sickroom bed, Mari asked this.

Arisu, without understanding the meaning of those words, couldn’t nod.

Months passed—

Mari asked that same question to Arisu again.

''—Can I ask this again?

Mari became the Morpho butterfly and returned to Arisu.

One miracle was being able to erase the being called Mushi while being a Mushi, while the second miracle pulled her back into this world, reviving her.

However, Mari was gone.

The moment this important friend of hers vanished, she asked Arisu again.

''—“My dream, can I entrust it to you?”

Arisu’s friend who asked her this, filled with all emotions.

The normal girl who wished to live.

The Mushitsuki girl who embraced a single dream and left.

Arisu—would never forget any of them.



Arisu spoke clearly.

“I want to save Mushitsuki.”

Oogui widened her rainbow eyes in exhilaration, rapidly falling down to the beach.

“What a nice dream—”

Daisuke grimaced and shouted.

“Arisu!”

''Snap'', there was a hard sound at her feet.

“—It’s fine.”

As Arisu smiled at Daisuke, she was surrounded by light.

“…!”

Oogui’s movements stopped midair. Her expression had the color of confusion for the first time.

“I’m already fine.”

The light enveloping Arisu was of a color familiar to everyone on the coast.

A blinding, silver light.

A warm, silver glow that rustled in the wind along with small particles.

“I’m sad at having said goodbye to Mari… but I’ll never forget her.”

She didn’t need words of farewell.

It wasn’t like before, where she couldn’t accept that parting.

Now, for the first time—she was able to part with Mari.

“I won’t forget.”

Her precious friend called Hanashiro Mari.

This girl who fought with her illness, lived for her small dream, and—after her death, came back because she worried for Arisu. She’d never forget this kind girl.

“Thank you…”

Mari had saved Arisu just as she was about to vanish into loneliness.

Daisuke and the other people she’d met all strengthened her.

“Because I wasn’t strong—”

Arisu became strong.

Just a little bit, but she became stronger than she used to be.

Thanks to the “tomorrow” Mari had given her.

The dream’s continuation where both Arisu and Mari lived together—

Although it was impossible, these were irreplaceable days.

Thanks to these humble days Mari had given her, Arisu was able to meet many important people.

Ena and Takako.

Daisuke.

And the people called Mushitsuki.

All of them gave Arisu power.

“So… I’m already fine.”

She would keep her best friend Mari in her memories and keep walking to tomorrow.

That was the answer of the stronger Arisu.

She was no longer alone.

With her memories of Mari and her still-living precious friends.

She was able to walk with them, live together in tomorrow—

The one emitting the light wasn’t Arisu herself.

A stick that fell to her feet.

The spear of the deceased Morpho butterfly was retrieving its vivid silver light again.

With small crackling sounds as though something was breaking, something that covered the surface of the spear was shattering down. Instantly melting into thin air, it looked like chains of rust.

She heard about it from Daisuke. The rod that served as the spear’s medium had been sealed by a Mushitsuki called Yakugami due to some circumstances.

However, Arisu no longer needed that limit.

“So you still cling on to life, Hanashiro Mari’s ghost—”

Ichiku Kimitaka twisted his face in hatred, emitting tardigrades. The black tsunami assaulted Arisu.

However, a fragment of light floating to the breakwater blocked the great swarm.

“…!”

The fragment of light morphed into a single, beautiful butterfly.

A silver Morpho butterfly.

Flapping its four wings, it stopped the tardigrades’ charge with overflowing scales.

“…!”

Daisuke and Harukiyo gulped.

Another appeared.

And then yet another.

Fragments of light rose all around the beach, as if to caress the fallen people there. They then changed forms one after another.

It was a swarm of silver Morpho butterflies.

This surface of glowing light took flight with Arisu in the center.

“It’s not a ghost. Mari left this to me.”

The continuation of Mari’s dream as she’d seen it.

Arisu received it. Now, Arisu finally realized its true meaning.

The days she would keep on living.

Arisu would keep living from now on, walking toward tomorrow with the people precious to her—

“I can see the continuation of Mari’s dream.”

Arisu reached for the horizon.

Silver tentacles shot from the spear at her legs, instantly encroaching Arisu’s entire body. The tentacles extended through her fingers, picking up the spear to her hand.

It wasn’t just Mari’s Mushi.

The Morpho butterfly that existed here was connected to this world through both Arisu and Mari’s wishes—

She felt this clearly.

“Let’s live all together! From now on, forever!”

As if rising from her legs, a pattern covered Arisu’s entire body. The blade tip that had been eaten by the tardigrades was restored, and it emitted a great quantity of scales.

This wasn’t the dregs of Mari’s left dream.

[[File:Mushi_Uta_Bug_8th_p209.jpg|thumb]]

She could feel the Morpho butterfly eating the dream that Arisu imagined and shaking in happiness.

The silver lance that retrieved its full powers.

The swarm of small Morpho butterflies that danced on the beach.

These pressed back the assaulting swarm of tardigrades, not allowing them a single step toward Arisu.

The Morpho butterflies surrounded the shocked Daisuke and Harukiyo. They were engulfed by silver scales as if being protected.

“If you say the ghost’s gone and you made a new dream—all I need to do is eat you up again.”

Ichiku Kimitaka’s mouth ripped in the shape of a smile. The tardigrades multiplied so much they hid the night sky, became an avalanche and tried to cover Arisu.

“…!”

She widened her eyes and glared at the tardigrade swarm.

Following the will of their new host, the small Morpho butterflies set flight toward the tardigrades. The spread silver scales became a shield and stopped the avalanche in place.

Arisu swung down the spear in her hands with her full powers.

“Ah…!”

Ichiku’s expression of shock was erased by a silver flash.

The scales emitted from the spear became a huge blade, crossing the sea into two. The scales that swallowed the tardigrades created a valley that reached all the way to the horizon. The impact of the seawater flowing into the valley turned into an earthquake and shook the coast.

“It was such a delicious dream—and yet you snatched it from me, you naughty Mushi…”

Oogui floating in the night sky erased her smile and glared at the spear held in Arisu’s hand.

“Our dreams aren’t something to be given to you.”

Arisu glared back at Oogui.

Mari’s dream.

The dream of Mushitsuki.

They belonged to those that wished for them.

Therefore, Arisu would protect them—

“—Kuha.”

Tardigrades gathered on the sea surface, creating Ichiku Kimitaka’s form.

“Doesn’t change the fact it’s a pathetic dream. You will soon despair again, Ichinokuro Arisu—”

Harukiyo who stood in the shallow water came back to his senses and wore a weak smile.

“Haha, about time you woke up… you’re late, you idiot.”

“No—”

However, Daisuke stayed with his face tensed.

“—This is the worst.”

“Huh?”

Daisuke was looking at Arisu. Harukiyo did as well.

At least Arisu would protect them.

Ena and Takako as well.

She wouldn’t let anyone get hurt anymore—

“From now on, all of us together—”

Fanned by the storm of scales, Arisu’s hairpin flew off. Her ponytail crumbled and her long hair danced in the wind.

“Starting tomorrow—”

The pattern on Arisu’s body suddenly strengthened its glow.

For an instant, her black pupils and long hair were dyed in a vivid silver.

“The fact that so little remained of Mari’s dream was because she held the controlling power of the Morpho butterfly in check… so if she poured a new dream into it—“

Harukiyo could no longer hear Daisuke’s hoarse mumble.

Even Oogui and Ichiku Kimitaka stood in place as though frozen.

“We’ll live…! Live…! Together, foreveeeeer!”

With no one unable to move, they stared at the girl standing on the surface.

Daisuke mumbled with a shaky voice.

“It’s starting to Mature—”

While controlling the swarm of Morpho butterflies.

The girl with her eyes and hair glowing in silver.

Ichinokuro Arisu howled while holding the silver lance.





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=== Notes ===
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