Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 12 Chapter 2 (section)

== 2.06 OPS1 Part 7 ==

Kasuou yelled for the third time.

“I opened it, dammit! Come over already!”

Three caves were gouged into the shaft partitions.

“Haa! Haa! —All members, go down a layer!”

With Makoto’s order, all members of the suicide squad turned on their heels toward the hole opened in the floor.

Shachito used his ability to lower their falling speed and they landed in the fourth partition.

“…This time we’ll beat ‘em properly!”

And once again the suicide corps members headed to Orion and the rose-user.

Quite a lot of time passed since they started fighting.

Although they put up a good fight against the two Revived, they still couldn’t beat them. They both had exceedingly high defensive capabilities. None of their comrades received heavy damage, but they were getting fatigued.

Someone seemed to have destroyed an air vent again. Following the sound of impact, a fierce wind blew.

“Please just give up already…”

Pursuing Makoto, the rose-user also landed on top of a pipe. At her feet grew rose-like butterflies, producing huge amounts of scales—no, spreading pollen.

The pollen condensed, becoming spiky vines that assaulted Makoto.

“Kuh!”

Immediately leaping to another pipe, Makoto evaded.

Destroying the pipe, the vine expanded. It returned being pollen and tried enveloping Makoto.

“Territory Isolation!”

Makoto’s noise blew off the pollen trying to cover her.

“Honestly… It feels like fighting Kasuou!”

The rose-user’s ability was of the same kind of Kasuou’s. Pollen that could protect against physical abilities was able to freely change its shape to attack the enemy. Moreover, since most of it constantly guarded the host, almost any and all physical attacks were negated.

On top of that, apparently the pollen also had a mental pollution effect. Just approaching it dimmed one’s consciousness. It lacked the stupidly powerful offense of Kasuou, but it was a tough opponent in general offense and defense.

“Territory Isolation!”

Makoto’s noise gouged into the pollens protecting the rose-user.

After fighting her, she soon realized that it was rather Kaguya and not her who would be better suited for this. However, he was doing his best protecting Himiko. Orion judged Himiko as a problem, since one couldn’t predict the angles of the flame pillars she was controlling, and was constantly gunning for her.

“Haa…! Hah…!”

Makoto’s fatigue also reached the peak. But the enemy wasn’t unaffected, either.

“Are the pollen also part of your Mushi? You should be at your limit too, already.”

Seeing that the pollen was at half its density when compared to the start, Makoto smiled boldly. Looking closely, the rose petals—the wing parts—were wilting.

The spiked vine yet again assaulted Makoto.

“Ugh—”

Although she dodged by leaping to another pipe, Makoto ended up tumbling, perhaps out of fatigue.

It was probably seen as an opportunity. The rose-user added three vines and assaulted her from above and both sides.

“—I bet you’ve never played with your enemy, with you being an assassin.”

Makoto grinned, turning her body toward the one and only escape. Leaping down from the steel pipe, she fell down headlong. The pipe was mercilessly destroyed by the vines.

“You used all your remaining pollen on attacks so your defense’s thin!”

Shouting this, she pulled out a small speaker from her pocket, aimed at the rose-user and threw it.

“Territory Isolation!”

The noise emitted at the same time tore through the wall of pollen.

Even the hole opened momentarily was being closed again by the surrounding pollen.

However, the speaker Makoto threw already slipped inside.

“Eat this—Sense Isolatioooon!”

Inside the wall of pollen, violent noise reverberated.

The rose-user bent backwards, raising a voiceless dying throe. Collapsing listlessly on top of the steel pipe, the rose-shaped butterflies appearing next to their host withered and vanished.

“Phew…”

Makoto was falling headlong. She could also see the fight against Orion coming to a close.

Yotsuba finally managed to land a hit on Orion’s chest. At last unable to handle all of the suicide corps’ attacks, Orion grimaced and tried slashing at Yotsuba.

“Just a Punch!”

Yotsuba’s attack was faster. She’d end up purified anyway if her opponent used her ability. Her right hook with all of her power behind it stabbed into Orion’s flank.

“And another one! And one final one!”

A thrusting technique and a roundhouse kick. Whether it was the Japanese martial arts of kenpou or kickboxing, her follow-up attacks hit squarely.

Along with a nasty voice of ribs breaking, Orion’s movements stopped. Even so, she still immediately tried to swing her sword down at Yotsuba—

“Hihah.”

Approaching with a teleport, Shachito’s hockey stick struck and broke Orion’s arm.

“And we’re finished with this!”

Then Kaguya’s lasers pierced the strangely-shaped sword.

Her Mushi burnt to a crisp, Orion collapsed on the steel pipe.

And that—was it.

“…That’s what you get for being weirdly hardworking.”

Seeing her past friend collapse again, Makoto mumbled this. She spun her body, landing on top of the partition wall.

“Oraaah! It’s opeeen!”

Sounding half-desperate, Kasuou’s shouting voice.

“Just five more…!”

With Makoto at their front, the suicide corps fell down toward the next partition.

“For now we’ve gotten rid of all these revived. I’m a bit worried about no one new appearing, thooough.”

“In the first place only very few Mushitsuki can break through the outer wall and reach here.”

“I just thought about somethin’, though. Can’t we go through these air vents? Aren’t they connected to the lowest layer as well?”

“You’d end up sucked in and turned into minced meat…”

“Continue your digging work, Kasuou and Sakura. Other members focus on recovering, but keep your guard up. Of our time limit of 48 hours, the remaining time is…”

“About three hoursezez.”

As she spoke to everyone, the suicide corps landed atop the fifth partition.

Watching Kasuou and Sakura immediately begin digging work, Makoto inquired Rinrin.

“What about the other operations? Any change?”

“…Nothing. The signal’s as bad as always, but we’re only getting messages of no changes.”

Makoto puckered her lips.

Did the lack of news mean that the other operations failed, then?

It looked like there was a need to reach a decision soon.

“Once we reach the lowest layer, we’ll just keep going toward C’s Bed. Sorry to you two, but all of us need to recover our stamina—”

Makoto’s words were cut off by the sound of something rupturing.

As well as something large twisting, and the sound of breaking.

“W-what was that sound just now…?”

Makoto and the others grew alert.

Next, a sound like an earth tremor could be heard from afar.

“Something’s heading here—is that… water?”

As Makoto turned toward Kaguya who was speaking, she could see that water was flowing from the other side of the circular outer wall in the depths of several centimeters.

Soon the water reached their location.

Rinrin gasped.

“—A certain water pipe was destroyed on the other side.”

If what he said was true, the earthquake-like sound was likely the vast amounts of water overflowing from the partition.

“…A flame! An enemy! Above at 3 o’clock!”

Himiko suddenly shouted.

Makoto and the rest reflexively turned there—and raised their brows.

What they could see there was a metallic pipe as large as a column. They couldn’t see anything like an enemy.

“An enemy… where?”

It happened right after Makoto muttered this.

The steel pipe burst from the inside. It wasn’t an air duct or a water pipe. The things inside, made of several joined narrow pipes—were electrical cables.

As the cables burst, a golden flash was unleashed from their cut portion.

“—”

The next moment, what appeared to them—

Was a nude, beautiful girl whose silhouette was made of electrical discharge.

Not just one. Three.

Each of them controlled butterflies glowing in gold.

These were C-butterflies, with a pattern resembling the English letter C on their wings.

“No way—this is C…?”

Mumbling this in spite of her herself, Makoto gasped.

They were soaked by the water gushing out from the water pipe at their feet—

“Oh no—Territory Isolation!”

Not only Makoto sensed this danger.

Her emitted noise. Yotsuba’s repeated kicks after leaping. Shachito’s teleport followed by a swing of his hockey stick. Yakugami’s thrown chained sickles.

The beautiful girl glowed—looking like a fairy from children’s tales—and blew them all.

However—

“Gwah!”

“Waaah!”

“Eeek!”

“Ugh!”

One of the C butterflies launched by the fairy touched the water at their feet.

An immediate storm electrocuted the suicide corps members. They had no way to defend against the electricity running through the water, and especially those members that had no physical resilience collapsed on the spot.

“Are Ne…Nene and Yotsuba safe…?”

Makoto also managed to barely preserve her consciousness somehow despite having her entire body struck by electricity. However, she couldn’t move her body as though paralyzed.

“If you’re safe, then heal us…!”

“H-Healing Punch…!”

Yotsuba’s voice was followed by Nene’s singing voice, echoing.

“Y-you guys… are you fine…?”

Her body retrieving its freedom due to the song, Makoto raised her face.

And, seeing the state of the suicide corps members, was speechless.

The only ones standing were Makoto, Shachito, Yotsuba and Kaguya. All others fell to their knees, and some like Rinrin and Maimai fully lost consciousness and were sinking inside the water.

“This thing now… was the ability of that girl called C, then.”

Shachito said, groaning.

And, following this.

Another rupturing sound echoed.

As they raised their faces overhead, they saw—

“—”

Five fairies.

It definitely wasn’t just Makoto who could feel it coming.

The mission’s failure.

And not only that—but a vision of their death.

In the moment her life ended Makoto stood up and turned her sight—

“…”

High above where these fairies floated. Makoto and the rest looked toward the hole in the ceiling.

As for why they looked there—

Because they all thought—what if Fuyuhotaru finally came?

What if there being no change in the other operations was a misunderstanding? In these dire straits, perhaps Fuyuhotaru would come running to them.

Harukiyo and Sleeping Beauty might also make an awesome entrance now.

If it was those Rank 1 bastards, they would have a way to rescue them that an average person like Makoto could never think of. She—wished for it.

“…!”

Makoto gritted her teeth. Since it was a happening of only a second, she didn’t know if she actually did this.

Makoto wished.

However, reality—was obviously not this convenient.

“Territory—Isolatiooooon!”

Including her anger at being so weak, she raised a scream with all of her powers.

To hell with preserving her stamina. Since she found herself wishing for something so stupid, she might as well vanish right here and then—

This strike really held this much emotion.

The five fairies burst into smithereens along with their C-butterflies.

“—”

Assaulted by a violent sensation of loss, Makoto felt her body fluttering.

What stopped her from collapsing was a boy’s strong arms.

That face, which became a shade in the gloomy space—

''—I’ll never lose to someone so soft.

Was the face of the demon that she definitely didn’t want to recall.



—Her third meeting with the demon was about a year before the present.

Makoto managed to climb to the top, being called the ace of the North Central Branch. Prioritizing her mission completion rate, she was criticized behind her back that she fought in a way that didn’t take risks, but she didn’t care. Compared to wiping off the rumors that she was Kakkou’s yes-man, it was like being praised.

This undeserved evaluation made Makoto get carried away.

Thinking too much of her mission completion rate, she acted rashly in a certain mission. She went alone to face a troublesome Mushitsuki, and although she cornered them in an empty building, she launched a reckless attack.

As a result, half the building crumbled down and Makoto became pinned under the debris. As a bonus, the Mushitsuki she was supposed to capture even got away.

Makoto thought she was dead.

However, as she regained her consciousness, what she saw through the vivid morning sunlight—

Was a demon clad in black coat, Kakkou.

“…”

Makoto was at a hotel resort that used to serve as a summer retreat. It became a vacant lot covered with sand, and now that it was half-collapsed, sunlight came pouring from the ruined wall.

The lower half of Makoto’s body was trapped under the broken debris.

Meanwhile, Kakkou stood on top of the piles of concrete wreckage. Leaning against a thick pillar, he glared at Makoto, not hiding his displeased mood in the least.

“—What a letdown.”

His very first words were just like the trash he was.

Although she regained consciousness, Makoto’s mind was still hazy. She was probably bleeding from somewhere on her body, as the place was filled with the metallic scent of blood.

“Uh… Uuhh…”

“I told you not to go and die on me like that.”

She could somewhat estimate why the demon was here. Afraid of losing points due to the failed mission, the North Central Branch Head probably requested assistance from other branches. And the one who came was Kakkou, quickly finding poor Makoto.

“I honestly thought they wouldn’t bother me again to help the North Central Branch while you’re alive.”

“…”

Was this the demon actually praising her?

This misunderstanding was denied by his annoyed tone of voice.

“If you die here, someone new will get dispatched from Central Headquarters. If it’s someone like Yotsuba I’ll be relieved in many senses, but who knows…”

Makoto was going to die here?

Her body certainly wasn’t moving, and the scent of blood was horrible as well. Even during his speech, she could feel the premonition of death assaulting her.

Even so, the demon was just standing there, not moving a muscle. Never mind not pulling Makoto out, he didn’t look like he was going to get any help for her.

“Got any last words?”

Now that the demon said this to her, she really thought she was finished.

There were plenty of things she wanted to say. Especially coming to mind was curses about the son of a bitch standing in front of her. How pathetic had Makoto’s life turned out, and all thanks to him?

However, as Makoto faced death, what came from her mouth were not curses. 

“S-save me…”

Makoto cried and sobbed.

She couldn’t understand what the demon standing nearby was thinking about at all. How could he be so calm in front of a dying human? How could he be so foul-mouthed? That wasn’t something a human being could do.

“Help…”

Saying she changed was a lie.

People could not change so easily. No matter how strong she became, how smart she became, Makoto’s essence of weakness changed not a bit—

And the demon also remained the same.

“—”

A grin.

Seeing Makoto afraid of death, his mouth was loosened.

Seeing a person cast aside all pride and beg for their life, this demon sneered—

No one could blame Makoto for feeling a murderous impulse that nearly overrode her fear.

“I-I’ll kill you—”

While bloody bubbles foamed at her mouth, she glared at Kakkou with her full powered curse.

“W-what’s so funny—only you—I’ll definitely—with my own hands—”

“You’ll never win against me. I told you that before.”

“T-then—”

Grinding her teeth, Makoto barely preserved her consciousness.

“I-I’ll live—even a second longer than you—”

If it was about staying alive, she was confident she’d lose not even against that demon.

She already threw away her shame and self-pride anyway, and didn’t begrudge even begging for her life from a demon.

If she was going to have a pathetic life anyway, she wanted to live even a second longer than Kakkou—

“Yes, I agree. Mushitsuki should prioritize their own survival alone.”

Kakkou smiled. Unexpectedly, that smile was no longer as demonic as before—but looked like the smile of an ordinary boy.

“—Or so I thought.”

Mumbling this, Kakkou raised his face.

Where his gaze led there was a small shadow visible in the sky above the summer retreat seen through the wall.

It was a flying-type Mushi. Makoto knew it as one of the North Central Branch Mushitsuki.

Apparently Kakkou had already sent a request for a rescue long ago.

“Terasu. If someday I say that I’ll defeat the Original Three, will you help me?”

The demon suddenly said this.

People didn’t change so easily.

So it was supposed to be, yet the demon looking at Makoto—somewhat looked as if something changed in him ever since he told her to get out of Central Headquarters and they parted.

“…Don’t be an idiot…”

Makoto groaned, exposing her hatred.

“If it’s like this… then after the Original Three… I’ll kill you—”

“Probably. Then I can only use force to make you listen.”

The demon recovered his demonic smile.

“You told me that you’d ‘do anything’, after all. So you’re not allowed to die until then.”

Makoto was rescued from the debris by her comrades and managed to escape the ruined building.

After this, the building fully collapsed.

Because it lost the final support of its fulcrum—the pillar that Kakkou held with his back.

When the earth tremor died down and the dust also settled.

And when she saw Kakkou, who was bleeding from his head, survive from within the mountain of debris—

Makoto was fed up with everything.

She knew that for a while she’d have to continue of life of following that demon’s instructions.



“—chan! Terasu-chan!”

She had apparently exhausted her powers and fainted.

Makoto opened narrow eyes inside the shaft of the Underground Fort.

The boy’s face that gradually retrieved its silhouette didn’t belong to the demon that Makoto hated the most in the world—but to Shachito. He shook her body violently.

“Get a grip! Terasu-chan!”

“…A-as if I’d die here…”

Makoto grimaced and leaked sobs.

She ended up knowing the emotions lying in the very depths of her heart that she didn’t want to notice.

She ended up discovering her true feelings despite not wanting to.

“…I’m gonna… survive… and become Rank 1…”

She wanted to be a Rank 1, the same as that demon—Kakkou.

She wanted to become someone with the kind of absurd strength able to overwhelm anyone and that indomitable spirit.

This was why Makoto hated the Rank 1s so much.

It was simply a reversal of her feelings—the flip side of her admiration.

“And then I’ll… finally… be like him…”

While mumbling this unconsciously to herself, her reason finally returned.

Noticing her comrades looking worriedly at her, she wiped her teary eyes. Shaking off Shachito’s arms, she stood up without giving any thanks.

“W-what are you doing…! Fix your formation already! We can’t tell when C’s coming to attack again!”

Even while saying this, a dizziness from standing up too fast assaulted Makoto. As she staggered, Nene supported her.

“Don’t mind me! Just start moving already! Sakura, you need to block the holes created in the water pipes and the electric cables!”

“Did it already.”

“T-then, dig already! Never mind preserving energy anymore! We’ll all dig together to reach the last layer as soon as possible!”

“…”

Even though worried faces still looked at her, everyone prepared to work.

''What are all of you silent for…!

Although she was unconscious, she ended up saying something unbelievably embarrassing.

Although they seemed to be caring for her, they definitely laughed at her in their hearts.

''All of them are making a fool out of me…!

Makoto becoming Rank 1 wasn’t funny even as a joke. The one who knew best she wasn’t qualified for this was Makoto herself.

“Thanks, Terasu-chan.”

Shachito turned around and smiled.

Makoto widened her eyes at words that she’d never dare to imagine.

“It was really bad just now. You’ve saved all of us, Terasu-chan.”

For a moment she couldn’t understand what she was being told and her thinking stopped. But she soon came back to her senses.

“T-that doesn’t matter in the least! Go help with the digging already!”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Looking closely, all members of the suicide corps wore smiles.

“…!”

She felt her face getting hotter. She scooped up some water from the still-increasing flow and splashed it at her face, pretending to just freshen herself up.

As she groaned in her heart, her throat pricked with pain. She coughed and a small red spot landed in the water.

She’d apparently hurt her throat as she used her power recklessly. The violent sensation of loss still assaulting her body was probably recoil at using her Mushi’s ability like that so suddenly.

“At this rate I might Mature soon…”

She mumbled to herself so softly no one could hear.

It was silly to think about it. Who could even spare the time to think about Maturation? This was a situation where if she let her guard down even for an instant she was going to die. If she managed to survive for just a few more hours, that was fine.

“Even if we retreated here, we’d be struck down and killed anyway…!”

Makoto spun her body, appealing to the suicide corps she herself led.

“For us to survive, we must defeat C as soon as possible!”

They could no longer go back—

Makoto’s declaration was one she already came to know firsthand.

Piercing through the fifth partition, the squad went down a level and there they saw—

The figures of fairies lying in wait for them.

“Tamamo! Come contain these fairies with me! Sakura, you work on digging and blocking the fairies at the same time! Yakugami! Bring the territory around us under your control as much as you can!”

Other than Makoto’s orders there wasn’t even a single humanlike voice.

She could only hear sounds of battle and the cries of the suicide corps members.

Every time an electric attack tore through and impacted, someone turned a somersault and collapsed. And then Yotsuba, who was wounded herself, would heal them. —This process repeated itself.

“Shachito, I’ll cover for people so you go and defeat even a single fairy! Nene, expand the range of your singing! Rinrin, Maimai, at least try to protect yourselves!”

By the time they broke through the sixth layer, everyone had at least some part of their skin fried by electricity.

The suicide corps desperately attacked the fairies and attacked the partition.

“I know I’m being unreasonable! But—Territory Isolation!”

Makoto’s noise struck down a C-butterfly that was about to attack Maimai.

However, the C-butterfly that used this opening to approach was right in her face.

A golden flash filled Makoto’s sight.

“—Terasu-chan’s woke up…! Who’s next in line…!”

Makoto woke up when Kasuou and the rest were in the midst of destroying the seventh partition wall.

Jumping to her feet, she gave orders to the suicide corps while spitting blood.

“Kaguya, Kabuto! I’ll protect Himiko, so focus on attacking! There’re too many of C’s body doubles! Yotsuba! You need to prioritize healing Sakura more than Yakugami! It’s meaningless if we don’t block the fairies from coming!”

Destroying the partition wall, the corps managed to reach the eighth partition wall.

“A bit more…! Just a little bit more, so hang on…!”

She no longer had many orders to issue. Everyone went past their limits.

''Just two more layers…!

Covered in blood, everyone was panting hard. It was obvious their stamina wasn’t going to last.

“—No good… Even if we break through, we’re not going to have enough power to keep fighting while going through the next layer…”

Makoto’s unconsciously leaked mumble caused the members to turn to her.

“You guys, resolve yourselves—”

While fighting the fairies, Makoto had tears rising to the sides of her eyes, and she gritted her teeth. —She couldn’t even hide that she was a crybaby anymore.

“Once we break through this eighth layer, we’ll keep falling—and break through the ninth.”

“—”

The entire members of the suicide corps looked at Makoto with faces of astonishment.

“Any attack’s fine, so use your full powers—if we can’t break through the ninth layer in one go, we’re all gonna die. So do it like your life depends on it—no, it actually does depend on it…!”

This was no longer any order or anything.

It was a wish.

To be perfectly clear, her giving these orders that she thought were impossible—made her unfit to be a leader.

However, this was the only way the suicide corps had left.

“Oraaah…! It’s open!”

Kasuou howled, her face pale with fatigue.

“Alright, let’s go!”

Shachito howled as well. Orange Autumn Darters robbed the members’ mass.

“We’re going!”

As Makoto’s group headed to the final partition wall, a large swarm of fairies welcomed them as expected.

However, ignoring them completely, they leapt down steel pipes and toward the partition wall.

The Mushitsuki’s howls overlapped.

They had no tactics or strategy.

As they wrung out their remaining powers and struck the partition wall with their full power at the same time, at that moment—

“Eh…”

Makoto clearly saw it.

The moment before everyone attacked the wall in unison.

A person who definitely couldn’t be there swung down their fist along with them.

A pitch-black long coat flapping in the wind and hair that stood up like horns. Although his face was hidden by goggles, he wore a bold smile.

And on his whole body—was a green pattern glowing vividly.

The person Makoto hated the most in this world.

Despite this, he was also the Mushitsuki who was the most needed here, more than anyone—

“Kakkou…?”

Makoto’s small mumble was drowned by the huge sounds of destruction.

An overwhelming impact that could even shake Gods themselves.

This blow made by the Mushitsuki that might burn themselves out at any moment—

Reached the bottom of the shaft.

“Haa…! Haa…!”

“Wheeze! Wheeze!”

“Ha…! Ha…!”

Even while gasping for breath, everyone shot their heads up.

Makoto’s group found itself inside a huge hole with strewn debris.

Meaning, the bottom layer—

“W-we’re here—”

Someone cheered.

That was the truth, unbelievably enough.

They thought it was impossible to pierce through, but the suicide corps managed it.

“Haa…! Haa…!”

Panting, Makoto looked around.

There were no dropouts among the suicide corps. Not a single one of them could stand upright, but all managed to miraculously reach this bottom layer without dying.

However, Makoto did not have the leisure to feel moved at this.

All of the suicide corps members were there—but Kakkou was not.

Makoto had definitely seen his figure at that moment, though.

“What does this mean…”

She bit her lips.

Had she hallucinated in this stressful situation? No, such sentimentality wouldn’t work here. It was fine because they succeeded, but she thought their feat of destroying the partition wall with a single strike was impossible for them after they exhausted themselves so.

However, Kakkou was gone. That was the unmistakable reality.

It was probably just that the final partition wall was slightly thinner than expected. She decided to think this.

''Still, to think I’ve seen such a realistic illusion of him…!

Makoto groaned in her heart. Feeling pathetic and angry at herself, she blushed again. Pretending she was shaking off soot and rubbing her cheeks, she managed to feign she was simply dizzy.

“Fairies are comiiing!”

Tamamo looked up at the hole above and shouted.

The swarm of fairies passed through the hole, assaulting them.

“We don’t have enough power to fight such numbers…! We’ll just keep heading to C’s Bed!”

Coming back to herself, Makoto started running.

As everyone stumbled but rushed ahead, Kabuto alone went down on his knees, unmoving.

“S-sorry… I must’ve used more power than I estimated.”

“Everything’s way beyond our estimations already! Someone lend him a hand…!”

“I’ll help.”

Borrowing Kaguya’s shoulder, Kabuto somehow managed to run.

The deepest layer shaft had no partition wall. Also, there was no floor.

Going out of the leading pipe extending from the shaft, it was a narrow space containing many split cables. They were all running on top of them.

“By the way, Terasu-chan… what about a strategy to defeat C?”

While rushing through the corridor divided by slightly dirty walls, Shachito asked.

Everyone in the suicide corps had the same expression as him.

Meaning—they were resolved.

Both heart and mind were in this extreme state, and they had only little remaining power.

Everyone knew what it meant to face a Super Class Rank 1 monster like that.

“The moment we burst into C’s Bed, Kasuou needs to use her defenses and protect everyone.”

Makoto too was resolved.

But it was a bit different from how they were all ready to throw themselves in self-abandonment.

She wasn’t intending in the least to just throw herself into a reckless battle and die in vain.

“The others are to prevent C from escaping into an isolated space somehow. Because of that, I need those with abilities that can break through isolated spaces at the front.”

“But who’s going to attack C, then…?”

Nene mouthed the most important question.

Makoto smiled.

It was a harsh battle, but in the end, it developed just like Makoto thought.

Makoto was convinced she was going to die in this mission from the very beginning.

Her only humble, small wish was to preserve her dignity. No matter what sacrifices it took, she had the pride to never let anyone from her team drop out.

“About that, I don’t know the full details, but—”

Pointing at the case she was carrying with her thumb, she spoke.

“It’s apparently an amazing bomb.”

“—”

Everyone gulped.

“Don’t worry. I’ll try to isolate the Database—the Bed—using my ability and somehow protect it from the blast.”

“You can’t be—”

She thought someone would try to stop her.

However, the fact that the first one was Kaguya made Makoto cringe. He really was a soft Mushitsuki through and through.

“You can’t be serious! Using something like this it means getting close to C, right? And to isolate the Bed you also need to set up your speakers from up close, right? Since we’ll be protected by Kasuou, then it means that you—”

“Right now we have no other way, right?”

Makoto wore as bold a smile as she could manage.

No one had any reply.

Even so—it didn’t look like a single one of them accepted this.

“I don’t intend to die in vain. I’ll escape into the isolated space with the Bed.”

If she relaxed her guard, anxiety and fear would make her voice tremble.

Makoto herself would also escape into her space. —She’d never been able to do this. If push came to shove, if she had to use it in this situation, she knew the chances.

“…”

This stifling silence was proof no one could accept Makoto’s words.

However—she wanted them to pretend that they did.

Because they had no other way to beat C.

“…C’s Bed is on the other side of that door.”

Rinrin spoke.

Ahead of them in the corridor they could see a tattered, worn door.

Swarms of fairies were coming from behind.

“Are you all ready, guys?”

No one answered Makoto’s question.

All of them were bastards who weren’t going to actually follow Makoto’s orders even at the very end.

At first they’d probably move according to her orders. But at the last moment, one of them might try to rescue her in vain.

Despite them knowing it was useless.

“Let’s go—”

Speaking frankly, Makoto herself had no regrets.

What she was about to do wasn’t a senseless death.

In the unlikely chance she died here, it was fine she didn’t become Rank 1.

''Tying with a Rank 1… that’s enough for me to become like a Rank 1—

By doing this, Makoto’s revenge was already complete.

And as a bonus, she’d end up saving the world, so she didn’t feel sorry.

Wearing a self-deprecating smile in her heart, she opened the door vigorously.

“Kasuou! Deploy your—”

The suicide corps flew into C’s Bed.

However, everyone just stood in place as though frozen.

Not only did Kasuou not deploy her mist, she was paralyzed in shock.

“—”

What waited for them there was the same as the footage showed by Miguruma Yaeko.

Inside an ocean of cables was a nude girl lying on a transparent bed.

She was C.

This girl, ephemeral and yet bringing up fear from the depths of one’s heart, looked much more beautiful than in the footage. Although she was young, it was like looking at a painting of a goddess swaying to and fro in the ocean.

However—C was not alone.

“The—”

In this state where no one could utter a word, Makoto unconsciously leaked a soft mumble.

In the footage C was all alone.

So what was the meaning of what she saw there?

“There’s no way…”

Standing on the piles of machinery was a raincoat-wearing, one-armed person.

Shishidou Inuko.

Also, there were other Mushitsuki with the same sort of complexion as her.

They numbered—over a hundred.

Just like the audience of horse races, these Revived all looked down at Makoto’s team.

And despair did not end there.

“Eh.”

Who made this foolish sound?

It could be anyone. Probably Makoto.

But it was unavoidable.

It was because the form of C before them blurred, became hazy, then vanished.

The next instant, however, the form of the sleeping C reappeared along with static.

“—”

Seeing this, Makoto understood.

That was awful.

Despite them so desperately reaching here, this was too cruel—

“C’s real body is—no longer here…?”

Makoto’s resolve for death was completely meaningless.

Shishidou Inuko swung her lone remaining arm horizontally.

With that as a signal, the swarm of Revived all headed for Makoto’s group.

And from behind she could also feel the fairies.

“Op—”

Tears gushed out of Makoto’s eyes. With shaking hands, she pressed the contact switch on her visor.

“Operation 1… has f-failed…”

And thus.

The Revived led by C began their rampage.


<noinclude>


==Notes==

<references/>


{{SimpleNav}}

</noinclude>