Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 4th Episode 14 (section)

===Part 6===

"ARISU!!!"

The one to raise his voice was Daisuke.

He watched Arisu being thrown off the deck by the wave that snatched her away.

Even Harukiyo, apathetic until now, was shaken just like Daisuke. They stood in shock at this unbelievable sight.

"U-Urara—"

Kirara sank to her knees, paling.

"—Haha, you've had us completely fooled! But as long as we have you, the Mushitsuki, we have no need for your sister."

One girl closed the distance to the laughing boy.

It was Kasuou.

"You're also unneeded!"

White thorns stabbed into Kasuou.

"Which of us is the pro, I wonder?"

Jit's expression froze.

The countless thorns were all stopped without exception by the mist covering Kasuou's body. The blonde girl's black claws smashed the thorns as if devouring them.

"Such bullshit from someone who only fought against normal people!"

Kasuou's attack pushed Jit back. The overwhelming power opened a large hole in the floor, and the boy fell while unable to even raise a scream.

Daisuke wasn't calm enough to watch the battle between Jit and Kasuou.

He leapt toward the flooded deck.

Reaching toward the side of the railing where Arisu and Urara went to, he looked down the dark sea.

"…!"

Throwing his mask away, he looked around the stormy water surface, not caring that the unceasing rain got into his eyes.

He couldn't see Arisu and Urara anywhere. Due to the fighting there were alarm sounds on ''Amenotori'', and the sailing has stopped. They shouldn't have flowed too far away.

"W-what was that woman thinking about—"

He heard a shaking voice from behind.

It was Harukiyo. The expression of the boy appearing next to Daisuke lacked its usual vigor. He held his forehead and muttered as if in delirium.

"Don't fuck with me… Doing that will kill Hanashiro Mari along with you…! Then what have I done all this for…!"

"Ahah, it's useless already. You won't be able to find her."

Belatedly, Kasuou arrived too. Kirara also came to the deck, but she apparently had no courage to look past the railing. She just stumbled down on the spot.

"—Not yet."

On the deck where everyone gave up, Daisuke alone looked down the sea surface. The railing he grabbed was crushed audibly.

"If we just know where she is we might be able to do something…!"

With one leg on the railing, Daisuke frantically scanned the sea.

"C'mon, Kakkou. Doesn't this mean your job's finished? Didn't you want to go back to the East Central Branch already?"

Even Kasuou's mocking didn't reach his ears. He gazed at the sea as to not miss even a single shadow.

Yet the violent waves of the night reflected nothing. Only the sound of thunder vainly passed above the ocean.

"Didn't you say you'll never die!"

He had met with Ichinokuro Arisu and lived under the same roof as her in order to monitor her.

Every day she would hit him and they would argue.

He could state clearly there wasn't a single day where he didn't want to finish the mission already.

—Yet he couldn't accept this ending.

Not when they haven't solved even one of the mysteries surrounding Hanashiro Mari.

Also—

Daisuke was yet to understand what kind of person Ichinokuro Arisu was.

How could she have been so reckless thus far? Why had she been intervening in other people's matters, including those of Daisuke himself? He didn't know the reason yet.

"Arisu!"

It happened just after Daisuke raised his voice.

Without any warning, the sea surface changed color.

One part of the sea covered in nightly darkness started glowing silver.

"…!"

Everyone on the deck gasped.

A chill ran through Daisuke's spine.

Under the ''Amenotori'' swam a silver glowing giant butterfly.

A blinding light illuminated the sky from the sea.

"What the… hell's that…"

Kasuou's hoarse voice spoke volumes about how overwhelmed they all felt. The giant morpho butterfly emitted not only silver light. Its power caused the surface of the sea to tremble.

"—It's Maturing."

Daisuke gritted his teeth.

The only case where a Mushi remains even after the death of the host.

That was Maturation.

When Mushi finish eating their host's dreams, the Mushitsuki dies. However, there are rare cases where Mushi who ate their host's dreams gain their own will, grow large and go on a rampage. This phenomenon is called Maturation.

The worst case scenario Daisuke could imagine was unfolding in reality.

Until now he hadn't ever connected Maturation with the morpho butterfly. It was because Hanashiro Mari's butterfly showed no signs of growing berserk.

Yet Daisuke finally understood the situation.

It still wasn't set in stone. But if Daisuke's reasoning was correct, then—

"Hanashiro Mari's Mushi was always on the cusp of Maturation. The existence of Arisu as a new host put a stop to that…"

"—So if the new host dies it'd definitely Mature?"

Harukiyo looked furious.

"I don't like it… I don't like it one bit…"

Behind the muttering Harukiyo, Kirara raised a shrill voice.

"Urara!"

Daisuke and the rest followed her gaze.

Illuminated by the morpho butterfly's glow, they could see from afar the figures of Arisu and Kirara on a wave.

They both appeared to be unconscious. Even so Arisu never let go of Urara.

Daisuke, Harukiyo, Kasuou—

The three Mushitsuki changed their expressions.

"Hanashiro Mari… have you lost to your Mushi?!"

Pillars of flame rose from the body of the raging Harukiyo. The crimson flames converged in the night sky, creating the form of a tiger beetle sporting fangs with different sizes.

"You call other people weaklings, but you were this weak!"

The devil's shout and the beetle's roar overlapped.

The flame pillar stabbed into the ocean.

The sea exploded. Much as if an underwater volcano had erupted, expanding steam filled their vision. The water started evaporating due to the extremely high temperatures, so it looked as if the water level lowered.

While spreading steam the beetle advanced through the sea.

Its fangs caught the giant morpho butterfly.

"UOOOOOOOOH!!!"

Harukiyo raised his right arm.

The tiger beetle made of flames sharply changed its angle. Still grabbing the morpho butterfly, it started ascending to the sky. Arisu and Kirara who were protected by the giant butterfly were taken, too.

Immediately after being dragged out of the sea, the morpho butterfly blew off the beetle with its silver scales. Leaving death throes behind, the flame Mushi vanished.

The flame-wreathed boy raised his hand in preparation for the second shot.

However—

"Hah…! Hah…! —Shit…!"

Harukiyo groaned, revealing his canines.

The morpho butterfly probably sensed it had gotten out of trouble, even if temporarily. The giant butterfly's figure instantly shrunk. —Even if he pulled the next flame attack, at this rate Arisu and Kirara would be fried.

"Hanashiro Mari's still fighting. Along with Arisu. —Kasuou!"

Going to the very back of the deck, Daisuke's entire body glowed in green.

"Fire again, Harukiyo."

Strengthening his entire body, Daisuke kicked the floor.

Kasuou standing on the middle of the deck extended her arm to the rushing Daisuke.

"You'll be in my debt, alright Kakkou?"

"Do as you wish."

In the middle of rushing toward the railing, he grabbed Kasuou's hand, spinning the girl with momentum.

Daisuke revolved while holding Kasuou like a discus thrower.

''Whoosh''—the sound of cutting through air flew above the ship.

The girl flung by Daisuke with superhuman power cut through the night sky, heading directly toward Arisu and Kirara.

"'Cuz I can't hold back."

Harukiyo swung his left hand.

In the far sky, the mist domain expanded by Kasuou captured Arisu and Urara. The claws brought them closer, wrapping them in dense mist.

"Don't dare burn off until you come back!"

The second tiger beetle pierced the black mist.

The flame Mushi drew a large arc in the night sky, catching Kasuou and the rest with its claws on the opposite side of the ship.

The tiger beetle's roar rumbled. Its crimson fangs carried Kasuou and the rest toward the ship. —While protected by Kasuou's mist, the girls looked as if they were riding a wave of flames.

While approaching the ship, the two kinds of abilities, explosive flames and mist, were mingling.

The gap of power between the powers soon appeared. The mist grabbed by the claws was rapidly vanishing. Daisuke could see Kasuou grimace as she approached them.

[[File:Mushi_Uta_Bug_4th_p141.jpg|thumb]]

It wasn't that Kasuou was weak.

Harukiyo was simply too strong.

At this rate it wouldn't just end with Kasuou losing her Mushi and becoming a Fallen; they'd all be reduced to ashes.

Daisuke's body emitted a green glow again.

He leaned his body against the railing.

"Wait, Kakkou! It's too early!"

"She's at her limit."

The ''Amenotori'' momentarily tilted by the force from Daisuke's kick.

Leaping toward the pursuing flames, Daisuke hopped on the mist that protected everyone. Watching over Kasuou expending her power and growing hazy, he drew the large pistol from the holster on his back.

Tentacles swallowed the gun. Heat haze created by frictional heat shimmered inside the muzzle of the gun fused with the checkered beetle.

He thrust the muzzle against the head of the tiger beetle and squeezed the trigger.

Bombardment sounds thundered.

The whirl of flames exploded.

Inside the vanishing explosive flames, the airborne Daisuke used both arms to catch Arisu and Urara, and his mouth to bite on Kasuou's dress.

Below his eyes was the dark sea.

He couldn't reach all the way back to the ''Amenotori''.

"Kirara!"

Daisuke's shout made the girl stumbled on the deck raise her face.

From the girl biting her lips, the claws of the two mantises extended. They caught those about to fall to the sea from both sides.

"Uahhh!"

The girl shouted. Wringing her powers, she pulled Daisuke and the rest to the ship.

But even so just reaching the railing took everything she had.

"Kh!"

Daisuke immediately flung everyone onto the ship. While the three girls were thrown on the deck, he reached for the railing.

''Kch'', a dry sound resounded.

Daisuke's nails scratched the railing.

—His hands couldn't reach.