Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 9 Chapter 4 (section)

== 4.06 Shiika Part 4 ==
The center of MOCC.

The shrine lost its original shape, becoming a mountain of rubble made from concrete, iron and stainless steel.

Darkness filled the surroundings and a beauty was floating in the sky where no light could reach.

'' “Laaaaaaaa—“

Christy’s singing voice reverberated in the deathly quiet space. With her dress fluttering as she floated, the beauty opened her black-painted mouth wide and sang. The feathered cap hiding half of her face was being blown about violently despite there being no wind.

On the surface all signs of life were gone and nothing was moving.

At the zenith of the rubble floated countless arms. The dozens of arms produced from darkness coagulated, forming a round objet d'art.

Silence.

And a song.

In front of the shrine wrapped in death, a single flake of snow fell.

“Break…”

Christy raised a singing voice, attacking the snow with feathers made of darkness.

But the snow bringing faint glow repelled these fathers.

Snow danced on the surface, touching the masses of dark arms.

At that moment.

“More…”

The countless arms burst and were erased.

Released from the arms of darkness which were Christy’s ability, Shiika glared at her from the top of the rubble.

The firefly held aloft in her hands glowed brightly.

“More…!”

One flake and another tore through the sky painted in black, and faintly-glowing snow began to fall.

The whirl of destruction swallowed Christy. Distorting the darkness filling up the night sky, breaking it, blowing it away. The snow soon became a blizzard, reaping through the veil of death dominating the shrine.

'' “Laaaaaa—”

Tearing through the darkness, even the light itself was distorted, and everything in line of sight was being destroyed.

Flake after flake created a sphere of certain destruction. Perception distorted due to wavelengths beyond visible range, a loud sound beyond audible range, the soundless, silent destruction was wreaking havoc through MOCC. Even its host Shiika lost her sense of balance, now unaware if she was still in a world ruled by physical laws.

Other than the pale glowing snow, this space had nothing in it.

Even the darkness of death nullified, a world where the perfect destruction was silent.

The blizzard that allowed nothing to exist did not continue for long.

“Hah… hah…”

Light returned, darkness returned, and the distorted vision of MOCC returned.

Shiika stumbled in place.

Something important was leaking from her heart. Important feelings and emotions that she accumulated so far started falling as if there was a hole in her heart—

“Hah… hah…”

Shiika absently raised her deathly pale face.

She couldn’t see the figure of Christy in the night sky that retrieved all starlight. She looked around her with dull movements.

The next moment—

'' “Laaaaaa—”

As if she was crying.

As if she was shouting.

Christy’s song echoed around.

The sky Shiika was looking up to was being swallowed by darkness by the second.

The white-faced Christy once again floated in the sky dyed in black.

“Kh—”

Shiika bit her lips to barely hold on to her consciousness.

Again.

Shiika’s ability was powerful, and she knew that nothing could win against it in a direct clash. When Shiika made snow fall, Christy changed her tactics to retreat.

And when Shiika softened her attacks, she began the counterattack.

“Ugh…”

Seeing countless feathers flutter down from the sky, Shiika made snow fall.

However, it was definite that the power and breadth of her ability was diminishing. Blocking the rain of feathers took everything she had.

'' “Laaaaalaaaaa—”

How many hours passed since she started the fight against Christy?

Even Shiika realized what her enemy’s ability was.

Darkness—or perhaps it was “night”.

The beauty in the evening dress could freely control the night’s darkness. She could coagulate it to form feathers or arms, or simply move through darkness as if swimming in the ocean.

Christy’s range could be said to be infinite. During nighttime the darkness existed in everything, so she could go anywhere, and could produce as many feathers and arms as weapons as needed.

On the other hand, Shiika’s ability was confined to a certain range.

No matter how much of an unmatched and powerful ability she possessed, if her opponent took refuge in a place the snow couldn’t reach, she couldn’t do anything.

“—”

The recoil of using her ability made her consciousness fuzzy. About to fall over, she gasped and held her head.

But this moment of carelessness made Shiika lose sight of Christy. In the sky wrapped in darkness, she couldn’t see that white face anywhere.

“Eek—”

As she felt a chill and looked down, she almost raised a scream.

The beauty in the dress was clinging to Shiika’s legs. Extending that pale arm from leg to waist, from waist to shoulders, she climbed up Shiika’s body.

“…!”

In what could be called a gentle manner, Christy’s arm reached Shiika’s neck. In a distance of their lips nearly touching, the eyes made with pitch-black eyeline gazed directly at Shiika’s.

Shiika immediately tried shaking Christy off, but froze.

MOCC—was being eaten.

It was possibly the larva of a poisonous moth. The darkness was transforming to a swarm of these grotesque larvae. But those Mushi’s bodies were covered not only in hairs, but also in the plumage of a bird.

'' “Laaaaaa—”

Christy’s enchanting eyes and her affectionate embrace encroached on Shiika’s heart.

Powerful Special Type Mushi could create different worlds enclosed from reality—who had she heard this from? Just like the Church of Shinpu, the one who gave birth to them, they could cut off space from the outside world and drag someone inside—

Enchanted by the beauty’s hug, Shiika was losing her rationality.

Being eaten by the moth larvae, the surroundings turned completely to darkness.

'' “Laaa…”

As Shiika’s pupils lost light and she just stood there, Christy softly separated from her. She lovingly caressed Shiika’s cheeks with her cold fingertips, distancing from her as if in a dance.

“—”

As Shiika stood frozen, her body was being eaten by the darkness Mushi.

Being eaten by the dark from head to toe, before long Shiika herself became one with it—

She couldn’t see anything or hear anything.

She couldn’t touch anything.

This world without any of the five senses lacked even pain, and she was left pacified.

It felt as though only her heart was fluttering in this pitch black.

Shiika’s heart accompanied by light was also embraced by the darkness.

''I hope Nanana and the rest managed to escape safely—

This world, where she was absolved from all pains, was pleasant.

Here there was no fear of her dream being eaten by her Mushi or being targeted by the SEPB. Not even the sadness of losing those important to her like Rina. Nor the pressure of carrying the destiny of all of Mushibane on her back.

Thinking about it, why did Kakkou come to the lake—

Shiika, having turned into a heart purer than being naked, thought of something inconsequential.

A world without fear, sadness or hatred.

Shiika was calmly sinking inside this world that had no need of fighting.

''I wonder if Alpha’s also at a place like this—

The primal Mushitsuki, Alpha.

He? Or perhaps it was a she.

It was fun thinking about that Mushitsuki.

What did they dream about to become a Mushitsuki?

What happened that ended up with them being locked even now?

What dream did the Mushitsuki called Alpha possess?

What kind of dream started everything?

The darkness was shaving off Shiika’s heart.

Light was dulling and weakening.

“Christy-san—”

Shiika moved her mouth.

She no longer had a mouth or a voice to speak with. However, Shiika’s heart spoke a simple question to the darkness.

“What is your dream?”

The darkness made no reply.

“Why—did you sell Alpha?”

Perhaps she couldn’t hear the answer.

No, Shiika knew that the dress beauty would answer nothing.

“Or are you just following Sotheby’s orders?”

She always thought it strange.

Despite both of them being Mushitsuki.

Despite both of them having started because of some important dream.

Why did they turn Alpha the Mushitsuki into an item for sale?

“I am—”

She heard a weak voice.

No, she didn’t actually hear it. Shiika didn’t even know if that was actually a voice.

“I just need to keep existing the way he wishes me to…”

Shiika smiled.

She knew it. Christy was a Mushitsuki too.

Not a monster or anything like that.

Living by what’s important to her and existing for that sake—

“Have you also seen the moment that Mushi were born?”

Shiika inquired.

“What actually happened during the Paradigm Shift?”

In this situation where both body and mind were being eaten, how could she stay calm—

She realized that Christy was shaken. Shiika had the feeling that the darkness encroaching on her heart fluctuated ever so slightly.

“No one can touch Alpha…”

Shiika’s body was already lost, but the weak voice definitely came from “behind” her. The presence of Christy’s heart approached Shiika timidly.

It was as strange sensation. Although she had no body, Shiika felt as if she was sitting back-to-back with the woman called Christy and having a conversation with her.

“Why?”

“…”

“I want to talk to Alpha…”

“His crib is soon to break down… if so, then this world will be cursed…”

“Cursed?”

“I was… so happy, and yet…”

“…”

“Even if I fell to the role of a mere ‘lookout’… as long as I was with him… I did not feel either lonely or pitiful, and yet…”

Christy’s voice, with whom she was talking from a distance they could but couldn’t touch, sounded much younger than her appearance indicated. She was talking to Shiika, but didn’t seem to answer her question.

Was it because the both of their spirits became bare? The pain that permeated Christy’s heart pierced Shiika’s heart as well. As if dropped into deep water, she almost drowned in pain, suffering, and finally love for a certain someone that was many times larger than that. 

“Please… stop this…”

She gasped for breath in the ocean of fierce emotions.

“Please… I beg you, stop doing this sort of…”

Shiika entreated her.

What she felt from Christy’s heart in the darkness was the complete opposite feeling from what she’d felt from Sotheby.

“I don’t need anything… Alpha’s hatred will destroy this world anyhow…”

She didn’t need anything—

Christy had no need for either money or position.

“But… he said it…”

It was simply that, more than loving someone—she hungered to be loved.

“That he will allow me to, once again—wear a beautiful dress…”

The darkness encroaching Shiika’s heart strengthened.

“Christy-san…”

Shiika bit her nonexistent lips.

“I want to keep going ahead… will you not come with me?”

That was Shiika’s final question toward Christy.

“Our time, of me and him, that time before the Paradigm Shift—stayed frozen…”

The invisible beauty whispered.

“If he wishes to go back to that time… I only wish for that as well…”

“…I see.”

She had vowed to not take any unnecessary fights.

She thought she could simply run away from fights as much as she wanted to. She thought that if she could throw away pride, will and hatred, if she could sever those chains, then she’d be able to run away no matter how hurt she was.

However—there were fights one simply couldn’t run away from.

One couldn’t escape the clashes between two dreams.

Why was that?

Once, Shiika had her Mushi killed by Kakkou, who possessed the same dream.

Kakkou also fought against Tachibana Rina who held the same dream as well.

If their situations were different, they could have all walked together, and yet—why were there fights you couldn’t run from in this world?

Shiika found that unbearable.

Because of that—

“…I’m sorry.”

After losing her body and having the outer surface of her heart shaved bare, only her very last pieces of heart remained.

The light that was almost eaten whole by the darkness transformed.

A small light lit up inside the darkness.

Shiika’s heart changed form—to a lone firefly.

The darkness cracked.

The snow born around the firefly was breaking through the domain controlled by the Mushi of darkness.

'' “Laaaa—”

She could hear Christy’s scream.

Enclosing Shiika also meant coagulating her ability near Shiika. The snow created by the firefly broke the space that controlled Shiika.

'' “Laaaa!”

Standing on top of the wreckage, Shiika held up her firefly in both hands.

The nearby Christy screeched. She tried escaping the darkness being destroyed by the raging snow by floating to air.

But Shiika’s snow wouldn’t let her. Christy’s darkness—her poisonous moth larvae were already captured in the range of Shiika’s snow.

'' “Laaaaaaa!”

The snow containing Shiika’s full power crushed the darkness defending Christy.

The world with nothing but darkness had been so tranquil.

The relief of not needing to get hurt anymore—no need to fight any longer. How easy would it be to just fall asleep?

However—the stillness was not full.

There wasn’t enough tranquility.

Shiika’s heart had been eroded that much.

She could no longer be filled with comfort—so she could only keep fighting to the very end.

Until, one day…

She would find the place that she belonged to—

'' “Laaaaa—”

Christy stopped trying to escape. She hugged her own body, showing an expression unlike what she’d had until now.

Immediately after that, dark-colored feathers were produced around the beauty. Unlike those she’d created in her range, she kept flying them in a circular motion as if to protect her.

She probably judged it impossible to run from the blizzard. She created extremely thick darkness around the space where she was floating. The circular wings cancelled the snow, and she created further feathers.

'' “Laaaaaa—”

“—”

Shiika and Christy.

A test of endurance between snow and darkness began.

[[File:Mushi Uta 9 p401.jpg|thumb]]

Pushed by the blowing blizzard, the feathers protecting Christy were violently eradicated one by one.

And—

“—Hah…! Hah…!”

Grimacing, Shiika collapsed on the spot. She put her hand to the cracked asphalt.

While taking ragged breaths, she raised her sweat-drenched face.

'' “Laaa—”

The beauty in evening dress who lost her wings was floating in air.

As Shiika gazed up, she could see small, black objects drifting down from the starry sky.

These were dark-colored feathers.

'' “Laaaaaaaaa—”

As Christy sang in a shrill voice, she created more and more dark feathers.

On the other hand, the blizzard brought by Shiika was about to have its last flake fall on the ground.

Another step.

And another.

With such a small distance between them, Shiika’s energy reached its limits.

“—”

She vaguely gazed up at Christy melting with the surrounding darkness and retrieving her power.

Shiika wanted to face the future, but Christy who desired the past stood in her way.

Was Shiika not enough?

Were her own legs not sufficient to be walking ahead—

As Shiika scowled in pain, her profile was suddenly lit up.

“Eh…?”

Shiika stood in place, but from front, rear and all possible directions a bright light started illuminating her.

The buildings lined up in MOCC all lit up. One after another, the lights installed in all the premises were turned on.

The ruined shrine started glowing dazzlingly.

'' “Laaaaaa—”

Almost having retrieved her full powers, Christy raised a soprano scream. Engulfed by the blinding lights, the darkness around that she fused with was ripped and dispersed.

“Charge!”

The cry heard in front of the shrine was of a familiar voice.

A common albatross butterfly burning with a pale fire clashed against the darkness covering Christy.

“Namie-san…!”

Leading the Mushitsuki who appeared one after another was Namie.

Furthermore—

'' “Laaaaaa!”

A white flash of light shot through Christy’s newly produced feathers.

“Aijisupa-san—”

Tears rose to Shiika’s eyes.

The boy who’d served to stop Christy back at the Akasegawa Offices was shooting high-pressure steam into the sky. —This illumination was probably also his idea. There was no doubt that he’d seen through Christy’s ability after fighting her once. Since her medium was darkness, light would serve as her cage.

Shiika’s rapidly exhausted heart recovered a little of its power.

The firefly about to lose its light wore a pale glow again.

Seeing all those who fought along with her, Shiika thought.

No matter how hurt she was—

Even if she became Fallen—

As long as she could meet those who’d walked along with her, she’d return as many times as it’d take—

'' “Laaaaaa!”

Christy probably realized she was now in an inferior position. Her dress flapping, she suddenly rose up.

Escaping to the high skies where the light wouldn’t reach, she intended on wearing the darkness again.

Shiika’s firefly emitted a warm glow.

'' “Laaaa—”

Even while being hit by Mushibane’s attacks, Christy tried running away from the battlefield. With her dress scorched and her feathered cap blown through, she flew directly toward the full moon.

But above Christy there was a single falling shining star.

No, it wasn’t a star.

It was a flake of snow glowing in pale light.

'' “Laaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

Christy widened her eyes painted in the color of darkness.

The snow fell on the beauty’s evening dress—the beautiful dress that was so far untouched, protected by the darkness.

Christy’s body bent and started losing speed.

The snow’s light encroached the dress after touching it. Even the darkness remaining around Christy was wrapped up in the glow, dispersing as if bursting from within.

“—-samaaaaaaaaa!!!”

This was probably someone’s name. For the first time she screamed words that had meaning.

While the darkness covering her was blown off, the beauty fell to the surface.

And—

“…”

Aijisupa produced a cushion of steam, catching Christy.

Seeing her, Shiika bit her lips.

Christy lost all of her ability. A streak of tears was on the lady’s cheeks. Whether it became like this due to Shiika’s abilities or if it was her true appearance—her evening dress and hat were torn and decayed and the dark-color smudged on her eyes and lips the makeup was also gone. The lower part of her body hidden by the dress had two doll-like prosthetic legs.

“I’m sorry… we are—going to go get Alpha.”

Shiika declared toward the woman who was now a silent Fallen.

Something landed at her feet.

From the chest of her dress fell a member card with no number on it.