Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 9 Chapter 4 (section)

== 4.07 The Others ==
On the topmost floor of the Akasegawa Offices, Munakata Kaiji looked down on the city’s nightscape.

“…”

The wheelchaired Munakata saw that one of the lights in the jewel box-like city vanished.

One after another, lights from buildings that could be seen from afar were gone.

Another.

And another one.

The townscape he was gazing calmly at was slowly losing its lights.

As if the city was a living being and the blood circulating through its body was stopped—

“…”

Even seeing that happen, Munakata felt nothing.

Never mind regret, he couldn’t even feel sadness or guilt.

That building, that structure and all the lights vanishing like that were all under the ownership of the Akasegawa Foundation. Even now Munakata’s subordinates were buying them all at once using forceful methods.

This was—the beginning.

First he would sell off all of the Akasegawa Foundation’s personal assets.

He would also release all assets the Akasegawa Group had all over the country.

Once that was over, Munakata would start releasing his own property. It wouldn’t measure up to the assets of the entire Foundation, but businesses under Munakata’s patronage were also widespread.

He would convert the entirety of the Akasegawa Foundation and his own funds to cash.

Finally, after all that—Munakata would reach the amount of money he’d bid on the auction.

In this country there was no other person or organization that could prepare so much money. It was probably the same globally as well.

Therefore, Munakata’s victory was settled once he made that last bid.

No one could reach it.

No could touch it.

He prepared that much money.

“I wonder what’ll happen to this country…”

Munakata mumbled emotionlessly.

He could easily imagine what would happen.

The sum created by bringing together the full assets of the Akasegawa Foundation and Munakata Kaiji was preposterous. That money was all going to vanish overnight. This country’s economy would be in tumult, and other investors from countries would immediately leap onto them.

This capitalist country’s economics would be monopolized by foreigners.

The bloodless revolution of other countries would begin.

This night, this country was going to fully transform.

Paradigm Shift—

Will this country, with its fatal problem of Mushi, be able to withstand such a large wave of change?

Munakata lost interest in even that.

“Both before and now… since even dreaming about the future seems nostalgic to me, it has nothing to do with me.”

Munakata decided to throw away the future.

This wasn’t due to his illness. He was not going to make any excuses for that.

To obtain Alpha, he would abandon his own future.

That was his resolve.

Even if this result turned the entire world against him, he would no longer hesitate.

“Tonight I will kill this country. —Whether it would return to life or not depends on humans from now on.”

The Paradigm Shift would change the very shape of this world.

It would destroy anything and everything that existed in that era.

Would they be able to revive during the change of generations or would they grow weaker, unable to overcome yet another violent change? That was what the people would need to choose.

“…?”

There was a change in the nightscape heading to ruin.

While many lights were turning off, just one place was rekindled anew.

Akasegawa Foundation’s composite school facility—MOCC.

Munakata raised an eyebrow.

That place was not supposed to have received any electricity. Since they were about to bring the staff in that summer the installation had been completed, but it still hadn’t undergone operational testing.

Was today that test, then?

He gazed at the brilliant MOCC which was glowing as though it was the last bastion of this dying city.

After watching it for a while, he could hear several footsteps approaching in this topmost floor corridor.

Munakata turned to look.

Two women were approaching him.

One was a slender woman in suit hugging a teddy bear. He didn’t know her name, but apparently that stuffed animal was called Coccinella Septempunctata.

And the other petite individual was a teenage girl. Dressed in a dirty dress, she held a walking stick in the shape of an upside-down J.

“…”

Munakata calmly gazed at the girl making an elegant curtsey.

''Tap, tap—

The girl tapped her stick on the window with a smile.

Munakata looked there.

He could only see there the dying townscape even now.

The girl started spinning her stick as if pantomiming. Walking around aimlessly with a theatrical manner, suddenly turning toward the window—

''Tap.

She pounded her stick against the window.

“—”

Munakata widened his eyes.

Just as the girl’s stick pointed toward a building, its lights returned.

As if it was being revived from the dead.

Just like—magic.

“Yahah.”

The girl laughed foolishly, spinning her stick again.

''Tap.

Her stick hit the window.

Once again, the lights returned to another building.

''Tap.

Another tap.

The city was coming back to life.

Every time she waved her magic staff, she revived part of the city.

This girl was much like a magician from a fairytale.

Munakata already stopped looking at where the stick pointed.

“…Did I lose?”

Munakata knew exactly what happened.

As he closed an eye, the secretary’s mechanical tone pressed with a question.

“Acting Chairman Munakata. Have you any explanation regarding the selling of Akasegawa Group assets you have done on your own?”

“How quick. Truly quick. So have you gathered the executives…? Meaning you had an ‘insurance’.”

He’d noticed that the secretary was wary against him.

But he was confident he would win.

No matter what Munakata did, the executives would do nothing without an absolute ruler above them. He was convinced of this, and without the substitute ruler called Munakata, they would probably just restlessly observe what happened until everything was over.

That was why Munakata wanted to erase that very position.

The gun-wielding men and the fact the secretary had the card that would draw Christy to her location—he’d set up two traps at once.

No, considering the fact that Munakata had himself broken her, it was three traps.

Yet that girl managed to overcome all of it.

“I have none.”

“Then, Munakata Kaiji. I hereby dismiss you from your role as Acting Chairman. And as for the new Chairman—“

The secretary turned beside her.

There was the young magician waving her wand at town.

The cane dancing in air as though a conductor’s baton retrieved the city’s form as a jewel box.

“Due to the reinstatement of Akasegawa Nanana, her frozen assets will be released.”

There was the sound of something dragging on the ground.

A shabby figure appeared in the darkness at the topmost floor corridor ahead.

The auctioneer clad in a worn-out suit stepped in front of Munakata.

None there even turned to look at Sotheby.

“Just now, the other bidder has announced their folding.”

“…”

“Congratulations! Munakata-sama, you have won the bid on Alpha!”

The victory declaration of Sotheby vainly echoed in the corridor.

Munakata smiled, staring outside the window.

“Akasegawa Nanana. So you were the third bidder.”

“That’s wrong.”

While cheerfully waving her cane, Nanana instantly answered.

“Oh?”

In the end, Munakata did not found out who it was.

Not only him. There was no doubt that no people could have foreseen that bidder. The secretary and the Foundation members as well had been toyed with by that person. He was certain that Nanana falling off the race would end everything, but the appearance of another bidder collapsed his schemes.

The Akasegawa Foundation could not escape the auction.

If he had to win no matter what—rather than Munakata’s bid, there would be less victims with Nanana’s one. Including the secretary, everyone related to the Foundation would probably value it like that.

“The bidder was far beyond either you or I… a coward who was all talk. If you knew the bidder’s identity, you’d surely be disappointed. Yahah.”

While laughing, Nanana narrowed one eyes.

“Even so, he was much more valuable than me or you.”

“…”

“I simply bought my bidding rights from him.”

Munakata sighed. Along with his sigh he felt as if something that was caught inside him left.

“Just… what was I?”

He really thought it dubious.

What sort of being was he?

He’d lost his past—Tachibana Rina, lost his present—Mushibane, and even had the resolve to throw away his future; but it just wasn’t enough.

“She was my one and only comrade. I was unable to protect her, but I kept loving her even after her passing, so I wanted to monopolize the act of following her footsteps.”

“…”

“But—I couldn’t. Did I have any value?”

“’Swans create destiny’.”

“…?”

“’The duckies are merely involved in the flow created by their passing, leaving them flustered.’”

She was probably quoting someone. Nanana’s tone was embedded with strong emotions, but her eyes staring to the distance were calm.

Munakata’s expression crumbled. Being flustered was an apt description.

“I see. In the end I was a mere duck. —Being swept up in her flow was… very enjoyable. I do believe that.”

He never thought of creating his own flow. He never thought of changing the flow.

Simply getting tossed around by the flow created by that person was enjoyable. Even the suffering brought by that white swan made him happier than anything else. 

“Are you a swan, Akasegawa Nanana?”

“Some people told me that. I don’t really know myself, though.”

Nanana’s sight was turned directly ahead. A completely different person from when she folded her knees in despair at the Akasegawa Offices, her gaze became fiercer.

“At the very least, I no longer plan on looking back.”

“…”

“Alpha—I will obtain them to move forward.”

“…I see.”

The compensation for nearly causing the Paradigm Shift was large.

Although Akasegawa Nanana promptly restored the flow, the sudden movement of large amounts of money would create chaos in the business world.

Shockwaves would beget shockwaves, and the entire country would fall into an economic state of unrest.

However, for people like that girl—the swans that only looked ahead—perhaps even such a change would not cause them to look back.

Thinking this, he didn’t even feel bitter.

Perhaps now that true Paradigm Shift would occur.

He decided to let the next generation to face the future—

Perhaps he had some value as a springing board for that purpose.

“I’ll abandon the payment. After all, all of my money already fell from between my hands.”

Munakata turned to Sotheby and declared this.

The strange auctioneer shook. He raised an angry voice toward the heavens.

“This is breach of contract! The shameless violator must be punished! Christy!”

The evening dress woman did not appear.

There was only an ominous silence.

“Christy? Christy…!”

Sotheby was shaken, keeping on calling the darkness-clad lady.

Munakata, Nanana and the secretary sent cold gazes at him.

“Chris—”

“Akasegawa Nanana, you will decide. I will accept any punishment you bestow on me.”

“Withdraw, Munakata Kaiji.”

The girl who’d lost her subordinate Pochi looked down on Munakata with a strong gaze.

“We will watch everything to the end—you at the hospital, and I with the rest of the Mushitsuki. That is the punishment I bestow on you.”

Nanana’s words served as proof she changed.

“However, before that, Shiika’s going to scold you hard.”

“That will be… quite unpleasant.”

Shiika would probably be mad at him. Also—she would probably tell him to fight again with them. But he couldn’t reply to that. It was a much better punishment to him than being executed.

“Sotheby.”

Nanana turned back to the auctioneer.

“What you need to do here is just reach a decision.”

The magician girl narrowed one eyes, spinning her stick.

“Will you revive the authority for the other bidder to win through the previous bid? Will you go looking for new bidders? —If you think there are any other suitable bidders other than us three, then you can go right away.”

Surrounded by cold gazes, Sotheby groaned.

The girl who was the incarnation of money dropped out, while the man who lived for love remained.

The man competed against his unknown opponent.

And that opponent—that undoubtedly brave person, left his hopes to the magician girl.

And the man lost.

Where there any people with enough resolve to match these three in the entire country?

The answer was obvious.

“C…congratulations! Akasegawa Nanana-sama, you have won the bid on Alpha!”

Sotheby’s declaration closed the book on the auction revolving around Alpha.

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==Notes==
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