Mushi:Vol1 Epilogue

Guriko’s Offering

Winter break drew to an end, and the new school term began matter-of-factly as if it was the most sensible thing in the world. However, the girl known as Gankyū Eguriko had disappeared. Her desk was removed over the winter break. Her name, which previously occupied the eleventh spot in the class register, was noticeably absent. Though he already anticipated this fact, Sakaki Guryū still felt sadness the moment he confirmed it on the register.

Gankyū Eguriko had vanished, and he didn't know why.

She disappeared from Sakaki’s life as if her existence was simply a dream. What happened to Guriko? And the Snake? The Mushi? Sakaki could not ascertain what happened with any of those parties. The devastation made by the Dream World Beast had also been restored over the winter break. The only thing Guriko left behind were her feats in Sakaki and Rinne's memories – and two Apples.

Those two Apples must have taken root in Sakaki’s and Rinne’s souls by now! Sakaki’s appetite did fall, and occasionally he spotted people would looking at him with reddish eyes. He apparently still needed to stay cautious for the time being. However, as the Mushi had so far remained docile, Sakaki felt rather calm. He thought that as long as he and Rinne could stay together, living forever wouldn’t be so bad!

Rinne would graduate from high school in two years, and Sakaki resolved to push thoughts of the future out of his mind until then and optimistically live his life. He would enjoy his life as much as possible and treasure his memories of Guriko, until life itself becomes a bore. Guriko must be wishing for the same thing somewhere else in the world!

These thoughts gave him courage.

He was not alone. He had friends such as Guriko — and he also had also Usagawa Rinne.

Rinne had returned to her solitary lifestyle since Guriko’s disappearance. She should have felt lonely, but she avoided pessimism and gave an impression of strength. What about himself? Had he perhaps grown a little tougher too?

Whether she had matured, or not.

Sakaki was glad to have met Guriko whether he had learned from their encounter or not.

Facing his class of students suffering from winter-break-induced brain malfunction, Sakaki Guryū, the homeroom teacher of class 1-B at Kannonsakazaki High School, announced the day’s schedule one winter morning, as well as the schedule for the semester.

This morning was just like any other morning in the past. He had expected never to see an ordinary scene like this ever again, but Guriko’s efforts made it possible. Where was she right now? Was she saving someone else's life somewhere else now?

Sakaki thought about this while absent-mindedly stood at his podium.

“SLAM!” The classroom door was suddenly forced open.

Sakaki was dumbstruck. Rinne was dumbstruck. Obviously, the rest of the class was also dumbstruck. Why couldn’t this particular person appear in a more normal way? She just slammed the door open and didn't even close it behind her. This girl then pompously walked into the room and silently started writing on the board with her messy handwriting:

Transfer Student: True • Gankyū Eguriko

Sakaki was just speechless.

Also, does this lupine girl still not know how to tie her shoelaces? They were messily bundled together.

Her face was hard as a rock, as if she was challenging the world. A mighty aura seemed to rise up from her. However, for some reason, her eyes flickered with a strangely satisfied gleam. This was something the old Guriko lacked. This light within her eyes had now bestowed her irises with humanity.

In a sharp, confident tone, she announced her introduction.

“I am transferring into this class. My name is True • Gankyū Eguriko.”

“Wait a minute!”

Sakaki decided to interrupt her. Guriko, surprised, looked at him.

“What?”

“What do you mean, ‘What’? ...Guriko, what is that ‘True’ about?”

The two of them hid crouched the podium to talk.

The students definitely found this suspicious, but they were kind of already used to it.

“I also considered using ‘New’, but that feels a bit too modest.”

“Are you a Getter Robo or something? This is definitely weird. What kind of world has high school girls with names like that? Why can’t you just call yourself Gankyū Eguriko like you already do? Actually, why are you transferring again? You still have your school documents here, so just come to school like normal!”

“Those documents won't be here anymore!”

Guriko responded bluntly.

“How so?” Sakaki replied.

“I exhausted my Apple’s power in the fight against the Snake. That was inevitable after releasing God’s power. Therefore, my original footprint in the school, which was created from thin air using the Apple’s power, all disappeared together with my fake identification and residential documents. Plus, since I left the other two Apples with you guys, I could only use a new Apple’s power to transfer into the school again.”

“… a new Apple?”

“Yes. Taken from that Snake.”

“I see.” Sakaki understood now. “In the end, you kidnapped that guy away. How pitiable.”

“Pitiable? He reaped what he sowed. Plus, I’m not a cruel person. I never took Snake’s soul. I let him off easy! I didn’t expect him to actually be a physical snake, and he seemed to be using an Apple’s power to turn into human form… Ugh, as long as he doesn’t accidentally get his hands on another Apple again, it should be physically impossible for him to do evil anymore! Oh, and there’s no need to worry about him coming back. I already let him experience first-hand what true terror is. He won’t appear before you again.”

“What did you do to him…?”

“It’s better if you don’t know. But while I was fixing him up, two weeks passed before I noticed the time. I didn’t manage to get back to Rinne’s place until today… Sorry for making you guys worry.”

Guriko actually said this with some amounts of regret.

Two weeks?! What kind of torment did she put him through? Sakaki was curious, but his fear proved to be stronger. He decided that ignorance was better.

Guriko then said shyly. “… Actually, I didn’t want to show myself to you guys again. But I couldn’t resist. It’s pathetic. It has been only two weeks, and I already want to see you so much. It feels like I never want to leave you guys, so let’s continue to live with each other until we get tired of life, Sakaki.”

“Ugh…”

Sakaki couldn’t help but agree, but he still had a few concerns.

“Hey Guriko, if this is how it's going to turn out, can't you keep the name ‘Gankyū Eguriko’? I am making a new class register, and your previous record is gone anyways—”

“But it’s impossible to erase memories. It’s only been a short while, but there should still be some people in the class who remember me, right? It would be way too weird to get two transfer students with exactly the same name. But if I just use the name ‘True • Gankyū Eguriko’, then I can completely dispel their suspicion. They’ll just think I have a similar name, and they’ll move on —”

“Who would accept that? You gave way too strong of an impression! The whole class remembers you!”

“Oh? I made that kind of basic mistake”

“You should seriously put more effort into being less conspicuous!”

Despite his astonishment, Sakaki was still happy just to see Guriko again, so he continued with a smile.

“Then again, we can think about this kind of stuff afterwards. Welcome back, Guriko! Even though I have a lot to say to you, you should still introduce yourself as a transfer student first!”

At this point, Sakaki got up from behind the podium.

Guriko stood up with him, and said stiffly to the dumbstruck students: “I’ll introduce myself again. I’m True • Gankyū Eguriko, but call me Guriko. That being said, it doesn’t matter if you call me True • Gankyū Eguriko. Don’t speak to me if you don’t want to. You might as well not speak to me at all. Just don’t disturb me, and I won’t injure you, so keep that in mind. Mind your own business, and generally avoid talking to me. If you dare to bother me, I’ll gouge out your eyeballs no matter who you are. If you value your eyeballs, then don’t get on my bad side. If you talk too much or you love meddling in other peoples’ business, go die. If you’re nosy about others’ business, you can go die too. That’s it.”

Being an apparent repetition of the previous introduction, her introduction was completed all in one breath. Guriko and made eye contact with Rinne, who showed a gentle expression that seemed to say: “You’re really hopeless, aren’t you, Guriko?”

…It’s not like this, is it? You can’t drift away from everyone else like this. I believe everyone would like very much to talk to you, and don’t you want to talk to everyone else too, Guriko? Rinne had already said this to Guriko before.

Guriko remembered these words. For a while, it was hard to recognize her facial expression, but she soon looked like she made up her mind.

“… I originally wanted to say something like that …”

Guriko suddenly lowered her head. All of her powerful aura seemed to have disappeared.

“But that would ruin the mood, wouldn’t it? I don’t really like the changed atmosphere either, so — ah, what should I say —”

She seemed unable to find the right words to say. The class’s anticipation did not cease. Rinne’s face showed an encouraging expression to Guriko, and Sakaki also looked gently Guriko, who was about to take a bold new step.

Soon, Guriko bowed, and softly said, “— basically, pleased to meet you…”

— At that moment, thunderous applause echoed throughout the classroom.

Guriko’s face was full with surprise.

— You see, if only she opened her heart, everyone else would also be kind to her. That is the beauty of humanity. Humans live their lives helping each other, loving each other.

The girl who died a thousand years ago had wandered for a millennium, and finally found people important to her and a wonderful place in the world. She shouldn’t say ‘it’d be fine as long as I'm the only unfortunate one’. Guriko was not unfortunate. She had finally found happiness.

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