Mushi Uta:Volume 14

Novel Illustrations

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  Cover

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  Color Page 1

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  Color Page 2

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  Color Page 3

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  Page 33

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  Page 47

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  Page 74

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  Page 144

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  Page 154

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  Page 212

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  Page 247

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  Page 327

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  Page 349

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  Page 357

Prologue: 0.00 Shiika The Last

Shedding blood from her brow, Anmoto Shiika wore a smile.

She knew it would end like this.

She was fully aware that once all of the fights were over—they’d lower the curtains in this manner.

Anmoto Shiika was so small, yet held such vast power. It all started in a situation much like this—and she knew this would reach the exact same conclusion in the end.

“—So this makes us the only survivors.”

The boy facing against Shiika muttered this calmly.

His face was smeared with blood and his legs shook with fatigue, yet his right hand unerringly grasped a large automatic pistol and aimed it at Shiika.

He was covered in so much wounds it was a wonder he was alive.

Upon seeing him, what Shiika felt—was relief.

It was finally going to be over.

How many battles had he survived this far?

How many enemies had he defeated, and how many wounds had he accumulated?

Shiika herself was also the exact same.

And yet, even these painful, long days of battle—would finally end here.

“Right.”

As Shiika grinned at him, a white shadow rose next to her.

It was the Mushi holding Shiika’s dream within it.

Another Mushi landed atop of the boy’s held gun. It transformed and fused with the pistol in a split second.

“It’s finally over… I can finally put an end to this—”

The boy’s face, wet with fresh blood, twisted. He looked to be smiling.

Hearing how his wrung-out voice was tired, tears rose to Shiika’s eyes.

“Yup, finally…”

These two smiling Mushitsuki were watched over by the destroyed townscape and the piles of broken high-rise buildings. The city’s lights illuminated both of them, yet there were no cars or people around.

This scenery looked like some illusion, but it was neither a vision nor a dream.

What one arrived at the end of a long dream—was cold, hard reality.

“I—we came all the way here…”

“We almost gave up many times, but managed to get here…”

Above the boy’s head, a glowing snowflake appeared.

It fluttered down slowly, approaching the gun held by him.

The girl and boy stared at each other.

This silence, that was as though only the two of them existed in this world—was torn by loud gunfire.

The gun held by the boy spouted fire and the unleashed bullet pierced through Shiika’s Mushi.

“—!”

Grimacing, Shiika bent back. Her Mushi was blown to smithereens, became fragments of light and scattered.

She felt a sharp pain and an uncontrollable sense of emptiness.

However, there was also—happiness.

As Shiika was assaulted by these two conflicting emotions, her eardrums were shaken by a disharmonious, ear-grating cacophony.

The boy’s gun, touched by the snowflake, was crushed by some invisible force and broke down.

Death throes of the two vanishing Mushi echoed in the destroyed city.

This cry that felt like it would constrict her chest was the scream grieving for a dream that would never come true—

And it was also the voice singing of a small dream that was never going to give up.

“—”

The boy grimaced and dropped to his knees.

As the two Mushi were annihilated, their Mushitsuki collapsed to the ground.

“…!”

Shiika and the boy reached out to one another.

Their fingertips touched.

The last time their fingers touched was just a few months prior.

Even so, it felt nostalgic—and warm.

The boy surely felt the same as Shiika. She could tell from his smile.

When they could finally feel each other’s warmth, their eyes started to rapidly lost their light—

And then it vanished completely.

Their fingers still intertwined, the two fell to the ground simultaneously.

While Shiika felt herself being wrapped with relief and a sensation of loss, memories and feelings surged forward as a wave in her mind.

An omen of having her Mushi killed and becoming the living corpse called a Fallen.

Her life flashed before her eyes with these death throes of her dream.

“…”

Her rushing memories made her recall everything that led to this stage.

Why was this sort of conclusion reached?

Why had she—chosen this conclusion?

With that memory, Shiika fully lost her consciousness.

Shiika and the boy who held the same dream.

They both became Fallen of their own will, and put an end to it all.

This was…

The final destination that the two Mushitsuki chose for their dream.

1.00 The Others

“Big brother.”

Hearing this small voice, Taiki opened his eyes.

As he opened his heavy lids and tilted his head, he saw his little sister Ririe peeking through the door. She had her hair in twintails and wore her middle school uniform.

“Mom says you need to hurry up and eat breakfast.”

After saying this, Ririe closed the door. He could hear her going down the stairs.

“Nngh…”

Rising from the bed, he groaned with his eyes still closed.

“—That weird dream again…”

He saw a bizarre dream.

He saw this same dream a lot lately.

No; to be more precise, the dreams themselves were different, but those that appeared in them went through the same things—

“…Ngh.”

He tried recalling his dream, but nearly fell asleep again. Taiki forced his eyes open again and exited his room with a sluggish gait. As he came down the stairs, his mom turned to him.

“Finally awake? Now, eat your breakfast already. You’re the only one left, Taiki.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Taiki, please remember to wake up on your own already.”

His father was glaring at him while putting on his suit. He worked in a management position at some company.

“Ah, you’re finally awake, big brother.”

Appearing from the corridor was the middle sister, Noa. Their father turned to her, his eyes narrowed.

“Noa, how many times do I need to tell you… tie your hair or cut it. It’s too long.”

“…Yes, dad.”

Watching from the side of his eye Noa obediently tying her hair with an elastic band, Taiki scooped up the miso soup on the table into his mouth.

It was a sight he was used to seeing every morning in his household.

His strait-laced dad would get dressed just on time while his methodical mother would take care of everyone’s preparations to leave for work or school. Taiki, the completely normal high-schooler in his second year, would oversleep, Noa who was one year his junior would get just about half-dressed, and middle-schooler Ririe would finish getting dressed perfectly.

Taiki’s family included five souls; two parents, then a boy and two girls.

Their family was just as always, but Taiki felt something was odd today.

“…”

It wasn’t Ririe, who was sitting on the sofa in the living room and watching TV. Everything about her, starting from her slender limbs to her hair tied into two pigtails, was the usual. She was meek, but she was a difficult little sister who often acted on her own, all the while wearing a composed face.

He was rather more interested in his other sister, Noa. She wore her school’s uniform properly and her conduct was fine. She supposedly had decent grades in both studies and athletics, but she apparently chose to live her life in school without standing out, not even entering any club. She released the hair she tied just now and was wondering whether to make it into a braid. That was the extent of her sense of fashion.

“Noa… did you grow taller?”

“Eh?”

She turned to him, her face in complete shock. Taiki got flustered without thinking.

“Ah, no, I mean… I guess it just felt this way?”

“What is this all of a sudden, big brother?”

Both Taiki and Noa tilted their heads.

“Ririe, please lower the volume a bit.”

Warned by her father, Ririe operated the remote control.

Shown on the screen was a scenery removed from normal life.

A swarm of armored military vehicles were blocking some roadway.

Residents were standing in front of the inoperative train station and the press corps were interviewing them.

A townscape full of tall buildings was filmed by aerial photography—

“…”

Taiki’s entire family went silent. They felt how tense things were even through the TV.

“—Unbelievable…”

His father sighed, sounding annoyed. His mother frowned in worry.

“It’s just horrible, what’s going on in Akamaki City. We’re fine since we’re far, but…”

“What’s the government thinking about, not even telling the citizens what’s going on?”

Akamaki City, the capital where the country’s central functions were gathered.

Just the other day, the residents had been issued orders to evacuate. As they were forced to evacuate just like that, and possibly because all news were suppressed, even the mass media was unable to pass along accurate information.

Since even the country’s functions were at risk, the TV obviously constantly focused on news programs. They reported about the state of the evacuees and the interest starting to gather from the international community.

In actual fact, Akamaki City and surrounding cities were in chaos.

But as Taiki’s region was far from it, they couldn’t stop schools or business. Just like always, most students went to school and most working adults went to work.

“It’s not Akamaki City, but is the neighboring Ouka City fine, dear?”

“What about Ouka City?”

“Isn’t he over there? You know, your sister’s kid. Kusuriya—”

“We’ve cut off ties. I don’t care about her kid.”

“But… it’s your nephew.”

Ririe twitched in her place and their father turned to her.

The reception was probably bad. For a split second, the footage showing the aerial photography of Akamaki City from the live broadcast camera was disarrayed. Static that lasted just a second shook the screen.

“—”

Both parents looked at each other wordlessly—and, perhaps not wanting to get into a fruitless topic, they both closed their mouths.

Taiki was quite a bit shocked. It was the first time he heard about his dad having a sister. And her having a kid meant that he’d be his cousin.

While seeing off their parents that headed to the front door as if nothing happened, Taiki asked Noa.

“Hey, Noa. Did you know we have a cousin?”

“Eh?”

Noa turned to him, surprised. For a moment she thought seriously—then shook her head.

“Nope, I didn’t know anything about it.”

“Right.”

Just in case he also looked to Ririe, but the girl shook her head to the sides.

The existence of a cousin—

While still pondering this small question, Taiki finished preparing for school and headed out.

His path to school, going along the national road, seemed quieter than usual to him. Even the cars running through it and the numbers of passersby were less than yesterday.

Taiki’s high school had a high deviation score in the area, with its alumni having high acceptance rates for university. The uniform blazer was quite popular too. Last year, Taiki—and his little sister Noa this year—managed to just barely squeeze through the fierce competition and get admitted to this popular school.

Even the school gate that was usually drowned in these blazers now almost looked empty.

The damage caused by the disaster striking Akamaki City did not reach all the way to Taiki’s region. However, it seemed like the anxiety and sense of danger definitely spread through the entire country.

Taiki was able to experience that by entering his classroom.

“Yo.”

The number of classmates that turned around to respond to Taiki’s greeting were about half their number yesterday.

“Heya, Taiki.”

“G’morning!”

“Oh, Taiki-kun’s here…”

About half the seats were empty.

A tall boy spoke to Taiki while putting an arm on his shoulder.

“Surprised? Everyone’s gotten scared of what’s going on in Akamaki and shut themselves home.”

“This isn’t an issue of being scared, is it?”

Taiki wore a wry smile and put his bag on his seat. Another friend approached him.

“Well, that’s right. Even if it’s far, you can’t tell what’s going to happen next. At least until things become clearer, it’s normal for parents to not send their kids to school, huh?”

“What does that mean about our parents, then?”

The girls also gathered.

“They should give us vacation time, then.”

“Teachers and parents are the same. No matter what’s going on in Akamaki, it’s important to not let our studies get affected.”

“So what’s going on there, anyway? Anyone here knows?”

“No, a lot’s being said online but it’s all fake news—”

His classmates talked about this and that.

Taiki sat in his chair and sighed.

They had no way of knowing what went in Akamaki City.

He found it difficult to believe something would happen in this region, so far away from the scene. He wasn’t intending to mock those who felt anxious and stayed home, though.

Taiki couldn’t feel anything changing around him. No matter what happened so far from him, Taiki’s daily life remained unchanged.

He had his parents—although they were a bit strict, he was never in want of anything, he had two little sisters, and schoolmates that studied together. Taiki had nothing to complain about. If anything, he was extremely blessed.

However, inside that blissful daily life—there was a small ripple, or rather a confusion.

This wasn’t related Akamaki City.

In fact, the reason Taiki sighed was completely different.

“What’s up, Taiki? Thinking you shouldn’t have come to school?”

A friend of his laughed while looking at him. Taiki put his chin on his palm.

“Not that. I just had a nasty dream…”

“A dream?”

Several classmates asked, and Taiki turned to them.

Should he tell them or shut up?

For a moment he hesitated—but he thought this was probably nothing to hide, so he opened his mouth.

“Say, have you guys—ever heard about Mushitsuki?”

A heavy silence befell the classroom.

Saying that they became even more anxious than when speaking about Akamaki City in a certain sense, Taiki felt flustered.

“Oh, err, it’s nothing. Sorry…”

So he apparently shouldn’t have said anything.

After all, those people called Mushitsuki were nothing more than a rumor yet caused some fear among the people—

And these people appeared in Taiki’s dreams.

In his first such dream the Mushitsuki that appeared was a beautiful girl.

“Yeah, never mind…”

Mumbling this, Taiki thought about that Mushitsuki girl—

He recalled that beautiful Mushitsuki who was could control a seven-spotted ladybug.

1.01 The Others

There were the supernatural beings called Mushi.

Suddenly appearing a decade ago, they possessed boys and girls in their adolescence. In exchange for eating their dreams—wanting to become someone, or wanting to do something—they granted their hosts various kinds of power. Since their appearance resembled insects, they were called Mushi.

Those possessed by Mushi were called Mushitsuki.

“Shortly, Terasu’s group will be returning from Operation 1!”

Japan, Akamaki City.

Several days passed since that largest city in the country had lost its functions as the capital.

And the reason for that—was Mushi.

The fight between the Original Three, who made people hosts of Mushi, and the Mushitsuki that resisted them, turned Akamaki City into a battlefield.

“Harukiyo’s group is also coming back after clearing Operation 2!”

In the already evacuated Akamaki City there was a dome facility meant for sports competitions.

Many boys and girls gathered inside the dome which was protected by military vehicles all around. They were groups of Mushitsuki, each equipped with coats and goggles of differing colors.

“The combined forces of Kabuto’s group and Mushibane return from Operation 3!”

These reports came one after another in the tent installed at the corner of the dome.

The Special Environmental Preservation Bureau—was a secret government agency created for capturing Mushitsuki, as well as for concealing the existence of Mushi and Mushitsuki from society at large. Called the SEPB for short, it trained the captured Mushitsuki and dispatched them as soldiers to capture new Mushitsuki.

Those gathered in the dome were the elite Mushitsuki from all over the country.

And inside the tent were the branch heads, leaders of the SEPB. There were also the cabinet minister sent by the government, as well as Mushitsuki in charge of information management.

The entire organizational powers that rose in order to stand against Mushi ever since their first appearance were gathered in that spot.

Why?

In order for them to resist against a single powerful Mushitsuki that made a sudden appearance—

And now their plans all ended.

That is, in the form of the failure of all operations.

“What about any follow-up attacks from C or Oogui?”

As East Central Branch Head Haji Keigo asked this, the Mushitsuki sitting in front of the communication device turned to him. His appearance was reflected on the goggle’s surface.

He had a slim and slender figure and a sickly pale face. His almond eyes made him look older than his late twenties of age. He was just like a ghost appearing under a willow tree—is what he himself thought.

“It does not appear that C attempted to strike back Terasu’s group in pursuit.”

“Same goes for Harukiyo.”

Someone smiled at this report from another Mushitsuki.

She was a woman of the same age as Keigo. Her eyes filled with fondness and the beauty mark under her eye were striking. If what she wore was not a suit but a robe, she might look like a saintess.

“What about Kabuto and Mushibane?”

Miguruma Yaeko. She was the Vice-Deputy of the SEPB, as well as the leader of the entire organization in practice.

“After the battle, Oogui vanished along with Ebina Yuu, the lure.”

“I see.”

Still grinning, Miguruma turned to look at Keigo.

“It seems that the operations to annihilate C and Oogui both have failed.”

C.

The appearance of the Mushitsuki called by this name was the cause behind the lockdown of Akamaki City.

The Original Three were the primal Mushi who gave birth to Mushitsuki—

And the Mushitsuki called C attempted to absorb even those monsters.

She was given the special designation as Super Class Rank 1. Defeating this unprecedented threat by annihilating it became the ultimate goal of all the assembled Mushitsuki.

However, the elites sent in order to annihilate C had the tables turned on them, and they went through many hardships—

All Mushitsuki had completely lost.

“However, damages were kept to a minimum.”

This saint’s smile was answered by Keigo’s faint smile.

“We have revived two of the Rank 1s and brought them back.”

“Clinging to the Rank 1s of the old generation… does this mean you don’t intend to accept the changes to this new world, Branch Head Haji?”

“A new world is coming indeed. However, that will be a world with no more Mushitsuki being created, Vice-Deputy Miguruma.”

Exchanging smiles that were completely inappropriate to the current situation, Haji Keigo and Miguruma Yaeko glared at each other.

At that moment, several camo-wearing soldiers burst into the tent.

“That woman is no longer the Vice-Deputy.”

A middle-aged man who was apparently talking with some other place through his cellphone turned his sweaty face to Miguruma. He was the vice-minister of the Ministries of Japan, dispatched there by the government.

“Miguruma, you are under arrest. You will obviously bear responsibility for C’s rampage… and as for you saying that everyone will become Mushitsuki now? We also have plenty to ask you about your clearly immoral ideas.”

“I will gladly answer any questions.”

Miguruma narrowed her already-narrow eyes and gave no resistance. The soldiers brought her arms behind her back, putting resin-made thumbcuffs on her.

“Vice-Deputy Miguruma… I know this is quite late as someone who’s worked with you thus far—but I can’t understand your thinking. Were you really this crazy…?”

The gentlemanly middle-aged man who wore his fancy suit perfectly groaned. He was Branch Head Takemi of the North Central Branch.

All other Branch Heads also nodded, their expressions hard.

“Not only have you given birth to the monster called C, but trying to fill the world with Mushitsuki created by her… it’s too much…”

“How ridiculous…”

Miguruma received their blaming with silence, looking at a woman who was standing a bit further away.

The one she was looking at was Goroumaru Touko. Although she was an adult woman in her mid-twenties, she had bed hair and wore her suit sloppily. While Haji hid himself, she led the East Central Branch as the Acting Branch Head.

“Do you also consider me mad, Acting Branch Head Goroumaru?”

“I-I—”

Goroumaru Touko’s face, that still had traces of tears on it, showed a moment of hesitation—and glanced at Keigo.

“Why are you looking at me with those eyes? My, how unexpected. Do you consider me to be the same as her?”

When he showed his flippant smile, Touko lowered her head and went silent.

He knew her for a long time and she was his direct subordinate. Until just yesterday she had fully trusted him, yet it seemed like a small change was occurring within her.

“Terau’s group is back!”

Along with this report, the outside of the Headquarters tent became noisy.

Haji passed next to Touko and exited.

“Oh my, look here…”

He witnessed a scene that couldn’t be called a triumphant return even in flattery.

It should have been the team of elites high-ranked Mushitsuki assembled in order to annihilate C. Including Rank 2 Terasu, it was the crystallization of the fighting force polished for close to ten years by the organization called the SEPB.

And yet—they were beaten down horribly.

“—”

As the Mushitsuki on standby cleared the way, Terasu moved forward as the team’s leader.

Although she was in her young teens, this girl was the ace of the North Central Branch and thus an elite among elite—but she was now a filthy figure dragging its legs. Her coat was ripped and her North Central Branch-issued visor was broken. Every part of her body was discolored, whether from the large amounts of dried-up blood or sweat or the burn marks from some kind of attack.

All her other teammates were covered in similar wounds, and even the Mushitsuki called Kasuou was no exception. Even this crazed warrior that always instilled fear even in her allies had her beautiful blond hair dyed black.

Even those Mushitsuki who didn’t hear the details of the operations now realized at a glance.

The operation was a failure.

Even the unit made of the strongest elites from all the SEPB ended up losing so pitifully—

“All—”

Finally, Terasu arrived in front of the Branch Heads in the dome wrapped in silence.

“All combatants dispatched for Operation 1 under Terasu’s command... h-have all returned safely...”

There wasn’t even a single casualty.

Terasu reporting it as though this was the best-case scenario was perhaps her putting up a bold front.

“T-the operation to annihilate C has failed… b-but, with our reserve plan—”

Saying this much, Terau’s dirty face froze.

Among the row of Branch Heads, she noticed Miguruma Yaeko being apprehended.

“A job well done, my beloved Terasu. I have promised you that upon your return from the operation you will be designated Rank 1, right?”

Miguruma Yaeko wore the small of a saint.

“However, unfortunately—I can no longer fulfill that promise.”

“Ah…”

For a moment, Terasu felt like she was drained from all strength, like her mind was full of mud.

“I—is that so… t-that’s fine… I-I don’t really… care about being Rank 1…”

As she lowered her face and smiled weakly, the girl looked like she lost the very last of her powers, despite her words.

“—Haji Keigo?”

A member of the elite team, Kasuou, was the one who mumbled this.

“Eh…?”

“Branch Head Keigo?”

“I-it’s true… the East Central’s…!”

“Wasn’t he in a coma?”

It wasn’t just the elites; this agitation spread throughout the entire Mushitsuki forces in the dome. His lack of presence was often acknowledged even by himself, but now he was apparently finally noticed.

The SEPB regarded him as if he was unconscious.

The reason for that was so that the man known as Haji Keigo could move freely. While he was at a standstill with Miguruma Yaeko, he concealed his awakening from all but a single person—his trusted confidant Goroumaru Touko—and began moving toward his envisioned plan.

That plan was the reserve plan in the operation to eliminate C.

Meaning—a counter against Miguruma Yaeko’s potential rampage.

That plan succeeded and, in addition to saving the SEPB fighting force that came to the brink of annihilation, managed to bring back a small hope. However—

“Great work, welcome back. —The feeling is mutual, right?”

There were only very few smiles on the faces of those who welcomed Keigo’s faint smile.

Most were shocked, and Kasuou looked even angry. Since he definitely wasn’t any kinder than their previous boss, apparently no one was going to wholeheartedly welcome him back.

One of the gazes, especially—

From among the elite team, the hostility he felt from someone wearing their hood low on their head was frightening.

He couldn’t see her face, but he knew she was no ordinary person.

Naturally. After all, while she was the small hope brought back through his plan—she was also, at the same time, his bitter archnemesis.

“Bi—big brother…?”

Keigo found another girl who was reaching out in shock and approached her.

Although the girl’s eyes were wide open, they couldn’t capture his figure. She was wounded, yet looked like she grew up splendidly. The girl’s sightless eyes filled with tears.

“Big brother… really…? W-where are you…?”

Keigo smiled and hugged his little sister, Haji Senri, who had her hands wandering through air.

“I’m right here, Senri. You became so strong… you really have.”

“Big—brother—”

His ill little sister now became an indispensable part of the SEPB’s fighting forces, the Special Class Rank 2 member, Himiko. He did feel conflicted about sending her to the battlefield, but—

Keigo had elected to protect her from behind the scenes until now.

Would he ever be able to tell his sister the reason for it?

“You’ve done well to survive. It’s fine, I’ll be here with you now.”

“Big brother…! Big brother…!”

As if expelling something she was holding back, Senri returned Keigo’s hug while shedding tears. She buried her face in his chest as though to confirm her brother’s warmth and scent.

“Big brother… D-Dai-kun… he’s…!”

“I know. It’s fine, you have nothing to worry about… you need to rest now.”

While he attempted to reassure her, Keigo noticed someone was glaring at him.

“Are you Haji Keigo? Senri’s brother…?”

East Central Branch Rank 2 member, Kaguya. Keigo was well aware that he was Senri’s friend and that he used to belong to the Mushitsuki resistance organization, Mushibane.

“Seems like you’ve already been awake for a while now, right? Have you any idea how much Senri worried about you!? Was the one behind this reserve plan not Acting Branch Head Goroumaru but actually you?”

“Eh, is that really truewuwu?”

Maimai, another Mushitsuki from the East Central Branch, rounded her eye not covered by an eyepatch.

“Well, it turned out like that.”

While stroking his crying sister’s face, Keigo spoke.

“Regarding my reason for acting stealthily—it becomes obvious by looking at the present operation, does it not? I made plenty of preparations to fight someone, so there was a lot to do.”

“We’ll have time to talk later,” he whispered to his sister, turning his face to the side.

A certain person that Keigo spoke about—Miguruma Yaeko—was still smiling despite getting restrained.

Seeing them both face each other, North Central Branch Head Takemi spoke to the vice-minister.

“—Mr. Vice-Minister. I recommend him to succeed Miguruma Vice-Deputy’s position.”

“What?”

“Haji Keigo… that man has many achievements as the East Central Branch Head. Even looking at this current case, it’s thanks to him that we were able to bring out this result despite the difficult situation. I bet the other Heads have no counterarguments.”

The other Branch Heads remained silent and agreed with Takemi Head’s recommendation.

Keigo smiled while fixing his glasses’ position with his index finger.

“I am honored you hold me in such high esteem, Branch Head Takemi. I was certain you hated me.”

“I will not let my personal feelings get in the way while this country is in an emergency state. We need to prioritize the abilities to take initiative and to make decisive actions. You were the one who made that outrageous zone called GARDEN because you were obsessed with researching Mushitsuki. Handling Mushitsuki’s your forte, right?”

Rather than assuming responsibility for trying to turn everything over, the ambitious Takemi probably judged it wiser to push it all on Keigo. It really was an apt decision, just like he spoke of.

“…If there is no other personnel, we have no choice.”

The vice-minister nodded.

Keigo wore a smile.

Finally—finally, this time came.

“Haji Keigo. I appoint you to be the Vice-Deputy of Central Headquarters—no, the Director of the Special Environmental Preservation Bureau. You are to use the power of the SEPB and everything at your disposal to get rid of C’s unprecedented threat.”

Keigo raised his face and looked at the people around him.

At the SEPB Branch Heads, as well as the soldier Mushitsuki.

In essence, the power to freely wield and move all Mushitsuki in the country—

Had now been obtained by Keigo.

And he’d waited for this for a long, long time.

“I accept.”

Wearing a thin smile, he looked to Miguruma Yaeko.

She was no longer smiling.

This wasn’t because she felt pained at having her authority taken, nor did she feel self-pity for falling from grace.

She simply made a disinterested sigh and mumbled.

“I wanted to avoid at least having the SEPB fall into your hands… what a pity.”

“For you, that’s right. —We really are complete opposites.”

The person called Miguruma Yaeko loved Mushitsuki.

Never mind the shape of her love, she wished for them to exist forever.

On the other, the man called Haji Keigo never loved Mushitsuki.

“I simply lament the huge misfortune falling to my beloved Mushitsuki.”

Miguruma Yaeko closed her eyes as if to offer a silent prayer. —Keigo had estimated her aim beforehand, and she probably also divined Keigo’s aims as well.

However, that was irrelevant.

The baton to control Mushitsuki—now passed to Haji Keigo’s hands.

Looking up at Keigo narrowing his eyes, Senri furrowed her brows.

“Big brother…?”

“You don’t have to make that face. It’s fine. There’s no need to worry anymore.”

Stroking Senri’s head, Haji Keigo turned to Goroumaru Touko.

“Goroumaru-kun. I now appoint you officially as the East Central Branch Head. Is that fine?”

“…Y-yes sir!”

Goroumaru Touko seemed to have complex feelings about her promotion, but she accepted it.

The voices of the intelligence division Mushitsuki came flying out of the operation tent.

“Harukiyo and Kabuto’s groups have returned! They will soon arrive here!”

Keigo stepped in front of the lines of Mushitsuki.

“Let’s reorganize. C is a powerful enemy, but she’s definitely not unbeatable. Our first operations ended in vain, but our forces suffered no major losses. Not only that, we can even say we managed to gain a few aces.”

He would not deny that Terasu’s loss lowered the Mushitsuki’s morale.

However, they could easily recover.

Keigo managed to gain so many forces, and he always thought about it.

How to end the fight of Mushitsuki—

He was resolved to stop at nothing in order to accomplish that one and only goal.

“Now you need to focus on resting and save your energy for when we can rechallenge—”

“Wait.”

The one who stopped Keigo was neither a Mushitsuki nor a member of Mushibane.

It was the vice-minister, his face covered in sweat. Perhaps having reported the situation to the government, he lowered the phone that he just used to talk.

“—I take back what I’ve said just now.”

Keigo tilted his head.

“Haji Keigo, you are demoted from serving as Director. At the same time—”

The air around froze.

Keigo was shocked, and before he could reason out the meaning behind the vice-minister’s utterance—

He gave a declaration.

“Starting now, the Special Environmental Preservation Bureau is to be dissolved.”

As Keigo turned his gaze toward her without even thinking—

He saw that Miguruma Yaeko was grinning.

1.02 The Others

“Furthermore, all Branch Heads as well as Mushitsuki are to be restrained.”

The vice-minister’s declaration echoed throughout the silent dome.

None could even speak; none could make a single move.

What he just declared to them—

Was the dissolve of the SEPB as well as arrest of all its members.

Every single person there required a moment to even understand the meaning of his words.

“The SEPB’s… done?”

Someone’s leaked mumble shook Keigo’s thoughts.

Dissolving the SEPB? Impossible—

The SEPB led by Miguruma Yaeko was not the kind of brittle organization that could be so easily dissolved. It obviously had many cooperators spread among the nucleus of the country, and if it was decided to be dissolved, then it would require the joint opinion of several ministries and organizations.

Keigo also did some careful work behind the scenes. He’d never neglected keeping watch on the SEPB’s cooperators as well as opposition. If there were any movements related to dissolving them, he would have known of them long ago.

“Harukiyo has arrived!”

Something impossible was happening—

Miguruma Yaeko did not seem surprised. This meant that she alone had expected this situation.

Something Miguruma had expected.

Meaning—the loss of the SEPB.

C’s victory.

By the same token, Miguruma Yaeko’s downfall.

If she in fact managed to estimate the current situation as well as allow it to happen—

“Does that mean this is also C’s doing?”

Keigo glared at Miguruma Yaeko with a side glance.

The decision for dissolvement came too fast. —It happened right after Keigo managed to grasp real power and impossibly quick in spite of all the normal formalities.

He could only think that an inhuman power moved right next to the higher-ups.

The fact this became reality—meant there was no mistake someone had fixed it up like this in advance. It was clear and obvious who set it up like this.

“Since C had won, she’s not going to allow even the smallest counterattack?”

Hearing Keigo’s words, Miguruma Yaeko tilted her head and feigned ignorance.

“C is doing nothing more than taking the next step in creating a new world. If only you hadn’t appeared, everyone would have gained the Undying without suffering…”

“As mere Revived who simply keep on living, no different from the Fallen, though. —You were the one who created C. What on earth are you trying to do with C?”

Miguruma called it a “step”.

Since she’d planted traps even for the higher-ups of the country, it was already certain that everything was advancing exactly like Miguruma Yaeko had envisioned it.

C’s rampage was no mere rampage.

She was following some grand plan and everything was advancing according to it—

“I am creating an Ark, Haji Keigo.”

Miguruma Yaeko smiled.

“You said we were opposites—but in the end we are very similar.”

“…?”

Keigo frowned, unable to understand the meaning of Miguruma’s words. At that moment some sort of commotion came to his ears.

“—Are you in the middle of somethin’?”

Mushitsuki covered in wounds all over appeared inside the dome.

They were much less numerous than Terasu and the others that came before, but they were powerful Mushitsuki. Especially the red-haired man standing in the front—Harukiyo—was a frightening person called the flame devil.

“Well, not like it’s got anything to do with me, though.”

While all his comrades looked like they’d fall down at any moment, only the blood-smeared Harukiyo acted all high and mighty. His firm arms were hugging a girl covered by a jacket.

“…Is that—Arisu?”

Seeing the girl Harukiyo holding up, Kasuou stepped ahead, staggering. The Central Headquarters Mushitsuki called Nene and Tamamo also paled.

“Arisu-chan…? Is it really Arisu-chan?”

“Arisu-san…! Is she reaaally awake now? B-but that means the Undying’s—”

“She was subbed out. A lying bastard’s now gone to bed with the Undying instead of her.”

Harukiyo casually threw the girl at Kasuou. “Don’t throw her, piece of shit!” she yelled at him and caught her with mist.

Next to Harukiyo, Kusezaki Ume argued, “Woah, what’re we gonna do if she wakes up and raises hell again?!”

“Arisu…? Who is that?”

“A Mushitsuki?”

“H-has Harukiyo really…? Why here… and that woman…?”

Following the disbanding of the SEPB, the flame devil’s appearance caused another uproar in the dome.

The girl brought back by Harukiyo was the Rank 1 Mushitsuki who was treated as non-existent. However, right now Keigo didn’t have the leisure to explain this to everyone.

“Good work, Harukiyo. However, she doesn’t seem to be back to normal...”

Harukiyo glared at Keigo who fixed the position of his glasses and approached him.

“Done pretending you’re asleep, then? That human sacrifice you’ve sent me was a great help.”

However, the flame devil passed right next to him and headed toward the restrained Miguruma.

“…”

“What is the matter, Harukiyo? You seem like you want to say something. Are you going to thank me for reuniting you with the lovely Sleeping Beauty?”

Harukiyo responded to Miguruma Yaeko’s smile with a smile of his own.

“You gotta pay the piper after playing with my buddies like that… I’ll need to put on my thinking cap and think really hard about it.”

The devil’s eyes were set ablaze. His red hair sizzled. Even the surrounding air produced a heat haze from the heatwave, causing the temperature inside the dome to rise.

“First of all, I really fuckin’ hate your ‘I don’t mind dying’ sorta look. I think you’ve got no siblings or parents… but if you die with some hope remaining, like some sorta samurai following his master to the grave, that wouldn’t serve as no punishment, now would it?”

While Harukiyo threatened her, Miguruma Yaeko’s face was cold.

Was she really unafraid of death? Or perhaps—

“…!”

Seeing how Miguruma acted, Keigo gasped. He turned toward the operation tent.

“Quickly, tell Kabuto and the others to not come back to the dome!”

“—They’re already here!”

When this voice came, the number of Mushitsuki in the dome increased.

They were the SEPB member Kabuto and a large number of Mushitsuki. Further added to that, Mushibane members showed themselves one after another.

Keigo softly clicked his tongue.

“B-Branch Head Haji…?”

His subordinate Kabuto was shocked, seeing him. Kabuto was yet another person who was convinced Haji was in a coma, but he didn’t have the time to handle that response.

“Kabuto, where’s Fuyuhotaru?”

Looking around the people returned, Keigo asked briefly.

Fuyuhotaru, leader of Mushibane and a Secret Class Rank 1 Mushitsuki, was nowhere to be seen. Other important people like Mushibane’s admins and Akasegawa Nanana assembled there, but the girl wasn’t.

“—She vanished while we were on the way back here.”

Keigo slightly widened his eyes beneath his glasses.

Voices of confusion rose from the Mushitsuki in the dome as well.

“We were so shocked at the operation failing and took our eyes off of her for a moment… we do not know why she had gone, and if this was done out of her own volition. But we have sent a few SEPB members to look for her. If the intelligence division also helps, we can quickly—”

“Unfortunately, that is no longer possible.”

Keigo spoke.

“…Ha?”

“As of a short while ago, the organization called the SEPB has lost its function.”

Kabuto and the other returning SEPB members, as well as Mushibane, all froze together. Harukiyo raised a brow and glanced at Keigo.

“T-that’s right. There’s also an order to apprehend Mushibane. No one is allowed to get out of here.”

The vice-minister loudly declared this, but his face was stiff. Since he was in front of those he regarded as monsters, he was obviously scared.

“If you resist even a little, it will be seen as rebellion against the country and you will all be put on the wanted list.”

The Mushitsuki all remained silent.

Soon this silence turned into a commotion, and their eyes moved from the vice-minister to Keigo.

“…”

“W-why are you silent, Haji Keigo! Order all of them to surrender and drop their weapons!”

Keigo could no longer even hear the vice-minister.

Their fighting forces—were too lacking.

There were two—no, three Rank 1s here. Originally, you could say that their forces wouldn’t lose even to a large-scale army.

However.

At present, most powerful Mushitsuki were exhausted and could barely stand. The reliable Rank 1 Fuyuhotaru was currently missing, and despite acting so brazenly, Harukiyo was visibly spent. Even Sleeping Beauty Arisu who was hoped to become the new leader of Mushitsuki remained asleep.

With things being how they were, the only way to break through this situation—

“W-we’ve also dispatched the JSDF. You can’t resist…!”

“None of this matters. Right now, our real threat is—”

Before Keigo finished speaking, something happened.

There was the shrill sound of something bursting, echoing from the corner of the dome.

If they were to supply electricity from the outside, there was the risk of C using it for an attack. As a countermeasure they prepared many generators, but now these were being drowned in golden light.

Standing next to a generator was a Mushitsuki clad in SEPB equipment. The golden light engulfing the generator extended from that Mushitsuki.

“No way… does Kabuto-san’s team not include a sensor?”

Kusezaki Ume muttered. Harukiyo snorted, sounding bored.

“Seriously lame. She not only tailed you but even set up a trap.”

While many Mushitsuki became restless due to being unable to understand the situation, Keigo groaned.

“So it’s not like we shook off her pursuit. —She simply waited so she could get all of us in one fell swoop.”

As Keigo turned his eyes to the side, Miguruma returned a silent, small smile.

“—This is C’s counterattack.”

The moment he muttered this, the Mushitsuki standing next to the generator collapsed.

Instead of them—an ethereal silhouette glowing in gold rose from the floor.

She was a petite girl wearing a slanted tiara that was covered in crown and heart symbols. Seated in a large chair—a throne—her figure with a thick cloak and wavy hair looked divine.

“—”

No one could do anything but gulp and watch her.

They all watched this fairy glowing in gold, serving as body double to C, launch many small C-butterflies, one after another.

They all watched the exhausted, powerless Mushitsuki get cornered by the golden wave.

While imagining the incoming destruction, they could do nothing but stand there.

“All old Mushitsuki will be purged by the ‘Flood’, while only the new Mushitsuki will board the ‘Ark’—”

Miguruma Yaeko spoke in a singsong voice.

“And… the ‘Dove’ will be unleashed.”

Along with Miguruma Yaeko’s prophecy of destruction, the number of C-butterflies increased.

While the dome was being engulfed by despair—

“Good grief, and just when I thought I finally got the SEPB in my hands… is this simply the fate of the East Central Branch?”

Keigo sighed. He turned back to the vice-minister.

“Vice-minister. Starting now, we will no longer belong to the government and will assume independent action.”

“Wha…?”

“This is—what you’d call a coup d’etat.”

Ignoring the speechless vice-minister, Keigo raised his voice.

“An announcement for all the SEPB, as well as Mushibane! Escape from this place with everything you have!”

The Mushitsuki overwhelmed by the golden fairies and C-butterflies all looked to Keigo.

“It appears that the government’s already under C’s control! If you don’t want to become Fallen—and then get Revived and become C’s underlings—you have no way other than retreat!”

There was no other choice nor any time. Keigo kept prattling on and on.

“Terasu! You take command of all the Mushitsuki. Help as many as you can get out.”

“M-me…? B-but, we’re too exhausted to even—“

Terasu argued against Keigo, her face shocked.

Just like she said, their comrades no longer had the power to fight. Even Harukiyo who could be called the strongest Mushitsuki was exhausted, and Keigo doubted he’d help other Mushitsuki without any reason. Sleeping Beauty Arisu also remained asleep.

However—there was a single person there who could still fight.

“Please buy us some time until we can retreat—”

Keigo turned back, calling out to one person among the Mushitsuki.

“Lady Bird.”

A silence spread throughout the entire dome as though time stopped.

Even the swarm of C-butterflies stopped their wings.

The following moment, a large tremor shook the surroundings—

This occurred due to the half dome-shaped giant Mushi that swelled into being right at the very center of the dome, as well as the shockwave whipped up by this Mushi’s wings.

It was a massive seven-spotted ladybug.

Riding on its back, the hooded person opened her mouth.

“I have no intention of following your orders.”

Keigo ignored her voice, wearing a faint smile.

It really was a nostalgic voice.

“I will simply protect Mushitsuki.”

Removing her hood, she revealed her face covered by a fox mask.

Tachibana Rina.

Lady Bird.

This Blaze Class Rank 1 Mushitsuki, who could also be called the archnemesis of the SEPB, had already lost her life in a past fight—and was now revived.

“That’s all I do, both before and now.”

Some worshipped her as a god, while some called her the weakest of the Rank 1s.

Did this Mushitsuki still possess the same strength and kindness she had before her revival?

Haji Keigo had to ascertain this before entering the final battle.

In the end—was she really the girl called Tachibana Rina?

1.03 Rina Part 1

Who was she, actually?

Tachibana Rina, who had had her dream eaten by her Mushi and died.

Lady Bird, who was being idolized and admired by many people even now.

Mimic, who had offered both mind and body to call Tachibana Rina back into this world.

As well as—something that got revived alongside her, swarming around like the dead clinging to a spider’s thread.

Right now, her being was a mishmash made from all of those.

“Lady…?”

“Lady Bird…! But she’s dead…!”

“…Lady! Are you really Lady?”

Many Mushitsuki in the dome, especially from Mushibane, started a commotion.

It was natural for them to respond like this, seeing their first leader who’d supposedly died in battle.

However, she—the one who came back to life in the form of “Tachibana Rina”—did not turn her gaze to them.

“I am… not Lady Bird.”

From within the fox-patterned mask, she glared at C’s body double standing next to the generator.

It didn’t matter who she was, right now.

As someone who stood there in the form of Tachibana Rina, there was something she was fully aware of.

The conviction that she’d been called back in order to fight again.

As well as—her strong sense of duty to save as many Mushitsuki as possible.

“I’m Mimic! I’m simply an imitation of Lady’s powers!”

At Rina’s feet, the giant seven-spotted ladybug spread its wings.

The shockwave created by the wings’ vibration blew C and the generator to smithereens.

“Do what Haji Keigo said! Escape and leave this place to me!”

Tachibana Rina and Mimic—Kitazawa Tamaki.

She had the memories and dreams of both inside her.

However, right now she shouldn’t put out her personality as Tachibana Rina.

Kitazawa Tamaki’s memories warned her of this.

Since Lady Bird had so many admirers, if she managed a true “revival” in the face of this adversity—even the faith in her would be revived.

And this despite the fact that her friend, Anmoto Shiika, had finally given them the power to stand up on their own legs.

It would also end up causing the silly split into the SEPB and Mushibane again.

In this situation—this sort of split would lead to the extinction of Mushitsuki.

“No—you are Lady Bird without a doubt.”

This soft voice echoed throughout the dome.

It belonged to Miguruma Yaeko.

“Although you are from the old generation, you are a Rank 1. Because you are Undying… you also embody it, in the form of a revival.”

Why was she speaking unnecessarily—

As Rina glared at her, Miguruma Yaeko narrowed her eyes.

“However, you are incomplete. In this incomplete world, you must be created anew…”

Above Rina and the rest’s heads, she could hear something crackling and bursting.

Golden light gathered near the high ceiling and reformed C again. Sitting on her throne floating midair, C unleashed lines of lightning from her fingertips.

These countless lightning bolts aimed for the Mushitsuki—or so she thought, but was wrong.

“—!”

This impact struck a person other than the Mushitsuki. It hit the suited men including the vice-minister and those who seemed to be his aides, as well as the soldiers restraining Miguruma.

“What are you planning…!”

Rina unleashed yet another shockwave, blowing C’s body double apart along with the lights.

Those struck by electricity, the vice-minister and the rest, fell.

“U-uh—”

They looked like they received quite the shock, but were still apparently conscious. The vice-minister held his head while raising his face, glaring at Rina with demonic eyes.

“Y-you pieces of—so you intend to resist! You terrorists!”

The Mushitsuki were all frozen at this sudden change to the vice-minister, who until then quaked in fear.

“You intend to use Mushitsuki powers to take over the country? Now you’ve shown us your true colors, you monsters!”

“—”

“An order to all forces on standby outside! Immediately enter and purge all Mushitsuki!”

While everyone was shocked, Haji Keigo wore a cynical smile.

“The ability to control electricity running through the brain nerves and thus manipulate memories—this was made possible through the experiments held at Central Headquarters by—”

“C, of course.”

Still bound, Miguruma Yaeko grinned.

Once more golden light was gathering near the ceiling. —Apparently, C’s figure on her throne was nothing more than insubstantial electricity. Although Rina’s shockwave was able to scatter it, it couldn’t completely destroy it.

“Now, Terasu. Retreat while we can.”

“Bu…! But, Branch Head—Director Haji! We’re all completely exhausted… our team wasted every last drop of power on coming back…! —Right, Harukiyo! Since things are like this, you guys also lend us—”

Terasu turned around flustered, then became speechless.

Although the flame of devil was there until that moment, he now completely vanished. The same went for his comrades.

“W-why you… pervert without any sense of cooperation! Uuh… If the soldiers out there are already our enemies, we’re completely surrounded… there’s not even space enough for us to go outside—”

“Lady will somehow handle that part. Am I wrong?”

Without even looking at Haji turning his gaze to her, Rina looked up the ceiling again.

C already reformed her lower torso, gathering a golden light in her raised arms. If she struck them with lightning, the number of victims would go beyond a few for sure.

As Rina dropped her gaze, she saw a Mushitsuki placing a hockey stick on his shoulder.

“…If the ceiling falls, I’ll leave it to you. You should be able to stop it.”

“Me? I don’t really get it, but can I expect something in return?”

This Mushitsuki, Shiohara Shachito, wore a flippant smile. He was somewhat suspicious, but they could rely on his powerful ability to control mass—thus told Rina the Mimic inside her.

“I can’t give you anything in return, but—”

Rina leaned forward on her own Mushi.

Her giant seven-spotted ladybug flew. With the shockwaves caused by its wings, she incidentally also pulverized the materializing C to smithereens, landing in front of the dome’s wall.

While the vibrations caused by landing had yet to settle down, the seven-spotted ladybug spread its wings again.

“If you refuse, I’ll do this.”

As Rina widened her eyes, she could see thousands, tens of thousands of thin fragments filling her eyesight.

The noiseless impact of destruction shook the entire dome.

“—”

Rina could feel something small deplete from somewhere within her chest.

It was a fragment of the feeling called a dream.

She never thought she’d once again experience this feeling of shaving part of her dream and using it. It even felt nostalgic to her, and it brought back Tachibana Rina’s memories from when she was alive.

Most of the time, she would direct her powers against a certain individual—the Mushitsuki who belonged to the SEPB’s East Central Branch, Blaze Class Rank 1 Kakkou.

During her battle with Kakkou, she also made her first friend, Anmoto Shiika.

According to Mimic’s memories, both Kakkou and Shiika continued their own fights even after Rina’s death.

However, in the end Kakkou became a Fallen and Shiika vanished—

Rina held the duty to save Mushitsuki.

However—there were definitely also an indescribable sensation of emptiness, as well as a sense of loss that felt like it would turn her to reckless abandon.

“—I was already gone, and yet…”

All Rina did was move a few dozen meters away from right next to the dome’s wall.

However, advancing while clad in this shockwave—she created a huge depression.

Neither thick wall nor asphalt, iron beams nor support pillars that held up the dome could stand up to her. Everything in Rina’s path was simply destroyed. She created a tunnel connecting the interior of the dome with the outside world.

Turning back, she could see all the shocked Mushitsuki standing there.

Apparently her worries about causing the ceiling to collapse were needless.

“L-let us retreat! Let the Mushitsuki that Kabuto took with him to Operation 3 lead the charge! Kasuou, can you carry the wounded? Tamamo, you protect the Branch Heads!”

Coming back to her senses, Terasu hurriedly issued orders.

Wind was blowing outside the dome, causing Rina’s hair to flutter. Beneath her rushed many groups of soldiers. They were all carrying small firearms.

The seven-spotted ladybug flapped its wings once, causing the soldiers to get blown away and collapse.

“I’ll secure the path of retreat! You must all get away as quickly—”

While the Mushitsuki started escaping in droves, Rina’s shoulders twitched in shock as they passed next to her.

She felt for a moment that her weight increased.

However, that was wrong.

What became heavier—was Rina’s heart.

In her sight through the fox mask, she could now see people who weren’t supposed to be there.

Some crawled up from inside the ground. Others tried embracing Rina from behind. One after another, arms reached out for her and clung to her.

Formless people only visible to Rina.

She knew their identity.

“—Ah, it really was awfully convenient for me to go and die on you after promising so much.”

They were past Mushitsuki.

The fragments of dreams of the Fallen sealed inside the Central Headquarters’ Database.

They were the dreams that sought salvation, clinging tight to Rina as she just came back to life on her own. Rina would never have been able to denying them who couldn’t give up on their dreams even after becoming Fallen.

“It’s fine. I’ll create a place for all of you… because that’s my dream…”

All the Mushitsuki were running away, leaving Rina behind.

She was Tachibana Rina—or at least had her form.

By sacrificing Kitazawa Tamaki, she came back to life along with many dreams.

“Because I have nothing left anymore…”

In this world where none of those she loved existed anymore—she mumbled in an exhausted voice.

1.04 Rina Part 2

Weaving through the path opened by Rina, the Mushitsuki ran away one after another.

However, not all were able to escape safely. Those too hurt to move were wrapped by Kasuou’s mist and carried. The problem was with those not hurt seriously enough to secure and those who could move freely, meaning the lightly wounded.

They clearly moved slowly and were thus delayed from reaching the frontline where those like Haji and Terasu were.

“Do your best! If you remain here, you’ll just became prey to C!”

Rina appealed to them while Shiohara Shachito rushed next to her.

“Lady-san… was it? That’s enough. Terasu-chan said to retreat. —Oh, and since the ceiling held on there’s no need for any thanks or punishment, right?”

“…I’ll follow soon after the last person evacuates.”

Shachito watched Rina assert this with a confused expression.

“You’re a Rank 1, right? You came back to life, so I think it’s a bad plan to use your precious fighting power on just the ‘last person’.”

“You’re not even part of SEPB or Mushibane, and yet you speak like the SEPB.”

“Because my teacher was SEPB. I do believe Terasu-chan’s right, though.”

“I won’t say she’s wrong.”

After saying that, Rina gasped.

Above the heads of Mushitsuki running away from the dome there were countless spheres of lightnings being created.

“This is bad…!”

Rina moved her seven-spotted ladybug, covering up for those Mushitsuki late in running away.

The next moment, a rain of lightning came down on the surface.

“—!”

The impact caused debris to swell up, opening up countless holes in the dome.

The seven-spotted Ladybug was hit by several of the lightning bolts. The Mushi’s wings were singed, causing a sharp pain to run through Rina’s heart as though a bomb exploded inside it.

“L-Lady…!”

Beneath the seven-spotted ladybug, a boy that seemed to be a Mushibane member raised his head.

“—Run! Before another attack comes…!”

Using her fox mask to hide her expression of anguish, Rina shouted. She just barely managed to save one person, but by passing her eyes around she could see that many Mushitsuki were hit and collapsed.

“Impossible—”

Still next to her, Shachito mumbled in a low voice.

“For you to sacrifice yourself for Mushitsuki who couldn’t even fight… you’re an important part of our forces to beat C. Rather than staying here, you should go with Terasu—”

“If you think you can drag me away by force, I dare you to try.”

As Rina glared at her, Shachito looked serious. He might actually be thinking of dragging her away by force. She knew from Mimic’s memories that he was strong.

“—L-Lady…”

Hearing the voice from behind, Rina turned back.

There was a girl wearing a fashionable outfit and holding a cellphone full of straps who stood there.

“…Lucifera? W-what are you doing there! Run away already!”

She was Rina’s old acquaintance, one of Mushibane’s admins. Her name was Lucifera.

“A-are you really Lady? I, I…”

“This isn’t the time for that. This place’s dangerous, your body is weak—”

“It might be too late. Everything’s gone pear-shaped.”

At Shachito’s warning, Rina raised her face.

A golden glow was born midair.

Would another of C’s body doubles appear, or would she strike with lightning? —She considered these two options, but just like Shachito said, a new change appeared there.

Blinding light passed through gold and changed to pure white. This divinity robbed one’s eyesight.

While her vision was dyed in white, she could hear an echoing sound from afar.

It was the sound of bells.

A shrill bell sound that was sublime and full of blessings.

That sound gradually grew louder and louder—

“—!”

When she came back to her senses, Rina found herself standing on a marble floor.

The floor was scrubbed completely white and there was also an absurdly high ceiling. Supporting those were countless pillars engraved with vivid patterns.

What on earth is this place—

She supposedly emitted a voice, but her mouth remained unmoving.

She could feel her mind grow flaccid due to the fresh air and sublime bell sounds.

“…”

When she came to, a rectangular box was placed in front of her eyes.

It was—Rina’s coffin.

She wasn’t told this by anyone, but felt it instinctively.

“You must be tired of dreaming…”

It was a young girl’s voice.

Although her ears were full of ringing bells, she heard that voice especially clearly.

“You have fought well… You are worthy to get invited to heaven…”

Rina’s body moved on its own. She kneeled and touched the beautiful casket in front of her.

“You will be allowed to rest in heaven without suffering… without sorrow…”

She would no longer need to fight.

She could forget everything—even her dream and attain relief.

Rina wished to be inside the coffin full of that tranquility.

However—

“—How conceited of you.”

Rina’s mouth moved and mumbled. Her fingers on the coffin stopped.

Her vague mind cleared up quickly.

“To think anyone would allow me to rest at this point… when I’m the one most unforgiving regarding myself.”

Biting her lips hard, she forcibly regained her sense of self.

Behind Rina, a huge shadow—the large seven-spotted ladybug appeared.

And not just her Mushi.

In this world wrapped by clean air, countless black arms were created. They clung to Rina as if seeking salvation, tearing her away from the coffin in front of her eyes.

“Also, they’re not going to let me rest, either—until I fulfill my promise to create a place for them.”

Behind the rising Rina, the seven-spotted ladybug spread its wings.

A shockwave broke through the world that had nothing but cleanliness in it.

The floor crumbled, the ceiling broke down, and the pillars were blown to smithereens.

The coffin was blown away, its stained glass ruined—

“—!”

Wind with dust and the scent of blood blew Rina’s hair.

Her sense of fatigue, as well as the pain in her chest that was the side effect of wasting her dream, nearly caused her to collapse. Coming back from the world that had no pain or uncertainty in it, this world was—like hell itself.

However, it was the world of reality Rina came back to.

This cruel world, that didn’t allow her to stop dreaming—that forced her to live.

“Oh, so you snapped out of it yourself. As expected of a Rank 1.”

Shachito next to her spoke casually. He was just about to swing his hockey, probably intending to save Rina using some method.

“It’s C’s mental attack.”

“…!”

Looking around her, Rina was speechless.

Butterflies glowing in gold filled her sight. Swarms of C-butterflies.

Standing on the surface filled with light were people standing there dazed.

These Mushitsuki who stood with dull faces—as well as camo-wearing soldiers who were gathered to attack them. Within this bizarre scene, only Rina and Shachito were able to move freely.

“Looks like they’re completely controlled by C’s domain. They don’t stand a chance without going through training to resist mental attacks. Have you done that as well, Lady-chan?”

“You constantly get attacked like that while fighting with the SEPB. —Lucifera!”

Although she called to the fashionable girl, she kept hugging her cellphone without any response.

“I see, so you grinded for a lot of EXP. —No use calling to that girl. The others are all completely infected. But why even people who aren’t Mushitsuki…?”

“Lucifera!”

Rina kept shaking the girl’s shoulders.

The girl called Lucifera was a Mushitsuki whom Rina once saved. She was relatively strong herself, but she was also weak to mental attacks. Although on one side she was aggressive enough to hurt others, she also tried withdrawing into her own shell. Rina too, even up to her “death”, had been unable to save the girl from herself.

However, Lucifera now got out into the world and threw herself into battle.

Rina was happy at that fact—and became convinced she was right to trust the girl’s strength.

“Lucifera, wake up!”

“I told you, it’s useless. Rather than that, what should we do? I don’t have enough power to save everyone here… no, even just us two should get outta here ASAP, I think. Or rather, we have no other choice—”

“Luciferaaa!”

She called especially loudly.

As she did—

“—!”

Lucifera’s body twitched hard. Light returned to her eyes that were glaring at empty air and she returned Rina’s glance with a shocked face.

“La…dy…?”

“—Ha?”

The boy carrying a hockey stick on his shoulder had his expression frozen.

“Lady’s… voice…”

“Sorry for forcing you to wake up.”

Rina smiled, hugging the girl’s head.

“I had the feeling that if I didn’t stop you, you would’ve gone to the other side… just a little more—there’s just a little more, so please try fight to the end…”

“U-uuuh… yes… yesss…”

Stroking the sobbing girl, Rina spoke.

“Sorry for cutting to the chase… but can you bring everyone here back?”

“…Yup!”

Lucifera separated from Rina and operated her cellphone with both hands.

Moments later, the silent space now had electronic tones echoing throughout.

The goggles worn by the SEPB Mushitsuki started ringing alarm sounds all at once. Furthermore, the cellphones of Mushibane members started ringing, and sounds also echoed from the camo suits’ wireless communication devices.

“I’ll send as much harassment as I can. I won’t give them a moment to rest…!”

While being swallowed by the deluge of electronic tones, people shook their bodies and came back to consciousness.

This was Lucifera’s ability. Using communication devices as a medium, she could interfere with people’s spirits.

“Still, why would C even attack normal people who are—”

While Rina was looking at one of the soldiers, a change came over him. It didn’t seem like he woke up yet—but the air around him twisted.

“Eh—”

Shachito also seemed to notice this. He turned to the man getting wrapped in heat haze.

“This forcefield… no way—”

He tried to say something when it happened.

A sublime sound of bells rang around.

They were without doubt in reality. Even so, what appeared above their heads—

“What is she trying to do…?”

Was a large structure supported by countless pillars.

It was a massive shrine.

1.05 Rina Part 3

The divine shrine looked as though it was falling down from heaven.

Reflected in Rina’s eyes was the solemn and austere forms engraved into the pillars that supported this structure. It was even larger than the dome on the surface. From somewhere in this large shrine, illuminated by the sun as though blessed by the heavens, a beautiful bell sound could be heard.

“Recall...”

A soprano voice echoed on the surface.

The camo-suit man wrapped in heat haze clutched his chest and fell to his knees.

“Uuh—“

“The dream you’ve had in days past... those important feelings that you’ve already forgotten—“

It was a girl’s voice as clear as a bell. Rina looked around her.

“That voice... is it C? It sounds just like—“

“—Shinpu, yeah.”

Shachito spoke while looking above.

“Well, it’s gone through quite the makeover when compared with his Church, though...”

“Think of your dream... I shall purge all foul, worldly thoughts that made you forget it...”

The heat haze engulfing the camo man seemed to be trying to assume some form.

Watching this scene, Rina came to realize what she was witnessing.

“She’s taking a non-Mushitsuki person—and trying to make them a Mushitsuki?”

Those who could birth Mushitsuki were called the Original Three. They were numbered according to their title.

So had C become able to give birth to Mushitsuki by absorbing one of them? Not to mention, with a person who already went past puberty, too—

If so, then it would go past the category of a Mushitsuki.

She would already become—a new kind of Original Three.

“A-a lot of people haven’t woken up yet... And the noise’s becoming louder than before...”

Watching Lucifera desperately operate her cellphone with a side glance, Rina groaned.

“Miguruma said something about this. She’s sweeping off the old Mushitsuki—meaning us—to create new Mushitsuki?”

Rina gritted her teeth, leaping down from the seven-spotted ladybug. She made her Mushi fly up. It started getting absorbed into the large shrine.

“But if she’s thinking she can do that right in front of my eyes—she’s pissing me off.”

A small spot was gouged into the center of the floating shrine.

A spot became a hole, and a hole became a cave—

An explosive roar and shockwaves shattered the solemn shrine.

Violent sounds of destruction and gusts of wind rained down on the surface and all clouds in the sky parted, creating a perfect circle of sky. Electronic ringtones, beautiful bell sounds and C’s voice were all gone, and thin fragments of debris started raining down on them.

“Hah...! Hah...!”

While adjusting her breathing, Rina looked up the sky.

As if the scenery from just before was a mere hallucination or illusion, the large shrine was gone without a trace.

After having destroyed the shrine with a single, full-powered blow, the seven-spotted ladybug came down from above.

“If this was the conduit of her power like with Shinpu’s Church, then that should—“

As the surface regained its silence, people started coming back to consciousness, standing there in shock. Even the camo suit-wearing man who was wrapped in a heat haze seemed to come back to his senses without any issues.

“—I’m glad the first Mushitsuki I’ve met wasn’t you.”

Turning back toward Shachito’s voice, Rina was startled.

All of those who were late in escaping gathered around Rina.

“If it was, I would’ve fallen head over heels with how amazing you are.”

The boy carrying the hockey stick on his shoulder grinned as he passed next to Rina. His face was pale, perhaps due to expending almost all of his power. —Apparently he’d run out of power and gathered all the delayed Mushitsuki under Rina. And in a split instant, to boot.

“Still, if I would’ve relied on you—I definitely wouldn’t have gotten any stronger.”

Shachito spoke, then started running.

“Sorry, but that’s about as much as I can do. I’m a warrior, so I need to be part of the strategy to defeat the enemy. —Unlike you.”

“…Thank you. I will pray for your success in battle.”

As Rina thanked him, Shachito left a smile behind. He started running to where Haji Keigo and the rest went to, so apparently he no longer even had the power to teleport.

“Lady…”

Lucifera looked to Rina with a worried face. The other Mushitsuki did the same.

“…”

The camo-wearing soldiers couldn’t understand what was happening. They just stood in place, confused.

It didn’t seem like C was going to reappear. Had they managed to actually inflict some damage to her by destroying her conduit—or was she just preserving her powers?

It was their only chance to retreat.

“Let’s look for a safe place while we can.”

It would probably be impossible to catch up to Haji Keigo and the rest while carrying the wounded.

She recalled her past as Tachibana Rina.

That night of the meteor shower—

Rina had given up on directly participating in that decisive battle that gathered the Rank 1s.

It was the same as that time.

Although she knew she was just repeating her actions—

“I’m going! Come with me!”

She was simply the weak Mushitsuki called Tachibana Rina—

“I’ll protect everyone…!”

While dragging behind her both the Mushitsuki seeking help as well as the ghosts clinging to her legs—

She ran, aiming for a peaceful paradise.

1.06 Rina Part 4

An eerie silence wrapped the residential district of Akamaki City.

It had been already several days since the region was evacuated. Normally, this would be around the time past people commuting to school or work, when housewives would vacuum up the house or do the laundry.

Not even a single person remained there now. Familiar sights such as postal trucks, old people out on walks or housewives chatting on the road were nowhere to be found.

Oppressive engine sounds echoed in the streets empty of people.

It was a military armored car. Apparently, it was patrolling the region.

From time to time, there were also figures that appeared on the roofs of private houses.

They had varied appearance; some wore bizarre long coats, while others wore casual clothes.

They were the Revived—those who had once been Mushitsuki and became Fallen or had died. —Resurrected through C’s powers, they were being controlled as pawns.

“—It’s fine, no more Revived. I finally managed to shake them off.”

Rina checked the situation outside from behind an automatic door.

Those who hid behind her all emitted a sigh of relief together.

“Let us rest here for a while.”

They were inside a certain supermarket. The place had enough space to hide Rina as well as the wounded Mushitsuki numbering several dozen people.

Fashionable Lucifera appeared from within the store.

“The breaker’s down and the alarms are all disabled as well. We should be able to hide here for a while as long as we use no electricity or Mushitsuki powers. …If we used even one of those, we’ll probably get found by C or a Revived with sensing powers.”

“Good job. Eat something while you can and recover your stamina. I feel bad about taking things without paying… but we can just send it to them later with an apology.”

Inside the gloomy place the Mushitsuki started stuffing their mouths with foodstuff gathered around the counters.

Rina ate a banana while watching the outside from the window.

“…”

Rina noticed while eating that the Mushitsuki would glance at her from time to time.

After all, they had the supposedly dead Rina—Lady Bird—right in front of their eyes. Although she claimed that she was Mimic, they obviously couldn’t get immediately used to it.

“No matter where we run to, we have to find a way out of Akamaki City.”

Trying to shake off the heavy atmosphere permeating the store, Rina made an effort to speak with a powerful tone.

“At this rate, even if we exit Akamaki City our prospects look grim… at the very least, if we go to a city with many people, it might get them involved. We first need to rest properly.”

While putting a nutritional jelly in her mouth, Lucifera was fiddling with her cellphone.

“Hmm… reception’s good again. But it’s a trap. If anyone uses a cellphone in the empty Akamaki City, C will be able to find them instantly.”

“Getting out of Akamaki City without getting found by C and resting our bodies… including our need to join up with Haji Keigo’s group, looks like we have a lot ahead of us. —That being said, even they have nowhere to run. Since it’s that cowardly four-eyes I do think he’ll do something, though…”

Lucifera meanwhile sank into silence for a moment. She mumbled while looking at her cellphone.

“Well, I did hear something about where Haji Keigo’s planning to run to when we were escaping from the dome…”

“Really? Did he really think of a place where they could hide from C in an instant…? That itself makes me angrier—well, tell me. Where is he planning to go?”

Lucifera wanted to whisper it to her ears, but Rina stopped her.

“It’s fine. We’re all comrades here. Tell everyone.”

“…OK.”

While the dozens of people focused their gazes on her, Lucifera spoke about where they ran to.

A certain place and how to get there.

The Mushitsuki all clamored.

“—I see now. He’ll definitely be able to buy some time like that. As long as they reach it safely, C shouldn’t be able to get there…”

Rina nodded in agreement.

He was as shrewd as always—no, he was a man who liked doing what his enemy hated best.

Since C controlled digital information, perhaps “that place” was even further away than the other side of the planet.

“So the issue is how all of us get there, then.”

“Yup. Since Haji Keigo’s group have Akasegawa Nanana with them, she’ll probably do something. But we have no way of contacting her, plus moving after requesting help will make it all too late. We must somehow prepare on our own a way to transport this number of people…”

While Rina and Lucifera were deliberating, a single Mushitsuki stepped forward.

He was wearing a white long coat. Apparently he was a Mushitsuki who belonged to Central Headquarters.

“Lady—no, are you Mimic?”

“…”

Rina made no answer. Even she wasn’t sure how to accurately name herself.

“Even if it’s just you alone, you have to reconvene with Terasu and others as quickly as you can.”

There were no sounds of surprise or arguing.

“You should be able to escape from Akamaki City on your own right now. If you’re going to fight C, then you should—no, you must join their forces.”

There was not a doubt in her mind that several people there all though the same.

After all, even Rina herself knew that this was right thing to do.

All of them here were wounded Mushitsuki and there were no high-ranked combatants. Rather than helping all of them escape, she should become part of the forces to fight their powerful enemy, C.

She needed to do this—even if everyone in here would get annihilated after she left the place.

Everyone would probably say so.

However, Rina smiled and answered thusly.

“I refuse.”

The white-coated Mushitsuki bit his lips. He apparently expected Rina’s answer, but didn’t want to give up.

“B-but…”

“If I could do that, I’d enter the SEPB. I’d get along better with Kakkou—”

The moment she mouthed that name, the form of this Mushitsuki called a demon passed through her mind.

And there was another person. —No, although this boy was the same person as Kakkou, she recalled his foolish expression that made him seem like a completely different person.

“—No, it’s impossible either way…”

While Rina lowered the tone of her voice, Lucifera for some reason puffed out her chest in pride.

“Telling Lady to abandon Mushitsuki in need would be like trying to rehabilitate Harukiyo. They’re both quite a handful, after all.”

“Please don’t compare me to that pervert…”

The flame devil she’d seen back at the dome had a completely different atmosphere to what she’d seen before. Perhaps he matured a little since the period of time where he’d sexually harass her whenever they met.

“Anyway, let us at least prepare so that we can move at any time.”

Following Rina’s words, everyone focused on eating and resting.

While wary of the outside of the supermarket, Rina thought about what to do moving forward.

“A way to carry this many people… can’t rely on Akasegawa Nanana… And we can’t get in contact with Munakata-san, either…”

Should they rather just try breaking through with Rina leading the charge?

If they really were cornered, they might have no other choice. However, the result was easy to imagine. The difference in numbers was just too great; it’d end up with them collapsing one by one.

“…”

There was something.

There was only one single thing Rina thought that she could do.

Not Lady Bird. It was a way she could use only as Tachibana Rina.

However, that would be—

That alone—

Even just thinking about it made her pulse quicken. She emitted cold sweat and her arms were slightly shaking.

“I have to do that… is that why I’ve been revived? B-but…”

As Rina mumbled to herself, someone pulled her from behind.

As she startled and turned around, she saw Lucifera mildly grabbing to Rina’s clothes.

“Lucifera? What is it?”

“Lady… err…”

Mumbling, she was trying to pull Rina to a detached place.

“If you have an idea you need to tell everyone—”

“It’s not that… err…”

She fidgeted, apparently finding whatever it was hard to say, but she finally resolved herself and spoke.

“I-I’m—a traitor…”

A sudden confession.

“Ever since you were gone, Lady… S-someone called out to me… and I leaked information about Mushibane… I deceived my Mushibane comrades…”

Lucifera was crying and trembling like a child afraid of getting scolded.

“And while that happened… I let Genesis die…”

“…”

“And yet—when I saw you, I ended up tagging along without thinking… I became really embarrassed… I have to apologize… I know an apology’s not going to be enough… I… I’m…”

In the end, Lucifera was shedding tears.

Rina put a hand on the trembling girl’s head.

“Idiot.”

Lucifera’s entire body twitched and tensed.

“I also have Mimic’s memories. So—I already know all about it. About that girl you’ve joined forces with and the people who were with her…”

“…!”

Startled, Lucifera raised her tears-stained face.

“It happened while I was gone, right? So it’s not my choice whether to forgive you or not. I don’t think I can get along with that girl—Konomura Chami, but… I am grateful. Because she made you stand up again. Because—I couldn’t do that.”

“N-no…! It’s only thanks to you that I…!”

“So I’m not the one you need to apologize to, right?”

As Rina smiled, Lucifera suddenly grimaced.

“Fuyuhotaru-san…”

“I already know… what Shiika’s answer is going to be, though.”

Anmoto Shiika might be angry. However, whether or not she would forgive Lucifera in the end—was crystal clear.

—Among all of us, Fuyuhotaru’s the strongest.

Kakkou’s words were revived within Rina’s mind along with a stab of her heart.

Anmoto Shiika would probably forgive Lucifera.

There were only very few things that kind girl would never forgive—

Only the Original Three.

“…Yes.”

Rina stroked Lucifera’s head again as the girl nodded.

“Lady… won’t you take off your mask?”

Being told this by Lucifera, Rina smiled. She turned her body back toward the other comrades.

“Oh, this? I can’t take it off. —I wonder if it’s cursed?”

She wanted to make it sound like a joke, but Lucifera startled and her face froze.

“If so, then it’s just desserts for me.”

Rina said this and started walking.

Right, this was just desserts. You could even say she was caught in her own trap.

If Rina’s revival had perhaps been acted out by some factor that wasn’t fate or someone’s plans—then this would be without a doubt the retribution for her actions.

Creating a place for Mushitsuki—

Although she chanted this and fought, she had selfishly retired in the middle. That was why she deserved this.

“Alright, everyone, listen to me.”

Therefore, she was going to rescue as many Mushitsuki as she could now.

And for that sake—she didn’t care whether she fell down to hell again.

“I’ve decided—that I’ll go on my own after all.”

Her being the only one to come back to life was too convenient—

She heard this voice coming from somewhere.

She had the feeling that a part of this was the voice that belonged to her parent, who could be said to be the origin of everything for her.

1.07 Rina Part 5

When she was little, the world she saw outside the small window was very beautiful.

A room that was like a cage. A luxury car that took her in and out. A private school where she wasn’t even allowed to make friends.

The space created for her by her parents was very cramped.

Therefore, she always gazed at the outside world from her room.

The first thing she recalled was that beautiful, red sunset.

She’d once even depicted the sunset etched into her memories in a painting.

She thought she was released from that room and that she became free in the outside world. She thought that as long as the walls didn’t enclose on her, she could go wherever she pleased.

Therefore—she believed she’d be able to find a place that accepted her one day.

“…Haa, haa.”

While running through the empty residential district, Rina glanced around her.

Noticing the engine sounds of an armored car, she leapt over the fence of a private home and hid herself inside the premises.

“…”

Silencing her breath, she waited for the vehicle to pass.

She unconsciously touched the pocket at her waist and made sure of that hard sensation. It was something she’d been handed by Lucifera right before she got out of the supermarket they hid inside.

—This is my spare cellphone. Please use it when push comes to shove.

Would she even have the chance to use it while C was monitoring the electronic web and all communication networks? She wondered about this, but Rina still accepted it.

—So you’re going to prepare our means of escape… well, that’s probably true because it’s you, Lady. But I hope it’s a lie. Please escape on your own without minding us…

As they parted, Lucifera said this. Even people other than Lucifera hid their anxious expressions and nodded.

—I’ll definitely come back.

Rina promised this and parted from Lucifera and the others.

It wasn’t a lie. She did intend to go to a certain place in order to escape Akamaki City with everyone. It wasn’t guaranteed to work—but first Rina needed to slip out of Akamaki City.

“…Alright.”

Confirming the armored car had passed, Rina flew out of the backyard.

Rina was headed—to Higano City.

It was the neighboring city to Akamaki, and Rina’s goal was located there.

“…!”

She saw a human figure on the apartment building straight ahead. It noticed Rina and put a hand to its goggles.

It was one of the Revived. They were probably transmitting the discovery of Rina to their comrades.

“Looks like C took over even the SEPB-use communication network.”

In front of Rina appeared her Mushi, the seven-spotted ladybug.

“Since I’m this far from the supermarket, it’s not an issue for me to get found.”

A powerful shockwave rocked the entire block. Several private houses and the apartment building the figure stood on were swallowed by a torrent of destruction.

Watching over the figure falling down to the ground along with debris, she climbed the seven-spotted ladybug’s head.

Ascending high above, Rina quickly checked the surroundings. The wind was strong so high up.

She could see flying-type Mushi trying to approach her from all angles. She could even see what looked like an attack chopper. Power lines around glowed gold; there was no doubt this was an omen of C about to shoot lightning.

“So running away through the sky is impossible, as expected. Any Mushi would get hit by missiles… as well as C’s lightning.”

It wasn’t just in the skies, either. Rina could see multitudes of Mushi on the surface heading for her.

“If I need to hide myself, then it’s better to do so on the surface…”

Rina’s body suddenly lost its support and started freefalling.

The seven-spotted ladybug left Rina in midair and started quickly descending toward the ground.

While using its thick body to repel the Revived’s intercepting attacks, the seven-spotted ladybug landed on the surface.

With a large thud.

Sounds of destruction that sounded even somewhat comical shook the ground.

The shockwave emitted by the seven-spotted ladybug knocked down everything around it in a circle. Dozens of buildings crumbled down, the Revived were all blown away and stopped moving. Even the lines glowing in golden burst without exception and lost their light.

“Sorry. I know you’re just being controlled by C, so I held back.”

Falling headlong, Rina spun her body. At the same time the seven-spotted ladybug leapt into the air again, killing Rina’s momentum well and letting her land on its head.

“So please—don’t die from just this much.”

The seven-spotted ladybug landed again with Rina.

It started running through the residential district transformed into a smooth wasteland.

“…”

Through her Mushi, Rina noticed the vibrations felt at its feet.

The seven-spotted ladybug swung its head, throwing Rina high into air. Getting thrown away by her Mushi like it was some trampoline, Rina was sent all the way to a private house’s roof.

A moment later—the road right ahead of the seven-spotted ladybug exploded.

A gigantic Mushi emerged from the ground. It wasn’t inferior in size even to the seven-spotted ladybug, and attempted to tackle it—

However, the ladybug gained crushing victory in their clash. With it accompanied by shockwaves as well, it simply crushed the Mushi as though it was made of paper and scattered it to smithereens.

“I’d knew the Revived would swarm like this once they found me.”

Getting a running start and leaping off the building, Rina was caught by the seven-spotted ladybug’s head. Several Mushi stood in her way then, but she soon blew them away with a shockwave.

Rina kept driving the hordes back of the Revived along with the buildings.

“There are a lot of them… but I can somehow handle them since I’m all alone.”

She mumbled to herself while defeated several dozen Revived in the blink of an eye.

There were apparently no high-ranked Mushitsuki in the area. If there were and they came to attack her alone, they’d never be able to compete with the Rank 1 Rina, even as imperfect as she was.

If so, then the largest obstacle was, just as expected—C herself.

As Rina ran through the alley, golden lights started glowing on the power lines.

“—I apologize, but I don’t really feel like fighting you for real right now.”

Bursting the power lines with a shockwave, Rina leapt inside an empty house lot.

Unsummoning her seven-spotted ladybug, she kept passing through homes by the fences.

“There shouldn’t be any more surveillance cameras in this area. Once you lose sight of me you shouldn’t be able to find me unless I use my Mushi, right?”

Rina’s reasoning hit the mark.

By getting mixed in the maze of residential district, she couldn’t sense C making any more attacks. She couldn’t see any Revived, either. Since Rina made her Mushi vanish, any sensors would also lose her location.

“I need to fight the Revived at several different locations and fool her so she won’t know where I’m going… once that’s over I can head to Higano City. Meanwhile, I’ll cut off as many of our enemies as possible, so that less of them will be able to head for Haji Keigo and Terasu’s group…!”

Even if she turned the Revived to Fallen, they’d end up getting resuscitated by C again. But this should be able to buy her time. Since she took off on her own, that was the least she could do to make up for it.

“I’m also used to guerilla fighting. They weren’t calling us a resistance group for nothing.”

She’d strike the enemy and vanish.

After vanishing, she’d appear in the midst of enemies and strike.

She recalled the time she’d led Mushibane and fought against the SEPB. Rina would become a decoy to let her comrades escape and played around with the SEPB while hearing hysterical shouts from people such as Kasuou or Minmin.

Compared to those times, now that all civilians had been evacuated there was no need to fear any damage.

For Rina, this was likely—the very first time she could exhibit her full powers as a Rank 1.

“For some reason I feel like I’m invincible right now… maybe I should do like Lucifera said—”

I should just forget about everything and run away on my own—

Even such feelings welled up in her chest.

If she lived according to her will without needing to protect anything—she might gain the freedom she’d dreamed about as a child.

“But if that happens—there’s be no meaning for me to be here.”

She smiled bitterly.

After saving many and trying to lead many to salvation, she’d used up her powers and died.

Even so, she’d been called back to help many Mushitsuki yet again.

Perhaps this was the destiny of the human called Tachibana Rina.

“I don’t really… care about myself. After all—”

When she escaped into the next house, something occurred.

Until then completely silent, the residential district was suddenly wrapped in a lot of noise.

“Eh—”

It was the voice of some announcement. An artist’s comment about some luxury food. A murder culprit was interrogated and cornered by the police. The voice of an anime heroine fighting against evil.

She knew where these came from. The sounds of television came streaming out from each and every house in full volume.

“—What on earth is she trying to do?”

Rina knew only one being who could accomplish this.

“C, huh… is she trying to catch my attention with this strange phenomenon and call me out?”

Rina approached one home and peeked toward the TV screen from the window.

“Even if that’s true, if I get found I’ll just destroy everything around and run away…”

Suddenly, the noise stopped.

As Rina furrowed her brows, she saw the display changing.

“The current Mushitsuki are a failure…”

A young girl’s pale face appeared there. She wore a tiara that had patterns of hearts and crowns on it.

“C…!”

“They are not qualified to board the Ark…”

C’s voice echoed around. All the TVs around were probably streaming the same footage.

“I will wash all of them away… and in this purged world, the real Mushitsuki will be born…”

C’s eyes moved around, and her mouth was completely unmoving.

“That will be a new world… A reborn world, full of the Undying…”

“So that’s the goal Miguruma Yaeko implanted into you?”

Rina spat, her voice cynical.

“I don’t understand what you’re talking about at all… but I do understand you’re scheming something bad. —An Ark? Purging? Are you saying you’ve turned into some kind of God?”

“In order for the world to change… I need to wash everything away with the Deluge… I must unleash the Dove… And then I will bear children in this purged world…”

“C-children…”

Hearing these words coming from that cherubic face made Rina unconsciously blush.

“Does she mean new Undying Mushitsuki…? Stop being all weird about this, just show yourself and fight me already. If you bring out your real body I’ll play along.”

She had a bad feeling.

Not just a feeling.

This sensation was familiar—Rina had once felt it, and it fit.

It was her final moments.

Could it be called that? A sensation as though the grim reaper’s scythe was slowly reaching her neck and whispering a countdown in her ears.

Rina had actually been constantly feeling that mysterious sensation since the very moment she’d been revived.

“Are you scared of me? Aren’t you the strongest Rank 1? Then come attack me from the front.”

To mask her ominous sensation, Rina made a cheap provocation—

And then C inside the screen suddenly glared at her.

“Tachibana Rina… Lady Bird… I must purge the failure of the Undying… And release the Dove…”

“The Dove…?”

“The Dove will confirm the world has been purged and I will descend to the new world for the first time—”

After saying this, C moved her eyes again.

Moving just her eyes to the opposite direction of Rina—she sneered.

Rina felt that this pure expression of a face filled with malice was familiar. Once, she just so happened to be present at a place where he attacked people.

It was just like Shinpu—

The smile visible on the screen did not belong to Super Class Rank 1 C.

This face was just like one of those Primal Mushi giving birth to Mushitsuki—like one of the Original Three.

“She’s coming…”

Leaving that small mumble behind, the TV was cut off.

As if nothing happened at all, the surroundings went quiet.

“What…? She’s coming?”

Being suddenly abandoned like that, Rina stood there in shock.

C’s behavior was definitely not normal.

C might have gone to do something important for her, rather than fight Rina.

“Simply blurting out whatever and just leaving like that… who’s coming, exactly?”

Although she hesitated, Rina summoned her seven-spotted ladybug.

Riding its head, she rose high into the sky. —Although she risked getting found out by sensors, she intuited that she should try and grasp the meaning behind C’s change.

Looking at the sky, she could see four masses of light created above the area of Akamaki City.

These were probably made by C’s abilities. Four points of golden light were gathered in fixed distances, as if to draw a square.

However, even after watching it for a while, there were no further changes.

“What’s C trying to do? What on earth—”

The moment she muttered this while being fanned by strong wind, the distant sky gradually underwent change.

The color of the sky changed as though dyed by ink—and it became purple.

“—Eh… no way?”

That ominous purple was familiar.

A sky dyed purple, and C who spread a net underneath that sky.

Seeing these two phenomena, Rina—came to realize what was about to happen.

“Hadn’t all of Akamaki City’s residents been evacuated yet? So why—”

Behind her fox mask, Rina’s face froze.

“Why did Oogui appear here…?”

Rina was supposed to run around in order to escape Akamaki City along with her wounded comrades, but now yet another tragedy was about to occur in front of her eyes.

A sky dyed in purple—

It was an omen for the appearance of one the Original Three, Oogui.

“Meaning—there’s someone there and they’re about to become Mushitsuki? Also, C is lying in wait to capture Oogui… At this rate, she’ll end up just like Shinpu…”

This was an unexpected situation—no, it was completely unthinkable. The absolute worst-case scenario.

What was going to happen, if C managed to absorb Oogui?

Oogui could use the abilities of all people she’d made Mushitsuki.

If C ended up gaining that power, she would evolve to become a real nightmare, this time—

“I will not—let you do that. I won’t allow you to turn whatever person’s there into a Mushitsuki…!”

She had no other choice. Rina directed the seven-spotted ladybird ahead.

She had to stop at least the worst-case scenario from happening.

Rina flew with resolve, however—

“Can I do it, though? All on my own…”

She unconsciously wore a weak smile.

1.08 Rina Part 6

Rina thought of three ways to stop C from taking in Oogui.

One: Rina could defeat Oogui on the spot.

Two: Rina could defeat C on the spot.

Three: She didn’t know who it was, but she could find the person whose dreams were getting eaten—and do something about it.

“Who’s even dreaming right now, in this place and time…?!”

Methods one and two—were out of the question. If they were the kinds of opponents she could sacrifice herself to beat, she wouldn’t hesitate. However, Oogui could use Shiika’s powers and the location of C’s real body was unknown, so if she fought them Rina would just die in vain about nine out of ten times.

“There’s also Revived assembling there… if I don’t finish this quickly, this could be bad.”

The four glowing golden lights were apparently a trap in order to capture Oogui. Their middle was right above an interchange, where multiple roads crisscrossed each other.

Weaving her way through the assembling Revived, Rina made the seven-spotted ladybug land inside the interchange with great momentum.

She instantly found the human figure in question at this closed road that was empty from any vehicles.

“…There are two?”

There were two girls next to thick pillars supporting the interchange.

They seemed to be about Rina’s age. One had long, black hair and looked like a lady, while the other was a short-haired, androgynous-looking girl. They both supported each other.

“Which of them—no, I obviously can’t leave both of them here.”

The purple covering the skies turned thicker and thicker. Still controlling her Mushi, Rina rushed toward the pair.

“W-who are you?”

Seeing Rina, the long-haired girl spoke in a prim and proper tone of voice. Seeing as the other looked zoned out and made no response, it appeared like she was the one being targeted by Oogui.

“An ally! But I’ve got no time to explain! Let’s get away, right now!”

Pulling at the two girl’s arms, she made them stand up.

“A-an ally…?”

“I’m aware I suddenly showed up saying strange things. But please trust me. That girl’s in great danger. How do I put it—”

“She’s about to become a Mushitsuki… is that it?”

“…!”

Rina was so surprised she stopped moving.

“How do you—”

“Ena-san… experienced this before—”

“Before…? Ena…?”

A girl who was almost made a Mushitsuki before.

Ena.

These keywords raised sparks and booted up Rina’s memories—

“—”

She felt as though an icicle directly pierced her brain.

Letting go of the two girls, she took a step back.

“Ena—Saionji Ena…? From the night of the meteor shower…?”

As Rina unconsciously mumbled this, this time the long-haired looked shocked.

“Y-you know about it?”

She knew.

Rina obviously knew about that decisive fight.

After all, Rina was supposed to be one of its participants. She also heard the name of the girl who was supposed to be protected by it—Saionji Ena.

However, Rina had refrained from coming at the very last moment.

As a result, all the Mushitsuki who challenged this fight—

“Are you also phantoms…?”

“—Eh?”

Next to the long-haired girl furrowing her brows, she could see countless black arms reaching out.

They were the ghosts of the Mushitsuki Rina hadn’t managed to save. —Among them, there were also those who expired during the fight on that night.

That decisive fight had resulted in an almost complete annihilation and a loss.

During the Perseid Meteor Shower, the number of collapsed Mushitsuki among the falling stars was much more than a dozen or two.

“Were you two really there? O-or… are you two also ghosts that came back to life with me…?”

The line between reality and illusion was getting blurry within Rina.

“A-after all, why would you—appear in front of me now…?”

“W-whatever it is you are speaking about? I do not—”

Saying this, the long-haired girl’s face froze.

At some point, she noticed that many varied people were surrounding them.

They were the Revived.

Furthermore, there was a golden electrical discharge coming from the asphalt.

“…!”

Rina came back to her senses, and faster than she could turn around—

Reaching from the ground to the heavens, golden lightning pierced through the seven-spotted ladybug.

“—!”

A violent tremor and gale. As well as bursting air.

One of the four lights surrounding the interchange was unleashed by C. It was an electrical attack several times thicker than any of C’s lightnings she’d seen so far, and Rina bent backwards, voicelessly.

Not waiting for the aftershock of the lightning to settle down, the air was charging up yet again—

“—!”

The second lightning shot through the seven-spotted ladybug.

She might have judged that were she to strike Rina directly, she could have possibly also hit Ena who served as bait for Oogui. The seven-spotted ladybug hit by C’s powerful attack rose to the air from the impact, crashing against the intersection.

“This—”

Rina’s voiceless scream made her lungs vibrate.

Damage received by the Mushi would strike its host’s spirits.

Feeling an impact as though her heart was gouged, Rina slowly tilted to the side.

However, the moment before she collapsed—Rina fixed her position with all of her might, leaning forward.

“This is—nothing…!”

The scorched black seven-spotted ladybug unfurled its giant wings the moment before crashing down. As if to cover for the three girls, it began to hover above them.

“The other Rank 1s’ attacks—were much worse.”

The seven-spotted ladybug’s eyes were dyed in red. Its outer, scorched skin burst away, it vibrated its large wings in high speeds.

The scene in front of her eyes changed.

The road cracked, the Revived and their Mushi floated in air, and all high-rise buildings surrounding the road had haphazard cracks running through them.

Then—an explosion.

The soundless impact’s shockwave blew back everything that crumbled down.

“—”

The long-haired girl next to Rina opened her mouth wide in astonishment, unladylike.

This giant interchange could be said to be Akamaki City’s most important road.

Just seconds before, the modern cityscape was definitely there—but it became a plain of smooth debris in an instant. Here and there one could also see the Revived with half their body buried in dirt.

“N…Now, let us go! Get on!”

Hiding the fatigue and damage she’d accumulated, Rina brought the girls along with her on the ladybug’s back.

Stepping on the debris, the seven-spotted ladybug started running.

“Err… are you quite alright?”

While desperately clinging to the ladybug’s head, the long-haired girl spoke.

Rina smiled as she held up Ena.

“I’m perfectly fine. It was a nice refresher.”

That was a lie. The damage she’d received was large, and if they got surrounded again, she wasn’t confident she could burst through.

She needed to solve this situation as quickly as possible, so she needed to run.

“…”

Looking up at the sky, she could see it was dyed in purple as far as the eye could see.

“—I want to… see them… again—”

The girl called Saionji Ena mumbled as though in delirium.

Rina could see figures that seemed like Revived on the road ahead. She changed the seven-spotted ladybug’s course, running away with full speed.

“Why here and now…”

Rina asked Ena. The long-haired girl answered in her stead.

“Ena remained in her home even after the evacuation orders were sent. She said she felt that this tumult relates to Mushitsuki… so if she remained here, she might meet her past friends.”

Idiot—

Rina groaned in her heart, biting her lips.

“I also lied to my parents and remained in the house with her… but even I felt like we took it too far, so I dragged her away. Once I did, though, some Mushitsuki people appeared here and there—and apparently Ena ended up recalling the past after seeing them.”

Saying that, the girl looked at Ena. She wasn’t shaken even after seeing Mushi, and she was worried for her friend even in this situation. Unlike her appearance, she seemed to have some guts.

“Err, my name is Kujou Takako. May I inquire as to your name?”

“…”

Rina couldn’t answer.

Even she felt unsure who she actually was. On top of that—the name she should introduce herself as belonged to the person who’d abandoned Ena before.

“—I wonder what’s up with this feeling like I can’t escape… there’s probably nothing I can do already… no matter where I go… as long as I don’t settle everything—”

As Rina mumbled to herself, Takako looked at her confused.

“I beg your pardon…?”

“Anyway, let’s escape for now. I won’t let this girl become a Mushitsuki—I’ll definitely get you out of Akamaki City safely.”

“But how…? The previous time, many Mushitsuki saved us. But now…”

Rina looked at the sky turning purple and sighed.

There was no more time. Oogui’s appearance was only a matter of time.

“Hey, listen to me. Saionji Ena-san—”

Rina held up Ena and called into her ears.

“The dream you have is very beautiful. A monster lured by that dream is coming.”

Ena just mumbled something to herself and made no response.

Takako looked worried, furrowing her brows.

“That it no good. Ena doesn’t seem to be able to hear anything… it was like that before as well.”

“Right, she dreamed before as well. Recall that time. Many Mushitsuki have fought to protect you. And among them…”

Rina’s comrades were there.

Many of her comrades went to the fight in place of her—and not a single one returned.

“Among them—there were your friends, right?”

Rina kept whispering.

“Why have they fought? Many people fought to protect you. Not because they wanted you indebted to them. Because they were trying to protect—their own dream.”

Ena showed no response.

“Because they all regretted it. All of them let such a monster find out about their precious dream. So they didn’t want you going through the same thing. And not just you; they wanted to more people like to be created… so they fought.”

“…”

“They didn’t want you to become a Mushitsuki. They wished for it, so they fought. That’s why so many Mushitsuki gathered there. Like your friend—Arisu.”

Ena’s shoulders twitched.

Takako looked shocked.

“You know about Arisu-san?”

“So… please, Ena—fight. It’s your turn, now.”

That fight on the night of the meteor shower no one knew about.

Rina had once even blamed Kakkou for that loss.

However, that distorted mutual hatred—had to end already. She had to stop averting her eyes away from her own sins and settle everything one matter at a time.

“Your dream isn’t something you should tell a monster like that, right?”

Ena’s mouth stopped.

“Fight, Ena! Could you lose to that monster again—and yet face Arisu?”

“…”

“Wake up! If you beat that monster, you could meet Arisu!”

Ena’s clouded pupils retrieved their light.

“Wake up! Ena!”

“Ena-san…”

Takako looked at her back worriedly.

The short-haired girl—raised her face.

Rina felt that her hugged body was regaining its strength.

Ena’s eyes now clearly looked back at Rina. A lone streak of tears ran down the corner of her eye.

“…Who are you…?”

“Ena-san!”

There were also tears in the jubilant Takako’s eyes.

Looking up to the sky, she could feel the purple presence distancing itself. Seeming almost regretful, as if it was being pulled back by its hair, the sky slowly retrieved its previous color.

“I heard… your voice…”

Ena hugged back Rina strongly.

“Welcome back. …You’ve done well.”

Rina stroked Ena’s head.

She had no confidence she could actually cause Ena to wake up just by calling her.

However—she felt like the girl understood her feelings once she heard the name Arisu. She knew that this name was special for her, and that it held that much power.

Anyway, she managed to avoid the worst-case scenario.

“Now we need to find a way to escape. Hold on tight.”

“Thank you very much. Truly…”

Takako grabbed Rina’s armed and thanked her.

Rina couldn’t return her smile. She actually felt her chest constrict.

“Please. Don’t thank me… I actually—”

I actually abandoned you once before—

She couldn’t get these words out of her mouth. Rina looked back at Ena and Takako’s confused looks.

As if to escape their gazes, Rina turned her eyes to the front.

“It’s not going to be easy for the three of us to escape Akamaki City safely. The bridge connecting to Higano City’s probably sealed… I wish there was some way without any electricity so that C wouldn’t find us, but there’s no way a place like that—”

Ena and Takako who were with Rina were also in danger. Since Oogui had her eyes on Ena once, C might try to use her again.

“A place connected to Higano City without any electricity…”

Takako raised her voice.

“If that’s what we need—I have an idea.”

1.09 Rina Part 7

Seeing that straight line, without being able to see the road ahead, made her feel the extent of madness men could reach.

This was the elevated railway stretching over Akamaki City.

It stretched over many houses, bridging the gap over the river and connecting with Higano City in the vast distance.

According to Kujou Takako, this was apparently part of the shinkansen line still in construction. In several years from now the new Maglev train would go on it, and the plan was to have it connect Akamaki City with other large cities.

“…Well, it’s true this is the shortest route for us to use to escape to Higano City.”

Going up the footing from the surface to a high floor, Rina peeked at the railway.

“And it seems like the power lines weren’t installed yet.”

A deployed crane and materials remained there on the unfinished train line. There were probably many workers who worked here until the evacuation notice was issued.

Following Rina, Ena and Takako also rose to the line.

“Right, this place existed. Good job remembering it, Takako.”

“It’s just a coincidence because Father has invested in this project… it’s still going to take a while, but I have heard that this line connects to the entrance to Higano City.”

Seeing the embarrassed Takako, Rina suddenly recalled.

“Kujou… so you’re from the Kujou family. But what was a young lady like you thinking about, staying alone with a friend in such a dangerous place?”

As far as Rina could remember, Kujou Takako’s family were of an old lineage. They weren’t members of the secret limited-member club for rich people called the Round Table, but she did hear they were plenty rich.

“Do you know my family?”

“Well… just a bit.”

While evading the question, she began thinking.

What about having the Kujou family assist Rina’s group to escape through Takako?

However, Rina soon denied her own thoughts. Never mind Takako herself, Rina didn’t think her parents would want to cooperate with Mushitsuki. Furthermore, she couldn’t risk them any further.

So I have to do something by myself—

While groaning in her heart, she quickly walked to the center of the railway.

“Let’s try and gain as much distance as we can while they can’t find us. Let’s hurry up.”

Her body was heavy. She’d been hit by two of C’s attacks. Since she was in front of the anxious Ena and Takako she could feign calmness, but it wasn’t the kind of damage she could recover so easily from.

“You look like you’re hurt, but are you fine? Err… what’s your name?”

She apparently didn’t manage to hide it. She turned to the worried-looking Ena and smiled bitterly.

“I’m fine, really. I’m—Rina. You don’t have to add an honorific. We’re the same age.”

“Do you know even our ages?”

“So I’ve heard. From our… mutual acquaintance.”

Who was the mutual acquaintance Rina spoke of?

She’d already said the answer to that. The pair also probably intuited it.

“…Do you mean Arisu?”

Rina wordlessly affirmed Ena’s mumble.

“You know Arisu, right? How’s Arisu doing right now? Tell us!”

“Ena-san…! Calm down, we shouldn’t shout right now…”

As Ena grabbed Rina’s arm from behind, Takako tried pacifying her.

It was natural for them to be unable to remain calm. After all, she wished for their reunion so strongly that she managed to summon Oogui to her.

Rina averted her face from Ena and spoke.

“—Sorry. I can’t tell you.”

Once, there was a certain decisive fight.

That battle against Oogui with shooting stars in the sky all around—ended in the Mushitsuki’s defeat.

It was a huge loss of near annihilation. Oogui left and the one who arranged this fight became a Mushitsuki in the middle—then fell asleep for a long time.

With that, that fight became like an ephemeral night’s dream that no one knew about.

Even Rina herself didn’t know this truth.

However, right now she knew whatever knowledge Mimic assembled.

“It’s too complicated to explain what happened to her and where she is, so I can’t do it. I can’t even imagine whether you’ll be glad or in despair to hear that. At least until we reach a safe place in Higano City… I can’t tell you.”

In a certain sense, Rina and Sleeping Beauty—Arisu—were very much alike.

Both of them had been forced to wake up from their slumber in order to fight against C.

She didn’t know how Ena would accept this situation. Rina was worried the girl would pity her friend and break down into tears on the spot.

“So will you tell us once we get to Higano City?”

“Yes. There are some things I can’t say, though.”

She tried smiling, and it seemed like Ena accepted this for now. She released Rina’s arm.

“…”

Stop.

Rina realized the meaning behind the silence that befell the three.

Don’t ask anything else—

She unconsciously grimaced and wished for this in her heart.

“…Say, Rina.”

“No more talking. Just start walking.”

As Rina spoke coldly on purpose, new companions appeared next to her.

They numbered more than just one or two.

In front of Rina, behind her and next, the number of human figures walking through the rails grew little by little.

They were the Fallen or the deceased Rina hadn’t managed to save. They were the former shells of the Mushitsuki who got revived along with Rina—no, by clinging to her. They were already part of Rina.

Ena and Takako probably couldn’t see them.

However, to Rina’s eyes it looked like the march of a pandemonium—

“There’s another acquaintance that—”

“I told you to stop. I’m running!”

Perhaps it was to escape Ena and Takako’s eyes, or perhaps to escape the crowd of ghosts.

Rina started running, but Ena’s voice stopped her.

“It’s someone called Kusuriya Daisuke!”

All of a sudden.

She felt strength leaving her legs.

Just from hearing this unexpected person’s name, her legs stopped and her mind blanked out.

“…Rina?”

“Rina-san?”

As Rina stopped moving like a puppet with cut strings, the two puzzled girls caught up to her.

Kusuriya Daisuke. Of all names, to hear that one—

To think they would ask Rina not about Kakkou, but this normal boy’s name.

“…!”

Rina gasped and raised her face.

The ghosts walking alongside her all turned toward her. They all stopped in place as though by some signal and glared at Rina’s face.

“—No.”

Rina grimaced and weakly shook her head to the sides.

“It’s nothing… I was just a bit surprised… it’s not like I’ve forgotten about all of you—”

“What is it, Rina? What are you talking about?”

“You’re shaking so much… does it hurt somewhere?”

“It’s fine… I haven’t abandoned you… I wasn’t thinking of saving only myself…”

She was making excuses to the ghosts, but the more she spoke that more memories passed through her mind.

After meeting Kakkou, she spent many days constantly fighting him for the sake of revenge.

After fighting for so long and continuing to rescue many Mushitsuki, she reached her limit.

It was during that period of time—that she met a certain boy.

The boy called Kusuriya Daisuke was her classmate, a boy without any distinguishing features—but his real form was the monitor sent to Rina, Kakkou—

He’d come to Rina for advice about falling in love with a girl.

And all while being aware that she was his target, Lady Bird, and his archnemesis.

Rina had drawn a single picture of that boy.

And her feelings, even now—

“Ugh—”

Feeling a violent pain, Rina crouched on the spot.

She couldn’t remove the fox mask stuck to her face. It gave a sharp pain to Rina’s face as thought constricting it, or perhaps as though stabbing it.

“Rina?!”

“Waaaah…! No… I wasn’t planning on betraying you…! I just…!”

She started crying from the pain.

“That guy, and Shiika—”

Their faces pale, Ena and Takako hugged Rina who was writhing on the ground.

Unlike those two girls—the ghosts all glared at Rina.

As if blaming Rina for trying to escape alone. Or perhaps in scorn, for not fulfilling her promise, for being a coward who worked only to make her own dream come true.

“…!”

Ena, Takako and the ghosts all looked down at Rina’s face. In the sky visible on the other side, she could see a small shadow. Grimacing her sweat-covered face, Rina rose.

“We’ve been found…!”

Several Mushi were approaching from the sky, heading toward the rails where Rina’s group was.

There would probably be other enemies coming soon as well. Even if they got off the rails and hid for now, Rina wasn’t sure if she could preserve her sanity later.

“Let’s keep moving to Higano City in one go!”

Materializing her seven-spotted ladybug, she rode on its head along with Ena and Takako.

Knocking aside the abandoned materials and welding devices, the ladybug charged through the rails.

“R-Rina! Are you feeling fine? Your complexion is horrible…! Is it my fault?”

“Rina-san…!”

“It’s fine. Relax, I definitely… won’t let even a single finger touch you!”

Right now, this was Rina’s duty and role.

Now she understood this well.

Although she was revived in order to fight C, by splitting up like this—she could now save the girl who she’d once abandoned.

Rina could settle all of her past sins. But she herself would not be saved.

Even after saving Ena and Takako, she would have to keep fighting to save Mushitsuki.

“Arisu… it’s just like you said.”

Rina recalled the words of this girl who’d lost in that unknown fight.

—I’ll connect them.

This fight that supposedly no one should have known about became connected to the new battle like this.

“Everyone’s connected… I cannot—run away.”

A large river appeared in front of the groaning Rina.

They probably put it up in a hurry; the newly created overpass was blocked by a barricade made by the camo-wearing soldiers.

“Kyaaaa!”

“Kya…!”

She accelerated further, tackling the barricade. Ena and Takako’s screams overlapped.

The seven-spotted ladybug broke through, blowing the soldiers away.

It kept its mad rush through the bridge for a minute or so.

After passing the river, Rina’s group reached a new land.

It was the city developed to be a satellite of Akamaki City, called Higano City.

“We’re getting off…!”

The very moment she said that, Rina jumped down from the rails along with the seven-spotted ladybug.

“…!”

She landed on a road just alongside the river, causing a tremor. There were no people around, but in the distance she could something like a group of news reporters filming Akamaki City.

“Ena, Takako! Run!”

Recalling her ladybug, Rina leapt between the buildings located along the road.

While panting hard, she took a detour, running through several buildings—and she finally reached her limits. She stopped her legs.

“Rina?”

As Rina suddenly stopped in place, Ena and Takako turned to her with surprised face.

“…Keep going ahead. There should be a lot of people left in the center of town, so you should be able to shake off pursuit by heading there.”

“B-but what about you?”

“I have things to do. —Go ahead.”

As Rina said this, Ena and Takako looked confused.

However, they exchanged glances and then nodded at each other.

“Got it. Thank you…!”

Seeing off Ena and Takako thanking her and running off, Rina kneeled on the spot.

Fatigue overwhelmed both mind and body and she couldn’t move a single step.

Those two would probably be fine. Even this lone thought gave her a small sense of accomplishment.

She couldn’t move anymore, so her pursuers would catch up to her—but she didn’t care.

“Sorry, everyone… but please…”

Smiling at the ghosts haunting her, Rina gradually—

“Don’t wake me up again—”

Lost consciousness and fell to the ground.

1.10 Rina Part 8

As expected, Rina’s wish failed to reach God.

As she woke up, Rina’s eyes reflected two girls. One was a prim and proper young lady with her long hair tied elegantly, while the other was a short-haired girl.

They were Ena and Takako.

“—Ah, I see.”

Rina moved just her face to grasp the situation.

She’d collapsed in the emergency exit of a building complex. Packed between the rusted emergency stairway and the trash disposal area, it was a place that wouldn’t catch people’s eyes.

Ena and Takako returned and brought Rina there, most likely.

“I promised to tell you about Arisu… and that guy, right.”

She raised her upper torso from Takako’s lap. The inside of her head felt fuzzy again.

“Sorry. It’s not like I forgot. If things weren’t like this—”

“I won’t ask.”

“Eh?”

As Rina raised her face, she saw Ena arched her brows. Her eyes were misty.

“If you think we came back here to ask about all that—I won’t do that.”

Ena looked angry.

Looking at Takako, she smiled bitterly with a troubled expression.

Seeing the two of them, Rina’s expression crumbled. She understood why they came back.

“So you… worried for me. Thanks.”

While brushing back her hair, she thanked them earnestly.

The two girls suddenly looked embarrassed and blushed. They elbowed each other.

“…? What is it?”

“Say, Rina. You’re definitely a beauty, so why are you wearing that mask?”

“Ehh?”

“Err, I apologize. You looked like you were suffering, so I tried removing it while you were sleeping, but I couldn’t—”

“…”

“You have slender limbs like some actress, your voice is clear and you’re so thin… ah, no. It’s not like I was ogling you while you were sleeping! I just looked a little!”

“Also, you are very strong—I talked a little with Ena-san about this… you’re probably someone very incredible, Rina.”

“Ahaha, well, thank you.”

She was used to being viewed with eyes full of admiration and respect. In complete opposition to her own self-evaluation.

However, as she saw those two having fun speaking even in this kind of situation, she was shocked at their strength. Could two normal girls who weren’t even Mushitsuki be so strong and resolute?

“Ah… Rina-san, you can’t get up yet. You should rest a little more.”

“Sorry, are you mad?”

Takako and Ena stopped Rina from getting up. She smiled bitterly.

“Why are you mad? If you’re fine with my legs you can look as much as you’d like, though—”

“What about touching, then?”

“…”

“Please, don’t make that face—well, I can’t see your expression, but still. Ena-san has acquired the habit to latch onto the things she likes and not let go. The poor girl…”

“…That doesn’t really matter… sorry. I’m in a hurry.”

She pushed back Ena’s face leaning toward her rather forcibly as she spoke.

“I have comrades who are waiting for my return. I must save them as quickly as possible.”

It was still light outside. Apparently only little time passed since Rina fainted. As long as her body could move, she had to hurry.

“So, about Arisu—and that other guy.”

Rina put a hand on the wall to support her tottering body.

Several black arms came flying out of that dirty asphalt wall. The arms of ghosts, unseen by Ena and Takako, stuck to Rina’s body like heavy mud, clinging to her.

Ena and Takako’s faces twitched.

Although she said before she gave up on asking, she was probably still curious.

“Arisu… had been sleeping, but she’s woken up recently.”

It’s fine, I’ll definitely take you along—

She tried placating the ghosts in her heart.

“She’s apparently still unstable, though. Whether you’d be able to meet her again or not… depends on her.”

“S-she’s been asleep… is it some illness? Or—”

“Sorry, I can’t say anything further. …I really can’t say.”

Ena leaned again, and Rina pushed her back again.

If the information Rina, no, Mimic had gotten from people was correct, the general cause for Sleeping Beauty to fall asleep like that—was the person right in front of her eyes right now, meaning Saionji Ena.

No one wished for Ena herself to know that information, and Sleeping Beauty probably wouldn’t approve it either.

That fight ended without anyone knowing about it.

They couldn’t bring it up again after all this time. Let sleeping dogs lie, as the idiom said, and almost literally in this case.

This wasn’t about Sleeping Beauty having woken up. She couldn’t afford to stimulate Saionji Ena by accident because that might end up summoning Oogui again—

“So let’s speak about the other one instead…”

Averting her face from Ena and Takako, who didn’t look ready to accept this, Rina kept talking.

“That guy… right, Kusuriya Daisuke—”

She tried speaking, but her tongue wouldn’t listen to her.

Where should she start talking from?

As far as she understood from seeing how Ena and Takako acted, that man had probably acted out a normal person in front of them. As though he was just a harmless classmate. A normal friend one could find anywhere.

Right—just like he did to Rina, too.

“Oh, yeah… he’s—”

He actually was the worst Mushitsuki called Kakkou—

If she told them that, would Ena and Takako be disappointed?

He kept leading the frontlines of Mushitsuki and fought against the Original Three—

If she told them that, would Ena and Takako start treating him like a hero?

He fell in love with a girl called Anmoto Shiika and had fun with her like an idiot—

If she told them that, how would Ena and Takako respond?

He was the one who originally turned Anmoto Shiika into a Fallen, could be called the one responsible for Rina’s death, had been unable to protect Sleeping Beauty Arisu, and yet for each such failure there was also at least one case where he protected the country from the threat of Mushitsuki. That was the kind of guy he was—

If she told them that, would she end up telling them about each and every grudge she held against him?

Right now, he’s—

Should she just tell them about his ending?

He used up his powers and became a Fallen—

Just like that.

Thinking this far, Rina felt that truth finally seeping inside her.

He was gone.

Rina’s hated archnemesis.

As well as the classmate that caused Rina’s fleeting feelings.

He no longer existed anywhere.

“…Please wait.”

This word unconsciously mumbled from Rina’s mouth.

Ena and Takako furrowed their brows.

“Eh…?”

“I know you’ve waited plenty already… but wait just a little bit more.”

“…”

“Right now, Mushitsuki are fighting. And they end up involving even those who aren’t Mushitsuki…”

Rina grimaced. She shook off the arms of the ghosts clinging to her and finally took a step.

“I won’t know until everything’s over. I’m sure no one will know what happened to him, what kind of life he had… I believe no one could explain it until after everything’s over.”

The two girls stared at her in amazement.

It was the obvious response. Even Rina herself didn’t understand what she was saying.

“When everything ends, if it’s in our victory—she’ll definitely come and tell you. Arisu, that is.”

If she stayed there any longer, her consciousness might get taken away by the ghosts’ thoughts again. Rina spun around to hide her expression, dragging her heavy legs.

“I know I told you I’ll explain, so I’m sorry. —Thank you for saving me. But please think of yourselves from now and don’t do anything reckless. Please.”

Saying this, Rina tried leaving.

“W-wait, Rina!”

She heard Ena trying to stop her from behind.

She felt regretful, but if that explanation wasn’t enough, she planned on just ignoring her.

However—

“Say, won’t you be our friend?”

These completely unexpected words made Rina’s legs stop on the spot.

“I want to meet you again, Rina! Can’t I?”

“I ask as well. Will you please become our friend?”

What carefree wishes these were.

The two girls’ request brought a pleasant warmth to Rina’s heart.

Rina hadn’t wished for them to want to become friends. Because up until this point in her life, the only one who became Rina’s friend was the lone girl called Anmoto Shiika.

However, while Rina’s heart felt warmed by their offer—at the same time it also brought her an unbearable pain.

“—I can’t.”

Even she noticed that her shoulders were slightly shaking.

Rina couldn’t become their friend.

After all, Rina had abandoned them once before. If Rina had fought for their sake at the time, it could be that their precious friend Arisu wouldn’t have fallen asleep.

Even so, to want to become friends at this stage—

For Rina, this was the most shameless wish there was.

“…”

As she felt an atmosphere of disappointment from behind her, it gouged Rina’s stomach even further.

“But… I’ve been told this by Arisu before.”

Rina spoke.

“If there were any people who definitely couldn’t hold hands together—she’d stand between them, taking their hands into her own.”

She couldn’t turn to face Ena and Takako.

She was too scared to check what faces they were making while listening to her.

“So, once everything’s over… even if it ends up being through Arisu—will you become my friends?”

Thise was Rina’s shameless wish.

Rina’s cowardly wish that used a girl who wasn’t there. And Ena and Takako’s response to it was—

“…Sure!”

“Yes!”

Both gave a clear answer.

Rina’s legs—or rather her body bound by the ghosts—became ever so slighter lighter. She stepped ahead.

Running through the empty alley, she got out from the area of crowded buildings.

“…”

As she carefully watched the national road passing right to these office buildings—she could see civilians walking here and there. There was also the fact that it was close to Akamaki City, but most residents probably refrained from heading out on their own.

Although she’d escaped from Akamaki City, C’s pursuers could still be around.

Rina trusted her own intuition, chose safe roads and kept running. Since her destination was not too far, she didn’t need to ride her Mushi.

Was her safe arrival there good or bad fortune?

Rina reached the place.

“—Ugh…”

Hiding herself in the shade, Rina looked up—at a large general hospital.

It was just about evening.

To Rina’s eyes, the hospital illuminated by the setting sun looked as though it was dyed with fresh blood.

“Uuuh…”

She held her chest with a hand, feeling as though it was painfully constricted.

Why had Rina chosen to come here?

What was in there?

Those answers tormented Rina as she finally arrived.

“I-I have to go—so I can save everyone—”

She spoke to herself, but her legs wouldn’t go any further.

“I, I have to meet him—”

He should be in that hospital.

Because he’d been enclosed there for several years already.

The origin of all of Rina’s sins.

The reality that could be called her original sin, that she averted her eyes from all this time.

“F-Father—”

Her vision was completely covered by the arms of the ghosts. Her heart beat so fast it felt likely to rip her chest at any moment, and the legs praised by Ena were shaking all over.

“UuuUuh—”

Rina’s first action after becoming Mushitsuki.

That was—injuring her own father.

In order to fulfill her revenge against her father that abandoned her mother and enclosed her in a birdcage, Rina was reborn as a Mushitsuki.

As a result, her father bore grievous wounds and kept going through hell on earth in a comatose state.

She averted her eyes from this sin—

As a result of trying to save Mushitsuki and forget her sin—

The past became an inviolable trauma for Rina, slowly permeating her heart.

“E-even if it’s Father—the Tachibana family—as long as it’s to help everyone—”

She spoke to herself again and again as though she was a child and tried approaching the hospital.

However—she couldn’t take even a single step.

Before long the hospital her father was hospitalized in came in front of her, and the biggest obstacle in Rina’s heart blocked her path.

Meaning, Rina herself.

If she had the resolve to face her own sin, she could save her comrades.

Although she understood this—her legs trying to advance actually retreated back.

“I-I can still—”

Her eyes glaring at the hospital slowly lowered.

This was Rina’s limit.

“I-if I think of another way to do this—i-if I look for Ena and Takako again—if I get the help of the Kujou family—then maybe—”

It happened just as she flinched back and averted her eyes from the hospital as though trying to escape.

The ghosts’ arms and the vision dyed in the bloody colors of setting sun were blocked—

“…!”

An azure glow suddenly appeared there.

Mixed in with the arms of ghosts, a single arm glowing in azure flew to Rina.

“Wha—”

As she was caught completely off guard, the azure arm managed to touch Rina’s brow—then vanished.

That was all.

That azure arm completely vanished as though it was no more than an illusion.

“W-what was that now?”

As she raised her face while rubbing her brows, she felt someone at her back.

Behind her was the hospital. She didn’t want to turn back to it, but—

“—”

She felt like she had to turn around.

It was hard to explain—but she felt a certain nostalgia.

At the same time, another thing came up.

She felt feelings that nearly went forgotten welling up in her chest.

It was on the rooftop of the general hospital. Just outside the fence, a familiar figure stood there.

She couldn’t see that figure’s face due to the setting sun behind it. However, she’d never mistake that pitch-dark coat that looked like demon wings, as well as the hair that stood up like horns.

“…Aha.”

She felt goosebumps.

That presence—that pressure—was definitely no lie or sham.

He definitely existed there.

“So you’ve come back to life again, too…?”

The ghostly arms that filled her sight distanced themselves like a receding wave.

Even those who already passed from this world feared him—

“Kakkou—”

Looking down Rina’s pathetic figure, he looked as though he was slightly sneering.

1.11 Rina The Last

The figure was wrapped in a green glow, leaping down from the rooftop of the general hospital.

A normal person would definitely die falling from this height, but the guy landed easily. She wasn’t surprised seeing this superhuman feat at this point.

“…”

Rina exited the shadows and started walking to the hospital.

There were supposed to be people around, but there was no one there. Silence and loneliness controlled the area, as though the world became for Rina and that guy alone.

Is this a mental attack by C again…? Or maybe an isolated territory created by another Mushitsuki—

Witnessing this impossible phenomenon actually helped retrieve Rina’s calmness. Her thinking switched over to battle mode.

“If it’s a mental attack, it’s too crude. After all, his very presence here—immediately reveals that this is an illusion.”

The approaching figure was her archnemesis, one who’d already become a Fallen and dropped out from the battles of Mushitsuki.

Kakkou.

He wore a pitch-dark coat and had mechanical goggles covering his face. Also, his right hand grasped an automatic pistol. This was a familiar sight to her to a painful extent.

“If this is just an illusion, it should be erased with even the slightest resistance… but I have a bad feeling about this.”

In this world emptied of any hindrances, this was clearly abnormal.

Even so, the Kakkou approaching her had such a powerful presence she couldn’t believe him to be an illusion.

And there was something else.

“I don’t know if I’m Mimic or Tachibana Rina right now… but I’ve actually been feeling it all along since I was revived. The same kind of feeling I’ve had almost a year ago—”

Kakkou finally stood in front of Rina.

Rina looked at his nostalgic face calmly.

“The kind of feeling like, ‘Ah, I’m going to die’.”

How should she call the feelings she had now when facing her past archnemesis?

Loathing. Rage. Nostalgia. Self-hatred. Sadness. A certain kind of elation. All these emotions mixed together, becoming a completely different sort of feeling.

“So I thought I’m about to die soon.”

She didn’t know how to call these feelings inside her—but for now, she felt just a little bit of power welling out. It was only just enough power to stop her legs from shaking, though.

“Well, I don’t mind. I’ve already died once, and besides—after saving as many Mushitsuki as I can, I don’t mind dying by the roadside. No huge difference from what already happened.”

Kakkou was silent.

Right, he was originally taciturn. She recalled something so inconsequential.

Normally—when he acted out the part of the normal boy called Kusuriya Daisuke—he’d talk a lot. And yet.

“That’s why I thought I died when I saw you, though it’s a bit early. —Even though I know you’re just an illusion. Still, looking at you… I have the feeling that it’s wrong.”

She spat out toward the silent demon.

“What—are you? Aren’t you here to kill me?”

As if to respond to her words, Kakkou readied his gun.

His gun, fused with his checkered beetle, launched a flaming bullet from the muzzle.

“…”

Not moving at all, Rina made the seven-spotted ladybug flap its wings.

Kakkou’s shot bullet was easily repelled by the emitted shockwave. The aftershock created by the two competing attacks cracked the asphalt and raised dust.

Rina felt a presence at her back.

Having used his superhuman leg strength to instantly move behind her, Kakkou swung his fist glowing in green through the blowing screen of dust.

“…”

Rina spun ahead to dodge the attack. The ladybug spread its large wings.

“—!”

The shockwave caused the road to bulge and Kakkou was blown away. Pushing through power poles and the buildings built opposite to the hospital, he pierced through several buildings and finally stopped.

While the buildings with huge holes in them crumbled with an earth tremor—

In the distance, a green glow was rising.

Kakkou landed on top of the roof of a convenience store along the road. His long coat was dirtied with dust and the sides of his lips were bleeding, but that was all.

“This way of fighting… it’s just like the real one. In that he’s annoyingly tough, too.”

As Rina grimaced and folded her arms, Kakkou pulled the trigger again.

The bullet hit right in front of Rina. To dodge the broken asphalt fragments, Rina hid herself behind the seven-spotted ladybug.

While these fragments rained down, Rina felt a chill run through her spine.

Even while just standing there she felt a murderous impulse as though her inner organs were grasped hard—the feeling that Rina had felt many times before.

“…!”

The ladybug leapt up powerfully into the air as though it was making a backflip.

Rina instantly ordered it to do so.

The moment after, a green glow flew right at the space it inhabited.

Instantly approaching, Kakkou swung down his green-covered arm. If Rina hadn’t cause it to evade, the seven-spotted ladybug would have suffered a direct hit by that punch.

“You bastard—”

Rina’s eyes changed. She didn’t know the identity of this Kakkou in front of her, but there was no mistake he was trying to beat Rina for real.

The seven-spotted ladybug leapt to Kakkou. It tried biting him with its mouthpart.

Kakkou reflexively caught the mouthpart with both hands. However, this didn’t stop the momentum behind Rina’s Mushi. While emitting a shockwave, it charged forward along with Kakkou.

“I don’t know why you’re attacking me at this point… but since you’re raring to go, I’ll take you on.”

The roads and building surroundings them were being turned to deep moats as the ladybug charged.

However, this wasn’t a one-sided battle. Kakkou used his superhuman strength to block the seven-spotted laydbug’s momentum and threw its gigantic body to the surface.

“UOOO!”

“…! Even the voice’s the same…!”

Along with a vibration, pain ran through Rina’s chest. Half of the seven-spotted ladybug’s body was buried in the asphalt.

Kakkou immediately readied his gun, but Rina soon made the Mushi flap its wings.

A violent shockwave turned the surrounding debris to a barren plain.

“So you want to fight even without any reason? You really are the worst bastard, just like usual.”

As Rina put a hand on her waist and spat this, the seven-spotted ladybug came back to her side.

In front of her eyes—Kakkou advanced with a bleeding forehead.

“…”

Rina and Kakkou faced each other silently.

Even without looking at a mirror she understood. There was no doubt that she was currently wearing the kind of expression that she hated the most.

She wasn’t fighting to save someone.

She merely fought while using her accumulated anger and hatred as fuel; she was nothing more than an avenger.

“Begone.”

Rina and Kakkou—the two Rank 1s’ voices overlapped.

Their unrestrained attacks were altering the landscape of Higano City. Knocking down tall buildings one after another, both roads and shopping districts became uniform plains.

Rina had fought Kakkou for a long, long time without pausing. However, this might be the first time that both combatants clashed with their full powers.

When they faced each other before, Rina always had people she needed to protect next to her. And even Kakkou who was known as a demon never tried involving any innocent civilians.

“Die—”

While shedding blood from her forehead, Rina wanted to give Kakkou an extra-large shot.

“If I’m going to die anyway, I’ll take you along with me—”

Her premonition of death she’d felt near her was definitely going to become reality.

If she couldn’t escape that destiny—then even if she returned to reality by blowing away this phantasm in front of her, only hellish suffering would wait for Rina.

“I have no place I belong to.”

Enduring her attacks, Kakkou shot bullets.

Part of the seven-spotted ladybug’s wings was shot, and Rina’s chest was damaged.

However, right now—even that pain felt pleasant to her.

“Whether I die or live, I’m lonely…!”

As Rina laughed furiously, tears welled up the corners of her eyes.

She fought the wrong way and perished. —Then, she was called back into this world at someone’s convenience.

She didn’t know whether or not she really came back to life. It might be that her memories and dream were simply copied into Mimic’s body.

However, right now she possessed both the personality and the feelings of the girl called Tachibana Rina.

Therefore—she couldn’t escape her past sins.

Hurting her actual father, breaking her promise to help in the decisive fight... she tried saving others in order to avert her eyes from these—she already blamed herself for things so much that she never wished for her own happiness.

Although she died once, she was simply a struggling zombie given another temporary life.

If someone so pathetic was simply going to commit suicide with an illusion—

It would be a fitting end for her.

“Die with me, Kakkou!”

Trying to use her full powers—her final attack—she made the seven-spotted ladybug spread its wings.

Kakkou, who was standing on top of the debris, raised his gun to intercept—

“—Eh?”

Kakkou’s next action made Rina doubt her own eyes. Before she could think about its meaning, her body moved on its own.

“Wa... uh—“

She tried stopping the ladybug at her side, but it was too late. Rina’s impulsive action caused her to get blown away as the shockwave toward Kakkou was unleashed.

However—she managed to alter the direction ever so slightly.

Escaping a direct hit, Kakkou was still blown away by the aftershock. He was easily blown away as though his earlier toughness was a dream, he rolled on the ground, then landed spreadeagled on top of the debris.

“Wha—what is this...!”

While covering her bleeding right arm, Rina stood up. She approached the collapsed Kakkou.

“After coming here, how dare you—hold back like that!”

Her eyes weren’t mistaken.

The moment before Rina unleashed her attack—Kakkou released his fusion with his Mushi. As a result, he received Rina’s attack on his unprotected body, getting covered in wounds.

“…Kill me.”

Looking up at Rina through cracked goggles, Kakkou mumbled softly.

“I’m already—tired…”

“—”

Rina’s body tilted.

Hearing her nemesis’s unexpected words, she felt dizzy.

“Ha...? What the... so it’s that kind of mental attack...?”

“I don’t wanna fight anymore...”

Even with his goggles on, she knew. Kakkou was grimacing in pain.

In the end, it was a mere illusion.

The Kakkou Rina knew would never make that face, and would never make those complaints.

Rina knew he wasn’t like that—

“Stop relying on me... Don’t call my name anymore...”

“Stop—”

She felt dizzy again and stopped herself from falling. Instead—she felt unfathomable rage rising within her.

Rina stepped on Kakkou’s stomach with her full strength.

“Don’t say things like that...! You’re the one who started this!”

Rina didn’t know this before, but now she did.

What did this Mushitsuki often called a demon fight for? Since Rina was also Mimic, she came to know this truth.

“You’ve fought against the Original Three... to create a world where no Mushitsuki are born anymore, right?! You’ve sacrificed so many Mushitsuki for that! You’ve survived so far just for that!”

She stepped on Kakkou again and again, wielding her hatred.

“And you’ve brought me back for that, right? You’ve even used a Mushitsuki as a tribute! You’ve brought me back in this pathetic form, nothing more than a copy!”

Rina gradually became angrier and angrier at the defenceless Kakkou. Now she stepped on his chest.

“So despite all this, for you to rest first... how dare you tell people to not call your name!”

Kakkou was speechless. He simply bit his lips a little.

“And to think the ones calling me… are only these arms of Mushitsuki who don’t exist anymore…”

At some point the countless ghost arms started clinging to Rina.

Rina could neither abandon them nor escape from them. Since they became a part of Rina, she’d probably fall even to hell with them.

“I… just wanted to stay alive. No matter what I sacrificed…”

Even while being grabbed by Rina, Kakkou didn’t move a single finger.

“But while I did that… so many things happened. Arisu was the one who started the goal to defeat the Original Three, and I—”

“I know! That’s why Arisu will call your name! Definitely!”

“…”

“And that girl, too!”

Forgetting that the one she was yelling at was a mere illusion, she grasped the boy’s face.

She pulled hard on his goggles and they easily came off, since they were so tattered.

“Shiika will obviously call your name!”

This exposed a boy’s face that looked exceptionally gentle.

Other than it being bloody as well as the band-aid on his cheek, his face looked completely normal. However, Rina knew that face better than anyone.

After all, she’d once painted in onto a canvas.

“…I just wanted a place where I belonged.”

This normal boy’s face grimaced with agony.

“I didn’t want any fight, but a place that needed me… I just wanted that—I wanted to wait for Shiika, who had the same dream… that’s all…”

“…!”

I also—

She wanted to shout this, but just barely stopped herself.

“But it’s already useless… I’ve fought too much… I already don’t know myself why I’m fighting… I want to end it all already…”

“No…! I also…!”

It was as if he spat out the very complaints that she wanted to say in place of her.

Perhaps it was that kind of illusion.

Not caused by anyone’s attack, but an illusion born from her own weak heart—meaning, she really reached her limits.

“Someone like you still has people waiting for you, so if you’re gone first… making someone like me, who has no one like that, fight against my will—isn’t that just living hell?!”

She was revived into this empty world for nothing other than to taste the pain of hell.

That was—way too cruel.

“You definitely have people like that…”

Kakkou bent his face.

How dare you speak so irresponsibly, try to leave everything to others—

Along with this anger she followed his gaze, and gulped.

“—”

In the far distance of the devastated Higano City, she could see a building standing there as if by a miracle.

It was the general hospital.

“…No! Once you’re gone, I’ll probably go there again, right…? But I can’t—it’s too much…”

Rina spoke.

Kakkou smiled. With Kusuriya Daisuke’s face.

“Ah, right… I also don’t want you to go back.”

“The heck? Are you saying you want me to stay? Is this some sort of love confession?”

Without noticing, Rina ended up sitting near the collapsed boy. Oddly, it was just like when Rina died, though their positions were reversed.

Still smiling, he said nothing.

Silence wrapped them both.

Was it really fine this way—

Rina’s chest swelled with these emotions.

Nothing but debris surrounded them and instead of a field of flowers it was a hell of crawling ghostly hands—but that scenery already passed the realm of creepy to look more like a farce.

“…So, what do you actually mean?”

When she could no longer understand how much time passed, Rina spoke.

Thinking she was unable to bear even that short while of happiness—she really lacked any charm.

“…If you go back, you’ll just end up fighting again.”

The boy said.

“Right, Tachibana-san?”

Using Kusuriya Daisuke’s face, he sighed.

Kakkou and Kusuriya Daisuke—which of them was his real face?

No—both of them were him.

Just like she was Tachibana Rina and Lady Bird.

“And so… well, I don’t really understand it…”

Just like when she saw him at the same classroom, after making a stupid face and stumbling over his words, he spoke.

“I feel like I’ve gotten—somewhat motivated.”

Ah—

Hearing those words of his, Rina finally understood.

She finally recalled how to call that sensation—what she felt the moment she’d seen Kakkou’s form again in this mysterious world, that she wasn’t able to put into words.

“I’m too late…”

As Rina groaned, her vision blurred.

The face of the lying boy was gradually losing color.

“The moment I saw you here I already felt motivated…”

While Rina stared at him with eyes full of grudge, she saw that the disappearing boy was wearing a bitter smile.

If the world Rina inhabited right now was an illusion created by her—

Then the fact her consciousness started slowly vanishing reluctantly and full with regrets was also probably in response to her feelings.

Wearing a resigned expression, Kakkou—no, Kusuriya Daisuke—slowly raised his arm.

His fingertips touched Rina’s fox mask—

“—”

Rina came back to reality.

She was hiding in the shade next to the general hospital dyed by the sinking sun. Passersby going in and out of the hospital here and there remained unchanged from before she’d gotten caught up in the illusion.

There was only one change.

Rina’s fingertips touched a fox mask lying on the floor.

“—What was even that…”

Mumbling this, Rina wiped her eyes with a sleeve. Instead of that inorganic hard surface, she finally felt her smooth, exposed cheek.

The world of reality she’d returned to was the same hell as always.

The towering silent hospital still blamed Rina for her sins, and she could see the arms of ghosts. She had no way of knowing whether the illusion she was caught in until just now was an attack by someone—or perhaps salvation.

However, Rina raised her face and started walking to the hospital.

“...Yes, I know. I have to go there—“

Her body, that felt as heavy as lead—because just the slightest bit lighter. It shed weight equivalent to about that of a fox mask.

Her body, as heavy as lead, just a little bit—became slightly lighter, about as much as a fox mask.

Not bothering to pick up the removed mask, Rina entered the hospital.

Passing through the reception desk and waiting rooms, she went to the elevator—and headed to the very back of the inpatient ward.

“...”

Both perspiration and heartbeats became fiercer.

She recalled Kakkou’s face she’d seen just before.

That face—that seemed to say that they had to fight, made her angry.

She was immensely angry and pained by this, but she thought he was right.

Whether alive or dead, the only path they knew in the end was that of battle.

“—”

Rina finally stood in front of the VIP-use room.

She put her hand on the doorknob. There were no guards and wasn’t locked either. Although he’d been quite important when hospitalized, they probably decided he no longer needed security as the years passed.

As she opened the door, expensive-looking equipment and a large bed immediately entered her sight.

Moving her shaking legs, she entered.

She approached the bed, step after step, feeling as if the past was coming back to her.

“—I’m sorry.”

When she stood next to her father attached to the ventilator, Rina felt like she regressed a few years back.

She saw her emaciated, completely transformed father.

Looking down at his form, Rina reverted to her young self from the time she became a Mushitsuki.

“Father… I’m sorry…”

Kneeling on the floor, she grabbed her father’s thin arm with both hands.

This was Rina’s original sin.

She became a Mushitsuki and some years passed, but she finally—reached her starting point.

“I know it’s already in the past, and I’m not actually myself right now, but still… I might die soon too, but—”

Thinking about it, Rina tried moving on while still young.

Seeing those being oppressed and suffered due to those more powerful than them—their figures overlapped with her own young self, so she obsessed over trying to save them.

All in order to forget her own sin and justify herself.

However, even that was already over.

Once they won this fight, Mushitsuki would no longer be born.

Her young self—would never appear again.

“If I’m able to return alive—I’ll remain at your side. Until you wake up… I’ll apologize to you properly, until you curse me…”

She swore clearly.

At the same time, she also made a wish.

“So please—help me.”

Being obstinate, until now she tried saving anyone at all with her own powers.

However, she reached her limits. Now she was able to acknowledge that fact.

“Please lend me your power…”

She wished this, removing one hand, and pulled out a cellphone.

Lucifera had handed this to her just in case.

However, what she brought out—was broken in half, for some reason. She might have broken it in the fights until now.

Giving up on the cellphone, she took the communication device on the wall. Switching to the outside line, she pushed in the number from her memory.

“—This is Rina.”

The phone soon connected. She pushed in the number of her father’s former secretary.

“I’m next to Father right now. I’m sorry to have worried you for a long time now…”

Her father used to be someone very powerful, and some of his influence remained even now. However, this meant that she would have problems with lawyers, her mother’s side of the family and whatnot, so she couldn’t miss the secretary now.

After answering all her questions, Rina spoke.

“I would like to use whatever power of the Tachibana family I can to prepare a certain something.”

Not only had she hurt her father badly and escaped, she was even going to use his personal funds.

There was no doubt that her comatose father would lambaste such an unfaithful daughter.

“I must have a ship… as large as possible—go out into sea.”

That was why Rina had sworn.

All so one day, her father would be able to squeeze her neck with his own hands.

And also in order to wait for him to call out her name, Rina would come back here.

“I need it to end all of this.”

Doing this, she was finally able to move on from that day—

So she felt.

2.00 The Others

“Big brother.”

Taiki woke up the same way as he did yesterday.

His youngest sister Ririe peeked at him from the half-opened door to his room. Petite, meek and wearing black-rimmed glasses, young Ririe looked nothing like either her sister or brother.

“Dad’s going to be angry if you don’t wake up soon.”

“Ngh…”

As he grimaced and raised his upper torso, he felt deadly tired. He was all sweaty.

Perhaps he was looking exceptionally tired, based on Ririe’s next words.

“Do you have a cold?”

“…I just had a weird dream again… I’m tired…”

Ririe pulled her face back. He could hear footsteps going down the stairs.

Taiki sighed heavily and stretched. It made him slightly less tired.

He went down to the first floor while scratching his bed hair, running into his other younger sister, Noa.

“Good morning.”

As he tried calling to her as they met, Noa suddenly reached to Taiki’s forehead with a hand.

“Doesn’t look like you have a fever.”

“Huh?”

“Ririe said you look like you’re feeling bad.”

Noa was already wearing her uniform.

“You can’t ditch school, though.”

Noa retracted her hand and smiled mischievously while Taiki found no words to reply.

As he went into the living room, there was a program about the situation of Akamaki City on TV. Nothing changed from yesterday. The only change was that the reporter sounded already tired of it all.

“Good morning, Taiki. Are you alright? Can you go to school?”

While preparing boxed lunches in the open kitchen, his mother turned to him.

“…”

Ririe was sitting on the sofa, her face the very picture of innocence. Noa was also next to her. His youngest sister apparently spread the rumors, and his older younger sister went on ahead to block his escape path. What a team combination.

“I’m going, I’m fine.”

Taiki sat down at the table full of breakfast.

Since it was so close to winter vacation, he wouldn’t feel guilty taking a day off. However, if his strict father found out it was a feigned illness, he’d be angry. His sisters knew this, so they went on a preemptive attack.

“You look more out of it than usual. Pull yourself together, son.”

While tightening his necktie, his father spoke not even looking at him.

If he “pulled himself together”, would he start having normal dreams again? Since he even started thinking it might be the case, he couldn’t argue back.

The strange dreams that Taiki started seeing—

Dreams where the people called Mushitsuki appeared. Regardless of whether those known as Mushitsuki actually existed, those dreams were far too removed from reality.

Before, he’d dreamt about a beauty wearing a strange mask.

And as for this night—

“So there’s no vacation today either, eh.”

When it became time to leave home, Noa sighed. Although she was a model student, it probably bummed her out going to a school where less and less students were in attendance every day.

Taiki felt the same. He secretly waited to hear school was on break, but they unfortunately reached the deadline.

“I’m going.”

Ririe, who exited the house a step before, didn’t seem as melancholic as her brother and sister.

Taiki also tried wearing his shoes, but perhaps he was still somewhat sleepy, since it took him some time to tie the shoestrings.

“Why are you slow?”

“Don’t kick me.”

He was urged by Noa’s foot from behind. It wasn’t like their relationship as siblings was bad, but it was embarrassing to go out together. Since Taiki took larger strides, he’d end up going out first.

“I’m heading out.”

While going on his usual route to school, he recalled the TV program from that morning.

It didn’t feel like they were going to reveal information about Akamaki City at all. As a result, it seemed like the populace was split into two—those whose anxiety kept growing, and those who just shrugged everything off and calmed down.

How was this town, with it being so far away from Akamaki City?

He didn’t feel like the number of people he saw on his way to school differed much from yesterday. Taiki was sure there’d be less of them, so this was unexpected.

“Maybe nothing’s going to change, surprisingly enough.”

He mumbled to himself.

Since his school focused on preparing students for high-ranking universities, the lessons were tough as expected, but that suited Taiki just fine. He had no complaints regarding his daily life.

However—it was true that somewhere deep inside him he wished for just a little special something to happen. People might think of it as imprudent, but it was every boy’s wish to taste a little bit of a thrill.

“Oh well.”

Just like yesterday, he would arrive at class and chat with his classmates about nothing important at all.

About the only thing changed from before was that he started seeing these strange dreams—

So he thought and started walking when it happened.

Just like his father said often, Taiki was normally absentminded.

Therefore, he ended up being overly startled by the person suddenly blocking his sight.

“—Mister Taiki?”

It was a tall foreigner. His short blond hair was waxed and he looked like an amiable young man. His worn-out suit and leather shoes created a mismatch with his young age.

“…?”

Taiki felt his entire body grow tense at this unusual happening.

Taiki had never talked to a foreigner. He was confused and unsure to how even respond.

“I apologize for suddenly calling out to you.”

A woman standing next to the foreigner spoke.

No, rather than a woman, it might be more precise to call her a girl. She looked to be around Taiki’s age. However, since her slim body was wrapped in a suit and she spoke politely, she looked more adult.

“This is Mister John Mash. He is an American journalist.”

While the woman explained this, the youth called John put out his hand to Taiki.

Taiki awkwardly shook it back.

The suited girl did not seek a handshake. Pushing away her diagonally-cut bangs with a finger, she made a Japanese-style bow.

“I am his interpreter slash assistant, Ikarino Kirari. —Nice to meet you.”

She was a calm beauty. She might actually be older than his estimations.

As Taiki just stood there like a statue, John started speaking at length about something in English.

“Eh…? Err—”

In the end, the voice coming out of his mouth sounded this pathetic.

“What’s going on, big brother?”

As Taiki got around, he saw his little sister, apparently having arrived there in a delay, standing there with a puzzled expression.

“I-I don’t really understand it either—”

“Mister Mash wishes to interview you, Taiki-san.”

Both Taiki and Noa were surprised at the interpreter girl’s words.

“Interview?”

“To be more precise, this is about your cousin.”

As Taiki furrowed his brows, John and Kirari glared at him.

“That person’s name is—”

She stared at his face as if to gauge his reaction—

“Kusuriya Daisuke.”

The girl called Ikarino Kirari spoke clearly.

“Also—has anything changed at all around you?”

Being asked this by an exceptionally powerful tone of voice, what came to Taiki’s mind was—

The dreams he started seeing every night.

As well as the dream he had that very night, about that overly powerful Mushitsuki.

That man’s fight was as fierce as a sea of flames—

2.01 Harukiyo Part 1

Harukiyo took in that nostalgic smell.

“This is—what you’d call a coup d’etat.”

It started at the very moment Haji Keigo said this and turned the flag of revolution against the government.

There was the unpleasant smell of flesh and blood burning. Harukiyo had the feeling that this scent clung to him ever since he was born.

What one might call the scent of hell.

“—Time to go.”

Harukiyo spat, his voice mixed with a sigh.

The domed facility, serving at the Mushitsuki’s temporary headquarters, was now filled with hustle and bustle. Following Haji Keigo’s announcement of a coup d’etat, Lady Bird’s appearance caused the confusion to reach its peak.

“You really plan on letting that woman go free?”

Said Kusezaki Ume, his long-time companion. The boy clad in an androgynous-looking sailor uniform was looking toward the still-smiling Miguruma Yaeko.

“How many years has she been toying with the Librarian and the Custodian for? I gotta wrack up my brains to think of the proper punishment for her.”

“Let’s ask everyone for ideas on torture! I believe you’re going to use mine, though.”

As Ume spoke excitedly, a large mirror bug appeared at his back. The mirror surface on the insect’s back reflected Harukiyo and his comrades.

Harukiyo looked to the side, speaking to Kasuou who was carrying Sleeping Beauty.

“Give her a message from me once she wakes up, Kasuou.”

“Ah?”

“Look—this world is the continuation of your failed dream.”

Hearing this, Kasuou and the girls called Nene and Tamamo all turned harsh eyes to him.

“You can also tell her that she has to pay for it sooner or later. She and Kakkou never even noticed how dangerous C was. They shoulda let her participate in the night of the meteor shower—and kill her.”

They all became speechless, hearing his words. However, Kasuou soon spoke back to him.

“Why’re you even bringing that up in that stage? You’ve lost your edge, too.”

“I’m just stubborn. You know that, right?”

The moment after Harukiyo asserted this, the scenery visible to his eyes changed completely.

It was the townscape of Akamaki City spread out, with a side gale blowing.

Harukiyo was standing atop the very summit of the dome’s ceiling.

He was instantly transported to the rooftop like that through the use of Kusezaki Ume’s mirror bug. Since he could control multiple mirror bugs, Ume was able to take a person’s reflections and reflect them from one mirror bug to another, thus transporting them to different location.

Standing next to Harukiyo were his several companions, including Ume and Haruka.

“So what are we going to do now, Harukiyo?”

The youth with a scraggly beard asked while stretching. Harukiyo’s friend, alias Santa Claus, was a another powerful Mushitsuki.

“Nothing. Playtime’s over.”

“Really? Really? What on earth have you been trying to do, Harukiyo? …Uh, my wounds feel like they’re opening again. I have to rub in more medicine.”

The girl with a pointy hat started rubbing some suspicious medicine on her own stomach. Her alias was the Witch.

“Nothin’ much. I just wanted Sleeping Beauty to wake up and crush me like a bug.”

“Ooh, so hentai…!”

The blond woman—aka Maria—started panting for some reason, sounding excited.

“And that’s why you’ve been looking for her for more than two years…? Hardcore…”

Sakaki Haruka, who wore the kind of clothes classified as Gothic Lolita, mumbled to herself.

At that moment, the dome shook violently.

Along with a roar, dust blew from the edge of his vision.

He wondered if a missile exploded or something, but that wasn’t it. Apparently, some impact broke through the dome’s walls. He could see the Mushitsuki all busting out of the dome within the screen of dust.

“Oh, so it’s over? Then I’ll be heading back home. I got to enjoy the rate sight of seeing Harukiyo almost dying, after all.”

“Right, right. We also almost died, but that always happens. I gotta go back and watch the anime I was recording.”

“I is sleepy…”

Even among Harukiyo’s acquaintances, they were especially powerful Mushitsuki. They were never threatened by anyone; a gathering of people who were as free as they were peculiar.

They were all going to scatter as casually as after going to late-night karaoke, and Harukiyo didn’t have the right to stop them. Nor a reason for doing so.

“Eh, we’re leaving already? But it still looks fun. It’s a war out there!”

Only Ume seemed displeased at this. Apparently he hadn’t played enough.

“I get the shivers, working with groups of people numbering more than two digits. I might vomit.”

“No can do, no can do. You’re calling it a war, but isn’t it a witch hunt? I have enough of people beating me after I try to get close in class. Ah, I hope the world gets destroyed so I get a vacation from school…”

“War bad! Love & peace!”

Ume pouted at their friends’ cold behavior.

“Then at least leave a little of your powers for Haruka! Maria-san’s sensing ability and Witch-san’s medicine and fortune-telling are useful. We don’t need you, Santa Claus, so you can go.”

“Hey! What the hell? Am I not actually the most useful? Well, I am not going to reveal my hand even if you ask me to, though.”

“No! Fakkyu!”

“Sorry, sorry. I’ll give you my remaining medicine, so please let me go.”

Complete rejecting Ume, the three friends ended up leaving. And in a ridiculous manner, too; the Witch pulled out a broom from somewhere and the three of them rode it into the sky.

“Can this not go any faster?” “Lessgo!” “Can’t you fly with your own powers, Maria…?” These voices grew further and further away in the skies of Akamaki City.

“Aw, they’re gone. Is that fine with you, Harukiyo?”

“Huh? What is?”

“Shouldn’t we make them help us in defeating C? Or are we really finishing here now?”

After being asked this by Ume, Harukiyo sat down on the spot.

“What’s defeating C has to do with me in the first place? I only wanted to settle the score with Arisu.”

“And yet you’ve let even Arisu-san get away.”

“I’ve done it all properly, so it’s fine. She came to kill me without any hesitation, without a goal and while using her full powers. Sure, she might’ve been sleepwalking, but that’s fine. She told me two years ago she’d do it, and she finally did. We’re even now.”

“…”

“And since I’ve survived—it just means I’ve won again.”

Under his eyes, a fierce fight was unfolding.

The revived Lady Bird served as rear guard, trying to let as many Mushitsuki escape as possible.

“You don’t look very happy about your victory, though.”

“Ah, it’s just that once I think about having to look for the next… ‘disaster’, I feel kinda down.”

Those were his real feelings.

He’d never been able to get used to that—the absurd disappointment and everything feeling so meaningless. Even though he’d experienced those countless time to this point.

“I don’t really get it… but your dream sure is a bother, Harukiyo.”

Harukiyo’s dream, mentioned by Ume.

There was one, single time he’d ever spoken about it out loud. Even he thought it was a bothersome dream, and in fact, the person who heard about it—Arisu—was shocked.

No, that was wrong.

Once she heard Harukiyo’s idiotic dream, Arisu—had cried.

She never revealed the reason for her tears.

“I’m seriously sick of this…”

Recalling this silly moment, Harukiyo clicked his tongue.

An abnormal scene spread overhead.

A gigantic shrine appeared from between the clouds.

“…Ah… something’s coming…”

The moment Haruka muttered this, Harukiyo glared at the shrine floating in the sky.

A red-hot heatwave was emitted around Harukiyo. It scattered the abnormal presence that approached as though to engulf them.

“Did C try a mental attack just now? Is this Shinpu’s ability gained by absorbing him?”

“If she’s just attackin’ randomly, I don’t feel like playing along. Welp, that woman down there will surely take care of it.”

As the displeased Harukiyo spat this, Ume turned to look at him with a puzzled face.

“Say, Harukiyo. You want to fight powerful opponents, right? Isn’t C ideal for that, then? I do have some interest in this fight against C.”

“I don’t feel really excited about this… sure, strength-wise it fits, though. But I don’t think there’s any way for me to beat this alone.”

His answer was apparently unexpected. Ume looked surprised.

“Oh, so you are interested.”

“Not while working together with that lot down there, though. All the more if I fight seriously.”

“Although you can’t win alone… you won’t join forces with them…?”

Haruka also tilted her head. Harukiyo spoke calmly.

“No matter how you look at it—it’s a losing battle.”

Overhead, the shrine kept emitting a divine glow.

Having thought about ending all of this already, Harukiyo was now even angrier.

“Kakkou’s gone. Fuyuhotaru’s also missing. Dunno if they’ll be able to use Arisu. Their final hope’s that fake Lady Bird. There might be like maybe five or six other usable people? They’re just gonna get in my way if I join up with them.”

He could see a seven-spotted ladybug flying to the sky.

Along with an impact, the giant shrine was finally eliminated.

“Lady-san sure is strong. —Oh, but look.”

Ume, who was watching over the state of the battle, saw how things went on the surface and wore a bitter smile.

“Looks like she’s acting on her own. I guess she wants to help all those weaklings escape? She sure hasn’t changed a bit…”

“If she’s still the same even after getting revived, there’s really no savin’ her. She’s just gonna carry everything on her own, not rely on anyone and die along with all those weaklings.”

Harukiyo also knew a little about the Rank 1 called Lady Bird.

Most likely, this goddess bravely fighting for the sake of others was going to embrace that pure spirit of hers and die with her people again. Her remaining believers were going to then idolize her, praying for her to get revived again.

“Meaning, there’s no way for us to defeat C at this point. Picking up a fight against someone you can’t win against is plain suicide.”

While watching over Lady Bird and others who ran on the surface, he spat.

“I wanna live. For that sake—I’m goin’ around crushing all the ‘disasters’ that have the potential to kill me.”

Both looking resigned, Ume and Haruka exchanged glances.

“So, we’re heading back?”

“…Let’s leave…”

“Yeah. —First, though, there is a little something that’s been on my mind for a while now.”

Harukiyo rose up and looked at Ume.

To be more precise, he glared at the person standing between Ume and his mirror bug.

“Who the fuck are you?”

A business suit-wearing woman stood there completely still. She was a beauty who looked to be in her mid-twenties, but for some reason she hugged a teddy bear to her chest.

Ume and Haruka both turned to look at this suited beauty with a startled face.

“Eh! Harukiyo also saw her? She just went and jumped into my Mushi when we were moving and it did seem like she came with us… but since everyone just ignored her, I assumed I was hallucinating her!”

“…So she wasn’t a ghost… what a letdown…”

Having come up from the surface up to the top of the dome wasn’t just Harukiyo and his companions.

Yet another unrelated person had been there from the start.

“I do apologize for disappointing you. I am a live person, and I serve as the secretary to the Chairman of the Akasegawa Group, Miss Akasegawa Nanana.”

After she smoothly introduced herself, the woman made the teddy bear bow its head.

“And he is Septem Punctata-kun.”

“What business does the secretary of Akasegawa Nanana and her teddy bear have with us?”

Harukiyo didn’t care about the woman’s eccentricity. He was used to weird people.

“Harukiyo-sama. Chairman Akasegawa would like to offer you a job.”

Saying this, the woman introducing herself as a secretary spoke.

“Please secure a certain object and deliver it to a certain place.”

2.02 Harukiyo Part 2

It was easy for Harukiyo to summarize his life.

Everyone died except for me—

This sentence was all it took.

Each and every time, Harukiyo was assaulted by accidents and misfortune. And every time the people related to him were drawn into them and died. No matter how much Harukiyo tried saving them, it was useless.

Harukiyo called those events “disasters”.

His life was beaten down by these “disasters”, yet existed to celebrate this world.

Therefore, even him becoming a Mushitsuki was just par for the course. As he gained power in order to surpass even stronger “disasters”, he became stronger and enjoyed life even more.

Meaning, he didn’t have the slightest interest in the fights between Mushitsuki.

Although it just so happened that he got involved with Sleeping Beauty, he didn’t care about Mushi and Mushitsuki.

Even so, for some reason—

“Please secure a certain object and deliver it to a certain place.”

The woman introducing herself as Akasegawa Nanana’s secretary who was holding a teddy bear said this.

Although he had no interest in Mushitsuki, their secrets constantly came to him—

This seemed to be his fate.

Sometimes it was due to meeting up with key people by coincidence.

Sometimes it was information brought in by his friends, who were all weird but powerful.

Sometimes it was through cooperating with the SEPB in his search for Sleeping Beauty.

Harukiyo knew plenty of secrets about Mushitsuki. However, just because he knew about them it didn’t mean he was going to do something about it.

Why was it?

Until now—he’d been unable to find the reason.

“I would like to entrust you with securing of the primal Mushitsuki, Alpha, as well as his transport to a safe location.”

On top of the windy dome’s rooftop, the secretary spoke.

Alpha—

Harukiyo knew about his existence.

It was a product owned by Akasegawa Nanana that even the organization known as the Kanon Cult had once snatched away.

Akasegawa Nanana was a millionaire who served as the Chairman of the conglomerate called the Akasegawa Group. Since the period when she fought against the Round Table, the secret club serving as an authority in the business world, overlapped with the period she obtained Alpha—he had to imagine that Alpha’s origins were tied to the Round Table.

Harukiyo didn’t know as far as Alpha’s identity.

It didn’t interest him.

“This happened during the execution of Operation 3. C—not the one who became a Super Class Rank 1, but her original personality of Horiuchi Erii, tried using herself to eliminate Alpha.”

The secretary explained this dispassionately.

“Although the attempt had been just barely stopped, it later took our utmost efforts to keep him inside a vehicle equipped with a life-support system… and we were unable to move him from a certain place. Since the Mushibane and SEPB Mushitsuki who protected it also made a desperate retreat, they did not have the time to recover Alpha.”

Harukiyo and Ume exchanged glances. Haruka hurriedly lay down on the roof, sleeping.

“Akasegawa has invested a hefty sum into Alpha till now. We do not know why C would want to erase Alpha, but if C targets him again—we must do something to protect him. Because we have yet to make any profit out of Alpha.”

“…”

“Currently, Alpha is kept isolated to hide him from C, but the battery powering the life-support system will not hold out for long. We must move him to adequately furnished facilities as quickly as possible. As for the fighting forces required to do so… Akasegawa has judged you to be the only one capable of this, Harukiyo-sama.”

Ume, who until now remained silent and listened to the conversation, stepped in front of the secretary.

“Say, miss. Who’s Alpha?”

For a moment, she was silent at this question that struck at the very core.

“…I cannot give any further details other than saying he the first Mushitsuki who appeared in the world.”

“Ho. Is it really that important?”

“It could become a huge clue regarding what Mushi are. And as I have explained just now, since Horiuchi Erii had been willing to erase him even at the price of her life, we can reason out that he is hiding another important secret.”

“If he’s a clue, why not ask this Alpha guy? Like, ‘who are you, man?’”

“Alpha is in a constant loop of sleep and awakening. Also, he is missing parts of his body, making him weak, so he can’t withstand forceful awakening or questioning induced by medicine…”

“What do we have to gain from helping that Alpha guy?”

“We will pay you a suitable sum. Other than cash, we can even supply you hard-to-get items and the like after consultation.”

“Money, huh. But this country’s money’s about to go bust anyway, right? With how things are.”

“If you wish for it, we can pay with other country’s money. As long as the rich do not vanish from this world, the human called Akasegawa Nanana will never lose her funds again.”

“Wow, so confident. Hey, Harukiyo, this lady says she’ll give us money.”

“Wake up, Haruka. We’re going.”

Harukiyo held up Haruka with one hand, shaking her. He ignored the secretary right from about the middle, and Haruka didn’t wake up even after being shaken.

“Sorry. I don’t hate money, but I’m not feelin’ like it right now. This sorta thing happens, right? Times like when you really want ramen but can only find curry restaurants.”

“…There is something else we can supply to you.”

The secretary said. Although Akasegawa Nanana was an upstart who had nothing but money in her mind, she apparently didn’t actually think Harukiyo would be tempted by money.

“We will hold back nothing in support for the securing and subsequent full awakening of Sleeping Beauty.”

Harukiyo and the others froze in place.

It was an unexpected proposal in many different senses. Harukiyo spoke.

“Unless I’m mistaken, that woman’s also rich. Akasegawa doesn’t really need to butt in.”

“No, we are the only ones capable of that.”

The secretary spoke clearly.

“Before Sleeping Beauty went to sleep, she was on the cusp of Maturation. Some years passed since then and she seems to have physically grown, but… it’s impossible to estimate the rate of mental growth. Although she woke up, the possibility for her to Mature again is nonnegligible. Am I wrong?”

Harukiyo gave no answer.

“While retreating from Operation 3, Akasegawa Nanana had thought up several plans for our Group. Among them, the contract with the boy called Shiohara Shachito was included.”

“Shiohara Shachito? You know him, Harukiyo?”

“Nope.”

“He was the last disciple of the girl called Shishidou Inuko. When she was alive, she operated as a Mushitsuki in the SEPB under the codename Asagi, as an instructor.”

“Oh, I do know Wanko. When I lost against the Librarian in cards I had to go confess to her as a penalty game; it was my first time meeting her.”

“Oh, so that’s why you came back half-dead and in tears.”

“Asagi excels at analyzing the characteristics of Mushitsuki. Not only did she write manuals for retraining Mushitsuki as combatants, she analyzed the existing workforce and even tried giving suitable training for each and every member. —There’s the possibility that her last disciple Shiohara Shachito inherited something of her expertise.”

“Meaning, you’d let that brat train Arisu?”

Now realizing that she was trying to say this was an errand from Akasegawa Nanana, Harukiyo grinned.

“Train her—to stop any further Maturation.”

The secretary made a small nod.

“All the other Rank 1s like Kakkou, Fuyuhotaru and even that beautiful and perfect Rina-sama all rampaged shortly after becoming Mushitsuki. As long as one didn’t have a formidable mental strength from the very start, the power of a Rank 1 is too strong. However, after this they underwent training, gained experience and stabilized. And if you say that Sleeping Beauty has no time to gain experience—”

“Then you can just train her, you say.”

“Indeed.”

As expected from the shrewd Akasegawa Nanana. She knew what Operation 2 was about and was even convinced that Harukiyo’s goal was in Sleeping Beauty. And she hurried up to sit at the negotiation table.

Harukiyo had no complaints about this payment.

However—that was only if he hadn’t already fought Sleeping Beauty.

“Welp, sorry, miss. His business with Sleeping Beauty is actually done already.”

Ume spoke Harukiyo’s feelings for him.

“That’s too bad. It would’ve been great if Harukiyo hadn’t fought her yet.”

“Nah, Akasegawa’s offer wasn’t going to cut it in the first place.”

Harukiyo said.

“That woman was going to save Sleeping Beauty even without asking me, after all. —I know enough to at least say that even that miser wouldn’t support Sleeping Beauty just to gain money.”

The secretary might not have known this, but Harukiyo did.

Akasegawa Nanana had once cooperated with Sleeping Beauty. Their relationship was established not only based on the binary of profit and loss, but on Nanana’s personal feelings as well.

“No, Akasegawa Nanana will not help Sleeping Beauty.”

However, the secretary denied Harukiyo’s words.

“Besides, Harukiyo-sama—if you yourself claim your business is finished, why have you carried Sleeping Beauty all the way here?”

Apparently this stubborn negotiator wasn’t about to back down just yet.

Until now apathetic to it all, Harukiyo felt a small anger budding inside him.

“We finally fought and I settled things my way. I got even with her. After that, I settled things with Haji Keigo. Thanks to the liar that man sent me I was able to fight Sleeping Beauty without any interferences.”

The secretary looked back into Harukiyo’s eyes.

“Is that really the only reason?”

“You’re lookin’ kinda angry, what’re you tryna say?”

“If it’s just a Mushitsuki on a rampage, is it any different from a small fry undergoing Maturation? Has what you have been looking for been really nothing other than this sort of haphazard disaster?”

“Disaster”.

Flames lit up in Harukiyo’s eyes upon hearing that word. The surrounding air immediately started sizzling.

“Yeah. It’s just that. I wanted to beat the ‘disaster’.”

“Is that so? If you will allow me to borrow your own words, it also seemed to me like you were looking for Sleeping Beauty for reasons other than profit and loss, just like Akasegawa Nanana.”

“…”

“After all, if you were merely looking for ‘disasters’, you would have had plenty of chances until then. Fuyuhotaru’s birth, Lady Bird’s Maturation, as well as countless others, I’m sure. However, the one who stood against all those was Kakkou and not you.”

“…”

“You being so obsessed about looking for Sleeping Beauty wasn’t because just of her power as Mushitsuki… wasn’t it because you were waiting for her to wake up and give meaning to another kind of strength?”

As the secretary spoke emotionlessly, her bangs caught on fire.

“That’s creepy. Don’t start analyzing people with that know-it-all face.”

“This is no analysis. Akasegawa Nanana is determined. Sleeping Beauty might even be called her first friend—but she won’t save her.”

The secretary’s eyebrows, collar, and frill of her suit all started catching fire.

“Sleeping Beauty promised she’d win and sought Akasegawa Nanana’s assistance for the night of the meteor shower. However, as you’re fully aware—it ended up a loss. Akasegawa Nanana was definitely displeased to lose the one she invested into. That is her determination, and her way to finish things with the contract and promise.”

“…What a horrible human being. She doesn’t have any value as a friend.”

“In order to keep being Sleeping Beauty’s friend—Akasegawa Nanana needs to keep being Akasegawa Nanana.”

Harukiyo sneered.

I see, so that’s the real reward Akasegawa Nanana’s offering.

She was declaring that she would not save Sleeping Beauty.

Saying it was up to Harukiyo whether she’d save her or not wasn’t a deal, but actually a threat.

She used even her friends for a hostage deal—

That brazen, upstart girl really was in her element.

“Meaning that if I don’t help, Arisu’s fated to die from Maturation.”

“Haji Keigo will definitely use her and throw her away. I heard he’s that kind of person. Now that the SEPB has been disbanded, the only place that can train her is the group with access to Shiohara Shachito. And the one holding the decision on whether it will happen or not—is you, Harukiyo-sama.”

“…”

“What? Are you still expecting Arisu-san to do something, Harukiyo?”

His arm pulled by Ume, Harukiyo’s expression crumbled.

The fire engulfing the secretary vanished like a dream.

“No—I’m not interested.”

No matter what she told him, Harukiyo completed his goal.

—I believe… that his strength holds meaning.

How nostalgic.

That woman’s words that he already forgot passed through his mind.

“Right, if that Alpha’s a beautiful girl I might get excited!”

Ume spoke with a full smile, but the secretary shook her head.

“…He is a young man. Appearance-wise, at least.”

“Bummer. Let’s go.”

His back pushed by Ume, Harukiyo spun around.

He held no interest at all in Mushitsuki or the battles surrounding them. It simply came along with the other things he was pursuing.

It was the same with Sleeping Beauty.

The “disaster” that Harukiyo had attempted to make a preemptive attack on just so happened to be Mushitsuki. It just so happened she was an idiot who wished to save Mushitsuki.

“What a foolish man…”

Perhaps trying a sob story as her very last resort, the secretary’s words continued.

“He is already quite weakened… Even when he wakes up from time to time, he just says ‘let me sleep again’…”

“…”

He’d already settled matters with Sleeping Beauty after searching for her for so long.

This would also be his last time to get involved with the fights of Mushitsuki.

Harukiyo thought so and was about to leave all trouble behind, but—

Twitch.

His shoulders shook and he stopped on the spot.

Ume and the sleepy-eyed Haruka witnessed his expression, gasped and paled.

“He constantly groans, ‘just kill me already’…”

“—Where is he right now?”

Harukiyo inquired, not even turning around.

“Eh?”

He felt that the secretary, who was on the verge of giving up, was shaken by this.

“You’d better tell me quickly, lady. Otherwise I’ll burn ya.”

Stiff-faced Ume and Haruka hurriedly distanced themselves from Harukiyo.

“A-Alpha is currently at—”

The secretary gave Alpha’s location.

After this, Harukiyo made no attempt to restrain the impulse rising inside him.

His body engulfed by flames, he became a fireball and got down to the surface. He blew away the armored cars still loitering around and flew toward Akamaki City.

While riding the heatwave created by his ability, at times leaping over the roofs of buildings, knocking down power poles—and from time to time also blowing away the small fries known as the Revived—he advanced toward his destination in a straight line.

And several minutes later, he reached the suburbs of Akamaki City.

It was a warehouse district with a garage for freight trains.

Passing through the area filled with many containers, he came standing in front of a certain warehouse. Even the thick door of entry instantly melted by Harukiyo reaching to it.

“—!”

He soon heard many voices.

Several semi-trailers were parked inside the warehouse. Surrounding them were men holding violent firearms. They were probably mercenaries hired by Akasegawa Nanana.

“Eat shit.”

Blown away by Harukiyo’s heatwaves, the men all lost consciousness.

“Lemme say this first. —I’m not here to save you, so don’t get your hopes up. I just gotta say somethin’ to those who get on my nerves to get some peace of mind.”

Melting the semi-trailer’s cargo door, Harukiyo hopped inside.

The insides were a gate to a different world with sprawling, haphazard tubes and electron tubes. In the very center was a rectangular pool shaped like a bathtub—or perhaps a coffin.

A young man was sleeping inside this pool full of liquid.

“I just hate suicidal people like you to death.”

Being touched by the heat produced by Harukiyo, a cloud of steam rose from the water surface.

“Bastards like you suck up all the air for people like me who wanna do our best to live, eh?”

The primal Mushitsuki, Alpha, as well as the flame devil Harukiyo—

That was how this pair met.

2.03 Harukiyo Part 3

Harukiyo grabbed Alpha from inside the pool. He tore off the mask covering the youth’s face.

“Explain it to me so I can understand.”

He glared at the man’s face that was as pale as a wax doll’s from up close.

“You wanna get killed, right? Why you think so? Is there someone preventing you from living? Got a short lifespan or somethin’? So you need to kick your enemy’s asses to extend your life, right? But you want someone to kill you?”

After being yelled at from up close, Alpha opened his eyes thinly. Leaking a weak sigh, he moved his line of sight.

“Where’s… the girl…?”

“A girl? You blind or something? I’m the only one here. We’re alone.”

“She said… she’s like me… if she’s gone—”

Apparently Alpha’s life was leaking away with every soft yet long sigh of Alpha’s.

“I won’t talk anymore… let me sleep… that’s enough…”

“…”

It happened just as Harukiyo narrowed his burning eyes.

“He refers to Fuyuhotaru.”

He could hear a woman’s voice from outside the semi-trailer.

Another Harukiyo appeared there, carrying both Kusezaki Ume as well as Akasegawa Nanana’s secretary under his arms. After letting both get down, Harukiyo’s imitation melted to unveil Sakaki Haruka.

“Akasegawa Nanana was the one who bought him, but it was Fuyuhotaru who woke him up. He’d apparently been having some sort of sympathetic bond with her since then.”

“I don’t fucking care.”

Harukiyo spat, turning back to Alpha.

“I really don’t like you, bastard… you’re somewhat similar to those Original Three assholes. Since they’re self-aware about all sorta things they’re better, though.”

As Harukiyo spat this, he could sense some sort of nasty presence.

“Harukiyo! This is bad, this—”

Golden electrical discharge suddenly appeared at the ceiling. It took the shape of small C-butterflies that started fluttering around the warehouse.

“C found—”

Before Ume could finish his words, the air inside the warehouse changed.

The atmospheric pressure lowered as if the air itself was choked, and in the next moment there was an explosive roar and a gale.

“I’m currently busy—having fun talking with this son of a bitch.”

Harukiyo and Alpha’s hair was fanned by the wind.

In a position visible from the cargo, Ume, Haruka and the secretary looked around them, stunned.

Except for the semi-trailer Harukiyo and others were inside of, everything around them was turned to barren, flat ground. Everything around them simmered, with only the area where the collapsed mercenaries lay escaping the effects of the heatwave.

“You can’t go and blow up the entire warehouse just because you’re annoyed…”

Hearing Ume’s groan behind him, Harukiyo looked down coldly at Alpha.

“—Did C target me just now? Or were you the target? Well, at the very least it looks like there’re many people who’ll target you, so it’s got nothing to do with me.”

Alpha gave no answer. His slightly open eyes were listless and directed at Harukiyo’s chest.

“So many people target you, gang up on you and thoroughly bully you, eh? That wouldn’t happen unless you’re quite the bad guy, right? Have you killed hundreds of people? Or maybe you used some dirty means to squeeze money outta people? Or maybe you played with the hearts of innocent girls or trampled the dignity of weaklings and treated them like trash?”

Alpha gave no answer.

“You get what I’m saying, right? If a bastard like you feels anguished and tired and all—it’s a sort of punishment. You wouldn’t suffer so much if it wasn’t a punishment, right?”

“…”

“So you wouldn’t go all like… ‘I did nothing wrong, they just came up and started abusing me for no reason’ at this stage, right?”

Alpha finally closed his eyes.

“And if you still insist you did nothing—then your life itself is a sin.”

Harukiyo kept hurling abuse at him.

“Have you no shame, then, to be using all this machinery to keep living if it’s a sin? You’re causing so much trouble to people and you’re not even aware of it. You goddamn sinner, you shoulda died long ago. Aren’t you ashamed to still be alive?”

“…”

“Just so you know, it’s the worst of the worst criminals who don’t even know what they’ve done and yet look all like ‘I’m innocent, they are all just trying to kill me’, while you’re just chilling here, causing trouble for other people and trying to get punished for it. How much of a fucking coward are you?”

Alpha was speechless.

However—there was the smallest wrinkle formed in his brows.

“Oh? You mad? Am I being a bother? You’ve got some cheek, looking so uncomfortable at that. You wanna get killed, right? So isn’t me whispering some abuse to your ears a rather cute punishment, in comparison? Those who are content getting punished don’t resist, right? I won’t allow you talkin’ back to me, either. You’re spoiling the mood of all of us who wanna live, you living trashcan.”

Looking at the devices installed on the walls, the secretary warned Harukiyo.

“Alpha’s heartrate is rising. He is an important witness. He’s an irreplaceable person for Mushitsuki. Treating him so violently is—”

“Witness? I don’t give a fuck, I don’t need to ask him anything. —You said you’re a secretary, right? Just get behind the wheel and drive already.”

“Drive?” she asked with a tilted head.

Ume and Haruka came to the semi-trailer’s cargo.

“Uwah… Alpha-san, was it? Since Harukiyo loathes suicidal guys, he’s got his eyes on you. It’s way too early to find the next Sleeping Beauty.”

“…And now he’ll definitely not stop until you say ‘please, just let me live’…”

Golden electric discharges started forming around them again.

Understanding the situation, the secretary headed to the driver’s seat along with her teddy bear.

“I do not have license for large vehicles, though…”

“You can just pay a fine later, right?”

“…Just ignore it…”

“If you wanna die, you’re not gonna complain about whatever way you die, right? If you say you wanna get punished, keep cursing me till you run out of breath. Just as a mood cleanser.”

The large semi-trailer holding Alpha suddenly went in reverse.

Ume and Haruka rolled and bumped their head against the walls, but Harukiyo never let go of Alpha.

“If you say you wanna get punished, you gotta acknowledge your own sin, right? I’m not having a loser like you retort, and I don’t wanna hear any testimony comin’ from that dirty mouth of yours.”

Slapping Alpha’s mask back on his face, Harukiyo pushed his head into coffin-like bed again.

“Those pushing their sins on you aren’t gonna listen to you either, anyway.”

Changing directions, the semi-trailer flew out of the warehouse area.

“Therefore, your own means of resistance—are to keep living.”

Harukiyo felt like Alpha’s head twitched under his hand.

At the same time, the semi-trailer made a sudden brake, stopping in place.

“If you’re going to abandon even that and get punished, that’s quite the great sin in itself, right? Now I’m finally interested. I’m gonna watch your sin with my very own eyes and decide. I’ll be like Yama-sama down there in hell and give you my judgment. Don’t dare dream of an easy death if it ends up being something half-assed, though.”

The semi-trailer’s ceiling above Harukiyo’s head glowed dark red. The inner part was blown away as though from an explosion, opening up a circular hole.

He wrapped himself in heat and leapt. Landing on the semi-trailer’s roof, he scratched his chin.

The warehouse was being surrounded by multitudes of Revived.

“Hey, you bastards. You’re aimin’ for me? Or is for this living corpse?”

Harukiyo’s emitted heatwave instantly mowed down everything around. Containers and empty vehicles were all blown away, rails included, and the Revived were thrown backwards.

“Step on it, teddy bear lady. I dunno where to, though.”

He tapped the ceiling.

“I hit an idea on how to check this guy’s sin. And until then—I’ll keep him alive.”

The semi-trailer accelerated abruptly.

As they rushed out of the warehouse area and into the city proper, they came to a large road. There were some armored vehicles blocking the road, but Harukiyo just waved his hands to make these heavy cars flip over and clear the path.

Apparently, the secretary’s destination was distant. Passing through a great junction, the semi-trailer entered the highway connecting Akamaki City to other towns.

The semi-trailer broke through the toll gate’s bars.

As it rushed full speed on the empty highway, golden lights were formed around it.

They were countless C-butterflies. —Since Harukiyo weren’t running away or hiding, C wasn’t going to lose them.

The C-butterflies gathered in one spot and slid right beneath the semi-trailer.

“Haha!”

Harukiyo wrapped his body with a red fireball. Throwing himself midair, he grabbed the semi-trailer’s roof.

By Harukiyo yielding himself to the heatwave that struck from the side, he forced the semi-trailer to drift.

The next moment, huge lightning rose from below the semi-trailer.

Sliding on its side, the cargo box only just narrowly avoided direct impact.

“Fighting me from afar like that without showing yourself means you’re lookin’ down on me, C?!”

Following this, the second then third strike assaulted the trailer.

However, Harukiyo shook the vehicle to the side, avoiding each one.

“B-bleeeeh…! Harukiyo, is there no other way? I’m gonna hurl…!”

“…I hit my head and nose…”

He heard complaints from the cargo area, but didn’t let it bother him.

A barricade of armed vehicles and Revived blocked the path. However, the heatwave Harukiyo unleashed blew them away, opening the road again.

“That’s just not cutting it! Gimme your best shot, C! Since you’ve absorbed that disgusting Shinpu, there’s gotta be a better game you can play!”

The lightning stopped.

On the road ahead a human figure glowing in gold appeared on top of the noise barrier.

A young girl with a tiara on her head and cloak on her shoulders—C.

However, this wasn’t her real body. Her silhouette warped, the girl exchanged glances with Harukiyo as he passed by her.

“I must purge the Ark—”

C’s voice reached Harukiyo’s ears.

Another C appeared ahead.

“From the old generation of Mushitsuki—”

Not moving her mouth, C glared at Harukiyo as he passed.

“The Deluge will wash away all past Mushitsuki—”

Three Cs appeared and vanished behind Harukiyo’s semi-trailer while staring at him.

“And then I will release the Dove…”

While watching off the vanishing C, Harukiyo sneered.

“I don’t really get it—but I see now, so that’s the next ‘disaster’.”

Standing atop the cargo, Harukiyo calmly let the wind hit him.

“I’m not gonna die, though. Not even Sleeping Beauty managed to kill me.”

All lightning attacks stopped, and when C vanished—the overhead sky underwent a change.

A sublime radiance peeked from between the clouds, and something large was trying to show itself.

“Me or that suicidal guy below me… I dunno which of us this ‘disaster’ is meant for, but don’t lump us together. Unlike that guy, I’ll keep on living at any cost.”

A pure bell’s sound echoed on the highway.

A sweet sensation of drunkenness encroached his mind.

“Right, that’s the one.”

Smiling, he leapt inside the semi-trailer.

Ume and Haruka were collapsed on the floor. They were apparently downed rather quickly by C’s mental attack. They’d probably wake up on their own before long.

Forcing his increasingly heavier body to move, Harukiyo grabbed Alpha.

He raised the youth’s head from inside the tub once again.

“—I’ll never agree to this. As long as I’m alive, the fact of my life is no sin.”

Alpha frowned, opening narrow eyes.

“You’re formally invited, suicidal guy. I’m gonna show you the difference between us.”

He was purposely letting the bell noises affect him at this stage.

He grabbed Alpha’s head tightly. So he could take the suicidal guy in front of his eyes along for the ride.

“Once you’re on my level, you can even hijack a mental attack and take it over.”

Spitting this at his fellow sinner, the flame devil—

“Probably, anyway.”

Let C’s mental attack take over his body.

2.04 Harukiyo Part 4

Hot.

Suffocating.

Painful.

These were the feelings that came to be experienced during the birth of the one called Harukiyo.

“Haa… Haa…”

Painful breathing sounds and horrible shaking transmitted a sense of fear to him, engulfing him.

He heard that there were people who possessed memories from right after their birth.

Harukiyo was probably one of them.

The first person he ever knew wasn’t his own mother.

“…L-lower your heads and head to the emergency stairs!”

She was a middle-aged nurse holding the newborn Harukiyo. Her hair was disheveled and her face was dirtied with soot and sweat, but her arms made him feel both warmth and strength.

“T-there’s a sign on the wall that leads to the emergency stairs, so follow that…!”

The nurse was shouting that toward the wall of fire.

This was something he’d investigated later, but the hospital Harukiyo was born in had been burnt down due to a fire of an unknown cause. It went up in flames just as he was born, and coupled with the fact that the fire-extinguishing equipment also malfunctioned, it apparently turned into a huge incident with many victims.

“Cough! Cough! Quickly, evacuate…!”

From the other side of the fire came another scream. The nurse warned them, and yet she herself was late to escape with Harukiyo in her arms.

The nurse went back to the corridor with the fire at her back. Weaving through the black smoke, she arrived at the stairs—

“Ugh…!”

Flames had already reached all the way to the regular stairway. Knowing the fate of the others who went down a floor to look for a means of escape, the nurse’s face froze.

“…!”

Apparently, the fire had yet to reach the upper floors. The nurse rushed up the stairs. Black smoke was flowing upwards, but she had no way to resist that flow.

Just as expected, as she came out into the top floor, the corridor was completely filled with smoke.

“It’s fine… it’s completely fine…”

The nurse peeked at Harukiyo’s face as he cried loudly. —This was the first and last time Harukiyo cried like that.

Right.

Harukiyo cried like this in his desire to not die so soon after he was born.

Although he knew nothing about this world, he felt attached to life—despite him knowing no words yet, this nurse who wasn’t even blood related decided to hear his wish and put her life on the line.

“Uuh—haa—”

The nurse crawled on the floor to look for an escape through the snoke.

Her fingertips then touched the knob of a door. She desperately opened it and rushed inside.

It led to a narrow room that was apparently empty.

She hurriedly closed the door behind her, but was unable to block the smoke from invading through the gaps.

“Haa… haa…”

The nurse and Harukiyo were cornered by the closed windows.

Soon the room was going to be filled with smoke and there was the smell of the door burning.

While feeling the pursuing heat, the nurse became aware of her own fate.

“—”

Looking at the Harukiyo nestled in her arms—she wore a gentle smile.

Had he been able to do anything for her at the time, as a literal baby? He couldn’t even grab her hand and take her somewhere safe, and he had no special powers like a Mushitsuki.

There was only one thing he was able to do at the time.

As she tried encouraging him despite herself shaking in fear, as the minimal attempt for comfort—

He returned her smile.

“…Pff.”

She probably hadn’t thought that he was going to smile back at her.

Wearing a smile as though she was relieved—the nurse gave him a tight hug.

She threw herself backwards in that position from the window.

The sensation of floating from free falling was etched deep into Harukiyo at the time.

The impact following this and the warmth of the nurse that stopped moving as well.

After saving Harukiyo she’d been carried to the hospital, but apparently soon lost her life.

“—”

At the time, Harukiyo had watched the burning hospital from the nurse’s bosom.

He stopped crying, didn’t smile anymore, and just stayed still.

Doing nothing at all, he simply realized that the world he’d been born into was that kind of place.

A world filled with misfortune where people ran around frantically trying to escape it.

However—it was also a world where people were able to smile while sacrificing themselves for strangers.

He started wishing to live more in this harsh yet beautiful world—

“—It isn’t my fault, right?”

The baby’s mouth moved, putting together actual words.

“I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t even hold my neck straight, so what the hell could I’ve done?”

Speaking with a mouth that didn’t even have teeth, Harukiyo turned his gaze to the side.

A lone youth was standing there.

That person shouldn’t have been there on the day Harukiyo was born.

“But apparently there’re those who’d call this the origin of my sin.”

The silent youth—Alpha—just stood in place.

His form was getting progressively younger, finally transforming into a baby.

“C’s using the Shinpu’s powers and she knows that bastard’s methods. In short, she’s apparently telling us to ‘repent’.”

Conversely, Harukiyo’s form started rapidly growing, and he became a boy not yet ten years of age.

“In the end, that mental pollution shit is just inside our memories and minds. Puttin’ just a little bit of effort allows me to control it. Well? Hasn’t it turned out quite interesting?”

The flame devil Harukiyo.

The primal Mushitsuki, Alpha.

They were two Mushitsuki with completely different positions and histories—

“Now it’s your turn. Can you show me a sin worthy of death?”

Now, the trial comparing their sins was in session.

2.05 Harukiyo Part 5

He was the most blessed in the world.

That was because he witnessed the most beautiful sight of all the moment he was born.

Namely, light—

Although his eyesight had yet to solidify, he felt it engulf him along with a blissful warmth.

As the light vanished, he started crying.

Losing this warmth-filled light made him hopelessly sad.

He realized on an instinctive level that he would never get to touch it again.

“—”

While he was crying his lungs out, a bearded man was watching over him.

From behind the bearded man appeared another man. Then another woman appeared, and another—one after the other, adults pressed together to see his face.

After all this time, he didn’t even know where he was born.

However, he did remember that he was born inside a dirty, small cabin. It was quite the shabby place, with its walls nearly ruined.

It was there that people pushed their way inside one after another to visit him.

Their eyes.

Eyes.

Eyes.

He remembered many, many eyes peeking at him.

They probably all came to see the light that wrapped him as he was born. As he tilted his head, he could see people on their knees, praying to him.

A blinding light and eyes that peeked at his face.

And the next thing that remained in his memories was a high-pitched sound of rupture that stimulated his ears.

It was a gunshot.

Coming from afar, this small sound was pregnant with misfortune. Even the newborn could instinctually understand that fact—but he couldn’t do anything.

As he cried loudly, he was purified and blessed.

The people surrounding him were also smiling, and they gently touched him one after another. Within this warmth that he felt for the first time, he could feel their wishes of happiness.

And they were most likely—wishes regarding their own happiness.

“This child—has been blessed by God—”

Everyone would say such things.

He couldn’t count on his childhood memories, but their expressions seemed to say this.

Hope.

It was all entrusted to him, who was just born.

Among the people living in a harsh environment, a child wreathed by light was born.

What else could they call it, if not a miracle?

They rejoiced, they caressed him gently, and they offered him a pledge-like blessing.

This was the first love he felt.

And also—his last piece of bliss.

“—”

It was the ominous sound.

Gunfire was approaching, and the celebrations of his birth changed.

The small hut became full of activity and the bearded man took him away from the cradle. He was yelling something at the other surrounding people as he leapt out of the narrow room.

After all this time, he didn’t even know what country this was.

He remembered the open air being full of dust and there being lines of shacks built directly into the ground. The sort of place a person from the outside would probably call a slum.

A beautiful light and the people celebrating his birth.

Right after witnessing those, the next scenery was in the form of countless black dots floating in the sky.

Following this, other smaller objects began falling like raindrops—

“—”

Explosions and screams.

After that, a violent shaking, making him completely lose his sense of direction.

The bearded man ran while hugging him. —Was this man his father? If so, he could understand why the man risked himself to protect him. If he wasn’t his father, he could respect this man trying to rescue someone who wasn’t even his child.

As he escaped from the explosions, the slum’s residents cleared the path.

The baby’s miraculous birth apparently already passed between them. Many of them even simply kneeled while seeing him, not looking at the destroyed houses or the carriers of misfortune dancing in the sky.

While receiving the gazes of the residents offering their prayers, the bearded man was focused only on running.

Escaping the slum, he kept running even through wild land—

And the man exhausted his strength.

Apparently he was already wounded, because the collapsed man’s back was dyed in red.

“—O light—I beseech you to guide us—”

The moment before he breathed his last, the bearded man was smiling.

It was a satisfied smile, looking like he believed he’d fulfilled his duty.

Remaining alone, the baby cried.

Although he was scared of being alone, he kept crying for the sake of the people who left him and left this world.

Hearing his cries, many unfamiliar people appeared.

They picked him up as he continued crying and left with him.

There was obviously no way for him to have understood who these were at the time.

And there was someone else other than those who took him—

Starting from the moment of his birth and until the bearded man dyed—there was someone who glared at him while watching the whole thing.

In this world where the line between past and future was vague and he didn’t know anyone, someone was always with him.

While watching the miracles and misfortune clinging to him, he wore an expression—that was very much like a sneering devil.

“—Not bad at all for a ‘disaster’.”

It was a creepy man, his face covered in tape.

He had hair that was as red as flames.

“Well, show me what happens next. Using C’s powers really is a piece of cake—”

He was about to say this, but the demon erased his smile.

A golden light was formed between the devil and the baby.

It instantly formed a fairy. Her nude body was clad with a fanciful cloak and she wore a tiara on her head instead of a crown.

The baby’s expression turned severe and between him and the devil—

The golden fairy emitted blinding light.

“—!”

Harukiyo opened his eyes in an instant.

He was locking gazes with someone.

With none other than him—Alpha, who was lying inside the life support system.

He also saw Harukiyo.

And his gaze—looked like he was trying to ask Harukiyo for something.

“Haha—”

As Harukiyo sneered, a fairy’s beautiful face appeared right in front of him without any advance warning.

Appearing upside down as though she was about to kiss him, C reached out with her slender arms.

“Tss—”

Receiving an electrical shock, Harukiyo was blown off from the opened door and outside the trailer.

“Harukiyo…!”

Ume, who had regained consciousness with a delay, extended his hand to Harukiyo, but he was too late.

As Harukiyo was flung out from the speeding trailer, he fell to the ground behind it. Immediately unleashing a heat wave, he stopped himself from crashing headlong with the asphalt.

Just as he tried catching up with the semi-trailer, he was surrounded by a swarm of C-butterflies.

“Tch—I still have business with that suicidal guy! Don’t hand him over to C, Ume and Haruka!”

He didn’t even know if his two companions were able to hear his voice. The distancing semi-trailer was heading to the highway entrance, and he could see it using the emergency brakes. The secretary had probably judged that she couldn’t break through the barrier on the highway without Harukiyo.

“Well, those two aren’t gonna get done in so easily… but more importantly.”

His hair fanned by his own heatwave, Harukiyo sneered.

Now the C-butterflies surrounding him were joined with fairies made of electricity—C’s body doubles.

“C… you little bitch, are you trying to—separate me from that suicidal bastard?”

They numbered four, one in each direction of the wind.

“C. I get you’re trying to pick up a fight with me. I also understand you’re targeting that Alpha guy, more or less. So normally—wouldn’t it be easier for you to kill us when we’re together?”

“I will wash away the failed Mushitsuki—and then release the Dove—”

“Yeah, whatever. I understand it’s the goal Miguruma put into you. And you’re waffling on and on about me being a failed Rank 1. If you wanna kill me because I’m an eyesore that makes two of us, but—”

All lights in the vicinity of Harukiyo were flickering.

Electricity was gathering at this spot. Creating four body doubles meant she wanted to defeat Harukiyo right there and then.

“But seems like that Alpha bastard’s different. Looks like you don’t wanna kill us together—meaning, you wanna catch him alive?”

“I will use the Deluge to wash out the old world—”

“You’ve made a little mistake though, stupid brat. It’s me finding out you’re giving the suicidal guy special treatment.”

He sneered at the fairy who kept repeating incomprehensible words expressionlessly.

“I’ve started to gradually—get interested in Alpha.”

His two eyes flaring red, Harukiyo leaned forward.

Responding to him assuming a battle position, the fairies and C-butterflies emitted a harsh light.

“I have no plan of how to catch up to the semi-trailer, though… I should’ve asked where we were going.”

It happened just as he grumbled and was about to try breaking through C’s encampment.

A light melody began playing.

“…”

It came from nearby.

Next to the highway’s noise barrier was a cute-looking pink cellphone. He heard the light melody from it.

Still glaring at C, Harukiyo waved a hand. He controlled a heatwave to blow the small device right into his hand. He then pressed the call button.

“The owner’s missing. If you lost it, you should give it up.”

He spat this and was about to hang the call.

“—I’ll be tracking the semi-trailer’s coordinates from here... don’t lose this cellphone.”

The voice of a young girl announced this. It was a voice that made him recall his anger.

“I can’t say who I am... but I’ll help you protect Alpha for now...”

Harukiyo narrowed his eyes.

An unknown person suddenly offered him help in this situation—

Harukiyo quickly deciphered what this meant.

“You can’t say who you are? —But I know about you. Because I know about practically all Mushitsuki of note. Didja really think I wouldn’t the high-ranking Mushitsuki from the SEPB?”

“…!”

He could hear the other party gulp.

“Never mind the SEPB, though. This isn’t being done on Haji Keigo’s orders, right? He should be too busy at the moment—and besides, this fossil of a phone hadn’t been there a moment ago. I don’t know any Mushitsuki who can just leave a cellphone over there without me noticing. Meaning, it’s neither the SEPB nor Mushibane.”

“—”

The other party said nothing. However, the breaths she barely leaked were tinged with impatience and tension.

“Konoha—what’re you scheming, going around with people I don’t know?”

The moment Harukiyo named the other party, the call was hanged up.

Being exposed within a few moments probably made her panic. Harukiyo clicked his tongue and put the cellphone in his pocket.

“Don’t hang up on me, you weakling. Can’t imagine this sort of small fish made this move on her own. —Konoha’s got some kinda boss in control of her.”

As he turned back to the front, he could see that C’s body doubles looked at empty air.

“But we’re against C here, y’know? She probably immediately bugged and identified the call, judging you were allied with me.”

Two of the fairies surrounding him suddenly vanished.

Heading to the distance, street lamps vanished one after another in a straight line.

“Huh? You chasin’ after someone? Is it the one who left the cellphone there? If you’re leaving even me here to go after them, they must be a Rank 1—nah, there’s no way.”

While mulling over this, Harukiyo turned back to the two remaining fairies.

Seeing the C-butterflies emitting light as though pulling themselves together, Harukiyo sneered.

“Dunno who you’re playing with—but you’ve hurt my pride. How dare you underestimate me like that, you stupid brat who doesn’t even show her true self.”

Harukiyo howled, his entire body engulfed in crimson flames.

2.06 Harukiyo Part 6

Golden lightnings blew from the surface toward the sky.

Having become a flaming ball of heat, Harukiyo leapt to the side to dodge the lightning. He also swung his arms toward the swarms of C-butterflies filling the highway.

“Hahaaa!”

Harukiyo’s Mushi—a Great Yama tiger beetle wreathed in raging flames—swallowed the highway. Asphalt instantly turned into liquid, and a storm of bright red, burning dust and steam blew.

Harukiyo landed on the edge of the bisected road.

The ground he’d been standing on until now was decimated, and the C-butterflies and body doubles also left.

However—

“Damn, so annoying.”

A golden surged gathered at the sneering Harukiyo’s feet.

Electric lines gathered from all directions like they were bomb fuses—and the new lightning attack tried piercing Harukiyo.

He leapt to the side to dodge, but the countless C-butterflies got in his way. By bursting and connecting to each other, they became a cage of surging electricity.

Harukiyo rode a heat wave, managing to escape from the cage a moment before it clamped down on him.

“Flames and electricity is a poor matchup, eh. My attacks just keep passing through.”

Falling safely and rising again, he ran on the highway while wrapping his body in flames.

Harukiyo aimed for the direction the semi-trailer went to, but the C-butterflies stubbornly blocked his path.

He nimbly leapt to the sides while dodging the cage of electricity and gold.

“That’s why this doesn’t feel like a proper matchup at all. How can I even fight this monster who’s thrown away her personality and uses her ability endlessly in a city where you can find electricity wherever you go?”

Harukiyo rounded his body. He transformed himself to a fireball and launched himself from the surface like a missile.

Leaping over the highway, he landed with both legs on the wall of a high-rise building on the side of the road. This impact caused the entire building’s glass to burst, melting it bright red and caused it to rain down on the surface.

C was chasing after Harukiyo.

Golden fuses surged from the surface to the building, unleashing lightning that possessed enough power to kill in one strike.

“I can do something as long as I find out where the real body is.”

Kicking at the wall, he dodged the lightning. This time he went straight through the shopping arcade’s roof like a meteor and alighted down the surface. The ground caved in from the impact of the landing, and all surrounding structures cracked with him at the center.

All the shopping arcade’s billboards flickered—and golden lightning pierced through the merchant district. Harukiyo dodged the strike by a hairsbreadth, leaping to the high-rise building’s side again.

A bright-red fireball being chased by golden fairies and C-butterflies.

The pair’s game of tag destroyed Akamaki City little by little.

“C’s real body should be somewhere next to a huge electricity source. It can’t be anything plain or it wouldn’t have been able to support the amount of power and information volume she has. Since she wasn’t in the SEPB’s Fort, had she taken over a civilian power plant?”

While flying all over town, Harukiyo thought rationally.

He heard a ringtone from his pocket. As he pulled out his cellphone, he saw he got mail.

“Head 12 kilometers to the southwest, then keep going south.”

This was probably the current location of the semi-trailer housing Alpha.

It being still on the move meant that it did not fall into C’s hands.

“Looking at it in reverse, C also doesn’t want her real body to be found. Therefore, she wants to kill both of her opponents together while they’re retreating. Since all of us just finished our big operations, none of the Mushitsuki are at full power right now.”

Including himself.

The damage inflicted to Harukiyo by his fight against Sleeping Beauty was by no means light.

Even now his breathing was slightly elevated. Normally he wouldn’t be this tired.

“Lemme just say it now, but this really feels like a losing battle. Could someone even inflict any damage to C at all in that state? Maybe someone who could take care of these masses of lightning that are her body doubles—”

Like Sleeping Beauty, Arisu.

Or perhaps—the one who destroyed everything she touched, Fuyuhotaru.

About to mumble this name, Harukiyo closed his mouth.

“Anywho, it’s meaningless unless you strike the real one. So it’s also meaningless for me to fight against C like this. —I won’t let you take advantage of my games, though.”

Although he cared nothing about Mushi and Mushitsuki—it felt far more important for him to cling to an opponent when he designated them as people he didn’t like.

“I only saw the very prologue. Your reason to want to die still looks to be far, suicidal guy.”

Chasing the semi-trailer that had Alpha, Harukiyo stood inside a vast park.

As he did, many Revived surrounded him as one.

“Haha, so you used your head a little and set up an ambush on me? But—you really are lookin’ down on me.”

Harukiyo attempted to just break through without minding them.

“Tired as I might be, it’s still not enough to let some small fries like you stop me.”

He was standing on a lawn where in normal times a father and son would be playing catch. Although they were smack dab in the middle of capital, there was no need to fear C’s lightning in places with no electrical conduction like this.

Harukiyo turned into a fireball and accelerated as the Revive charged at him.

And not their Mushi, but their actual physical bodies.

“What the hell are you doing? You wanna die?”

Harukiyo blew away those people leaping right at him with heat waves.

However, the Revived then came charging at him from behind without flinching at all.

“Tch—”

Turning around, Harukiyo tried waving them away again. And then he saw—

A golden flash surged.

Between the Revived leaping at Harukiyo—electrical discharges formed in air, preserved the bare minimal distance to be able to leap between them and through it make the line of lightning reach Harukiyo.

“GAAAAAAHHHHH!”

His sight was dyed in gold and Harukiyo’s entire body was engulfed by the impact.

Even so he was able to avoid a direct strike due to his experienced reflexes. Although he sensed danger and leapt back, the aftershock caused by the lightning erupting from the surface touched Harukiyo.

People’s bodies conducted electricity.

C gathered her Revived in a straight line and used them instead of wires.

“—…!”

With his hair raising smoke and his entire body becoming black with soot, Harukiyo tottered.

The remaining Revived tried leaping at him to finish him off.

However, they all stopped in place.

Their expressions—were filled with fear.

“—What an ugly way of fighting.”

Holding out the moment before collapsing, he glared at the Revived.

The flame demon’s blazing eyes paralyzed the controlled Revived.

“If you’re gonna come at me, use your own damn powers—”

The heat wave blowing with Harukiyo in its center threw all the Revived back.

“Don’t let yourselves get used like tools so easily! You pieces of shit!”

Howling, Harukiyo transformed into a flaming sphere yet again.

“Were all of you born just to be used as pawns by someone? Living such half-assed lives, all you’re doing is showing how pathetic you are!”

After turning the entire field to ashes and melting the fence and all electric lights around, he flew out of the park. While crushing parked cars and knocking down buildings, he was setting the entire urban jungle ablaze.

“You’re pissing me off even more than C…! If you seriously wanted to live for real, you can’t fucking surrender like that just because you became Fallen or died—”

Defeating further Revived coming to attack him, he was going after the semi-trailer—

He stumbled down.

As Harukiyo’s legs became numb, he crashed headlong into a mailbox.

“Guh…!”

C’s electric attack inflicted Harukiyo some hefty damage.

Although it hadn’t been a direct hit, his body was exposed to quite the high voltage. Even remaining conscious was a struggle, and he couldn’t shake off the remaining numbness of his body easily.

“—It’s finally gotten more like a ‘disaster’, eh? Haha!”

However, Harukiyo sprang to his legs, moving.

A moment later, C’s lightning assaulted the mailbox.

While the tattered remains of tape from his face and burnt hairs fell off, Harukiyo kept moving. If he didn’t, his body would turn into ashes the next time for sure.

“Oh, so you’re not broken. You’re as tough as me.”

Hearing a ringtone, he pulled the cellphone from his pocket.

“Five kilometers to the south.”

The semi-trailer’s current location was written on the cracked LCD screen.

The distance between the two was certainly shrinking.

However, rather than Harukiyo being fast—it was the semi-trailer being slow. He had a bad feeling about it.

“I wanna keep stringing C along like this and use her—but I can’t really say that, now can I. Should I blow her off for a while?”

There were C’s body double fairies, the C-butterflies, as well as the Revived coming at him in droves.

Leading all of those to the trailer would put it in danger.

Since the semi-trailer moved slowly, it meant that Ume and Haruka were fighting hard to protect Alpha. Drawing so many pursuers to them would amount to suicide.

“—Nah, I can’t do that. If I take a detour and Ume and Haruka are finished off in the meantime, that’d be seriously uncool. I’ll lose my chances to play with that suicidal little shit.”

While running on heat waves, he emitted heavy, painful breaths.

“Or actually… I don’t think I can shake ‘em off even if I try to.”

He was hit by C’s lightning while his injuries from his fight against Sleeping Beauty still remained.

In this situation, was there a reason for him to protect Alpha just because he didn’t like him?

“Doesn’t seem like C’s trying to kill that suicidal guy… should I just withdraw?”

If he just gracefully gave up and waited for his strength to recover, he could then look for Alpha again.

These thoughts went through his mind—but Harukiyo laughed them off.

“Meaning, I’m going to spend years searching for him again? —Just like with Arisu.”

Sparks of flames came spilling out from his twisted mouth.

“What a fucking joke. I’m not just stubborn, but also short-tempered.”

He resolved himself.

He’d catch up to the semi-trailer as quickly as possible, fend off C and the Revived, and have a blast fulfilling his original goal, comparing his sins against Alpha.

Even if he’d have to keep protecting Alpha for a long time until they reached the secretary’s safe location. Even then.

Because this was the path of the person called Harukiyo, who wanted to enjoy his life to the fullest.

And as for plans on how to accomplish all of this—

“I’m gonna do whatever I like and live to the fullest. So don’t fucking dare stand in my way—”

Nothing at all came to mind.

Having accrued damage and fatigue, his body was extremely heavy.

He was even dizzy, and for a moment his vision distorted.

In this situation where there wasn’t even a lone ray of hope, Harukiyo could do only one thing—laugh it off.

“I’ll burn ya.”

Harukiyo’s eyes were dyed crimson.

The tape covering his face was burnt off and his right cheek became a flickering flame. He also lost parts of his left arm and right foot, turning into lumps of bright red fire.

“Hahaaa!”

Becoming a literal flame devil in accordance to his alias, Harukiyo rushed through Akamaki City. He pierced through large buildings, made the ground under him cave and melted any and all obstacles that stood in his way during his mad rush.

Even C’s lightning couldn’t catch up with Harukiyo.

While turning everything in his path to molten lava, Harukiyo pushed forward.

He finally managed to catch up to the semi-trailer—

“Harukiyooo!”

Standing atop the cargo box, Ume was surrounded by multitudes of Revived.

If Harukiyo had arrived just a little later, he probably wouldn’t have made it in time.

No—you could say they were already in C’s grasp.

“You’re takin’ it real easy, aren’tcha, Ume? Already caught up to you?”

“Don’t be ridiculooous! We can’t go so fast in this narrow road! —Wait, Harukiyo, your face…!”

It was probably an escape route they had no choice but to take after getting cornered. The semi-trailer was parked in a small road sandwiched between apartment complexes, not even part of the main road.

“Welp, back into the fray.”

“Eh?”

Harukiyo spouted fire from his entire body. His thrust arm was wrapped by hellfire in the form of his Mushi, the Great Yama tiger beetle.

“This is mine. —Give it back.”

He swung his arm down toward the semi-trailer.

The large Great Yama tiger beetle of flames shot out of Harukiyo’s arm, crashing headlong against the semi-trailer. The surrounding Revived were blown away—and the flames kept going, swallowing the semi-trailer, including Ume on its roof.

“Gyaaaaah!”

Ume’s scream was drowned by the heatwave and impact.

Vast energy engulfed the semi-trailer, raised it up, and invited it to a world with no sense of up or down.

In this space where the entire vision was dyed in red, what passed through Harukiyo’s mind—

—I think… there’s meaning to this power.

Was this again.

This was Sleeping Beauty’s evaluation of Harukiyo that she had told him before.

“…There’s nothing like that at all.”

As Harukiyo sneered and muttered this, the flame in his cheek was extinguished. His tattoo patterned after flames was revealed, and even his limbs fused with flames restored their normal appearance.

Then, along with a large impact, Harukiyo landed—

“Gya!”

Right next to the screaming Ume. Meaning, on top of the semi-trailer’s roof.

And the trailer itself—landed atop the hard asphalt.

And that surface was—

“Huh? This is…”

On the highway again.

Harukiyo used a heatwave to carry both himself and the semi-trailer all the way here.

“Y-you carried us all this way? This is crazy!”

“Haha! I really am fucking tired! Hit the gas already, secretary woman! From here on, you can drive as recklessly as you’d like!”

Harukiyo kicked the roof and the semi-trailer suddenly accelerated.

A golden glow was formed overhead.

“Looks like you finally understand. You can’t finish me off with a mere chase.”

Harukiyo looked up the sky, grinning.

“So you’re left with your little favorite technique then, C.”

Appearing from between the clouds was a divine shrine.

Seeing its form, Harukiyo leapt into the cargo box from the hole in the roof.

Inside the car filled with unknown machinery, the guy was closing his eyes again.

“How about at least welcoming me back, you suicidal bastard? The great Yama’s back!”

Grabbing Alpha’s cuffs, Harukiyo flared his eyes red.

“Second round. I’m not gonna let you pretend you’re asleep, alright?”

2.07 Harukiyo Part 7

Harukiyo had never cursed his own life.

He was merely aware of the fact that this was how his life was.

He first understood it when he was little.

The fire caused at the time of his birth also erased his birth records. As his origin was a complete unknown, Harukiyo was taken in by a childcare facility. He grew up there until he was ten.

This facility was a remodeled old hotel that was used for children who had no relatives. He remembered there were much more children than employees there.

There were good and bad people among both the employees and the children. Harukiyo himself had nothing to complain about his living environment, and he knew it’d be the same no matter where he went to, anyway.

“What do you wanna be when you grow up?”

He had a friend who slept in the same room as him and repeated this subject every night as a matter of course.

He was about the same age as Harukiyo, and he also had a younger sister with the habit to sneak into their room. Both siblings had naturally curly hair as well as dark skin.

“Haru’s going be a president!”

Harukiyo was about to answer but the sister answered instead of him; yet another habit of hers.

“Right, he’s super strong in a fight, after all!”

“And smart! He’ll become really important and conquer the world!”

Even in the facility Harukiyo stood out, and the two curly-haired siblings spent every day along with him.

He saw his friend’s face distort—

When the ‘disaster’ finally arrived, just as expected.

“—Haru…! I can’t breathe…!”

It was an incident caused by a serial arsonist who did it on a whim.

Until then he was satisfied with small fires, but he just so happened to find that place.

A large building that looked like it could burn well.

“Haruuu…!”

Their childcare facility truly ended up burning well.

Flames spread all over the place in no time at all, and although it was the middle of the night the area became even brighter than during the day. Since it was an old building there wasn’t any satisfactory extinguishing equipment, and the flames that swallowed the first floor slowly encroached up the floors.

And while this happened, Harukiyo—

“Haru…!”

“Haru-kun!”

He was advancing through the scorching hell, leading not only children both below and above in age but even the staff.

Looking for places the fire hadn’t reached yet, he wandered between his house that he grew used to. While securing children who lost consciousness, calming down the panicking adults, shouting at those who froze in despair to rouse them, he kept looking for a way to escape.

“Haru… Haru…”

Next to him was also his curly-haired friend who carried his unconscious sister on his back. He’d probably never stop hearing the echo of his friend calling his name over and over like a curse.

More and more people joined Harukiyo who kept going without giving up—

But at a certain point, that number began falling.

Getting hit by a crumbling, burnt ceiling and engulfed by smoke, the people collapsed one after another.

Walking in the front, Harukiyo kept desperately looking for an exit and kept calling out toward his companions.

Finally, he found a lone ray of hope.

He made eye contact with a firefighter who just climbed the ladder and reached the window of the room Harukiyo managed to escape into.

Harukiyo turned around, shouting in joy—and his expression vanished.

He could only see a sea of fire there.

The firefighter in the window reached out toward the lone survivor.

“Hey, you…! Come here, quickly!”

So it happened like that—

Forgetting the heat of the flames and feeling his heart rapidly cool down, Harukiyo headed to the window.

In this world there were those with good and bad luck.

It was neither kind or harsh, but merely a world of possibilities. Some would have their lives end due to misfortune, and instead someone else would get visited by good luck.

So he would just live as a fortunate person.

Thinking like this, he was privileged with happiness.

Fortunately, he was taken to another facility, he was fortunately even enrolled to a school, and he even met a person of the opposite sex that he started fancying.

“Hey, you. You need to come to school more.”

She wasn’t some kind of exceptional beauty.

She went to the same class as him. Her most distinguishing features were her strong-willed eyebrows and braids. She was straitlaced and so exemplary that other people might have felt some revulsion on the inside.

“You’re making trouble for the others in your group. In cooking class, for example.”

She said this and gave a nasty kick to his desk. He remembered how this instantly changed his first impression of her. She probably wasn’t as serious as she looked.

“You were probably the one in charge of bringing potatoes, right? Your friends cried after having to eat curry without any potatoes, so how are you going to settle this? C’mon. —Eh, you weren’t crying? You had onions? That’s enough, just shut up. You can’t take it back anymore.”

On the other hand, Harukiyo was the kind of delinquent boy you could find anywhere.

Since he was so amiable, many vigorous boys gathered around him, and either won or ran away. Classes were boring, so whenever he’d gone looking for ‘disasters’—he didn’t mind playing the truant for the sake of his secret hobby. It was also around this period that he met Ume, who’d end up staying with him for a long time.

“It’s not just cooking class, either. Even when preparing for the school festival, don’t you feel bad for being the only one slacking off? …Oh, sorry for misunderstanding you… Everyone has cram school and clubs and things like that, right? So why are you the only one who—eh? I did apologize. It wasn’t half-assed at all. I-it’s fine, just shut up already! Am I saying anything wrong? What d’you mean, my ears are red? Is that even relevant to what we’re talking about? If he keeps going like that, then it might affect even our school trip—”

He began noticing her after that small event.

And he parted from her not long after that.

When Harukiyo parted from someone, it was always in a world dyed bright red.

“—”

A burning rectangular box.

Just minutes ago, it had been a large bus driving through the mountains.

According to the news later, an unlicensed driver on the other lane took his eyes off the road while driving and caused the accident. This tragedy hitting the students on their field trip shook the public with the absolute worst result. There were zero survivors.

The bus that drove between the mountains took a bad curve and fell off the cliff.

Gasoline ignited and the fire spread to the dry trees as well. Only one person—Harukiyo—had been able to escape from the upturned vehicle by himself.

Although he was covered in burns and his entire body was lacerated from the windows’ broken glass, Harukiyo never gave up.

The moment before the bus was fully engulfed by flames, he dragged out several of his classmates. He even tried giving them mouth to mouth resuscitation.

“—”

However, no matter what he did, the braids girl never opened her eyes again.

That was how it happened.

While standing there and looking at his completely silent classmates, Harukiyo came to realize.

In this world, life was decided by good and bad fortune.

Harukiyo had not been spared from this in the least. Even this time he did his best to remain alive, and tried saving those who were misfortunate.

As a result, all that happened was that a line got drawn between those who lived and those who didn’t.

Therefore, Harukiyo felt nothing.

However, even so—

As if to escape from the siren sounds coming from afar, he left the place.

Seeing on the news that he was being treated as one of the victims, he never again returned to any school, facility or community like that, and just kept living on his own.

It was just a simple, single fact.

Everyone around him always died and he alone survived.

Every time he overcame death, he felt himself growing stronger.

Just like—a flame.

Using the lives of his precious people as fuel, Harukiyo kept burning brighter.

And if he really was this sort of being.

Then his continued living—was a sin.

The simple act of him living burned everyone around him to cinders. He was the most sinful being of all.

However, Harukiyo wasn’t the kind of admirable person who’d just acknowledge it so easily, and he didn’t intend to act out the hero of a tragedy, either.

“Repent…”

In his mid-teens, Harukiyo became a Mushitsuki.

Even when that happened Harukiyo was, as a matter of course, in the middle of a “disaster”. His first friend who was able to overcome that “disaster” with him, Kusezaki Ume, was also there.

“You child who can become mine vessel… repent for thy sins…”

Apparently, the one who butted in that “disaster” was called Shinpu.

Shinpu, one of the Prototype Mushitsuki who gave birth to Mushitsuki, invited him into a foul church. As he did, he said that without any prelude.

“Repent…”

Harukiyo was on the verge of death, but he remembered himself flying into a rage when he heard those words.

“—Don’t fuck with me…!”

At the time he didn’t even properly know what a Mushi was, let alone the Original Three. He mistook him to be some god or demon and vent out on him.

“What’m I supposed to be repentin’ for? I was only staying alive! So you’re saying that those who died around me were my own fault? I did my best! I tried saving them, not slacking off in the least! Even so—you say that you’re gonna punish me?”

“However, thou doth wish for a punishment…”

Twitch.

Having shown this millimeter of agitation at the moment was the mistake of a lifetime for him.

“Thou, who burns all those around thee, wish for punishment much more than anyone…”

“—What a load of bull.”

He soon noticed that Shinpu was neither God nor anything like that.

He was something much inferior—a piece of trash that made one nauseous.

“Punishing yourself is just fancy suicide. I don’t want nothin’ like that. If I’m having fun living without caring in the least about any sin and then get crushed like an insect, that’s what you’d call a punishment!”

“…”

“I won’t die. No matter what happens… no matter what cowardly method is used, I’ll keep on living stubbornly. And if people still try to punish me for that—I’ll burn them all to the ground and keep living!”

As Harukiyo howled, Shinpu looked like he flinched for a moment.

“As long as I’m alive—my life’s no sin.”

Seeing Harukiyo’s blazing eyes, that thing sneered.

“—Dost thou wish for power?”

Harukiyo’s answer to that question—had already been set.

He swore that he’d keep living no matter what he did. He’d use both brains and brawns as much as needed, and use everything he could. Even if—it was the sort of trashy power that he never wished for.

“If thou wish for it, I shall give it to thee… since thou possess the possibility to become mine vessel, the aptitude of a king…”

Thus, Harukiyo became Mushitsuki.

Following this, he began looking for a being who could punish him by himself.

“Disasters” came down bearing on them, and before they could involve unrelated people—he kept looking for an opponent that could kill him.

All so he could live.

So he could prove that his life itself was no sin, as long as he didn’t die.

Even so, for some reason—

After his life changed by his becoming a Mushitsuki, he ended up getting dragged into the fights between Mushitsuki.

“I’d just… managed to run away from Hunter, and yet…”

The possibility of the next “disaster” he obtained from the Mushitsuki was also a Mushitsuki.

While looking for a Mushitsuki that could punish him, he met the Original Three again.

It was the incident where an entire small island was swallowed by flames, nearly all of its inhabitants massacred.

If he recalled, that island’s name—was Aoharima Island.

“Hunter’s… a Mushitsuki…”

The white coat-dressed youth who told him that—introduced himself as Sanbikime.

“She’s quite the beauty, too.”

Relying on this information, he looked for Hunter, the strongest Mushitsuki.

And while going around—he made friends, little by little.

Including Kusezaki Ume, they were all powerful Mushitsuki. They weren’t comrades who gathered for a so-called shared goal, but they were, without a doubt, friends who could live along with Harukiyo.

However, his journey to look for the “disaster” Mushi—ended in a half-assed manner.

“—You can’t die, you two, alright?”

The fight of the meteor shower that everyone already forgot about.

The girl who was the “disaster” he was looking for smiled at Harukiyo and Kakkou and fell asleep. Even in that fight many people perished, excluding Harukiyo.

“I don’t give a single fuck about the fights of Mushitsuki or those things called the Original Three.”

Harukiyo just kept looking for “disasters” and sought to make preemptive attacks.

“How dare you vanish like that after saying you’ll punish me? I’ll never forgive you, Arisu.”

In order to settle the score with the asleep “disaster”—Sleeping Beauty—he kept looking for her.

In that course, he also touched many secrets related to Mushi.

He never wished for any of it.

Although he didn’t care at all about the fights between Mushitsuki—he might be the one among Mushitsuki who knew the most.

“I need to beat Arisu and look for the next ‘disaster’…”

While mumbling to himself and searching for Sleeping Beauty, her words never left his mind.

—I believe… that strength holds meaning.

Harukiyo simply became stronger to keep living.

That was all that was—and yet he ended up reluctantly involved in fights between Mushitsuki.

If his strength truly had some meaning, was there any meaning for him to become Mushitsuki? Even the fact he came to know secrets he didn’t care about?

That miniscule doubt even now lingered uncomfortably in his heart—

“—Didja see it? Eh? Nothing’s here my fault, right?”

Standing within the flames, he raised his eyes.

Inside the roaring flames stood another person—a small boy.

“But it doesn’t seem like you think that. Since you’re tellin’ me you wanna die, you must’ve done something horrible. —Show me the rest.”

That boy wore tattered clothes.

“Alpha.”

In complete contrast to Harukiyo’s flaming eyes, the boy slowly closed his eyes.

2.08 Harukiyo Part 8

What was the light he’d seen when he was born?

He didn’t know its identity.

However, apparently more than one or two people had seen that moment.

A small community picked him up as an infant. The women all spent their times washing and preparing meals, while the men constantly carried firearms that were as old as their tattered clothes.

Since he was still a child then, he didn’t really understand who they were.

However, that place was constantly in conflict with someone, and they used child soldiers as a matter of course, giving children guns. At times they took in children of unknown origins, just like him.

“—”

For several years, after growing up in such a place, he came to hazily recognize the situation he found himself in.

It was a country shaken by civil war with many rebel groups. They were guerilla organizations, and before long they fought against other guerilla organizations competing for both resources and people—and he was taken in as a member as well.

When he grew up enough to be called a boy, a small secret was born in the village.

“—Please, bless me—”

Adult women began sneaking into the shack where more than ten children slept.

Hiding their faces, these women quietly began to worship him.

“Please allow sinners such as us that light of salvation—”

Light.

They all constantly mumbled this word.

Apparently, the miracle that happened during his birth was whispered all over the community.

He himself wasn’t particularly blessed with any special knowledge or physical abilities.

All he could do was “see” faraway events from time to time.

It felt as if he had another eye there.

However, at the time he hadn’t told anyone about it even once.

“Please save my soul—please show me the light that guides me to God—”

The secret worship continued every night, and finally even the men came to pray.

He was pretending to sleep just like always, but that night was different.

The visions that he had from time to time—his “Eyes” in distant places—found enemies lurking in the forest. Equipped with firearms, this group was slowly approaching their village.

He rose and warned the “worshippers”.

“O, child of miracles—”

His “Clairvoyance” saved the village, and from that day they kept on winning.

And as days and months passed—

“—Please—guide me—”

One day, the village was easily destroyed.

Without him having time to warn anyone, several communities colluded to assault their base.

The familiar shack was on fire and adults and children collapsed while gunfire echoed. While people who knew him cried and yelled, clinging to him, he was being restrained.

The ones who got him were a village who conducted the attack.

“—O light, please guide us to God—”

He was confined in a shack and worshipped again.

He was apparently blessed. Without him doing anything, with nothing but pure fortune, that group won against all opposing forces and prospered—

“O light—so we can go—to God—”

Even that community was then massacred by an even larger group.

With the burning village to his back, he was taken away to another village—and it was further crushed by another larger force.

This happened many times.

How many hundreds of people died just to snatch him?

How many people were going to die just to protect him?

By the time he was in his teens, he understood.

Without exception, everyone involved with him—always died.

While speaking of their hopes to him, while seeking salvation to him, while wishing for happiness, all of them died right in front of his eyes.

And as a result of the repeating death and despair—

“—Don’t be afraid of the light!”

Finally, the country made a move.

As the political authority of the time found itself disturbed by the guerrilla groups’ new faith, they sought to nip it in the bud.

He was easily captured by the country and thrown into prison.

He hoped that he would end up on the death row before long.

“—Please bestow light to our country—”

But in the end, nothing changed.

It was probably yet another divine protection. His living place transformed from a prison to an altar, and the statesman became a tyrant.

And several years later—the scenery he saw from beyond his cell window’s bars was engulfed in flames.

Apparently, the tyrant ruler had been too terrible. Witnessing him committing atrocities against humanity through his despotic rule, the international community moved their armies under the pretext of sanctions and talk of liberation.

Fighter aircrafts flew above, and anti-air missiles shot by the tyrant’s soldiers came from inside cities.

How many thousands of people lost their lives in the flames?

“—Light—a light of guidance—”

He was taken away by the tyrant’s aide who tried escaping abroad.

However, even that aide was soon killed by the army of liberation.

A bloody scramble began. The tyrant’s army and the liberation forces began exchanging gunfire in order to get a hold of him. Those who reached their hands to obtain him all died without exception.

When the final two keeled over in a simultaneous strike, he was left all alone.

While walking through the mountain of corpses, he lost his sanity. As the scent of blood and flesh filled the surroundings, he walked, dyed completely red in others’ blood—

He wasn’t a God of salvation. He wasn’t even human.

He was a grim reaper.

Because of him, tens of thousands of people died. Even so, he himself couldn’t die.

“Light—fall asleep.”

Along with this mumble from behind him, he lost consciousness.

Perhaps having been administered some medicine, he apparently slept for a long while.

He might have slept for several weeks or months.

His body weighed by lethargy, the sight that welcomed him as he woke up again—

“Nice to meet you.”

Was a girl. She was very cute and had a mole under her eye.

He had never seen before such a smile filled with gentle affection.

“Please, do not be afraid. There is no longer anyone who would do anything horrible to you.”

Saying this, the girl—

“I will give you my love.”

Wore an expression that would paralyze anyone who gazed upon it, a Smile of Shackles.

2.09 Harukiyo Part 9

It seemed to be a private laboratory on board of a large, remodeled transport ship.

Since they had samples of all living beings there, it was just like the Ark spoken of in the Old Testament.

Harukiyo was inside a room that had even stricter guard than anywhere else there. He saw the youth, who was restrained on top of a table that looked like an operation table, and the girl standing next to him.

“I will give you my love.”

The youth and the girl couldn’t see Harukiyo.

That was natural, since this scenery came from the youth’s memory—from Alpha, who was under C’s mental attack. It was his past.

“Why are you looking so relieved, you suicidal bastard?”

Harukiyo crossed his arms, glaring at the sight in front of him with a grin.

“This woman is, without a doubt, the worst shithead you’ve ever seen.”

So she really was involved in this right from the very beginning—

He had somewhat expected this, but now Alpha’s memories gave him evidence that turned it into conviction. The hatred he felt toward this girl multiplied many times over than it was before.

“My name is Miguruma Yaeko. Do you understand me? Mi-gu-ru-ma Ya-e-ko.”

“Mik…ko…?”

Alpha, who couldn’t understand Japanese, apparently only heard the very start and the very end of her name. Due to the breathing apparatus he wore, his mumble fogged it over.

“Mikko—well, that’s perfectly fine. I’ll teach you a little of our language.”

The smiling girl—Miguruma Yaeko—and the taciturn Alpha.

This was the worst encounter for all Mushitsuki who came later—no, perhaps in all of human history.

Rather than Alpha’s birth itself, it was his meeting with the girl that was the true miracle.

Two people who never should have met just happened to encounter each other beyond national borders.

This was—the moment everything began.

“Yaeko. I told you not to come inside here on your own.”

Appearing after saying this was a middle-aged man dressed in white. His nervous-looking wrinkles were prominent.

Next to the white coat-wearing man was another person. A youth, about twenty years old, dressed in a luxury suit. He had a playboy-like appearance and a severe face, so it looked unbalanced.

“Sorry, Father.”

As Miguruma Yaeko apologized obediently and was about to leave, the man wearing the white coat further yelled at her.

“And do stop entering my room without permission. It looks like you’ve been rummaging through my articles and papers, but it’s probably boring for you to look at such things that you can’t even understand.”

“Right, Father. For a person of my station—it was awfully boring.”

The playboy oversaw the girl obediently repeating her father’s words and leaving the room.

“Your daughter sure seems smart, Professor.”

“Not at all. She can’t even understand a single theory of mine or my underlings… she did receive some education, and yet… ah, what a waste… Well, but even this stupid daughter of mine can look after our specimens, including this one… since I want to use as little outside people as possible… she has to be at least that useful… yes…”

While glaring at Alpha, the white coat man mumbled to himself.

“Now, now, no need being humble. And she is a beauty. Her narrow eyes—her almond eyes are just like yours, Professor.”

The youth who gave this compliment looked familiar to Harukiyo.

Or, to be more precise, he’d seen a smile that resembled his before.

“Yup, I know who you are—the Chairman of the Round Table, Ichinokuro Ruisu.”

Saying this as if in a groan, Harukiyo glared at him.

However, none of the two people noticed this glare full of rage.

“Is this person... the one you’ve told me of?”

“Indeed... he is now under anaesthesia, so he won’t go wild... However, since you only told me very suddenly that you wanted to directly see the specimen, it should take a while more until this takes full effect, though...”

“It’s not me. It’s the members who agreed to put out funding. As for me, well, I’m the Chairman in name, but in the end I’m still a greenhorn who gets used for such errands...”

“No, without your business industry connections, not even the construction of this laboratory would have been possible, I’m sure... do you also hold an interest in the Undying...?”

Undying.

Hearing this word, Ichinokuro Ruisu kept silent. Neither denying nor affirming the professor’s words, he simply looked down at the silent Alpha on top of the operation table.

“’Everyone’s connected somewhere’.”

Harukiyo grimaced and groaned in a stifled voice.

A girl wielding a silver spear rose to his mind.

“It’s really like that. —So that’s how you were ‘connected’ to this from the very beginning…”

He cursed the girl who wasn’t there.

This youth called Ichinokuro Ruisu that was right in front of Harukiyo’s eyes…

He probably couldn’t have imagined the effect that his own actions would have.

Since he was no seer, that was natural. However—

“You shitty father. What you’ve done… took your daughter away from you.”

Not heeding Harukiyo’s verbal abuse in the least, Ichinokuro Ruisu removed his eyes from Alpha.

“Does this person—really hold the possibility of the Undying?”

“Yes, many people have died around him… and many times, at that… even as thousands fell victim, he kept living in the end… apparently, the locals referred to him as the child of miracles… in fact, those around him always increased their chances of survival, and I confirmed them even managing to flourish… well, people other than him have their limits so they still died in the end, though…”

“Just this is… well, how do I say it—if you’ll allow me to be direct, it sounds like a cock-and-bull story.”

“Have you seen the calculation regarding the chances of survival of the many ‘disasters’ that happened in his life thus far…? This is clearly past the limits of statistics…”

“The power to resist what’s known as death—the mental power wishing for life, affects the body and other related things, thereby raising one’s vitality. That’s your theory, Professor, right?”

“It’s not just a wish for life. It should be called a will to bet everything on your wish… you and the Round Table have given me the research funds and a place to conduct it because you believe, right?”

“Yes, it might sound masochistic, but the rich who tire of their position and honor are burning with desire for the Undying. —For some reason, it’s always like this from the olden days.”

“…”

“In every era, those with authority always sought it, but they were always deceived, and even while they knew they grabbed only fakes—this never changed.”

“…I beg your pardon, but is it possible you are hoping that the research you yourself had invested into, fails?”

“Perish the thought.”

Finally averting his eyes from Alpha, Ichinokuro Ruisu headed to the exit.

“No matter what you do here, neither the authorities nor any opposition will meddle here. —We all aim for the result, no matter what shape it takes.”

“Thank you very much…”

As Ichinokuro Ruisu and the white coat man exited the room, the surrounding scene started undergoing a dizzying change.

Events in this sealed laboratory area continued flowing like a video on fast forward. These were obviously the experiments Alpha had experienced.

“According to history, people searched for the Undying countless times—huh. What a load of bull.”

While Harukiyo watched those scenes, he spat this.

“Hey, suicidal shithead. So, after all those disasters you just found yourself involved with games played by the rich and swindlers throughout all of history?”

Alpha underwent torture under the pretext of research. At times he was wounded, at times he was psychologically abused, and at times they dangled items he wanted in front of his eyes while restraining him.

Exhausting both body and soul, his memories also became fuzzy. The scenes Harukiyo could see in front of his eyes had noise running through them from time to time, but there were also clear parts.

—Alpha… that’s how they called you. Despite there being no Beta or Gamma.

Only his meeting with Miguruma Yaeko—no, the girl called Mikko were carved into his memories, crystal clear.

Between his meetings with all the researchers, the girl visited him to take care of him and his surroundings. Every time she met Alpha, she “educated” him.

She kept whispering words to stimulate his survival instincts.

—Recall your birthplace.

Mikko’s whispers gouged into him deeper than any of the experiments made by her father.

Her Smile of Shackles that charmed all those who saw it did not allow Alpha to reject.

—You have nothing at all. And yet you still desire, right?

Every time Alpha heard her words, he would shed a single tear.

Recall your now gone place of birth.

A place where you have no father, mother, or any neighbor, a place no one even remembers the name of.

—Even so, until the day you return there… you can’t die, right?

The girl speaking to Alpha also spoke about other guinea pigs from time to time.

The several other guinea pigs apparently came from similar environments. Miguruma would sometimes stoke their hunger, their possessiveness, and at time she would stir up their nostalgia just like with Alpha.

Following this, Mikko unleashed a few of the guinea pigs and ran away from the lab.

—I am about to go release my other family… but I won’t let you go.

After leaving, Mikko announced her farewell to Alpha.

Wearing the smile of a saint, she whispered to him.

—Because you’re special.

Alpha bawled his eyes out.

He unleashed his feelings for his life and the people in it—he cursed, raged, hated, despaired and cried.

And something that had been restraining him until that point—cracked open.

“So even before the Original Three were created…”

Witnessing that moment, Harukiyo mumbled.

“You were a Mushitsuki?”

The thing that suddenly appeared there was trying to destroy the laboratory.

It was an object that looked like an enlarged human eyeball covered by a hard membrane.

“No—is this even a Mushi?”

Harukiyo knew about this object that floated in air while unleashing rays of light to burn the facility down.

“I did wonder about that during the meteor shower night as well. The Eye used by Oogui… it clearly looked like a human eyeball, and there were those Mushi that were only body parts. I’d never seen them until that point. But I just thought they were other Minion Types created by her—”

The laboratory taking form on the large ship was being demolished.

Even the in the white coat—Miguruma Yaeko’s father had been unable to escape this destruction, and he saw him expire.

“What came first, the chicken or the egg? Including me, everything thought it was the chicken—the Original Three.”

It wasn’t just Harukiyo.

There was no doubt that even Kakkou and the people relating to him thought that.

Therefore, they made defeating the Original Three into their ultimate goal. Therefore, they defeated multitudes of Mushitsuki.

However—

“The egg came first.”

The rampaging Alpha was thoroughly destroying the laboratory—

“—”

Light engulfed the world.

Everything mixed into one, and the light blinked as if forgiving all of them.

Harukiyo had never seen something so beautiful.

As the light vanished, they were on top of the boat.

Someone was battling someone.

“—How many thousands of years it had been, aiming for the Undying? And there it goes and happens by a complete fluke.”

Harukiyo somehow surmised who were those who were fighting.

The unleashed Original Three as well as the Mushitsuki who tried stopping their release.

“Dunno if it’s real or not, but it means you’ve dug out a complete unknown.”

Since Harukiyo hadn’t been there, he could only understand this.

However, through Alpha’s eyes and memories—

“Woa—AaaAaAAAAaah!”

Alpha was howling.

“Rui, it all happened just like you said. We must end everyone who remains here.”

The goggle-wearing boy was dying.

“—Indeed so.”

Ichinokuro Arisu lowered his gaze.

“This is all YOUR FAULT!!!”

“Let us part here.”

A familiar face parting away from Miguruma Yaeko—

He saw the moment the world changed.

It now became a world where the supernatural beings called Mushi would keep on being born inside boys and girls.

“I see—so it’s impossible to know who you are no matter how you think about it.”

While seeing Alpha get taken away by Ichinokuro Ruisu’s mercenaries, Harukiyo spoke.

“But as long as you exist, it means that the moment Mushitsuki were born might repeat itself.”

That was Alpha’s sin.

Harukiyo finally understood the reason he wanted to die.

“Yep, sure is a huge sin. You make so many people unhappy by your mere existence.”

And now that he understood, he was angry.

“If it was me though—I wouldn’t acknowledge that.”

Spitting this, Harukiyo noticed something strange at that moment.

“—WooAAAAAAH!”

The restrained Alpha howled, shaking off the mercenaries.

Behind him stood a small figure.

It looked like a small girl—who wore a tiara adorned with heart and crown symbols.

Harukiyo sneered and readied himself.

“How dare you do whatever you like in my own turf. —That’s what you’re tellin’ me, eh?”

The long journey to unveil Alpha’s sin.

C’s dark gaze told him enough to realize he hadn’t reached its end yet.

2.10 Harukiyo Part 10

The outskirts of Akamaki City in the past.

Alpha’s howling form was simply bizarre.

His flank had been gouged by the goggle-wearing Fusion-Type Mushitsuki boy—probably the first ever Fusion-Type. Even now, fresh blood was gushing out of Alpha’s wound.

Even so Alpha kept shouting at the top of his lungs, glaring at Harukiyo.

“—OOOOoooOOOOH!”

“…!”

Countless Eyes materialized all around Harukiyo as if to surround him. These strange objects, shaped like eyeballs covered by a tough membrane, all focused their gazes on Harukiyo while floating.

The moment after, all eyeballs simultaneously launched heat beams at Harukiyo.

“Is this also part of your past memories? —Obviously not.”

Harukiyo instantly surmised their trajectory and weaved through the net of heat rays.

“And that bleeding… you shoulda kicked the bucket already without any medical care!”

“Uh—Uuuh…!”

Alpha was tottering. Although this wasn’t reality, he apparently couldn’t ignore this wound.

Coming behind Alpha, C’s body double—the golden fairy was approaching.

As her small hand touched Alpha, a lightning strike pierced the man’s body.

“Gwah! —KwaaAAAAH!”

Alpha’s eyes changed, turning a crazed glare to Harukiyo again.

The number of Eyes doubled.

While flying and rotating all over the place, the Eyes unleashed a rain of heat rays. The large transport ship was cut into slices as though it was cake, and bottomless valleys formed in the wharf’s ground.

“You can stimulate the memories of the dead or Fallen Mushitsuki to forcibly Revive them—”

Harukiyo turned himself into a ball of flames, and kept dodging the rain of heat by a razor’s edge.

“That’s how the experiment at the Central Headquarters worked as well, right? What you’re doing amounts to continuing the experiments Miguruma started here, then! This is so awful you could laugh, eh C?!”

The experiment of the Undying originally started by Miguruma’s father was inherited by his daughter, Miguruma Yaeko.

No, it was wrong to say she inherited it.

Unlike her father who chose to conduct human experimentation and just so happened to draw the Miracle Child—Miguruma was trying to achieve that certainly by conducting experiments on the new kind of humanity called Mushitsuki.

As a result, she gave birth to a new generation of Mushitsuki, starting with C.

She was the chicken—able to absorb even the Original Three, as well as cause the born chicks that could be called Mushitsuki go back into their eggs and reuse them again and again. Those who died as Mushitsuki and became Fallen, or else died as humans. Because she could Revive all of them in this form, she was the Super Class Rank 1, C.

A being that kept birthing the Undying and denied death.

Among those who Harukiyo met thus far, she was the most repulsive Mushitsuki of all.

“…Tch.”

More and more heat rays grazed Harukiyo. The heat wave flow he used to protect himself was disturbed and he was pounded against the roof of a storage container. Harukiyo took a landing position and soon rose up.

“Is that fine, C? Is this suicidal bastard the ‘egg’?”

He looked down at Alpha and the fairy snuggling up to him on the surface and spoke.

“Meaning he’s something like an insurance to you.”

The fairy did not answer.

“Because both you and Miguruma want a world where Mushitsuki are born. No matter what happens, you can return the world to what it was again as long as you have the egg. That’s why you’re trying to kill me and secure this guy, right? Because I’m in your way. —Still, you really thought you could make us fight and that I’d lose? You’re lookin’ down on me, eh?”

The expressionless fairy moved her arms, spurring Alpha with electricity.

Alpha raised a scream of agony and summoned more Eyes again.

“—You look like you can revive even the Egg if it dies. Looks like you lost all your charm along with your personality, stupid brat.”

Harukiyo kept dodging the vast web of rays that looked like a casting net using his heat wave.

“What pisses me off most is you, though. —Suicidal bastard.”

Kicking the wall of the container, Harukiyo instantly came in front of Alpha. He grabbed the youth’s collar.

“How long will you let her play with you? Try resistin’ just a little, damn you.”

However, Alpha just mumbled incoherently while glaring at Harukiyo.

“…Kill me.”

“…”

“As long as I’m alive, people will die—thanks to me, many people will become unhappy…”

Unlike Alpha’s grimace, Harukiyo erased his expression.

He used all of his might to throw Alpha away. Harukiyo’s physical strength managed to fling the youth many meters away, and he was pounded against the collapsing container’s walls. Fresh blood gushing out of the youth’s body created a path of red from Harukiyo’s face to the wall.

“The fuck’s this? You pretending to be hurt?”

While Alpha twisted his face in agony, C’s body double instantly moved.

Hit by golden lightning, the youth controlled his Eyes to shoot heat rays at Harukiyo.

“Or are you playing the victim?”

Not minding it in the least, Harukiyo calmly walked to Alpha.

Receiving concentrated attacks on his wall of flames, there were violent sparks spread around. Harukiyo was unable to fully defend against the attack and his body was ripped by the aftershocks.

“You’ve seen it just now, right? You’ve remembered it right now, right? —We’re under the influence of C’s mental attack, yeah? You realize she’s just showing you all your suffering to gouge your wounds, yeah? You understand she’d been showing you all those who died around you so she can push the blame on you, yeah?”

Seeing the slowly approaching devil of flames, Alpha’s expression transformed to that of fear.

“Alright, so I get to decide too. —You are an angel of death. Your living ain’t gonna help anyone and you’re an eyesore. Die already, you piece of shit. Not a single person in this world wishes you to live. This is the combined opinion of the entire fucking humankind.”

“—”

“Will you—acknowledge that?”

Harukiyo’s arm grabbed Alpha’s chest again. This time he was really pushed by the force of the heat rays, and while he was shedding blood from his entire body, his blazing eyes glared deep into the youth’s as he shook in fear.

“If you can think that, you’re free to just go and die already. —‘I’ve just been unlucky’, ‘this only happened due to some mistake’… you can play the victim like this and just end yourself. Don’t fucking tempt people by telling them to kill you. Aren’t you trying to be a victim to the very end?”

Harukiyo’s vision was dyed in gold.

C’s fairy was unleashing lightning at Harukiyo.

“Or do you actually think someone died because of you? If you’re really playing the victim like that—then you’re not allowed to wish for death.”

Harukiyo did not stop, however. He put strength into his arm to grab Alpha’s collar.

“Saying something like ‘please grant my dying wish!’ at the very end is not what the perpetrator does, dammit. Why’d I have to listen to a fucking sinner and kill ‘em? What a spoiled piece of mass-murdering shit you are.”

Alpha’s face was distorting more and more as he looked at it.

Even while he recalled his own life, suffered, and was about to despair—in the end, all he did was glare back at Harukiyo.

“—What am I supposed to do, then.”

It was like a hoarse voice of a question, but also sounded like he was raising a tantrum.

“I don’t give a single fuck.”

Harukiyo spat.

“Stop relying on me. You’ve got no allies. ‘Cause everyone’s thinkin’ you’re bad, anyway. So many people hate your fucking guts, but not even a single weirdo would ever try saving you. Even fucking fate itself is your enemy.”

“—”

“But if it was me, I’d say this. —I don’t give a single fuck.”

Harukiyo released Alpha, raised both arms and declared.

“It’s my own fucking life! No matter what anyone tells me, I’ve done nothing wrong! I’m neither a victim or a preparator; all I’m doin’ is living my own damn life! Everyone around me blabs about nonsense! No matter what they tell me, I’ll just keep happily livin’ my life and do what I want!”

Once electricity was added to the clash between the wall of flames and the heat ways, it was as though the area was assaulted by a typhoon. The warehouse was blown away without a trace, leaving only Harukiyo, Alpha and the golden fairy standing on the cracked earth.

“What will you do? I don’t care! Do whatever you want! If you don’t know what, then just keep living your life being used by others just like always! Isn’t it easy, not needing to think?”

Furrowing his brows, Alpha closed his eyes.

“However, you bastard—if you’re really some kinda monster born from a miracle or whatever, and you insist that you have enough conscience to think you’ve done something bad… I’ll come and kill you at some point.”

“…!”

Alpha widened his eyes in surprise. He looked up Harukiyo’s face.

“If you try and ask yourself even a little… couldn’t you have done better at the time—when people died near you, couldn’t you have saved even a single one? If you start really thinking of it as a crime like an adult even a little bit… you gotta first wish to live or nothing’ll come out of it.”

Harukiyo spoke.

“Doing your best to live and then get squashed like a bug. —That’s what being punished is all about, right?”

“…”

“When guys who did nothin’ tell you to kill them, they’re bastards who don’t even acknowledge their crime. Just do whatever you fucking please.”

Alpha gritted his teeth. It looked like he was about to look at Harukiyo with a face ready to burst into tears, but he then curled up.

Just like a kid.

Or perhaps he was like a newborn, even at this point.

While hugging up his own shaking body, the youth spoke in a thin voice.

“Can a person like… even think—of living?”

“You obviously can’t, you angel of death. Everyone’s dying because of you.”

Alpha gave a large shudder as Harukiyo gave this immediate answer.

At some point—the heat beams assaulting Harukiyo stopped.

“—GwaaaAAAH!”

As if telling him to move, the fairy unleashed her electricity on Alpha.

However, the Eyes floating in air made no attempt to move.

“I-I could only hold out this far… because I thought I might as well die whenever… guh!”

As Alpha was struck by lightning, Harukiyo kept punching him away as though to rub salt into his wound.

“GAAAH!”

“Hurts, eh? Feels painful? —What is it, so suddenly you’re greedy for life? You really are a piece of absolute flaming shit. Did you feel no pain until now?”

“B-but if I still live—and receive punishment…”

Alpha finally raised his face. He wore a weak smile on it.

“I wonder if I can apologise to all those who died because of me in this world…”

“At the very least you might feel better, rather than apologizing to those who had easy deaths.”

The devil sneered.

The world reflected in his eyes distorted.

The ravaged wharf and the caved-in transport ship all lost their shape, starting to melt away.

Alpha tried closing both eyes again. Completely unlike how he was thus far, his face was permeated by the hue of anxiety and fear.

“Perhaps… the thing that’s called life is very hard…”

He said it as if he only just now noticed.

“Nah—”

Harukiyo sneered and spat out lightly.

“It’s a piece of cake.”

For a moment, the blood-covered Harukiyo’s consciousness flickered—

When he woke up again, he was in a space completely unlike the wharf.

He could see Kusezaki Ume and Sakaki Haruka.

As well as Alpha, who was asleep inside the life support system.

Harukiyo came back to himself inside the cargo of the semi-trailer still rushing on the highway.

“Oh, you’re finally back! Are you okay, Harukiyo?”

Ume immediately spoke to Harukiyo.

Alpha probably repelled C’s mental pollution attack. As he lay inside the mysterious liquid, Alpha’s face became calm.

Harukiyo made a huge huff and sat down.

Although it wasn’t in the real world, he received too much of C’s attacks. He received quite a lot of mental damage, and although his physical wounds weren’t gone—

“—”

Harukiyo touched his own body and froze.

The blood wasn’t gone. Nor the wounds.

As he raised his head, still covered in blood—

“We’re in a pinch here! Since you were so late, we’ve been killed!”

As Ume said this, a cut appeared from his shoulder to his waist, cutting him cleanly into two.

“I died… It’s your fault, Harukiyo…”

Haruka also had a gaping hole opened in her chest, and strings of blood dripped from the edges of her mouth.

However, Harukiyo was not flustered in the least.

He calmly analyzed his remaining powers and this abnormal situation—

“Ah, damn… so I’m the only one still stuck inside C’s territory.”

He wore a bold sneer.

2.11 Harukiyo Part 11

He came back half-dead from his fight against Sleeping Beauty in the SEPB’s underground facility.

Thinking back, he’d used up most of his stamina at the time.

From there they retreated to the surface, he protected the semi-trailer carrying Alpha, and was attacked by C.

He was once more affected by C’s mental pollution attack, and even in the world of the past he accrued a lot of damage.

Even if this was Harukiyo—it was his first time to be fighting for so long.

“Why didn’t you save me, Harukiyo! I don’t wanna die!”

“Harukiyo… you jerk…”

The bisected Ume and Haruka who shed tears of blood clung to Harukiyo.

“…”

Harukiyo grabbed Haruka’s head with flaming palms and struck Ume’s face.

“—GYAAAAAH!”

Watching them screaming from the corners of his eyes, Harukiyo leapt.

Exiting through the hole created in the ceiling, he stood on top of the cargo.

“Well, I doubt those two would actually die.”

The semi-trailer carrying Alpha ran on the highway. However, the flat road was dyed black, the buildings they went past were purple, and the vast sky was dyed green.

He knew at a glance that this wasn’t reality.

“With a normal Mushitsuki, I could just snap out of it… but I really played inside for too long. It’s my own damn mind, but it’s already been dyed by C’s colors.”

Around him there were no body doubles or Revived.

Had she intended to simply lock up the exhausted Harukiyo in this world and wait for him to exhaust himself?

“…!”

As he watched over this abnormal world, on the road ahead appeared a human figure.

From the fact her silhouette had a skirt, she appeared to be a girl.

The girl who seemed to be C’s new assassin leapt at him.

No, rather than saying she leapt, it was more like she rammed Harukiyo while flying.

“Wh—”

Harukiyo was about to sweep her off with flames, but he froze upon seeing her face.

She hugged his unmoving body. The momentum made both of them fall to the ground.

“Guh… you bitch—”

“Why didn’t you save me—”

As Harukiyo rolled on the asphalt, the girl ended up straddling him.

She was the braided girl who’d been his classmate. He had fancied her at the time, but she was supposed to have died during the bus accident.

“I died because you were there, and yet…”

As the girl hurled curses at him, sparks of flames began climbing her tattered uniform.

“Tch—”

Harukiyo clicked his tongue. He protected against the falling impact with a heatwave cushion, but the semi-trailer was driving away, leaving him behind.

“—You just had bad luck. I did what I could.”

Sneering, Harukiyo reached out with a hand toward the braided girl.

The Great Yama tiger beetle made of flames erupting from his arm annihilated the girl’s upper torso. Throwing her remaining lower torso aside, Harukiyo stood up.

His entire body wrapped in flames, he kicked the ground. He rode the heatwave to chase after the semi-trailer.

“A semi-trailer on the highway… since it’s somewhat similar to reality, seems like this means that my mind hadn’t been fully infected yet.”

Rushing after the trailer taking a huge curve, he tried leaping to it with one jump.

“If I can’t get out on my own, I’ll use whatever I can. If I use that suicidal bastard who’s already gotten out as an intermediary, I should be able to find the exit—”

However, the moment before he leapt, Harukiyo’s legs suddenly felt weighted down.

“Haru… why’d you abandon us…”

“Help… it’s so hot, Haru…”

The pair of brother and sister who grew up with him in the childcare facility clung to his legs.

However—

“—I didn’t abandon you at all. I was just a step too late.”

Increasing the vigor of the flames enveloping him, he instantly burnt away the siblings clinging to him.

“Haha!”

Along with this confident smile, he started running again.

Yet another person appeared in front of him to block his way.

“I wonder… why have I saved a child like you…?”

It was the nurse.

Although he was still a baby, her face had been etched and burned into his memory perfectly.

“There were other babies… so why did I have to save someone like you, who only spreads misfortune…”

“You just drew a bad lot, right?”

He started burning down the very woman who’d saved his life before.

All of it—was an illusion born from Harukiyo’s mind.

C was simply raising up the phantoms of dead people in order to corner him.

It was a stupid prank. The flame devil would never get affected by fakes like that.

“If you wanna kill me you’d better bring something far more interesting, C.”

“Why did all of us die, while you alone…”

“Waaaah, waaaah…”

Former classmates as well as babies in the same maternity ward, as well as fellow residents in the childcare facility.

As well as other people who lost their lives in “disasters”.

As many people as Harukiyo could remember were trying to block his path.

“I keep telling you it’s not gonna work—”

Without flinching in the least, he kept burning down all of them and ran after the semi-trailer.

He kept chasing it.

Although the other party was a vehicle driving full speed ahead, Harukiyo was a Mushitsuki referred to as the strongest. As he transformed into a flame sphere, he would catch up in no time—supposedly.

However, no matter how much he ran—

The distance to the semi-trailer didn’t shrink down in the least.

At some point, he heard whispers at his ears as the braided girl clung to his back again.

“Did you really think about saving me…? Haven’t you given up immediately?”

“Shuddup.”

Harukiyo’s single word made the girl at his back turn to cinders and crumble.

So even that semi-trailer was C’s illusion—

This doubt passed through Harukiyo’s mind.

If so, then the vehicle he saw ahead was a trap.

If he continued this game of tag like that, Harukiyo would only tire himself.

On the other hand, C probably wanted a war of attrition. Since she lost her personality, she couldn’t get mentally fatigued, and Akamaki City held enough of a supply for her source of power, electricity.

“Haru… back then you just wanted to save yourself, right…?”

“You thought of us as obstacles, right…?”

Since there were doubts in his mind, the dead kept their momentum.

“Well, you’re definitely obstacles now.”

Not minding this at all, Harukiyo burnt the wall of dead and kept going straight ahead.

The nurse crawling on the ground tried grabbing his legs.

“Do you begrudge me…? If I hadn’t saved you, you wouldn’t have to live like this…”

“I’m grateful to you. My life’s so fucking fun.”

Using his leg accompanied with an explosive wind to crush the nurse, he raised his speed.

It was natural to doubt. He’d have to focus on reaching the trailer first.

Although he was the one who called for C’s interreference, this was inside Harukiyo’s mind and memories.

This world was supposed to prioritize Harukiyo.

If he thought he would really catch up, there wasn’t any way he wouldn’t—

“Seriously—it’s a piece of cake.”

As Harukiyo wrapped himself in the most powerful flames, he ran toward the semi-trailer on the highway.

Victims of “disasters” clung to him one after another, but he burned all down.

Even so—he simply couldn’t catch up.

“Why do you think you can’t catch up…?”

How long had he been running for?

He even had the feeling like he spent hours or days chasing that semi-trailer.

“Shouldn’t you leave us behind…?”

How many of the dead had he buried already?

He had the feeling that he killed many, thousands of them, even.

“If it’s not your fault, you can just go ahead and leave us behind…”

Even so, he couldn’t shake off the dead.

His braided classmate put her arms around the running Harukiyo’s neck.

“I told you already—”

He glared at the girl with tired eyes with black bags under them.

“—This won’t wooooork!”

Howling, the Great Yama tiger beetle of flames boiled all the dead filling the highway.

Even as he ran through the empty road—he couldn’t catch up to the semi-trailer.

The nurse stood in his path again.

She did nothing, only stared at Harukiyo while shedding tears.

Harukiyo tried burning her off just like he did so far—

However, he simply couldn’t swing down his clenched fist.

The nurse smiled and hugged Harukiyo happily as he passed next to her.

“You’re finally… not able to kill us anymore…”

“Haru… you’re finally looking at us.”

“Obviously, because we all died because of you, Haru…”

Even the siblings from the facility clung to Harukiyo’s legs.

“—”

Both mind and body exhausted, Harukiyo had already spent his powers denying their words. He was deathly pale, but couldn’t allow himself to stop running.

“Of course you can’t shake us off, because you’re actually—”

The braided girl appeared on the road ahead. She spread her arms as though to invite him for a hug.

“A normal person.”

Harukiyo couldn’t dodge his classmate. She embraced him.

“Yes, you were also a normal baby when you were born…”

“Flame devil? Aha, what’s that! You’re just Haru!”

“You wanna apologize for killing us, right? You’re a good person, Haru!”

One after another, the dead people swarmed at him, increasing the weight on Harukiyo’s body.

Finally, his legs chasing after the semi-trailer—

Stopped in place.

“You do know that it’s your fault we’re all dead.”

His braided classmate caressed his chin with her fingers as he stopped in place, feeling faint.

“If you acknowledge your sin, you wouldn’t want to live anymore—so you’re just bluffing.”

As Harukiyo came to a stop, it felt as though his feelings and memories came spilling out of him.

His consciousness started fading and he didn’t even notice himself kneeling down.

He felt sleepy.

The nurse, the siblings and his classmate wrapped Harukiyo with a nostalgic warmth.

He wanted to surrender himself to the warmth of his first love, yielding to the impulse of falling asleep.

“There’s no need for you to pretend being a devil and live that sorta of painful life…”

Like a lullaby, his classmate’s whisper made Harukiyo’s eyelids feel heavier.

“—You’ve had this dream since you’re a normal person, right?”

A dream.

The dream he’d wished for before—

“You ‘want to get punished’.”

That was Harukiyo’s dream.

It was the shackling sense of guilt that continuously existed in his heart.

“Your mere existence in this world makes people around you die—that is your sin. You acknowledge your sin but never wish for forgiveness… you don’t want any sort of self-satisfaction, but merely want someone to punish you…”

“…”

“All so you could finally—stop pretending to be a devil and die as a normal person… just like those who died because of you.”

Harukiyo’s heart was on the verge of completely spilling out.

The final drop stopped inside him.

His dream, that he was on the verge of forgetting—remained inside him still.

“Yeah, that’s right. Thanks to you—I now remember.”

Harukiyo’s eyes lit up with a small fire.

However, with that very last scorch before it got extinguished—

“I wanted to receive punishment—”

He created a fiery carpet that swallowed the dead filling the highway.

The classmates, the nurse and the siblings clinging to Harukiyo all raised screams.

“So I’ll live—”

As Harukiyo sneered, his right eye, left arm, and right leg—fully became flames. He kicked the ground along with an explosive wind, rushing ahead while leaving a trail of flames in his path.

“As long as I’m alive, the fact I’m alive—is no fucking sin.”

Chasing after the semi-trailer that he already lost, he dashed through the highway.

Harukiyo’s left eye transformed to flames.

Following this other parts also transformed to masses of flames one another after; his shoulder and his back.

“If you’ve got any complaints, bring on anyone at all. Try and punish me—”

His body—his heart was becoming lighter.

He didn’t need to think of anything else.

It was fine for just granting his wish to remain in his head.

Right now, the cause of his running and what he was chasing—was completely irrelevant.

“And I’ll burn anyone and everyone who stands in my way—”

The flame devil madly dashing on the road couldn’t see the semi-trailer anywhere.

No matter how fast he went.

No matter how far he ran.

While being swallowed by flames, Harukiyo simply kept running forever and ever.

“If you’re not a normal person, then—you’re just flame.”

Without minding his classmate appearing ahead, flaming Harukiyo just burnt her to a crisp.

Next the nurse appeared.

“So this is your true form.”

The siblings appeared.

“You burn everyone who approaches…”

“And so you keep burning even stronger…”

“—”

Harukiyo howled.

This howl shook this other world’s space. Had he himself emitted it, or was it the raging Great Yama tiger beetle eating his dream? He couldn’t tell.

“—Confirmed signs of Maturation in Special Class Rank 1 Harukiyo.”

In front of him appeared a fairy wearing a golden tiara.

“There is no need to dispatch the Dove. I can just keep accelerating his own destruction—”

As if noticing something in the middle of the speech, the fairy turned—and her body broke to pieces.

“—”

Harukiyo also sensed that being and stopped in place.

Even the dead people surrounding him turned there with scared faces.

In front of Harukiyo—ahead of the large curve in the highway—stood an abnormal figure.

Standing atop a tall lamp was a person wielding a smoking automatic pistol.

Stimulating Harukiyo’s nearly lost memories, that person—looked as tattered as though he’d already experienced death, for some reason.

“So you—haven’t had enough of living, then.”

The boy looked down at the devil of flames and muttered so.

He was a Mushitsuki who was already supposedly gone, the one called a demon.

2.12 Harukiyo The Last

In this world based on his own mind, he didn’t find it strange for the boy to exist there.

Harukiyo’s lower torso became flames and his surrounding were also swallowed by hellfire. Those who died from the “disasters” coming down on him clung to him while cursing.

This was—hell itself.

And there were obviously going to be demons in hell.

He felt it was completely natural.

“…”

However, for some reason that demon was covered in wounds from head to toes.

The goggles worn on his head were cracked, his bristled hair and face were smeared with blood. Even his pitch-dark coat was dirtied with blood and dust, and his form while standing atop the light looked awfully insecure.

Had he already fought some beast somewhere?

Seeing the demon look like this in this situation—he felt abnormally angry.

Furthermore, the boy aimed the muzzle at him, and then intoned.

“So, are you just going to self-destruct without settling your score with me, Harukiyo?”

Another part of Harukiyo’s body—changed into flames.

Since his consciousness was muddying, he couldn’t currently recall who this demon in front of him was.

But he didn’t like him.

He felt a discomfort well up from deep inside him, like the bottom of his heart was seething—as if the boy saw through his heart, ridiculed him then beat him down.

“—”

A devil and a demon.

In this hellish pandemonium, they both glared at each other wordlessly—

The gunfire shot by the demon literally pulled the trigger on their fight.

“aaaHAaaaAAAAaaAAAH!”

Emitting a decidedly inhuman howl, Harukiyo stomped, using his entire body’s power.

A large explosion spread with him in the center. The asphalt cracked, blowing heat waves boiled the dead, and the highway and surrounding buildings were blown to smithereens.

Even the demon’s bullets were repelled by the heat, not reaching Harukiyo. However, since they held within them much more power than normal bullets, they pushed back the explosive wind and created a single path.

And the green glow pierced through that created path.

His face covered by a green pattern, the demon put his hands on the ground like a wild beast and closed the distance to Harukiyo instantly. He clenched his free hand in front of him, swinging it down at him.

“aaHAaaAAAH!”

His eyes literally blazing, Harukiyo formed a wall of heat.

The demon’s heat wave and the devil’s fist clashed. The shockwave gouged into the ground and created a deep valley between the two.

Harukiyo was the victor. The demon was blown away by the overwhelming energy, pounded against the ground, pierced through several destroyed buildings and vanished into the distance.

A normal person would have left no trace from that impact.

However, Harukiyo did not stop his attack.

“HaaAAAH!”

That eyesore of a demon would not die from this much—

Listening to the alarm bells ringing in his mind, he shot multiple Great Yama tiger beetles from his flaming body.

All of them possessing tusks of differing lengths, they were shot to the distance on after another. Crimson pillars connected heaven to earth, destroying the Akamaki City cityscape.

Large explosion sounds and gales arrived at Harukiyo with a delay.

Inside the dancing smoke, a great cavern was born.

Harukiyo swung his arms and shot a fireball. —The bullets shot toward him clashed with this fireball, the two cancelled each other and were gone.

The bullets were a feint. Using superhuman leg strength, the demon moved and appeared right next to Harukiyo. He was covered in more blood; as expected, it wasn’t like he remained completely unscathed.

“Hahaa!”

Once more, Harukiyo’s heat wave clashed with the demon’s fist.

As expected, the one to be defeated and get thrown back and roll on the ground was the demon. Harukiyo launched a rain of fireballs, but the demon soon stood up and dodged.

Taking advantage of an instant of an opening, once more the demon leapt within distance of Harukiyo. —Harukiyo was getting pissed off at how stubborn the demon was for close combat.

“HaaAAAH!”

Apparently, the demon had anticipated Harukiyo launching his Great Yama tiger beetle.

He vanished from before his eyes with frightening speed and got behind Harukiyo in an instant. A fist clad in a green brilliance struck his flank, which had yet to turn to flame.

He used his wall of heat to protect against the blow, but—

“—”

Harukiyo glared at the demon with eyes burning with rage.

The gap in their powers was evident.

While the demon was for some reason already hurt, Harukiyo was surging with power. Considering the compatibility between their abilities as well, the only way for the demon to win was to inflict damage on Harukiyo’s parts that had yet to turn to flames. On the other hand, Harukiyo simply needed to attack the demon.

Even so, he was unable to swipe him off, like an annoying fly buzzing around—

“—HaaaAHHH!”

He began a close-ranged mutual pummeling with the demon who so stubbornly clung to him.

Every time he launched fireballs or Great Yama tiger beetles, the demon managed to dodge them by a razor’s edge as if he’d foreseen them, ran around him and swung his fist. Every time, Harukiyo defended with a wall of heat.

Seeing through the monotone attacks repeated by Harukiyo, the demon toyed with him.

No, but I feel like I was the one who specialized in beating like that—

This suddenly came to his mind, but swallowed by the joy of wielding all this power welling inside him.

Right now, Harukiyo had no need for cheap tricks.

“Haa!”

Trying to throw him to the distance again, Harukiyo emitted another heatwave.

The demon had been prepared for that attack. He stepped hard on the ground, entirely in a defensive posture, and although the asphalt caved in, he kept standing there.

Receiving damage as he let the attack pass, the demon readied his muzzle.

Bullets assaulted Harukiyo from a very close range.

“aaaAAAH—”

He protected against the bullets shot one after another with his heatwave in a chain.

The demon should already be quite exhausted. He didn’t feel like he’d lose in a contest of strength, but being reduced to a defensive battle upset Harukiyo.

“HaaaAAAAAAHHH!”

Repelling the bullets by force, the demon leapt along with the surge of flames.

Apparently, although he’d tried evading, his body wouldn’t listen to him. For an instant his reaction was delayed and he was hit by Harukiyo’s swung arm, rolling on the ground.

Harukiyo stepped hard on the tumbled demon.

He assaulted the surface with both explosive wind and earth tremors. The demon’s body became buried.

“aaaaAAAAH!”

Harukiyo kept stomping.

As large explosions shook Akamaki City, the fissures appearing under his legs kept spreading.

And just as he stopped feeling any resistance from below his feet—

“—”

He noticed that his flaming leg was being grabbed by something from below.

By five fingers that belonged to a left hand.

However—they weren’t human. Their surface was covered by a hard shell, and it was several times larger than a human’s. It was scorched and raising smoke.

“—ooOOOOooooOOOOOH!”

An inhuman howl reverberated and Harukiyo was blown away.

Riding a heatwave, he soon fixed his posture and saw—

It really was a demon.

His left arm, as bulky as a crag, swelled so much that it ripped his left sleeve. His right foot was also similarly covered by a pattern glowing green. The large pistol fused with the right hand became even larger, transformed into a grotesque insect’s mouthpart, and spat fire.

Seeing the demon reveal its true identity, Harukiyo’s other self mumbled inside his heart.

Oh, so you’re at your limits, too—

The devil transforming into flames was glared by the demon who grew tusks from his left cheek.

“OooOOOooOOAAAAAAHHH!”

“HaaaAAaaAAAAaaaAAHHH!”

The devil and the demon clashed.

Bullets shot by the demon—or rather, these masses of destructive energy could be called cannonballs—clashed with the devil’s Great Yama tiger beetle, and they cancelled each other. Everything around them lost its shape, and the two approached one another as though to tackle each other, swinging down their fists.

The fist drawing a green afterimage was fended off by a heat wave, and the devil aimed for the demon with a flame-clad fist. His now grotesque-looking legs kicked the ground, allowing the demon to dodge the attack by a hairsbreadth. The fireball and Great Yama tiger beetle unleashed from the devil’s fist cutting through air turned the area around the demon to a sea of lava.

Fiery sparks colored crimson, as well as green trails shining in air.

Every time these two clashed, everything besides them was rendered null. The dead were annihilated, buildings and the ground were blown to pieces, and the world was remade to hold only these two alone.

The battle proceeded with the devil’s advantage.

He was slowly but surely accumulating damage on the already exhausted demon, however—

“—oooOOOOHHH!”

The demon’s fist finally blew through the defensive wall of several layers of heatwaves.

Still preserving a human shape, the devil’s chin was grazed at the very tip.

It was a glancing blow, but the devil’s head was shaken.

“—”

There was a blaze.

Leaving small smoke behind, the devil’s right eye became human.

There was no damage.

Therefore, the devil’s offensive continued, and he got pummeled by tens of fists in return.

However, another blow by the demon’s fist struck the devil’s stomach.

Although he hurriedly protected with his arm—

“—”

Another hiss.

The arm he used to protect with reverted to human again.

His counterattack managed to get through the heat waves one out of ten times—

And returned the devil to a human, little by little.

“—”

Every time he retrieved part of his human body, Harukiyo’s consciousness became clearer and clearer.

His emotions and memories that were dripping out.

Using the arms of his reason, he desperately scraped them together, unwilling to give up.

Finally, when his entire body other than his right became human again—

“…!”

The demon’s gigantic feast came right in front of the devil’s—Harukiyo’s eyes.

A direct touch would probably blow his head to smithereens.

Harukiyo leaned low. Realizing he needed so stoop so low to dodge such a simple attack, the very last flames vanished from his right eye, raising smoke.

“—Don’t you fucking look down on meeeeee!”

Leaping to the demon’s chest, he gave his strongest punch. He launched a heat wave at the same time, throwing the demon midair for a moment.

However, the demon was unmoving. He immediately turned the grotesque muzzle to Harukiyo.

“Who said we didn’t settle the score, eh?”

Harukiyo clung to the demon, haphazardly trying to push away the arm that did nothing but aim the gun.

Gunfire powerful enough to make the entirety of Akamaki City shake echoed. A huge crater was formed behind Harukiyo, but he put his own leg on the demon’s legs without minding it.

As the demon looked heavily unbalanced, this simple act made him tumble down.

“I won’t letcha be the only one to say that—”

Straddling the demon as he fell, he started pounding his face with fists clad in heatwaves.

Blood spurted from the demon’s green-patterned face.

“Kakkooou!”

Although the demon tried sweeping off Harukiyo, he wouldn’t allow him that.

He kept pounding the demon’s face and again and again.

“How dare you say that, as someone who made more Fallen than anyone! As someone who turned Fuyuhotaru into a Fallen and kept surviving all these battles! As someone who was by Arisu’s side and tried defeating the Original Three! As someone who could neither kill nor save Lady Bird!”

Every time Harukiyo struck him, the impact made his and the demon’s body rise in air.

The demon’s arms.

His legs.

His gun.

They were retrieving their forms as a human and an automatic pistol.

“As someone who’s trying to back out of all this without settling anything at all! So don’t you dare say thaaaaat!”

Harukiyo’s fist was no longer wrapped in heat.

Meanwhile, the demon already had his simple, blood-smeared, pathetic normal face back.

Kakkou.

He was a Rank 1 Mushitsuki just like Harukiyo, and as much as a sinful man.

“I did settle things.”

Harukiyo grabbed the unmoving Kakkou’s scruff. He didn’t even try to check whether his opponent was conscious.

“I woke up Arisu. Just like she wished for, to be waken up with the continuation of her dream.”

A lump of blood gushed out of Kakkou’s mouth. Apparently he was still alive.

“We both said it. And yet—what the fuck were you doing?”

Harukiyo was the devil of flames.

He was a Mushitsuki who felt nothing for his own life, living freely for his own wishes.

Therefore, he’d tell those he didn’t like that he didn’t like them to their faces.

And the one who pissed him off the most right now—was the boy in front of him.

“Arisu lost and you became a Fallen, forgetting all about her! Then what the fuck can you even tell me about settling the score! Even I’m losin’ interest with how much you keep losing! In the end this world is fucking boring, isn’t it?!”

He was the only one who survived, while all those around him were gone.

Nothing changed since the moment of his birth.

Next time for sure—

Even the voice whispering this inside Harukiyo’s heart was growing weaker and weaker.

The devil kept living without minding anything, not even feeling any guilt.

Although he was supposed to be like that—a small tremor was born in him.

“—Did you forget…?”

He thought Kakkou was dead, but he moved his mouth.

“When you get right down to it… Why have you joined forces with Arisu…?”

“Ah?”

“’Let’s make a world without any Mushitsuki’—”

Harukiyo widened his eyes.

“You were invited for that cause… and joined forces with her…”

While Kakkou spoke this, his lips looked like he was smiling. It was Harukiyo’s imagination—but since it looked like this to his eyes, he felt angry.

“That deal’s already done. She lost—and I settled the score.”

“Yeah, she lost…”

Kakkou leaked a soft breath and spoke.

“But—she’s woken up again, right?”

“…!”

Harukiyo’s arms grasping Kakkou twitched.

This time, the boy truly and clearly smiled.

“You started the ‘continuation’.”

“…”

“Since she’s awake, she’ll probably aim for a ‘world without Mushitsuki’ again. Even so, you feel like saying everything’s ended and cancel that first deal? And despite you being the one to wake her up… that’s not proper at all, isn’t it?”

How can you speak so selfishly—

He was about to retort with that, but no words came out.

Because the opponent that he’d made this deal with was truly a selfish person.

She’d clung to him and forced out his dream—and the girl even shed tears despite it having nothing to do with her.

She was selfish, naïve, and as a result she drew up the short lot and fell asleep.

And the one who decided to go along with that girl’s pipedreams—was none other than Harukiyo himself.

“If we assume what you’re saying is true—it’s the worst.”

He simply felt like going with her on a whim.

Even so he was forced into mortal combat. When that was over, he kept looking for her to get his “reward”. And that took years.

He somehow managed to find her and get his reward, so he thought he was done.

However, it seemed like that was another trap.

Because from that very moment he became part of the “continuation”—

“What a fucking bother—I feel like I’ve been caught hook, line and sinker.”

“…She was that kind of person from the very beginning…”

Kakkou groaned.

He thought his problems already ended, but in fact they hadn’t. If that wasn’t enough, they continued because of the actions he took in order to end them.

It really was a huge bother.

However—

“Stop acting like that and start making an actual effort… Harukiyo.”

In this state, there were certain emotions that welled up in his chest.

But whenever he advanced, they were suddenly cut off.

Harukiyo had never experienced a life where this repetition never occurred.

If what the demon said was true—this was the first time.

“This isn’t the kind of person you can just half-ass when dealing with…”

Was he talking about the girl he’d made a deal with?

Or was he speaking of the enemy that he had to fight to finish that deal?

He could agree either way, but Harukiyo hated the way the boy talked of this as if it had nothing to do with him.

“I’m tellin’ you, you’re the last person I wanna hear this from. It doesn’t sound convincing at all after you came after me like a rabid dog the moment we met. —The fuck are you? How did you show up inside me like that? Are you a fake created by C?”

Kakkou remained unanswering and silent. Instead, he could hear an electronic tone echoing from somewhere.

It was a familiar melody.

“Well, not that I care. What really annoys me is people putting off things, leaving them to other people—it looks like you’re tryna push everything to me.”

“…”

At some point Harukiyo could see the destroyed Akamaki City again.

The sky was a weird color as always, but he was on the highway and the large semi-trailer was parked ahead of him.

“I don’t think it’s just me. The one who started this ‘continuation’, I mean.”

As Harukiyo got inside the cargo, the engine turned on.

The melody he’d heard from before came from the cellphone in the pocket. It was the very one he’d received from the Mushitsuki called Konoha. He had no idea how come he was able to hear it in this world, but since he was still in the middle of the conversation, he ignored it.

“Even Fuyuhotaru coming back from the Fallen state and Arisu having that silly dream—probably happened because they met with you. As well as your chaotic fight after failing to save Lady. In the first place… C being tricked by Miguruma also happened through your influence.”

“…”

“And me having a deal with Arisu was because she wanted to gather the Rank 1s. If you’re sayin’ it’s continuing now, it doesn’t make a lick of sense for you to be the only one missing.”

The semitrailer took off.

Kakkou remained collapsed, not trying to move.

Kakkou stayed there while Harukiyo moved ahead.

As the distance between the two grew, he spat toward the fallen boy.

“You started it all. —Take responsibility and put a fucking end to this.”

Harukiyo left his voice behind as the semitrailer accelerated.

He had no idea what this boy growing smaller in his vision—Kakkou—was. He might have been a simple illusion constructed by C.

But as a result, he made Harukiyo wake up after nearly Maturing.

If he really was created by C, it completely backfired on her.

On the other hand, if this element had been induced by a person other than C—

“Damn, you’re so annoying.”

The ringtone kept going on for a while now.

As if guided by it, the scenery of Akamaki City dyed in bizarre colors…

Was, little by little…

“I’m tryna think real hard here and yet you just keep going…”

Regaining its proper colors.

The sky was dyed a faint blue, and the ground settled down to gray.

As everything reflected in his eyes regained their original colors—

“—Hey, that phone’s been really annoying for some time now! Just hang up on them if you’re not going to answer!”

An annoying, high-pitched voice familiar to him shook his eardrums.

Harukiyo was in the cargo box of the semi-trailer running through the highway.

It wasn’t the different space he’d seen until just now.

Kusezaki Ume was sitting on the floor while complaining to him, and he wasn’t bisected. Sakaki Haruka also wasn’t puking blood. However, both of them had their clothes ripped.

“Nah, I’ll answer it.”

Suddenly, as Harukiyo raised his face, Ume and Sakaki shuddered.

“Y-you’re awake? Took you long! Pfft, thinking you’ve had it this tough against C’s mental pollution… have you weakened, Harukiyo? More importantly, we’ve had it real bad since you were fast asleep! Haruka even used the power she borrowed three times and ran out!”

Immediately after coming back to the real world, Ume’s high-pitched voice kept prattling on and on.

“…My collection… is running out…”

Haruka also looked tired. Harukiyo had no idea how long he’d spent unconscious, but it seemed like Ume and Haruka protected the semi-trailer alone.

“Things are relaxed right now, but another assassin’s sure to come here! It’s your turn next, Harukiyo! I’m going to sleep! I’ll definitely have a nap! In the first place, why do we even have to go to these lengths to protect this guy?!”

“Ah, fuck it, shut up already!”

Pushing Ume back, he pressed the call button of the cellphone.

“What do you plan on doing with Alpha…?”

It was the same voice he’d heard on the phone before. The Mushitsuki girl called Konoha.

“You’re askin’ that just now? But it’s almost as if you’ve calculated the timing.”

“…”

“Is there a Mushi in this cellphone? Since you were able to pull me back from that world, it’s probably a mental pollution or a mental control type—so it’s not you, Konoha. Could even the user of ability see what happened in that world?”

Konoha gave no answer.

“Meaning, you’re confused about Alpha’s worth being unlike what you estimated.”

“…”

“As you know, since he’s alive, even if we defeat the Original Three and C, there’s still a possibility for us to return to a world with Mushitsuki. —Does it make you want to keep him safe all the more? Or maybe you want to kill him?”

“Eh?” Ume sounded shocked from his side.

There were probably only few people who understood the value of Alpha’s existence and the dangers behind him.

Excluding Miguruma Yaeko, who was the main culprit, as well as the past members of the Round Table who were at the center of this—it might be just Harukiyo and the one on the other side of the line.

“Can’t talk ‘bout this with you, Konoha. Bring out your master.”

Although Harukiyo threatened with a low voice, Konoha kept silent—

And hanged the call on him.

This probably wasn’t because Konoha got scared like before, but probably received orders from the person controlling her.

“What you mean, Harukiyo? Is this person actually someone outrageous?”

“I’ll explain it later. —I’ve also had it real tough. Haruka, got any abilities to get them off our trail?”

“…I can use Tamamo’s ability to make anyone not perceive us consciously… with the amount I’ve borrowed, I don’t think it’ll last even for an hour…”

“Eh, Tamamo-san’s a high-ranking member of the SEPB, isn’t she? How did you get it from her?”

“…We’re Lolita fashion friends…”

Harukiyo turned toward the driver’s seat, lightly waving his hand.

The wall of the cargo box melted red, revealing the back of the head of the woman sitting in the driver’s seat.

“Hey, secretary. How much longer to our goal?”

“Eh? Oh.”

Although the secretary was surprised at seeing the hole behind her, she soon answered.

“I believe it will take the whereabout of two hours.”

“Tch, no choice then. So I’ll hold out for about an hour or so. It’ll be a piece of cake, though.”

Rising up, he peeked at the face of Alpha sleeping inside the life support system.

The youth’s complexion was as bad as always, but his expression seemed to be quite calm. He was the only one who knew what he thought about and decided in the world created by C.

“You’re for the most part quite the sinner. I don’t give a flying fuck what you are, but this doesn’t change the fact you’d be the ‘egg’ for Mushitsuki. Meaning, as long as you’re alive, there’ll always be a chance for Mushitsuki to be born.”

“…? What does that mean, Harukiyo-sama?”

“I’m saying that Akasegawa also pulled out quite the card. You’ll understand one day. It seems quite important so you need to treat it with care, though…”

Chairman of the Akasegawa conglomerate, Akasegawa Nanana, cooperated with Mushibane.

Meaning, they were both people who wanted Mushi to go extinct.

Even so, after spending so much money to protect him, if she found out that his very being went against this goal, what reaction would that rich girl show?

“Say, aren’t these some Revived far back there? It’s your turn, Harukiyo!”

“Yeah, yeah.”

As he exited to the roof through the hole in the ceiling of the luggage, Harukiyo stopped thinking.

“Hey, secretary. I’ve been wondering since the start.”

“Hmm?”

“This guy is more or less a Mushitsuki as well… so you’ve done a great job to not get found out by the SEPB’s sensors thus far. Don’t you think it strange?”

Apparently, that question was within the secretary’s estimations.

“We are also in the midst of conducting research on him… but apparently, after going through fixed periods of awakening, he appears to be in deep slumber. His Mushi as well has an abnormally vague presence… there are times where his Mushi is out and yet it remains in a state of slumber…”

“…”

Harukiyo thought and inquired further.

“The Mushi’s asleep? Rather like Arisu’s ability, then. No, in the first place he’s the one who… can he do that out of his own will, then?”

“We cannot tell for sure at present. After all, he’d remained asleep for a long while ever since we made the bid on him, so we were unable to get any information… what about all of this?”

“Never mind—by the way, didja know? There’s a certain kind of vaccine that’s developed using chicken eggs.”

“…? I do not quite understand what you mean by this.”

“Harukiyo! They’re coming! Do something already!”

“Oh, you know. It’s a possibility of less than 1%—"

Urged by Ume, Harukiyo looked up the ceiling.

“Once you use all of your Akasegawa money to research him… then maybe one day you could create something that could put Mushitsuki’s Mushi to sleep for all eternity. That kinda pipe dream.”

Glancing at her, the secretary looked reactionless.

However, her not grabbing the wheel right before the curve in the road—was probably because she understood the importance behind what Harukiyo said and found herself shaken by it.

“Please drive safely.”

Spitting this, Harukiyo leapt up and danced atop the cargo box.

“I-indeed…!” he heard the agitated voice from his feet. The semi-trailer managed to brake right at the last moment.

“So my power has meaning—then.”

Why was it?

Harukiyo lived freely and intended on just doing as he pleased.

His life goal was to find enemies and defend against “disasters” through preemptive attacks.

However, that was all.

Although he never intended on getting involved with Mushitsuki and Mushi—

“And so, you can change the world into one without Mushitsuki, huh. —Will you lose today or tomorrow and end the story, or will you be able to gather all these small possibilities and make it a longer story?”

Harukiyo ended up involved in the fights of Mushitsuki regardless of his own will.

And without fail—he would always end up cornered to the point where he had to settle up the score by a contract that he himself had agreed to.

“So there’s one, this suicidal bastard—nah, I already made him graduate from that shit. One of them is this Alpha guy…”

This world would change to be one without Mushitsuki—

He couldn’t celebrate his life without settling this contract as well.

“As for the other—I finally have an idea about where you might be, C. Since you’re trying to kill me, you definitely are the ‘disaster’ aiming for me.”

However, the existence called Mushitsuki that got involved with him—

Seemed to be a huge problem, going past his own “disaster”.

Therefore, he had to settle matters.

“It looks like it’s going to be an itty bitty of a problem—”

Although he leaked sighs of fatigue, he—

The strongest Mushitsuki, called the devil of flames—

“But it’ll be a piece of cake.”

Wore a bold smile.

3.00 The Others

The American journalist, John Mash.

His interpreter and assistant, Ikarino Kirari.

So named themselves the two people who appeared in front of Taiki while he was on the road to school like always.

And his younger sister Noa also appeared with a delay.

“Big brother? What is it?”

“Mr. Matthew wishes to interview you.”

Ikarino Kirari the interpreter said this.

“More precisely, regarding your cousin. That person’s name—is Kusuriya Daisuke.”

Kusuriya Daisuke. A name unfamiliar to Taiki.

No—for some reason, that name caught his attention.

The surname Kusuriya was something even his parents mentioned before. He was pretty sure they said something about his father’s little sister, meaning Taiki’s aunt, and the fact that she had a child, making it Taiki’s cousin.

However, even other than that, he felt like he’d heard that name somewhere.

“Or perhaps—have you felt anything strange around you?”

At Ikarino Kirari’s words, his heartrate picked up.

There was obviously something bothering him as of late.

However, he felt like the sudden appearance of these two people was suspicious, so Taiki grabbed Noa’s hand.

“I-I’m sorry, but I don’t talk to strangers. —Let’s go, Noa.”

“Eh? I see…”

Ikarino Kirari started walking right behind them.

“Do you find the name Kusuriya Daisuke familiar? —Taiki-san.”

“I don’t. Stop following me.”

“Despite him—being your cousin? You don’t know his face or voice? Or what he’s doing?”

He felt pissed off at her method of questioning that sounded as though she was blaming him.

She was just like some reporter trying to rise up a scandal he would see on TV. Had his cousin performed some kind of crime that would shake society? Was that going to be the subject behind the interview?

“I told you, I don’t know. As for what he’s doing… has he done anything bad? Even if he did, it has nothing to do with me.”

As he turned around and spoke, he saw only Ikarino Kirari there.

The youth called John merely remained in his original position, scratching his head. He called out something in English toward his attendant.

“…I see.”

The girl with diagonal bangs lowered her eyes. She seemed quite disappointed.

“Then will you at least accept this?”

Ikarino Kirari grabbed his hand.

Being touched by a person of the opposite sex, Taiki felt startled. He was made to grasp a small memory device.

“Eh… w-what is that?”

“This is a copy of the footage made by Chronicler. He possesses the original, though.”

Ikarino Kirari pointed with her head at the foreigner man behind them.

“Please watch it. Not with your cellphone or anything, but preferably with a standalone terminal with no connection to the outside…”

“Haa?”

He started feeling creepy, so he tore his hand from Ikarino Kirari’s and hastened his pace.

The two mysterious people didn’t try approaching him after this.

“That man… he’s saying ‘Is he really that important?’ and pointing at us.”

His sister walking next to his side said with a suspicious expression. Since she had an exchange student friend, she could understand some English.

“So he’s talking about you? What did she give you?”

“I dunno. I don’t get it…”

He spat this curtly. He was still shaken at this sudden event.

Parting with his sister as he arrived at school, he headed to his own classroom.

“Yo.”

“Morning!”

Surprisingly, the number of classmates that greeted him was not much changed from yesterday. They were slightly above half their numbers and the number of absentees stopped going up.

“Good morning.”

Should he try get their advice about meeting with that journalist or whatever before?

For a moment he thought this, but decided against it. His friends would definitely be curious, but if his cousin really was some dangerous person—this might hurt Taiki’s reputation in his daily life.

Although something happened to Taiki, the chime announcing the start of lessons sounded the same as yesterday.

All lessons in all subjects were simply solving questions on printouts.

They were probably going to deliver the same to the missing students and progress the lessons.

“…”

Unable to solve over 70% of the problems, Taiki quickly gave up.

As he ended up absentmindedly staring out of the window, he recalled what happened that morning.

—You don’t know his face or voice?

He was certainly fed up with everyday life and wished for some thrills.

However, that seemed to be naïve.

He felt angry at a complete stranger barging into his life so forcefully like this.

He felt anxious at being unable to imagine what was going to happen to him from now on.

If he was going to feel all that, then repeating the same daily life as always was much happier.

“…”

Unconsciously, he put his hand on his uniform pocket.

The memory device handed to him by Ikarino Kirari.

It was the sort of trouble that was unimaginable and not part of daily life in the least, but he’d lie if he said he wasn’t curious about the contents. He was told not to watch it on any terminal connected to the outside, but—did that mean it had a so-called computer virus, then?

Taiki didn’t think handing over something like this to him had any meaning—

Classes kept moving quietly, and during break he discussed rumors about Akamaki City with his friends.

And classes started again.

Nothing changed from the days he’d spent this far.

If there was one thing that changed, it was only the strange dreams he’d had recently—

“Hmm?”

In the middle of the lesson, one of his classmates sitting next to him raised his head.

Wondering what was up with him as he looked at this classmate, Taiki raised a brow.

Everyone in class looked above them with vacant faces. Even the teacher who was writing equations on the blackboard stopped his hands, frowning as he looked at the ceiling.

“…?”

Taiki wondered what was going on when the students suddenly laughed.

“Are they having a wedding somewhere?”

“Wouldn’t it be in a church, then?”

“That was so loud.”

“It was a nice sound…”

“Please be silent. It’s probably just some strange advertisement car. Let us continue class.”

The teacher put a stop to it, but he heard even neighboring classes clamoring about it.

With Taiki completely befuddled, classes ended free of further incidents.

“—What was that just now?”

As the break started, Taiki asked a friend.

“Oh, that thing. It was so loud.”

“You’re saying it’s loud but… what was it?”

As Taiki asked this, his classmates goggled at him. Then soon laughed.

“What, you didn’t hear it? It was so loud!”

“Probably slept throughout.”

“Are you the kind that won’t notice even an earthquake?”

Seeing the confused Taiki, a female student spoke.

“It was the sound of a bell.”

As he looked confused, they just laughed at him again.

A bell? Taiki hadn’t heard it, but—

Had he simply missed it because he really was sleepy? That was probably all that was.

“—Taiki, where are you going?”

“I have something to do.”

As the next break came, Taiki headed to the audio-visual room.

He could no longer hold back his curiosity regarding the memory device in his pocket.

He was anxious about its contents, but was also scared to bring an unknown like that back home. He didn’t have the courage to plug it into his personal computer at home, either.

“If it’s some gory footage I’ll just throw it away…”

Leaping into the empty audio-visual room, he turned on the computer at the far-most corner.

“Outside connection… I can just plug this off, right?”

He removed the LAN cable from the device. —Taiki picked a PC that was used by the research club, but it was actually just a gaming PC. His friends had invited him to play with it before.

He logged in using the PC research club credentials, putting the memory stick in the right slot.

“I really hope it’s not gonna break the computer all of a sudden…”

It automatically displayed the contents of the memory device.

Apparently it was a video file.

— This is a copy of the footage made by Chronicler.

Ikarino Kirari’s words passed through his head.

Taiki had no idea who this Chronicler person was.

Did they have anything to do with his cousin?

Although he felt a bit anxious, he clicked the file—

“—“

Taiki watched it.

These were records of people Taiki hadn’t known about.

However, from time to time he found faces of people familiar to him.

No.

They were—people Taiki knew though there was no way he could.

Even after the bell chimed, Taiki couldn’t tear his eyes away from the footage.

Even after it ended, he remained seated there, entranced—

When the bell for the last lesson chimed, Taiki pulled out the memory device.

He came back to his classroom and started preparing for heading home.

“Hey, Taiki. Where were you?”

“Ditched class?”

Not even minding his puzzled friends, he took his bag in hand and left the classroom.

As he exited the gate, a girl greeted him.

“—Have you watched it?”

Saying this and smiling was a person wearing the uniform of Taiki’s high school.

Although this morning she wore a suit, this was the interpreter girl—Ikarino Kirari.

“Chronicler’s video, that is…”

Where had she gotten her hands on it? Ikarino Kirari, clad in the uniform of the same school as Taiki, inquired him in a tone as if she was his classmate.

“What do you think?”

“—What do I think… who were they? Are they really Mushitsuki…?”

Taiki frowned and spoke.

“…”

Apparently, his answer once again disappointed Ikarino Kirari. Her expression clouded over.

However—

“But… I knew some faces.”

“Eh?”

The girl twitched.

“That can’t be… after all, they appeared in my dreams—”

“Dreams…”

Ikarino Kirari thought for a moment, then spoke.

“Can you tell me more?”

“…”

“If you tell me more—I might be able to give you answers.”

“Answers…?”

Seeing the questioning Taiki, Ikarino Kirari smiled.

“I mean the meaning of your dream—as well as why you’re seeing it.”

In front of the frozen Taiki, Ikarino Kirari looked up the sky. —As if she was being asked something he couldn’t hear.

“As well as why these bell sounds started.”

He mustn’t ask.

If he asked, he’d no longer be able to go back.

Whether or not she knew about that baseless anxiety—

No, she definitely knew and yet spoke in a merciless tone—

“It started… ever since those dreamers failed the three operations at the same time.”

Bitterness and sadness, and a lone ray of hope.

Speaking clearly, Ikarino Kirari showed him a gaze that possessed all possible emotions.

“It started ever since among those Mushitsuki who are designated Rank 1—Kakkou alone rejected the fight.”

3.01 The Others

Why had it become like this?

Had the decision she reached at the times been the correct one?

These thoughts were a constant in her mind—in the mind of the stingy Mushitsuki called Konomura Chami.

In fact, most of the time things never went well.

And the same happened this time.

To outwit the strong who were too cocky and dance out as the lead role—

Although she managed to survive while carrying that ambition inside her, things always failed at the critical moments.

However, coming here was—no, for Chami, this was where the largest miscalculation started.

“Ah, found you…”

The C annihilation operation.

This three-pronged fight launched by the Mushitsuki ended in failure.

Unable to vanquish their formidable enemy, C, she estimated that both the SEPB and Mushibane would start their retreat strategy and fall into chaos.

However, that itself was Konomura Chami’s goal.

“This is Daisuke’s dream—”

Although this happened just the day before, she felt like it was ages ago.

The SEPB and Mushibane failed, but at the time Chami had been able to make a fist pump in her mind.

After all, she was witness to Ayukawa Chiharu embracing Kusuriya Daisuke at that moment.

Ayukawa Chiharu—she was a beauty with long hair wearing a casket hat. Normally she was just an extremely attractive civilian, but right now she had the alternate personality of Aria Varei dwelling inside her.

Kusuriya Daisuke was her little brother and he was an SEPB Mushitsuki. Although he’d lost his Mushi and became a Fallen, he’d served long as a fearless fighter.

“If you say you don’t want him, I’ll make him my pawn!”

Because her efforts paid off, Chami shouted this.

Piercing through the opening granted to her by the two tacticians, Miguruma Yaeko and Haji Keigo, facing each other—

She snatched off the strongest pawn.

Ayukawa Chiharu had one of the Original Three, Aria Varei, nestling inside her again.

Then, she could use Aria’s Varei to revive Kakkou from the Fallen status.

Aiming for the gap right when he was revived, even Chami’s meagre mental control ability could control Kakkou.

“And with that, all the Ranks 1 will assemble…!”

The girl who became “decoy” to set up this stage, Ebina Yuu, mumbled. Perhaps since she exhausted herself to reach all the way here, she looked ready to collapse at any moment.

The former Demon Lord, Satou Youko, was trying to hypnotize Yuu and make her fall asleep.

All of them were pawns Chami had gathered for her own ambitions.

“If you ever recall your dream please call me again, Yuu-chan…”

The lone uninvited person—Oogui—also left these ominous words behind and left at the time.

Now, no one would stand in their way.

Until now Chami had no combatants among her pawns—but now she could finally gain the strongest pawn of all, Kakkou.

Using even the Original Three, she could also get up the stage again.

There was the precedent of Fuyuhotaru getting revived by Oogui.

Chami won her bet.

The footholds to allow Chami to flip over the stage, rewrite the script and replace the protagonist as she wished were finally in reach.

Or at least—so she thought.

“…Eh?”

Until she saw Ayukawa Chiharu’s surprised face, that is.

She definitely had a bad premonition.

For a social outcast like Chami, this happened more than she could count.

However, what happened at that moment—

“Why…?”

Forgetting both happiness and rage, she felt her brows lowering.

Chami, who could only use her head, found her thoughts put to a stop.

I can’t believe I came this far for it to not work, what a fucking joke—

She could do nothing but pray in her heart.

“Why aren’t you coming back, Daisuke…!”

Seeing Chiharu yell this while crying, her bad premonition turned to certainty.

Chami’s face became as white as a sheet.

She set up the stage like this.

She risked her life little by little to gain these small pieces, and although she thought that she finally managed to assemble the stage for the ultimate reversal—

The fourth batter didn’t even attempt to rise from the batter’s box.

“Chami-chan…! Why isn’t Daisuke coming back?”

“—“

“Aria doesn’t know, either…! Wasn’t Aria supposed to be able to bring Daisuke back?”

So does this mean—I lost my bet?

Seeing the teary-eyed Chiharu hug Kakkou, she felt all strength leave her body.

“Y-you…”

She tottered toward Kakkou and grabbed him.

“Don’t fucking screw with me, I came all the way here—”

“Chami…!”

Suddenly a small figure appeared next to Chami.

Konoha, the girl with eyes hidden by her bangs. She was another of Chami’s pawns, possessing two abilities—camouflage that allowed her to erase her form and presence, as well as the ability to see into the distance.

“The Revived are coming here… we must escape…!”

“Chami-chan… What’s happening to Daisuke? Tell me!”

“Chami-chan? Yuu-chan’s safely asleep, but… what’re we going to do with Shirakashi-san? If we push her so much, I’m not sure if she can wake up or not.”

Konoha, Ayukawa Chiharu, and even Satou Youko pressed Chami for instructions.

Each and every one of those Chami gathered had a guilty conscience.

They came from either the SEPB or Mushibane, there was a former Original Three and even a former Demon Lord. Even Ebina Yuu, who was a normal civilian, was nonetheless a weirdo who got involved with Mushitsuki.

However, all of them were pawns Chami risked her life to gather—

This result that she arrived by making them risk their lives ended so pathetically.

“…”

She could hear a cat’s cry from nearby.

This nostalgic yelp made her looked at her feet.

A familiar white cat rubbed against Chami’s leg affectionally.

She was just imagining it.

Mewling as if to invite Chami, that cat—was Chami’s very first pawn, as well as her first companion who died on the road to her ambition.

“—Alright, I get it.”

She scorned herself for being so lame that even an illusion pitied her.

Just like back then, when she found a dream above her station.

“So it means we need to start all over again—huh, that’s not bad at all, shithead.”

By the time she mumbled this, the white cat illusion was already gone.

In the first place Chami had nothing to protect.

She could start all over again, no matter when and where.

Because of that—there was probably no person as ambitious as her.

“Konoha! How’s our car and escape route?”

Chami stiffened her face and turned to Konoha.

The girl with her face hidden by her bangs hurriedly materialized her Mushi. Its body looked like two overlapped leaves and it had gigantic eyes. The Mushi extended tentacles to Konoha’s goggle.

“T-they’re not there… looks like the place where we hid the car and our escape route weren’t found out…”

“Then get on the fucking car already! We have no time to carry all of our fainted members to the hiding place!”

Being yelled at by Chami, Konoha broke into a run.

“Satou Youko! When the car comes, you and me are going to throw Yuu and Ubuki inside!”

“More physical labor? But I’m so tired after flying all over the place…”

While grumbling, Satou Youko started preparing to pack up her suitcase.

Following this, Chami turned to Chiharu hugging her brother.

“Chiharu! Our enemies’ll definitely get here faster! I will you take care of them! C can’t come all the way here, and I’m sure you can handle the Revived, at least!”

Right now, Chami and others weren’t in any house or building. It was a plain with a clear view.

Around them were no electrical lines that C could use. After making sure of that, they carried Kakkou all the way here.

Chiharu was no combatant, and she wasn’t even a Mushitsuki.

However, she had an Original Three inside her, weak as it was. She should at least be able to fight against C’s assassins to buy them some time.

“As for Kakkou—leave him here.”

“…!”

Chiharu widened her eyes, glaring at Chami.

“He’s no more than a Fallen now. We don’t have the space to be taking someone useless right now.”

Receiving Chami’s glare, Chiharu—

“…”

Hugged her brother wordlessly. Her face looked calm and determined.

“Are you going to commit double suicide with him?”

“It’s my fault Daisuke’s like this. So I’ll stay with him to the end—”

“Not gonna happen. I’m disappointed in Kakkou, but right now you have Sanbikime inside you. Do you even understand how deep of a shit we’ll be in if C absorbs not just Shinpu but even Sanbikime? This will cause many further victims.”

“…”

“Your brother obviously doesn’t want that, either.”

She’d say the shittiest of lines possible in order to convince Chiharu.

Chami had no idea what the boy in front of her eyes—Kakkou—wished for and felt while going through countless battles.

No, it wasn’t just Chami. Probably no one knew.

After all, even his own sister—found it impossible to get him to retrieve his heart.

“Kakkou fought to defeat C and fell victim. Since he can’t fight any longer, then you need to fight in his stead—”

“Don’t you dare speak so heartlessly at this point, Chami-chan.”

“…Then I’ll be curt.”

Glaring at each other, Chami spat.

“We’ve failed. It’s my fault for misreading this. We failed to bring Kakkou back to normal—because you’re worthless.”

“…!”

“It’s time to stop holding hope. All we need to do is avoid despair. —But if you’re still so naïve you’d rather destroy yourself, I’ll just throw you away along with Kakkou.”

Chiharu grimaced and her shoulders shook, but—

“—”

She hugged her brother’s body even tighter.

Chami clicked her tongue. She didn’t even have the time to think how she was going to tear this blockhead; countless human figures appeared in her vision.

“They’re here…! Get away from them, Chiharu!”

“Run first, Chami-chan! I’ll come from behind with Daisuke…”

“You fucking idiot! If you’ve got the time to spout out these awful lines, then just fend off those Revived alre—”

About to finish her entrance, Chami felt something was odd.

The number of pursuing assassins was about a few dozen, perhaps? Since some of them were wearing SEPB coats, there was no doubt they were Mushitsuki.

However, none of them were accompanied by any Mushi.

Furthermore, their battle formation wasn’t trying to surround Chami’s group. They weren’t trying to use their numbers to their advantage, but instead practically forming a line—

“—Shitheads!”

Seeing the golden glow from afar, Chami guessed what was going on. She leapt at Chiharu.

Chiharu, who made her right arm glow blue and was about to fight back, was separated from Kakkou out of surprise.

“It’s C, you idiot!”

“Ah—”

It happened the exact moment after the siblings were separated.

Chami did not miss it.

Chiharu’s right arm reached out toward Kusuriya Daisuke—

Her hand, glowing blue with Sanbikime’s power of merging—

Made a sticky sound as it buried itself into Kakkou’s chest.

It separated instantly, but there was something faintly glowing grasped inside the hand.

“—!”

Golden lightning pierced the space between the entangled two girls and Kakkou.

There was a violent roar and a gale. The air crackled.

If they got hit directly, then Chami obviously but even Sanbikime-fused Chiharu would melt down into a single mass.

This lightning that held so much tremendous power—

Passed through the line of Revived to be made able to reach Chami and the rest.

“What the fuck is that idea…! Using those Revived as conducting wire!”

“…”

Chami was cussing while on the ground, while Chiharu stared vacantly at her hand.

Chiharu took her faintly glowing hand—and stealthily put it against her chest. She had the necklace that had used to house Aria Varei’s personality dangling from it.

“Chami!”

The large van driven by Konoha appeared. Konoha leapt out of the driver’s seat and, along with Satou Youko, dragged Ubuki and Yuu inside.

“Let’s go, Chiharu! More people are coming!”

Chami pulled Chiharu’s arm by force, making the stunned girl rise to her legs.

From the distance, the second formation of the assassins sent by C was pursuing them.

“Konoha, come help! Let Satou Youko drive!”

Chami and Konoha forcibly got Chiharu on the van. The moment the door closed, she could see the crowds of Revived swarming over the Fallen Kakkou.

“Ah…”

Chiharu pulled back her hand reaching toward Kakkou and Chami closed the door.

“Get going, Satou Youko! Once we get far enough, we can use Konoha’s clairvoyance to escape from the enemy’s encirclement even without a sensing ability!”

“I like driving.”

Along with the high-shrieked sound of the tires screeching on the ground, the van accelerated.

Inside the car, Konoha, Ubuki, Yuu and Chiharu were tangled together. It was probably about 50-50 whether they’d be able to shake off their pursuers.

“Chiharu...”

Even in this situation, Chami couldn’t help but grab Chiharu.

“What the fuck were you doing!”

Grabbing Chiharu with both hands, she slammed the back of her head against the seat.

Unlike Konoha and the rest who were surprised by Chami’s earnestness, Chiharu herself was completely dazed.

“Eh…?”

“Don’t play games with me! I saw it! When we went you did something to Kakkou, right? Tell the truth!”

As Chami blamed her, Chiharu’s face distorted little by little.

“I, I just thought that if we separated like this, we might never meet again—”

Her face overflowing with tears, Chiharu covered it with her hands and leaked sobs. In the hand hiding her face she was grasping the golden ring on her necklace.

“Once I thought these people might take him away…”

“And so—you took out Kakkou’s heart?”

Konoha and the others went speechless at Chami’s words. Even the driver Satou Youko felt the same.

Sanbikime’s ability was fusion.

Using that ability, Sanbikime themselves dwelt within humans and never let anyone know about their identity. She could assume that even Miguruma Yaeko and C’s ideas to keep the dreams of all Mushitsuki in a database was derived from Sanbikime’s mode of being.

And the girl called Ayukawa Chiharu—used that power on her brother.

“Do you understand what you’ve done…?”

“Uuuh…”

“That’s! The power of a monster! Those unknown things called the Original Three use that power to eat people’s dreams! Do you wanna use the power of the Original Three and play with people like C?”

“UuuUuuh…!”

“And you used it on your brother, even…! Have you turned into an Original Three in both body and mind?”

Even as Chami abused her, Chiharu merely cried and groaned.

She obviously understood Chiharu’s feelings.

Not giving up on her own blood-related brother—that was all this was.

“…I-if I keep calling out to him, surely Daisuke will—”

As Chiharu spoke as in groans, Chami pounded her against the seat again.

“Are you still on that, shithead?! Kakkou denied even his own damn sister! Even if someone else calls out to him, he—”

Chami gasped at her own words.

Although this was impossible for his sister, if there was anyone at all who could call out to him—

She had an idea.

Perhaps it was because Ebina Yuu was sleeping right next to her.

—The Rank 1s are gathering…!

Yuu shouted those words.

If that came to pass, then perhaps—

“…”

“Chami?”

Konoha called out to Chami as she removed her hands from Chiharu and suddenly crouched.

“—That’s impossible…”

Although her mouth denied it, Chami’s mind started making stupid plans on its own.

“This is way more than just all or nothing… but in the first place, our chances to win are… no, if even a single part works out, it ends up as a plus… you idiot, there are too many risks… you won’t be able to take that back…”

She couldn’t ever call Chiharu a monster again.

Not only was the plan taking shape inside Chami’s mind was going to use that monster’s power—it would be like snatching away both stage and script and then set fire to them.

However, what if—

“…If I can’t whip a corpse back to life… what if I shoot it with a machinegun and set it on fire…?”

Chami moved her eyes to a certain spot in the van.

She could see the small devices that all housed the power of her currently absent pawn, Lucifera.

A large number of cellphones.

“Chami-chan.”

Suddenly the driver Satou Youko spoke.

“You look like you hit on some idea—but are we fine?”

As she raised her face, she saw through the back mirror the former demon lord wearing a creepy smile.

“We’ve searched for Alpha to find out the secrets of Mushi. We weren’t able to ask anything even after getting in contact, though. We went after Aria Next, but in the end the moment that Mushitsuki were born remains unclear. Next, you tried to rely on a powerful pawn, but couldn’t bring Kakkou back—”

It was some harsh criticism. However, Chami had no possible retort.

Because it was all true.

“It was a chain of failure after failure… should I really expect anything, this time?”

Although she wasn’t putting pressure on her with those creepy eyes, Chami knew.

In the end, Chami’s mental control ability didn’t amount to much. If the person themselves actually strongly rejected it—if they turned their back on Chami, they could easily break it.

If she failed again, Chami would lose what little few pawns she had.

Even so, the next word that came out of her mouth—

“No…”

Was a word of denial.

“This time—is definitely the shittiest strategy I’ve had this far.”

It was so stupid of a plan she could laugh.

In fact, even without hearing of it, Satou Youko giggled. Konoha next to her also wore a small smile.

However, the two—had nothing further to say to Chami.

“Konoha… right after we break through their encirclement, start the monitoring.”

Konoha tilted her head at Chami’s words.

“Monitor? Who, exactly?”

She knew she was depressed.

She was pissed at nothing working according to plan, including her own self.

However—Chami smiled.

Just like her first pawn, that cat.

“I need you to monitor—all Rank 1s, except for Kakkou.”

And thus.

The plan cooked up by the minor character called Konomura Chami became reality—

Cellphones containing her ambitions were delivered to each Rank 1.

One was Lady Bird—Tachibana Rina.

Another was the flame devil—Harukiyo.

And yet another one was—

3.02 Arisu

She watched a part of the end.

Through her Mushi, the butterfly.

Landing atop her sleeping body, the butterfly—a Morpho butterfly with its vivid silver glow—twitched as it raised its antenna.

“—There’s no fucking way we can escape that!”

The one who shouted this was Kasuou, the girl who held her while running.

She embraced her body clad in a thick jacket and further supported her using her own ability of mist. She was also using vast amounts of mist to carry dozens of wounded.

“We have too many enemies and allies…! Do we even have somewhere to escape to?!”

Kasuou’s voice was drowned by the angry roars of battle.

They only just escaped from the domed facility that served as their headquarters for the C annihilation operation.

Even so—the mixed forces of the SEPB and Mushibane were soon surrounded by the Revived assassins as they reached the wide national road.

Most of these Mushitsuki were running away, not having yet recovered from the damages incurred during the failed operations.

It was there that C’s assassin Mushitsuki appeared in endless numbers.

If that wasn’t enough, even the JSDF gathered to block their path.

Their retreat soon turned into a chaotic battle—and their path was finally blocked.

“Let me borrow that, Kasuou.”

“Ah, you bastard!”

A suited youth snatched away Kasuou’s goggles.

He was Haji Keigo. His complexion was sickly, but he was even paler due to running so much.

“Why have you stopped? Report the situation in the frontlines, Yotsuba!”

Haji operated the goggles and turned on the speaker function. They could hear the rebuke from Terasu, their commander, as well as the exchanges between other Mushitsuki.

“I know you’re tired, but if our vanguard stops, we’ll all get wiped out!”

“Poison Mist Punch! —We’re outnumbered by soldiers! Neutralizing them without killing them is too hard for me alone! Send me some high-ranked members, even a single one! If possible, with a mental pollution-type ability!”

“Yakugami! How’s the rear guard? If you think you can leave it to Kaguya then go provide support to the frontlines!”

“That’s asking for a bit much… I have my hands full with some tough guys, are they ex-Annihilators?”

“Then… North Central Branch! How’s the right flank? If you can split your forces, then send even one person from Team A—”

“No can do, no can do. After all, with you missing from the usual team it’s all falling apart.”

“Kh… Tamamo! Stop preserving your stamina for the barrier! To the front!”

“Goootcha!”

“Wait…! The wounded and support members in the middle aren’t going to last! If you keep going ahead, they won’t make it…! I’ll heal them up even just a little, so wait a bit!”

“This is Himiko! Enemy forces are approaching from the left…!”

“Kabuto here. Mushibane has relatively little fatigued and damaged members. I’ll stop these new attackers with them.”

All news that came from the speaker spoke of their inferiority against their enemies.

Many people were shouting.

Gunfire echoed from time to time.

As well as the healer Nene’s beautiful singing voice, completely unfitting the circumstances.

In this battlefield of Mushitsuki who fought for their lives, the silver Morpho butterfly shook its feelers.

“Then—fifteen minutes!”

In these dire straits, Terasu struck out a painful plan in order to survive.

“Let’s stop in place for just fifteen minutes! All hands, focus on preserving our position! Tamamo, you should preserve yourself after all! —Rinrin, gather as many vehicles as you can, even army ones! Get all the support members and wounded boarded to lessen the load, and have Kasuou join the vanguard! Fifteen minutes later, we break through by force!”

It was a hefty gamble, but there were no other choices.

In this battlefield engulfed by anxiety, a completely calm voice then sounded.

“Test, test, can you hear me? Hiya, this is Shiohara Shachito. I borrowed a SEPB goggle. What should I do?”

“You…! Geez, what’re you doing!”

“I watched over this beauty called Lady at the dome. Once she’s finished knocking out C—C will probably be heading here.”

For a moment, all shouts passing through the battlefield vanished.

Although they were already fighting from an inferior position, C was coming along as though to seal the deal.

Perhaps afraid that this announcement would lower morale, Terasu immediately strained her voice.

“Let’s make it ten minutes, then! I’ll join the vanguard! —Once we break through the encirclement, Tamamo will create as large a barrier as possible! It’s already proven that your barrier can work even on C and other sensors, so buy us as much distance as possible and find a place to hide!”

“H-hum… I’m not really feeling confident about being able to control a lot of cars in ten minutes…”

“I-I’ll reaaally do my best, but the stamina needed just to stretch the barrier so much…”

“Stop complaining!”

Terasu’s lone shout echoed throughout the battlefield.

“If we fail, we die. —Wasn’t it always like this?!”

Hearing their commander, the battlefield fell into silence again.

“…You’re just like Kakkou.”

“S-shuddup, idiot!”

It was unknown who mumbled this, but it agitated Terasu.

Haji Keigo, who apparently finally managed to catch his breath, brought his mouth to the goggles.

“Kasuou, how do you switch the Central Headquarters goggles to the private channel?”

“Just work it out for yourself! It’s not so different from the East Branch’s!”

They seemed to have a bad relationship; the Morpho butterfly could see Kasuou shouting at Haji.

“Thank you. Oh, there it is. —Terasu, come to me for a moment.”

“…I’ll let the Director go over our current strategy! Shachito! Take over command for me for a bit!”

“Eh, me? Is it fine for a newbie like me?”

“Obviously not! But you can use your mobility to check the entire battlefield, and since you’re Asagi’s final disciple, you seem to have been trained on how to handle Mushitsuki, so we’ll just go for it! It’s just for a few minutes so obey him, you guys!”

“Ahaha, how horrible. Then apologies in advance if I do it better than you, Terasu-chan.”

While hearing a symphony of tongue clicking from the entire battlefield, Haji kept speaking.

“Kabuto. Can you tell Akasegawa Nanana to come to us?”

“Roger that.”

Not even two minutes later, Terasu and Akasegawa Nanana appeared in front of Haji Keigo.

However, there was another person there.

“And you are?”

She was a girl in her early teens. Since she was fidgeting all over, Nanana spoke instead.

“Recall. She’s my guard, so don’t mind her.”

“Oh, I don’t know her. —Hmm?”

The girl called Recall stepped forward silently.

And she approached—her. While looking up through the Morpho butterfly, the girl put a cellphone on top of her.

“Recall? What’s that?”

Returning to the confused-looking Nanana, Recall whispered in a low voice.

“Lucifera-san said to…”

“Lucifera told you to pass that to Arisu?”

As the girl nodded, Haji Keigo stared at her.

While the youth seemed to be trying to understand the girl’s mysterious action, Terasu called out to him.

“Director Haji. Do you have any issue with my orders?”

“—Oh, no, you’ve done well. North Central Branch really has some good members.”

As Haji said this and turned his gaze, he saw Branch Head Takemi. The man who looked like a gentleman (only outwardly) shrugged.

“I’ll start with you, Akasegawa Nanana-kun. I have a favor to ask you, as the Chairman of Akasegawa Group as well as a member of the Round Table.”

As Haji turned around, Akasegawa Nanana spun her stick, her face looking suspicious.

“A favor?”

“Can you use your connections to prepare a large ship for us? If possible, a fast ship that’s already ready to sail.”

Terasu and Akasegawa Nanana both raised their brows.

“For us to also recover our forces, we need to escape C for the time being. If so, it means we need a place she couldn’t reach—the Revived as well, but a place where C, who exists in the digital network, can’t reach.”

Terasu was the one who gasped.

“The sea—”

Haji wore a thin smile and fixed the position of his glasses with his index finger.

“Right, we will escape to sea and reorganize. Even C shouldn’t be able to pursue us there.”

“What a coincidence. I also thought that and was about to prepare a ship to carry something.”

Akasegawa Nanana said, returning Haji Keigo’s gaze.

“Of course, there’s also a shipping company affiliated with my Group in the nearest port to here.”

“So that’ll be our destination for now.”

The place where Haji and the rest were, several vehicles appeared.

There weren’t any drivers inside. The branch heads as well as the wounded carried by Kasuou were loaded into the cars. Inside there was also the East Central Branch Assistant, the anxious-faced Goroumaru Touko.

Nanana spoke.

“The ship I have ready to transport a certain something is planned to go someplace far and keep a low profile until the heat’s down. —Are we just going to wait in the middle of the sea until we recover? If so, we will need to gather some foods and daily necessities, so that’ll take time.”

“No, I have a destination in mind.”

“You have? I apologize, Director… but if you have a goal, isn’t that a problem? If it’s somewhere we can stay, our enemy might also reason out that location…”

“It’s fine. That place—no longer exists.”

“Hah?”

“Or to be more precise, I should say that no one knows about it anymore.”

While the youth wore his thin smile, Terasu and Nanana turned suspicious glances at him.

“That place—is a small island.”

Twitch.

Above her, the Morpho butterfly raised its antenna.

“I already left this message to Lady. She’s probably going to head there, too.”

“…Well, as long as we have a destination. Still, taking so many people to the same place is going to take time, though.”

“There’s no need to worry about that. The fewer ships, the better.”

As Terasu tilted her head, Haji spoke.

“Terasu. Once we escape from here, we need to split into several independent units. If we gather up so many people in one place, we’ll just end up surrounded like now and decimated.”

“Eh… b-but, isn’t it dangerous to split our forces like this? If our high-ranking members go all over the place, even our means of defense—”

“I said nothing about splitting our forces like that.”

As Haji narrowed his eyes, Terasu made a confused face—

But she soon gasped and grimaced.

Haji gave calm orders to Terasu who glared daggers into him.

“It’s impossible to protect everyone here anyway. So the high-ranked Mushitsuki should focus on protecting the minimal amount of important people, and we’ll let all other Mushitsuki split from our main forces for a little while.”

“—Meaning, they’ll act as decoys.”

Terasu’s blood-smeared visor was locked in a gaze with Haji Keigo’s glasses.

“I’ll obviously tell the people getting cut off about some goal. It’s fine for them to try heading somewhere far from our actual destination. —Akasegawa-kun. That’s how things are, so you can just bring us small ships. Hurry up with them.”

Akasegawa Nanana said nothing. She neither gave Haji a cold gaze, nor voices any oppositions to his strategy, but merely left along with Recall.

“If you have any other ideas how we can get away I’m all ears, Terasu.”

“…”

“Allow me to say this just in case, but it’s not like I hate Mushitsuki. In that sense, I might resemble Director Miguruma. —But there are also ways I differ from her.”

Haji Keigo spoke while looking at the fighting Mushitsuki.

“Unlike Miguruma, who wants to play with Mushitsuki forever… I want to finish up the fight already. For that I will protect what I need and cut off what’s unneeded. —It goes without saying that the most important person right now is Sleeping Beauty, Arisu.”

On top of her, the silver Morpho butterfly raised its feelers.

“…I will now mobilize.”

Terasu gritted her teeth and mumbled in a stifled voice. She turned around.

“Terasu here, I’m heading back to command. It’s about time, are we all ready?”

Haji Keigo got on the large transport truck used by the JSDF members. It was one of those stolen by Rinrin. Kasuou also carried her along with the Morpho butterfly and got on into the same cargo box as Haji.

“Me and Kasuou and Yotsuba are going to open a path ahead! After that, Tamamo, you’re going to create as large a consciousness-camouflaging barrier as you can! Shachito, reduce everyone’s masses on the way! We’ll all become lighter and break through!”

There, the tone of Terasu’s voice dropped.

“After we manage to breakthrough, the orders will be given directly to each team. —Just to make sure C doesn’t eavesdrop on us.”

“A nice excuse.”

The Morpho butterfly stared at Haji Keigo who was smiling in the luggage.

Noticing its stare, he mumbled toward the Morpho butterfly.

“Please don’t retire midway through, alright?”

“We’re doing this, Kasuou! Yotsuba!”

“Let’s go!”

“Alright!”

“—There’s a sudden powerful ‘flame’ approaching from the west!”

However, Himiko’s voice cut into Terasu and others’ warcries.

“It’s C!”

In the very center of the entire forces, golden light scattered around concentrations of Mushitsuki.

These were golden C-butterflies.

These countless fluttering forms melted into the ground and focused in a single point.

“I’ll intercept them.”

Along with a husky female voice, the ground shook.

Instantly appearing on the surface with a tremor was a spire made of metallic water pipes, wires, lights and the like entangled together.

Golden lightning pierced through the surface to the heavens.

Trying to catch the entire forces of Mushitsuki with one blow, C unleashed her lightning strike—but it was sucked into this suddenly created lightning rod, so it ended up discharged into the sky and vanished without hurting anyone.

“You’ve saved us, Sakura! Now, let’s break through—Sensation Isolation!”

“ORAAAAH!”

“Poison Mist Punch!!!”

Sounds of destruction echoed from the frontlines.

“Lemme lighten you.”

Along with Shachito’s voice, everyone on the battlefield was wrapped in an orange light. From the bodies of Mushitsuki rose faintly glowing dragonflies—a swarm of Autumn Darters.

“All hands, charge forward!”

By Terasu’s orders, the Mushitsuki began moving simultaneously.

“Let’s go, then.”

Inside the truck that rumbled as it moved, Haji Keigo mumbled.

The youth’s eyes narrowed as though he was looking to the great distance.

“To the land of our counterattack—to Aoharima Island.”

She saw it.

Through her Mushi, the Morpho butterfly.

The Mushitsuki who took her in, were all fighting while literally puking blood.

After failing in the operation to annihilate C and then constantly repeating this desperate retreat—

They fought, got hurt, and collapsed.

Even to the Morpho butterfly’s eyes, it looked like their numbers were quickly going down. Some were struck by the enemy attacks, some split into individual teams, and at times they collapsed powerless and were left behind.

She knew that hellish sight.

She too had ended up losing like that in the past.

Why had she lost?

She didn’t know.

“—”

Only the reason she came down to this hell.

Although she was forgotten long ago and most humans had no way to know of her, she knew the reason for her get woken up again well. Only that.

“…To fight, huh.”

This small mumble leaked from her mouth.

How many hours passed since they left their base in the dome?

How many Mushitsuki fought and depleted?

By the time even those sensations felt unclear—she noticed that the space she inhabited was cut off from reality.

Furious Mushitsuki and the Revived were engaged in hurting each other.

Inside this hell where they cannibalized on each other, she stood up.

“What you want from me—is the power to end this fight, right?”

At some point a lone ghost came standing outside the parked truck.

It wore a pitch-dark coat—no.

Wearing a long coat stained with fresh blood, it was a person with hair that stood up like horns, with a large automatic pistol dangling from one hand.

He was covered in wounds as though he already went through the border between life and death once—no, not only once but countless times, with how many wounds he was covered by.

“—Not at all.”

The ghost with broken goggles hanging from his neck appeared tentatively like a boy. His face smeared with dried up blood was stuck with sorrowful expression.

She knew him.

However, she didn’t know why he was making this kind of face.

“I wanted to entrust you with… no, to apologize to you. But—”

Wearing a weak-looking face, the boy hesitating to speak.

This was the mere shell of the Mushitsuki that had once been called a demon. She sneered at him.

She then reached out into the other lying girl’s jacket, pulling out a metallic rod. Extending in her hand, the rod fused with the Morpho butterfly and transformed into a large spear that shone silver. At the same time, silver patterns rose to her four limbs.

Seeing her transform so grotesquely, the boy grasped his blood-stained gun.

“She said that she separated from ‘you’. —That’s why you’re still bothered about turning into her.”

“I don’t understand what you’re saying. Does that have anything to do with the present?”

The scales gushing out from the spear wrapped around her neck, making her long scarf float.

“As long as I’m strong—isn’t that enough?”

She felt a strong power inside her.

This power was about to overflow at any moment.

She wanted to quickly unleash it.

In order to make her dream come true.

For the one who constantly consoled her during her long slumber.

All for the sake of the girl still sleeping next to her—her other self—her best friend.

That friend’s name was Arisu.

Splitting from Arisu and appearing here, her name was—

“Stop pretending…”

The boy in front of her eyes should know her name.

However, the blood-smeared demon that looked ready to fall at any moment made no attempt to name her.

“Right now—you’re not Arisu.”

He said this.

Then reequipped the broken goggles to his face.

Epilogue

Anmoto Shiika was walking somewhere unknown.

Back during the C annihilation operation and the decisive fight against Oogui—

—Daisuke-chan is Kakkou-chan, you realize?

Shiika believed that monster’s whispers.

She accepted that reality way too easily.

A normal high-schooler and a demon clad in a pitch-dark coat.

Although their figures, personalities and even their voices were different—

Perhaps Shiika had already felt somewhere in her heart that they were the same person.

“…”

An empty, soundless city.

Since Akamaki City was silent and empty after the evacuation notice, there was no one to stop Shiika there.

Almost as if everyone was avoiding Shiika in the road she walked through.

Or perhaps—some sort of will had purposely emptied the road.

“I… made him Fallen—”

Her reflection was visible on the glass window of a convenience store.

She was short. Her face was young and she couldn’t really tell how much she’d grown ever since she became a Fallen a few years ago. Due to her battle with Oogui her clothes were in tatters and her face was deathly pale.

Nothing changed.

She remained just like she was when she was young, when the boy called Kakkou turned her into a Fallen.

Although many things were supposed to have happened since then—

Her form as she walked on her own remained unchanged from how she was back then.

“I did this… to Kakkou-kun… to Daisuke-kun…”

The only difference—was that right now, Shiika no longer had anyone who would come for her.

It was none other than Shiika herself who did this to the person she promised to meet again—

Shiika herself caused her to lose the one and only person she was waiting for.

“Why—”

How long had she walked through this empty town for?

Perhaps she might have been walking like this the entire night.

During that, Shiika kept mumbling those questions to herself.

“Why did Kakkou-kun… how could he wait for me…?”

Her tears had already dried up long ago. Her face covered in dirt just had tear marks on it.

“How could he have waited all these years…?”

By meeting Kakkou after all these years, she immediately understood.

Just like she promised, he believed Shiika would return and waited for her.

At the time she was immensely happy.

But right now—Shiika couldn’t believe him.

“Have you never thought—that I might never return…?”

The empty part of town was over.

The army’s barricade appeared, but Shiika paid it no heed.

“How could I have—done this so easily to Kakkou-kun… how could I have turned him into a Fallen?”

As Shiika mumbled to herself and walked, the soldiers opened the path for her. —For a moment, it looked as though golden sparks flew over the camo-dressed soldiers.

“Even if Kakkou-kun never returned—because Daisuke-kun was there?”

As Shiika kept walking past the barricade, she entered a road where there were passersby here and there.

Some of them turned quizzical glances at the dirty and tattered Shiika.

“Because Daisuke-kun… was supposed to wait for me at Christmas?”

Although she supposedly dried of tears, Shiika grimaced.

—Let’s meet again next Christmas.

The one who told her this was the completely commonplace high-schooler, Kusuriya Daisuke.

So it should have been—

“How—”

Shiika couldn’t believe in herself now.

She knew the reason for that.

Because she could no longer believe in the promise that supported her so far—in the one who made that promise, Kakkou and Kusuriya Daisuke.

“Why did Daisuke-kun… never tell me the truth…?”

Shiika revived from the state of a Fallen and the one she thought she met by chance was the boy called Kusuriya Daisuke.

However, in actuality he was the Mushitsuki entrusted with the mission to capture Shiika—Kakkou.

Shiika never knew that.

As a result, this time she was the one who made him Fallen.

Shiika lost the two people who were waiting for her with one blow—

Just like when she once became Mushitsuki—

She became alone.

“Why… haven’t you told me…?”

No—she didn’t want to know the reason.

If only she hadn’t known the truth that they were the same person—Shiika could believe.

That Kakkou would come back again.

That Kusuriya Daisuke would be waiting for her.

Although she could believe both—now she ended up doubting.

Kusuriya Daisuke—Kakkou—wouldn’t wait for the likes of Shiika. It was all a trap so he could recapture Shiika, and it might have been no more than a lie.

Someone who would wait for Shiika—was there actually even a single person like that from the very beginning?

“—”

Bell sounds echoed.

They were so clear that they felt otherworldly, and they permeated Shiika’s chest.

“I have told you so, right?”

Appearing in front of Shiika was a petite girl. Her hair tied into pigtails and the heart-patterned dress she was wearing were the same as when they met for the first time.

She was Horiuchi Erii—C.

“You had no one who allowed your existence from the very beginning.”

After having been captured by the SEPB, Shiika ran away with Shirakashi Ubuki and Ebina Yuu from Akamaki City. This already felt like the distant past.

Back then she met Horiuchi Erii, and now the girl appeared in front of her again.

“Even so, you have—really done well.”

Erii’s smiled and spread her arms to Shiika.

As if she was a mother praising her child, she tried kindly accepting Shiika.

“I will love you, who kept fighting all alone.”

Bell sounds echoed again.

A sweet, irresistible temptation made Shiika’s body tilt.

“I will make you needed.”

Shiika buried her head in the girl’s chest.

All doubts and misgivings torturing Shiika were dyed by gold and vanished.

“Sleep well, my beloved Dove—”

Resistance was unavoidable.

No—she was inside a world dyed in gold without any resistance.

On top of Horiuchi Erii’s head, a sublime tiara was materializing.

Afterword

Hello, this is Iwai Kyouhei.

Even this long-spanning series is approaching its finale.

In this first half of the finale, I attempted to depict whether the many people who try to settle the battles revolving around Mushi and Mushitsuki—with some among them serving as linchpins—will participate in the final fight or not.

People who possess an intense sense of self even as fate toys with their lives.

If the story is reaching its end, then inevitably they will also need to settle their own fights as well.

I’ve written in previous afterwords as well about there being so many characters.

They obviously all have their own lives, their own destinies, and their own reasons that led them all the way up to the present. And not all of them have being Mushitsuki as their common point, either. Because there are also normal people who just became involved with Mushitsuki.

Perhaps some of you readers tried imagining the future path your lives will take. Perhaps you have also embraced your wishes to become a certain way. In fact, many of the letters I’ve received were from people who wanted me to write about their favorite characters. I am very glad. Thank you very much.

They have so many varied ways of livings and shapes they imagine, but will they all manage to unite as one to face this one final challenge?

I am going to depict two things at that time.

Firstly, whether or not they choose to participate in this final fight.

Secondly, what sort of future they will imagine before this decisive fight. —Despite the fact that it is still undecided whether they can live like that.

I earnest hope that my depiction of this will end up meeting the readers’ expectations.

As usual, publishing this volume required the help of many people.

Firstly, everyone in the editorial department, especially my editor in charge who helped with the series. Although this is your final time, thank you very much for your help. I seriously can’t state my gratitude enough. Thank you so much for your help up to now.

And llo-sama, who illustrates the novel. Thank you so much for the high quality of your illustrations despite needing to go along with my slow writing.

And to you the readers watching over me to this point, thank you so much.

I want to show you the final fight as well as the future of all these characters as quickly as I can.

I will be overjoyed if you enjoy this conclusion.

Iwai Kyouhei

Notes

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