Mushi Uta:Volume 8 Chapter 3

3.00 The Beast and Momo Part 4

The atmosphere of the city was changing.

On the surface it looked as peaceful as always, but it looked like there was an unstable disturbance beneath the surface.

He knew the reason for this.

"Mark Hunting… so it happened here as well."

Brought by Momo to the crossroads in front of the station, he stood in a daze.

The most conspicuous of all was the billboard. It used to have the advertisement for the huge hit, the pop song based on Coatl Head. However, someone somehow ripped it apart, leaving cracks in the shape of large claw marks on it. They put up scaffolds in order to repair the board.

Even among passerby who turned to look at that damaged billboard no one wore that symbol anywhere on them.

The stores on the side of the road ran out of all relevant products.

The marks on power poles and wall were painted over or perhaps scraped off.

"In just a couple of days… it changed this much?"

He felt a chill at the country's sudden transformation.

Only a couple of days passed since the first report of the heinous crimes targeting and attacking Coatl Head, commonly called the "Mark Hunting".

Apparently, many people who either drew the symbol or possessed it ended up suffering serious injuries. The perpetrators haven't stopped with humans, but even destroyed the medium of the symbol itself.

These crimes were not done by a single perpetrator. It spread all over the country as if on cue.

Also, until now there wasn't even a single "Mark Hunter" caught, shockingly. The only ones caught by the police were criminals influenced by the Mark Hunting to make copycat crimes or else people taking advantage of the opportunity to run wild for fun.

The fact the criminals were not caught also turned into a topic.

The mysterious phenomenon of Mark Hunting—

It started spreading through the entire country with the same vigor as the original marking fad had.

"…Momo?"

He turned toward the girl that was supposed to be next to him.

Tanaka Momo stood in the middle of the road, looking around her. With a horribly anxious face, she ran her eyes around as though looking for something.

"Why…?"

Just as she mumbled this, Momo suddenly ran away.

"Momo!"

It was useless calling to her. He followed her.

Momo stooped in front of a book shop. She dug through the books on its shelf.

"—It's not there…"

Biting her lips, she kicked the ground again.

Next she stopped in front of a large building. The wall, colored uniformly in dark blue, looked like it was recently painted.

"…Not here."

"Momo…!"

He desperately followed Momo who once again ran and rushed into a back alley. Yet his body grew weak and his knees were about to give up.

"Kh…"

Putting strength into the legs that were losing their sensations, he ran.

Momo went past the alley and started heading down a small hill. Seeing the fences of the small vacant house, she stood there calmly.

Rushing to her, he looked at the fence while standing next to her.

"…"

The entire fence was dyed by a black spray.

Also seeing red lines, he knew that Coatl Head was hidden underneath it. Someone apparently assaulted the mark with color.

"Daiske…"

Looking slowly to his direction, he could see large tears welling up Momo's eyes.

"It's gone…"

"Momo?"

"There's no more Coatl Head anywhere… They're all disappearing…"

A stream of tear ran down Momo's cheek.

Seeing her depressed face, he was startled. He put his hand to her forehead.

"You have a fever—"

Before he finished speaking, Momo leapt into his chest. Burying her head in his chest to hide her tears, she wrapped both arms around his back.

"There were so many…! Plenty of Coatl Heads no matter where you looked…! Now there's not even one…!"

"What's wrong, Momo?"

Hugging back the girl's head, he asked.

He knew that Momo was really into the marking fad.

Even so she was overreacting to it. Was she losing her cool due to the fever as well?

"It's just a fad, right? I know losing something you like is sad… but you don't have to cry this much."

At his words Momo just shook her head vigorously. Leaking a sob, she wouldn't speak. Having no choice he stroked her head and didn't say anything until she calmed down.

While he was hugging the girl with his listless arms, he felt a sudden déjà vu.

Casually glancing around, he finally noticed something.

"Ah?"

Power left the legs that supported the weight of two people. They both collapsed on top of one another in front of the fence.

Yet not even heeding the pain of the fall, he widened his eyes.

"Is this—the place where Kirari… and Momo picked me up?"

It was the day he ran away from the SEPB, fought a monster by the riverside and bled to death.

That time, he was collapsed on that fence.

When he was resolved to die, Tanaka Momo appeared in front of him. Just as she noticed she was gazing at his heavily wounded body, she chanted while drawing a strange symbol on his forehead.

—Coatl Coatl Para Emile.

At that time he knew nothing about Coatl Head, so he just remembered feeling confused.

"I see… it was night so I didn't notice it at all."

Perhaps that was why Momo's charm at the time had the best possible effect.

His life was saved—and his heart as well.

Although his life was about to end at the same, he received a continuation in the form of normal, daily life.

"That mark behind the fence… did you draw it, Momo?"

He thought she'd drawn it as commemoration for their meeting, but he was apparently wrong. Momo shook her head in his embrace.

So it was probably just a simple graffiti drawn by someone.

Yet even that Coatl Head at his back surely contained irreplaceable feelings.

"I see… so that mark had been watching us from the beginning…"

What a mysterious fad.

No—it was a fad, but now it was vanishing.

It was a simple charm where you drew a weird symbol and made a wish.

Coatl Head.

Perhaps the ever-close dusk of this marking fad was right before his eyes.

This large trend vanishing like that might resemble the sun sinking in the west sky in front of him—

"Daiske…"

Inside his arms Momo raised her face.

Her teary eyes and cheeks being red was perhaps due to her fever. Warm breaths leaked out of her lips slightly illuminated by the sinking sun.

"Ever since we first met… I liked you."

He wasn't surprised.

However, for some reason he wore a wry smile.

"I'm—"

He ran away from everything, so he knew he wasn't worthy.

He knew that he had too little time left, and that it was too much happiness for him.

Yet now that he was weakened to the very limits, he didn't even have the power to suppress these feelings.

"I'm not sure when I started feeling like this…"

He weakly brought Momo's face closer. He intended on using all of his remaining power to express the deluge of his emotions.

Their lips gently separated in front of the Coatl Head that had been painted over.

How long had they been hugging wordlessly?

Momo started mumbling by the time when the surroundings started to darken.

"Don't go anywhere, Daiske…"

He smiled.

"I decided now. I'll stay here forever."

Momo smiled, relieved.

"Say…"

"Yeah?"

"Do you remember the secret we've talked about before?"

"The Mushitsuki that disappeared at the substation…"

"Yup. But there's actually something more."

"More?"

"Yeah. If Coatl Head is gone, that Mushitsuki will appear again."

Momo continued.

"If that happens, I'm going to be killed…"

"Why?"

"I dunno…"

"…"

"She said that this Mushitsuki should have never been born. A girl with a suitcase told me that."

Momo's words were vague and abstract. Perhaps her thinking was dulled due to her fever, as her face also looked somewhat vacant.

"She said many people were scared of that Mushitsuki. I think I'm one of those people, too… I'm really scared."

He held her closer.

"If you're in danger, I'll—"

Save you—he wanted to say this, but Momo's lips blocked his mouth.

Separating her face, Momo returned her usual, bright smile.

"You won't even be a match, yeah. Mushitsuki are super strong."

"Really… I see."

He smiled wryly. He didn't know if he'd even still have the power to support Momo by tomorrow.

"So the most important thing is to run away, yeah."

"Where?"

"How about the place you came from, Daiske?"

"It's possible that no one remembers me anymore…"

"You have me. I'll write your name on your forehead again, yeah."

"Stop with the oil-based paint…"

Smiling at each other, Momo once again hugged him tightly.

"You don't have to protect me."

"…"

"In exchange… if that Mushitsuki comes out again, let's run away together, yeah."

"Sure… let's run away together."

At some point they decided on running away.

Making this small promise, the first stars twinkled above their heads.

3.01 Momo and Sepia

Until just recently her way back home was riddled with Coatl Head marks, but now due to the influence of the Mark Hunting they were all gone.

When one mark was gone after another, she was assaulted by an inexplicable fear.

Coatl Head mustn't vanish.

It had to keep on increasing.

Even so—they were vanishing without a trace due to someone's interference.

"Coatl Coatl…"

Momo walked through town with an uncertain gait. Her head hurt like she'd been hit by something because of her fever, but there was something she had to make sure.

Kusuriya Daisuke had told her that he would take her home.

However, Momo had declined his offer politely and despite feeling otherwise in her heart of hearts.

She actually didn't want to go back home.

She wanted to stay with Daisuke forever.

She was very happy that he'd accepted her. Daisuke managed to help her overcome the anxiousness over the Coatl Head gradually vanishing.

"Para Emile…"

Coatl Head.

A charm to bring out courage.

That mark undoubtedly gave her courage.

By letting her meet Daisuke, she received courage from him.

And that was why Momo had to ascertain something.

"Haa…"

Fighting against her worsening fever, Momo arrived at the town's center illuminated by streetlights.

She was headed for the suburbs.

Walking all the way there took time but she didn't think of turning back. Her body was heavy and her heart was full of vague uneasiness, but she didn't think of stopping.

I don't have to go back home today—

She ran out of breath.

Even so, a smile naturally rose to her face.

She'd go back to the office and have Daiske and Kirarin nurse her—

It would trouble them, but they'd allow it on account of her being sick. She would monopolize the single bed, Daiske would sit next to her and Kirari would make her porridge.

She was unkind, so she didn't care about being a nuisance.

She'd have the pair spoil her as if she owned the place.

She was confident she could cause them to want to throw her out.

"Haa… Haa…"

Her destination was enclosed by a rusty fence.

A familiar scooter was parked nearby. Momo was unsure if the person she'd called there would come, but she had apparently already come.

Although she found it bothersome, she hated leaving things unfinished. Since she'd been at Momo's side for many years already, she knew her personality the most.

She entered through a tear in the fence to set foot inside the premises.

The ruins of the abandoned substation.

It was such a dark place that one might bump into something if they weren't alert.

Unlike when she'd gone there with Daiske to catch the ferret, no moon was visible now. The thick clouds that covered the skies at some point concealed even the stars.

"Haa… Haa…"

There were lines of countless transmission towers.

They were wrapped up in a network of cables resembling a spider's web.

Exiting the forest of metal—she reached a large crater.

And next to the crater was a white mark on the ground.

The special symbol that had started the fad.

Coatl Hot.

A lone girl stood on top of the symbol that had appeared along with the scorching impact.

Immediately after parting with Daisuke, Momo had called the other girl there by text message. As usual there was no reply, but she believed she would definitely come.

"I knew you'd come here… yeah."

Momo smiled.

Standing on top of the white mark was Momo's friend, Sepia. The horned hat turned toward her.

Coatl Hot looked even bigger when compared to the petite Sepia.

The two girls with the same marker case dangling from their waists faced each other.

"Sepia… The Coatl Heads are disappearing…"

"…"

"I'm so scared… I mean, that suitcase person said…"

"…"

"Why aren't you saying anything? Sepia!"

Momo started shouting at her friend that stared at Momo completely silently without talking at all.

"After all, back then when this Coatl Hot was painted… you were the one who created this crater!"

Sepia stayed silent. Momo kept shouting.

"Don't you remember what the suitcase person said?! As long as this mark is here, everything would be fine… but if it's gone… everything'll go to hell!"

"…"

"She said lots of people were going to die! That many people would be coming to kill that Mushitsuki!"

"…"

"Wasn't she speaking about you!?"

Her eyes went teary, and her vision distorted.

The world Momo was watching changed its shape.

Sepia's silhouette distorted due to the tears in her eyes.

"You're the Mushitsuki that should never be born!"

She'd kept it a secret this far.

Sepia was her childhood friend and best friend. When they'd graduated middle school, Sepia had actually gotten accepted to a good school in the capital Akamaki City. Even so she said she'd go to the same school as Momo and remained in town.

That was why she stayed quiet.

That was why she kept the secret that her best friend was a Mushitsuki.

"Sepia… you yourself always spoke to me… about how scared you were…"

Even sturdy Sepia had clung to her and cried.

Momo still clearly remembered the warmth of the tears shed by her friend.

"Run…"

Momo said to Sepia.

"Sepia… you should run away before anything bad happens…"

She'd make a request for Kirari.

Since it was her, she would definitely bring Sepia to a safe place.

"Sepia, say—"

"I only came here to make something clear."

Sepia's voice reverberated in the dark substation.

Momo felt as if it was the first time in a while she heard her friend's voice. Ever since the time Coatl Hot had been drawn, Sepia had kept avoiding her.

The petite girl slowly approached Momo.

She raised her arm toward Momo.

"You're—being annoying, so stop already."

The girl's gaze, clearly filled with hostility, stabbed through the dazed Momo.

And then Sepia clearly—

"—"

Whispered the words of farewell in Momo's ears.

3.02 The Others

On the suburbs exactly opposite from the substation ruins was an industrial zone.

Even this place, bustling with workers during the afternoon, was creepily quiet at night. Also, since the parking lot was far from the factory, there weren't any guards coming.

All of the workers employed in the factory used only that parking lot, so it was spacious.

A large mark was drawn in the center of that dark parking lot.

A Coatl Head.

The youngsters of the city, gathering there from time to time, drew it. Perhaps unwilling to go to the trouble of painting it over, the mark had been just left there.

"…"

Ikarino Kirari was carefully watching the parking lot from within the shadows of the factory.

She could hear nothing but static from the earphones attached to her ears. The wireless listening device set up near the mark transmitted the silence around.

There were only few Coatl Head marks remaining in town. Among them, the one in the parking lot was especially large.

The phenomenon of Mark Hunting, now at the forefront of public attention—Kirari had been sneaking there to ascertain its identity for a few days now.

"They'll definitely show up…"

She mumbled.

There were countless of these marks around the country.

However, Kirari was convinced that the Mark Hunter would appear there.

That was because there were an abnormally low amount of victims from all over the country when compared to those in town.

Perhaps the very act of inciting this Mark Hunting everywhere was the goal. Due to that, there were plenty of marks left unattended.

Those in this town, however, were being actively destroyed. No matter small or big. They were being meticulously erased without a trace.

"I don't think it's just someone trying to get rid of the fad…"

A nasty premonition grew inside Kirari.

Another formless searcher moving behind the scenes—

Kirari could hear footsteps.

"Perhaps they noticed the meaning of Coatl Head…?"

Muttering to herself, Kirari narrowed her eyes.

Two shadows appeared in the parking lot with the mark.

The moon was covered by clouds, so she could only see their silhouettes. However, Kirari was convinced due to the fact she hadn't felt their presence until they arrived and that their posture had no openings.

—They're here.

As Kirari watched, one shadow swung their hand.

That simple action caused the ground to rumble. The ground was gouged and the mark was cruelly torn off.

She listened carefully to the noise-filled earphones.

"With this, we should have erased most marks in this town…"

A woman's voice. She felt as if she'd heard that gloomy, husky voice somewhere before.

"Now, what's going to happen…?"

Since it was a low voice, she couldn't hear it well. Pulling out her small binoculars, she focused on the silhouettes.

"—a guest?"

The woman's voice suddenly grew sharper. Thinking that something happened, she readied her binocular.

"…!"

Startled, she lowered it.

There was only one remaining silhouette. There should have been two just now, though.

By the time she felt danger and tried getting away it was too late.

"I knew you weren't unrelated to this…"

As she turned around, although there shouldn't have been anyone behind her, there was now a person clad in a long coat.

"Tell me everything, Handyman."

She was caught between the two black figures, one behind her and one in front of her.

She had—nowhere to run for.

"I can sense something! A Mushitsuki is approa—i-it's fast…!"

She heard a nervous voice from the headphones.

The coat-wearing woman raised her face, and then she also turned to the parking lot.

A black object approached with the speed of a bullet from afar.

"Hurgh!"

An ear-grating voice echoed. The black person in the parking lot brought out a Mushi on their tongue, shooting sharp claws from it toward the black shadow.

Although it was assaulted by these countless claws, the shadow dancing through the air managed to instantly weave through them. Due to its excessive speed it wasn't even possible to see the route it was taking. —If felt as though the flow of time was faster only in the area around that black object.

Leaving an afterimage, the black object rose to the sky. Drawing an arc, it approached Kirari.

A dark-colored needle passed above Kirari's head.

The woman standing behind her transformed part of her coat into needles and shot them at the sky.

The flying shade weaved through the needles, went into a tailspin and landed on the ground.

Blowing wind made Kirari's hair flutter.

Landing next to her was a girl wearing a turban on her head. A black pattern grew on her head and arms, and the wings fused with her coat grew from her back.

It was a Mushitsuki Kirari didn't know. She couldn't even tell if she was an ally or an enemy.

"—This might be a bit rough, but will ya hang on?"

Immediately after saying this in a sweet voice, the turban girl hugged Kirari.

However, Kirari's body stopped moving.

"…!"

The needles shot from the coat transformed like living beings, tying around Kirari's legs.

"I won't let you."

The coat of the woman muttering in a low voice instantly morphed. It became a tight bodysuit that covered everything from head to toe. The bodyline of the tall and long-limbed woman was prominent.

"Were you the one controlling Biribiri, Karasu? …Die."

The pitch-black phantom raised an arm.

Kirari and the turban girl froze their expressions it happened.

"I sense something!"

The voice echoing through the listening device, stopped the woman from moving.

"From the direction of the substation… this reaction is… t-too strong—"

The voice heard through the earphone was probably heard by the bodysuit woman as well.

Unlike the agitation in her ally's voice, her response was calm. With creepy movements like a doll's, she turned just her upper body toward the station.

"So you finally appear… Mushitsuki of the Substation Ruins."

Kirari also turned to the same direction.

In the far distance, she could see a light illuminating the black sky.

A rainbow-colored light piercing the heavens.

It was the same as that time, when Kirari gazed up full of despair.

I wasn't able to stop it—

Seeing the far sky, Kirari gritted her teeth.

She knew this would happen if Coatl Head was gone.

No, maybe I can still make it in time—

Not giving up, Kirari pulled out a knife from her pocket as the next thing happened.

"I s-sense—"

Once again she heard the shaking voice.

"A new reaction just as strong as the Mushitsuki that appeared at the substation…!"

Kirari widened her eyes.

"W-what's going on in this town—"

"No, this is just as planned."

The bodysuit woman was calm.

"I won't let you interfere… Kakkou!"

The gloomy-sounding phantom's voice turned sharper.

"I don't know why there are other people than us who know about the Mushitsuki of the Substation… but it's convenient for us to have all the dangerous Fusion Types in one place."

Raising just the top of her head, the suit-clad woman looked down at Kirari.

"I will completely erase all Fusion Type Mushitsuki from this town tonight."

"…!"

When Kirari tried cutting the wire catching her leg with the knife, the woman swung her arm at the same time.

Her vision blacked out.

Explosions.

Wind.

Dizziness and a sense of floating.

Finally—an impact.

"Ugh…!"

She had apparently momentarily blacked out.

Kirari, coming back awake due to pain, rolled on the ground.

"You moron! Don't doze off!"

Becoming covered in dirt and feeling her momentum stopping, finally she noticed she was in the middle of a field.

The turban-wearing girl also came falling from the sky with Kirari. She was collapsed, with half of her body buried in the ground.

Raising her face, she could see the factory was far away. A large column smoke was rising from it.

The turban girl had apparently taken Kirari and ran from the enemy at the nick of time.

"I already told you that the longer you're under my ability's effect, the larger the burden becomes!"

Approaching Kirari and the other girl were several girls.

Among them a petite girl wearing glasses seemed to be dragging something.

A red smoke rose from the turban girl stuck unmoving in the field. The smoke became a glittering queen bee in midair, and was then reabsorbed by the bespectacled girl.

A girl wearing a casket hat called "Ubuki-chan!" and rushed toward the turban girl.

"R-Red Bee-User…?"

The bespectacled girl's expression changed.

"You… know me?"

"…"

"There shouldn't be anyone who knows about me anymore… well, never mind that for now. More importantly, I gotta ask you something. I didn't save you from the kindness of my heart, y'know."

There was another girl behind the bespectacled one. Wearing her hair in the shape of two buns, she wore a jacket with pin badges on it. Her face was as pretty as a singer's, but she stared into her cellphone with extremely cold eyes.

"Do it, Lucy!"

"Roger. Okay. Got it."

The buns girl ran her fingers on the cellphone.

"I will have you tell me… the secret hidden behind this marking fad."

Kirari startled preparing her body but was too late.

She was assaulted by a sensation as if her chest was being grabbed from inside. And something was being pulled out of her, slithering—

A "you've got mail!" echoed from the cellphone. It was apparently a ringtone.

"Despite being a civilian she'd been trained against mental assault… there's a lot of corrupted text, but I managed to receive it one way or another. Now, let's see here—"

Looking at the screen of her cellphone, Lucy's expression froze.

"Chami-sama… this is…"

The bespectacled girl called Chami also peeked into the screen, and then widened her eyes.

"What the hell—"

Chami, Lucy, Ubuki and the casket-wearing girl.

Kirari didn't know who they were.

However, they were apparently searching for the Mushitsuki born at the substation just like the mysterious person clad in black.

Why had they found out about existence of the Mushitsuki of the Substation Ruins?

How have they come to know of the truth hidden behind the marking fad?

Kirari didn't know the answer.

"Yikes… This is really bad… What're we supposed to do about this…"

Chami mumbled, raising her face.

Kirari understood even without being told.

The Mushitsuki of the Substation, once gone from this world—

If that grave had been ruffled, it would become something irrevocable.

"A Mushitsuki like that… should obviously not be allowed to exist!"

A Mushitsuki that should have never been born.

Right, and that was why—they decided they make it so they weren't born.

"…"

Kirari started trying to walk to the direction of the substation—

And collapsed to the ground, powerless.

3.03 Momo and Marker-User

In the substation ruins enveloped in darkness, Tanaka Momo stood alone.

The small point of light growing distant was probably the lights of a motor scooter.

Gazing at the shrinking light, Momo's eyes stared at empty air without moving.

Sepia had…

Momo's best friend had…

"You're—being annoying, so stop already."

Just now she'd spoken thus to Momo.

"You're always saying things I don't understand and cling to me even though you're a complete stranger to me…"

She also asserted the following with obviously hostility.

"I'm a Mushitsuki? There's no such thing as Mushitsuki… unless—"

—Aren't you the Mushitsuki?

These were her words of farewell.

Sepia left Momo and was no longer in the substation.

Hearing her friend's words, the happenings of the past were reborn inside Momo's mind like flowing water.

Sepia who apologized while crying.

The assaulting Mushitsuki that presented themselves as the SEPB.

And the "ritual" conducted by the girl with a suitcase—

She now recalled that all those were directed at—none other than Momo herself.

"I remember… Sepia had forgotten about me…"

She said it was destiny.

She said that, after having become Aria Varei, it was unavoidable.

Momo didn't understand a thing, but they said that this was Sepia's fate as one who'd become part of the Original Three.

"She apologized for forgetting about me… and she cried…"

And Sepia had indeed forgotten about her.

"But—I also forgot…"

Moving her face slowly, she looked to the side.

On the parched ground there was a symbol made of a single arrow and two lines crisscrossing it.

Coatl Hot.

This mark had been created to make Momo forget everything until now.

The suitcase-carrying girl made it so.

"So I—"

The tears rising to her eyes streamed down her cheeks.

A small insect crawled on her shoulders.

On its head it had two feelers and a single compound eye, and its body was long when compared to its small abdomen. Its structure was like that of a rhinoceros beetle, but its body was emitting many colors.

The jewel beetle crawling on Momo's head emitted a radiance that tore through the darkness.

The dark substation ruins were filled by a blinding light.

"So I was… a Mushitsuki."

A rainbow jewel beetle shining in all seven colors.

That was the new Fusion Type Mushi that was created by her best friend—

The rebirth of Marker-User, Tanaka Momo.

3.05 The Others

After parting from Tanaka Momo, he made his way back toward the office.

Yet when he reached an alley about several dozen meters from where he'd first met Momo, the place with the painted-over Coatl Head, he stood in place.

The night sky was covered by black clouds.

Nobody was passing in this alley surrounded by the many buildings with empty roofs.

He couldn't hear anything.

That place was too cold—

So he thought when he came there back when he was on the verge of death.

"I survived…"

Standing like a puppet, he hanged his head.

Yet on his face was a smile.

Back then, this place was unbearably cold, but now it felt very warm.

Because Momo had hugged him.

Because Momo had given him life.

Of course, he couldn't forget Ikarino Kirari as well. He'd been able to only thank her with his mouth. He actually wanted to help her with work and make things easier for her a lot more.

Both girls filled his empty self.

"Well, I should have died a long time ago already…"

Slowly raising his right hand, he held it toward the blinking streetlight.

This hand, that no longer had the strength to hold anything, had cracks running through it. His skin turned paler.

He stood in place because he no longer had the energy to walk.

"No… maybe I was like this from the very beginning…"

He smiled self-derisively, but his heart felt full.

—Daiske.

Momo's smile was burned in his eyelids.

—Daiske-san.

The girl that saved him was just like Momo said. She would never abandon him.

If he just kept living, how would tomorrow be?

He knew the answer fully well.

He didn't think anything was special.

He had nothing left to do with his remaining time.

He was able to live in a today that was the same as yesterday.

So another tomorrow the same as today would come.

While dreaming of this—he accepted this ending.

"It's too much of a happy ending for someone like me…"

He would be controlled by his own power.

No.

In his case, there was a much crueler ending.

Even when faced with a horrible death, he didn't feel any fear.

"…"

He absentmindedly raised his head.

At some point he'd been surrounded by black shapes.

He couldn't feel their presence, but only their awesome killer intent, so he knew their identity.

The unit directly under Central Headquarters Vice-Director Miguruma Yaeko, the Annihilators.

Just by looking around he understood.

Harukiyo wasn't there. He and his comrades were only mobilized when things had to do with the Rank 1 Mushitsuki—so obviously they wouldn't be here.

The ones surrounding him were probably an assault team without any abilities. They would lack in their rational thinking and control of their abilities, but be very powerful. Rather than Mushitsuki they could be called wild beasts or tanks. There were plenty, but they were treated as disposable.

"East Central Branch member, Blaze Class Rank 1 Kakkou—"

One of the black shadows spoke.

It didn't matter who of them spoke. After all they received orders from Vice-Director Miguruma and assassinated mechanically.

"We will annihilate you."

He laughed.

How ironic. The enemy he was supposed to be waiting for wasn't here—

"…"

He had no intention to resist. Letting his shoulders sag, he closed both eyes.

However—the thing nesting inside of him wouldn't allow that.

"…!"

Thump, his heart jumped.

Throwing his eyes open, he looked up to the far sky.

The far, far night sky over the suburbs of town was dyed in rainbow colors.

His pulse quickened, there was a violent beating inside his chest.

Seeing the column of light, from the angle and distance, it was definitely a place he knew.

The electrical substation where he'd once captured the ferret.

"Gh—"

As he grimaced, something like black smoke came gushing out of him.

"GWOOOHHH!"

As if resonating with the rainbow glow.

As if scared from the impulse of that great power.

The thing inside him went wild.

"OOhhh…"

Widening his eyes, he hugged his own body.

—There was a Mushitsuki here… but she's gone now.

Momo's shaky voice was reborn in the back of his mind.

—This hole and this mark… Coatl Head is that Mushitsuki's grave.

What was happening at the substation right now?

He had no idea.

Yet he had a bad feeling.

The black impulse planted within him felt the birth of unfathomable power. What could the thing inside him be so scared of?

—If Coatl Head is gone, that Mushitsuki will appear again.

Momo said this with a scared expression.

—If that happens, I'm going to be killed…

A strange uneasiness urged him.

He had to go to the substation right now.

It was obvious something was going on. He had to make sure what—

"…"

He stopped resisting the impulses of destruction coming out of him.

Cautious against his abnormal behavior, the Annihilators kept their distance from him, unmoving. —Although they were stupid, at least their senses were sharp.

Scattering about darkness from his entire body, he slowly raised his head.

"You said you're going to annihilate Kakkou…"

While absently gazing up the sky, he mumbled.

He intended on dying there, but now he couldn't do so anymore. To head toward the substation as fast as he could, he would squeeze out the very last drops of his dream—and sell all of them to the demon sleeping inside him.

"Fuhaha."

While wearing a self-derisive smile, his surroundings were rapidly dyed in the color of darkness.

The alley strewn with vacant houses was being replaced with a completely different space.

"Sorry to disappoint you, though. I'm just—a Kusuriya Daisuke."

The codename "Kakkou" had nothing to do with him.

Kusuriya Daisuke.

Momo had called him thus.

Kirari called him that as well.

He had no other name.

He had no name, and the two girls called him like that.

"Lend me power, Diorestoi…"

As if responding to his mumble, a large amount of tombstones came bursting from the ground.

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