Mushi Uta:Volume 11 Chapter 2

2.00 Immortals

Mikko, Kii-kun, Rui, Kasshi.

Due to those four, this country was going to be filled by Mushi and end—

This ominous prophecy heard within the mist made Daisuke’s anxiety swell.

“Alright, eat as much as you’d like!”

The expensively-dressed youth, Rui, spread his arms with a full smile.

Daisuke, Mikko, Kii-kun, and Kasshi all sat in front of a luxurious dinner.

“Woah, never seen anything like this before!”

“Cough.”

—How about we talk while grabbing some dinner? My treat, of course.

Daisuke accepted Rui’s invitation, because he judged that he couldn’t allow himself to remove his eyes from him.

Since he’d spoken as casually as if he’d invited them to some ramen place, however, he never expected it to be a fancy hotel restaurant.

There were no other customers. Apparently it had been all rented out.

“…”

Kii-kun and Mikko were eating without any caution. Watching them, after he made sure there wasn’t any strange drug inside, Daisuke also grabbed the fork. Seeing that, Kasshi followed suit.

“Rui, was it? You’re awesome! Who are you?”

“Just a rich guy. It’s inheritance from my parents, though. If I don’t use what I got it’d be a waste, right?”

“Oh, so a deadbeat, then. Like some snotty young lord.”

“Uhaha, watch out your words, brat. I’ll charge you for the meal otherwise.”

Kii-kun and Rui exchanged words with smiles, looking cheerful. It was apparently solved easily.

“Quite the hobby you’ve got there, indulging in your sense of superiority by using your parents’ money on strangers to gain their gratefulness and respect. It seems that you possess quite the twisted personality, but I don’t hate you. And the food is scrumptious.”

“There are so many wrong things in how you said it just now, but thanks.”

Rui accepted even Mikko’s disagreeable comments with a smile. At a glance, he was a mere dandy, but his black hair was like a jewel that glowed differently based on the light going through it. Even so, he wasn’t acting with any pretense, so it felt as casually as if you talked to your college classmate.

After trying all sorts of food, Daisuke put the fork aside.

“Hmm? Is that fine, Daisuke? If you don’t eat a lot, you won’t grow.”

“My purpose is coming here isn’t just to get treated to dinner.”

Filling his mouth with mineral water from the glass, he glanced at Rui and Kasshi.

“I’m here to ask those two suspicious people about the dark woman.”

“Nothing’s about me suspicious in the least.”

The boy who called himself Kasshi stated. Although he lowered his hood, he apparently had no intention to remove the goggles hanging from his neck.

“But he is suspicious. The one who took the dark woman away on the pier was him.”

“…!”

Daisuke, Mikko and Kii-kun all looked at Rui.

“So you did see me. You really came at the worst possible timing.”

Rui readily admitted it. He scratched his cheek with a finger, looking awkward.

“We’ve used a bit of forceful method, but that’s our right. Originally we would have paid reward money and buy that sort of commodity.”

“Cough. …The Round Table.”

Mikko mumbled. Kii-kun looked confused.

“The Round Table?”

“A secret club of rich people. They’re the patrons of my father’s research… and his partners in crime. I heard that they were secretly bidding on who would buy the results of the research.”

Rui raised a brow.

“Your father’s research? Meaning, you’re the doctor’s…”

“Daughter, yes.”

Seeing the girl lower her head, Rui wore a painful smile.

“Aren’t you the one who let the guinea pig run from the facility…?”

“Could you please return my family?”

“They sent me—the youngest among the Round Table—running in order to do just that. Well, we need to return it not to you, but just to the research facility. Honestly, what a bother this all is. I already hopped off this train a long time ago, I was supposed to go on a trip with my beloved daughter.”

“Eh, you have a kid? When you’re so young?”

Being asked this by Kii-kun, Rui’s expression changed. His eyes sparkled and he reached into his breast pocket.

“Oh! She’s still small, but I can say she’s an angel—no, a goddess! Will you see the pictures?”

“I don’t really care. More importantly, please tell me more about—”

As Daisuke sighed, Rui rose from his chair.

“You say you don’t care about my daughter? Hey, you punk. Try saying that again.”

“I don’t care, I don’t care, I don’t care, I might as well die rather than care about your daughter.”

The two stuck out their noses and glared at each other.

“Cough… you’re like hooligans. Try to understand your own vulgar natures—ow.”

“Hey, Daisuke! Stop hitting Mikko like that, for god’s sake!”

“Will you look at the picture? Hmm? Or do want to hear my recording of her? Or the footage of her walking for the first time?”

“I’m sorry. I’ll apologize, so don’t show me that stuff. I really don’t care in the least.”

“…What a bunch of children.”

As Kasshi mumbled this, he was glared by everyone else.

“Ha! Then, why were you in a place like that? Leaving aside the doctor’s daughter!”

With a vein bulging on his forehead, Rui returned to his seat. Although he was the oldest there, it didn’t mean that he was adultlike in the least.

“I just so happened to go there after saving Mikko.”

“M-me too…”

“I just ended up there on my running course.”

Rui laughed at the three boys’ excuses.

“Liars. You were definitely hunting the dark woman to get a reward from the Round Table. Or perhaps you have another reason to aim for that. There were several people like that before. We call those people Hunters.”

Daisuke’s chest suddenly hurt. This familiar term made him recall painful memories from the past.

“It’s true, regarding me and Kii-kun. You can just ask Mikko. We were just dragged into this.”

“So, will it be farewell here? Doesn’t look like it, though. Kasshi too.”

At Rui’s words, the three boys affirmed with silence.

“Simply be honest. You shouldn’t get involved anymore.”

“—I am interested in the research of the Undying.”

He apparently needed a reason to stay with Mikko. Daisuke spoke.

“So I don’t intend to back down at this stage.”

“Me too… that dark woman might have done something to me. I want to know what that was.”

Kii-kun bit his lips. He was probably afraid of being abandoned.

“Undying—you say?”

Daisuke didn’t miss Kasshi’s eyes growing sharper.

“Now you’ve got my interest. Since I decided to tag along on my own, you don’t need to mind me.”

“This is ridiculous—”

Drinking all his wine, Rui placed the glass down violently. His expression was dyed in anger.

“Have you heard from Mikko? About that failed research…”

“Failed?”

Daisuke looked at Mikko. He heard nothing about the research failing.

“Cough… some people thought it was no failure. That’s why I took my family and ran.”

“Just like the people throughout history who attained fortune and fame and then at last sought the secrets of immortality… there were many people like that in the Round Table. What did that lead to, though? Never mind the Undying, it simply created an unknown monster.”

A monster that could birth Mushi—

No, more precisely it was Imperfect Mushi.

Although removed from the original purpose which was “immortality”, if it gave birth to an entity that could become the next Original Three—

Daisuke couldn’t ignore that research.

“But… the dark woman was run over by a car and didn’t die. Meaning—”

Perhaps recalling a scary sight, Kii-kun’s voice was shaking.

Rui spat out, his voice full of disgust.

“She’s just hard to kill. And it was gained by methods no normal people would benefit from. This convinced me and I first gave some money, but I also got off that train. I was forced to deal with the aftermath, and then I plan to end this silly research.”

“To end it, you say. —Really?”

Coughing, Mikko looked at Rui.

Her almond eyes and the youth’s jewel-like black hair faced each other.

“If you put an end to my father’s research and release my family with me… I will help with your ‘hunt’.”

“That’s a promise.”

Rui nodded with a serious face.

The smile of the girl who narrowed her eyes kindly—looked truly happy.

“Then I will tell you about the other test subject that ran away with me.”

What was that?

Since he couldn’t fully understand her, no voice came out.

Another test subject—it sounded to him as if Mikko said this.

“I hate your patronizing way of speaking… but do you have any idea about them?”

“Cough… I do not know his current location. But he would definitely head there.”

“He, you say?”

Daisuke rose up from the seat without thinking.

A “fourth” of the Original Three might be born.

Since the “dark woman” who held this possibility had been captured, all he needed to do was investigate the research.

He really thought so, and yet—

“Don’t tell me that your family has more members…”

“Yes, I ran away with two people.”

Finishing the meal, Mikko returned her mask in place.

“But my family’s larger than those two.”

The girl smiled as if introducing a happy family.

2.01 The Others

The middle of the night.

In the hotel room given to her by Rui, a small, sharp noise echoed.

Light peeked into the room wrapped in darkness. The entrance door was slightly ajar.

“Good evening. …Cough.”

As Mikko, who sat on the floor while grasping her knees, spoke, the intruder’s movements completely stopped.

“So you came first. I cannot say I hadn’t excepted it, though… cough.”

“…You knew I’d come?”

Wearing his hood and hiding his face with goggles, the boy—Kasshi—looked down on Mikko.

“You looked like you were interested in my father’s research. Have you gotten this key by defeating Rui’s personal forces in the corridor and stealing it? —Please calm down. Although you are the kind of pervert to wear goggles and actually intrude into a girl’s room at night, I will not do anything like hate you.”

“I’m not a pervert.”

“If you want to kidnap me and make me speak about my father’s research, it’s impossible. It looks like Rui has many guards posted in places even other than the corridor.”

“I can also get it out of you in this room.”

“That is also impossible. Because he would probably come soon…”

“He?”

Kasshi removed his goggles.

Mikko looked up at the boy and narrowed her eyes.

“The person behind you.”

“—What are you doing here?”

Hearing this whisper at his ears, Kasshi felt as if his very heart was being grasped.

A ghost-like figure was standing right behind Kashi. No, with the corridor’s light from behind him and the sharp glints of his eyes, rather than a ghost—it was more like a demon coming to inform a person of their death.

It was Daisuke.

“So Rui’s guards being collapsed there is your doing? I knew you were no normal brat.”

“…Same goes for you.”

His face stiffening a bit, Kasshi retreated from Mikko.

“Are you fine, Mikko? Did he do something to you?”

Daisuke looked down at Mikko worriedly. His demon-like killing intent was gone as if it never existed.

“To me it seems like this turned even more dangerous thanks to your appearance. After all, you are the kind of man to try and sink your fangs into any woman that you—ow. No, he did nothing.”

“Just like you predicted. I appeared, and then Daisuke would.”

“…A prediction, you say?”

Kasshi and Daisuke looked down Mikko who was sitting on the floor.

“Cough. …You two are similar. You each have your own duty, and so you seek to know about my father’s research. I knew you would definitely come to me and get the jump on it before the others.”

The pair’s silence affirmed Mikko’s reasoning.

“Therefore, I thought of rejecting you. I am very tired today…”

“Can’t let you do that. There’re too many things I need you to talk about. Like the subject of the research, for example.”

As Daisuke approached, his face became slightly hazy.

Mikko coughed. She had a cold since she escaped the research facility, but it worsened due to her expending her stamina. The heat and fatigue stopped even her thoughts.

“My father’s research—”

She narrowed her eyes, her face red.

As she tried to recall, scenes of the past rose to her mind.

Her father locking himself up in the research room, devoting himself to it as if possessed by something. Mikko grew up while watching his back. She used the research documents scattered on the floor instead of coloring books.

The rich, suspicious people called the Round Table appeared, taking Mikko and her father to a research facility. Her father rejoiced and asked for test subjects from the Round Table, thus advancing his inhuman research.

What they gave to Mikko was to become a caretaker for these test subjects that they brought from who knows where.

Mikko was imprisoned in the research facility just like them. She would watch over the subjects’ health, hear their stories and keep them alive.

They spoke about many things.

All the way from their personal circumstances and curses spat at her father. Anger, sadness, pain, and at times happiness—

Hearing the stories that held all possible emotions, Mikko consoled them.

And one day, a miracle occurred.

“Have you ever… wished for something from the bottom of your heart?”

She looked up at Kasshi and Daisuke with drowsy eyes.

“Feelings you wanted to make true, no matter the sacrifice…”

Daisuke gulped.

“Never.”

The one who answered was Kasshi.

“For me, my own desires are meaningless.”

“…That is very sad. All people have things they want, and they can only live toward that hope. For the sake of that hope—they can even overcome death. If you say you wish for nothing, you are already in despair. You are empty, like a living corpse… cough.”

Kasshi was shaken by emotions for the first time.

It was rage. Frowning, he glared at Mikko like he wanted to strangle her.

“However, I—like you like that.”

He was apparently surprised.

Kasshi who widened his eyes was engulfed by Mikko’s kind smile.

“Whether or not you start wishing for something is for you to decide. It can’t be given to you by anyone and can’t be enforced by anyone—you yourself can hope for something and live to reach it. That is something very fortunate.”

“…”

“Right now, you are freer than anyone.”

Her fever seemed to be rising more and more. The back of her head hit the wall with a thud.

Her vision blacked out for a moment.

Unfamiliar sights entered Mikko’s mind.

In front of a building that had a pointy silhouette, she came face to face with a familiar dark man. Next to her were Kii-kun, Rui and Kasshi.

The scene changed, and Mikko was on a deserted ship.

—Kii-kun, Kasshi, Rui… as well as me… we shouldn’t have come here…

The one saying this was none other than her.

It felt so familiar—and yet, this was a scene that she felt like she shouldn’t ever know.

Why did she see that now?

Before she could recall the reason, the mumbling girl was pulled back to reality.

“I’m—”

Apparently Mikko’s words caused quite the shakedown to Kasshi, which was unexpected. She thought this boy was cold and rational, but now he bit his lips and his clenched fists shook.

“All of us can definitely get along. Yes, just like a family…”

From the other side of the hall there was a loud thud.

“Wah… Uwah…”

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

Kii-kun appeared. He clung into the one who asked him this, Daisuke, almost tackling him.

“M-my arm… my arm’s attached, right? R-right, Daisuke?!”

He looked to be quite disturbed. He had his two arms all right.

“It’s obviously there. Had a nightmare or something?”

“A nightmare… yeah, it was a dream. —Wait, you guys, why are you with Mikko! Don’t ostracize me!”

“Fwah… why are you all gathered here and why are my subordinates all asleep?”

Rui appeared.

“I won’t ask for details, so go to sleep already, kids. Do you even realize how far I’m going with you, instead of being with my precious daughter who’s more important than the world itself? If you don’t, I’ll force you.”

The terribly moody youth was apparently serious. He cracked his fist.

While looking over them, Mikko narrowed her eyes toward Daisuke.

“We can all get along.”

“…”

Daisuke sighed unpleasantly, and Kii-kun, Kasshi and Rui exchanged glances.

“Right, I feel the same way toward all of you—”

Before reaching her limits and losing her consciousness—

Mikko recalled just who she was.

2.02 Daisuke Part 4

Exiting the hotel come early morning, the five people came to the outskirts of Akamaki City.

Immediately after getting off the luxury car, Daisuke frowned.

“Was there a place like that in Akamaki City…?”

A fantastic new world wrapped in morning fog spread in front of him.

He could see many buildings in the style of Middle Age Europe—the type called baroque, if he remembered correctly—with all kinds of sculptures. A townscape full of churches could be seen on the other side of the fence.

Kii-kun unexpectedly turned to look at Daisuke.

“You never came here before? To Castello.”

“Castello?”

“Castello del Lago. I wanted to go on a date here someday. That girl dumped me yesterday, though…”

“Castello del Lago…”

Hearing that name, it felt somewhat familiar. It should have been a real theme park from overseas.

Due to certain circumstances, Daisuke had lived in Akamaki City several years ago. Perhaps due to being so focused on his mission back then, not only had he never come to play in this theme park, he hadn’t even noticed its existence.

Kasshi asked Mikko.

“Is the other test subject here?”

In front of the fences surrounding the spacious premises, the armed forces that were Rui’s private soldiers were already waiting. Men in camouflage suits holding projectile-type stun guns were communicating through wireless.

“Cough… yes, there is no doubt.”

Mikko rested for the evening and apparently recovered some. However, it didn’t look like her coughs would stop.

“How do you know?”

“Because there’s something here that he would want.”

People would live for their hopes—

Mikko said this last night. This was something completely different from a guess or a conjecture; she apparently had something she was convinced on.

“Looks like it’s true.”

Rui who went to speak with his private forces returned to Daisuke and the rest with a bitter expression.

“My subordinates confirmed that there’re strange monsters in the compound. Not only were they unable to reach the employees inside, no customers came to Castello since yesterday.”

Kii-kun startled.

“Ee? Then, that…”

“I used my Round Table connections to make sure no one comes here, but there’s limit to how much I can hold back involved people and the media. —What are we doing to do?”

“…Cough.”

Mikko started walking. She headed for the entrance that had no reception desk.

Daisuke also followed the girl. Kasshi came as well.

“Goes without asking.”

“E-eh…? I-I’m still not mentally ready, though…”

“You can just stay there, Kii-kun. In fact, that’d be better.”

“Uuugh… I-I don’t want to be left alone.”

Seeing Rui smile and start walking, the half-crying Kii-kun hurriedly followed.

Going through the entrance, they got into a plaza made of bricks. Lamps with carvings and a carriage connected to a horse statue appeared within the morning fog.

They all took out of the plaza and advanced further into the premises.

The inside of the theme park wrapped in an eerie silence looked completely empty of people.

However, that thought was soon betrayed.

Because they noticed human figures collapsed within the morning fog.

“E-eeeek!”

Raising this strained scream was just Kii-kun.

It wasn’t just one or two people collapsed there. Men and women of various ages and appearance were on the ground, completely unmoving.

Kasshi approached one collapsed person and put a finger on his neck.

“Not dead. But it looks a bit different from just being fainted, too.”

“So these are the customers who came here yesterday?”

Rui emitted a groan mixed with anger.

As far as Daisuke could see, it resembled the state of those who had their Mushi killed. Those who lost their emotions and memories, becoming the living corpses called Fallen.

“They probably became his prey. My family—my ‘big brother’—did this to them… cough.”

“T-they’re the same as my friends…”

Kii-kun spoke with a shaky voice.

“The same, meaning—”

Daisuke glared at the other side of the morning fog. From the shade of the baroque-style buildings appeared countless shadows.

“So it’s like that.”

There were rod-like objects that appeared like spider legs and things like insect heads floating in air.

He could see five of them, but that number kept growing.

These were Imperfect Mushi.

They were waiting for their comrades to gather there, or perhaps they were just checking on what Daisuke’s group was going to do. These Mushi were all looking at them.

“Eeee…”

Kii-kun fell onto his butt, causing Rui to grab his arm and force him to stand up again.

“Stand up, Kii-kun. If you don’t want to die, that is.”

Daisuke, who was ready to move at any given moment, frowned.

“These things… were they waiting here since yesterday? Aren’t these imperfect Mushi supposed to vanish quickly?”

“It is possible that these born Mushi are slowly changing… cough.”

If they were just changing it was fine.

However, if this was “evolution”—wouldn’t they become the same Mushi that Daisuke knew well, before long?

Daisuke’s worries only kept growing.

“Also, since my big brother has quite a large definition of his territory… these are probably like soldiers guarding him.”

Mikko casually went behind Daisuke to use him as a shield.

“Therefore, if something happened to my brother, these Mushi would be unleashed in Akamaki City.”

“So that means that before handling the test subject, we need to handle these things. If so many of them spread all over the country it’d be a mess.”

Daisuke clenched his fist.

If he could fuse with his Mushi, eliminating them wouldn’t be impossible.

However, although he tried it last night many times, he couldn’t use his Mushi powers.

Had the mist engulfing Akamaki City done something to him…?

Daisuke wasn’t as clueless as to be happy he became a normal person again. He had the fear that he was unknowingly affected by some Mushi’s attack and had his powers sealed.

“You seem like you know what these monsters are. Then I’m not hallucinating them.”

Kasshi saw the Imperfect Mushi for the first time, and yet he spoke calmly.

“Those who step any further will be attacked—to me it looks like that.”

“I do agree, but my forces spread around the premises aren’t so plentiful.”

Appearing one after another, the Mushi nervously approached Daisuke’s group. However, seeing that they weren’t going to attack soon, it looked like Kasshi and Rui’s reasoning wasn’t wrong.

“Let us think up a plan. I have come here once as a child.”

Mikko took a pamphlet from the nearby store without any permission and spread it at the five’s feet.

“If we… cough… split into two like this, we can go through this route… if we move like that, I believe we can pass through almost the entire premises, so—”

Her finger rapidly slipped on top of the pamphlet. Even while coughing, she explained her strategy without any pause.

“After we eliminate these Mushi, I will show you to the place my brother is probably at… cough.”

Mikko’s plan was simple and clear—but dangerous.

Everyone exchanged glances, all wearing serious expressions.

Silence was soon broken.

“Me and Kasshi will go north. You three go south.”

Deciding first was Rui.

“Don’t order me.”

Although complaining, Kasshi hid his head with the hoodie. He apparently agreed with the plan.

“So I gotta protect you again.”

“Cough… you may state otherwise with your mouth, but I am sure you’re happy to go along with a woma—ow.”

“No waaay… this for real?”

It was unexpected that he needed to take care of a sick person and a coward, but Daisuke had no other choice.

It wasn’t the first time they worked together and it was dangerous placing Mikko and Kasshi in the same group. Rui had apparently already understood each person’s position and personality.

“I’ll getcha something good to eat again if we live through this, brats.”

“This morning’s bread was a bit damp.”

“Why are you trying to climb on my back, walk on your own.”

“Cough… even while you act truly cold, I actually—ow.”

“I don’t wanna die…”

Each saying their own parting words, the five people split into two groups.

Immediately after this—

“—This is different from what I’ve seen…”

Mikko uttered this curious phrase.

2.03 The Others

Mikko’s plan was quite simple.

They would split into two groups, draw the Mushi in the premises and lead them to a certain spot.

It was just that.

However, for him—Kii-kun—it really was mission impossible.

“GyaaaAAAHHHaaaAAAH!”

The theme park called Castello del Lago became a horror park full of monsters. Men and women, the young and the old were all collapsed around and Mushi that were only body parts roamed around.

Already several minutes passed with them running to draw the monsters away.

As they ran full speed ahead, there was a line of Mushi at their back.

“How many of these monsters are theeeeere! I can’t do it! I’m gonna dieeee!”

“Cough! Cough! Wheeze… wheeze… I’m at my limit, too…”

“We just started running!”

Kii-kun was whining while Mikko was running unsteadily and helplessly. Daisuke shouted at both of them.

Apparently, the Mushi thought of this three-person group as their prey. Finding their figures, the Mushi still wriggled chasing after them. Their numbers were already getting close to thirty.

Even Kasshi and Rui who parted from them were probably faced with the same situation.

However, he had the feeling they were faring better than him—because they didn’t have to take care of two burdens who were stupid and lacked stamina.

“Eee...!”

Several Mushi appeared from the shadows of the clock tower ahead.

“Don’t stop!”

As Daisuke shouted sharply, he accelerated.

He leapt ahead when a Mushi made only of sickle-like legs tried to stab him. However, the moment before it happened, he ducked to dodge, sliding toward a Mushi that was only a head.

Sharp fangs came to bite him, but Daisuke leapt to the side using a feint. The head Mushi bit into empty ground and the momentum caused it to tackle against another Mushi.

Mushi got all entangled and crashed into shops. There was now empty space in front of Kii-kun and Mikko.

“That was so cool...! Who are you!”

If he mistook one step he’d probably die in pieces.

Kii-kun couldn’t understand how he had the nerves needed to calmly jump into this situation. Appearance-wise, he looked just like any normal boy—

Daisuke came back and ran in front of Kii-kun and Mikko.

“So without their hosts, Mushi are this easy... they’re even below animals, then.”

“Cough…! Hosts?”

“No—never mind.”

A little bit of hope peeked its head.

He didn’t know why, but the boy called Daisuke was apparently much more used to this situation than Kii-kun expected. Their plan might be able to succeed like this.

They would capture that incomprehensible test subject or whatever and solve the case.

If they did this and the situation calmed down, Kii-kun should also be able to understand what happened to his body.

Until then he’d desperately go along with them. —If he didn’t do this, he would probably just be left behind like one of the victims strewn around the area.

He couldn’t stand being left behind—

Right now, Kii-kun was single-minded.

“Cough! Cough!”

“Are you alright, Mikko?”

“Haa, haa… you ignore a woman suffering like this… you sure have some sadistic fetishes… Even if you are a complete pervert, I will still—ow.”

“Tch.”

She really looked to be at her limit. After hitting the girl’s cheek, Daisuke carried her slim body.

“You’re gonna have to run on your own though, Kii-kun!”

“Wheeze, wheeze… I know that…”

Even if he tried bluffing, his lungs already hurt.

Even carrying Mikko, Daisuke’s running speed was unchanged. “Don’t breathe at my neck!” “This is me offering my gratitude. You looked like you would enjoy it… cough.” “What’s wrong with your eyes!” Seeing them argue like that from behind, Kii-kun’s chest pricked.

Mikko was important. She seemed to know important things, she was smart and she was also beautiful.

The knight who would save her was apparently Daisuke. It wasn’t Kii-kun, who aspired to be that part.

“—So, what did you mean by this being different from what you’ve seen?”

“Cough… what are you talking around?”

“Don’t play dumb, you just said this now.”

Daisuke and Mikko began talking.

At a place irrelevant to Kii-kun.

“I do not really remember… but I probably referred to Castello being different from the time I came to play. After all, it is in this state… cough.”

“Are you going to be so evasive about your father’s research, too?”

That was obvious.

Unlike Daisuke, Kii-kun was just a normal high-schooler, and he couldn’t do anything.

He simply frantically followed them, wishing to be saved by someone.

Thinking that, he was really pathetic.

“…But that doesn’t mean I give up.”

He mumbled.

He held no grand dream such as wanting to save someone or change the world.

He simply didn’t want to die. If he ended up like his friends, that were the prey of the dark women despite being such good guys, or else like all the people collapsed around Castello, it would hurt too much.

“Ouch.”

Since he ran while thinking, he stumbled on one of the collapsed people.

He tumbled down and scraped his hurt knee, raising his face.

“Ah—”

Daisuke and Mikko’s backs were already far away.

As he timidly turned around—the large swarm of Mushi was obviously after him.

“Daisuke—help—”

No voice came out.

His hips gave in to fear. Cold sweat erupted from his entire body.

At the head of the swarm was a Mushi with only a head. Although it didn’t have a body, it was large enough that it probably couldn’t be contained inside a classroom.

“No way—”

He did nothing wrong since he was born. Nothing at all.

It wasn’t a tough birth and he was born easily. He suffered no huge wound or illness and his grades were always the average of average. In middle school he was in the basketball club, and once he was senior enough, he became a club regular in his second year.

He was blessed with good friends and he even made the girlfriend he wanted. The latter soon dumped him, though.

Once he thought back to his life thus far, he suddenly noticed.

“Is this what they call having your life flash back before your eyes—”

He didn’t think he could nor did he want to save people.

He had no power to change anything.

He just didn’t want to die.

What was so bad about him having this wish when he couldn’t do anything?

As he wished for this as if to fight back, Kii-kun’s lower torso—

“—”

Was bitten by the Mushi’s head and broke down with a spray of blood.

2.04 Daisuke Part 5

“Are you going to be so evasive about your father’s research, too?”

While leading away the swarm of Mushi and running, Daisuke asked the girl on his back.

“…You really are good at handling Mushi.”

And Mikko was trying to change the subject.

Ahead of them, the body of a Mushi appeared. It rolled speedily to assault them, but Daisuke used a flowerpot to jump over it and escape.

The ways to fight and deal with Mushi had been drilled into Daisuke’s body.

It was the crystallization of the knowledge and experience accumulated by the SEPB. For more than a decade, paying for it with many sacrifices.

Although he couldn’t use his Mushi, he wasn’t afraid of some low-grade Mushi.

“If I keep it a secret like this, it seems like it will not end with a mere slap on the cheek… cough.”

She apparently had a sharp intuition. It happened just as he thought about leaving her there.

“My father couldn’t accept my mother’s death. He became deeply worried about life and death, as a result devoting himself to research about immortality. …Cough.”

A large body of water could be seen ahead.

It was a pond.

With the morning dew like mist and the small island in the middle, it really looked like a miniature garden.

“As an attempt to gain the Undying, he soon threw away research about gene manipulation and the like. Since humanity had been unable to reach the Undying from its origin to this day… he wished for a more dramatic change.”

“Enough with the preface. What was the research about?”

While carrying Mikko, Daisuke took a detour around the pond. According to the pamphlet they saw before, there was apparently an artificial pond in the premises.

“Cough… my father’s aim was tying people’s spirits and bodies together.”

“Tying… their spirit and body?”

“Rarely, there are cases where a certain mental state can cause the flesh to reject its death.”

“…”

“A soldier in a war, single-mindedly wanting to save his comrades despite being fatally wounded. A father who was gravely injured in an accident and yet survived because he yearned to meet his daughter. A man who came back from clinical death due to hearing his lover’s voice… strong feelings differing from instincts could allow one to surpass physical death.”

Strong feelings.

Daisuke thought this research was fishy, but these words brought a bad feeling to his mind that kept growing.

“Greed, desire, wish… hope. I do not know how to best call that feeling.”

Or perhaps something like—a dream.

Daisuke groaned in his heart.

“There were people who had their eyes on my father’s theory. People who gained everything: money, position, anything at all, and grew tired of life… they called themselves the Round Table. My father’s research was nothing more than a pipedream, and yet they supplied it with suitable test subjects, not stopping his delusions.”

“Suitable test subjects?”

Even without turning around, Daisuke knew that the large swarm chasing them only kept growing. With a certain space between them, they were followed by the sounds of tremors and buildings being knocked down.

“They were people who desperately wished to obtain something. Almost all of them came not from developed countries, but from other places that had less than blessed environments… they were all people who starved, suffered, raged, saddened, and cried…”

“And what did your father… do to those people?”

“He made them even more hungry, suffering, angry, sad and crying.”

He felt sick just imagining it.

It was obviously illegal, but this research could never be forgiven from a moral standpoint as well.

Making that possible—were the powers called the Round Table.

“Plenty died. But that was still within expectations… My father thought that those test subjects who reached the edge of death and yet didn’t die, or perhaps those who came back to life, held the possibility of becoming Undying… cough.”

“Sounds like a world-class piece of shit.”

“My father lost his sanity. He even stopped letting me, his biological daughter, out of the research facility so that I could take care of the test subjects… but one day, a miracle occurred—”

“…A miracle?”

“I do not know what happened. However, the one you call the dark woman had an effect on another test subject. —Effect, is the only way I can call it. That guinea pig created something. There is a way of referring to that thing. Daisuke, you were the one who taught me it.”

“Mushi—”

Mikko’s arm caressed Daisuke’s head as if in tender care.

“Since there was a result, the research was accelerated. The numbers of test subjects increased, and I felt so bad for those I cared for, so I took them out of the facility with me… my limit was two people, though.”

“A result, you say? What is the connection between Undying and Mushi? Since something completely unrelated was born, wasn’t it a failure?”

“He probably can no longer go back… so he insisted this was a result.”

Mikko said this and closed the conversation, but for Daisuke this was no mere research.

The experiments conducted in secret by the SEPB’s Central Headquarters—

Daisuke had heard about them, albeit only a little.

He came to know of them from a certain disk given to him by Ebina Yuu, as well as his meeting with the other “Daisuke”.

Mikko’s father’s research might be part of it, and it produced these Imperfect Mushi.

“Cough. Among the test subjects, only a very few exhibited the possibility to birth Imperfect Mushi… the one supposedly here at Castello is another one.”

If this research or whatever continued, it would become irreversible.

Inside Daisuke, anxiety was changing into conviction.

The scene he saw inside the milky mist crossed through his mind.

—If I could return to the past—I would have probably killed all of you the moment we met…

On an abandoned ship who knows where, Mikko said this while crying.

—Kii-kun, Kasshi, Rui… as well as me… we shouldn’t have come here…

That creepy prophecy.

If it really was no illusion.

—Because of us, this country will get filled with Mushi and reach its end.

Daisuke had no idea why he was able to see that.

But if that indicated a future of destruction.

Wasn’t it a mistake for Daisuke to keep protecting Mikko and Kii-kun like he did now?

Perhaps what he should have done was, just like Mikko during that scene said—

“Cough… by the way.”

Daisuke came back to himself from Mikko’s voice.

What am I thinking about—

He was mad at himself for thinking of something idiotic.

“Where is Kii-kun, I wonder?”

Daisuke stopped in place.

As he turned around—there were only the rabid Mushi there.

At some point, the annoying crying boy had vanished.

2.05 The Others

“You said you were in your second year of high school, Kasshi. Well, are you enjoying school?”

“…More or less.”

“What country are you from? I can tell from your looks you’re western, though.”

“…”

“Your Japanese is good!”

“…Thanks.”

So annoying.

Kashua found Rui’s way of talking to him as if they were friends very disturbing.

Even more than the large swarm of Mushi chasing them from behind.

Despite this being their first meeting, more or less, and it being a relationship of mutual suspicion, he couldn’t understand why the older man was communicating with him like a long-time friend or perhaps a parent.

“Have you been here for a long time? Made any friends?”

“…A little.”

Kashua and Rui were doing well leading the Mushi inside Castello.

Kashua trained himself every day, but Rui also seemed to have considerable stamina. Despite him wearing a suit that looked difficult to move in, he didn’t show any signs of fatigue. However, if he got tired and was eaten by those Mushi, it would be a bit quieter.

“Got a girlfriend? I’m sure you do, with how handsome you are!”

“…”

“Use contraception, alright? Or well, if you intend to take responsibility, you don’t have to! Just like me!”

Rui laughed and struck his back. This was the first time he felt like killing someone ever since he came to this country.

“…I don’t have a girlfriend.”

“I see, how unexpected! You look like you’d be popular.”

That’d be a problem. If it looked unnatural for him to not have a girlfriend, he needed to make one.

“It’s fine, you should experience love while in school—”

He kept running, only nodding and humming to Rui’s stupid words.

He was worried about Mikko’s group that split from them. It would’ve been ideal for the two of them to be together, but because of the incident last night he knew that was impossible.

There was no need to panic. Leaving Kii-kun aside, Daisuke was there.

That band-aid boy had the same scent as him.

Although he looked average at a glance, he should actually have considerable battle experience. A mere brawler wouldn’t be able to get behind Kashua so noiselessly. He couldn’t have any military training at that age, but he probably was trained by some special organization.

“Girls your age love surprises. They want a little bit of spice in their daily lives—”

It was certain that Daisuke was watching over Mikko for some goal of his.

If Daisuke really was the same kind of person as Kashua, his goal was clear.

Undying—as well as Mushi.

If he could go back with those secrets, the country Kashua belonged to would acknowledge his results. Even if it was just this failed Undying and the monsters that were even below animal intellect.

Kashua had been sent to this country to grasp the identity of a certain abnormality.

If he could accomplish that splendidly—

Thinking that far, his mood sank.

He did what he needed to do, so he knew what would happen with him.

He would just get sent to another unfamiliar country and repeat something similar—

“What, you have no confidence in talking with girls? Don’t make that face.”

“…I’m not making any face.”

Suddenly, the events of last night passed through his mind.

— You are empty, like a living corpse.

The girl with a cold, Mikko, hit the mark as she said this. So finally he raged, but—

—However, I like you like that.

She said that Kashua needed to decide himself what he wished for.

Without being given it by someone, without being forced, the way he wanted to live his life.

—Right now, you are freer than anyone.

How silly.

Free. Those were the furthest words from Kashua possible.

Not even once since he was born had he felt free. If he got freedom at this stage, he would just be troubled.

“Smile more! Being a little more friendly would make your life better, Kasshi. Are you in your rebellious phase?”

“Shut up.”

He would leave Mikko’s questioning for later.

He needed to start with this man—with Rui.

As a member of the Round Table, he was apparently also connected to Mikko’s father’s research. He would obviously be able to get some information from him.

Even if he died after torture, if Kashua said he was eaten by Mushi, no one would suspect him, most likely.

“Let’s pick up our pace, Rui. We’ll get cornered like this.”

“Is that so? Well, that’s fine.”

Rui smartly agreed. Kashua wanted to doubt whether he really was a member of that influential, powerful Round Table.

He decided to get away from these Mushi, lead him to a suitable place and torture him there. Kashua was equipped with both the knowledge and the tools for that.

It wasn’t just torture. Science, physics, math, electrical engineering, mechanical—Kashua had all kinds of knowledge hammered into him since childhood.

“Say, Kasshi.”

“What now?”

It was probably yet another cheap love theory or teaching. He was sick of it already.

“Do you have any family?”

“…”

“Probably not.”

How did he understand that—

It wasn’t supposed to mean anything for him, but for some reason he felt pissed off.

“Look at this. My daughter. Cute, right? Isn’t she the beauty of the century? I can’t wait for her to grow up.”

He showed a photo he took from his pocket. It was a small child wearing—no, being forced to wear a dress.

“…And?”

“I’m asking if she’s cute! Say she’s cute!”

“Yeah, real cute, that one. So put it away already.”

“Alright—you pass.”

Cheerfully putting the photo back in his pocket, the youth—

Stopped running.

“Wha—”

Kashua also stopped without thinking.

Obviously, as the space between them shrank, the Mushi pursued Rui who stopped in place.

“Have you gone mad? Run!”

Rui didn’t seem tired. Rather, he wore a light smile.

“Rui!”

Even when Kashua called to him, Rui didn’t try to move a single step.

Does he have some idea…? No, that can’t be! Does he want to die? Even though he just told me he can’t wait for his daughter to grow up?

Kashua’s thoughts ran around his mind the fastest they ever did.

“Hey…!”

Rui made no move. All he did was direct Kashua with a testing gaze.

I still didn’t get any information from him…! No, there’s still Mikko for information! But just in case, what if she’s already dead? What’s the value of risking myself here to save Rui? Shit, this idiot, what’s he thinking—

Instead of his unceasing thoughts, his body moved.

Kicking the ground, Kashua danced at the speed of an arrow and pushed Rui aside.

“Woooh!”

He stabbed the Mushi consisting of only a body with a hidden knife before it crushed Rui.

He put in entire body’s weight on the blade stuck between the gaps in the Mushi’s sinews.

Pitch-black bodily fluids drew an arc in the air. Trembling painfully, the body was thrown to the ground, right into the path of the charging Mushi.

One of them managed to avoid this clash.

A Mushi made only of legs attempted skewering Kashua with its sharp claws.

“Ha!”

Instead of Kashua who couldn’t defend in time, Rui emitted a sharp breath. As if using some magic, the super-heavy claws flowed over Rui’s arms and deeply stabbed into the ground.

However, he wasn’t completely unhurt. Rui’s arm tore and blood sprayed.

“Alright, let’s skedaddle, Kasshi.”

Turning around, Rui wore a mischievous smile.

“—”

Kashua experienced “coming back to his senses” for the first time in his life.

Grabbing Rui’s collar, he rushed.

“Wah, w-wait, Kasshi! Calm down!”

Still holding the youth’s chest, he rushed away at full speed from the Mushi.

In moments they got away from them and flew inside a temple with carved statues. The inside was apparently a gift shop and he pounded the youth against a shelf full of merchandise.

“—Are you insane? Or are you suicidal?”

He put a small syringe against the back of Rui’s neck.

“Well, I don’t care. Do as you wish. Just wait until after my torture and do it where I can’t see you.”

“…Do you really have no family? Parents? Siblings?”

“Obviously not. I hadn’t wished for it, but I was born from artificial insemination. So what? Are you telling me that I won’t know how it feels? I don’t want to know either.”

The sharp needle stabbed into Rui’s neck. All that remained was injecting him with the chlorine.

“I have no interest in the feelings of a parent—who decides to abandon the daughter he loves like that.”

Rui laughed.

“Kasshi, do you—want to become my adopted son?”

The fingers about to inject the medicine stopped.

His thoughts did, too.

Were his ears broken?

Hearing these incomprehensible words, Kashua let his mouth hang open.

“Of course, only if you’re not against it.”

What was that guy even saying—

Adopted son? Was he saying that he wanted Kashua as his child?

Despite them being complete strangers until yesterday? Despite being only two or three years beneath him in age? By the guy who was told he was about to get tortured and got his neck stabbed by a syringe?

Now the man in front of him seemed even crazier than he had when he threw himself at the Mushi.

“Why—”

“If you really had someone important to you… you wouldn’t get so angry, being told you were empty.”

Rui was apparently talking about what happened last night.

Was Rui saying he sympathized with him just from this?

“The person I loved the most in the world died soon after giving birth to my daughter. At that time, I became just as empty as you. Once you thought that—I stopped thinking of you as a stranger.”

“…”

“Leaving the talk about adoption aside, stop thinking about doing those things to me. The Round Table have their pride. Those who lay a hand on their members would definitely get taken care of.”

“—If I die then they’ll just send a replacement. This time they’ll investigate not from the outside like me, but even deeper.”

He prophesized this. It was already decided.

If Kashua were to die, the next agent would get sent. And this time it would definitely be someone far better than Kashua, who could secretly infiltrate the very bottom of this.

“I’m talking about you.”

Rui looked Kashua straight in the eyes. He didn’t seem scared of the syringe at all.

“Become my family, Kasshi. You should be the one to realize the most of anyone that there’s no other way to save you, right?”

No matter how he seemed, he was part of the Round Table—so he’d apparently long since seen through Kashua’s identity.

Those backing Kashua were powerful. Therefore, he couldn’t pull out on his own, and gaining a half-hearted collaboration didn’t change the impossible.

However, any relation to the Round Table, and a familial one at that, was another story. The closed, conservative Round Table would do anything in its power to cover for families, and would probably defend him to the last. No one could get through that power of solidarity.

He could become free.

He could have a family.

He didn’t dare to imagine this—because if he did, it would’ve probably been more painful, so glimpsing this future he never thought of confused Kashua.

“This is just sympathy—”

“At first it was. But I wouldn’t welcome you as family so easily. But you saved me. Weighing it against your mission—you saved someone’s parent, me. I like you.”

Rui was probably just trying to shake Kashua and prevent him from killing him—

Kashua didn’t think so because he saw Rui’s serious eyes. Those black jewel-like eyes felt as if they exposed not only their opponent’s hearts, but even Rui’s heart itself, showing it to him.

“Don’t think too deeply on the important things. Acting based on your guts is enough.”

Rui smiled.

“If we become family, wouldn’t it be fun?”

How stupid.

However, Kashua couldn’t mouth those words.

“As a special bonus, you’ll also get the world’s cutest sister.”

Certainly true. Kashua saw the picture and said the child was cute.

“…You must be crazy, but did you really think you could convince me so easily?”

“So stubborn. Is this what they call a tsundere?”

He injected just a little bit of chlorine when something happened.

“Uwaaaaah!”

A scream came from the outside.

It sounded familiar.

“Tch—”

Kashua pulled out the syringe from Rui and peeked out the building.

“What is he doing in here…?”

“Apparently he got separated from Daisuke and Mikko.”

While rubbing his neck, Rui stood next to Kashua.

The topknot boy approached them, drawing Mushi after him.

“Gyaaaah—aaah! Kakaka, Kasshi! And Rui! Save meeeee!”

It was Kii-kun.

Because he shouted so loudly, the Mushi that Kashua and Rui got away from responded. The now united large swarm of Mushi pursued them.

Rui sighed.

“That guy’s got bad timing. —You can respond whenever you’d like.”

He apparently didn’t intend to acknowledge the fact he was saved from death.

“…It was because saving you was so stupid that it made me mad. And me saving Kii-kun now—is because what kind of human would I be if I didn’t save that sorta guy?”

“Sure, sure.”

Kashua and Rui leapt out of the building and united with Kii-kun.

“Ah, I’m so relieved! How dare Daisuke and Mikko abandon me like thiiiis!”

He was crying pathetically, but Kii-kun had no wounds anywhere on his body. Including the fact he managed to find Kashua and Rui, he seemed to be quite lucky.

“You’ve done well to survive, Kii-kun.”

As Rui smiled cheerfully, Kii-kun protested with sobs.

“Don’t speak of it so easily! I really thought I was gonna die! Thinking I might really die—die? W-wait, what? I was definitely about to die—what happened back then?”

He was apparently confused from fear. And he even became unstable.

“I’m so glad the two of you are fine, you guuuys!”

“If we needed you to care for us, it’d be the end of us.”

“S-shuddup! I don’t want to lose any more frieeeends!”

Friends.

Kii-kun probably said that without any deep meaning.

Therefore, Kashua neither grew angry or ignored him—

“Who’d be your friend?”

Kashua’s mouth curled into a smile.

2.06 Daisuke Part 6

“Cough. A little more…”

Mikko on his back mumbled while coughing.

Daisuke nodded wordlessly. Due to running for a long distance while carrying a girl, even his stamina reached its limits.

The large swarm of Mushi drawn by them already grew so large that he couldn’t see its end.

Running on the shore of the large pond, he could see a huge plaza ahead.

In the center of that plaza was a giant concrete-made monument. Perhaps abandoned in the middle of a parade, there was a large car with decorations there.

“—Looks like they also did their job.”

He raised his sweaty face at Mikko’s words.

On the other side of the plaza there were clouds of dust.

Running and bringing swarms of Mushi with them, Kasshi, Rui and Kii-kun could be seen.

“Kii-kun… so you were safe.”

“Just like I said, right? That he’s definitely safe… cough.”

Right—when he was shaken at Kii-kun’s disappearance, she told him that he was probably fine.

Daisuke couldn’t just plunge into the Mushi and go looking, so he had to believe her words.

“Was that another one of your prophecies?”

“No, I only said it for some peace of mind.”

Daisuke raised a brow.

He felt as if Mikko’s way of talking and personality slightly changed from when they’d first met.

At first she was more like a girl his age but became more and more shameless—

Daisuke, Mikko, Rui, Kasshi, Kii-kun—the five of them entered the plaza almost at the same time.

“Daisuke! Mikko! How dare you abandon meeeee! I nearly died!”

“If you’d died, we’d have some peace and quiet.”

“You’ve carried Mikko all the way here? Impressive.”

The reunion with those familiar figures of a topknot, a hoodie and an expensive suit nostalgic guys was complete.

“Sorry. Since I didn’t really care, I hadn’t even noticed you were gone.”

“Cough… in that sense, it’s your fault for having no presence, Kii-kun.”

There was no time to rejoice at everyone’s safety.

The Mushi chasing after Daisuke and the rest invaded the plaza. In no time the entire surface was filled with Mushi.

Daisuke and the rest took a sharp turn near the monument and aimed for the plaza exit.

The five ran shoulder to shoulder, weaving through the arch made of flowers.

“Alright—it’s go time!”

Rui shouted.

As he did, many figures jumped out from the shades of the flowers surrounding the plaza flew out many figures.

They were the armed forces wearing camo suits. Readying their machineguns, they stood to block the way of the Mushi chasing them.

“Fire! Let them eat lead!”

How on earth had he gathered these much soldiers, weapons and bullets? It was unpleasant just to imagine how much gunfire echoed.

Sparks, flashes of light and a lot of exhaust smoke filled the plaza.

Rui’s soldiers, who surrounded the plaza and lay in waiting, began their uniliteral annihilation of the Mushi.

“Keep shooting till they stop moving! There’s no end to them!”

Whenever there were breaks in the gunfire, Rui’s vigorous encouragement flew.

Gathering all the Mushi in Castello del Lago into one place and using firearms to destroy them.

This exceedingly simple strategy consisted only of that.

He couldn’t tell whether normal Mushi could be beaten like this. However, against these Imperfect Mushi, who had no special abilities and low intelligence, it was effective enough.

Having their tough hide pierced and collapsing, the Mushi vanished one after another.

“…”

Seeing the efficiently eliminated Mushi in front of his eyes, Daisuke was thinking.

If he could use his Mushi ability right now, what would have happened?

Most likely—he wouldn’t have believed in Mikko’s strategy and instead defeat these Mushi all alone. He would have wasted whatever little power remained and perhaps exhaust himself before fully annihilating them.

“Even without my powers… I can still defeat Mushi.”

He only now noticed something so natural.

The Mushi called Blaze Class Rank 1 Kakkou was outrageously powerful.

However, it was possible that he was the one who relied on that power the most of all—

“Cough… Is your arm injured, Rui?”

Coming back to himself from these words, he looked at Rui. The youth’s arm was wrapped in a handkerchief and was dyed in blood.

“Ah, a little.”

“Hmph.”

For some reason Kasshi looked sulky as he averted his gaze.

Apparently something happened between them while they were alone.

“Looks like we’re fine here.”

As Daisuke said this, the four nodded.

There was a huge explosion.

Along with a tremor, cracks ran through the huge monument at the center of the plaza. Exploding it was also part of their strategy.

“Now, I will show you to my big brother… cough.”

Being led by Mikko, Daisuke and the rest left the park.

Behind them, masses of concrete crushed the Mushi.

Taking the armed forces with them, the five taking came—to a large castle, a Castello.

The outer wall decorated by sublime carvings spread to both sides, while a spire made of a series of thick, round pillars rose in the center. Underneath the dark clouds, this structure looked like a giant wedding cake.

As the sun was starting to sink and lights around were being turned on, something waited at the base of the castle.

A dark mass.

It was a person clad in clothes dirtied from mud and dust. The limbs visible from the gaps in the clothing were quite thin and dyed in black. Due to them casting down their gaze, long hair hid half their face.

Only a single thing this figure wore—a white cloak with a red embroidery sewn on it—was as beautiful as if it was brand new. It was probably stolen from some store.

Unlike his dirty appearance, his figure sitting on the stairs going to the castle looked rather smarmy and haughty. From the gaps in his long air, bulging eyes stared down at Daisuke and the rest.

“—Let’s start.”

Rui raised a hand. The soldiers deployed, intending to surround the man.

“W-wait!”

Kii-kun flew ahead. “Hey!” Rui tried to stop him, but was ignored.

“You’re probably the same as that woman, right! Some kinda guinea pig… if that’s right, then you know how to create those Mushi whatever!”

Daisuke turned around and grabbed the boy moment before he could reach the cloaked figure.

Even so, Kii-kun didn’t stop.

“You lot did something to me, can’t you do anything about that? That woman stared at me… can’t really explain it, but I feel weird! Help me!”

Weird—what did he mean by that?

As far as Daisuke could see, there were no changes to Kii-kun’s body.

“Help me…!”

Staring at the clinging boy, the cloaked man opened his mouth.

“—”

He mumbled something. Daisuke couldn’t understand his words.

“He says, go away… cough.”

Mikko said. She could apparently translate him.

“This is my castle… he says.”

Kii-kun and Daisuke furrowed their brows.

Seeing their puzzled looked, Mikko coughed.

“He was apparently the king of another country. But since he was too ambitious, he was apparently shunned by the powerful men of his country and they made a deal with the Round Table so that they’d take him, he’d be treated as missing and die here…”

Everyone’s gazes turned to Rui.

The youth nodded with a grave face. Mikko’s explanation seemed to be correct.

Daisuke asked Mikko.

“Can this guy really create so many imperfect Mushi?”

“Probably. Since he’s really obsessed with power and authority… thinking it’d console him who suffered in the experiments, I did talk to him about a certain castle in this country, meaning Castello… at some point he started thinking of it as his own… cough.”

So he went insane—

He wasn’t Kii-kun, but Daisuke also had a lot he wanted to ask this man.

However, if this key person himself was in a state of confusion he could do nothing. Even taking him along and imprisoning him was impossible as long as he couldn’t get in contact with the SEPB.

So it was better to hand him over to the Round Table and wait for another opportunity to snatch him away.

“N-never mind all that! Please tell me how I can be saved!”

Mikko translated Kii-kun’s plea to the man.

The man mumbled something. He didn’t look like he cared about Kii-kun.

“These soldiers are useless. They’re too weak. They need to be something else—he says. Cough.”

“W-what about me—”

“Right, I just need to lose my form. If I do that, neither lead bullets nor sword would work. Then next time I will—”

The words translated by Mikko were completely incomprehensible.

Kii-kun grimacing in despair signaled the final act.

Rui wordlessly shook his hand.

The armed forced immediately all shot their stun guns.

Being stabbed with electrical currents all over his body, the man howled. He kicked at the ground like a beast and flew toward the soldiers.

One was caught and collapsed. An imperfect Mushi was created but instantly felled by a real bullet.

“…Undying, huh.”

Looking at the man resist like no normal person could, Daisuke unconsciously grimaced.

The man’s power of life was certainly fearsome. Even receiving shocks he had yet to collapse, and his forms of counterattacking with nimble movements didn’t seem human.

However—he was not Undying.

Daisuke had once fought a being that could be called that.

That fight was already over. Also, it ended as a cruel failure—

The man in front of him was not Undying. As proof, although it was difficult, the armed forces managed to catch him. While weakened he showed an opening and he had his body restrained by tape.

Finally being constricted in his movements, the man in the cloak was taken away by Rui’s private forces.

“Is he really the last out of the guinea pigs that ran from the research facility?”

Remaining in front of the castle were only five people. Daisuke turned to Mikko.

“Yes, there is no doubt about it… cough.”

“Where’s that facility?”

As Kashi asked this, Kii-kun grabbed him.

“Are you going there? D-don’t leave me behind, I’m going too!”

“I do believe you shouldn’t get involved anymore… cough. It doesn’t seem like you intend on turning back…”

Receiving the gazes of the three boys staring at her, Mikko narrowed her eyes sadly.

“—Is that some kinda joke?”

Rui who was speaking with someone over his cellphone raised his tone slightly.

Everyone turned to look at him.

“Did something happen, Rui?”

“I’ll call back,” Rui said, cut off the phone and spoke to answer his question. “Apparently we can’t get in contact with that facility… as well as people who went to check the site.”

Before the castle being illuminated by the setting sun, silence fell.

“Let’s go.”

Kashi spoke.

“Where’s that facility?”

“I will guide you. A certain vessel had been remodeled to create the research facility.”

“A vessel…?”

Kii-kun asked with a low voice.

As if a prelude, Mikko coughed.

“An abandoned ship.”

The one who was so shocked his breathing stopped at these words—

Was Daisuke alone.

Notes

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