Mushi Uta:Volume 3rd

Novel Illustrations

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Episode 09. The Flower Garden Aiming for Dreams

Sitting seiza-style atop the tatami floor, Ichinokuro Arisu wore a meek expression.

It was early morning before school.

She was inside a Japanese-style guest room in the Ichinokuro family residence. The current resident of this dreary room, equipped only with the bare minimum of furniture, was a freeloader boy.

"…"

The one looking down on Arisu was the one who had called her there, Kusuriya Daisuke. This was his room.

"I will behave myself during Daisuke-san's absence."

With his arms folded, Daisuke looked down on Arisu and spoke in a low voice.

They could hear the souzu resounding from the courtyard.

Arisu recited seriously.

"I will behave myself during Daisuke-san's absence."

Still standing erect, Daisuke continued.

"I will keep in mind I am always under observation, and will not take any selfish courses of action."

"I will keep in mind I am always under observation, and so on."

"Don't skimp on it."

Arisu finally lost her patience against the cold gaze directed at her. Her cheeks started twitching, exposing her anger.

"…What kind of a joke is this, Daisuke? Why do I, your mistress, have to sit down like this while you, the slave, looks down on me? There seems to be some fundamental mistake here."

"Didn't I already said so last night. Since the person in charge of the investigation of Hanashiro Mari have been replaced, the investigation team is also being reorganized. And so, I have to attend the meeting there. Like before, someone else is going to be monitoring you."

"That's not what I'm asking. What I don't get is you acting so self-important."

Arisu tried standing up. Yet, she was forced down from above by Daisuke.

"Self-important? That's what I should be saying to you."

An expression of anger rose to the boy's face as well.

"Why do you always act so selfishly for no reason! Every time you go on a rampage, you just wreak havoc everywhere! Reflect on yourself while I'm gone!"

"That isn't my fault! If you're such a professional, then you ought to cover up for me better, Daisuke!"

Arisu continued to try to stand up while Daisuke kept pushing her head down. The two teens in their uniforms continued their fruitless fight.

"How the heck am I supposed to cover up for someone fine with wrecking a whole block of the school! The monitor covering for me is quick to anger and won't hesitate to finish you off if you misbehave! She's the type who ends up getting into fights for trivial reasons, which is why she hasn't been promoted thus far!"

"That's fine by me! I'll turn the tables on her!"

"I'm precisely telling you not to pick a fight!"

Just as Arisu was able to rise a bit by kneeling, a servant opened the sliding door. "Young lady, Daisuke-sama, it is about time for you to go to school," she interrupted them.

"You're just going to Central Headquarters to get licked by that Ayuyu girl anyway!"

"Y… you idiot! I had no choice because I was making a request that time…! It's not like I'm going there today to…!"

"So you really are meeting with that girl. How great for you, you're going to get licked and kissed all you want, pervy Daisuke!"

"Stop with that expression! Since it's related to that incident, she'll obviously be attending!"

"Licky lick, licky lick."

Seeing that neither of them had any intention of stopping, the servant said, "…Please do not be late," and silently closed the door.

Part 1

"Arisu Homerun!"

Arisu's spirited yell made the white ball soar in the air—or not.

The sound of the ball being caught by the mitt reverberated through the sports ground of Horusu Seijou Academy Middle School. 

The fourth period was P.E. lesson. Arisu's class had a joint lesson with another class, playing softball.

Under the cloudless sky, Arisu was greeted by giggles as she returned to the bench.

"Tch, letting someone from the Softball club play as pitcher is plain cheating. Here, Takako."

The jersey-wearing Arisu took a seat, handing her bat to the next batter in line, Kujou Takako.

"That is because it is dangerous to have an amateur pitching."

Receiving the bat, Takako headed toward the batter's box while grinning. Yet, the ball was caught in the gloves three times shortly. "It really is foul play," lamented Takako as she returned.

"You need to swing it at least once…"

Sitting next to Arisu with her legs crossed, Saionji Ena sighed with a look of exasperation.

"Even so, I can understand why you're not motivated since Kusuriya-kun's not here."

Isn't Ena always unmotivated anyway—the reason Arisu did not say out her thought was not because she held back; an out-of-season morpho butterfly had landed atop her head.

A silver morpho butterfly. It wasn't an ordinary insect.

It was a Mushi that would consume its host's dreams and lend them supernatural powers. This morpho butterfly had once possessed the girl known as Hanashiro Mari, but after her death it passed on to Arisu.

The boy known as Kusuriya Daisuke was a member of the organization created in order to capture and conceal Mushi, the Special Environmental Preservation Bureau, and was an agent sent in order to monitor Arisu.

"The teacher said he's caught a cold or something, but is that true? Is Kusuriya-kun fine?"

"Let's visit him after school."

As Ena and Takako looked at her, Arisu shook her hand.

"It's just feigned illness. He's probably having fun with that licky-licky girl right about now?"

"W-what's that? Are you talking about that fortune-teller girl we saw at the cultural festival?"

"…I shall prevent her from ever being able to approach within a radius of two meters of Daisuke-san from now on."

Ena appeared to be flustered while Takako averted her gaze with cold eyes. The incident in relation to Kurisaka Ayuyu during the cultural festival of another school the other day ended up being explained as a gas explosion in the cooking practice room.

—I'll say this just in case, but a man with a tattoo on his face might approach you. If you see him, run away immediately.

Just before they parted in front of her house, Daisuke had said this. And when she asked him the reason for it…

—He's an enemy.

He only replied as such and left.

"…What do you mean by tattoo."

She mumbled sullenly in a low voice so that Ena and Takako wouldn't hear.

Arisu was disturbed by the happenings that occured around her lately. Even with the incident with Ayuyu the other day, Arisu only remembered bits and pieces, but never received any explanations. Daisuke also remained tight-lipped.

Even though it had something to do with her dear friend Hanashiro Mari, Arisu was being kept in the dark.

With that suspicion, her temper only grew shorter recently.

She also didn't like the fact that Daisuke wouldn't tell her who the replacement monitor was. Being watched by someone out of her sight only made the stress worse.

"Your turn to bat, Ena."

As the game approached its final stages, the pitcher finally seem to tire. After three consecutive bases on balls, all the bases were loaded. Arisu put her hand on Ena's shoulder and pushed her.

"…Hah, that's not all. I'll just get three strikes again and then start the counterplan…"

While muttering this, Ena headed for the batter's box. Takako sighed.

"And to think that fundamentally, Ena-san could do anything if she tried… It is a pity she does not get serious often."

Just like Takako said, Ena didn't even made any real effort. Arisu placed her hand near her mouth and shouted toward Ena standing at the batter's box.

"Heeey, Ena. If you hit a homerun, I'll let you lick Daisuke all you want!"

"Ena Homerun!!!"

—The white ball disappeared into the blue sky.

Silence befell the surroundings for an instant.

"…You should be taking other things in life more seriously as well…"

Arisu's mutterings overlapped with the chime indicating the end of the lesson, along with the music for the schoolwide announcement.

The latter was calling out for Arisu.

The one who had called her out to the staff room was her homeroom teacher.

Her teacher told her "just a bit," inarticulately and led Arisu to the corridor. According to him, a family member of Hanashiro Mari, who had passed away due to sickness a year ago, had come to visit.

"Mari's relative?"

As Arisu asked back, the teacher made a sullen face. Apparently, Mari had a cousin who lived overseas for a long time and he wanted to find out more about her.

The sickly Mari hadn't attended school even once since being admitted. As such, the school knew nothing about her. And so Arisu was called out being that she was one who had been in contact with her frequently when she alive.

Mari herself had told Arisu that she was an only child. However, this was her first time hearing about a cousin. Arisu followed the teacher down the corridor.

Suddenly feeling a gaze on her, she looked ahead.

Her line of sight met with a set of blue eyes.

A group of girls were chatting in one corner of the corridor. The one who crossed gazes with Arisu was a blonde girl whom she had seen before.

She was a female student who had returned to Japan from overseas recently. With the beauty of someone with mixed European heritage, she had attracted the attention of the ever-curious Ena, who pulled Arisu all the way to her class to take a look at her.

However, the blonde girl immediately averted her gaze from Arisu. "Shirakashi-san? No, I have not ever spoken to her before," she chatted with her friends in a subtly strange Japanese.

"…"

Although that girl somehow caught her attention, she was urged on by the teacher and hastened her pace.

They arrived in front of the academic guidance room. The teacher simply left after leaving the words, "call me when you're done".

Arisu stood in front of the door.

Mari's cousin. —This would be Arisu's first time meeting with and speaking to a relative of hers. Even during her funeral and death anniversary, her family didn't seemed to pay her any heed.

She wondered what kind of person were they.

Being the relative of the mild-mannered and quiet Mari, perhap they may also be just like that. —While thinking so, Arisu opened the door.

"Yo."

The person within turned to face her.

Arisu stood there, speechless.

The boy inside the room seemed to be around two or three years older than her. His slender body and sharp features probably made him stand out even among others of his age. A large compress covered what was presumably a wound on his right cheek. He was dressed in a blazer with the embroidery from some high school.

"You're Ichinokuro Arisu? The one all buddy with Mari?"

"…"

"But I must say, the teachers in this school sure are useless! Each and every one of them made such a nasty face the moment I mentioned Mari. Even if they're unsure of how to treat a student with zero attendance despite all her family's donations, there's something known as an educator's responsibilities. Say, don't you agree?"

Being asked for her approval, Arisu put a hand on her forehead. She shared his complaints, but there was something she was much more concerned with right now.

"…First of all, I'd like to know why you're all the way up there."

"Huh? Oh, this? Don't you see it on TV often? They usually hide wiretaps or hidden cameras and stuff like that in places like this. Not that I found any, though."

The guy—had for some reason climbed up the wall and was peeking into the openings of the air conditioner, and spoke as if it was normal.

Seeing someone so far removed from her expectations, Arisu felt drained.

"Mari's cousin is someone like this…? In fact, why does it seem like I've only been meeting oddballs lately…"

"I'm Sehateno Harukiyo."

Jumping down from the wall, the boy named himself. Arisu furrowed her brows.

"Sehateno…?"

Placing his hands in his pockets, the smiling youth suddenly exuded an imposing aura in constrast to his eccentric actions just now. Having said so with such confidence made him sound all the more convincing.

"Close the door."

Harukiyo said, grinning. His gaze turned piercing all of a sudden, shocking Arisu for an instant.

When she turned around, she coincidentally saw the previous blonde girl walking past the guidance room. Her blue eyes glanced at Arisu fleetingly.

Arisu closed the door.

The boy called Harukiyo immediately reverted to his previous cheerful smile. Jumping onto the desk, he sat cross-legged with his eyes shining like those of a little kid.

"Now, it's time for you to speak. Tell me about her—about Mari."

Although she was still baffled, Arisu began talking about the Mari she knew.

About how she was so sick that she couldn't even attend school once since being enrolled. And how she had closed off her heart at first, but gradually came to open up. To when she started to study, in hopes of the day when she would be able to attend lessons.

Arisu spoke of everything she knew, barring the fact that Mari was a Mushitsuki. She had only found out about that after Mari died anyway.

When she finished recounting, she could see no signs of Harukiyo being satisfied anyhow. He scratched his head and inquired Arisu as if he suddenly thought of something.

"What about her diary? Is it with you?"

"Diary?"

This was her first time hearing anything about Mari keeping a diary.

"She kept a diary. There's no mistake 'bout that. By your reaction, it seems like you don't have it. It wasn't in her sickroom. …Her house then? Her parents must have brought it back."

Harukiyo mumbled to himself. Arisu frowned.

"There's no mistake, you say… how do you know that?"

"'Cause I heard it from the guy who was closest to her."

"The guy closest to her…?"

"She might've written about that in her diary too."

Asserting this, Harukiyo pushed off from the desk. He started walking toward the door as if saying their business was over.

As he walked past the befuddled Arisu, he said so with a grin.

"Now I get it. —You know nothing about her."

"…!"

"See ya, Ichinokuro Arisu."

Turning toward the boy trying to leave, Arisu grabbed his shoulder.

"I'm—"

She glared straight at Sehateno Harukiyo who turned around. She thought of coming up with a retort, but no words came to her mind. Her grip on his shoulder tightened.

Indeed, there were far too many things Arisu didn't know about Mari. Mari never told her she was a Mushitsuki even at the very end.

"That's a nice look in ypur eyes. No wonder that bastard wanted to apologize."

Harukiyo shook off Arisu's hand, smiling. Arisu had no idea who was he referring to as that bastard.

"Don't misunderstand. You not knowing anything goes to show how important Mari thought of you. Since 'they' are inclined to be like that, don't mind it."

Saying so with a provocative smile, the boy opened the door and exited the guidance room.

"Mari's… diary."

Left behind, Arisu only bit down on her lips.

Part 2

Looking at the time display on her cellphone, she saw that it was already 9 P.M.

Exhaling white breaths, Arisu pressed the intercom button on the front gate.

"Hello, I am Ichinokuro Arisu, Mari's friend. I'm sorry for disturbing you at this hour, but—"

A morpho butterfly shining in silver fluttered above Arisu's head, giving her the perception that one of the stars in the night sky was moving around.

"My apologies, as the master of the house is not present currently, we ask that you visit another day."

The reply she received was exactly the same as that when came here on her way back from school.

"How can you even call someone who's never home the master of the house."

Arisu grumbled sullenly away from the intercom. This was her umpteenth visit to this house, but the response was always the same.

Hanashiro Mari's residence was a large Japanese-style mansion in the outskirts of Akamaki City, where paddy fields could be seen here and there. Surrounded by high fences, the mansion was even more immense than Arisu's.

The Hanashiro family was renowned as masters of flower arrangements. Mari mentioned before that they had many disciples from the political and business world, and that they'd gather in one of the dojo on the premises during days of practise.

"And such people who aren't even here wouldn't be able to stop me."

Whispering such words that would probably make Daisuke hit her could he hear them, Arisu looked around the area.

Confirming there were no people around, she walked along the fence, coming to a stop where she could see the edges and looked up.

Taking care not to make too much noise, Arisu leapt off the ground. She grabbed the top of the fence and pushed herself up in one go.

"…And there. Trespassing completed."

With a light jump, she got inside the premises. She could see a large building across a pond with hanging lights. It seemed to be a dojo. Beyond its low roof was a building that looked like the main residence and a structure surrounded by transparent walls.

If they wouldn't let her enter the house no matter what, she would just have to do so illicitly. Mari might get angry with her, but she would hate to remain like what that Sehateno Harukiyo guy had said.

—You know nothing.

Just as he said, Arisu would not be able to find out anything more about Mari if she did nothing.

If Mari really had a diary, Arisu wanted to see it no matter what.

"Where is Mari's room…"

After she came out from a thicket, the morpho butterfly following her overhead suddenly emitted a silver light.

"What? Did something happened?"

While the change in the morpho butterfly's behavior surprised her, a high-toned voice reached her ears.

"Confirming that the monitoring target has trespassed a private residence. Monitoring target is judged to be taking dangerous action."

A white figure hovered over the darkness-covered pond. —Thinking that it was a ghost made a chill run down Arisu's spine, but that wasn't it. It was a blonde person cladded in a pure white long coat.

"Kasuou will now proceed to apprehend the target."

The girl standing on the pond said with a twisted smile.

"You're—"

She was the foreign-looking girl Arisu had locked gazes with this noon. Her face was concealed by goggles, but she could identify her from her characteristic high voice and blonde hair.

"I've always wanted to fight you brat ever since hearing you clashed head-on against Kakkou."

Kasuou spoke in a completely opposite tone from how she was a school. She was enveloped by what seemed to be black mist, and apparently it was what held her up above the water surface.

"So you're the monitor covering for Daisuke then. I was wondering if it might've been you, but… unlike Daisuke who strives to keep a low profile, seeing how you stood out so conspicuously made me thought I was mistaken."

Arisu groaned, drawing back.

"That doesn't matter anymore. Since this will probably my first and last time being part of the surveillance team after all."

Ripples propagated thoughout the water surface. The black mist started moving, slowly ferrying the girl toward Arisu.

"All your actions have already been reported to the rest of the monitoring squad. I don't know who that self-proclaimed cousin of Hanashiro Mari is, but I thought things might get interesting if I were to let you two meet. Sure enough, a nice excuse to fight you has appeared."

The grinning girl was already preparing for battle. Indeed, she seemed to be just itching for a fight just as Daisuke had said.

Arisu quickly considered.

Should I run outside…? —No, as if I'd retreat after coming all the way here!

"ORAAAH!"

Raising a manly battlecry, Kasuou sprung at Arisu. The black mist surrounding her morphed into countless assailing claws.

Arisu immediately leapt to the side, dodging the attack. Missing their target, the claws made of mist dug away at the fence along with part of the ground as if by an explosion.

"Just saying, but if we're talking only about battle strength then I'm no way inferior to Kakkou."

While Arisu was shocked speechless at the excessive violence, Kasuou smiled joyfully.

The claws swung down at her again from above.

"Kh…!"

Arisu unconsciously grabbed a tree branch lying nearby.

Silver light flooded from her hands.

The morpho butterfly had landed atop the branch and fused with it in a burst. A silver spear now lay in Arisu's hand.

"Wooh!"

When Arisu flashed her spear, silver scales enough to cloud one's vision engulfed Kasuou in an instant.

An explosion followed which blew away the claws along with the ground. However—

"…I see."

Kasuou stood in the middle of a deep gash in the ground covered by the black mist, smiling. This was Arisu's first time seeing someone other than Daisuke stop her frontal assault, causing her to widened her eyes.

"You can make physical attacks with that spear, and those scales can even damage Special Type Mushi, huh. …Seems like this is gonna be more fun than I thought."

Smiling in enjoyment, Kasuou approached Arisu. Endless claws attacked her from every side.

"Your spear technique isn't too bad either!"

Even the martial arts that had been pounded into Arisu for as long as she could remember seemed to be a cause for Kasuou's pleasure. The barrage of attacks cornered her all the way to the edge of the pond.

"…Uh!"

One of the claws grazed Arisu's coat. She turned around and ran along the side of the pond.

"Wait, are you gonna run away?"

Kasuou gave pursuit to Arisu who ran past the dojo.

Arisu's only goal was Mari's room.

It wasn't defeating Kasuou.

Having said that, Kasuou was much too strong to just let her go. Unlike any of the other Mushitsuki Arisu had met so far, none had such a purely combat-oriented ability as her.

Arisu was barely able to dodge the claws that dug holes in the ground one after another while running. Eventually, she came before a large building.

The conservatory—the greenhouse was so overly large, it could be called an indoor garden. One of its walls was made of a transparent plastic resin.

Thinking about it, she had heard about this from Mari before. That the Hanashiro family cultivated the plants used in their flower arrangement themselves.

"Aren't you being too careless, looking around you like that?"

The voice coming from behind Arisu caused her to come to her senses.

She reflexively received the assaulting claws using her silver spear. Silver scales burst forth, and Arisu was pounded against the wall of the garden room.

"Ugh!"

"That Mushi certainly is strong. …But in the end, you're just human."

Kasuou walked up to Arisu.

"Since you haven't fused with the Mushi yourself, you're completely overwhelmed by the power of the Mushi, huh? It certainly would've been dangerous had you been able to swing that around with the kind of strength Kakkou have."

Arisu propped up her body using the spear as a crutch. Looking around her, she found the emergency staircase installed along the wall. She dashed for the stairs.

"I'm telling ya it's useless no matter where you run to!"

Kasuou followed her in pursue.

Climbing up the stairs, Arisu came out to the rooftop. The greenhouse's roof was also made of plastic, so she could see the vivid plants beneath her legs.

She felt as if the spear in her hands throbbed. Looking down at the greenhouse, the structure of the building flashed in her mind for a second.

This was the first time she saw this indoor botanical garden.

And yet, she felt as though she knew of its inner structure as if it were the back of her hand—

"Please wait."

Arisu sharply asserted at Kasuou with both hands on the spear.

"Huh? No way am I gonna wait. It's about time someone's gonna to come to check out the din."

The two girls faced each other close by under the night sky. The transparent plastic at their feet sparkled as it refracted the indoor illumination.

"I have no intentions of fighting with you. Aren't you Daisuke's comrade?"

"But, I do want to fight. I won't let you buy time just because you're losing."

"Then, at least choose the right place to do so."

It seemed that Kasuou couldn't understand the meaning of Arisu's words.

"You bastard, what're you—"

"I'm saying this isn't a place for a battle!"

Arisu spun the spear in her hands. Aiming at her feet, she stabbed through it in one blow.

Silver scales scattered all over, splitting the transparent plastic supporting them.

"Kh…!"

"Why you…!"

The pair fell down along with shards of broken plastic.

"Auh!"

The impact of the fall knocked the wind out of Arisu's lungs for a second.

The smell of the earth and the much more chocking smell of plants filled her nose. Flowers of all sorts of colors had cushioned her fall.

As she frowned and stood up, she was greeted by the sight of a flower garden.

—I didn't really like home… but that place alone was breathtakingly pretty so I liked it.

When Mari was talking about this garden room, she had worn a rare, sincere smile.

The vivid scene illuminated by the lights in the greenhouse muddled Arisu's consciousness for an instant.

"Right, Mari…"

The spear throbbed again.

The lighting reflected off the falling plastic shards, producing a rain of glitter.

"I liked this place."

"What's all this bullshit you're saying!"

"—…!"

Kasuou's angry shout caused her to come to her senses with a start. She had the feeling she said something, but couldn't remember what it was.

Arisu swung the spear.

"Wha-…!"

With that, the blooming flowers in their surroundings fluttered into the air.

The hurricane of petals blocked Kasuou's line of sight.

Arisu immediately turned around and ran. A tall tree stood there just as she had known. It was tall enough for a petite girl like her to completely hide behind.

"…Shit! Where the hell are you!"

Leaving behind Kasuou still swearing, Arisu left the greenhouse.

Part 3

The window to Mari's room was not locked.

Arisu opened the window with a clatter and quietly stepped into the room.

"Whew…"

After shaking off Kasuou, Arisu headed straight for the main building. Peeking through the window of each room one by one, she finally found what seemed to be Mari's room.

She could hear the voices of the servants, having noticed the commotion, going toward the greenhouse.

"Sorry for barging in like this, Mari."

Wearing a smile, Arisu looked around the room.

Since she couldn't turn on the lights, her only source of illumination was that coming from outside. Nonetheless, she was a bit happy to find that in contrast to the sickroom where the two had met countless of times, the dim room looked suitable for a girl of Mari's age. There were plush toys all over the spacious room.

They probably left it as it was when Mari had been alive. There was no longer the presence of people, but she could somehow feel the vestiges of someone having lived here.

This was where Mari had lived.

Feeling that for certain, Arisu felt her mood lightening.

Yet, this wasn't the time to be spacing out. She didn't know when someone would come, and so had to accomplish her goal before she was discovered.

With a slight sense of guilt, Arisu searched through the desk Mari had been using.

She soon found out a diary. A bookmark made of a small flower pressed onto Japanese paper, perhaps from the greenhouse, was lodged in it.

She hesitated over looking through a friend's diary like this. But, the silver morpho butterfly perched on her shoulder and gently brushed against her cheek with its shining wings.

It seemed to indicate as if Mari was allowing her to do so, and she smiled. She slowly leafed through the pages.

"Huh…?"

Looking at the page she opened, she involuntarily leaked out a voice of surprise. She flipped through another page and then another. However—

"It's probably empty, huh."

A wave of heat hit her back.

"…!"

Turning around, she saw a youth sitting on the edge of the opened window. With his hands of top of his folded knees, he gazed intently at Arisu.

It was Sehateno Harukiyo.

Yet, the atmosphere around him was completely different from when she had met him at school this afternoon. He glared at Arisu with a serious expression.

"After fighting Kasuou, seeing the flower garden, and coming here, let me ask you one thing."

Heat.

It might have been an illusion. However, Arisu could feel an abnormal heat emanating from the boy sitting at the window. Starting to feel as though even the act of breathing scorched her throat, her whole body stiffened.

"—Who the hell are you?"

She couldn't understand the meaning of his question.

However, Harukiyo didn't seem to be joking. Arisu replied him clearly.

"Ichinokuro Arisu."

"…I see."

Instantly, the heat dominating the room dispersed.

His expression looked as if a shadow befell it for a second. An emotion akin to loneliness seemed to crossed his prideful visage just as it did in the afternoon.

Yet when he raised his head again, the grin has returned to his face.

"Seems like I failed this time. But unexpectedly, you also seem to be quite interesting, Ichinokuro Arisu."

"Failed?"

"I knew that Kasuou gal was combative. That's why I purposely induced her to fight against you. —All in order to meet the Hanashiro Mari inside you."

Arisu widened her eyes.

"I've also only found out about this lately. When that Kurisaka Ayuyu gal used her ability to dig out the morpho butterfly's memories, you had turned into 'Hanashiro Mari'."

"I… became Mari…?"

Arisu knew nothing of the sort.

Daisuke never mentioned anything about such happening.

Yet there was what happened in the garden earlier.

Although this was supposed to be the first time she came here, she knew the inner structure of the conservatory perfectly—

"I thought that Hanashiro Mari would come out again if you were to fall into some dangerous situation. But, I guess things don't always go well."

"…And who are you exactly? That part about being Mari's cousin is a lie, isn't it."

"I'm a man with one-sided feelings for Hanashiro Mari. —Not that I've ever met her, though."

Harukiyo said while smiling calmly. Arisu looked at him sitting at the window and then her gaze dropped toward the diary in her hands.

"So you're also the one who'd unlocked the window. …Is this diary also a fake that you used to draw me in? Was it all made up by you."

"No. This undoubtedly belonged to Hanashiro Mari. I did hear that she had a diary, but it's not like I knew about its contents."

"Didn't you look inside? Even though you've supposedly come here before me?"

"I'm merely a stranger. I just thought that you as her best friend should have a look at it before I do."

"You sure are caught up in weird areas."

"I didn't lie and it all went as it should. But—"

Harukiyo grinned. Arisu felt once again as if heat was surging from his entire body.

"I'll use any means necessary."

Arisu clenched her fist.

Daisuke hadn't told Arisu the truth. Kasuou had purposely let her meet up with Harukiyo, and he made use of that fact in an attempt to fulfill his own objective.

And in the center of everything were Arisu and Mari.

But, Arisu still knew nothing. Without her realising, each and everybody's ulterior motives intersected with one another. —And she did not like that even one bit.

"If you had ever become a Mushitsuki, you definitely would've been a Minion Type. Those tend to be emotional and stupidly good-natured."

Seeing Arisu glare at him in anger, Harukiyo said this, amused. He looked around the room, wearing a cynical smile.

"Yet Fusion Types, although they normally seem harmless, are actually cruel and merciless. They never show other people their feelings. …And that's why associating with them requires a certain kind of resolve."

Hearing his words, Arisu recalled something.

"Even the man I'd heard this from knew that Mari bought a diary, but also hadn't seen her actually write anything in it. She probably hated exposing her weakness. Even if it just in her own diary. —Or could it be she'd spent such boring days she didn't even bother writing them down, perhap?"

Mari had always been quiet and docile. But, what if she was in fact the same person as the "Hunter" she's been hearing about recently?

—That'd be the same as Daisuke. He usually acted well-natured, but is exceedingly cold during SEPB missions.

They were both Fusion Type Mushitsuki.

"…You also mentioned it this afternoon. Who's this man from which you heard about Mari?"

She fixed her gaze on the boy and inquired.

"He's—"

It happened just as Harukiyo narrowed his eyes and was about to speak. A black mist grazed by his cheek.

"So you were here! And with a bonus, it seems!"

It was Kasuou.

"You're that guy who said you were Hanashiro Mari's cousin. I don't know how you managed to evade the other monitors… but you're irrelevant right now! If you don't get lost right away, the next one won't miss and I'll really kill you!"

The bandage on his cheeks fell down, sliced into two cleanly by the black claws.

"Guess I've left out that part about Special Types, huh. They're all twisted fellas like that."

A tattoo with a flame pattern was revealed on the cheek of the smiling youth.

A tattoo on his face—that was the feature of the person Daisuke had said was the enemy. And there was also Kasuou's response. Meaning, he was an enemy of the Special Environmental Preservation Bureau.

"Just like us. Right, Kasuou?"

Arisu's field of vision was dyed in crimson.

Fire spewed forth explosively from the arm Harukiyo stretched towards Kasuou. In an instant, it spread outside, swallowing the entire garden.

"UOOH!"

The vortex of flames that seemed to pierce into the night sky changed into a strangely shaped Mushi. Kasuou compacted the mist around her body to defend herself within the flaming pillar.

This guy's also a Mushitsuki…!

Arisu gulped. Harukiyo was a Mushitsuki too. Furthermore, he was dominating Kasuou which Arisu herself had so much trouble against.

She froze in place, her hair fanned by the scorching wind.

Arisu had never seen such a powerful Mushitsuki before—

"Those flames, and that tattoo on your cheek… You're the one from Aoharima Island! That piece of shit who ran around all over the place, before crushing the Headquarters and escaping…!"

While desperately defending herself, Kasuou grimaced.

"I'll take care her. You faster get outta here."

Turning back, Harukiyo wore a bold smile.

"This is now a contest. You or me—which of us is going to find Hanashiro Mari first."

Finding Mari.

Arisu had indeed come all the way here for that. She had fought several Mushitsuki thus far, and reached this place in pursuit of what Mari left behind.

She had no idea who this guy called Sehateno Harukiyo in front of her was. She also had no idea what the organization known as the Special Environmental Preservation Bureau was scheming.

But, what had Mari been thinking about? Just what was her dream?

There can be none other to reach that answer first apart from Arisu.

"Bring it on."

Seeing her declare as such clearly, Harukiyo smiled in enjoyment.

Part 4

Inside a room lit by the morning sun, Kusuriya Daisuke had his arms crossed while standing imposingly.

Looking up at him was Arisu sitting seiza-style on the tatami floor.

"I am sorry for being a hopeless idiot, please forgive me, Daisuke-san."

Daisuke said in a subdued voice, his expression ready to explode in anger anytime.

The satisfying sound of the souzu rang out from the garden.

"…I am sorry for being a hopeless idiot, please forgive me, Daisuke-san."

Arisu repeated after him.

Daisuke continued sullenly.

"I will never go against your orders again, Daisuke-san. I will listen to you for as long as I live."

"…Hey, isn't that a bit too much no matter how you look at it."

Daisuke silenced her protest with a wordless stare. Arisu pouted and reluctantly repeated.

"…I will never go against blah blah."

"Say it properly."

Daisuke finally snapped. He grasped her head from above in an eagle-grip.

"Right after I warned you, you trespassed into the Hanashiro residence and not only that, you even fought against your monitor… what were you thinking! To add on further, you even came into contact with that tattooed bastard? This time I managed to excuse it as the monitor being incompetent, but there won't be a next time! —Still, despite being unranked and only telling her a few of his feature, who would've known that idiot Kasuou would purposely let you two meet…"

The latter half turned into disparaging Kasuou, but Daisuke's attention soon turned back to Arisu.

"What did you talk about with that tattooed bastard? Spit it all out right here, now!"

"Aren't you the one hiding things from me, Daisuke."

Arisu averted her eyes and mumbled.

Daisuke had kept silent about her going on a rampage during the incident Kurisaka Ayuyu the other day. If what Harukiyo said was true, she couldn't accept it.

Yet, Daisuke seemed more shaken than she thought. His cheeks flushed for some reason.

"Wha-… I-idiot! I really didn't do anything with Ayuyu this time… t-there was nothing…?"

One of Arisu's eyebrows twitched.

His hand holding down her head weakened and Arisu slowly rised up.

"I wasn't asking anything about that, but… I'd love to hear all the details about that. Also, why are you cowering all of a sudden."

"S-shut up! Idiot! Idiot Arisu!"

"What on earth happened there! Spit it out, pervy Daisuke! …Were you licked? Was it licky licky again?"

As the two began grappling, a servant opened the sliding door while saying, "It is about time for you to go to sch…"—but seeing the figure of the two, she closed it again without saying anything.

Episode 10. The Dream Welcoming Feelings

"You… you're going to take responsibility, right? Right?"

"…"

"…"

It was just as they were about to leave the Ichinokuro estate through the large front gates.

The time was early morning.

Ichinokuro Arisu and Kusuriya Daisuke were departing for Horusu Seijou Academy like always.

And what awaited them was a feeble voice on the tinge of tears.

"Hey, are you listening? Have you actually forgotten?"

Yet they couldn't see anyone there.

Arisu and Daisuke looked around, before finally finding the owner of the voice.

They were by the second power pole from the front gate of the Ichinokuro estate.

A girl peeked from halfway behind the power pole, gazing at them bitterly. Her age was probably around that of a high schooler. Her short black hair drew a gentle wave and she was wearing glasses.

"Say something. Pleeease."

Large teardrops welled up in her upturned eyes. Jumping out from behind the pole, she then again hid behind a nearer power pole.

"C'mon, Kakkou-kuuun."

Stretching out half of her body from behind the pole, the girl lightly touched Daisuke's shoulder with her fingertip. This caused him to stiffen up with a twitch, and he violently shook off her hand.

"Wah! Don't touch me!"

The girl was shocked. She bit her lower lip, and cowered back behind the pole.

"Ugh… How horrible… Even though you did something like that to me… Even though Kakkou-kun was the one to invite me…"

They could hear her sobbing from behind the pole.

"S-so annoying… W-what do you want?"

A moth alighted on top of the pale Daisuke's head.

It was a moth with diamond-shaped wings that shone in azure. It was similar to the hooktip moth, but the real insect would never appear during winter like now.

—There were creatures known as Mushi.

They were abnormal monsters that possessed humans and grew by devouring their hosts' dreams. Those possessed by Mushi were known as Mushitsuki, and despite their existence being denied by the authorities, they became the target of hatred and rumors.

Kusuriya Daisuke was a member of the Special Environmental Preservation Bureau, an organization created in order to capture and conceal Mushi.

"No, wait. That voice… Are you the one from Higano City? Kusakabe Rinka, if I'm not mistaken."

Perhaps recalling something, Daisuke approached the sobbing sound behind the power pole.

"And I thought Kakkou-kun would take responsibility… Uuu… I hate you…"

"…"

A butterfly also landed on Arisu's shoulder as she grasped her bag wordlessly. In contrast to the other girl's, it was a morpho butterfly shining in silver. It was the Mushi she had inherited from her late best friend.

"Ah, you don't know her right, Arisu. This is Kusakabe Rinka, from Higano City—"

As Daisuke turned around, a leather bag with the full force of Arisu's weight slammed into his face.

Part 1

They were in a certain park on the way to school.

Sitting on a small bench, Arisu looked up at Daisuke standing in front of her.

"This is Kusakabe Rinka, a high school freshman living in Higano City. Before I came here to Akamaki City, I'd caught her as she ran into Ouka City and handed her to the Central Headquarters."

Daisuke explained with what was one of his most sullen face. Arisu's bag seemed to have inflicted more damage than expected, and his nose was stuffed with tissue.

The jurisdiction of the Special Environmental Preservation Bureau—the SEPB in short—was divided into different regions. Akamaki City, where Arisu lived, and the neighboring Higano City, were under the control of Central Headquarters. And the further Ouka City was under the control of the East Central Branch which Daisuke seemed to have originally belonged to.

"That looks painful, are you fine? Is it my fault? Is it my fault, I wonder? Does it hurt? Hey, does it hurt?"

Rinka's voice came from a grove of trees adjacent to the park ahead of Arisu. By straining her eyes, she could see the figure of the girl hiding among the trees.

"Obviously it hurts! Actually, stop hiding and come over here!"

"No! I don't want to! Don't force me to do such a horrible thing!"

"Aahhh, you're so annoying! Also, stop talking in such a way that can cause misunderstandings!"

"Uuh… you called me annoying again…"

Daisuke grabbed Rinka's arm and forcibly dragged her out of the grove.

As Arisu watched their exchange, a cold smile crept up on her face.

"Oh? So you did her something wrong the other time, huh. …Why don't you pay for it by dying?"

"Arisu… I don't know what you're imagining there, but stop giving that look…"

"When I said that I don't want to become a Fallen, Kakkou-kun saved me by telling me to join the SEPB, right? Did you forget? You didn't, right? Please don't do it?"

Unable to relax, Rinka looked around. She found a street light nearby and immediately hid behind it. But, since it wasn't enough to hide her whole body, she looked at Arisu and Daisuke while fidgeting restlessly.

"I see. I understand the details now."

What Rinka said about "Daisuke doing to her" meant her apprehending, and the "invitation" was him recommending her to join the SEPB, apparently.

"So, what is this responsibility you were talking about? Anyway, will it be solved if Daisuke dies?"

"Why are you trying to kill me! You didn't understand a single bit!"

Daisuke glared at Rinka as he raised an angry voice.

"In the first place, what's this about taking responsibility. How many Mushitsuki do you think I have turned into Fallen and I've probably sent about that many to isolation facilities. Adding on your grudge now is not gonna make any difference. Or if what you're saying…"

His expression changed. Wearing a provocative smile, he approached Rinka.

"If it's revenge you want, then I'll play along with you. I'll finish it up in three seconds."

"Wait, Daisuke—"

"Revenge?"

Yet, Rinka stared at him in puzzlement. It soon turned into panic and she shook her head frantically.

"N-no way…! I couldn't possibly do such a scary thing…! In the first place, I'm no match for Kakkou-kun at all and I hate pain! You also don't like pain, right? Or do you like it?"

"Ah, geez, so annoying! Then what is it! Speak up already, school's about to start!"

"I-I just want to make friends!"

"…Haah?"

"Ever since I was captured, I haven't been able to go to school at all… And, since I'm a little overly shy…"

"You have the gall to say 'a little' when you act like this."

"T-that's exactly why! I can't make any friends even at Central Headquarters… So I thought about asking you to help me make friends…"

Rinka explained along with a flurry of gestures. It was as if she didn't feel cautious even against the one who had caught her before.

Daisuke grabbed Rinka's sleeve.

"If you don't want me to shoot you, go back to HQ right this instant."

"Nooo! I don't want tooo! Help me make friendsss! Take responsibility for causing me to be unable to meet other people openly!"

"I told you to stop making it sound so scandalous! You're definitely doing it on purpose!"

Arisu moved in to stop Daisuke from trying to drag the other girl out.

"W-wait a minute, Daisuke. She's gone all the way to ask you for help, it'll be so pitiful if you just drive her off like that."

"Am I annoying?"

"Huh…?"

"Am I really that annoying? There's no way right? Right?"

Clinging to the street light, Rinka turned her upturned eyes at Arisu. With these tear-filled eyes gazing at her from behind the street light, Arisu inadvertently averted her gaze.

"Umm… I-it's fine! I think it's within the acceptable limits! …Probably."

"Uuh… Don't reject me…"

"Aren't you misunderstanding something?"

Daisuke asserted with a cool tone.

"We're Mushitsuki. We're beings that spread misfortune around us just by living. Could we even have friends? Even if we do make friends, it'll only cause more misfortune."

Rinka gulped. She opened her mouth apparently intending to say something, but ended up sobbing and casting her gaze down.

"If you understand, then quietly go back to—"

Before he could finish his sentence, Daisuke separated himself from Rinka with a look surprise. He barely evaded Arisu's bag cutting through the air along with her grunt. 

"There's no way one wouldn't be able to make friends just because they're a Mushitsuki!"

Readying her bag, Arisu glared at Daisuke.

"I was friends with Mari and she was a Mushitsuki!"

Hanashiro Mari.

A girl who had left her Mushi to Arisu and passed away. Kusuriya Daisuke is accompanying Arisu not just to monitor her; it was also to investigate the irregular Mushitsuki known as Hanashiro Mari.

"Hah, I wonder about that."

Daisuke sneered.

Mushitsuki would never think of normal people as friends. There was a Mushitsuki girl that said the converse was also true. And now Daisuke said the same.

Arisu could never accept that.

"This person can't make any friends not because she's a Mushitsuki! It's because of her personality! Because she's annoying!"

"She's definitely annoying, but it's not just that. The very act of a Mushitsuki trying to make friends itself is wrong!"

"If she wasn't annoying, she would've made countless friends!"

"No, even if she wasn't annoying it would be the same."

"Uuh… So I really am annoying…"

Ignoring Rinka who broke down in tears, Arisu pounded her own chest.

"Then I'll become her friend! You'll see then!"

"That won't do it. You're only feeling pity. At least that's what it looks like that to me."

Next to the two arguing, Rinka rose up.

"I-I… want to fix my personality."

Perhaps perceiving Arisu as her ally, she clung to her arm instead of Daisuke's.

"By doing so I'll be able to make friends, right? That's what you're saying, right? Will you… take responsibility? Because I'll resent you if you won't?"

"Uh… Y-yeah! I'll prove it!"

Arisu declared in a loud voice while unconsciously forcing Rinka's head back.

It was lunch break.

Daisuke looked outside the classroom's window, sighing.

"So, what're you trying to do?"

"What do you mean what I'm trying to do… I said I'll prove that even she can make friends."

Arisu pouted.

Horusu Seijou Academy Middle School had a strict security. Only members of the school received identification cards, and one couldn't enter without them. In addition, the school had tall fences surrounding it.

Along Arisu's line of sight, on the other side of the sports ground beyond the fence surrounding the tennis court, was a suspicious figure.

A girl stood in the shadow of a power pole near the road staring at their direction. Oblivious to the passersby raising their eyebrows at her, she wore a smile and waved toward Arisu and Daisuke.

They obviously did not wave back.

Incidentally, she had been watching them from inside the thicket in the backcourt during gym class.

"S-she's somewhat… how do I put it, too pure. She needs to become, uh, more independent?"

"In short she's annoying?"

"…Yeah."

"Why do you always have to poke your nose into stuff unrelated to the investigation of Hanashiro Mari… So, what are you actually going to do?"

"That's—"

As Arisu sank deep into thought, two girls approached them.

"What are you doing? The two of you are doing something in secret, right. Let me be a part of it too."

"Is something the matter?"

They were Saionji Ena and Kujou Takako.

Looking at her two friends, an idea struck Arisu.

"Ena, Takako."

Grabbing their shoulders, she grinned.

"You two aren't shy, right? You have lots of friends after all."

Ena and Takako tilted their heads in puzzlement. Having a bad feeling about this, Daisuke grimaced.

"Hey, you can't possibly be going to involve them—"

"What are you saying? It's not just going to be them, you're also going to help."

"Huh? Why me?"

"Do you want to have a stalker like that for all of eternity?"

Arisu gestured at outside the window with her eyes.

Rinka was gleefully waving her hands from the shadow of the distant power pole.

Resigned to fate, Daisuke held his head and sighed.

Part 2

First off.

Saionji Ena.

Ena was a classmate whom she got closer to since starting second year.

In addition to her cheerful and refined impression, she excelled in both academics and athletics. Yet, she never put any effort into studying nor joined any clubs, but simply had fun.

Her circle of friends was so vast such that even when moving between classrooms, many from other classes would call out to her. There were equally as many adults who knew her name outside of school, a testament to her sociable personality.

Just based on that, one could say she was the top batter with great expectations placed upon her.

"Being friends means hanging out together and having fun!"

A rollercoaster passed in front of Arisu's eyes at full speed.

"And so! We'll surely get along if we shared some fun times together!"

After school, Arisu went to an amusement park not far off from Akamaki City. Obviously, that included Daisuke and Rinka. Moreover, the other two girls were also tagging along.

"This is Kusakabe Rinka-san. She's my friend. Now, Ena, become friends with her!"

Arisu introduced Rinka.

"Become friends with her… you…"

Daisuke had a glum look on his face, but Ena was different. Despite the sudden introduction, she spoke to Rinka with a smile.

"Nice to meet you! I'm Arisu's classmate, Saionji Ena. You seem to be above in age, so you must be a high school student, right, Kusakabe-san? Also, umm…"

Ena's amicable tone suddenly lowered.

"…Why are you hiding?"

Rinka seemed to be apprehensive in the face of Ena's amiability. She jumped out from behind the trash can she was using to hide herself, approached Ena and grabbed her hand.

"H-hello! Umm, I'm, Kusakabe Rinkaff! Rinka!"

"Eek!"

Suddenly having their faces up close, Ena flinched.

"Kusakabe is written as 'the part under the sun'! You know that 'Be' kanji? Just like in the word 'portion'! You know it? Rinka is made of… uh… what 'Rin' should I use? S-sorry! Wait a bit, I'll think of a good example!"

"I-it hurts! You're using too much—"

"How do you write your name, Ena-chan? Ah, is it alright if I call you Ena-chan? Is it overly familiar for our first meeting? If you don't like it tell me, okay? Okay?"

"…So annoying!"

Finally unable to endure it, Ena shook herself off from Rinka.

"So we've struck a problem even before riding the rollercoaster…"

Beside Arisu who hung her head down, Daisuke declared the first failure indifferently.

Next up.

Kujou Takako.

Normally well-mannered and polite, she was like a representative of Horusu Seijou Academy which boasted of mostly students from well-to-do families.

Befitting her adult-like demeanor, she treated everyone kindly no matter who they were. As she had been heavily sheltered by her parents, she almost never distrusted or hated people.

Arisu had great expectations of Takako.

In fact, one of Takako's acquaintances had been a Mushitsuki boy. Even after knowing the truth, Takako tried to protect him. She had the kindness to not discriminate someone even if they were a Mushitsuki.

"You can't give up, Rinka-san! You make friends without even realizing it! By the time we've gone through one round of the rollercoaster, we'll already have become friends!"

Daisuke, Arisu, and Ena, who was shaking and hiding behind Daisuke, watched over the two from the entrance to rollercoaster.

Takako and Rinka were seated on the front row.

"Nice to meet you, my name is Kujou Takako."

Takako flashed a gentle smile at Rinka. She shook her hand with teary eyes.

"I-I can call you Takako-chan, right? Are you fine riding this, Takako-chan? It's impossible for me! If you ask me how much, I feel like I'm going to faint on the spot!"

"…Huh?"

"Kyaaah! I-it's moving! It's started moving! W-what'll I do! What should I do? What can I do in this extreme situation?"

"U-umm… if you cling to me that much, it would be anno—a bit uncomfortable."

Arisu saw off the slowly accelerating rollercoaster with a smile.

"If she's hugging her that much, they'll get along in no time! I can't wait for them to get back!"

"If you ask me, I'd lean more towards feeling unease…"

Daisuke mumbled as he followed the rollercoaster with his eyes with shouts echoing from it.

A few minutes later…

The rollercoaster car returned to the entrance.

"…"

Daisuke, Arisu and Ena were completely speechless.

At the very front seats were two limp girls—Rinka, who had swooned due to excessive fear, and Takako, who had fainted due to Rinka strangling her neck.

"What a tragic sight…"

Ena mumbled.

Third time's the charm.

Yomori Neiko.

She was a Mushitsuki girl who got involved in trouble not long after Arisu had just met Daisuke.

Even while she and her friends were being pursued by the SEPB, she kept believing in her comrades who had betrayed her. And even though they appeared to betrayed her on the surface, they were actually trying to protect her.

She was taciturn, but her belief in people was strong. Since she joined the SEPB to preserve her dream of singing her beloved songs, she should be able to understand the feelings of a fellow Mushitsuki.

"The most important thing for friends is communication! If you take your time to speak to each other, you're sure to become friends in no time!"

Stressed Arisu, who was wearing a dress with revealed shoulders, and clenched her fist. Behind her was the scenery of the sunset over Akamaki City.

After parting with the two girls at the amusement park, Arisu and the rest proceeded to a restaurant on the topmost floor of a high-class hotel.

"Is that it…?"

Daisuke, wearing a suit, made an especially doubtful face. He seemed to be displeased with having to wear rented formal wear.

"…But I just finished my training period and can finally go outside freely…"

Having been called out by Daisuke, Yomori Neiko seemed apprehensive. She was also wearing a dress that had been prepared by Arisu.

"What, Kakkou-kun…? Are you going to make me do something undesirable by force again…?

"…Daisuke?"

"I just needed to borrow her identification number recently, that's all! Why do all of you keep using such vague phrasing that are going to cause people to misunderstand!"

Despite the troubles on the way, Arisu introduced Rinka to Neiko. Rinka was also wearing a dress, but she wouldn't come out from under the table.

"I know this girl… she was at the training facility—"

"I also know you! Hey! I was too shy to talk to you until now, but I was always watching you from afar! I was so embarrassed! I feel like I could really get along with you!"

"She's the annoying girl in the training facility… I made sure not to approach her…"

Although she was just about to come out from under the table, Rinka's movements completely froze.

A heavy silence fell between the two.

"…And she's already been rejected…"

Daisuke's uttering made Arisu collapse on the spot.

The fourth try.

Kurisaka Ayuyu.

She was a member of the SEPB who possessed the ability to dig up the memories of other Mushi.

"If we're talking about friends hanging out, it has to be karaoke, right! Now then, sing to your heart's content!"

They were at a karaoke place in town.

Arisu held the tambourine and turned toward Rinka and Ayuyu.

"H-hello! Nice to meet you, I'm Kusakabe Rinka—"

"I'm so happy you've invited me, Kakkun. *Lick* *Lick* Do you have any business with me? *Shake* *Shake* It's fine even if you don't, though. *Kiss*"

Since she had been invited by Daisuke, Ayuyu wore causal clothes. She was wearing the sort of monochrome style of clothes that could be called gothic Lolita.

Ayuyu ignored Rinka sitting next to her, moving closer toward Daisuke who was sitting in the corner of the room. There was a gloomy and suspicious atmosphere only in the spot Ayuyu and Daisuke sat at.

"Umm, I'm Kusakabe Rinka—"

"I'm so excited being in a closed room alone with you, Kakkun. *Lick* *Lick* *Kiss*"

"…We obviously aren't alone here… and stop touching me in weird places."

"I'm Kusakabe Rinka! A-are you listening? Are you listening to me?"

"*Anger* *Anger* What d'you want? You're annoying so get out of my sight. *Shoo* *Shoo*"

Asserting this with a look of bother, Ayuyu again wrapped her hands around Daisuke's neck.

"Uuu…"

Rinka hanged her head, still holding the microphone.

Her sobs blended along with the ballad music playing from the speaker.

And finally…

Kasuou.

She was also a member of the SEPB, serving as Daisuke's replacement as Arisu's monitor when he wasn't present.

"If we're talking about two girls mingling, it has to be shopping… right…?"

Arisu tried to declare in a high voice before a clothes shop in the main street at night.

Yet she froze after seeing the scene in front of her eyes.

"What's up with this annoying woman? Are ya trying to pick a fight with me? Ah?"

The blonde girl wearing the same Horusu Seijou Academy uniform, Kasuou, grabbed Rinka's face with her right hand. She opened her eyes in anger, gathering strength in her hand.

"Ouch ouch ouch, ouch! I'm going to die, die, I'm dying!"

Rinka raised a shriek, flapping her limbs around. She struggled as to not let her legs off the ground.

"Hey, Daisuke. No matter what you say, I think there's a problem in the choice of the person this time…"

"I don't have any decent people I can call out… even if it's a bit late to say that…"

"Since you don't seem to have any business with me, I'll be going now. I have another mission."

Flinging Rinka aside as if she was an empty can, Kasuou turned around to look at Daisuke.

Rinka groaned and broke down crying at her feet.

"A mission?"

"One of the members who haven't finish their training yet has escaped from the facility. They seem to be a problem child who can't control their own Mushi no matter how much they trained. Since I'm unranked and on a support role, they haven't even told me anything about the target to make sure I won't go on a rampage, though. What a shitty mission, really."

Rinka's shoulders twitched at Kasuou's feet.

Arisu wasn't the only one to notice; Daisuke also saw Rinka's reaction. Only Kasuou herself hadn't realized.

"Ah, if only a certain somebody here got in danger again so I can get an excuse to fight."

Seeing her grin, Arisu grimaced. Kasuou was apparently lowly ranked due to her always going into rampages against orders, but her fighting prowess was undeniable. She was someone Arisu never wanted to fight against ever again.

"Yes, just like recently with… Harukiyo, was it? That flame bastard eventually escaped from the Hanashiro Mari's estate."

"What's up with him?"

"Central Headquarters has apparently alerted all branches to search for him as an enemy of the organization. He's supposedly been gathering comrades to meddle in SEPB affairs. They have someone with the ability to mimic others and someone who can nullify attacks, so HQ's at a loss. Not to mention, he might come attacking you again."

Arisu gulped.

She recalled the boy called Sehateno Harukiyo.

He became her enemy.

She never thought she'd ever meet someone who was an "enemy" to her.

And another surprise was—

"He has comrades? That guy?"

He was an extremely powerful Mushitsuki even alone.

She was surprised that someone as bold as him would have allies. If he had others who shared his intent, she couldn't imagine what he was trying to do.

Like her, Daisuke also found it unexpected. His eyes slightly widened.

"What's important about fighting him isn't your mission success rate. It's pure fighting strength. —My turn is going to come regardless of my rank, so I hope he'll come attack as much as possible. I won't let him escape next time, I'll finish him up for good."

In a complete reversal from her dangerous smile, Kasuou left a lady-like greeting of "now then, farewell" and was gone.

Daisuke stepped next to Arisu who was frozen in place.

Rinka was trying to distance herself by stealthily crawling away, but the boy stepped on her back.

"Fugya," was her murmured shriek.

"Oi. I don't want to think that that's the case, but don't tell me that the idiot who escaped from the training facility is…"

"I don't know, I don't know! It's not me! I'm telling the truth okay? Okay? …Ouch ouch ouch, you're breaking me! It's me! I'm the one who escaped! I'm sorryyy!"

"Now I finally know why you came to me. Because such small matters will not flow down to me. And no one would think that an escapee get close a Rank 1 like me, just as Kasuou did not realize. In a certain sense, there's no better refuge."

Daisuke said in a low voice, looking down at Rinka squirming under his foot.

"You used me, didn't you?"

"Ow ow ow!  It's really… painful… ow! It… hurts…!"

"Stop, Daisuke!"

Daisuke seemed to be truly angry, his eyes staring daggers. Seeing that Rinka was actually suffering, Arisu thrust Daisuke aside.

Now released, Rinka shook on the ground without saying anything.

"What are you thinking! Are you really try to kill her?"

"Yeah, I was."

Arisu widened her eyes.

"At the very least, if I don't let them experience what it's like to die once, these kind of people won't realize what their position is. We Mushitsuki either become Fallen or we have to live while making sure to control our own Mushi. Those who act half-heartedly will simply lose to their Mushi and die."

Daisuke clearly asserted in a voice full of suppressed anger. It was something that only a Mushitsuki like him, someone who had seen the ends of countless Mushitsuki, could say.

"No—"

"Don't get any closer."

Daisuke stopped Arisu from approaching Rinka.

The hooktip moth fluttering in the air shone in blue. At the same time, the decorative plant in front of the shop wilted at once.

"Her Mushi's about to go wild. If you get any closer you'll also get your liquids sucked out by its ability."

Arisu's eyes widened.

It wasn't just the decorative plant. The concrete around Rinka cracked, and the paint of the store's wall started audibly peeling off.

As it absorbed the moisture around it, the glow of the hooktip moth strengthened. Rinka's sobbing as she cried on the ground also grew louder and louder.

"I'm willing to bet on it. She will someday lose to her Mushi and die. So right here and now, I will—"

Daisuke looked up at Rinka's hooktip moth.

"Kill this Mushi and make her a Fallen. It's better than her dying."

"Sto—"

It happened just as Arisu tried to stop him from reaching his hand out and crushing the moth.

"Uuh… So I really am useless…"

They could hear a voice mixed with sobbing coming from their feet.

"Why won't anyone be my friend… Does everyone wish to never see me…?"

Kusakabe Rinka was crying. Still stretched on the ground with her shoulders shaking, she spoke in a faint voice.

"He surely also… doesn't think of me as a friend… Even if I wait for him, I'll definitely only bother him…"

Arisu knit her eyebrows. Daisuke also stopped his arm and looked down at Rinka.

While she cried in a stifled voice, the azure hooktip moth shimmered above her head.

Part 3

The Ichinokuro household at night was wrapped in silence.

Even the exhaust sounds of the cars on the other side of the vast premises and tall walls couldn't reach the main house.

Inside the dreary guestroom—Daisuke's room, Kusakabe sat seiza-style on the tatami. Even her tone as she mumbled about her circumstances lacked any power. She was still crying even as she speak.

"Umm, so I'll summarize."

Since Rinka's explanation was messy, it was hard deciphering it.

"So your friend who moved away long ago is coming back to Higano City? And tomorrow, to boot?"

Rinka nodded while wiping her snot.

"Training was so hard… I ended up being reminded of him. So, I tried calling my old classmates while I was at the facility…  They said he's lost both parents in a traffic accident and moved in with his relatives…"

"…"

Daisuke was speechless. Leaning against the wall while standing, he gazed outside the window.

"He was a boy I used to play with a lot during elementary school… and when people bullied me for being annoying he'd come and save me…"

Finally, large drops came spilling out of her eyes. The fists clenched on top of her legs shook.

"I thought that he's definitely lonely… I thought that I could at least come and welcome him back to Higano City and I couldn't stay put… But I just couldn't get permission to go outside…"

"…"

"But… am I really just a bother? If I come and greet him, will he think I'm annoying? He probably didn't think of me as a friend, right? Or…"

Rinka raised her face and looked at Daisuke.

"Maybe I should never meet him again because I'm a Mushitsuki…"

Daisuke, who was silent up till now, opened his mouth. Yet, he didn't turn his gaze to Rinka.

"Obviously. We're—"

"No, you can obviously go and meet him."

Arisu interrupted Daisuke.

Meeting people you want to meet.

There was no way simply being a Mushitsuki would be enough to forbid that.

"If you want to go meet him, it's irrelevant whether or not you're a Mushitsuki."

Rinka looked at Arisu in surprise.

"Do you know when his train arrives?"

"Y-yeah…"

"All correspondences within the facility are recorded. If you made a call from there, the SEPB will also know and will probably send a capture team there. It's impossible no matter what you do."

Daisuke said sullenly.

Arisu was at a loss for words. Rinka also hanged her head dejectedly.

However—

"Kasuou… if she's there, the mission's success rate goes down by a lot. After all, she'll immediately go on a rampage the moment something catches her eye."

Arisu widened her eyes, looking at Daisuke. He was still looking outside the window, not catching her eye.

"What can you do even if you knew that?"

Daisuke's attitude was cold.

"Since you know that Kasuou is a member of the team, can you also find out from where are they heading to Higano City?"

Daisuke didn't respond to Arisu's question.

However—

The taciturn boy didn't deny it either.

Part 4

Under the clear sky, Arisu inquired Kusuriya Daisuke who stood next to her.

"Hey, what's wrong? I was sure you'd be much angrier. You're being awfully kind."

The pitch-black long coat the boy wore fluttered in the wind.

Since there was no cover around, the sudden gale hit their bodies directly.

There was nothing below the metal beam Arisu was sitting on. Only a large river flowed underneath.

A lump of steel passed through along with a rumble.

The gust of wind pounded Arisu and Daisuke.

"Because I can never tell what you're trying to do. Since I don't know your goal, I can only keep monitoring."

He didn't just have his long coat. The boy's face was covered by large goggles, and his right hand grasped a large automatic pistol. He was fully equipped.

—Arisu was sitting above the river connecting Akamaki City and Higano City.

They were on the metal rails spread around the metal bridge.

A scheduled train passed behind them as they hid behind an iron pole.

"Then why did you let Rinka-san get away?"

"She simply ran away while I wasn't paying attention. I'll capture her again."

"She won't be punished later, right?"

"…I'll let her get away just this once."

As if in reaction to something, Daisuke turned to the side. In his line of sight—in the direction of Akamaki City, he could see a few figures running on the rails.

"It's because I'm also waiting for the return of someone who became all alone…"

"…?"

Arisu tilted her head, having no idea who he was talking about. Yet as she confirmed the oncoming figures, she rose. In her right hand held an object she had brought from home, a stick for training use—a staff.

Rushing through the passage for workers were people cladded in white coat. The color and small details of the design were different, but they resembled Daisuke's battle uniform.

Arisu and Daisuke revealed themselves from behind the iron pole, blocking the passage.

"…!"

The people cladded in white—the members of Central Headquarters all stopped in place, surprised.

"W-who are you?"

"Ah? Isn't it Kakkou? What're you doing here."

The one at the back of the line raised their voice.

Her face was concealed by goggles, but due to her high voice and blonde hair it was obvious that she was Kasuou. Hearing the name of Kakkou, a disturbance spread through the members.

"We're going on a walk!"

Arisu declared, puffing her chest.

The disturbance changed to silence for an instant.

"Hmm, you seem to be taking a walk in a really weird place… As if, are you an idiot?! As if anyone would come here for a walk all geared up!"

"We're here! You're in the way, so go someplace else!"

"I-in the way…? You're the ones in the way. If you won't move—"

"If we won't move then what will you do?"

Daisuke's low voice caused the members' faces to stiffen. Arisu pointed her finger at them with exaggerated acting.

"Coming here and picking up a fight with us, it means you're all… Harukiyo's comrades!"

"…Huh?"

Kasuou raised a silly-sounding voice.

"I mean, he has someone with the ability to transform, right? You're impersonating the SEPB to make us lower our guard and attack us! That's obvious."

"Hey now, that couldn't possibly be true. If they were Harukiyo's group…"

Daisuke looked at Kasuou in detachment.

"Then we'd have to fight, right?"

Kasuou twitched. Slowly, a smile rose to the girl's mouth.

"W-what are you saying?"

"—Hey, aren't you bastards actually Harukiyo's comrades instead?"

Interrupting her team members' voices, Kasuou's laughing voice resounded on the bridge.

"K-Kasuou? Stay silent! Your orders are to not make any move until—"

"Orders? Hah, orders you say?"

Black mist appeared around Kasuou's body. The other members were intimidated and flinched.

"There're guys trying to pick up a fight in front of me. I don't understand why and I have no clue what they're thinking about, but since they're showing hostility doesn't that make them our enemy?"

"We have no time to fight! The time is already…!"

"I don't care. If you want to, go on yourselves."

No sooner than she said this, Kasuou leapt at Daisuke. A part of the mist enveloping her morphed into claws, swinging down at Daisuke's head.

"The first ones to raise a hand were the Central Headquarters."

As the boy smiled, a green checkered beetle alighted on his shoulder. It explosively transformed into feelers, fusing with Daisuke's body and handgun.

Perhaps sensing Kasuou's hostility, the morpho butterfly also alighted by Arisu's side.

It fused with the staff she was holding, becoming a silver spear.

Daisuke, becoming one with the checkered beetle, shook off Kasuou's pursuing mist claws using his entire body's strength.

The claws broke down loudly. The part of Kasuou's Mushi that returned to mist was pounded against the river below.

A column of water large enough to reach the bridge rose up.

"Take this!"

Leaping over Daisuke who just repelled Kasuou's attack, Arisu flashed her silver spear to the side.

The scales shining in silver blew violently.

"You're surprisingly working smoothly together, aren'tcha!"

Wriggling the claws of mist, Kasuou climbed on top of the bridge and ran into air.

The silver scales scraping Kasuou and the Central Headquarters members cut the large column of water into two. A spray of water splashed all over Arisu and Daisuke.

"Leave me behind and go ahead. But I'm not taking responsibility if any stray bullets hit you."

Completely entering battle mode, Kasuou glared at her comrades.

Seeing this extraordinary destructive power, the people in white coats apparently lost their fighting spirits. Completely stunned, they couldn't move even one step away from the spot.

"It's that train."

Putting herself on guard while standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Daisuke, Arisu looked at the other side of the members.

There was a train headed for their location far away on the rails.

Preparing his handgun, Daisuke nodded.

"Yeah. —More importantly, have you thought about how to stop her after this?"

Shrouded in black mist, Kasuou slowly closed the gap between her and the two.

Up until provoking Kasuou to buy time, everything went according to plan.

Yet the girl in front of them didn't seem likely to stop fighting at this point.

"It's obvious."

Arisu nodded confidently.

"I haven't given it any thought!"

The vibration of railway track masked Daisuke's sigh.

Part 5

Standing in front of the Higano City station, Kusakabe Rinka was unable to calm down.

All of the passersby overflowing through the rotary seemed to her like they were the SEPB monitors sent to capture her.

She walked back and forth from where she could see the ticket gates.

"Au, uu…"

Becoming afraid, she hid behind a vending machine. Yet, when threatened by its previous inhabitant, a stray cat, she was chased back to the street.

"What am I going to do if the SEPB finds me… They'll be really angry at me, right? Never mind being angry, will they turn me into a Fallen? What am I going to do…"

Muttering while walking around, Rinka's feet stopped in place.

—It's fine, leave it to us.

Although Rinka was scared, Arisu smiled at her and said this.

Arisu's eyes were powerful, and they lacked any hesitation.

"…"

Rinka raised her face.

Deciding to believe in the girl called Arisu, her fear mysteriously vanished.

What pushed it aside instead was anxiousness.

Does her childhood friend even remember her?

Even if he did, did he not thought of her as a bother?

When she come to greet him, will she end up speaking all flustered like she always did?

—Just say what you want to tell him.

His chilly attitude towards her hasn't changed, but Kakkou told her this.

Kakkou. When she had been pursued by a Mushitsuki capturing team and driven all the way to Ouka City, he had offered her to join the SEPB. For him it was probably a mere whim, but thanks to that she was here now.

She was able to wait for her childhood friend.

Tomorrow she would have probably already been captured and restrained in the Central Headquarters.

But she was not scared anymore.

"…It's fine, I'm not scared anymore."

She spoke towards Arisu and Kakkou who weren't there.

The train coming from Akamaki City arrived at the platform.

After waiting for a while, she could see the figure of a boy come out of the ticket gates.

He held large luggage in both arms, looking over the townscape of Higano City.

"Let me carry one."

Rinka approached the boy, calling to him.

As he turned around in surprise, Rinka gave him the widest smile she could muster.

"Welcome back."

The boy stood in place, eyes still opened wide.

However, he soon smiled back to her.

"I'm back."

Episode 11. The Journey Lost in Dreams

—My dream, can I entrust it to you?

When she had been alive, Hanashiro Mari said this and smiled.

—Sorry, that was nothing…

She immediately took it back, but what had she really wanted to say?

—See you tomorrow.

The next day after this smile, Mari breathed her last.

Since she had been destroyed by her illness, Mari had no tomorrow.

She had entrusted Arisu with a silver morpho butterfly. The continuation of Mari's dream.

When she touched it with her hand, the morpho butterfly's body would transform and fuse with her.

Her body got hotter and her pulse quickened. By merging with the sweet dream embedded inside the morpho butterfly, she could clearly feel the presence of another, different life.

While becoming one with the Mushi that Mari had left her, she asked herself.

Who—am I?

While fused with Mari's morpho butterfly, she couldn't recall her name for some reason.

She felt as if the Mari in her memories wore a light smile.

…She had this dream a lot lately.

Part 1

Ichinokuro Arisu breathed, loosening her mouth. Brushing up the hair on her ear, she elegantly closed her eyes.

"An ace four-of-a-kind."

Sending a sidelong glance at the seat next to her, Saionji Ena smiled. Ena, who had a sophisticated atmosphere to her even among her classmates, stuck out her tongue.

"Full house."

Sitting on Ena's other side, Kujou Takako sighed with a troubled face. She shook her short hair, revealing her card with graceful hand movements.

"I have a straight."

Arisu, Ena, and Takako's line of sight focused on one spot. Their eyes all settled on the completely ordinary boy, Kusuriya Daisuke.

"…Trash hand…"

—The sparkle in Ena's eyes was probably only Arisu's imagination. Or so she wanted to believe.

"So it's your loss again, Kusuriya-kun! As for your penalty game, lose another piece of clothing! Come on!"

"…That's definitely odd! Ever since you started dealing, Saionji-san, I haven't been able to gather even a single meld! W-wait a minute, stop, Saionji-san! More than that and I'll—"

"No!"

"…Huh?"

"You should have tears in your eyes and say, 'S-stop it, Saionji-san…' right? Do it over!"

Arisu and Takako averted their eyes from Ena joyfully grabbing onto the innocent boy.

"It feels like Ena-san is going on a rampage lately…"

"You can't look. We can no longer stop Ena's Daisuke addiction…"

Outside the window next to the desperate battle enfolding between Daisuke and Ena was a mountain range with its summit covered in snow.

Not only Arisu's group was clamoring.

The bus stuffed with the students of Horusu Seijou Academy Middle School truly became a battlefield.

Arisu's group was on the Shinkansen. Since the train had been reserved so that each car was for an entire class, uniform-wearing students were running about.  Although Horusu Seijou Academy had many upper-class girls, Arisu's class had especially many energetic students.

It was the customary event of the second year of Horusu Seijou Academy Middle School, a field trip.

Their destination was the former capital where culture and tradition gathered, Gosen City.

"—I wish Mari could've come here, too…"

As a representative of the students that couldn't calm down, Arisu looked outside the window and sighed.

Hanashiro Mari. She was Arisu's friend that passed away without attending Horusu Seijou Academy even once. Succumbing to her illness, as she lay on her sickbed, she had said that she wanted to go outside once she got better.

"Do you feel unwell, Arisu-san?"

"No, it's nothing."

Arisu smiled at Takako who made a worried face probably thinking that seeing Arisu so quiet was rare.

Silver scales poured down outside the window. Although she couldn't see its form, the thing that Mari had left behind for Arisu was following her.

Right, Mari's still with me even now—

It happened just as she muttered this in her heart and smiled.

The voices of students around suddenly stopped.

Thinking it strange and raising her face, she saw that the gazes of the students were all turned toward the car's entrance. Even Ena, busy with the half-naked Daisuke, stopped her movements with a puzzled face.

A boy entered from the automatic door. He seemed to be a few years in age above Arisu and the rest, about high school. Part of his forelock was braided and he wore strange glasses.

The boy wore a business suit with an excess of belts at various places. With both hands inside his pockets he advanced through the corridor rather insolently.

"He… doesn't appear to be a teacher. This is the first time I have seen this man."

Takako muttered while tilting her head.

The Shinkansen Arisu and the rest were boarding was reserved for second year students. The car was supposed to have only people related to the school or the crewmen.

The bespectacled boy looked around the car expressionlessly. His gaze then stopped on Arisu.

Arisu and the boy shortly gazed at each other—

"…Humph."

The boy scoffed at her, snorting. Arisu stiffened. Leaving his sneer behind, the boy passed through the other direction and vanished from the car.

Arisu stood up, her fist shaking.

"He was picking up a fight with me, right? Right? Fine, I'll take him on."

Daisuke hurriedly stopped Arisu as she was about to pursue the boy.

"I-Idiot! Ar—Ichinokuro-san, if you go on a rampage, you'll break the Shinkansen!"

"I think the time has come for me to use the secret technique of the Ichinokuro family. It's called Arisu Corkscrew."

"Isn't that the one you're always hitting me with? Was it supposed to be secret?"

Daisuke did his best to drag Arisu back as she tried advancing through the corridor with a low laugh. Ena clung to him and Takako watched over them, smiling.

As the inside of the car turned noisy again, an announcement of their arrival resounded around.

The schedule for the first day of Horusu Seijou Academy Middle School's second year field trip was going around temples.

After disembarking the Shinkansen, Arisu and the rest rode on separate buses, reaching a vast park. The park was dotted with many shrines and temples, and there was also a pond with a garden and a museum.

Coming all the way from distant Akamaki City, Arisu's hair was caressed by the wind of the former capital. The faint fragrance of old trees probably came from the Buddhist temple and wooden pillars seen from afar. There were also the smells of grass and animals let loose. Different from the modernized Akamaki City, it was the smell of a capital living in harmony with nature.

"Wow, what's that? It's so big! It's so dirty! Let's go already!"

The one to raise a loud voice immediately after getting off the bus was a student from another class than Arisu's. She frolicked around while pointing at the distant pillars and shaking her blonde hair. Arisu grimaced thinking about the girl's ferocious true nature as Kasuou.

"Say… is that acting?"

"She's completely forgotten her position. Leave that idiot alone."

Next to Arisu, Daisuke sighed.

Although not to Kasuou's extent, the other students also looked around excitedly.

In this age, where public middle schools would even go overseas for field trips sometimes, why had the prestigious and renowned private school of Horusu Seijou Academy gone for a field trip inside the country?

The reason was simple. —The majority of the students were already tired of overseas trips. There were many from families that went on overseas vacation ever since they were young, so on the survey about the destination of the field trip it was actually sightseeing within the country that was popular.

They split into classes inside the park, all going to different places. Arisu ended up observing the park along with Ena, Takako and Daisuke.

"Who's that! What a weird face!"

They first arrived at a Buddhist temple with a large statue of Buddha. The large Buddhist temple at the center of the premises was made of wood, and there were also a lot of other shrines and temples scattered around.

"There're a lotta animals here! Is this Africa?! …Kyah! You bastard—"

Next they came to a garden with free deer. They walked past the blonde girl as she disappeared in a herd of deer.

Passing through the deer park, the line of Horusu Seijou Academy students entered the road to a large shrine. Going along the shrine treasury and offices, they visited the inner sanctuary with its lines of vermillion-lacquered courts.

Seeing the blonde girl getting reprimanded for ripping the shrine ropes, Arisu noticed a gaze being directed at her. It was Daisuke.

"What is it, Daisuke? Looking at people like this… it's creepy."

"You're the creepy one here."

Asserting this rude thing, Daisuke looked at Arisu's face as if it really was unpleasant for him.

"Leaving that idiot Kasuou aside, I thought that you'd definitely cause a commotion… Why are you so quiet? Have you eaten something bad?"

"…Seems like we need to have a nice long talk about just what do you think about me."

"Or are you still mad about what happened on the Shinkansen?"

She recalled the incident on the Shinkansen where an unknown boy had laughed at her. In the end she let him escape as Daisuke restrained her, but if she were to see him again, she fully intended to properly ask him what his deal was.

But the reason for why Arisu seemed to be quieter than the usual lay elsewhere.

"…I've dreamt about Mari again this morning."

Arisu mumbled, gazing at Ena and Takako who went around the temple compound.

A silver glow alighted from overhead.

It was an out-of-season morpho butterfly with four antennas.

Mushi—that was the name of the unknown beings that ate people's dreams and granted them supernatural powers in exchange. The boys and girls possessed by these Mushi were called Mushitsuki, and although the government had officially denied their existence, people whispered about them as targets of fear and discrimination.

Arisu's friend who had passed away from an illness last year was a Mushitsuki. Her Mushi had clung to Arisu for some reason after her death. According to Daisuke, this was the first case of a Mushi remaining even after its host passed away.

Daisuke was a boy who had been sent to live along with Arisu so he could monitor that Mushi, and her as well. The Special Environmental Preservation Bureau he belonged to was a government agency whose true duty was capturing Mushitsuki. The blonde girl frolicking before was also from the same agency as Daisuke.

"So… I just thought it would've been nice if she could come with us… that's all."

Looking up, the morpho butterfly circled around her, soaring high again. Blinded by the afternoon sun, Arisu narrowed her eyes.

"Why were you thinking that."

Daisuke slackened his shoulders with a cold face. More than being relieved, he seemed tired. He normally played the part of an honors student to blend with the student lifestyle, but when he was alone with Arisu he acted very bluntly.

Arisu was sullen and Daisuke spoke while looking at the morpho butterfly.

"Being sentimental is your own choice, but if you're unable to enjoy things because of it then stop. Hanashiro Mari would probably not want this."

"Daisuke…"

Because he was bad at speaking, Arisu couldn't judge if those were his true feelings or if he cared about her. But these were definitely rare words to come out of his mouth.

"When you say such kind things… it's really creepy."

"…Right. Seems like we really need an opportunity for a nice, long talk."

Arisu lightly pounded Daisuke's chest as he wore a stiff smile.

"If so then you should enjoy yourself too. Forget about keeping watch over me, okay?"

Seeing her smile, Daisuke made a complex expression. —Kusuriya Daisuke was a Fusion Type Mushitsuki, just like Mari. Seeing him never voice any complaints was similar to Mari.

"I get the feeling that rather than watching over you, my job is more like taming a wild beast."

"Ena! Seems like Daisuke is planning on sneaking to the girls' room tonight."

"Welcome!"

"…Ena-san…"

As Ena turned around with her eyes sparkling, Takako sighed with a resigned look.

Abandoning Daisuke who was caught and flustered by the two girls, Arisu looked around the compound. The students received a few tens of minutes of free times, so they occupied the area. Some of them were jotting stuff down to be used in their reports of the trip for later, and some people left the shrine to go to other places.

"…?"

Arisu found a person sitting down hidden by the hanging lamps in a corner of the main shrine.

Thinking it was suspicious and approaching them, she saw a boy dressed in gaudy clothes—the clothes of a Noh play—shrinking and hugging his knees. A Noh play was a type of performance from ancient Japan.

He was probably a bit younger than Arisu. From his pale profile it was obvious something was wrong.

"U-umm… is something the matter? You look unwell, but is everything all right?"

Seeing his overly weak appearance, she spoke unusually polite.

The boy's shoulders twitched and he looked up at Arisu. He stared at her face then shook his head.

"I don't know…"

…He seemed to not be fine.

"U-umm, I was asking about you, though… do you have any problem with your condition?"

"I don't know anything about myself…"

The boy shook his head to the sides while still looking at Arisu. It seemed to be a serious illness.

He was attired in a happi coat on top of a hakama, the costume of a Noh play. This boy that had a handsome face despite being pale also grasped a folding fan.

Arisu was bewildered as if she was looking at an abandoned puppy. If she just abandoned him like this she would definitely regret it.

"A-are you performing in a Noh play somewhere? You're wearing Noh clothes, right?"

"What, Noh…?"

The boy seemed to come to his senses. Looking down at the clothes he was wearing, he turned his increasingly pale face at Arisu.

"What should I do…?"

"Even if you ask me that…"

She was actually completely at a loss as to what to do. When she turned around, she could see Daisuke and the rest still frolicking about. They didn't seem to notice her missing.

Thinking a while, Arisu sat right there.

"What is it about?"

"Huh…?"

"The plot of your Noh play."

Meeting there was also destiny. She thought that she didn't mind going along with this unknown boy until Daisuke and the rest noticed her.

"Oh, umm… the one I'm playing is—"

Having some unknown person speak to him just as he was worried about something seemed to induce a state of panic in him. Probably unconsciously, he ended up replying to Arisu's question as if reciting it.

"Tonight in the large shrine inside the garden we will be offering up the Housei-style play 'Mitsuhara'… In this story, after Akisame Sadanobu—a general from the Warring States Period—died in battle, his friend and subordinate Arihara Shirou Muneyoshi takes revenge for him, but because my older brother who's playing Arihara Muneyoshi suddenly collapsed, I was chosen as a replacement… Aaah, what am I supposed to do…"

Perhaps becoming anxious again while speaking, the boy held his head.

I see, so that's how it is—

Arisu understood the boy's circumstances. He seemed to be anxious and tense, falling into a state of panic after suddenly having to act out the main role in the Noh play.

"He takes revenge for his friend…"

She mumbled. Looking up at the sky, a silver morpho butterfly was fluttering there.

Arisu's friend, Hanashiro Mari, had passed away a year ago.

—Her heart suddenly throbbed.

An unpleasant imagination rose to her mind.

What if Mari's cause of death wasn't just due to her sickness? Mushitsuki had their dreams eaten and consumed by their own Mushi. Mushitsuki whose dreams had been completely devoured would die—what if the reason for Mari's passing from this world had to do with Mushi…?

What killed Mari had been the Mushi flying above Arisu's head—and the one responsible for turning her into a Mushitsuki as well.

If Mari hadn't become a Mushitsuki… would she have perhaps not died…?

"The Original Three…"

Arisu mumbled unconsciously while looking at the silver butterfly.

She had heard about them from Daisuke. Those who turned people into Mushitsuki were the three beings known as the Original Three.

Arisu's pulse quickened.

"Aaah, what am I supposed to do…"

The boy's groaning brought her back to her senses.

Getting interested in the story about trying to avenge one's friend, she called toward him.

"Did he manage to avenge his friend in that story?"

The boy raised his face. He looked back at Arisu quizzically, but shook his head.

"…No, Muneyoshi gives up on revenge in the middle."

"Huh?"

"One of Sadanobu's vassals was the one to strike him down. Sadanobu was a strict, calm person. His vassal, afraid of being punished for a failure, killed him and defected to the enemy side. In contrast to Sadanobu, Muneyoshi was someone who honored emotions and duty… That's why he persisted on his revenge. But—"

A smile rose to the boy's pale lips.

"When his friends were being defeated in battle one after another he finally noticed. Rather than letting the people important to him die for the sake of his revenge, what he needed to do was succeed his friend's ambitions. The late Sadanobu had wished for a peaceful world with no fighting. That's why Muneyoshi defeated the vengeful spirits of his enemies and allies instigating the revenge, and went toward the decisive war of Mitsuhara."

"…"

"'Mitsuhara' is my favorite story. It's not very well-known, but my dream is spreading it throughout Japan someday… So I've been practicing it ever since I was little."

At some point, the boy's face as he was looking ahead seemed quite imposing. Arisu chuckled.

"Then you first have to beat your vengeful spirit."

"…Huh?"

"Because just now you looked like you were possessed by an evil spirit."

She said, pointing at his happy face. The boy blushed.

"B-but I'm still—"

"This is something I only heard second-hand, but apparently 'everyone's dreams are definitely connected somewhere'. Muneyoshi succeeded Sadanobu's dream… and if you splendidly perform that, your dream might also connect to that."

The Noh-costumed boy gulped. Biting his lips, he gathered strength in his hand grasping the folding fan.

The voice of the teacher calling all the students echoed around the shrine. It seemed like Arisu's short free time was over.

"Do your best, Muneyoshi-san."

Saying her farewell to the boy whose name she didn't even know, Arisu rose up. She headed for the court where Daisuke and the rest were waiting.

As she tried joining the lines of students when the roll-call began, she heard a war cry from behind.

"UOOOHHH!!!"

Surprised, she turned around.

"I'll do it! I will! I'll definitely do it! This is just the beginning!"

Although the boy teared up and shook of anxiety, he shouted. Just as Arisu thought he was bowing at her, he turned on his heels and rushed toward the exit of the shrine.

"Arisu… please stop getting involved with weirdoes…"

While the gazes of all of her classmates including Daisuke followed the back of the leaving boy, Arisu smiled.

Part 2

The Gosen City night had the smell of dew.

Because there were many ponds here and there inside the premises, the humidity covered the trees around in night dew. The garden path was shining ominously with water vapors as the lamps illuminated it.

Arisu returned to the park she had visited that afternoon. She was running toward the location illuminated by paper lanterns she could see ahead of the gloomy garden path.

"If you don't run faster I'll leave you behind, Daisuke."

While running she turned to look around. The sullen Daisuke was pursuing her. He carried a large sports bag on his back.

"…I only said it was strange you were quiet. I didn't say you can cause trouble. Running away from the hotel on the very first day of the school trip…"

"It's fine. If we combine meal time and after-meal time there's about an hour of free time. Are you scared being scolded by the teachers, Daisuke?"

"The problem here is your common sense. I don't care if it's Noh or whatever, it's not that important for you to sneak out to see it. Hah…"

"It has to be tonight!"

While Arisu smiled, Daisuke sighed along with, "You sure are energetic after spending this afternoon all quiet."

Since the first day of the trip also included the travel from Akamaki City, it ended with the sightseeing in the park. Their lodging was a high-class hotel near the park, so it was easy slipping out and going this far.

"If you keep complaining… then go back and lock yourself up with Ena in a room."

"Ugh…"

As Arisu said this, Daisuke's face flushed and he sank to silence. He apparently hadn't realized yet that his being weak against women in weird places was connected to the sexual harassment he was receiving from Ena.

Passing through the garden path, the pair finally arrived in front of their destination. Because of the paper lanterns hanging from ropes on the large structure illuminated in the center—the five-storied pagoda, the surroundings were bright.

Since the illuminated five-storied pagoda was built modeled after a certain shrine in the garden which was a national treasure, its spacious insides were something like a history museum or a kagura hall.

The plaza was bustling with many people who entered the pagoda. The programme of the event that would soon happen inside the tower was attached to its entrance. From the hotel Arisu had confirmed there were going to be Noh and kyougen plays here tonight.

Arisu bought two spectator tickets and entered the five-storied pagoda while pulling Daisuke's arm. They were headed for the kagura hall on the highest floor.

"It's here."

Following the clerk's guidance and opening the door ahead, the surrounding atmosphere completely changed.

The smells of burning oil and incense stimulated their noses. Even without these, an air of tension drifted in the air.

The seats were already close to being completely full. Aside from the illumination there were also a few lit bonfires near the open windows. On the stage in the back of the room, people in costumes were readying flutes, small hand drums and large drums in preparation for the act.

"That boy from noon is called Fuyuki Minato."

Next to the stage was a placard with the programme and names of actors written on it. The main role of the Noh play "Mitsuhara", Muneyoshi, had a paper affixed on top of the name to indicate it was Fuyuki Minato instead.

Arisu sat in the last row. Daisuke also sat next to her, lowering his bag.

"What, Daisuke, you brought your equipment even here?"

"It's my job after all."

Daisuke asserted bluntly, folding his hands. He seemed to acknowledge that his mission was monitoring Arisu, but he didn't like it at all and pouted.

Flying inside from the open window, the silver morpho butterfly landed on Arisu's shoulder.

Then a flute's high-pitched sound flew through the kagura stage.

A representative of the Housei school appeared, and after greeting the audience, carried out the lighting of the bonfires. The representative bowed, and just as he left the kagura stage the illumination all turned off at once.

With the stage being illuminated only by the bonfires near the windows and on the stage, the Noh play began. Masked actors appeared on the stage along with a musical performance.

"Don't sleep, watch it properly, Daisuke."

Daisuke, who was about to close his eyes, clicked his tongue and glared at the stage.

The beginning was the scene of Akisame Sadanobu's death. The actors danced with the orchestra behind them.

Sadanobu fell on the battlefield due to the betrayal of his vassal.

The orchestra's tone fell, and a lone man leapt onto the now quiet stage.

He was a masked man who held up Sadanobu.

He was the actor of Arihara Muneyoshi, Fuyuki Minato. Since he wore the exact same clothes he did that afternoon, Arisu knew it immediately.

"He's here…! Look, it's him!"

Arisu got excited, shaking Daisuke's shoulders. He looked annoyed yet did nothing to stop her.

The Noh play upon the stage illuminated by the bonfires was magnificent enough to be called sublime. At some point Arisu had her eyes glued to the story's unique rhythm with the players alternating again and again.

"What, so you can do it if you try…"

She muttered unconsciously.

Although his movements at first seemed stiff, Muneyoshi played by Minato soon took the audience captive. Leading his comrades, he was acting the fierce yet sorrowful tale.

He had said that his dream was to make "Mitsuhara" known throughout the country.

The "Mitsuhara" reflected in Arisu's eyes seemed incredible enough to ascertain his dream would come true one day.

"So how is it? There was value in coming here to see it, right?"

As she turned her face to the side, she saw that Daisuke reclined his head and fell asleep. Filled with killing intent she tried performing her secret technique of Arisu Corkscrew, but as she heard the sound of violent drumming she stopped her fist.

The people wearing black clothes on the stage surrounded Muneyoshi. He moved around with all his might, but as they surrounded him he couldn't escape.

The ones surrounding Muneyoshi were vengeful spirits.

The Noh play approached the climax.

The ghosts that died in battle were trying to curse to death Muneyoshi who was filled with doubts about his revenge. Yet Muneyoshi danced among them splendidly and furiously. The spirits had the tables turned on them and collapsed.

It was a difficult act. In order not to bump against the actors of the spirits, Minato danced on the stage as if gliding around, finally defeating the last spirit.

A cheer rose from the audience. The applause grew louder as Minato struck a daunting pose.

"He did it…!"

It happened just as Arisu also clapped her hands.

The morpho butterfly alighting on her shoulders emitted a silver glow. Spreading its wings and taking flight, it started flying above her head as if in warning.

Noticing the silver light illuminating the seats, the spectators started clamoring.

"…? What happened?"

The wind fanned the flustered Arisu's hair. Open air blew from outside the windows, and the bonfires were knocked off one after another. Oil spilled on the wooden floor, setting it ablaze. The actors froze in place and the audience was confused.

Arisu suddenly felt a chill. She felt as if the temperature had suddenly taken a sharp dive.

A small whirlwind appeared on the stage.

Although Minato was supposed to have defeated all the spirits, a blurry, shining figure appeared in front of him.

"—Get back."

When had he woken up? Daisuke touched Arisu's shoulders and glared at the stage with sharp eyes. He was no longer the gentle honors student he usually was nor the dishonest person he was when dealing with Arisu; he was the strongest Mushitsuki member of the SEPB when he drew his automatic pistol.

"Arisu… you said you've asked that boy on the stage about his dream."

A violet glow passed over the flood of people rushing to the exit due to the fire. Riding the wind blowing in from the windows, purple-colored grains converged on the stage.

They were phosphorescent scales. Different from those of the silver morpho butterfly, these scales that were beautiful yet sinister—

"It seems like his dream invited the worst person to come here."

Beads of sweat appeared on Daisuke's forehead as he held the gun. This was Arisu's first time seeing him so tense.

Among the escaping spectators and actors, only one stayed frozen in place, Minato.

The purple scales were gathering to the figure floating in front of him. As the scales converged that silhouette became clearer—eventually creating the form of a tall woman.

She was a beautiful, tall woman with round sunglasses. She wore a crimson long coat and had narrow rainbow-colored pupils. Her body was enveloped in a pale glow.

"…!"

Arisu felt an instinctive fear and froze.

The woman's red lips moved sleekly.

"—Seems like you have a delicious dream?"

And while Daisuke glared at her, readying his gun...

The thing that took a woman's form with purple glowing scales smiled.

"Will you tell me what you dream is?"

White fingers crawled on Minato's chin. The name of the being that licked its lips was—

"One of the Original Three, Oogui…!"

Daisuke's stifled voice echoed on the kagura stage with the storm of flames and scales.

Part 3

Badump—

Arisu's heart pounded in her chest.

"Oogui…?"

She unconsciously repeated the words that Daisuke mouthed.

"The Original Three…?"

The Prototype Mushi that gave birth to Mushitsuki, the Original Three—so Daisuke called the woman that faced Minato on top of the stage.

—What are Mushi?

—What are Mushitsuki?

Arisu had fought so far in search for answers. After inheriting Mari's Mushi, she had met and parted with many Mushitsuki.

And now right in front of her was a being who should know the answer. The reason for Mushitsuki to fight so desperately was smiling calmly.

"Is she also the one who made Mari into a Mushitsuki…?"

"No, the one who turned people like me or Mari into Mushitsuki is a different one called Sanbikime. Until now Sanbikime produced only a handful of Mushitsuki, but she—"

Daisuke nimbly took out his SEPB coat from the bag, wearing it. Equipping mechanical goggles to his face, he readied his handgun again.

"She keeps birthing Mushitsuki endlessly. She keeps single-mindedly eating people's dreams. That's why she's Oogui, a glutton."

His tone was cool, but she knew Daisuke was suppressing his anger.

"Don't do anything. —I'll defeat Oogui."

She was continuously birthing Mushitsuki.

Mushitsuki who would be scared of their Mushi completely devouring their dreams every day, fighting each other, collapsing—and Oogui produced them one after another.

And now, right in front of Arisu's eyes, she was trying to produce another, new Mushitsuki—

"…Oogui!"

Coming back to her senses, she shouted loudly. She picked up one of the bonfires' pedestals that fell to her feet.

The silver morpho butterfly alighted down. Its body morphed, and while emitting silver scales it fused with the vessel, turning into a spear.

The sound of a mask falling to the floor echoed. Removing her eyes from Minato who stood completely expressionless as if entranced, Oogui turned her face away.

"—What a coincidence, how are you doing, Daisuke-chan? And the small one near you… has brought quite the nostalgic Mushi along, hasn't she?"

The woman narrowed her rainbow-colored eyes behind the round sunglasses. Daisuke bent over, assuming a battle stance.

Yet Arisu strained her voice to stop him from leaping out.

"What are Mushi?"

She turned the spear in her hands toward Oogui.

"And what are Mushitsuki? Why do they have to—"

Keep fighting like this?

—She tried inquiring this, yet her chest was so full of emotions she couldn't speak properly. Including her best friend Mari, Daisuke and the other Mushitsuki fought each other, hurt each other and collapsed. Just thinking about their fate made her want to cry.

Yet Arisu bit her lips and preserved her self-control.

"Why do you give birth to Mushitsuki?"

She glared at Oogui with teary eyes.

"Answer me, Oogui!"

Having the tip of a spear directed at her, the woman curled her lips in enjoyment.

"—Because there is such a delicious dream right here."

Oogui brought Minato's face closer with her fingers as if sniffing a rich wine. She cast a sidelong glance full of enjoyment at Arisu.

"Do I need any other reason for devouring dreams, hmm?"

Arisu widened her eyes.

—If I was gone, would you be sad?

Mari's transparent smile rose to her mind.

What are Mushi? What are Mushitsuki? Although she had yet to find out the answer, all of the Mushitsuki Arisu had met so far have fought with something.

Hanashiro Mari should've also been fighting. With the disease gnawing at her—and with the Mushi eating her dream.

If she weren't a Mushitsuki, perhaps she would've still been alive. Perhaps she would've been able to go on the school trip along with Arisu and laugh together with her.

The reason for the monster called Oogui to take people embracing their dreams and turn them into Mushitsuki—was asserted by a single word.

It was mere "appetite."

"For such—a reason—"

It was so infuriating and intolerable that she couldn't speak properly.

Was there anything as unreasonable as continually creating Mushi for nothing other than hunger?

Her clenched molars creaked. Her vision blurred due to tears.

"I won't forgive you…"

As if responding to Arisu's fury, the silver spear she was grasping shone.

—The Original Three.

If Arisu was unable to defeat this being right now, she would keep on birthing Mushitsuki—

"I won't forgive you!"

Arisu shouted, running toward Oogui.

"…! Wait, Arisu!"

Ignoring Daisuke's voice, Arisu kicked aside the audience seats and got up onto the stage. She pushed aside Minato who stood frozen, leaping toward Oogui's chest.

Arisu's eyes blazing with hatred crossed gazes with Oogui's rainbow eyes.

"—Disturbing my meal like that, aren't you a naughty girl?"

Immediately after Arisu's spear sliced Oogui, a high-pitched ear-grating noise pressured her eardrums.

Air expanded and her vision distorted.

"Perhaps you need to be punished."

A shockwave with overwhelming destructive power blew apart the kagura stage.

Unable to do anything, Arisu was blown away along with the audience seats. She was pounded into the floor, broke chairs, bounded around several times like a helpless doll and crashed with her back against a pillar.

"…Kha…!"

The bones of her entire body creaked with an unpleasant noise. Blood was dripping from her forehead as she kneeled on the floor.

All of the spectators and actors had already escaped the blazing stage. The only ones remaining were Arisu and Daisuke, as well as Minato and Oogui.

"Stupid Arisu…! This isn't someone you could fight against directly!"

As Daisuke tried rushing toward Arisu, Oogui directed her rainbow-colored eyes at him.

"Fufu—so another nostalgic child was here, huh?"

"…!"

Another boy leapt out in front of Daisuke.

He wore a business suit and glasses. —He was the mysterious boy that had snorted at Arisu on the Shinkansen. Was he simply hiding somewhere until now?

"What's up with you! Move!"

As Daisuke charged toward him, the boy merely brought out a hand of his pocket. Immediately after Daisuke's arm had been grabbed as he was trying to shake off the other boy, he could feel his body rotating 180 degrees in air. Even Arisu, who underwent martial arts training, couldn't tell what the boy had done.

"Ugh—"

Daisuke also seemed confused as to why he was pounded against the floor. Unable to even assume a safe falling position, he was lying wide-eyed on the floor.

"Your training is lacking, Kakkou."

The first words to come out of the boy's mouth sounded grown up in contrast to his appearance. Shaking his braided hair, he passed his gaze from Daisuke to Arisu.

"Since I was finally released from the business trip, I came here to try and see Sanbikime's Spear-Type or whatever with my own eyes, but—"

"Gha…!"

The bespectacled boy's flowing movements turned the joints of Daisuke's arms to their limits.

"—This was a good opportunity. I will probe Spear-Type's performance. Kakkou, you stay quietly here."

"Fufu…"

Glancing at the battle of Daisuke and the unknown boy, Oogui turned around again to Minato squatting on the stage. He still stood frozen and she approached him.

Forgetting about her pain, Arisu rose up. Grasping the spear that never left her hand, she rushed ahead.

"I won't let you turn him into a Mushitsuki…!"

She had no idea who that bespectacled boy was, but right now the fact that Oogui was trying to turn Minato into a Mushitsuki robbed Arisu's reason.

She would definitely not let a Mushitsuki be born in front of her eyes.

She would never let someone like her late friend Hanashiro Mari be created—

"Run, Arisu…!"

"—Didn't I tell you not to disturb me, little one?"

Without even looking at her, Oogui raised one of her hands. The purple scales blowing around assembled, bringing birth to a strangely-shaped Mushi.

It was a large centipede with two heads. More than half of its split body was made of jaws sporting sharp fangs.

The double-headed centipede assaulted Arisu.

"Ukh…!"

Stopping the monster's jaw with her spear took her everything she had. Since she had no chance of resisting with her arm strength, she collapsed onto the ground.

One of the monster's heads sealed her spear, while the other attempted chomping her.

Since Arisu couldn't move her body she had no way of evading the incoming fangs.

The fear of death assaulted her.

Mari—

She suddenly thought of her late friend's face.

I might not be able to see the continuation of your dream—just as she thought this, Arisu could feel something other than herself pulse inside her.

—Ba dump.

The switch has been made.

So she thought.

It's fine, Arisu. We have yet to lose—

She sneered inside her heart.

"—So this isn't enough."

Hanashiro Mari wore a smile. A calm voice leaked from her mouth.

The spear she was holding in her right hand emitted a silver glow. The tentacles bursting from the spear stabbed her right arm. The morpho butterfly's body permeated Mari's skin, encroaching all the way to her elbows and fusing with her.

"If my opponent is this mere small fry… this should be enough."

The spear that she grasped in the right arm fused with the morpho butterfly spouted silver scales. The centipede biting into the spear raised a cry, detaching its mouth. Immediately leaping aside, Mari dodged the other head.

"You—"

"Hmph."

Daisuke's expression became that of surprise and the bespectacled boy snorted disinterestedly.

Mari brandished the spear above her head.

Fwish, along the sound of cutting through air, she drew silver arcs of light in the gloomy stage. She aimed the spear directly at the centipede.

Gazing to the side, she exchanged glances with the bespectacled boy.

The morpho butterfly merged with the spear told her of the boy's identity.

"So you remember me? Seems like you have memories from before your death."

"…"

"But reminiscing isn't a good idea right now, Hanashiro Mari's ghost."

The bespectacled boy said coolly, gesturing at the centipede with his cheek. The double-headed monster was again attempting to attack Mari.

She slightly winced, moving her gaze from the boy to the centipede.

"Hah!"

She thrust her spear forward with a spirited yell.

The pattern etched to her right arm glowed and a tempest of scales gushed out from the spear. Shaving the floor and destroying the ceiling, the silver scales swallowed the double-headed centipede.

By the time she had annihilated the centipede and opened up large holes in the walls as well, Mari had started dashing toward Oogui. The woman tried assaulting her with the shockwave that drove Arisu back, but it didn't work on Mari. A flash of the spear cut off the whirlpool of impact.

"Fufu…"

Leaping toward the sneering Oogui, she swung the spear's tip from directly above.

The spear fused with the morpho butterfly pierced Oogui's chest. The purple scales enveloping the woman repelled the silver scales.

"I'll annihilate you, Oogui!"

As Mari wore a brutal smile, her right arm increased in glow.

The torrent of energy unleashed from her spear opened large holes in the floor. Breaking through both Oogui's body and the wooden beams, Mari gathered her whole power in her right arm.

Starting from the highest floor of the five-storied pagoda, she pounded and destroyed the floors that appeared one after another. The glow emitted by Oogui and the morpho butterfly mixed, repulsed one another and broke through the surface and the night sky in a straight line.

Along with a thunderous roar, the now-exposed ground caved in.

Mari's spear destroyed Oogui's body, piercing all the way from the highest floor to the ground.

However—

"—So, Minato-kun?"

Oogui sneered with the spear still stuck in her. From inside the destroyed right half of her body, several hundreds of small insects crawled out. Gathering and taking the form of Oogui's missing portions, they melted into each other.

"…!"

Having restored her form in mere moments, Oogui smiled while standing on the ground. Her rainbow-colored eyes gazed over Mari's shoulder at the highest floor of the five-storied pagoda—at Fuyuki Minato who stood on the edge of the hole.

"Will you tell me your dream?"

Minato raised his face with a twitch. As if being controlled, he slowly opened his mouth.

"Kh…!"

Mari swung her spear horizontally. The morpho butterfly's scales blew, bisecting the ground. Oogui's body was also split to two from her waist, but once again the insects crawled out of her body, stitching it together.

"I—"

Taken aback, Mari looked at the ceiling. The boy far above her muttered.

"I… want to spread 'Mitsuhara' through the country one day… That's my dream…"

The moment when the boy answered Oogui's question—

A gale swallowed the pagoda. The storm of purple scales covered Fuyuki Minato and something shining in gold overflowed out of his body.

The golden light pierced through the holes, being sucked into Oogui's mouth.

Gulp—they could hear the sound of Oogui swallowing. Her crimson tongue licked her lips.

"Thank you for the meal. It was a delicious dream."

Next to the boy enveloped by the sinister colored scales a single Mushi was born. Minato's new Mushi landed atop the shoulder of its unconscious host.

Mari grimaced.

It happened—just as Minato became a Mushitsuki.

"Fufu, goodbye… sad Mushi-san."

Oogui sneered in enjoyment at Mari at her feet. She immediately readied her spear, yet before she could repeat her attack the woman's body was enveloped by scales and vanished.

I let her get away—

Mari clicked her tongue and looked up at the opened ceiling.

"Just like I thought… I have to defeat him first."

Part 4

Daisuke clicked his tongue and looked down the opened floor.

He was being restrained on the other side of the hole but had watched it all from beginning to end. —While being unable to do anything.

He had let Oogui turn Minato into a Mushitsuki and escape right under his nose.

It was a complete blunder. He let the chance to defeat one of the Original Three escape.

"The Spear-Type's Mushi… I couldn't readily believe that case, but it certainly seems to be real."

Above Daisuke groveling on the floor, the bespectacled boy smiled with contempt. He had watched the abnormal sight in front of him without his expression changing in the least.

I let Oogui get away because of this guy—

Daisuke moved his face, staring at the boy.

"—Move."

He used his free hand to grab the boy's suit. Since he tried reaching with his hand in an impossible position, the arm caught by the boy creaked.

The boy looked down at Daisuke, grinning. Daisuke had the feeling that he had seen that smile, that cold penetrating smile that looked as if the boy was a resident of another world and transcendent above everything, somewhere before.

"Nice look you got there. —You don't hesitate."

The sneering boy was sent flying off of Daisuke. Daisuke rotated his body and forcibly flung him. The arm that had been restrained by the boy creaked.

A green checkered beetle landed atop the rising Daisuke's shoulder. Its body started morphing and it extended tentacles to merge with Daisuke's body.

By the time the bespectacled boy had already fallen safely and stood up, Daisuke was closing the distance between them with his strengthened legs power. His fist covered by a green pattern stabbed into the boy's side.

"Mgh…!"

The suited boy was blown away, crashing into a destroyed pillar. The splinters ripped his chest.

Daisuke turned around toward the hole, jumping into air without any hesitation. Although Minato on the other side had been turned into a Mushitsuki, he was merely stunned right now. More important was to prioritize Arisu's safety.

He jumped down to the ground in a single leap and landed.

When he raised his face, a spear emitting silver light was pointed at his nose.

"Good evening, Kusuriya Daisuke-san…"

Arisu looked down at Daisuke, wearing a distorted smile.

He confirmed it with a glance; Arisu would have never worn a smile like that.

"So… you're Hanashiro Mari, then."

"Yes."

"—What on earth are you?"

Catching the silver spear, Daisuke faced Mari. She slightly tilted her head.

"I'm a Fusion Type Mushitsuki just like you. You and I are very much alike…"

"Don't screw with me."

Daisuke raised his handgun. The silver spear and the pistol fused with a checkered beetle—their two weapons crossed as they aimed for each other's heads.

"You should no longer be in this world. So who on earth are you?"

"I am Hanashiro Mari. I wanted to see the continuation of my dream…"

"Are you saying that you're possessing the one who was your friend so you could one day take over Arisu?"

Hearing his words, Mari changed her expression for the first time. She sadly bit her lips.

"No… I just want to be with… But there's also another feeling inside me…"

"…?"

"Save me, Kusuriya Daisuke-kun…"

Daisuke widened his eyes.

Clear drops started spilling from Arisu's eyes borrowed by Mari. The spear held in her pattern-filled hand fell to the ground.

"I just wanted to be together with Arisu… but other feelings get in the way. So—please protect Arisu from me… Before I hurt Arisu any further, the Original Three must be…"

Mari approached Daisuke, leaning her body against him. She put her head on his chest, her shoulders shaking. With his gun still ready, he could do nothing but stand in astonishment.

"—She's unstable, huh. A dangerous condition."

The suited boy appeared near the two Fusion Type Mushitsuki. He seemed to have come down using the stairs.

Seeing the boy's figure, Daisuke was speechless.

Countless small insects came crawling out of where he had been hurt. Converging on his wounds, they changed their form and restored the missing parts. That scene was the one they had just seen before—the exact same as Oogui's regeneration.

"Before I break Arisu you have to defeat that man—the Undying Mushitsuki, and Oogui…"

Immediately after muttering this weakly, Mari lost her strength. Daisuke immediately grabbed hold of her as she collapsed. Completely changed from how she was while fighting Oogui, the tear-stained girl seemed weak and transient.

"The Undying Mushitsuki… you say?"

As Daisuke gazed ahead, the suit-wearing boy smiled.

Daisuke recalled who that smile resembled.

It was similar to the Secretary of the Special Environmental Preservation Bureau, Miguruma Yaeko—the woman who possessed a chaining smile.

"By my authority as the Director of the Special Environmental Preservation Bureau, Ichiku Mikitaka, I now confirm that Ichinokuro Arisu—"

The boy declared with a mature tone unbefitting his appearance.

"—Is officially recognized as a Mushitsuki."

Part 5

On the rooftop of the hotel they were lodging in, Arisu looked at Daisuke.

Seating down and leaning on the fences, he gazed up the night sky.

"Just where I wondered where you'd gone to… it'll be roll-call soon, so you have to come back to your room, Daisuke."

Even when Arisu called him Daisuke made no movement. Sighing, she sat down next to him and also looked up at the foreign sky. The stars she could see from there were even prettier than those of Akamaki City.

Wearing jerseys instead of their school uniform, the two sat shoulder-to shoulder in silence.

—After losing consciousness at the five-storied pagoda, Arisu had woken up on Daisuke's back.

She had fought some giant centipede, but had no memories afterward. According to Daisuke, once she had fainted after being assaulted by the centipede, Oogui had made Fuyuki Minato into a Mushitsuki, and then disappeared. He also said that the boy with glasses who had defeated him easily was someone related to the Special Environmental Preservation Bureau.

"Say, now that Minato-kun's turned into a Mushitsuki… what'll happen to him?"

Arisu inquired, hugging her folded knees.

In the end she was unable to save Minato.

That fact vexed her more than anything, and she felt pitiful at being unable to do anything.

"He was secured by the SEPB. From now on the local branch will handle him."

"I see…"

"I was also unable to defeat Oogui. From now on it's the problem of the Mushitsuki himself. Even if you worry you can't do anything about it."

Daisuke spoke in monotone. Looking at the night sky, he seemed to be deep in thought.

There was no way for her to just be told "don't mind it" and stop caring. But in actuality it would probably turn out like that. Just as all Mushitsuki that Arisu had seen so far, like Mari or Daisuke, Minato would also be fighting with his Mushi.

"…All of us in the SEPB will settle this. You should just live normally like you always did."

Probably worried about the dispirited Arisu, Daisuke's voice sounded somewhat kind.

"I also told you this this morning… but when you act kind it's reaaally creepy…"

"That's none of your business."

As he looked up at the sky, Daisuke's face returned being sullen like always. But for some reason, he wouldn't look Arisu in the eyes.

"Aren't you hiding something, Daisuke?"

"…I'm not."

"What is it now. A naughty slave that hides stuff from his mistress needs to be punished. I'll leave you with Ena and—"

"Give Saionji-san a break already."

Saying this wholeheartedly, Daisuke dropped his gaze. Just as Arisu thought he sent a glance at her face, he said something completely different.

"Say, what kind of person was Hanashiro Mari?"

Arisu tilted her head. Just as she wondered what was going with him all of a sudden, she never thought he would inquire her about Mari.

"Why so suddenly? Didn't I explain it to you countless times already? You said it's required for your investigation."

"Isn't that fine. I just wanted to ask again."

"…Hmph."

As she sent doubtful eyes at him, Daisuke ashamedly averted his eyes.

She had no idea what he thought about that made him ask about Mari again. Yet Arisu smiled and closed her eyes.

Reminiscing about Mari on the school trip's night wasn't bad. Even her friend surely wanted to participate in the school events along with her.

She could still clearly recall Mari—

"She was very kind. Yet she was a late bloomer in certain areas, and the first time I came to visit her in the hospital, we couldn't really speak normally—"

While feeling the morpho butterfly land on her shoulder, Arisu started speaking.

Episode 12. The Doll Playing the Melody of Dreams

In the center of a gloomy double room, Ichinokuro Arisu's face rose up in a daze.

"…T-the Ghost of the Creaking Mansion?"

An aromatic candle's flame flickered between the two beds lined up.

As the wax melted, the room was filled with a citrusy scent.

"Yes."

On the other side of the candle, her classmate Kujou Takako wore an elegant smile. Yet since she was illuminated by the candle, her carefree smile actually looked eerie.

"When you approach the supposedly empty mansion… creak, creak, you hear this as if there someone's footsteps. And when you think it strange and approach the mansion even more to look inside the broken window—"

"I-inside the broken window…?"

Her head peeking from underneath the blanket on the same bed as Takako, Saionji Ena asked fearfully. Even she who was normally carefree seemed to have a weak point.

"A blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl… stares at you."

"…"

Arisu groped around the bed with both hands expressionlessly.

Kusuriya Daisuke who was lying on the same bed searched for her objective, passing over the blanket. Following Ena, Arisu also covered herself in the blanket with only her face peeking. Daisuke sighed.

The faces of Arisu and Ena who merged with their blankets, Takako who was grinning for some reason, and Daisuke who made a complicated expression all met. They all faced each other in the center of the room. The three girls were in pajamas, and only the single boy was dressed in his school uniform.

It was the second night of Horusu Seijou Academy Middle School's school trip.

The lodgings in the hotel assigned one double room for two students of the same class.

Originally boys and girls would be on different floors of the hotel, but the trio used their teamwork to avoid the patrolling teachers' attention and stealthily sneak the unwilling Daisuke into their room. Incidentally, he was yet to find out that they gave no thought at all about the way back.

"I-I thought you were also weak against stories like that, Takako… you traitor."

As Arisu protested with teary eyes, Takako retorted with a sadistic smile.

"But I am weak against this? Fufufu…"

"She's scary because she can lie with a smile like this. …Could we at least switch? I feel like I could still stand it if I was next to Kusuriya-kun!"

Ena sought salvation in Daisuke on the other bed. The boy in question twitched with an exaggerated response, clearly averting his eyes. He was apparently better with ghosts than he was with Ena.

At first they talked about love or rumors in the school and such things, but it ended up becoming ghost stories. Arisu played along and even prepared the candle, but she quickly regretted it.

"I-I can't deny that it does seem like you overdid it. Shouldn't we stop with these kinds of stories already?"

"Ah! I forgot that I got a single room because of our number! Hey, Arisu, lend me Kusuriya-kun for the night! Really! I'm not joking!"

"No no no! If you're serious it's really bad, Saionji-san!"

Takako looked over the three as they fell into panic. They wanted to believe that her smile seemed so sadistic only because of the candlelight.

"By the way, this story just now was one I'd heard from an acquaintance in Ouka City, so it's a true story. It is scary?"

"You can tell by looking! Stop showing us these dark sides of yours, Takako!"

Finally hiding everything but her eyes with the blanket, Arisu suddenly recalled.

She gazed at Daisuke who was near her face.

"…What?"

Daisuke made a glum face and replied so that Ena and Takako wouldn't hear. In front of people other than Arisu he had to act the part of a "harmless honor student".

She could spot a silver glow outside the window visible over Daisuke's shoulder.

Dancing in the unfamiliar night sky was a morpho butterfly with four antennas.

—Mushi.

These were mysterious beings that possessed boys and girls, feeding on their hopes and dreams and granted them supernatural powers in return. These so-called Mushi were officially denied. But since rumors spread around, the people possessed by Mushi, Mushitsuki, became the target of the populace's hatred and fear.

Kusuriya Daisuke was a government agent dispatched to investigate the Mushi that Arisu had inherited from her late friend, the silver morpho butterfly. The organization he belonged to, called the Special Environmental Preservation Bureau, had the duty to conceal everything related to Mushitsuki.

"Thinking of it, haven't you come from Ouka City too, Daisuke?"

As Arisu said this, Ena and Takako also turned to look at him.

Daisuke made a bitter expression.

He had originally belonged to the branch of the Special Environmental Preservation Bureau—in short SEPB—that had Ouka City under its jurisdiction. He had met up with Arisu in order to help the Headquarters, and so he ended up living under the same roof as her under the pretense of monitoring her.

"Do you possibly also know about that so-called Creaking Mansion?"

"I do."

Arisu and Ena hurriedly got away from Daisuke.

"Well, if so, then perhaps you know it even better, Daisuke-san. Will you not tell us in more details? I also heard the rumor that the mansion was destroyed one night, though."

"I-if we're bullying Kusuriya-kun, maybe I can bear it a little…!"

"Y-you can't rush it, Ena! No wait, please return to the proper path!"

"From what I've heard the ghost girl was forcefully brought back from France, the poor thing…"

"We don't want to know, Takako!"

"It wasn't France. She said that she's from Germany."

Finally speaking up, Daisuke muttered as if recalling it.

The girls' expression stiffened. Arisu and the rest took distance from Daisuke little by little.

"She said…? W-what? Does that mean the ghost was your friend?"

"The mysterious Daisuke is so cool… I think…?"

"Ena-san… I'm not Arisu-san, but please recover your sanity…"

As the three scared girls' gazes focused on him, Daisuke reluctantly started speaking.

"Well—"

But suddenly, loud music reverberated in the room.

"KYAAA!!!"

Arisu and Ena were frightened and clung to Takako.

The origin of the sound was Daisuke's cellphone. He had apparently received mail. Pulling his phone out of his pocket and checking the LCD screen, his eyes narrowed.

"…?"

Arisu felt something was strange. It was rare for Daisuke to make such a harsh expression in front of Ena and Takako.

"I'm sorry. I have something urgent to take care of, so I'm going back to my room."

He sprang off the bed before he finished speaking, heading for the door.

"Eh? W-wait a minute, Daisuke."

"The Creaking Mansion's no longer there, but… it doesn't mean that the blue-eyed ghost is gone."

Daisuke stopped his feet, turning back to Arisu and the rest. The three girls were frozen.

"Do you want to know where the ghost went after losing its residence?"

"…"

"Well, even if you don't want to know, you might end up meeting her. …As long as you live in Akamaki City."

Leaving these meaningful words behind with a grin, Daisuke closed the door and left.

Left behind, Arisu and the rest gazed at each other's faces—

"…!"

And a voiceless scream echoed through the hotel room.

Part 1

The hard feeling on her shoulder and her throat gave her just the proper amount of tension.

The scent of turpentine tickling her nose allowed her gaze to focus from her surroundings to her hands.

The vibration of the bowstring she held with her left hand fingers led her to the next scale carved into her body.

The melody played by the bow held by her right hand enchanted the people enough to make them speechless.

"—"

Her father, who, being Japanese, was diligent and good-natured, once told her this.

What she needed the most to receive respect from people was a cultured education.

Her mother, who, being German, was overly serious and a perfectionist, once told her this.

What she needed the most to protect herself was being more excellent than anyone.

"—"

Anneliese Mitake, playing her violin in the center of the spacious hall, was brought up as the lone daughter of these two people.

She inherited her blonde hair and blue eyes from her mother's bloodline. Her red one-piece dress exposed her thin shoulders. She thought that the gloves reaching all the way to her elbows would disturb her playing, but since her parents praised her that it looked good on her she decided to wear it obediently.

Not only Anneliese was in formal wear.

The audience, made of men and women of all ages clad in dresses or tuxedos, lent their ears to Anneliese's performance.

Mozart's Violin Concerto no.3—this was the music that the 13-year old Anneliese was the best at.

Anneliese was offering her music to the old Japanese lady sitting in front of her. The woman wore the distinctive Japanese cloth known as a kimono, and she was from her father's side. She was called Mitake-Ou—or in Japanese, Lady Mitake. It was said that she had entered the high society of Japan and Germany ever since the time she was a diplomat, and that even now she held immense influence.

Wearing a gentle smile, Lady Mitake continued watching Anneliese's performance.

"—"

Anneliese hated that old woman.

Every time Lady Mitake came for a visit, Anneliese's home would be thrown into a commotion. Her father would be pressed by arranging seats to an opera and organizing a feast, and her mother would put even more effort into her violin lessons.

She simply loathed the cunning gaze that could be seen from within the old woman's wrinkled eyelids. She had never seen that woman get angry, but she had also never seen her eyes truly smiling.

Seeing people influential in the fields of politics and business trying to approach Lady Mitake made Anneliese sick. Behind the brilliant stage known as the world of politics everyone sabotaged each other, so in order to win the battles of political power they all inquired into the old lady's temper.

—Creak.

Even while playing the violin, Anneliese's sensitive ears picked up a creaking sound coming from the ceiling.

Creak, creak, the sound continued like someone's footsteps.

"—"

She could feel her sunken mood being lifted again. A smile rose to her mouth.

The real audience for Anneliese's violin was elusive.

How is my performance today? You spectersgespensters—

The hall where the feast took place was Anneliese's home. Her friends, the invisible audience, could be found anywhere inside the mansion.

Anneliese finished her performance perfectly, lowering her bow.

She hated Lady Mitake.

She hated the whirlpool of conspiracies in the political world.

However—

"Welcome to Munich. It is an honor to see you again, Frau Mitake."

She spoke nothing but elegant words.

She did nothing dirty.

If she said something wrong, if she did something wrong, Anneliese knew that her daily life would be over. She couldn't use curses or dirty looks on that woman.

Thank youDanke schön, young ladyfraulein.  I like youIch liebe dich."

Lady Mitake's mouth slackened, and she replied in fluent German.

By finishing the welcoming ritual, applause finally broke out from the audience. The audience started praising Anneliese and welcomed Lady Mitake even more.

Even her father exchanging hugs with her appeared relieved. He was probably relieved that Anneliese's performance was completed safely. Her failure would cause a big minus for the Mitake family since they preserved their position in the political sphere due to Lady Mitake's influence.

While high-class food was being set on the hall's table, Lady Mitake was still showing a gentle smile and seemed to be in good humor, her line of sight met with Anneliese's.

Father, Mother, I have no intention of doubting your teachings. However—

Even while she and the old lady smiled at each other, inside she was full of hatred. At such times Lady Mitake's eyes weren't smiling at all.

I have the feeling that this old lady hides something terrible other than education—

Anneliese, who was unable to make any friends due to always refining her education and art, could feel the seeds of doubt sown inside her.

But perhaps these were—the whispers of the the specters whose footsteps were still heard from upstairs.

Part 2

On her day off, Anneliese liked visiting the place of the violin craftsman.

While the violin she had received from her parents couldn't be compared with famous labels such as Stradivarius or Guarneri, it was still of a high quality. It became her habit to go once a week to the craftsman to check its condition and so.

It was road she'd taken along with her mother or father until last year, but stepping on the stone paving by her lonesome wasn't bad at all either. As she walked while hearing her leather shoes squeaking, she held her head high.

The townscape of Munich still had the vestiges of the kingdom of Bavaria. Even the street that now had many open air cafés on it still had buildings made of stone heated by the sun here and there. Youths wearing casual clothes blended in this culture that honored the tradition of the capital of art and music.

Finally a new government building that looked like a palace appeared in front of her.

In front of the government building was the Marienplatz. This plaza, the center of Munich, was crowded with people who looked like foreigners that came for sightseeing or shopping.

"Whew…"

She stopped her legs, taking a small break.

Since Anneliese had her time stuffed full with her violin lessons and private tutor lessons, she had less stamina than boys and girls of her age. While they were running around, the only thing she was chasing were the notes lined up on the musical sheets.

As Anneliese held her violin case in both hands, drooped her shoulders and took a breath, several adults turned to look at her. Due to the appearance of her meticulously combed blonde hair, silk blouse, and high-quality violin case, everyone probably knew at a glance she was the local young lady. Even an oriental group of people probably on a sightseeing tour looked at her in interest.

Noticing the gazes, Anneliese's expression stiffened and she resumed walking. The daughter of the Mitake family couldn't expose herself to a shameful audience.

As she tried leaving the plaza, she saw several boys she was familiar with. They went to the same school as her.

Not doing anything in particular on their day off, they simply gathered at the edge of the plaza and saw off the people passing by while grinning. People like them who had wealthy parents usually start doing drugs and ruin their families.

Spending the day in idleness without refining their education was depraved. The smart Anneliese knew of the ugliness brought forth by laziness and hedonism.

"It's Anne!"

She attempted passing by them feigning ignorance but she was noticed. She attempted passing through the plaza without even returning their gaze.

The boys started poking fun at her with words like, "The dollpuppe's walking!" or "So the caged bird went outside?" but she ignored them. These were both Anneliese's nicknames.

"Hello, Anne. Do you not have a lesson today?"

One of the boys came after Anne. With his brown hair and neat facial features, he was popular even among his female classmates. His name was Erik. He was also smart, and served as the leader of the group that was up to no good.

Immediately the boys started jeering at him with words like "Aren't you bringing her a rose today, Erik?" He turned around, raised his middle finger and also his voice.

"AsseholesArschloch!"

Still walking, Anneliese grimaced. It was a dirty slang word. Even the adults around all looked at Erik while furrowing their brows.

Catching up to Anneliese in a trot, Erik walked next to her.

"Don't mind it. The guys are just curious about you is all. Christo suddenly starts talking when it's about you. He probably likes you."

"Can you please not speak to me? I'll be embarrassed if people think we are friends."

Asserting this coldly, Anneliese quickened her pace. But since Erik's steps were larger, he caught up to her easily.

"We're going to see the Liga now. Won't you come along? You like Bavaria, right?"

"So you started lying instead of bringing me roses? If you have a ticket for a soccer match I'd like you to show it to me."

"We're going to get it now. 'If I had the wings known as you, I could go over any wall!'"

"The opera writers would pity you if you use famous quotes to pick up girls."

"How can I make you stop? 'Beautiful moment, do not pass away'!"

"Mephistopheles will destroy you."

The name Mephistopheles referred to the demon from the work of the German author known as Goethe. There he bound a contract with the old scholar Faust. Mephistopheles helped Faust regain his youth. Unable to obtain his ideal world, in the end Erik would be destroyed by the curse of destruction he had uttered—

Yet even while retorting back and ignoring him, Anneliese sighed in her heart. If he could cite operas and knew about Goethe's works—if he possessed that much education—then he should have applied it differently.

Education and depravation—perhaps Erik, who possessed these contradictory attributes at the same time, looked free from other people's view. Yet since Anneliese hated depravation, she was far from willing to accept him.

"So cold. Then at least smile. Don't you think we should both spend our day off in happiness? We have to thank God for giving us this day."

Erik said with Peter's Church at his back. He thought what he was saying was reasonable.

"Yeah, today's warm so it seems like I'd be able to play well on the violin. So much that speaking seems like a waste."

Grinning sociably, Erik blushed and went silent. "Have a good day," she parted with him, making him stop in place, raise his index finger and middle finger and shake them.

For Anneliese, who still had no interest in love, having boys of her age interfere with her business was bothersome. Her true will was to not have them approach her more than necessary.

Yet she didn't speak it out loud.

If Anneliese mouthed this rejection, her relationship with her classmates would worsen. If any troubles in her school life were to arise and her parents found out about them, it would make them sad.

She couldn't accept Erik's affection.

And so she couldn't speak her true feelings.

It was all in order to protect her happy current life and her important parents and home.

"—Is something wrong?"

The middle-aged violin maker called out to Anneliese as she was looking at the violin strings lined up in the shop. The old man, with his scrawny cheeks and white beard, looked more like a clergyman.

"What? Is it broken anywhere?"

"I'm talking about you, miss. Your expression's a bit dark. Made a mistake during your performance?"

The man asked while putting Anneliese's violin on his shoulder and checking the sounds.

"…I just don't really feel like going back home."

"Oh, how rare. Have you had a fight with your parents? Or have you seen a ghost?"

"All of the ghosts are good kids."

As Anneliese immediately replied, the old man leaked a mumbled laughter. He probably thought it was a joke.

"It's just that my house right now has someone much more unpleasant than ghosts…"

Starting from the dinner party the previous night, Lady Mitake would be staying in the Mitake household for several days. All of the family was expected to entertain this powerful old lady against their will.

The craftsman in front of her was someone unrelated to the political world or to school. She was allowed to voice some of her true opinion there.

"It's because you're clever. You can see what people are trying to hide sometimes."

"…I don't need cleverness."

Her parents said that education was important.

Yet her cleverness tried whispering to her about things other than education.

Anneliese wanted only the pure education that would let her avoid seeing anything dirty and avoid voicing her true feelings.

"There are enough novels and operas about clever people meeting sad ends. I pray for you to become happy."

Putting the violin back in its case, the old man handed it to Anneliese. His words of blessing have always cheered up Anneliese ever since she was young.

She said her thanks and left the shop.

Coming back on the road she came from, she returned home.

As she passed the gate and entered the mansion, the inside of the house was again silent. There were no signs of either her parents or any servants; they were probably accompanying Lady Mitake on her excursion. She climbed the stairs from the lobby and headed to her room.

On the way there, she changed her mind and went toward the hall.

After walking through the corridor, she saw the door to the hall was open. Entering it, she found the room with vast space that was several times the size of all other rooms completely empty. There were no traces of the dinner party from last night.

Standing in the center of the hall, she could hear creaking sounds from the ceiling.

Anneliese narrowed her eyes. The specters appeared to be welcoming her back. And so she had to answer their expectations.

"Do you have any request, specters?"

Anneliese asked the friends that stayed with her ever since she could remember herself.

Creak, the sound sounded again.

Anneliese smiled and took her violin out of the case. She placed it on her shoulder.

Rather than her parents that swung through all emotions during her performance, or the adults of high society that applauded her mechanically no matter how she performed, only they alone listened to her melody without saying anything.

Anneliese started her performance in the mansion that was empty except for her.

Although it was empty, the ceiling kept creaking along with the performance.

—These are called Shibanmushi.

Anneliese's father had once told her young self about the identity of the specters.

He said that the name of "Shibanmushi" came from Japan. In Europe they were also called deathwatch beetles—as if they were clocks counting down to death. They appeared to have the habit of hiding in houses, eating books and documents. In the past people heard them creaking in abandoned mansions, and so feared them as the guards of death.

They were rare insects, but apparently her father's hometown had them as well. He also said that perhaps they had hidden inside the books and documents that he brought with him from Japan.

Anneliese once searched around the mansion in order to find them. But in the end she was unable to do so and merely got scolded by her mother for dirtying her clothes.

Ever since then, Anneliese decided to accept them as ghosts. As long as she couldn't see them, she couldn't tell whether they really were insects or not. Perhaps they were real specters. For her, these formless footsteps were something she couldn't touch, just like mist.

"—"

While Anneliese played the violin a natural smile rose to her mouth.

She felt like she could give her very best performance. Forgetting about all her unpleasant problems, the girl focused on playing.

She finished the first-rate performance that was incomparable to how it was last night.

It happened just as she raised her face to the ceiling in order to inquire the opinion of the specters before letting the music linger off.

"Bravo."

She could hear applause from the hall's entrance.

She turned around in surprise to see Lady Mitake clapping her hands with servants at her side.

"…Thank you very much."

How long had she been there? Anneliese's mood was destroyed since the performance was meant for the guests of honors which were the specters, but she pinched her skirt and bowed at Lady Mitake.

Yet as she heard a large amount of footsteps coming from behind her, she raised her face.

They weren't the specters' footsteps. They were rude and wild. Feeling an unusual presence, Anneliese leapt into the hall.

"…!"

She could see the first floor lobby from the corridor filled with a crowd of adults. Some wore casual clothes, but most of them wore uniforms.

They were police officers.

"Poor Anneliese."

Lady Mitake's restrained voice caused Anneliese to turn back.

The kimono-clad old woman spoke sadly.

"Your parents have been arrested by the authorities just a while ago. They are charged with selling classified information from their workplace to other countries… They will surely be arrested."

Lady Mitake hid her mouth with the sleeve of her kimono and approached Anneliese.

"…? …?"

Anneliese couldn't understand what the woman in front of her was saying at all. It was true that her father belonged to the army's Development Department and her mother worked part-time in the same agency. Yet her overly serious parents would never betray their country—

Looking down the stairs, the police officers began searching the mansion. The investigator broke into her father's study and called loudly. Holding out what looked like documents, he passed them to a plainclothesman. She could hear them speaking about things such as codes and transaction history.

"It is a pity about your parents, but you are innocent, Anneliese. You could probably no longer come back to this country, but do come over to mine. Until your parents atone for their crimes…"

Anneliese, still glued to the spot with her eyes open wide, couldn't even voice a groan.

Her diligent father.

Her education-crazy mother.

The mansion with the invisible roommates.

Everything important to Anneliese—that she had protected thus far and intended to keep protecting—was all vanishing like smoke.

Wondering whether it was only a dream, she gazed at the ceiling.

The specters, Anneliese's only real friends and audience, were silent. As if they had run out immediately due to the unfamiliar people storming the place.

Anneliese was unable to accept the vision in front of her, and was about to lose her sanity, but the one to bring her back to reality was the one she hated the most in the world.

"Come to Japan, Anneliese. We will become family from now on."

Lady Mitake was hiding her mouth with her sleeve.

Although the old woman seemed to pity the girl, only her eyes were—

"Starting from this moment, you will become Mitake Anneliese."

—Smiling for the first time.

Seeing the old woman's smile, Anneliese's brain told her the truth. She dragged her shaking feet away from Lady Mitake's extended hand.

"Was something not to your liking…?"

While barely standing thanks to grabbing the railing in the corridor, Anneliese threw a desperate question at the old woman.

"What on earth did you not like about mother and father, Lady Mitake…!"

The old woman stopped her legs. She tilted her head quizzically, but Anneliese had already seen through her acting.

"Both mother and father have been obedient to you! Every time you visited Munich they welcomed you, revered you, and devoted themselves for you! Then what does this treatment mean!"

"Are you confused due to everything that has happened? What on earth are you—"

"I know you! Someone like you would be able to protect my parents from the police even if they have committed a crime! But you didn't do that!"

Looking down her father's study, she then passed her gaze to the servants near Lady Mitake. The two servants that originally belonged to the Mitake household averted their eyes as if afraid of the girl's gaze.

"I've seen them enter the study this morning. You've used them to—"

"Be silent, Anneliese."

Lady Mitake said bluntly, wearing a gentle smile. Conversely, the smile behind her eyes vanished.

It was what Anneliese avoided seeing thus far.

She averted her eyes although she knew it.

Anneliese knew what it was.

"We mustn't have any misunderstandings now that we are about to become a family. We need to have respect for one another."

"…!"

"—Also, what you have said is untrue. There was one time your parents have disobeyed me."

The eyes under her wrinkled eyelids looked down on the powerless Anneliese.

"My smart and educated Anneliese… When I asked them to let me adopt you into the Mitake family, they have refused."

Then this time—

"Now, come and make preparations to leave for Japan, Anneliese."

The important things Anneliese protected were all smashed to pieces.

It wasn't that Lady Mitake didn't like her parents.

It was the opposite; it was because she liked Anneliese Mitake herself—

Her knees began trembling.

The education Anneliese poured herself into in order to keep her parents' teaching and thinking that it was needed to protect the Mitake family now took everything away from her.

Father, Mother… What was it that we really lacked…?

Lady Mitake reached her hand to Anneliese, using her fingertips to raise her chin.

Even while Anneliese was teary-eyed and about to succumb to despair, she reflexively gazed at the old woman.

She had lost what she was supposed to protect.

She noticed the dirtiness she had been averting her eyes from.

When she realized the truth, the words that she thought she would never say—after enduring for so long—were spat out of her mouth on their own.

"AsseholeArschloch."

A dry sound rang in the mansion. The police officers searching the house looked above.

Anneliese realized she had been slapped only because the violin she had been holding fell from her hands, slipped through the railings and fell down to the first floor.

Her precious violin that she tuned every single week without rest crashed on the floor and broke.

"Never use words unfitting for the daughter of the Mitake house again."

The old woman's voice could be said to be gentle, but Anneliese couldn't hear it due to the sobbing coming out of her mouth.

Her shoulders shaking, she stifled her voice and shed tears.

Creak—the specters above creaked only once.

This lament from her only friends in the world served as farewell.

—Thus Anneliese lost her hometown.

Part 3

Japan, Ouka City.

In this city that was still rapidly developing even in this age, Lady Mitake had a villa.

On the way from the airport to the mansion Anneliese looked at the townscape, but it didn't seem to possess even one element that she might come to like.

There were no stone paving that would make leather shoes squeak, nor old buildings with the smell of sunburnt bricks. Everything was brand new, and it was all clustered together as if stealing her very air.

Everything was greatly different from Munich, the capital of art and music. At least on the surface, Ouka City hadn't a shred of education in it.

And above all—there was not even one thing here that Anneliese needed to protect.

"…"

In the spacious room that had nothing in it but minimal furniture, sitting in an Italian-made chair, Anneliese was doing nothing except breathing.

Her white dress was of the highest quality, and if she looked outside the window the mansion was even more gorgeous than the one in Munich. The bed, the shelves, the table as well—although this was Japan there was nothing Japanese-made to be seen around. Did Lady Mitake hate Japan despite being pure Japanese?

In the room's corner lay the violin she had been given by Lady Mitake. Yet for the last days ever since coming to Japan Anneliese hadn't even touched it. No matter how fine of a product it was, it couldn't rival the one she had grown attached to, the one that had been given to her by those important to her.

She also didn't touch the food left on her desk. Anneliese simply spent her days in idleness and absentmindedness.

She became unexpectedly depraved.

Although once she hated it more than anything, now Anneliese enlisted to it.

…So I really wasn't even a doll or a bird in a cage, huh?

She spoke in her heart to her classmates, including Erik.

Because… what I am now—

What did Anneliese's classmates think about her vanishing one day like that? The Mitake family's scandal probably spread through all of Munich in no time. And even if her parents' innocence would be proven, they wouldn't be able to return to the brilliant business world. The Mitake family collapsed.

No, her family's honor didn't matter anymore.

She was worried about her parents' well-being.

How were they treated ever since being apprehended by the authorities? Were they not facing anything terrible? Were they not worried about Anneliese?

She was also anxious about what was going to happen with her from now on. It might have even been fear.

Ever since they arrived in Japan, Lady Mitake hadn't showed herself in front of Anneliese. Would the old woman have loved her as an adopted child if only she hadn't shown her smarts? Perhaps the childless Lady Mitake was raising Anneliese to become her successor. That was also horrifying, but since Anneliese had noticed the darkness in her heart, she was also scared about her treatment.

The heart of the thirteen years old Anneliese was being crushed by despair and fear.

The education her father had pounded into her in order to protect her was of no use at all. Rather it was the very reason for that sly old lady to have an eye on her. Lady Mitake took everything from her. Her parents and house, her hometown, and even her very freedom.

As she was denying all meals, even her body was withering away.

"…"

Anneliese's body inclined forward.

Even as she was about to reach her limits and lose her consciousness, her unneeded cleverness caused her to notice something.

Ah, I see—

Anneliese closed her eyes, a smile rising to her mouth. A smile like she never had before, mixed with hatred and rage.

She knew Lady Mitake's true, dark nature. Perhaps she would take revenge against her before long. She didn't think that old woman would show mercy against her enemy.

At this rate I'll be slowly killed—

It happened just as Anneliese felt as if the last thread of her life was about to snap off.

"…!"

She opened her blue eyes wide.

Although she was about to collapse, her body sprang up like a coil. Just like a sleepwalker, she paced around the room, looking around the ceiling and the closet.

She definitely heard it.

That sound.

That mist-like voice that protected her ever since she was young—

Creak—

"…!"

It wasn't an auditory hallucination. She didn't mistake that sound.

She could hear the sound from the ceiling. It made the ceiling creak as if by some invisible person's footsteps.

Deathwatch.

Shibanmushi.

The watchers of death that never showed themselves.

Her whole body started shaking.

"Uu… Uuuuh…"

With her face pale, a low groaning spilled from Anneliese's mouth.

The specters' footsteps called back her robbed memories.

Her important parents. Her important house. Her important hometown Munich and its scenery. And her precious violin—

"UuuUuuh!"

She started shouting and ruffling her hair.

"UAHHHHHH!!!"

For the first time ever since coming to Japan, her blue eyes shed tears.

—She wanted it back.

Everything.

All of it.

While Anneliese wished for this along with the whirlpool of emotions in her heart, she didn't notice the air around her decaying and covering her.

As she kept shouting, the vision around her distorted. Not because of her tears, but because part of Lady Mitake's mansion was sucked into another space.

The remaining rational part of Anneliese's mind recalled.

The sound of the Easter bells Faust had heard in Goethe's play.

Anneliese could definitely hear those now.

The filthy sounds of a bell echoed loudly.

—When she came to, Anneliese found herself in front of a small church.

It was an exceedingly simple place.

There was a single withered tree and a crumbling church. —That was all there was.

Dark clouds hanged over the sky, concealing the sun. Damaged stone steps sprouted from the bare ground, but they didn't feel like they were actually there. It was because there was no smell of ground or rocks.

Where on earth am I—

Looking around her absentmindedly, Anneliese felt as if it she wasn't really there.

The violent emotions that drove her crazy just moments ago vanished like a puff of smoke. Here she couldn't feel anger, hatred or fear.

She could only feel one emotion.

I don't know where I am, but—

Anneliese's white face distorted. She narrowed her blue eyes, glaring at the church in front of her.

"I feel sick…"

It was irritation.

Some dark mud-like emotion was squirming inside her heart.

Bell sounds echoed.

Far from its common description of sublime, it was a cracked, horrible sound. For this girl who had pursued to perform the best music, that sound grated on her ears as if sticking inside. In the play, when Faust heard the bells of Easter he gave up on killing himself, but Anneliese felt the opposite, that she would like to throw her life away.

Was this also somewhere in Japan? She had no memories about when and how she had come to this place. Even so, being there felt natural, much like a mysterious sense of déjà vu.

As if she was inside a dream.

—No, she probably was dreaming. Or perhaps after her long house arrest in a foreign land she was starting to lose her sanity.

Yet right now both of them were the same—

Anneliese snorted in laughter. Whether it was a dream or a hallucination, the conclusion was the same. What awaited her was a lonely death. She couldn't escape it.

"O stray girl…"

Anneliese raised her face with a twitch.

"Come to me…"

She could hear a hoarse man's voice mixed with the bell coming from somewhere.

Anneliese unconsciously looked up at the church. The pointed roof only had one broken stick on it, with no sign of the cross supposed to be there.

"…"

Inside her chest she felt sick and the irritation only worsened. She didn't like the dirty air around, and the old man's voice got on her nerves.

"O stray girl… come to me."

I'll come, so just shut up—

The words that came from someone or something, whether they were German, Japanese, or perhaps something that transcended language itself, rubbed her the wrong way.

Pushing open the destroyed door, she stepped into the church.

There were lines of old wooden benches inside. There were lit candles on one wall, and on the altar stood a hunchbacked person. Since he wore a dirty hood she couldn't see any of his expression other than his mouth.

He looks so dirty—

Anneliese looked down on the man in her mind. She had never felt such scorn even for the beggars on the streets during the time she lived in Germany. It was because she knew that they had their own circumstances.

Yet the appearance of the old man in front of her got on her nerves for some reason. Perhaps because he made the ear-grating bell sounds, or perhaps her remaining brains could feel something evil from him.

"Thou art full of hatred—"

The hooded person smiled. He spoke in a worriless voice of ridicule.

Anneliese grinded her teeth.

Why you… someone like you has no right to laugh at me—

"Thou art full of hatred toward the one who took everything from thee… Thou hate everything about the one trying to take everything dear to thee…"

Shut up—

Along with her irritation toward the old man, violent hatred was revived in her heart.

She hated it. She hated it.

It was obvious. Anneliese had been, for some unfathomable reason, robbed of everything.

Even her education was of no use. Anneliese had no intention of relying on something as powerless as that.

"Thou hast been deprived of it all due to thy weakness… Weaklings are robbed by the strong. That is the unavoidable providence of this world…"

Anneliese's eye became sharp. Her eyes, blue like those of a pedigreed cat, shining with anger and hatred, changed to those of a predator watching their prey.

"…Who are you? On whose authority do you say this to me?"

Anneliese spoke for the first time. She wrung her last remaining reasoning power for this question.

The old man laughed without concealing his scorn. Anneliese was starting to lose herself to rage again.

"Such good-mannered speech… A beautiful voice… Hast thou truly believed thou were protected by these thus far?"

"…!"

"There is nothing for thee to protect here. Even though there is naught for thee to protect anymore… why dost thou still wear this mask of falsehood?"

"…I'm—"

"Thou should have lost it all. There is no longer any need to hold back thy words…"

"Shut…up—"

"Thou art no longer a doll."

The old man's words caused everything Anneliese believed in to crumble to pieces, one by one.

She had nothing to protect anymore.

And so she had nothing to hold back for.

Anneliese was no longer—just a doll who saw how people feel.

"—Shut the fuck up."

She exposed her molars, spitting out these words with a low voice the likes of which she had never put to her mouth before. Her blue eyes emitted a light full of killing intent.

The rationality inside Anneliese was decisively destroyed.

She didn't need any education.

She also didn't need her useless violin.

What she wanted right now was unshakable power. Absolute power that would allow her to retrieve everything important to her without being robbed by anyone.

There was no longer the Anneliese that had been admired like an angel.

She threw herself into decadence and revenge; she was now a misfortunate fallen angel.

"I've been asking who you are, you piece of shit."

As if she was becoming someone else—no, as if she was being turned inside out, a weird sensation took control of Anneliese. Her other self that was brought out by the old man's whisper spoke on its own.

She was still slightly confused about her new self. Yet since her other self broke free from her desires and impulses, it suppressed her reasoning power.

"If I declare mine true name thou shalt not comprehend it, thus—"

The old man spoke while staring at the changed Anneliese with satisfaction.

"Shinpu… I am called this along with Oogui and Sanbikime…"

Shinpu?

Since Anneliese could understand a little Japanese, she knew it was pronounced the same as the word referring to a Catholic priest.

For the first time in her life, Anneliese wore a smile of clear scorn. She couldn't bare such a filthy messenger of god. That old man in front of her rather felt like he was on the side opposite to God—

"Power… I shall give thee power. If thou wish for it…"

—Shinpu said with the whisper of a devil.

Hmph, Anneliese snorted.

"You'll give me power, you say?"

Anneliese only came to know the identity of the supernatural being in front of her much later.

She only found out later that this country had beings that grant the power known as Mushi in exchange for dreams and that those possessed by it were called Mushitsuki.

Anneliese was yet to know who the being standing in front of her was.

The beings that gave birth to Mushitsuki and were known as Prototype Mushi.

One of the Original Three.

Wandering along with the territory known as a church, the evil prophet that gave birth to Special Type Mushitsuki.

His name was Shinpu.

"Oh, I know your real name."

At the time, Anneliese named the hooded devil without any hesitation.

"Mephistopheles."

The demon that hated light.

The fallen angel drawn to the greed of humans who tempted them by offering them power.

Anneliese was trying to walk the same path as Faust who was degraded and heard the bells of Easter. Just like with him, a swindler offering a contract appeared before her.

She had no doubts that this was the identity of the devil in front of her right now.

"If you even possess that kinda power."

Anneliese reached out toward the devil.

She was betrayed by the contract she had made with education and art. The power she had cultivated by believing in her parents' words stole away everything she had.

And so Anneliese reached out for a new contract.

"If I can use that power to retrieve anything and everything."

If she could enact revenge upon the one who took everything from her.

If she could gain absolute power the likes of which she had never seen before.

"Hand it over. Give me power that won't lose to anyone."

She was trying to make a contract with a demon without any hesitation.

"Thou hast accepted me—"

The devil wore a sly smile under the hood's shadow.

"…!"

A mist of darkness burst from Anneliese's body.

That mist was nostalgic, warm, and felt like it possessed unparalleled power. Making her golden hair bristle, she felt like she could hear the familiar formless footsteps near her ears.

I will regain everything I've lost by my own hands—

This was the earnest wish embraced by the doll that broke out of her shell.

—There was a hall made for parties even in Lady Mitake's villa.

Anneliese sat in a chair she had brought from her room all alone.

While a crunching voice was coming out of her mouth, a dark mist was drifting around the girl.

From the ceiling came the creaking footsteps of the unseen neighbors.

Anneliese had finally come to know the identity of the invisible footsteps. They weren't specters or friends. For years upon years they watched vigilantly, waiting.

For the moment Anneliese would fall.

For the moment she would despair from the false powers of education and art and yield herself to her cursed fate.

Now that Anneliese realized this, she had no doubts or regrets.

"Ooh… What is this shameful behavior… Anneliese!"

Appearing in the dim hall was an old woman dressed in kimono, Lady Mitake.

She probably came to check on Anneliese's condition after hearing she was growing weaker. Or perhaps she came to sneer at her wasting away and dying?

By saying shameful, Lady Mitake probably referred to the girl sitting in the hall like that.

The sleeves of her white dress were torn, and by hugging her knees her white thighs were boldly exposed. Cold food lay on the floor and she used her hands to stuff her cheeks full of it. Her beautiful blonde hair stayed the same, but her blue eyes glinted with a light so sharp she looked like a completely different person.

"How do you do, you old hag?"

Wiping her ketchup-dirty mouth, Anneliese stared at Lady Mitake.

"How vulgar…! Is there no-one here? Why have you let Anneliese out of her room?"

The old woman possessing the absolute authority called, yet none answered her.

Instead, the mansion itself replied.

From the ceiling, the wall, the floor, from every possible place echoed a creaking sound. As if cornering the residents of the mansion, the sound grew gradually louder.

They were not Anneliese's friends nor her audience—but her devil messengers.

At last they were joined together.

"There's nobody here. They all got scared and ran off."

The floor near the grinning Anneliese suddenly caved in. From the hole opened up as if by a drill, black mist erupted and vanished.

"…!"

Lady Mitake turned pale. She suddenly looked around the hall.

At some point its entirety became filled with the black mist.

"Oh no… Have you been possessed by evil spirits, Anneliese…!"

Another impact smashed the hall's floor. With the third and the fourth, what looked like the footprints of a giant left gaping holes as it approached the old woman. Unable to hold back the expanding mist, the hall's window broke.

"Ah…! Ahhh…!"

Mist was rapidly converging in the empty space the trembling Lady Mitake looked up to. Near the ceiling with a hanging chandelier, it materialized into dark blades.

The sharp claws of a formless devil were formed. Without any head, chest or stomach, the dark claws started filling up the hall.

—No. They did have a body.

The filthy yet beautiful girl showered by the moonlight shining from the broken windows—Mitake Anneliese—was the mistress of the countless claws. The blue-eyed beauty opened her mouth wide in laughter.

"AHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

"EEK—"

With giant holes opening up at her feet, Lady Mitake fled the hall. She ran through the corridor, heading to the stairs.

"DieStirb, you old hag!"

The mist drifting around the mansion changed into claws and assaulted the old woman's path. They played with Lady Mitake while destroying the walls and breaking the floor. While using every slang curse she knew, Anneliese walked calmly after her.

"Uuh…!"

Lady Mitake rolled down the stairs, attempting to crawl toward the front door. Yet by making use of claws stabbing into the walls instead of her legs, Anneliese floated in air and blocked the old woman from the front.

Lady Mitake rolled on the floor with a deathly pale face. While breathing so hard she seemed to be hyperventilating, she gazed up Anneliese who was wearing a twisted smile.

"S-save me—"

Anneliese, who was about to inflict the finishing blow, opened her blue eyes wide.

"Forgive me—Please, do not kill me…"

The old woman known as Lady Mitake and feared by everyone rubbed her head on the floor and begged for her life. She trembled pitifully and lowered her head in front of the 13 year old Anneliese.

"Please do not curse me—"

It was Anneliese's victory.

The filthy power that had nothing to do with either education or art thoroughly trampled the old woman's authority.

"…Ha."

A loud laughter erupted from the girl's mouth.

"AHAHAHAHA!"

Anneliese's laughter knew no stop. Her half-crazed voice echoed throughout the destroyed mansion.

—What had she done this far?

While looking down at the old woman and laughing, various feelings welled up inside Anneliese.

Her mother and father taught her that education would become a power to protect her.

Anneliese believed her parents' words and devoted herself to them. Striving in her studies without even making friends, she acquired education. Devoting herself to operas and literature, she learned art. She also practiced etiquette so that she wouldn't embarrass herself on her debut in the high society. Blessed with the talent of music, Anneliese's violin was supposed to be become world-famous through Munich.

Yet it was all taken away by the old woman in front of her.

She was robbed clean.

And now, even that power of authority was easily defeated by the power Anneliese had gained by her contract with the devil.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

While she held her stomach laughing, Lady Mitake desperately crawled past her on all fours.

As Anneliese couldn't help but laugh, the old woman was already nowhere to be seen.

"Ahahaha…"

Even now that she had expelled all air in her lunges by laughing, tears streamed down Anneliese's cheeks.

Anneliese gained power.

She gained the cursed power from her deal with the devil.

It was very powerful. Yet at the same time, the clever Anneliese despaired.

Was this filthy power really stronger than anything—

"Haha, ha, ha…"

Lady Mitake dashed out of the mansion and disappeared. Yet she didn't even care about Lady Mitake anymore.

She covered her face with both hands.

Her ceaselessly spilling tears stained the floor that creaked although no one was there.

The power Anneliese had gained was taking away something precious from her even now.

Her extremely precious parents' faces, the scent of her hometown, the melody of her violin—

Even now, they were vanishing from inside her.

"Ha, ha…"

Father—

Mother—

"…"

The formless footsteps comforted Anneliese who was crying while laughing.

It was the voice of welcome.

The devils, who corrupted Anneliese for their own greed, bound her with the chains of sin.

Now that she had been cursed, she could no longer go back.

"…I can no longer go back…"

Now that Anneliese became someone else, she would never see her parents again.

She could never go back to the beautiful mansion on Munich.

Anneliese couldn't regain anything.

She had been taken in by Mephistopheles's lies—

Part 4

Ptoo, Anneliese spat the mass of caviar unto the floor.

Sitting in the Italian-made chair in the ruined mansion's hall, Anneliese wiped her mouth using her red dress.

It was rotten.

Even this high quality caviar couldn't be preserved inside an unpowered refrigerator.

But since it had been abandoned for a week it was obvious.

"…"

With a cat-like glint in her eyes lighting the darkness, she looked around the now silent hall.

There was heavy rain outside the mansion. Droplets flew inside from the broken glass windows, and unceasing lines of water were dripping from the broken ceiling.

The thin Anneliese's golden hair lacked care yet it hadn't lost its luster. She had as many changes of clothes as she needed, and the water pipes were still working. She also had enough food to keep living. —At least until now when she spat out the last remaining caviar.

Aside from the darkness of the night, the hall was filled by mist with Anneliese in its center. And as if comforting her, the formless specters made creaking sounds around the mansion.

"…"

Anneliese simply stared at air with hollow eyes.

Ever since driving out Lady Mitake, she did nothing but keep living.

Once in a while children from around gathered wanting to explore the ruined mansion, but the sounds of the formless footsteps were too creepy for them and drove them away. There were also times where, when she went to look down on them on a whim, they probably thought her a ghost and ran away from the mansion scared. Perhaps they started whispering about the ghost mansion amongst themselves.

But even living already reached its limits.

She wasn't gaining any nutrition, she wasn't even sleeping well, and the black mist kept taking something important away from Anneliese.

She was even unable to think properly. Never mind the scenery of her hometown, but now she couldn't even recall the faces of her parents. She would lose consciousness without even noticing, and every time she woke up she thought so I'm still alive half-tired.

"…"

Not losing to the sounds of the fierce rain, the ghosts in the mansion kept urging her. Creak, creak, by echoing this sound here and there, they threw requests at Anneliese who had lost her power.

"What song should I start with today…? Maybe your favorite…?"

Even in this extreme situation, for an instant Anneliese's expression flashed a smile the likes of which she had in Munich.

Still sitting on the chair, Anneliese readied an invisible violin.

Placing it on her shoulders, feeling a hard sensation under her chin, she used the bow smelling of turpentine to rub the bowstring. There was nothing there, but their sensations and smells were momentarily revived in the hazy girl's mind.

Mozart's Violin Concerto no.3.

It was the music that Anneliese was best at.

The music that the specters whose only footsteps echoed especially liked.

In the mansion where only the sounds of the fierce raining hitting the roof could be heard, the illusion melody of Anneliese's violin echoed around.

As she continued her performance with a smile, nostalgic memories were reborn in her mind then vanished.

The faces of her strict yet kind parents.

The scenery of her hometown, the capital of art and music.

The violin craftsman that looked like a clergyman, her free and wild classmates like Erik, the nostalgic people of Munich.

Anneliese definitely left herself behind in her lost happiness.

I wish—

Please stop right now, time—

"…"

Listening to Anneliese's performance, the specters were happy and made the mansion creak.

In actuality only the sounds of the rain were heard, but it was the best performance.

The gratifying performance surpassed her last one.

Anneliese would probably never play the violin again.

And also—never wear the smile of an angel from the bottom of her heart.

"…Fufu."

Anneliese's smile slowly warped, changing into that of a filthy, fallen angel.

"Kuku…"

The light of her life would probably be extinguished just like this without doing anything.

—Yet thinking this was naïve.

"Beautiful moment, do not pass away."

She mumbled.

In the end, Anneliese wished for this.

It was the spell of destruction.

The declaration of a loss in the wager against the demon.

The moment when Faust, who became young yet unhappy, declared this, the one who came to him was—

"Wanting to die like that, aren't I asking for too much?"

Anneliese could feel it.

The existence of a tremendous power.

She couldn't see it, but Anneliese knew that an intense pressure and merciless killing intent were directed at her.

—Some dreadful being came to the mansion of Anneliese's territory.

Putting her imaginary violin aside, Anneliese's expression returned to that of dark hostility again.

"So you came for my soul, Mephistopheles."

He came to welcome her.

In order to rob Anneliese of a peaceful death. To bring her soul down to hell.

Those who had received powers from deals with the devil couldn't save their souls.

She could hear footsteps full of unwavering power coming closer and closer.

"—But."

Anneliese rose up.

"…My revenge isn't over yet. I've done well to deceive you."

The contract she had signed was gaining power to retrieve what she had lost.

And yet Anneliese was unable to regain anything. Never mind that, she was about to lose even her life right now.

It was an unforgivable breach of contract.

Right now, the demon pursuing Anneliese was trying to take her soul after giving her the false power.

Not like she'd let him—

She wasn't thinking of salvation so late into the game. However, she had no intention of simply giving up her soul.

"I'll tear you up, gouge you, and drag you down to hell with me."

Anneliese's eyes, combined with the mansion's darkness, captured the form of the approaching enemy.

"Right, Mephistopheles?"

As if in response to the call of the cursed girl, the entire mansion shook from an impact.

Anneliese's legs were unable to bear the impact that was much larger than expected. She staggered and plopped down on the chair.

"…!"

The front door had apparently been destroyed.

As if by lightning.

As if by a tornado.

She could feel that impact, which was like the fire and brimstone that annihilated Sodom and Gomorrah, swept aside the mist supposed to be drifting around the first floor.

"…Kuku."

Anneliese widened her eyes unconsciously, but she soon started laughing. Putting her elbows on the chair's arm and resting her chin on her hand, she narrowed her blue eyes.

"Right, come at me, you demon."

The mansion itself was now part of Anneliese. The demon's assault from the front gate was praiseworthy, but he wouldn't be able to win against Anneliese like that. She would show him how powerful the power she had received from him was.

Without lifting a finger, Anneliese materialized claws made of mist around the mansion.

In an instant, sounds of impact and destruction echoed around.

The demon appeared to possess a dreadfully powerful weapon. The claws dispatched by Anneliese were smashed to pieces and returned being mist.

But Anneliese's ability wasn't inferior at all in destructive power and number of moves. Every time the demon destroyed one claw, she produced another and continued the attack.

"Gu… Uugh…!"

As she sat on the chair, Anneliese's face warped in agony.

Every time one of the claws was destroyed, the recoil damage pierced her heart. And the more she produced other claws, the more something important was spilling out from inside her heart.

"Gh… Go to hell!!!"

Anneliese's shout echoed in the desolate hall.

She launched a simultaneous attack of claws at the demon trying to climb the stairs. He used his weapon to repel the claws, at times evading them by leaping.

Yet the attack from the front was a feint. The claws created behind the demon pierced his back.

The attack hit and the demon was pounded against the second floor corridor. Anneliese used her countless claws to try and finish him off.

"This is your end, demooooon!"

She rose from her chair in the empty hall, howling.

A tremor surpassing even that of the first attack on the mansion shook the whole building. The mist spread around the mansion like feelers all focused into one mighty blow at a single point. It was powerful enough to destroy even the walls and the floor.

The giant earthquake-like tremor gradually settled down.

"Hah! Haah…!"

While breathing heavily, Anneliese wore a smile of victory.

However—

"Uuh…?"

Although the ground was supposedly completely annihilated, something twitched there.

That presence stood up, albeit staggering in its gait, and jumped from the destroyed hole. It reached the second floor corridor that had avoided destruction in one leap. No human could've done that.

"What…?"

She tried blocking his path with a newly formed claw, but of all things the demon blew it away using his bare hands.

Inside the hall filled with the specters' creaking, Anneliese was shocked.

Why had the claw not pierced him?

How was he still alive?

"Why you…! As if I'd give my soul to someone like you!"

The battle of Anneliese and the demon resumed.

Every time there was an impact, the specters creaked as if in fear. The interior of the mansion was Anneliese's domain, yet the demon was able to proceed toward the hall slowly but surely.

Anneliese's attack should have hit the demon. She felt it.

Yet he never stopped.

Even after being hit by an attack and collapsing, he rose up like a zombie, approaching Anneliese.

Their powers were even. The situation should have tipped in Anneliese's favor since she had caught the enemy.

Yet she couldn't stop the demon's advance—

"Hah… Hah…"

Using her power successively, Anneliese was weakened. She was clinging to the chair's arm, barely able to preserve her consciousness.

"…!"

She raised her face with a start.

The specters' footsteps, supposed to be heard from around the mansion, suddenly all stopped.

Mixed in with the sound of rain, the hall's door slowly opened.

—The demon finally revealed himself to Anneliese.

What perfectly repelled her claws was a pitch-black, long coat much like the cloak of a grim reaper. Blazing eyes like those of the guardian of hell were red lamps lit up on the front of mechanical looking goggles covering his face. What spread endless destruction like lightning was a large automatic pistol.

On his slightly uncovered cheeks were a green pattern and clotted blood. Although he had supposedly suffered quite a lot of damage, his stance was calm and merciless.

Anneliese was now face to face with the demon that had come there to perform her cursed last rites.

However—

"…Who the hell are you?"

Gazing at the hall's entrance, she muttered this in shock.

The person she thought was a demon—no, his superhuman presence was that of a demon, but his form was actually that of a boy around Anneliese's age.

"You aren't Mephistopheles…?"

She was certain that the man she had met inside a dream, the old man who called himself Shinpu, came to her.

She had formed a contract with a robed devil.

Not with the boy in front of her.

After her question in German, the demon answered instinctively.

"Kakkou."

A short, curt reply. The demon raised his gun. —Looking closely, the black coat-clad boy's shoulders rose and fell. Although he had slipped through Anneliese's attacks so far, he still appeared to have received some damage. His voice was also hoarse with fatigue and pain.

Kakkou.

He was neither Mephistopheles nor Shinpu.

Yet the boy who introduced himself as Kakkou was able to push Anneliese back with pure strength. Just like Lady Mitake. Just like Shinpu. Yet another demon was toying with her.

"I see. …So you're another person coming to take something away from me."

Anneliese exposed her canines and glared at Kakkou.

He was trying to rob Anneliese of her wish to regain everything.

As if I'd let you—

Anneliese groaned in her heart.

Her opponent was exhausted. He was powerful, but not an enemy she couldn't defeat. No, if she lost here, she would lose even her life.

The empty space in the hall was filled by several dozen claws.

"I'll fucking kill you…! Each and every one of you who wants to take something from me!"

The condensed mist claws and the bullet shot by Kakkou clashed directly.

Destroying the walls, blowing away the roof, the savage claws covered the black demon.

Kakkou returned gunfire, evaded attacks, and repelled the claws using his fists and legs. A few claws the demon couldn't fully evade hit him, but they were unable to pierce the robust coat.

While getting hit, Kakkou pointed the muzzle at Anneliese.

"…!"

Perhaps she had done so unconsciously, or the specters did so in an attempt to protect her—

In order to defend Anneliese, all claws stood in the way between her and the boy.

"UOOOOH!!!"

The demon howled.

The blazing bullet was fired toward Anneliese in a straight line.

Their two strongest powers were clashing—

"—"

The dark mist vanished from Anneliese's line of sight.

The mist controlling the mansion was blown off and the surroundings cleared up.

As if blowing away the dark clouds cursing Anneliese, the mist was completely dispelled from around Anneliese.

Rage. Hatred. As well as despair and hope.

They were all blown away by the new demon that came to block Anneliese's way.

A rumble was transmitted to now empty girl's ears.

From the night sky revealed by the lost ceiling a fierce rain came pouring down. Sitting in the beautiful chair, Anneliese's blonde hair was drenched by the rain and stuck to her cheeks.

The specters' footsteps were also completely gone.

—Anneliese lost.

"What the hell's that power…"

Having lost even the strength to move her fingers, Anneliese bit her lips. Transparent tears streamed down her face, mixing with the rain.

Education and art lost to authority, and authority lost to Anneliese's cursed power.

And now, even that power bent down to the demon in front of her.

"How much stronger do I… What power do I need to keep anything being taken away! Something that would help me get everything back! Are you the number one? Or is there anyone stronger than you? You piece of shit!"

Clinging to the chair's arm, she used dirty words to curse the demon.

She had neither education nor art.

Not even the filthy power she had obtained from the deal with the hooded demon.

What would be able to save Anneliese from her cursed fate?

How would she be able to regain her happy days?

Even in this situation, where she was about to lose her life, Anneliese had no idea what to believe in.

She couldn't let herself end like this.

She didn't want to let everything end with it all stolen and lost—

"…"

Even as he could hear Anneliese's lament, the demon never spoke. He also appeared to have used his whole energy. The boy was breathing heavily and his legs shook.

It wasn't a fight she couldn't have won. There shouldn't have been a gap in their powers.

Yet Anneliese lost.

The boy in the form of a demon in front her had something that she lacked. Anneliese had no idea what that was.

"…!"

Anneliese gritted her teeth.

He understood her earlier by instinct, but that boy apparently didn't know German. He probably couldn't understand what she was asking him.

So he wouldn't even answer her question at the very end?

That was much too unreasonable.

"—Are you the strongest?"

Unable to give up her question, Anneliese implored him with her unaccustomed Japanese.

Taught by her Japanese father, she was able to use simple Japanese.

"If I beat even you will I no longer have anything taken away from me?"

She asked desperately with large tears spilling from her eyes.

The soul of one who had formed a contract with the devil couldn't be saved.

Exactly so.

If left like this, Anneliese would sink into the depths of despair. Even if she was killed like this, she would be tortured by her doubts and despair in hell for all eternity.

Even if this was her reparation for gaining this cursed power, the treatment the girl was received by fate was far too cruel.

"If I become even stronger than you… will I be able to regain everything this time…?

Behind the silent demon who readied his gun echoed footsteps.

They weren't the footsteps of the specters. They were clearly a human's.

"Exactly so. He is stronger than anyone."

A tall youth appeared in the hall's entrance. Since the shadow covered most of his white face, the only thing clear was that he was wearing a business suit. He raised one hand, apparently in order to fix the position of his glasses.

"W-who… are you…"

Anneliese's shoulder twitched.

Was he yet another demon?

She had no power left.

The only thing that remained was a weak, misfortunate girl who had been beaten by the strong.

And even so fate was yet again causing her to suffer?

She couldn't take it anymore.

Don't hurt me anymore.

Don't take anything from me.

Forgive me.

"I'm the East Central Branch Director of the Special Environmental Preservation Bureau, Haji Keigo."

Introducing himself, the young man smiled. It was a faint, cynical smile. One could tell he wasn't a good person at a glance.

"Anneliese Mitake—no, Mitake Anneliese. We shall detain you."

"…"

"We've finally finished the investigation about the Ghost of the Creaking Mansion. Even about what happened in your motherland and what circumstances brought you to this country. Seems like old Lady Mitake went a bit overboard. It's fine, we can probably lift the false charges on your parents in Munich as well."

Anneliese widened her eyes.

Inside Goethe's work, Faust formed a contract with the demon Mephistopheles. Yet the moment he was about to lose his life due to the spell of destruction and his soul was forfeit, it was saved from the demon's clutches by love.

Did salvation come for her just as it did for Faust?

Did the time finally come for her to be saved by a messenger of God?

—Yet her expectations were betrayed immediately. By a superficial smile.

"How dull the villains of this country are."

Asserting this much too enjoyably, he also added "I also dislike the way she betrayed her relatives" with a light tone.

—He was the worst.

Anneliese curled up on the chair, her body trembling.

"Uu… Uu…"

What's up with this country?

Never mind Lady Mitake, Never mind Shinpu, but Kakkou and the bespectacled man in front of her…

They were demons.

Pure demons.

Or had Anneliese drawn all of them to her? She couldn't remember doing something so bad. She led a pure, proper life in Munich. She shouldn't have any sins.

"She's dangerous, Haji."

Kakkou turned toward the young man and objected.

"It was actually pretty bad… She was the strongest among my opponents thus far. We should turn her into a Fallen now that she can't fully control her powers."

"It's good you're passionate about your work ever since your promise with Fuyuhotaru, but… we can use this girl. Just like you said, she was the first Mushitsuki who went toe to toe with you."

"Use her…?"

"Central Headquarters seems to be sending a large unit to some island. Your dispatch request arrived just the other day. But if possible I'd like you to remain here at least another year to strengthen our foundation. So let's use her to deal with the Central Headquarters. We can even give her to them as she is. Until the day we get her back."

Anneliese widened her eyes while shaking.

The impact she felt after her surprise was somewhat ridiculous.

Their conversation had too many words she didn't know, so she could barely understand anything. Yet even she could understand the latter half.

She was being sold off somewhere again.

That was her fate as a loser.

Next she would be forced to act like a doll somewhere.

—No.

"…"

In this situation, where even after she had used all her power something invisible was still putting out the flames of her life, Anneliese's body yielded itself to drowsiness. It tempted her to fall and never wake again, turn into a sleeping beauty.

Perhaps she would rather turn into a real doll.

If she turned into a real doll that felt nothing and thought of nothing she wouldn't suffer anymore. She wouldn't be hurt and wouldn't have anything taken away. Because she would have nothing in the first place.

The life was being lost from Anneliese's blue eyes that were closing. Losing their light and leaving behind tear marks, they were becoming mere glass beads.

Father, Mother—

She thought about the parents whose faces she couldn't even remember.

She thought of her homeland that she would never see again.

She thought of the violin's melody.

Good night—

Anneliese was falling asleep.

Her life was destined to end in tragedy. She was unable to retrieve anything. She couldn't regain anything.

Her fate was to be toyed by demons, and end.

"—It's still too early to fall asleep, Fraulein."

Anneliese was roused from peaceful sleep by having her chin raised.

"Are you giving up? Since you became a Mushitsuki you should have a dream. Are you going to let it end here without making it come true?"

In front of her thinly opened eyelids was a superficial, faint smile.

It was a smile truly fitting for a demon playing with an innocent girl—even more than Lady Mitake and Shinpu.

"I will allow it."

A real demon's whisper was being whispered to Anneliese's ears.

"If one day you… become stronger than Kakkou. When you become stronger than anyone, I'll allow you to go back to your hometown."

Like a flash.

The nostalgic scenery of Anneliese's hometown was revived in her mind.

Her parents' faces. Her classmates. The craftsman. The violin's sound.

She only recalled it for an instant and then it became as blurry as mist again, but it was enough to bring her back to reality after she had attempted to lull off into sweet slumber.

"…ill you…"

Another tear streamed down Anneliese's face.

This would be her last.

She would never cry again.

"…I'll fucking kill you…"

Haji Keigo.

This worst demon.

Now that she was on the verge of death, was he trying to form a new contract?

He was holding up Anneliese's final ray of hope in front of her.

So was the cursed girl not even allowed to be set into restful sleep?

What a cruel bastard.

Even death would be too soft a punishment for you.

No, it wasn't just Haji Keigo. Kakkou was also an accomplice.

—No, not just Kakkou. Anyone and everyone aside from Anneliese should all be cursed.

"I'll fucking kill you… I'll become stronger than Kakkou… and then fucking kill each and every one of you… I'll make you give back everything you've taken…"

While muttering in German, Anneliese shook off her drowsiness.

She found her one and only hope and recalled.

Her parents' faces… the scenery of her hometown.

And finally—her dream, which was to regain them.

"I'll fucking kill everyone… even those stronger than me… If I do I will be able to… when I get everything back—"

Anneliese kept spitting out these curses.

"Let's make a promise. If you become stronger I'll save you."

The bespectacled youth said with a faint smile.

Remember that—

These words.

That contract.

This time Anneliese would become stronger.

She would return home with unshakable power and protect what she needed to protect.

—Thus Anneliese became a subordinate of the Special Environmental Preservation Bureau.

Part 5

The night wind blowing through Japan's old capital had a nostalgic scent.

The smell of stone heated by the sun. In this land with its many wooden buildings, there were also many stones used for walls.

She liked it more here than the disorderly modern town of Akamaki City. A land that respected culture and tradition was much like her nostalgic hometown.

She normally didn't feel yearning for her hometown, but here it was unavoidably reborn. Since she had still lacked power, it brought nothing other than pain to her. She had yet to fulfill her promise with the bespectacled man.

"Why did you call me here?"

It was the rooftop of the luxurious hotel the students of Horusu Academy Middle School stayed in.

Sitting on the water boiler that took advantage of solar heat, she looked down at the entrance of the roof.

The uniform-wearing boy looked up quizzically. He had no special features whatsoever, just an ordinary student.

"And why are you wearing your equipment? —Kasuou."

The eyes of the boy—of Kusuriya Daisuke—changed. His sharp eyes, vigilant against the girl, were the same as those of the demon that had once beaten her thoroughly.

"I've warned you about this before, Kakkou."

Kasuou, wearing a pure-white long coat that glowed in the night's darkness, glared at the boy beneath her.

The SEPB had goggles and coat as one set of equipment, but she wore no goggles at the time. Her blue eyes pierced her archenemy.

"Don't be such a wuss. What happened to you since coming to Akamaki City? Aren't you getting weaker by messing around with that spear-user brat?"

It has already been more than a year ever since they had first met in the Creaking Mansion.

Now that she had polished her powers in the Central Headquarters, Kasuou knew that she was incomparably stronger to back then. She had polished her battle techniques and gained fighting experience.

And yet on the other hand, Kakkou's former cruelty was vanishing. He might just be hiding his true nature, but at least it looked like it to Kasuou's eyes.

Kakkou was growing weaker.

It was an unforgiveable breach of trust regarding his promise with Kasuou. If she couldn't defeat him while he was the strongest, she wouldn't be able to prove she had unshakable power.

Whether or not he knew about Kasuou's anger, Daisuke drew a breath with a shocked face.

"Look who's talking. Your frolicking this noon didn't seem like acting to me."

"Don't change the subject. —I've heard that that brat Ichinokuro Arisu had been recognized as a Mushitsuki."

Kasuou didn't miss the boy's expression twitching.

"She's no longer a mere human, she's a Mushitsuki. If your opponent's a Mushitsuki you only have one course of action, right? Where did the demon I've met back then gone to? Why won't you kill that morpho butterfly and turn Ichinokuro Arisu into a Fallen!"

That was supposed to be the proper form of the best, merciless, and strongest among the Mushitsuki, the Rank 1 Blaze-Class Kakkou.

And yet a single girl was wrapping him around her little finger.

"Fuse with your Mushi. Now that you're weak I'll fucking kill you."

Daisuke turned a serious face toward Kasuou who was losing her temper. Perhaps thinking of something, after a while of silence he spoke unbelievable words.

"Aren't you the one who became weaker?"

"You… what?"

Kasuou started getting mad, yet Daisuke continued calmly.

"When we fought at the Creaking Mansion you were strong. If you hadn't been exhausted then even I would've been in danger. But now that I've met you after a while, you've downgraded into an idiot that only loves to battle. I don't feel like I'll lose to you like that."

Kasuou widened her eyes.

He said she was weaker?

For a moment she couldn't even understand Daisuke's words. But as his words sunk in, violent anger burst out. Along with the same hatred she'd felt once before while mistaking Daisuke for a demon.

"Don’t fuck with me…!"

Black mist gushed out from her entire body.

Sharp claws even stronger than they had been at that time were created in air. The mist-clad Kasuou leapt down from the boiler, swinging down her countless claws at Daisuke.

"—Or are you pretending to be an idiot?"

The sounds of destruction shook the rooftop.

The asphalt cracked and giant fissures spread all over the roof's floor.

"Not thinking of anything or even trying to—or actually, you seem to be only fighting in order not to think. Am I wrong?"

"…!"

Kasuou and Daisuke's gazes met in the distance of only a few dozen centimeters.

The claws born by Kasuou's ability grazed Daisuke in the last second and stabbed into the floor. Unable to stop her momentum, she ended up in a posture facing Daisuke from up close.

Far from his usual form of an honors student, Daisuke's cold gaze pierced Kasuou.

"It's because you can't allow yourself to think of anything unnecessary in a battle. —Such as about your hometown."

Kasuou's chest creaked.

Recalling her past self, she also recalled her past weakness.

Homesickness was unreasonable. She didn't need any memories related to weakness. She had to only devote herself to polishing her powers and become stronger.

She had no need for the power to think deeply.

She just had to get stronger.

She just had to keep fighting to remain strong.

She was able to live this far like this.

"Thinking isn't anything good. I don't need smarts."

During the era she had been told she was smart, her belief in education had been betrayed.

And so simply thinking was a waste of time.

"I became stronger. I trained in the SEPB, and completed many missions. I'm supposed to be able to win even against you now!"

"It's impossible."

Daisuke decisively interjected.

"You certainly might have advanced the usage of your ability. Yet only pure strength of ability will never defeat me. In the first place there are plenty of people whose ability is stronger than mine."

This time Kasuou became speechless.

That couldn't be.

Rank 1 Blaze-Class Kakkou was supposed to be the strongest Mushitsuki.

That was why Anneliese would win if she could defeat him.

"The Original Three, Fuyuhotaru, that Rina woman, Harukiyo… as well as Hanashiro Mari when she had her full power."

Counting on his fingers, Daisuke wore an unfitting grin.

"But the one who's really strong is me. No one was able to kill me, and ultimately I was the one to win."

Kasuou thought inside her confused mind.

She used her mind, that had abandoned her smarts and devoted itself to battle, on full throttle. Yet she couldn't ascertain the true meaning of Daisuke's words.

"Even though you're weaker you say you'll win? What're you saying…!"

"As long as you don't understand that, you'll always lose against opponents weaker than me, Kasuou."

Hearing the boy's prophetic-seeming words, Kasuou could vaguely understand.

Was the true strength Daisuke was walking about strength she had sought?

That unnamed power which was neither education, authority, nor violence.

And Daisuke was able to continue being stronger than anyone because he possessed it.

—Yet Kasuou still didn't know the identity of that power.

"If you don't know then stay put for a little while. When we wrap up this mission… yeah, we can have a fight. If you properly cooperate during this mission."

"…So it's true."

Kasuou made sure of it.

A new deal.

A new contract.

If she could fight the man in front of her another time—perhaps she would be able to ascertain what power he holds.

No, she had to find out.

Kasuou would definitely obtain it.

She would become stronger than everyone and come back to her nostalgic hometown where the specters were waiting.

That was Kasuou's dream.

That was Mitake Anneliese's wish.

"Don't forget those words, Kakkou."

Kasuou was advancing toward her dream.

So this time she would back off.

One day she would tear apart the demon in front of her and prove her power.

And when that happened, Kasuou would—

"I can't wait to fucking kill you."

—Retrieve the name of Anneliese Mitake.

Apparently already regretting it, Daisuke's expression stiffened while Kasuou wore an elegant grin.

To be continued…

Afterword

Hello, this is Iwai Kyouhei.

Along with the short stories serialized in "The Sneaker" plus a new story, I was able to deliver the third volume of "Mushi Uta Bug" to you.

Having made it through two years of publication, and even getting a special issue in the summer, as well as having goods being sold, I am extremely happy with life right now. I believe this is all wholly due to you, the readers.

I am immensely grateful.

Now for a few comments on this volume while avoiding spoilers.

About "The Flower Garden Aiming for Dreams".

This is the meeting between Ichinokuro Arisu and Harukiyo. I've thought a lot about the timing to bring them together, and it ended up in the third volume.

Speaking of the character Harukiyo, those who have read the main series should know him. His first appearance in Bug was in the newly written story last volume.

He would probably end up meddling again and again in the relationship between the protagonist Arisu and Mari.

About "The Dream Welcoming Feelings".

This is a story about an annoying guest character.

Everyone probably worries about how others such as friends and close associates perceive them.

This time, it was about reasons such as being a Mushitsuki, because they were annoying and so on, but once you start thinking about it there will be no end. The fear of being rejected also makes them scared of getting closer to someone.

Even so, I think that it's important to show your affection for the other party. After all, being able to find someone who are willing to support you is the chance of a lifetime.

About "The Journey Lost in Dreams".

This is the story depicted in the magazine with the special feature.

All sorts of new characters appeared this time. They should serve as connections at the important turning point from now on. The story also sets up an important piece to the puzzle of the world of Mushi Uta.

Hopefully, this will also serve as a key to unlocking a small part of the mystery of the existence known as the Mushi.

About "The Doll Playing the Melody of Dreams".

This was newly written.

Just like in the volumes until now, this is a tale from a viewpoint other than that of the protagonist Arisu. This is a girl with an ambiguous position in the ongoing story of Arisu—will she be an ally, or will she just be standing in her way?

Thinking back, there sure wasn't that many times when I've clearly depicted the moment when a character became a Mushitsuki. As such, could she possibly have an important role?

This is the recital of how even such a violent girl had a period where she was refined.

That the publication was able to continue thus far is genuinely due to the care of the supervisor Yamaguchi-sama. Or perhaps I should use the alias Kumirin-san so that it would be more recognizable for the subscribers of "The Sneaker". Please continue to guide me from now on.

To Llo-sama who keeps drawing such lovely illustrations every time. In addition to this work, there were also the cover of the special edition and appendix and so on, so I have truly been in your care. Thank you very much.

And to you the readers who are holding this book, allow me to thank you again.

Each and every one of your words of encouragement from all the fan letters and the postcards makes me tremendously happy.

I'm also writing the main work Mushi Uta as well as the other series "Shoukan no Chousensha" side-by-side while receiving your impressions, and they give me even more strength to do my best.

I will continue to give my very all so that you will enjoy it.

Let us meet again in the next stage.

Iwai Kyouhei

Notes

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