Mushi Uta:Volume 8 Chapter 2

2.00 The Beast and Momo Part 2

This off-limits area was wrapped in unbearable silence.

The only comfort was the round moon floating in the night sky. If not for the moonlight serving as the single source of illumination, he would have probably crashed into a hard iron pole.

A forest of steel—

That metaphor rose to mind.

The vast premises made of asphalt had orderly lined of rusted metal-made pillars.

Cables extending from tower to tower resembled a spider's nest. Because he was underneath that net, perhaps he was like a caught fly.

"Haa… Haa…"

In the electric substation ruins outside town, even the air seemed stagnant.

Being there, hiding under the iron poles and breathing heavily, perhaps he had been the first visitor there in a while. It didn't seem like any people have come to this place that reeked of the smell of iron.

"Don't overexert yourself, Daiske. Your wounds aren't healed yet…"

Kirari's voice echoed from his pajama's pocket. He brought out the walkie-talkie and spoke to it.

"Momo got inside even before me… Momo? Reply."

If he spoke loudly there was the concern his target would notice him. So he repeated in a low voice.

"Momo!"

"We can only pray for her safety… Daiske-san, just move and think only about yourself."

He grimaced. Being so weak that a civilian would be worried about him felt vexing.

"Can't believe I'm having trouble with such small fry…"

He was currently in the outdoors part of the substation. The electric lines extending from the other side of the fence were divided to the countless transmission towers, and probably went even further, toward town.

The old building visible from afar was a satellite facility. Extended by the moonlight, the shadow of the grass growing underneath the shut door reached the ground.

At present the substation was not in use. According to Kirari and Momo, the underground facility near the station had been completed a few years ago, so all functions had been moved there.

"I don't sense anything… where's it hidden?"

Stifling his footsteps, he moved to the next tower. And he kept walking from one tower to another.

"Where is it…?"

The premises were vast, but it wasn't just the area of the tower forest.

If there was any moving figure at all he couldn't possibly miss it—and just as he thought of this, he raised his face with a start.

If he noticed it even a moment later, he might not have been able to dodge the attack.

A shadow rushed at full speed down the tower, leaping toward him.

"…!"

Dodging the instant before it hit, he turned toward the figure that landed on the ground.

The two eyes glowing in the darkness glared at him for an instant. Soon it left him behind, running away quickly.

"You're not getting away!"

He had no insurance he could dodge the next surprise attack. He struck pursuit with full speed to not lose his opponent.

However, the field surrounded by cables and towers was obviously to the opponent's advantage. The boy was still not fully healed and the enemy's footwork was much too light. The distance between them grew larger.

"Guh!"

Bumping his shoulder against a transmission tower, he rolled on the ground. Yet he immediately rose up and kept chasing.

"Shit…!"

I can't catch up—

He was about to give up when he approached the exit of the area surrounded by towers.

"—Lock on!"

A figure was passing by the last tower.

"Attack!"

Someone leapt at his target from the side.

It was Tanaka Momo.

She had apparently waited outside the area. The shadows of Momo and the target overlapped and then rolled vigorously on the ground.

"Momo!"

His face pale, he leapt out of the forest of towers.

Immediately after, he widened his eyes.

"Wha…"

There was—no ground below.

A large hole opened in the middle of the plain, exposing the drainage and switchboards beneath the ground.

"Ahh…AHHH!!!"

Although there was no ground, it wasn't exactly a sheer precipice. Unable to stop immediately, he rolled down the bowl-shaped basin.

"Yelp!"

An impact and a groan like that of a dog.

"Ugh…"

While holding his dizzy head, he opened his eyes.

"Nihi."

The girl with "momo" drawn on her cheeks, Tanaka Momo, was grinning.

"Request successfully completed, yeah!"

The eyes glaring at Momo and him belonged to the powerful opponent they had been chasing all this while—

A chestnut-colored ferret.

"Ouch."

Although small, this fully-fledged predator scratched the boy's nose. Despite Momo being the one to capture it and not him, the ferret exposed its fangs toward him.

"He's scared of you, Daiske. Probably thinks you're mortal enemies, yeah."

While Momo was laughing, she shook the ferret's body. With its rear legs swaying, the nocturnal beast's glowing eyes drew arcs of light in the darkness.

—Please capture the ferret causing problems to the neighborhood.

This was the request handed to Handyman Kirari☆ the other day.

It was raised as a pet but presumably abandoned by its owner. The now-wild animal snuck into a certain building, ate a bird in its cage and devastated the kitchen.

"Shut up… it's just that I've always been bad with animals."

"…"

"Ouch! Don't turn this thing over here!"

"If you don't move first then I can't move… yeah."

Momo used the ferret to hide her expression, looking upwards at him.

He finally noticed that he had been pushing Momo down inside the hole in the ground.

Since his eyes were spinning, his sense of up and down was reversed. He hurriedly moved to the side.

"S-sorry."

"I don't know which one of you was the animal here, yeah."

For some reason the other beast, the ferret, wasn't afraid of Momo. The cold gaze of a girl and an animal pierced through him.

He rose up while scratching his head, grimacing at the dull pain.

"Ugh."

When he rolled down the hole, he apparently sprained his leg.

"And you're also slow… yeah."

His body had deteriorated more than he thought. His face flushed with embarrassment and shame.

"You wouldn't normally think there'd be a place like this. What's up with this…?"

"You came from outside town, right? So you wouldn't know. It became major news, though."

"News?"

"There was an explosion incident here. It was mystery with no known cause, yeah."

Furrowing his brows, he overlooked the hole.

The width of the gouged ground was about the size of a soccer stadium.

Contrary to expectations, the sloping surface was not made of ground or gravel. It was covered by asphalt as if it had melted down from extraordinary heat.

If there really was an explosion, it should've been a large one. Would a mere short circuit cause this much damage?

"It happened a while ago. Since this place wasn't used anymore they kinda just left it like that."

"Hmm… but how did you know how to catch the ferret here?"

Momo grinned. Rising up while still holding the ferret, she climbed up the slope.

"Thou need to go. The answer thou seeketh shalt now appear!"

"What the heck…"

Dragging his sprained leg, he reached the edge of the hole.

"—"

What he saw in front of him made him go speechless.

The surroundings of the basin were a vast plain. The weed-covered asphalt was wrecked here and there as if a meteorite had landed there.

What drew his eyes, however, was that directly facing the basin was a single patch of flat ground that remained completely clean.

There was a large mark engraved there.

"Coatl Coatl Para Emile."

Momo's chant was carried by the night's silence.

He'd already heard the name of the symbol drawn in white paint countless times.

Coatl Head—

God's symbol that could grant any wish.

"I just thought you'd definitely come to this symbol too, yeah."

Next to him standing completely stunned, Momo wore the brightest of smiles.

The white symbol reflected the moonlight, sparkling.

"The explosion incident happened just as Coatl Head started gaining popularity… perhaps this even started the fad."

"…"

"Because of that, the local people started calling it a name other than Coatl Head. They thought of it as the first mark born from an explosive impact—"

Momo narrowed her eyes. Her profile carried the expression of looking at something truly important—but also a somewhat lonely expression.

"Coatl Hot."

The white symbol appearing in the station.

It had quite literally fanned the flames of the marking fad sweeping the country.

Although it was nothing more than lines drawn with paint, the symbol in front of his eyes—displayed its presence magnificently.

Momo turned around to look at him standing there.

"You shouldn't move anymore, yeah. Kirarin'll probably come to give you first-aid treatment soon…"

He nodded, simply letting his exhausted body fall down.

Seeing him sprawled on the ground, Momo smiled. She came next to him, the ferret still in her hands.

"I feel like maybe I can believe it a bit… Coatl Head."

"A bit's not good, yeah. You should be zealous!"

The beginning of the marking fad.

Lying on top of Coatl Hot, they gazed up the starry sky.

Perhaps thinking they were still chasing the ferret, Kirari didn't come immediately.

It wasn't that he forgot about the walkie-talkie; he simply didn't feel like using it.

"…"

He felt time slowly passing.

Even now while he was doing this, he couldn't tell when the power inside him would begin to grow restive.

Even just imagining this agony that might come upon him at any time was terrifying.

But now, when he could forget both pain and suffering and leave them behind—if he offered his body to his Mushi, he thought that perhaps he could simply vanish.

Right, if he just succumbed to this pleasant sleep, everything would become easier—

"You can't, yeah."

Still gazing at the stars, Momo mumbled.

"Don't fall asleep. I'll give you first aid… so go back on your own feet."

Go back on his own feet.

The mumbled words of the girl sounded extremely difficult to him right now.

His chest felt constricted, and he bit his lips.

"I'm tired…"

He didn't even try to hide his true feelings.

"You can't be so pampered, yeah."

Whether or not she knew how he felt, Momo spoke casually.

"It's fine already…"

"You can still keep going."

"I can't…"

"I'm telling you not to say that."

"I'm just telling that to myself… Just pretend being strong and keep living…"

"I know. I've seen you."

Momo's extended hand—wiped off the warm thing he felt on his cheeks.

"Then what are you telling me to do now…"

"As I said, let's go back."

"I no longer have the time and strength to…"

"So I have no choice, huh. You really are a trouble, yeah."

Momo leaned her face, looking at him.

"Then I'll take you home."

"…"

"In exchange… I'll tell you my secret."

"…Secret?"

"I know the origin of this explosion incident."

Momo once again looked up the starry sky. She patted the ferret who was scratching its nose with its front leg.

"There was a Mushitsuki here… but she's gone now. A Mushitsuki with a beautiful pattern on her body."

"…"

"She was a coward and a weakling… just a normal kid unsuited to be a Mushitsuki. But now she's gone… she was defeated by a girl carrying a suitcase. Apparently she was a Mushitsuki that should have never been born."

"…"

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

Momo's voice was calm and collected.

"I haven't told this even to Kirarin so it's a secret, yeah."

He sank into silence for a while.

Now that he was exhausted and unable to use his powers as a Mushitsuki—he was ironically qualified.

He would take Momo's secret with him to the grave.

"Got it."

Since he could do nothing, he also couldn't leak any secrets.

"I won't tell anyone. I will protect… this grave."

"It's a promise then, yeah."

The white symbol was glowing by the moonlight.

The pair lying on top of Coatl Hot wrapped their pinkies.

2.01 Momo and Rau

The Visual Design class had a different flavor than regular class.

For some reason the blackboard was decorated by flowers and on the far back wall there was an exhibition of pages torn from sketchbooks and things made during the lessons. Objects of unknown purposes peeked out from every locker, and the broom closet had easels instead of cleaning supplies in it.

"Even just speaking of color, we can divide its expression to many attributes and characteristics… with one such method of expression being the usage of tone and hues. The tones are vivid, strong, bright, dark and so on…"

On top of the podium, teacher Yamamoto Rau advanced the lesson. Her good looks went to waste because of her usual gloomy way of speaking and the dark circles around her eyes.

The lesson was about "color".

Tanaka Momo, sitting near the window, opened not her textbook but her sketchbook. Leaning her head on her palm, she drew something with her marker.

"There's a color naming system making use of this… when you name things like vivid blue, light purple, dull yellow and so on, there are also indigo blue, peach, skin color, and there are also colors that carry certain images, such as grayish blue and royal purple—these two kinds. Next, each color has its own effect… we have discussed before about how warm colors seem to expand and cold colors seem to retreat and shrink, but this is also—"

Expansion and reduction.

Momo's heart was right now in the process of doing exactly that.

When looked at the figure in her sketchbook—a portrait of a boy collapsed in a commonplace residential district—she felt anguished as if her chest was constricted.

"Color can also have a deep relationship to people's psychology. Seeing certain colors, one can feel love or hate, happiness or sadness and feelings of this sort… this is called the emotion effect. Underline that part."

There were the squeaks of highlighter pens in the class.

Momo alone was using a marker not on the textbook but in her sketchbook.

Coatl Head.

The drawn symbol told nothing about the change happening to her.

"…"

Raising her face, she looked to the other side of the class.

She had gone to the girl sitting there for advice no matter what happened ever since she was little.

Although they were in the middle of a lesson, she wasn't wearing her trademark horned hat. If Momo were to define her sepia-colored using what they learned in class just now, it would be a dark greyish yellow, or perhaps the color of bamboo tea.

That classmate, often called just Sepia, was Momo's childhood friend. Although they were friends enough to enroll into the same school, lately Sepia had been avoiding her.

She could surmise the reason for it, but Momo didn't find the chance to speak with her about it.

"…Haa."

She had plenty of other friends, but she didn't feel like going to anyone other than Sepia for advice.

She wanted to talk about the mysterious freeloader that appeared where she worked part-time.

She had cooperated with him yesterday to complete a job.

Also—the fact that right now she could only think about him and was strangely anxious about it.

She had so many things she wanted to talk about, but Sepia didn't even glance at her today.

"I'll guess I'll leave it at that for today…"

The bell rang just as Rau finished the class.

"Tanaka Momo."

The gloomy gaze of the teacher bore at her.

"You have not listened at all to the lesson and only scribbled in your sketchbook… come to this classroom after school."

Shuddup, I don't feel like doing that right now—

She couldn't allow herself to actually say that, so Momo just frowned.

She spent the rest of the day sulkily until school was over.

"Hey—"

She called toward Sepia, who was leaving the class.

Yet Sepia only glanced at her and left with a trot.

No matter how many times she called out to her, it was the same. Normally Momo would get angry, but even if she could hope again tomorrow, today she was terribly hurt.

Although she had something to talk about, her friend wouldn't even listen to her.

She shed tears in class because she couldn't endure it any longer. Crying, she grabbed her bag and left the class quickly.

She passed by her teacher Yamamoto Rau. She hanged her head so that her puffy eyes wouldn't be seen.

"Goodbye, sensei."

"Don't skip out on our meeting like that."

With Momo's shoulder grabbed, she stopped in place. She only then recalled that Rau had told her to meet in the classroom.

"…Well, I'll at least get you some tea."

What face was she making right now?

Hearing Rau's kinder-than-usual voice, she thought of this.

"—I'm so sorry… I'll focus on class properly next time…"

The tea poured into a cup used for washing brushes was awfully bitter.

"I'll reflect on this…"

Sitting in a chair in the classroom, Momo shook her body. She wanted to go to her part-time job ASAP.

Sitting at the table instead of the podium, Rau took her mug and sighed deeply.

"You… just how much do you belittle school?"

"I dooon't. I really respect you, senseiii."

"Are you only capable of either disturbing the course of the lesson or not listening to it at all? I have some confidence in my classes, so it's due time I scolded you for real."

"…I'm sorry."

Rau's classes definitely weren't boring. Furthermore, she understood the hearts of her students more than any other teacher. Momo apologized honestly and bowed.

"The other teachers also found it weird… that Tanaka Momo was being so quiet."

"Just by being quiet…? What kind of tyrant do they think I am?"

"Is something worrying you?"

Rau asked her directly with a disinterested tone. Momo mumbled in response.

"I'm not really sure, yeah… maybe there is."

"That's way too ambiguous… did something happen?"

"Sensei, do you also give counseling to students?"

"Stop saying nonsense… it's just because of how you were in class today. You're always 'bright'-colored, but suddenly you came 'pale', so obviously people would be nervous."

"Hmm."

"What did you draw in your sketchbook?"

"…Nothing, yeah."

Grabbing the cup with both hands, Momo lied. She felt her cheek directed at the window turning hotter.

"—Oh, I see."

Seeing Momo like this, Rau spoke with a disappointed voice.

"So you fell in love."

Momo's hand attempting to carry the green tea to her mouth stopped midway. She looked at Rau with mechanical movements.

"…Pardon?"

"Like I said, you probably like someone, right?"

"No, I mean, that's definitely not… eh?"

"What are you being so flustered about?"

Rau looked confused. Holding the now-empty mug, she rose up.

"I don't know who that boy is… but give it your best shot. There's a limit to how much you can daydream in class."

Perhaps satisfied at having figured out the cause, Rau gave her some half-hearted words of encouragement. As if saying she hadn't any interest in her students' love life, she drowsily combed up her silver-streaked hair.

Momo wordlessly grabbed Rau's suit. She could feel the plastic's unique sensation.

"What is it?"

"…"

"Don't make such a surprised faced… or was my guess wrong?"

As Rau tilted her neck, Momo was flapping her lips with no words coming out.

Were her teacher's instructions correct or not—she was unable to grasp that.

"Calm down. …No, it's not strange to be unnerved like that. It's normal."

"N-normal…?"

"It's something obvious for someone of your age. Everyone experiences love."

"Lo-lo-lo…"

"Love is just a name for it. It's just an illusion, a need of possessiveness… sometimes, it's sympathy or adoration."

"…"

"Fluctuating between them, questioning yourself, attaining euphoria and getting hurt; everyone's like that."

Momo, still grabbing her teacher's suit, glanced at Rau's black eyes returning the gaze.

"Don't worry. You're normal…"

Normal.

At least she should have called her average.

But now that she could even think like that—it meant the anxiousness swirling inside Momo melted away.

"There's no need to rush to an answer… being flustered won't lead to anything decent."

"Sensei…"

"You're all still young. You can just keep thinking for however long you'd like until you reach the answer…"

There was no need to hurry to reach an answer.

She could start slowly nurturing this feeling that she had for the first time in her life—

Momo wore her usual, bright smile toward the teacher called Yamamoto Rau.

"You're a good teacher, yeah."

This time Rau twitched. Seeing her agitated was rare.

"N-no, I'm just—"

"Hmm?"

"I just thought that there was something going wrong between you and a classmate… since it's also a teacher's duty to listen to her students' troubles… oh well—"

Rau showed an even rarer expression.

Slightly raising the edges of her lips, she looked troubled—as if she smiling wryly.

"It's just my job."

Momo judged her to be hiding her embarrassment.

"Yeah… I'm having a fight with my friend right now."

"I see."

"I'm just waiting for my friend to forgive me, yeah. I don't know what I did, but I hope she'll talk to me again sometime."

"I think that perhaps… you should take your distance for a while. That might be good."

Looking at Rau saying this, Momo had a certain hunch.

Perhaps someone worried about Momo and Sepia's relationship had given Rau advice behind the scenes. Perhaps she'd called Momo out in the first place to discuss this.

"Say, sensei. Where are you from?"

As Momo asked this with a smile, Rau raised an eyebrow.

"Why are you asking so suddenly…?"

"You're a foreigner, right? How do you say 'thank you' where you're from?"

For a moment the teacher with silver streaks in her hair stopped moving. As if letting her thoughts run—or perhaps recalling something nostalgic, she stared at empty air.

"Who knows… I've already forgotten."

"Booo. Then I'll say it in proper Japanese. Thanks, sensei."

"You should speak more properly. It's 'thank you very much'…"

Momo said her thanks and handed Rau the cup. About to exit the classroom, she turned around.

"If you're ever troubled by love, I'll come get your advice. Since you're so beautiful I'll bet you have plenty of experience, yeah."

Rau merely shrugged. Holding the cup, she sluggishly walked to the sink and seeing off the back of her teacher, Momo left the room.

Her feet carrying her out of the school and into the city felt much lighter than when she'd entered the classroom.

Turning around the corner of the station, she headed directly to the office.

The old building smelled of dust as always.

Climbing up the stairway with the cracked wall in one fell swoop, she stood in front of the rusted door.

"Handyman Kirari☆ OPEN"—

Opening the door and passing near the calling bell, she opened the glass door. Going through the corridor, she entered the needlessly-fancy living room.

"Eek."

A ferret came leaping at Momo.

Last night there was a request of "pest extermination". Yet the kind Kirari didn't get rid of it under the pretext of taking care of it, and was allowed to keep it by the requester.

As a result, her reward had been halved yet again.

Although she could have lied that she was taking it somewhere, that was what happened when she told the truth. That was the girl called Ikarino Kirari.

"Sepia. Were you a good girl? …You weren't."

Tanaka Momo had been the one to name it. Holding up the ferret she called Sepia, she looked around the ruined living room.

There were torn documents and scratch marks on the walls.

Perhaps they shouldn't have left it in the same room as its natural enemy. The beast they'd picked up before the ferret was breathing in his sleep.

"You have to get along, yeah."

Momo folded her knees, looking at Kusuriya Daisuke's sleeping face. The number of wounds on the boy's face increased; probably traces of his fight with Sepia.

Daisuke's wounds seemed to have been getting better.

However—the fact that with every day his complexion became worse was worrying. He insisted he was fine, but she couldn't watch him without growing anxious.

If left like this, he might wither away—

As this chilling delusion crossed her mind, she bit her lips.

"I hope you'll get better soon, Daiske."

Mumbling, Momo reached for the marker case on her waist. While holding the ferret in one hand, she put a green-colored marker to Daisuke's forehead.

She learned it in class today.

Green was a color used to express stability and liveliness.

And she obviously drew that symbol.

"Coatl Coatl Para Emile."

Momo recited this with a smile.

With the Coatl Head being drawn on his forehead, Daisuke's expression seemed somewhat peaceful now.

2.02 The Annihilators' Shera VS The Annihilators' Biribiri

After Tanaka Momo left, Yamamoto Rau finished locking the classroom and left to the corridor.

She shuffled her legs walking through the corridor lit by the setting sun.

She couldn't even remember when her habit of dragging her feet started. Perhaps the more she killed people, the more her legs sank into hell.

Even if not, her body was probably approaching its limits.

—Where are you from?"

Just now, her useless student hurled this question at her, and it stayed on her mind.

Rau's motherland.

The scenes she'd nearly forgotten for a long time were revived in her mind.

The roof of the house made of overlapping bricks and the thin children wearing mere rags. The smoke from the chimney and the wild animals crossing the brown river. Also, the established area that could barely be called a city—

How long had it been since Rau, born in such a poor environment, came to this country under the pretext of being a transfer student?

Immediately after setting foot in the country, Rau became a Mushitsuki.

Was it already more than seven years since that? She should be one of the oldest Mushitsuki.

Actually, many things have happened. Getting captured by the SEPB, and being trained as a member—she was left half-dead during the Fuyuhotaru annihilation mission almost four years ago.

Yet Rau survived, and slowly but surely, refined her skills.

All of it was for the dream she'd embraced when coming to this country—

She degraded herself to assassinate those deemed as disturbing elements by the SEPB, and yet only her dream remained unforgotten. Even catching Miguruma Yaeko's attention and becoming Head of the Annihilators was because she fully polished her abilities. —Despite her being unable to compete with Fuyuhotaru in the past, now she had the confidence that her chances of victory were about fifty-fifty—no, that she could defeat her.

Even so, Rau was still far off from making her dream come true.

Until she accomplished her duty, Rau was living as Head of the Annihilators, Shera.

She kept killing anyone who threatened the country.

It was still too early.

She couldn't let a few people shake up the country—

"Bye bye, sensei!"

Probably students that finished their club activities. Passing by her, jersey-wearing girls lowered their heads.

"…"

Rau lightly raised her chin with a gloomy face.

"Goodbye, sensei."

"See you, sensei!"

While Rau was walking like a zombie she was being greeted by the smiles of students going home.

"Bye, sensei."

But they weren't bowing to the teacher called Yamamoto Rau.

She was the assassin Shera who'd infiltrated the school to gather intelligence. For her duty in the Annihilators, for her own personal ambition, she would handle as many students and other targets around their age as needed.

—You're a good teacher, yeah.

Tanaka Momo's words once again rose to her mind.

"…"

The information regarding Mushitsuki spread easily among middle and high-school students. The best mask for Rau to wear, when thinking of her age, was that of a teacher—but choosing this profession had been a mistake.

She wasn't suited to be a teacher.

Being with all those bothersome children every day exhausted her spirits. She seriously thought about killing them many times.

Once again seeing some boys run from the corridor ahead, she felt the murderous impulse rising.

They wore bizarre masks made of folded metals such as aluminum foil, quicksilver and so on. —The only ones who would be running around school wearing that sort of thing had to be the Visual Design students.

"Oh, sensei! How's this? This is our latest creation!"

Instantly she was surrounded by masked students. Perhaps overly excited since they just completed it, the group started a strange dance around Rau.

Are you mocking your teacher? I'll fucking tear your heads off and use them to play bowling.

Even as she cursed in her heart, she recalled.

The Mushitsuki who vanished in this town, and Hakamori—

Although only temporarily so, he was a member of the Annihilators, and a man who always hid his face. The experiment didn't leave him with many memories, but were there some circumstances that led to him hiding his face like that?

Even Rau, as the Head, had only seen his true face a handful of times.

Yet even that mysterious underling might be in town. They were unable to find both him and Kakkou.

"I'll give it a grade right here and now… It's a C."

Pushing aside the masked students, she dragged her legs and weaved between them.

"Ehh? No way! It took us painstaking efforts!"

"You're trying too hard to fit the mold… try remaking it before the deadline."

From behind, she heard the students' unpleased voices.

Rau's knowledge in art was something she happened to have from before. Perhaps it could be said to be her only hobby as someone who polished her abilities as a Mushitsuki and became an assassin.

When she was younger, paintings served Rau as a prison for her emotions.

Or their tombstone, perhaps.

There were fun and happiness, feelings unneeded for her as an assassin, as well as the sadness and suffering accumulated by killing people—she put them all into her brush, sealing them inside the canvas.

Yet at some point, she no longer needed that.

The feelings Rau wanted to put into pictures were already withered inside her—

"Goodbye, sensei."

Meeting Rau as she exited campus was the girl with the horned hat.

Sepia. She was a holding a large board covered in cloth. —Thinking about it, the prize-winning work that got into an exhibition in the city had just been returned to her. While she walked the marker case on her waist hit the board, rattling.

"…"

She thought of trying to speak with Sepia about their talk a while before.

Thinking about this, she suddenly recalled something.

—The keyword is Coatl Head.

Sepia said this when Rau had questioned her about the incident of the electric substation ruins.

Raising her gloomy face, Rau looked beyond the school. Since the school was built right near downtown, by going down the hill one could reach the large national road and shopping district.

Since it was already dusk time, all the people heading toward the station congested on the hill road.

The accessories of passersby.

Power poles.

Stickers on rented apartments.

When she focused and looked for it, she could see that symbol anywhere and everywhere.

"Coatl… Head."

She mumbled to herself.

The charm that had explosive popularity at present.

That symbol had also been left in the substation ruins. Rau hadn't even focused on it, thinking that it was mere graffiti drawn by the city's youngsters.

Yet the more she gazed at Sepia from behind, the more she had a bad feeling.

The Mushitsuki of the Substation Ruins—if Miguruma Yaeko's or even Rau's own sense of danger was correct, that Mushitsuki mustn't be allowed to get away.

But no matter how much time passed, she wasn't able to grasp even their shadow.

The Mushitsuki of the Substation no longer existed in this world—

She was a step before accepting this as fact.

If the unexpected presence of the rebel Kakkou who she couldn't ignore hadn't been there, then perhaps she would have already been recalled to the Central Headquarters.

But what if—

What if she was making a mistaken judgment?

No, in the search until now, hadn't she been fitting too much in the mold?

"Sepia."

When she came to, she called out to the petite girl.

As she turned around, the horned girl was as expressionless as always.

"Even you are using my nickname, sensei?"

"…Do you remember us talking about the substation explosion incident?"

Holding the board in her hands and turning, Sepia drew near.

She girl shook her head.

"'I think you should look more into trends and new fads, sensei'—"

"Oh… what about that?"

"When we talked you mentioned that Coatl Head and another one… some similar term. Please repeat that for me."

"…"

"Actually, since then I've been so interested I haven't slept."

She uttered a silly lie in a dignified matter, but Sepia only calmly replied "Oh, how many days has it been?" Since she saw the girl's expression slightly crumble, she apparently accepted it for the time being.

"It was Coatl Hot."

"Coatl… Hot…"

"In our school, everyone in the know knows about it. —It was the first Coatl Head, engraved along with the explosion."

"The first…?"

"Apparently that symbol was found there after the explosion. Since it was starting then that Coatl Head started gaining popularity… they started calling it like that for fun."

Being told this, Rau recalled.

At first she did notice it. That strange symbol.

But since Coatl Head started trending before long… she simply thought "oh, it's a simple graffiti of some charm" and erased it from her mind. —And that was why she felt as even that stupid mark was laughing at her worrying about it.

"Was it… the other way, then?"

As Rau muttered this without noticing, Sepia tilted her head.

Only now did she notice that the order was reversed.

The Coatl Hot found by Rau wasn't created due to the marking fad in town; it was actually created before it.

"Is something the matter?"

"It's nothing… no, you've really helped me. Thanks."

Rau composed herself again. "Be careful on your way back home," she said to send Sepia off.

Although she'd noticed her mistake, in the end it was just a fad.

Of course, she didn't think it had any relation to Mushitsuki, and it was quite unlikely that Rau would get a hint toward the person she was searching for, the Mushitsuki of the Substation Ruins.

Because of that—she was bothered by it.

Since the very existence of the Mushitsuki of the Substation vanished so perfectly, she doubted even the possibility that someone was hiding them.

But perhaps that was exactly what they wanted her to think.

This was truly a work of art.

She would have to give a grade of A to whoever managed to make that Mushitsuki disappear.

"Maybe I need to change my thinking…"

Climbing the hill road, she headed to the opposite direction of the station.

Straying from the road curving on the hill, she entered a narrow path leading into a bamboo grove.

Even the majestic form of the bamboos was ruined by the electric wires entering her sight. —Only Rau thought this, so perhaps it was the generational gap with her students.

A tall boy was standing ahead. Rau approached and he stopped in place.

"Ashimaki. Your routine report."

"Bleh…"

The mouth of Rau's subordinate—Ashimaki of the Annihilators—opened to spill the legs of a Mushi. Yet soon withdrawing them, he started speaking mechanically.

"No presence found that could be the Mushitsuki of the Substation Ruins. No Hakamori either. Also no response like Kakkou. No response of any Mushi appearing nearby. Over."

"So no progress… what about Biribiri?"

"I wasn't able to get in contact with her since noon."

"Say what…?"

It happened immediately after Rau narrowed her eyes.

Speak of the devil or whatever. She heard a cheerful voice from the other side of the field.

"Bzzbzzt. Bzzbzzt."

Turning around, she immediately saw the familiar jagged hairpin. With the jagged tips of her hair swaying, Biribiri approached while skipping horridly.

"Bzzbzzt."

"You… I heard you cut off contact—"

Rau sighed with a gloomy face, closing the distance—and then it happened.

"Bzz?"

Tilting her head adorably, the zigzag girl thrust her hands forward.

"…!"

Rau's vision was filled with golden static electricity.

Ah, how pretty—

While being blown back with great speed into the bamboo field, the momentary fireworks she saw were burned into her eyelids.

Rau's body broke countless bamboos, rebounding on the ground.

Rotating in midair, the moment she reached a mass of rocks jutting from the ground—the suit covering her body transformed into a pitch-black trench coat.

"Biribiri, you—"

The eyes inside the hood gazed at the distant narrow path.

Her eyesight was good. Rau was able to see the groaning Ashimaki on the field on the opposite side. Unlike Rau, he had no countermeasures against the surprise attack.

She was apparently going to first finish off Rau, who neutralized the attack using the suit she wore all day long. She saw Biribiri kicking the ground and starting a mad dash toward her.

"You're being controlled—"

Biribiri couldn't be called normal from the get go, but her eyes looked especially clouded over.

"Bzz."

A surge of golden electricity raced through the girl's jagged hair. The sparks born in air took shape, producing a small, ethereal insect—a lightning leaf beetle.

"Bzbzzt."

It happened immediately after the girl raised her arms.

The ground swelled up.

With a tremor, the sound of bamboo being ripped and a spewing geyser of water, a thick pipe came flying from underground. It stopped midair as if being held up by an invisible arm.

As Biribiri clutched empty air, the water pipe floating in air transformed to a large spear.

"Bzzzzzt!"

The next moment, the spear that condensed a few dozen tons was wrapped in golden surge of light.

"Bzzt!"

Biribiri flung down both arms as though throwing a soccer ball to the field to restart the game.

The spear, clad in high-voltage electricity, stabbed toward Rau's feet like a bullet.

The mass of rocks cracked, and the impact opened a large hole in the ground. The storm of high voltage generated by this caused all bamboo in a radius of ten meters to evaporate.

Biribiri was an electromagnetism user.

C had a similar ability to control electricity and Asagi could control magnetism, and Biribiri was unable to match either of them in output, though she was still a combatant possessing both qualities.

"No, this is… different from being controlled."

Rau, leaping back to dodge the attack, watched Biribiri carefully.

"Maybe she's being made to go on a rampage unwillingly… was calling out to her the trigger?"

Calmly analyzing the situation, she stuck out one hand toward Biribiri.

The sleeve of her coat expanded explosively. It became countless needles that assaulted the girl.

"Bzzzt…"

With the girl wearing an unstable smile in the center, golden light devastated the area.

It melted the needles with the heat it produced and enveloped even the distant fences surrounding them.

"Bzzbzzt!"

"…"

Rau's expression turned severe.

Affected by the girl's ability, the fence and the steel-made power poles were brought to her by the electricity flowing through the wires. Once again bursting from below ground and forming a spear, a lump of steel and electricity as big as a house floated in air.

Apparently she wasn't simply going on a rampage.

Biribiri's ability, already strong in the first place, was further amplified.

"Biribiri had already been under the effect of Diorestoi's Fragment… and now it looks like she'd been given another one—"

She unconsciously leaked one of the secrets of the Central Headquarters.

The electromagnetic user appeared to be still strengthening the mass above her head. The surging electricity and shock looked as if another sun appeared overhead.

If she was hit by this, nothing would be left of Rau.

"Bzzbzzt!"

The girl powerfully swung down her arms from the heavens.

The meteor-like mass fell toward Rau.

"I have judged that returning you to normal will be too difficult."

Yet at the same time, the coat wrapped around Rau's body transformed again.

For a moment it seemed as though the coat swelled like a balloon, but it suddenly shrank again. The black, lustrous plastic clung to her limbs, wrapping her up from her neck to her face, finally covering even her cranium. 

Not even a second passed before Rau was wrapped in a dark full body suit.

All her fingers and even her face were completely concealed, accentuating Rau's slender silhouette.

"I no longer need you."

Calmly asserting this, she casually flung an arm toward the incoming meteorite.

With just this movement there was a soundless explosive wind swallowing the bamboo field.

A destructive storm about several times or tens of times stronger than the vibration Biribiri had caused before blew away the rows of bamboo.

Rau smashed the meteorite to smithereens and moved at the same time.

"Bzz—"

A large amount of blood overflowed out of Biribiri's mouth as she stood stock still.

Closing the gap between them in an instant, Rau's fist was lodged into the girl's chest.

"…—"

Something crimson gushed out from the limp girl's body.

It coagulated in air to form the shape of a shining queen bee—and then dispersed into a mist.

Rau violently swung her arm, flinging the now unmoving girl unto the ground.

Immediately afterward, she kicked the ground.

Dashing through the thicket with amazing speed, she blew away the bamboos in her way and leapt beyond the narrow road.

She grabbed Ashimaki, paralyzed and collapsed within the bamboo, and forcibly pulled him upright.

"Sense them, Ashimaki."

She ordered him with a mumbling voice that sounded like that perhaps due to the body suit covering even her face. It also looked like her vision was concealed, but it was made like a magic mirror so she could see outside properly.

"Guh… Ugh…?"

"Since someone was using Biribiri for a surprise attack against us, they must be watching."

Mushi legs flew from Ashimaki's mouth as if being dragged out. The surface of the insect clutching the boy's tongue flickered vividly.

"Can't feel anything… There's no even a single Mushi arou—"

"Expand your range. To the very limits."

Obeying Rau, Ashimaki sank into silence with his face contorting with agony.

Yet the boy soon widened his eyes.

"I-I can sense them…! About 20 kilometers away, there's a weak response—"

"Coordinates?"

The boy mumbled the designation of coordinates used by the Annihilators.

The moment he finished talking, Rau leapt.

Jumping to the air higher than even the bamboo around, she let gravity take her to land on a roof.

The impact of falling on four limbs caused the roof to cave in, yet Rau didn't mind it.

Raising her bodysuit-covered face, she leaned her body while still crawling.

"—"

She leapt.

She rapidly passed from one roof of a house in the residential district facing the bamboo field to another. She didn't use either her hands or legs; she employed all limbs like an insect, charging through the darkening city.

Passing through the residential district and getting into town, her speed kept increasing. At times clinging to the walls of buildings and at times kicking the roofs of speeding cars, the black phantom cut through town.

The high pressure born from her travelling at such speeds probably created a grating sound, but this didn't even cross her mind. There were probably no people in town who could properly see her form anyway.

Landing on the road, she overtook running cars, leaping.

Clinging to a large statue outside of town with her limbs, she raised her face.

Ashimaki's coordinates pointed her to a large building.

Using recoil, Rau leapt directly to her destination. —Arriving there from the bamboo field took no more than a few minutes.

"—"

Sticking to the wall with her arms and legs, she snuck inside through the open window. Her muscle movements being so awkward and superhuman were unavoidable with the use of her ability.

Apparently it was a hospital. Yet the interior was empty, so she realized it had been vacant for quite a while.

With her limbs still on the ground, Rau ran around the building quickly.

"…So they've escaped."

Searching around once, Rau finally went back to her two legs.

Although the scent of humans remained around, she couldn't find them anywhere. If they knew Rau was coming after them and ran away—then perhaps they had someone with the ability to sense events from afar.

If push came to shove she planned on blowing the entire building, but that would end up just drawing needless attention. It was apparently an opponent that knew when to quit, so they probably weren't simply hiding.

"Was it the Mushitsuki of the Substation…? No, probably not."

Inside an empty, dark room, Rau questioned and answered herself.

"This was a surprise attack, but it didn't look like they were really trying to defeat us. On top of that they knew we could sense them and launched an offensive… were they trying to measure us?"

It was also probably not Kakkou who was hiding somewhere in town. Ashimaki said that the power he felt was weak. That demon's power was not weak in the least, and he wasn't the sort of opponent to use these kinds of tricks.

Having said that, it was also hard to think they were the person hiding the Mushitsuki of the Substation. Since they were hidden, they had no reason to risk showing themselves.

"So does that mean that there are people trying to approach the Mushitsuki of the Substation Ruins… other than us?"

It was the most likely explanation.

At the same time, Rau became convinced of something.

"Undoubtedly, something is happening in this town… so that means that perhaps the Mushitsuki of the Substation is still somewhere in town."

As she mumbled, Rau's bodysuit inflated and instantly transformed into her dark coat.

Pulling out her cellphone, she called Ashimaki.

"Let's hurry with the investigation about the Mushitsuki of the Substation."

She recalled the sense of discomfort she felt at school.

Perhaps they'd been investigating this from the wrong direction thus far.

She decided that, moving forward—they would try looking at it from another angle.

"Coatl Head—we have to determine who spread this marking fad."

Perhaps she was completely off the mark.

No, using common sense, she knew she was off the mark even without investigating.

Yet after making a frontal attack in vein, she needed to break the mold.

"Even if they're sleeping beneath a grave… we just need to dig in and drag them out."

The assassin sighed gloomily as her coat inflated like a balloon—

And her figure melted into the darkness.

2.03 The Beast and Momo Part 3

The marking fad just kept on growing.

When he went to the familiar crossroads in front of the station, he could see that symbol no matter where he looked.

The pop song remained popular, streaming from the stereos of passing cars. People took advantage of the fad to produce all sorts of accessories and foodstuff, and he heard that the demand for markers had grown so much that stationery shop owners were crying in joy.

"Hey, Daiske. Look, it's a Coatl Head tattoo. A temporary one, though."

Tanaka Momo pointed at a shelf in the bookstore, wearing a full smile.

The electronic billboard behind the cheerful girl displayed the large symbol today as well.

"Incredible… Why's this thing so popular?"

Every time he left the office and came to town, he felt that there was more of the symbol around.

It was actually spreading.

And not just in this town either. The media often made special features about the continually growing marking fad.

It was like the entire country was being controlled by the Coatl Head symbol.

"Cha!"

"Ada!"

While he was gazing vacantly at the bulletin, Momo's hand blade struck his forehead.

"Don't call it 'this thing'! You need to call it Coatl Head properly!"

Momo was angry and took a strange pose. It was probably from some show she'd seen on television.

"Why do I have to…"

He groaned, rubbing his forehead. —His body, clad in the shirt and bondage pants Ikarino Kirari lent him, had already healed. Now he only had a few compresses in several places and a single bandage on his cheek.

"It's simple, but it's super effective! All you need is a single marker! All your problems and worries will be blown away instantly! Every house needs one while you're at it! Safe and secure, it has an astonishing effect!"

"What's up with that commercial…"

"Everyone has some worries. So you need to draw your wishes into this symbol, yeah!"

"And if they wouldn't come true?"

"Then draw another one. And chant."

Momo turned toward the electronic board, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Coatl Coatl Para Emile."

None of the passersby turned to look at Momo who was reciting a strange spell in the middle of the road.

The marking fad had permeated everyday life to the extent that this was normal.

He sighed and then mumbled to himself.

"What a strange country…"

He thought of the very country he lived in as strange.

Even exposed to the danger of Mushi that weren't in any other country, this daily life was much too peaceful.

The unexpected fad took control of various places, making everyone participate in it like idiots.

"…"

If he hadn't become a Mushitsuki, would he be able to live a life as peaceful as that of the people around?

Would he be a normal high schooler getting excited about the marking fad and having fun with his friends, just like Momo?

Although he knew this hypothesizing was meaningless, he allowed himself to daydream.

If he hadn't become a Mushitsuki.

If he hadn't been hurt in silly fights.

It was as if—his life was flashing before his eyes.

And what passed through his mind was his life as someone who wasn't a Mushitsuki, a life that couldn't be.

"It's falling, Daiske."

Momo's voice caused him to snap back to reality.

He had dropped the bag of food items that he was holding to the ground.

Today, along with Momo, they went to buy consumable goods and food for the office. Since there was a limit of the things they could buy for cheap alone, they were able to buy more things together.

"Oops."

Trying to pick up the bag he dropped—his right hand was unable to support the weight of the bag and he failed.

"Daiske…?"

Momo raised an eyebrow.

His right hand, supposedly healed, was deathly pale. He couldn't use it properly.

"—Next, the food for Sepia. Would dog food be good enough?"

He smiled, sticking his right hand in his pocket. He casually picked up the bag using his left hand.

"…"

"Hmm? What's with that face."

"No… it's nothing, yeah."

Momo finally smiled too.

Walking side by side, they passed through the crowded road.

The conversations they had were all the same as they were yesterday.

"If we don't go to the department store next, we might miss the limited time sale, yeah."

"I see. …What the hell? We sound like some married people."

"It's fun so it's fine. Did Kirarin go somewhere today as well?"

"Yeah. Lately she's been going out a lot. Even when I ask her, she just says she has some business… but since she doesn't seem to be hurt, we shouldn't prod into it too much."

"Hmm? No way… is she dating somebody in secret?!"

"I don't think so. Oh, but she does take her nurse uniform with her."

"Ding dong! The possibility of a date rose by three points!"

"The nurse costume raised it…?"

"Boys apparently find it really hot! You're the same, Daiske! Two teens, a handsome boy and a hot girl, living under the same roof… that's way too shameless, yeah!"

"Why did you only just think about that… anyway, never mind Kirari, but I'm not handsome at all."

"Oh come on. If you tell me your face is plain, the really plain people will be mad at you."

They went around town while having a normal conversation that had nothing special about it.

But for a person like him it was still special.

Was he smiling because Momo was funny or because he was laughing at himself for melting so much into the normal atmosphere? Probably the former. He currently didn't need to think back to his original position.

As they were walking and carrying more little by little, nobody turned to look at them.

Obviously.

Right now, the boy and Tanaka Momo were just a part of everyday scenery—

"Now that is a hard question coming from you. The theme needs to be some breakthrough I can reach with flexible thinking, so we can solve it with its antithesis, yeah."

"Since I am afraid that my current form would be misunderstood, if subjected to an epochal concept, we have to objectively—"

Speaking with a serious tone, he and Momo exited the department store.

The passersby on the road were startled as they saw them.

"Wow. So avant-garde. Super-duper cool. Chami-sama, these two must be mole people. They definitely came out of the department store cellar to photosynthesize!"

"Don't get involved with them. Let's go already."

The two unfamiliar girls distanced themselves while looking at them.

After being showered with gazes, he looked at Momo next to him.

"It was a huge success, yeah!"

Raising her index finger, the girl's "eyes" that were as large as a fist sparkled, with the leaves of daikon growing from her hair.

"Didn't look like it to me…"

As he sighed, the cabbage in his hair fell to the ground.

Curious gazes focused on the pair making a strange pose at the entrance to the department store.

—Buying food in the underground floor and receiving all these plastic bags apparently tickled Momo's creative urges. Unheeding the boy's objections, she carved some space for eyes and ears, drew a pattern with her marker and used tape to stick the food they just brought together.

In the blink of an eye she completed two masks.

"Wait, you can't take it off, yeah. We're gonna surprise Kirarin once we go back to the office. Or maybe I'll go to school and have sensei grade it?"

"No matter where we go we're definitely gonna get arrested."

Removing the plastic bag from their heads, they walked ahead.

"It's fiiine. Mole people aren't bound by the laws of the surface."

"Haha."

Once they finishing their shopping, the surroundings turned completely dark.

It took even more time than planned, and Momo wanted to take a shortcut—so perhaps it was his fault for not stopping her.

They were resolved to be scolded by Kirarin for their tardiness.

However—

"…"

His eyebrows twitched.

His eyesight momentarily clouded over due to his heart beating loudly.

"Daiske?"

Momo turned toward him when he suddenly stopped.

"Sorry, Momo. Go back to the office ahead of me."

"What is it?"

"…Gotta use the toilet."

The wry smile he wore was a work of art. He was used to acting.

"Eh? Wasn't there a minimarket or something here? Wait a bit, yeah."

"I told you to go, I'll catch up to you soon. The department store from earlier is closer."

Momo simply mumbled a "Hmm…" as he turned on his heels, returning to the road.

After he went several dozen meters, he turned around.

Confirming that Momo's form was slowly walking after him, he leapt into the gap between buildings. Running at full speed, he reached a far spot where the lights of the main road couldn't reach.

"Ugh…!"

Suddenly strength left his legs and he tumbled down. The contents of the bags he was holding spread on the ground.

"Gh…uh…!"

Still collapsed, he held his chest with a look of agony.

"AAaahhh!"

Inside the lonely darkness, he rounded his body and writhed.

He had goosebumps all over. The thing rampaging inside him caused his skin to swell as it rushed around.

"GAAHHH!!!"

As he screamed endlessly toward the sky, a pattern different from his skin appeared on his cheek. It began staining and changing the color of his skin.

Mingling with the Mushi trying to take control of his exhausted self—

That seizure-like thing became stronger by the second.

Yet until now he'd only been assaulted by this agony when he was alone and relaxed. It was the first time it happened while he was with Momo—and in the center of town to boot.

The intervals between the rampage of his Mushi shortened and the pain was growing.

He understood fully well what this meant.

"Ngh…!"

His nails scratching the asphalt became sharper. Trying to not let his arms get taken over, he flailed them.

He hit the wall of a building, causing it to cave in with a roar.

He knew that normal Mushitsuki wouldn't have to suffer this.

He'd seen the signs of Maturation for Minion and Special types before. For both of them it was like falling into deep sleep while their Mushi took their dream.

But he wasn't allowed that sort of easy death.

The thing nesting inside him wasn't that nice.

As long as he was alive, his own power ate into his body.

No, there was no doubt that he was going to meet an even scarier fate than that—

"…aaaHHHHHH!!!"

His pupils changed to those of another person.

—Fight, something was shouting inside his body.

—Use your powers, it urged him.

He had that sort of contract.

Using his powers allowed him to make it this far.

Now that he had nothing left, he couldn't even go back to his normal life.

"Hah! Hah! Ngah!"

It's not here.

Nor here.

Keeping that way, he lived until today.

He was simply trying to reach the place he was searching for.

He became a Mushitsuki, fought, lost, ended up becoming stronger—and yet he was unable to find that place.

Was he simply going to die like this without grasping anything?

Would he be eaten by another power without even being allowed to die?

He didn't want that—

"…!"

He widened his eyes that turned sharper, like a beast's.

Someone was standing in the alley.

"—"

Forgetting both pain and fear, he was frozen.

There was no way he'd forget that face.

It was the monster he'd fought against the day he escaped from the SEPB.

There was no way he could fight that person right now.

Then I'm going to be killed here—

It happened just before he was resolved for his death.

"Wha…"

Without saying anything, the monster turned around. Leaving its footsteps behind, it departed.

"Wait…!"

The moment before it left, the monster's expression was full of sympathy.

He wasn't even worthy enough to be killed. There was no need to even see off his agony—was that it?

"…"

Being abandoned even by his enemy, something broke inside him.

He collapsed on the spot.

Already having lost both physical and mental energy to resist, he was still getting hurt by the power dwelling inside him. His exhausted body was being shaken by something crawling inside his skin.

Since it wasn't only his body but his dream being eaten as well, his mind was also rapidly weakening.

"—"

He would also end up as a terrible monster.

Pathetic and miserable, an ending befitting him.

Now that he wasn't resisting, his body was slowly losing its functions as a human.

"—"

His body was being shaken.

It probably began moving on its own, being controlled by his power.

"…ske!"

—No, that wasn't it.

"Daiske!"

The voice he heard in his ears was familiar.

Opening both eyes, he saw Momo's tear-stained face.

"Daiske! Hold on… hold on, please!"

"Mo—"

The moment he understood the situation, he returned to full consciousness.

His body moved faster than he could think.

He pushed Momo away.

"Eek!"

"Go… go away…!"

As he recovered, pain even greater than before assaulted his body. The power that nearly took control of his body now rampaged violently.

"Gwah…!"

"Daiske—"

Although Momo had gone back to the office, she probably ended up waiting for him. Becoming worried as he got delayed, he knew that she came to look for him.

Yet he extended his arm toward Momo who was running closer.

If he lost control of himself, his first target would become Momo. He would turn into a monster and rip her asunder in an instant.

No matter what happened, that was the only thing that he—

"Don't… come here! Get… far away…"

Imagining the sensation of ripping her body, he shuddered. Although it was a mere delusion, it was far more intense than the agony and fear assaulting him.

Momo's face looking at him was distorted with fear.

Obviously. He was too scary of a sight for a normal civilian.

"Run… Momo…!"

Seeing her expression, another pain ran through his chest.

When compared to the agony rushing through his entire body it was a small pain.

Even so—it was more unbearable than anything else.

"Daiske—"

Momo took a step back.

Yes, run away—

He felt a warm sensation on the arm he was staring at.

"Daiske…"

Momo's fingers touched his hand.

As if desperately trying to prevent herself from running away—

As if closing the distance despite wanting to get away—

Although her body was trying to run away, only the girl's hand drew him closer.

"…"

And then Momo's hand grabbed his arm.

She pulled his arm, approaching him.

Momo covered his paralyzed body.

She ended up straddling him, hugging his face with both hands as he roused his upper body.

"Get off…"

He didn't want to her to.

With his head buried in the soft feeling and warmth, it took everything he had to murmur that.

"Yes, I will…"

Momo didn't get off.

"Get off already…"

"Yes…"

"You can't do this… if you don't get off…"

Momo's arms hugged him hard, unmoving.

Her slim body trembled.

Even so, she wasn't about to let him go.

"I'll let go… soon, so…"

Momo's shaking was gone.

Also—she hugged him even harder.

"…"

He closed his eyes.

He put strength into the nails against her back.

Although the agony kept ravaging his body, his heart was strangely calm.

I'll give you my body just like you wanted—

He called out voicelessly toward the thing nesting inside him.

But… not right now—

The agony lessened for an instant.

Next time. Next time I'll use my power… I'll definitely give you everything then—

"Daiske…"

He returned the hug to the back of the girl covering him.

His arm slowly regained its previous colors.

So just for now—

As he this wished inside his heart, the pain receded like a low tide.

"Why…"

Now that he returned being human again, he gave Momo a strong hug.

"Why didn't you let go…"

"Sorry—"

Passing her fingers in his hair, Momo peeked into his face.

"I just didn't want to… yeah."

The two half-crying, half-smiling faces looked at each other.

"Haha."

Momo drew something on his cheeks while he laughed.

He had nothing left to do anymore—

He had fought, gotten wounded, hurt people, hated people, been hated by people, and trampled many dreams under his feet.

That was why—he thought he wanted to die the midst of a normal life.

Living through today that was the same as yesterday, he would die in a tomorrow that would be the same as today.

"Coatl Coatl Para Emile."

In his current bliss, he believed he could do this.

2.04 The Others

On the second floor of the multi-tenant building, a small visitor stood in front of the door with the plate stating "Handyman Kirari☆ CLOSED" on it.

She was a cute girl with matching red glasses. She was probably around middle school age and her twin-braided hair turned behind her. She looked like the image of a class president.

Seeing another person appear, the girl opened her mouth as if to say something.

"Are you… someone related to this office?"

However, the suit-wearing Yamamoto Rau beat her to the punch. Glaring at the girl with a gloomy expression, she approached her while dragging her legs.

The girl shook her head, looking dejected. Apparently she herself was waiting for someone like that.

"N-no, I'm not."

"So it's closed? I had business with the owner, but… you as well?"

"Y-yes."

While the girl nodded hesitatingly, Rau glanced at the closed door with feigned apathy.

Rau had obviously not come to visit the office because she had a request for the Handyman.

Shera of the Annihilators continued her search for the Mushitsuki of the Substation Ruins without incident.

As usual, she was unable to find any traces.

The opponent that used her Annihilators subordinate Biribiri for an attack against her was also still unknown.

Furthermore, she didn't know his goal, but apparently Rank 1 Blaze Class Kakkou was also hiding somewhere in town. —The assassin intercepting him, Hakamori from the Annihilators, was also missing, but he was probably dead already.

What was hiding in town now?

Also, did they exist in the first place?

Everything was vague, so these very unpleasant days continued.

"Hmm…"

Obviously Rau had a reason she came to the "Handyman Kirari☆" office.

And it was also a foolish one.

In her search for the doubtful existence of the Mushitsuki of the Substation she did everything she could. Since she couldn't find them despite that, she decided to change her methods.

The mark remaining at the substation, Coatl Hot—

It was apparently the very first one in the charm fad now sweeping the country. Rau's investigation told her just what she heard from Sepia. It was different from the normal "Coatl Head" according to the local middle and high schoolers.

Feeling unease, Rau began investigating the source of this fad.

And—a certain piece of information arrived to her ears.

"How many times have you been here?"

"Huh? O-oh… this is my first time."

Rau casually asked her and the girl replied humbly.

"I see…"

Rau had used all possible means to investigate the jack-of-all-trades known as "Handyman Kirari☆".

The manager was apparently a 17-years old girl.

Her name was Ikarino Kirari.

She didn't manage to enter high school. Apparently she also wasn't present for her middle school graduation ceremony. After the facility she lived in had been closed, she went around several places, and at present was running an unlicensed office.

She also found out the cause for this quite unhappy profile.

Apparently, one of her classmates in middle school was the granddaughter of the chairman of the large corporation called Akasegawa Group. Since she was his one and only blood relative, she succeeded his position as a chairman.

She didn't know what happened between that chairman and Kirari.

However, apparently Kirari had offended her for some reason. Starting then she had been receiving persistent harassment, being cornered such that she couldn't graduate or find employment.

The chairman of a large enterprise, and Kirari.

She had no interest in their relationship. She had no intention to dig deep into their pasts.

Rau had gone to Handyman Kirari☆ for a completely different reason.

"It's also my first time coming here. But looks like I'll have to give up for today, huh… I think you should come another day, too. I plan on coming tomorrow again."

"Maybe I'll come here next week…"

"So weekdays are a no-no? Have you come here from afar, perhaps?"

"Yes. From Akamaki City."

Rau raised an eyebrow. Since she couldn't tell where clues about the Mushitsuki of Substation would hide in, she had just intended to ask her about that.

"Why have you come from such a place to here? Sorry for saying this, but I'm not impressed by a kid coming to this sort of place alone…"

Being stared by gloomy eyes, the girl spoke respectfully.

"I-I'm looking for something in this city… and I found this."

The girl showed her a pocket tissue she was holding. It was muddied and dirtied, but Rau knew it had an advertisement of the handyman shop here.

"Since it's something related to this town, I thought about getting the help of a local."

The girl didn't seem to be lying.

It doesn't seem to be related to my goal—

Rau judged that the girl she had met by coincidence was a mere civilian.

"You should go back home for now… If you go back to Akamaki City now you'll reach it by night. Your parents are going to be worried."

Why were children this age prone to such reckless acts? They were so ignorant and stupid but they never thought about the ones protecting them. This isn't a game, if you need to look for something do it by yourself, she wanted to scold her.

"Also—it's meaningless even if you come here."

"Eh?"

"This office is about to get evicted. Apparently the deadline is close…"

This wasn't a lie. This was something she found out while investigating.

Apparently the office wasn't earning well. After continuously falling behind in payment for rent, the landlord apparently had enough of it.

"Is that… so?"

The girl looked dejected.

However, she still stood on the spot, not looking like she was going to move.

Go home already, Rau cursed angrily in her mind.

Rau scratched her silver-lined hair. She slightly grimaced.

"This might not be my business, but—"

She spoke along with a gloomy sigh.

After judging that she didn't need to be cautious, her persona as a teacher appeared uninvited.

"You're looking for something, then…? Can't you go to the police?"

Luckily Rau didn't have many classes today. Also, since there wasn't any lesson with the Visual Design course, her fatigue was 1% lower when compared to the normal day.

Simply listening to the story of a foolish child was permissible. Also, even if this girl was foolish, she undoubtedly possessed 100 times more nerve than the VD1 students.

"It's a necklace my friend lost."

"…"

She was just as stupid as the VD1 kids.

What a childish reason. Coming all the way from Akamaki City for a mere necklace, and she was going to a handyman of all things? Even stupidity had to have limits.

It's also my fault for judging whether children today are idiots based on their appearance, shit—

She was so angry no words came out. It took everything she had to groan in her heart.

Yet hearing what the girl mumbled next, Rau had a change of heart.

"But I still don't know if it's in this city or not… There's a large possibility that anyone who passed that road during that winter was someone who went to take the test for the nearby high school… If so, maybe it's that strange design course… There weren't many test-takers, and when I asked the person from pawn shop for the uniform's appearance there wasn't any middle school like that on the list of those who passed… either she didn't pass the test, or she did but went to another high school… I finally investigated the middle schools of all test-takers and found a uniform that looked like it in town… maybe if there was a design course in some high school nearby…"

As the girl mumbled while counting on her fingers, she didn't even notice Rau widening her eyes.

What the hell—

Was she smart or even stupider than the VD1 kids?

How far was she willing to go for a mere necklace?

This was the type of person that definitely shouldn't become a Mushitsuki.

Along with the power to accomplish unthinkable things, she had flexible and pertinent ideas. This was the hardest kind of enemy for an assassin.

"Now I'm unsure if you're the handyman here… or a detective, even."

"Eh… n-no way. That sort of unstable work… I'm not suited for it."

And—she had good luck.

Anyone who ever went through a fight for life or death knew how fearsome that was.

Most of those who went through the battlefield countless times possessed unbelievable fortune. And they would keep living through the next battle.

"How lucky… I, Yamamoto Rau, am the teacher of a Design course in the local school."

"…No way…"

"I'm used to people not viewing me as a teacher. …What kind of necklace was it? I'll try and check if one of my students is wearing that. Since I'm also looking for something, I might as well do it on the way."

"U-umm, it has this golden ring attached to it—"

The girl introduced herself as Ebina Yuu. Rau also named herself.

After having the excited Yuu hand her mail address, Rau once again told her to go home.

"I actually wondered if you were a teacher as soon as I saw you."

The girl in front of her was full of surprises.

"Because your way of worrying about people was very teacher-like. Also, I saw at a glance that you were a good person."

"I see… That is very, how do I put it—"

With a melancholic expression, Rau sighed again.

She was slightly agitated, and along with it was a feeling she didn't know well.

When she tried speaking, she finally managed to choose a valid word.

"—Complicated."

Yuu said she'd noticed from the start.

However, Rau had come there as an assassin.

If she actually seemed like a teacher, then—did it mean that she'd already gotten used to her mask as a teacher?

She mustn't get too used to it.

Recently, rather than her job as an assassin, she'd been racking her brains over her profession as a teacher.

Yet she would probably be able to throw away even that annoying mask instantly.

"Thank you so much!"

As Yuu bowed cheerfully and was about to leave, Rau called out to her.

"Hey, you… can I ask you something?"

"Yes?"

"Do you know that thing called Coatl Head?"

Yuu was surprised for a second. Yet she soon smiled and ran her finger through air.

"Coatl Coatl Para Emile—that one? Of course I know it."

"I see."

"Isn't it really popular right now? What about it?"

"No, I was just told by one of my students to pay attention to fads… never mind, go home."

Yuu nodded cheerfully with a "yes ma'am!" and was gone for good this time.

"…It really is an astounding fad."

Now that no people could see her, Rau returned to her expression as an assassin.

"Yet at the time of the incident it wasn't popular. —Supposedly."

As a result of investigating Coatl Head again, she was able to collect proper evidence.

The rumors spread among middle and high school students just like Sepia. Until the mark named "Coatl Hot" appeared at the substation, there was no trace of that marking fad anywhere in this country.

"Coatl Hot, that appeared before the start of the fad… who on earth drew it there?"

Finally finding it suspicious, she started actively investigating the marking fad.

What started this fad?

Who'd spread it?

It was hard to pinpoint the origin of this fad.

However, even so Rau focused on one of the results of her investigation.

—I want you to spread this Coatl Head, the charm that can make all wishes come true.

She had discovered that there was a person clearly wishing for this in town.

The ones who had been asked this were just normal high school girls. However, one of them was apparently a rich lady from some good house, and having money to spare, she investigated whether her boyfriend was cheating on her.

The one she went for this request was Handyman Kirari☆. The request had been completed flawlessly, so the girl paid some money.

At that time, Ikarino Kirari had asked her to spread the fad.

Ever since then, the girl got addicted to the symbol, and apparently was still spreading it to her friends. Luckily, that was how she got caught in Rau's network.

"Ikarino Kirari… why did you know about the fad that wasn't there yet?"

She had asked high school girls to spread this fad right after the substation explosion incident.

Furthermore—it wasn't just those students.

Tracing the origins of this fad that spread like the roots of a tree, there were also a number of other cases, with all of them leading back to Handyman Kirari☆.

"…"

Rau pulled out a terminal from her pocket.

She replayed the sound records left by the members fighting the Mushitsuki discovered in the substation.

There wasn't just noise like she heard before in the classroom.

Actively analyzing it, she retrieved the broken data inside.

"N-no way… it's a Fu-Fu—"

They were in the midst of fighting, or perhaps they just got attacked.

Mixed with the sound of impact and sounds that were perhaps screams from the other members, there was a single shout.

"A Fusion Type…!"

This single sentence.

This simple death cry sent the Head of Annihilators, Shera, to this town.

"The Mushitsuki of the Substation Ruins"—

If it really existed, it announced the birth of a new Fusion Type.

Fusion Type Mushitsuki were far too dangerous.

Once discovered, all Fusion Types, including Kakkou, were outside of common sense. Even the SEPB were having trouble controlling them.

No one who could have erased all Fusion Types in the past ever existed. —Even Karasu, deemed the weakest of them, had been able to weave through the SEPB's information network and survived.

If a new Fusion Type had truly been born, and turned that power against the SEPB, it could be a threat to the very stability of the country. —As long as they haven't ascertained their abilities, it could be said to be even more dangerous than Kakkou.

"The Mushitsuki of the Substation…"

Anything deemed dangerous must be erased—

That was the unshakable resolve of the Central Headquarters, of Miguruma Yaeko.

And it also lined up with Rau's personal goal.

She would protect this country.

As long as the Central Headquarters' intentions lined up with her own, Rau would keep wearing the mask of the Annihilators' assassin. For that cause she was able to grow stronger and undergo grueling training.

She couldn't allow this bountiful and plentiful country to fall just yet—

Rau enlisted to the Annihilators not just because they discovered her ability.

She was in the Central Headquarters out of her own will.

The mysteries surrounding Mushi.

They were definitely located in the innermost part of the SEPB—even deeper inside the core of the Central Headquarters.

And the place closest to the innermost depths of the Central HQ could be said to be the Annihilators.

Even with just the secrets Rau had been able to grasp these last few years, she was able to gain hints regarding the existence of Mushi.

Rau pursued her true goal, solving the mystery of Mushi, to the extent she could almost reach her hand and grab it—

"Until I grab this country's weak point, the crucial weakness known as Mushi, I will not allow anyone to threaten it…"

For the sake of her own ambition.

For the sake of her own dream.

She would eliminate anyone that threatened the country except for her.

"Those lying in hiding in town—looks like I'll need to drag them all out…"

The Mushitsuki of the Substation.

Kakkou, who might be hiding somewhere in town.

The mystery enemy that manipulated Biribiri and set an attack.

She would eliminated all those hidden behind the veil by her own hands—

"At least come and attack me…"

The gloomy, mumbling assassin left the office while dragging her legs.

2.05 The Beast and Kirari

A solid crashing sound echoed through the office.

Turning around, the boy could see the tableware Kirari was putting away spread on the floor.

He was already used to Ikarino Kirari's fetish—meaning, her liking to wear cosplay such as the monotone maid uniform she would wear even while preparing meals. She tried picking up a bowl, but it slipped from her hands again and she helplessly grabbed empty air.

"What's up? You look like you're nervous recently."

"Sorry, Daiske-san… I'm just thinking."

"Thinking?"

"It's not something terribly important…"

He picked up the rice bowl, but it fell to the floor.

Unable to hold even the light rice bowl, it fell from his hand before he could pass it to Kirari.

"Haha. I'm the same."

"…"

While she was gazing at him wordlessly he managed to pass her the bowl this time.

He felt like he'd been living with Kirari like this for a long time. Perhaps it had actually been very short, but their time together felt like it was moving slowly.

The life of two people with the recent addition of a ferret.

The one preparing food was Kirari. She came up with something to do with the scarce ingredient they had and made food every day.

And the boy did the cleaning and chores.

For the job, along with Momo the three of them took on requests.

The same today as yesterday continued.

And tomorrow would probably be the same as today.

"—Let's go eat something tasty next time."

Kirari's kind smile was unchanged from when he'd first met her.

He had changed. He became able to return her smile.

"You can't splurge on food. It's fine how it was till now."

"I see."

"We have to get many more requests. The office'll be breaking down at this rate."

Even his joke was accepted by Kirari with the same smile.

"Hmm… that's right."

They both carried the tableware to the kitchen, washing dishes shoulder to shoulder.

"Do you have your normal business today?"

"Maybe… it's fine, I guess."

"It's related to Mushitsuki?"

"…Yeah."

That was the only conversation they had while doing the dishes.

He'd heard from Momo that Kirari was helping some Mushitsuki somewhere.

Momo obviously wouldn't be any help since she was a civilian, and he knew the same went for him right now. Kirari also knew that.

Even while just wiping the dishes he'd dropped the bowl on top of the counter more than three times.

"I'm going to go change clothes."

Seeing Kirari go back to the bedroom, he sat down in the living room's sofa.

"…"

He raised both arms toward the ceiling.

No matter what he tried to grab, his arms lacked power.

He narrowed his eyes. —He praised himself for persevering this far.

Kirari, back to normal clothes, exited the bedroom. He put his arms behind his head.

Without saying anything, Kirari sat next to his legs. She sat on the floor, leaning on the sofa. Sepia leapt on her lap as if it had been prepared for it.

He stared silently at the ceiling and Kirari was smiling while petting the ferret.

Both were waiting for requests to come in.

Even if there were no requests today, they would keep waiting like this tomorrow as well.

A calm and boring time.

The time he spent sitting in the living room and hearing only the sounds of the clock's hands felt real to him.

I'm living right now—

He'd managed to live due to an accumulation of miracles and was here now.

He was in a place he belonged in, that made him believe he could keep living tomorrow too.

"Thank you."

He said. He was probably smiling right then.

"Hmm?"

Kirari raised a questioning voice.

"I've forgotten to say my thanks until now."

"Oh, it's not a big deal."

"You've done a lot for me. From the moment we've met until now. Truly a lot…"

Starting by saving his life, Kirari did nothing but help him.

Never mind the fact she gave him food and shelter, but even when he had seizures she would stay at his side until they subsided. Unable to withstand the pain, he spat many complaints. Kirari listened to his self-deprecating words that made even him want to cover his ears without saying anything.

He believed that Kirari was the person who managed to expose most of his weak points during his entire life.

He pretended to be strong and wasn't honest, but he revealed his weaknesses to Kirari. He didn't find that embarrassing because Kirari accepted it all with a kind smile.

"Thanks to you I'm also fully healed."

"It doesn't look that way though…"

"Well, that's how it is."

"…"

"There's something I've always wanted to ask, but may I?"

Kirari raised her face, looking at him. She nodded lightly.

"Why do you like cosplay that much?"

"…"

"School uniform, nurse uniform, business suit, female officer, maid clothes… and was that an astronaut suit inside your closet? It's really too much…"

"All of them were things I wanted to be when I was little."

Looking down again, Kirari stroked the ferret's head.

"Or things that I can't become anymore, I guess."

"…Because you're being harassed by that conglomerate chairman?"

In complete opposition to himself saying this in anger, Kirari just grinned.

Thinking that she probably didn't want to talk about it, he stayed silent as well.

Yet soon Kirari started mumbling.

"When I was in middle school, my best friend was involved in an inheritance and people aimed for her life…"

He was silent.

"There was a Mushitsuki who saved her. My friend called her the Kind Magician, and they were very close… and that girl also taught me many things."

The tone of the girl discussing her past was much too calm.

"But you see, even the fact that she was targeted for her inheritance… was actually because the chairman had been killed by that Mushitsuki."

"…"

"It was all to save the many people who suffered and had their money taken. But she was also very troubled because it put my friend in danger because of that. Finally, she settled everything by letting herself die instead of my friend…"

Kirari still grinned. Yet to him she looked as if she was on the verge of tears.

"When we last met, the Kind Magician asked me for a favor. —She wanted me to stay silent… both about her killing the chairman at the time and about her dying for my friend's sake. She would obviously be blamed for killing people, but if my friend knew that the Kind Magician died for her, perhaps my friend would blame herself…"

Her crying face was apparently his own delusion. —As the girl turned to him, he saw that she wore a completely carefree smile.

"That was Handyman Kirari☆'s first request."

He widened his eyes.

"My friend had since then succeeded the Chairman—but she started hating me. Because I'd never told her the reason why her beloved Kind Magician was gone."

"What the hell's… that…!"

Without thinking he grabbed Kirari's shoulder. He couldn't put his strength into his hands so he wasn't able to grip her, though.

He couldn't stand that sort of silly circumstances.

To protect the request of a single, stupid Mushitsuki, Kirari sacrificed her own life?

"Protecting that Mushitsuki's promise is meaningless! She's already dead, so why d'you have to become a sacrifice because of that?! Isn't that strange?!"

"Hmm…"

"Why're you smiling—"

This time his hand managed to grab her shoulder. He turned her toward him forcefully.

"It's the same with me! I don't know if Haji really asked you for this, but didn't you think accepting that suspicious guy's request is dangerous? You have no money but you let me live here with no complaints… Are you an idiot? A dead man's request means nothing! A request for someone who's not here means nothing!"

"It does mean something."

Kirari grinned. Although his fingers were digging into her shoulders, her face was unchanged.

"Because there's something that I have to take over."

"…"

"So that's why… even if I know that, I love those people called Mushitsuki."

He gritted his teeth.

"But your life's messed up because of a Mushitsuki—"

"No, it's the other way around."

The girl shook her head to the side, narrowing her eyes.

"I became what I wanted to be the most."

That is—

The life of a Handyman—

Was that what Kirari wished for?

Requests only came rarely.

Even if she accomplished a job, she never received enough money for it.

If no request came today, she would be simply waiting for a request tomorrow too.

If that truly was what Kirari wished for—

"…"

He felt envious from the bottom of his heart.

This short span of time he spent with Kirari and Momo was filled with happiness.

He wished for tomorrow to be the same as today.

He even thought that perhaps—this was the place he had been searching for.

"Is there—"

A place that someone like him, who wasn't as kind as Kirari, couldn't reach.

The place of his dreams.

"Nothing I can do…? To help you, Kirari, I mean…"

He at least wanted to assist her.

Although he was hopelessly weak, he wanted to be helpful in some way.

To leave an unmistakable, small proof that he had been there.

"I'll be happy if you remain here for a little bit longer."

Kirari said, moving her finger in the air.

"And… could you please spread this charm?"

Coatl Head—

The charm of dreams that could make any wish come true.

After saying this overly modest request of hers, Kirari smiled.

He furrowed his eyebrows.

He could understand her wishing for him to remain there.

Kirari probably knew about his and Momo's feelings since long ago.

Yet he couldn't understand why she wanted to spread Coatl Head.

"Coatl Head? Why'd you want me to—"

It happened just as he tried asking.

There was the sound of the office door opening and footsteps coming in the corridor.

The door was opened with a vigorous thud, and a girl showed herself in the living room.

It was Tanaka Momo.

"Momo?"

He immediately noticed her behavior was different from usual.

She was usually in a good mood, but now looked like she was about to cry. Her shoulders were shaking and large droplets appeared in the corners of her eyes.

"Momo-chan—"

"Turn on the TV…"

Momo mumbled.

When they still stayed silent, Momo grabbed the remote control. She turned on the living room's television.

"There were apparently other victims. We checked it today, but the number of incidents has—"

It was a news program.

It was probably drawn at some merchant district somewhere. The mark of Coatl Head drawn on the shutter of a shop was cruelly destroyed.

"—It's Mark Hunting!"

The female newscaster's shouting voice echoed in the office.

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