Mushi Uta:Volume 8 Prologue

0.00 Kakkou VS The Annihilators' Hakamori

"Himiko-san, Kabuto-san, Sakura-san, Yakugami-san, Yotsuba-san—"

A tense woman's voice echoed. Perhaps due to coming through a speaker, it was mixed in with noise.

He was wrapped in complete darkness.

The feeling of his teeth creaking as he gritted them and the agony piercing his body—even those remaining sensations were drowned out by the feeling of emptiness permeating his mind.

Filled with a sense of loss not unlike sleepiness, Kusuriya Daisuke tried slowly closing his eyes.

Yet suddenly, a ray of light irritated his retinas.

"After confirming the target, please initiate suppression."

A rectangular opening was produced inside the space enclosed by darkness.

In front of that blinding light stood five figures.

"Do not let your guards down no matter what. Your opponent is—"

A bestial roar reverberated from within the darkness.

Two eyes glowing in crimson floated in the dark, and a green glow was unleashed.

The beast clad in phosphorescence kicked the ground, charging toward the five people.

"Assume positions!"

A jumpsuit-wearing girl stepped to the front.

Her face hidden by large goggles, this girl held a hand hammer with an insect—a scarab beetle emitting a metallic luster—perched on it. Removing one of the cubes attached to her hair, the girl flung it ahead.

Swinging the hammer, she hit the cube while it was in air.

The next moment, the cube changed form to a large net. It attempted to cover the beast.

The beast howled. Evading it with a step to the side at a sharp angle, it tried ramming into the five people.

"If we're unable to hit him with the first attack, our chances of victory are slim."

Advancing forward with a calm voice was a boy clad in a pitch-black long coat. A giant rhinoceros beetle appeared at his back and flapped its wings, stopping the beast's movements with a roaring gale.

Catching a ride on the wind, two figures leapt to the air, landing in front of the beast.

"That's some nice wind there."

"Poisonous Kick!"

A boy wearing battered, rusted goggles held his arm toward the beast. From it gushed out a grey shadow transforming into a sharp shape, attempting to stab the beast.

Coordinating her attacks with the gray boy, the girl with a red cross on her back rotated her body. She launched a nimble reverse roundhouse kick.

Yet both attacks cut through empty air.

The beast jumped backwards after bending its body, dodging the blows.

"Now, Himiko-san!"

The long-haired girl waiting at the back raised her face. She raised her index finger and thumb in the shape of a pistol toward the airborne beast.

However, she simply bit her lips and stopped moving.

This momentary hesitation allowed the beast to make its counterattack. Immediately after the roar caused by the beast kicking the ceiling, the green glow swooped down like a meteor toward the rhinoceros beetle in a straight line.

"Gwoooah…!"

The boy's cry of pain reverberated.

The beetle's body, several times larger than the beast's, was hurled back with a single blow. Its thick carapace pulverized from the impact, the beetle was sent flying into its host, even hitting the gray boy and the red-cross girl and launching them back a few dozen meters back.

As the beetle crashed against the wall, it rebounded hard. This reaction caused the ground to rumble.

"Kabuto-san, Yakugami-san, Yostuba-san!"

The red-cross girl moved beneath the rhinoceros beetle.

"Re-Revival Punch…! First-Aid Punch…! Healing Punch!"

The beast came to assault the beetle now wrapped in a white light.

Yet as the light disappeared, the three combatants stood up vigorously. Along with the healed rhinoceros beetle they all spread out, jumping aside.

While raising a howl, the beast glanced around the people surrounding it.

"Himiko… You idiot! Now we all have to—"

The jumpsuit girl—Sakura—lowered a folding-type kick scooter that she carried on her back to the ground. Readying her hand hammer with one hand, she rode on the scooter.

"Use our full powers!"

"We can't beat that sort of opponent while going easy on him, anyway."

Behind the calmly speaking Kabuto, the rhinoceros beetle's body swelled up.

"Looks like it needs a touch."

Gray scythes emerged around Yakugami who was standing in a natural posture. The countless scythes started flying freely about, swinging their keen tips.

"Enemies, allies, wounds and illnesses—I'll blow them all apart! Let's positively go!"

The red-cross girl held both fists in front of her chest. She readied her fists in a unique posture—probably some sort of martial arts—and they were enveloped in a white and black haze.

Yet among those who stood in the battlefield, only the long-haired Himiko just bit her lips without moving.

"Do you find it hard standing there? Are you afraid of the enemy in front of you? Or are you sad?"

Sakura, riding on the scooter, asserted in a low voice.

"What should you do at such time? You were supposed to have been taught that."

"…Right."

Nodding painfully, Himiko raised both arms. Her pistol fingers glowed in crimson and sparks began rising from her feet.

"—I'll fight."

Inside the darkness, the beast howled.

The five combatants rushed toward the beast as one.

Impact and tremors, roars and screams.

The beast moved around with a speed that made it hard to follow with one's eyes, swinging its arm covered in a green, glowing pattern.

Each time someone was blown away and another person entered the fray. The wounded ones were treated by Yotsuba, but the beast's movements and destructive power far surpassed theirs.

—…

Kusuriya Daisuke spectated their battle as though from a different dimension.

Although his body felt hot, his mind was terribly cold.

No—he just couldn't feel anything anymore.

Without even watching over the beast fighting against the five people, he tried to slowly close off his eyes.

"…Aaah!"

His consciousness barely managed to hold on due to the voice coming from the speaker.

Along with a howl, the beast raised its right arm transformed into a giant, grotesque jaw. Inside the jaw with red, glowing eyes, a wildly rotating bullet spouted raging fire.

"If he's able to shoot that, he'll blow up this whole shelter! Everyone, please evacuate… Oh, wait, but no matter where you run to…"

"Now's our chance."

Wiping the blood running from her mouth using her jumpsuit's sleeve, Sakura renewed her grip on the hammer.

"I'll fend him off. You all aim for the moment before he fires."

"Ehh? T-that's too reckless! Sakura-san, even you're not…!"

"You called us, the disciples of Asagi, for such moments, right? Let's pretend we're here to do some repairs to the facility. We're the only ones who can match this monster."

"B-but…!"

The woman's voice was drowned out by explosive sounds.

At the same time, Sakura flicked off a metallic cube with her fingertip. Swinging the hammer with the scarab on top, it struck the cube the instant before it hit the bullet.

"WOOOHHH!!!"

In front of the jumpsuit-wearing girl, the cube unleashed a blinding light.

The mass of flames launched by the beast and the hand hammer clashed.

Air burst and massive amounts of light tore through the darkness.

The explosive sounds beyond human audible range shook the entire shelter.

The energy embedded in the blazing bullet was dispersed to the surroundings through the cube. The shockwave blasting in all directions caused ripples on the floor, smashing it to pieces instantaneously.

In the deluge of the sounds of impact and destruction that almost seemed to create a silence, people started moving quickly.

"—"

The beast's arm, transformed into the maw of a monster, was pierced by the rhinoceros beetle's thick horn.

Daisuke grimaced with a twitch of his face.

The grey boy took advantage of the momentary opening caused by the beast flinching. In defiance of the downpour of debris he quickly drew near, using his scythe-clad arm to touch the beast.

Daisuke grimaced yet again.

"GAAAHH!"

The beast leaked out an agonized voice for the first time.

The spot touched by the grey boy was stabbed by his ethereal scythes in succession. —Or so it seemed, but a bending string like a whip freely extended around.

No, it wasn't string. These were dozens, or even hundreds, of scythes.

The beast strangled by sickles and chains was approached by the red-cross girl from behind as well.

Yet the beast immediately reacted. Forcefully ripping apart the chains, his arm struck the girl in the chest.

Along with a groan, the girl's body bent.

"…"

Daisuke distinctly grimaced.

Although he was supposed to have been merely watching the battle, he could clearly feel the girl's ribs crack.

However—

"Deadly Poison… Punch—"

Even while vomiting large amounts of blood, the Red Cross girl raised her arm. Whack, her blackened arm lightly struck the beast.

"…!"

The poisonous haze covering the girl's fist infected the beast. The green pattern over its entire body was being poisoned by black specks.

Himiko—Haji Senri—finally didn't abandon her part. She raised her finger toward the best, straining her voice.

"…!"

A column of explosive flames engulfed the beast.

His vision dyed in bright red, Daisuke's senses were dragged back to reality.

While feeling the heat scorching his body, he looked down to his right hand that was in the process of returning to its original form.

Oh, right—

Vacantly raising his face, he saw the five combatants looking at him.

That monster was me. Or maybe—

Along with his relief at reverting back from beast to human, Daisuke collapsed on the floor.

Maybe I've already turned into a monster long ago—

Even after the flames were gone, while Daisuke was lying face-down, he was unable to move even a single finger.

An insect covered in burns entered Daisuke's sideway vision.

It was a green checkered beetle.

Now that he had recovered his sense of self, Daisuke knew that this was no mere bug.

Mushi—

Having appeared in this country approximately a decade ago, those beings were named that due to outwardly resembling insects. Even at present, their origin and ecology were wrapped in mystery.

These Mushi possessed adolescent boys and girls, feeding upon their dreams and aspirations of doing something or becoming something. Those who became able to use paranormal powers through their parasite Mushi in exchange for their dreams were called Mushitsuki.

However, the government treated Mushi as nonexistent. Despite the fact that there were many eyewitnesses and reports, one cause for the situation behind Mushi staying unrevealed was also strict information control being carried out on the media and on civilians.

The ones in charge of this were the government agency known as the Special Environmental Preservation Bureau.

The organization that existed in order to monitor, capture and isolate Mushi as well as Mushitsuki—called the SEPB in short—thought of a method to deal with Mushitsuki, since even the army were at a loss against them.

By training and regulating the captured Mushitsuki, they would use them to capture new ones.

"…So we're still alive—me and you."

Daisuke mumbled with half-open eyes. The checkered beetle—the Mushi possessing him— shook its body as if displeased.

From the beetle's point of view, perhaps this was a chance for it to gulp down the remainder of his dreams all at once.

When a Mushi fully devoured their Mushitsuki's dream, the owner would die.

A host's death would also cause the Mushi's death, but very rarely there was the phenomenon known as Maturation.

The Mushi, released from its restraints, would gain exceptional power and become ferocious.

"Take the wounded to the medical wound while he's down! Oh, make sure not to touch Yakugami-san directly—"

The underground shelter, the isolation facility of the SEPB's East Central Branch, was in disorder.

The one directing them was the owner of the voice coming from the speakers, Goroumaru Touko. Although she held the position of the Acting Branch Director, due to her messy hair she exuded no sense of authority just like always.

The members brought in by Touko rushed toward the wounded five.

Haji Senri, having exhausted her powers and lying on the floor, was still fine.

Yotsuba had lost consciousness after breaking her ribs and was being put on life support. Yakugami had suffered heavy wounds from the wreckage, and Kabuto, who'd shielded his comrades along with the rhinoceros beetle, was fainted.

Among this gruesome scene, the one looking down at Daisuke with eyes full of pity was the jumpsuit-wearing Sakura.

"How miserable… so this is how the strongest Mushitsuki ends."

 Startled, Touko ran over to her.

"S-Sakura-san, head to the first-aid room as well! Your precious arms are…!"

The recoil following her defending against Daisuke's bullet left Sakura's arms so torn it was a hard sight to behold. Yet she only said, "If it comes down to it I'll use my hammer with my mouth," without any change in expression.

"He's currently like this and with signs of Maturation. …Shouldn't we just kill his Mushi and turn him to a Fallen before he starts Maturing, for his own sake?"

Touko's expression twitched with alarm.

"B-but that's…"

Fixing her slipping glasses, she wore her usual amicable smile.

"—We can't do that."

Contrary to her vague smile, she spoke clearly.

"He is someone that we still need."

"You're a bad person."

Spitting this, Sakura turned her body.

"U-umm, later is fine too, but could you please fix the shel—"

Sakura didn't even look at Touko while she spoke to her.

"Looks like she hates me, tahaha…"

Touko sat down, touching Daisuke's unmoving body with her fingertips.

"You're covered in wounds, Daisuke-san. Does it hurt? Obviously it does, tahaha. What am I even saying… sorry, I'd like to get you out of here as soon as possible, but—"

When she was left alone with Daisuke, her voice suddenly grew weaker.

He knew painfully well what she was going to say.

Daisuke had been in this state for a long time.

Ever since he'd fought with Oogui in his hometown of Shiou City.

Although he'd fulfilled his goal of saving his older sister, there was a hefty price. He had continually expended his energy until he reached Shiou City, and in order to repel one of the Original Three, those who gave birth to Mushi—the one called Oogui, he'd used his powers beyond his limits.

As a result—when he'd come back to the East Central Branch, he'd started losing control of his Mushi.

Under the pretext of punishing him for his rules violation, he'd been taken to this underground isolation facility. He had no idea how many months passed since then.

"…You were actually at your limit long ago, huh?"

Touko's voice shook. She desperately held down the wails about to burst from her.

"…"

Daisuke weakly moved the edges of his lips.

His limits—he went over them long ago.

Thinking back, there was the last Christmas.

In the fight against the leader of the Mushitsuki resistance group Mushibane, Ladybird—Tachibana Rina—the signs of Maturation had already appeared. The fact that he had been able to defeat Rina's Matured Mushi was only due to his Mushi being on the cusp of Maturation as well.

Ever since, he'd restrained his own power, being careful not to bring out his full power.

However, Oogui was not an opponent he could beat by holding back. Mustering his strength and just barely driving her back took everything he had.

Perhaps the fact that the secret had been revealed—Oogui's ability, concealed until now because it would only lead to further battle between Mushitsuki—also had an effect on this. Right now Touko had given a gag order to those members such as Kasuou and C, but before long everyone would know the truth.

He'd also heard about his former comrade-in-arms dying. The warrior Shishidou Inuko was the final person to have undergone her training the same time as him.

With all of this overlapping—

He couldn't get up on his legs despite trying to.

"But even so… haven't you said that you'll become stronger than anyone?"

Touko finally let a sob slip through. A tear dropped near his collapsed form.

"We can't win without you, Daisuke-san…"

His shoulders twitched.

"Daisuke-san…!"

Noticing Daisuke's movements, Touko's expression sparkled.

However—

"…Sick of this…"

His boss's face froze.

Since he'd been imprisoned in this shelter, he'd felt nothing but agony and emptiness.

How many days have passed since his Mushi started going wild? A month? Two months?

This went past the limits of a sixteen year-old boy. No, any human should be unable to bear that much.

His mind and body had both already broken.

Since he couldn't tell when he would lose his sense of self, he wasn't allowed to take even a step away from the shelter.

He could only see darkness around him, and his five senses told him nothing. He'd spent these days alone in fear and agony of being eaten by his own Mushi.

"What are you going to keep doing to me…?"

He wore an empty smile and groaned.

What Touko needed was the Kakkou who used his Mushi's power to fight.

Yet no one needed the current Daisuke, who could only writhe in agony—

"…Just end this…"

He felt Touko gulping.

"Kill either me or my Mushi…"

"Tha—"

Goroumaru Touko raised a strained voice.

"That's a joke… right? Daisuke-san, you'd never say such—"

"…Where's… Akatsuki… He's got a grudge against me, so he'll kill me…"

Touko went silent. Or more precisely she became speechless.

"Isn't this enough…?"

The more time he spent inside the darkness, the more he started hallucinating.

Starting with Tachibana Rina, all of the Mushitsuki he'd trampled underfoot until now clung to him, dragging him further inside the darkness.

Fighting, getting hurt, and using other people's dreams as sacrifices, he lived.

He lived for too long.

"You can’t—"

Daisuke widened his eyes.

Moving only his eyes to look upward, he could see that Touko was half frozen as she looked down at him.

"You can't just stop in place."

A shudder of fear passed through Daisuke's spine.

Touko crouched down, touching his body. There was a rattling as she did something to him.

What are you doing—when he noticed this, he felt another chill.

She returned his gun to his holster.

Even though he was at such a state, Goroumaru Touko was trying to force him to fight—

"As you are right now… you will definitely just tire and weaken."

Touko rose up and turned her body. She seemed to have also been slightly staggering, but while he stayed on the cold floor she didn't even turn back toward him, and was gone.

When his boss exited, the shelter's door closed once again.

While gazing at the darkness, Daisuke was now sure of something.

If he stayed here like this, he'd definitely be killed.

No—

Being killed wasn't as easy as it sounded.

He was going to suffer to the very end, getting beaten and hurting until he couldn't move every time he showed the signs of losing control, and finally—his supposed ally Goroumaru Touko would force him to fight to the death.

"Hah… Hah…"

Perhaps due to fear, he felt like he was suffocating.

As long as he was there, he wasn't even allowed to die—

"…!"

Suddenly there was the voice of something crumbling.

Although his body was paralyzed, he turned toward the source of the sound.

He could just barely see part of the floor destroyed on the other side of the darkness. Although this was a sturdily created shelter, it probably couldn't withstand the earlier battle.

"Uh—"

The slightest of openings, created in this perfectly enclosed space—

For Daisuke, this was nothing short of a miracle.

The security system monitoring the shelter had probably been momentarily paralyzed due to the battle just now. It appeared that they didn't know of the damage to the shelter right now, but eventually—no, in several moments, the repair system would activate and it might get fixed.

"Uh… Ugh…!"

Dragging his fatigued body, he advanced toward the hole in the floor.

His hand reached out and touched something hard.

It was his goggles.

For him to be able to keep preserving his mind—that was the reason it had been thrown into the shelter along with his gun. Having accumulated damage in his countless battles, he knew it had already stopped working.

He knew it was useless to him at the moment, but he had no time to remove what his hand grabbed.

He crawled on the floor while grasping the goggles, and entered the edge of the hole created on the floor.

It was apparently a passage made for cables. He could see a narrow path with electrical lines of various thicknesses spread all over.

"Nn…gh, ah!"

Flinging his body, he entered the narrow pathway.

I'll run—

That was all he thought about.

The days spent in torture-like pain denied Daisuke of the strength supporting him.

If I don't escape, I'll—

They would keep using him until he died.

He'd be brought back to the hellish days where he wasn't even allowed to die.

Just because he'd been branded the strongest Mushitsuki.

"…!"

A shrill alarm started blaring overhead.

Grimacing at the volume that nearly caused his eardrums to rupture, he kept crawling through the passage.

"Hah…! Hah…!"

Finishing the passage, he reached a vertical open space. There were countless cables along the square wall and thick wires hanging from above and below.

He caught his breath, noticing a box gradually rising beneath him.

It was an elevator.

His body moved faster than he could think.

"Ugh!"

Calculating the timing, he leapt down to the box. The sound of their clash reverberated, but the elevator didn't stop. Fortunately, no people were riding it.

It was obvious, but the empty elevator stopped in order to receive passengers.

When it did, he forced his body to move.

Expectedly, he jumped down into the narrow cable passage. He forcibly pushed his body inside one of the many ones that had been installed along every floor.

"Hah! Hah!"

He was a member of the East Central Branch. He was well familiar with the structure of the facility.

For that reason—he also knew that he had nowhere to run to.

All corridors people could pass through had security cameras. He also knew that there were harsh security measures on the exit that led to the outside of the facility.

Yet he couldn't help but run away.

Dragging his body using both arms, he ended up in front of a junction.

He kicked open the cover attached to the thin cables.

As he narrowed his eyes from the blinding light, he could hear the sound of flowing water.

It was a water pipe.

The drainage drained from below ground probably pumped out water to the surface. The cables coming here probably belonged to the lighting system of the corridor.

Perhaps from there he could—

There were probably hundreds of passages leading from the shelter to this place, including those for other cables. And there were also portions without any cameras. It should take them some time to determine Daisuke's escape route. Now that he had no strength in order to shake off pursuers, he could only cling to the small time he had been given.

From there, the reckless flight continued.

The foul-smelling sewage pipes were not only narrow but divergent, so he couldn't find the exit.  From time to time he fainted due to exhaustion, but woke up from the filthy water hitting him.

He kept going through the labyrinthine sewage system for a whole day; perhaps several. He was doubtful if he was still in Ouka City anymore.

Due to that, when the first sunlight in a long while hit his face, his mind blanked out.

At some point he stood at the exit of the pipe.

The scenery viewed from the pipe opening to a branched flow in a river was dyed in orange.

"Ha…haha…"

Even he couldn't tell if he was laughing or crying. Seeing this, what rose to his mind was the sunset painted by the girl who'd been his fake classmate last year.

"I wonder if… the scenery that Rina saw, was also like this…"

His body tilted as he mumbled. He fell down from the sewage to the riverbank.

When he reached out his arm to try and crawl out, he noticed what he was grasping.

Apparently he was still holding the goggles issued by the SEPB. He didn't know why. Perhaps he'd just lost the timing to let them go.

He tottered along the riverbank that was thick with weeds. His clothes were wet and dirty with sewage, so he couldn't even tell their previous colors. Obviously he had no money.

"…"

He fell onto the grass with a thud.

He ran away unable to withstand the pain and fear, but he had nowhere to go, nor any strength left.

He also couldn't think of anyone he could go to for help.

The ones who rose to mind were those people who'd saved him during his hard times.

The young man named Haji Keigo was unconscious and should have not yet recovered. His comrade-in-arms, Shishidou Inuko, had died, and the one who'd hit him and laughed countless times when he was worried, the spear-user girl, was—but even if she was there, she wouldn't even want to see him like this.

But when he thought of Haji Keigo, he also recalled some words he'd jokingly said once.

—I've met an amusing girl. If you're ever in trouble, perhaps you should try asking her for help.

And what had Daisuke said when Keigo said this with his usual faint smile?

—'It's none of your business', eh?

Having Keigo predict his words before he said them, he became sulky and ignored him.

That man could always read two moves ahead. Since Daisuke wasn't very smart, the young man's foresight aided by his intelligence seemed almost like a prophecy.

Had Haji Keigo predicted even Daisuke's current situation?

Although he was a liar and vague and would sometimes contradict himself, he was still trustworthy. If that man had said so, then there really was a person who could help him.

"…"

Rising slowly, he started walking.

If he just stayed there without moving, the East Central Branch pursuers would find him before long.

However, the Central Headquarters and other forces should still think he's at the East Central Branch. If he managed to escape his branch's search network, he might be able to run away successfully.

Recalling the place Haji had told him about, he raised his head.

If he remembered correctly, that place should be a town down the river from Ouka City.

Due to his fatigue his body didn't move like he wanted to. He felt as if many people were clinging to his legs. If that was true, than they were undoubtedly the people he'd hurt before.

Even so Daisuke managed to reach the grass around the main stream, and glanced at himself in the river's surface.

His filthy, exhausted and thin face was reflected there.

"There's no way I'd escape the SEPB with any sort of normal plan…"

If he just ran away, or even flew away, he would be discovered. And if so—

The sound of Daisuke falling into the river was drowned by the train on the railway.

The slow stream washed the lone boy along.

If seen by an observer, it would probably look like some tattered clothes were drifting by.

The sun sank and the sky became covered in stars.

The sounds of the insects buzzing around the river remained in his ears.

Before long the eastern sky became lighter, and the bright sun climbed up.

The old rag got caught on a rock jutting out from the water surface around when the setting sun started dyeing the sky in red.

By slightly changing orientation it would end up carried by the stream again—but an arm suddenly grabbed the rock.

"…Bfha."

He pulled his face out of the water. Coughing violently, he clung to the rock.

The water was quite shallow. After he rose up, he started laughing.

"I'm still alive…"

He had apparently lost consciousness for an entire day.

He exited the river while making splashing noises, looking up the highway visible in the distance. Seeing a signpost, he found out that he was close to his destination.

"Was it… the 2^nd district…?"

The goggles hanging from his downcast neck were dripping wet. He walked on the gravel.

Yet hearing someone else stepping on the gravel, he raised his face.

"…"

Seeing that person with the sunset at their back, Daisuke furrowed his eyebrows.

The legs clad in jeans stamped full of logos in English were long; the person was probably half a head taller than Daisuke. His body, similarly dressed in an English-adorned T-shirt, was thin. There was also a black ribbon wrapped around his elbows and wrists, restraining him as if by handcuffs.

But what caught Daisuke's eyes the most was the mask worn by that person.

Frankenstein—he was pretty sure that was the monster's name. It was a party mask, probably used to surprise people, in the shape of that patched flesh face.

"—Gh, uh… is that Kakkou…?"

Pained-sounding groans rose from within the mask. Daisuke couldn't see anyone around, but he didn't think the other person was speaking to him.

"That's why… you've brought me, here—"

It was the voice of a boy. With his shoulders shaking, he covered the mask with his hands as if trying to scratch it off.

"…Who're you…?"

A green checkered beetle landed on the grimacing Daisuke's shoulder.

"Name… I no longer have a—no, I'm one of the Annihilators… Hakamori—"

His appearance by itself was plenty bizarre, but the masked person's speech and conduct were even creepier. With his body trembling, he mumbled as though in fear of something.

The Annihilators—that term made Daisuke recall them.

The ones chasing after him weren't just the East Central Branch.

The Annihilators were the Central Headquarters' secret unit that viewed Fusion Types as dangerous and schemed to assassinate them in secret. He'd clashed with this unit's Mushitsuki many times in the past.

"…Fuhahah."

A muffled laughter was heard from inside the mask. It was a masochistic, cynical laughter—yet it was also mixed with the joy of finally finding something one looked for.

"I just have to defeat him, right…? That's our contract…"

A black something began to fill the surroundings of the man who held his own body while trembling.

Daisuke widened his eyes. He could remember the black mist-like thing the man was emitting.

It was of the same kind emitted by the Prototype Type he'd supposedly defeated by his own hands—Shinpu.

"Stop…"

While Daisuke shook his head in shock, the checkered beetle on his shoulder transformed explosively.

Instantly, the surrounding space distorted, swallowed by the black miasma.

Along with a tremor, several stone pillars rose from the ground at his feet. All of them engraved with numbers on their surface, these pillars looked like a line of countless tombstones. Furthermore, a shadow pushed the miasma aside as it appeared at the masked boy's back.

Reality was being cut out—being transformed into a space of a different essence.

Responding to the enemy, the checkered beetle's feelers stabbed Daisuke's skin, becoming a green pattern.

The masked man, Hakamori of the Annihilators, screamed as if unable to bear it any longer.

"—Lend me power, Diorestooooooi!!!"

The masked boy was clad in polluted miasma.

"I'll kill this guy and become the King!"

At the riverside transformed to another dimension, the two beasts faced each other.

0.01 The Others

Holding his broken goggles in one hand, he walked among the now silent buildings.

The sun had already set, and the surroundings were dark. His clothes were torn and tattered, and only the footsteps made by his lacerated legs sounded among the alley full of vacant houses.

"Kaha…!"

Having used all his strength, he kneeled on the hard concrete. Vomited bloody spittle dyed the dry ground.

"What… the hell… was that guy…"

His leaking breath had the scent of iron.

"Was he really a Mushitsuki…? No, that was definitely… something else…"

A beast.

Or perhaps—a monster.

As clichéd as it sounded, he couldn't think of any other expression.

Leaning against a wall, he wore a cynical smile while looking up at the stars. Both his mind and body have reached their limits.

"So that means I was still… more or less human…"

The battle against his opponent at the riverside was settled instantly.

Wielding power that even he himself couldn't control, the battle was like against a child. Even landing that miraculous blow took everything he had.

Taking advantage of the split-second opening created by his opponent, he made his counterattack—and shifted the outcome.

"…Thinking that I'd be in so much trouble just running away…"

What he actually shifted was the orientation of his body.

He simply took advantage of this chance and ran away from that place at full speed.

"Tch…"

His listlessly clenched fist was wrapped by something black other than the night darkness.

This black material—or rather miasma, that creepy mist, was bad news. If he lowered his guard he would be taken over, corrupted, and have his consciousness possessed.

"…No need to feel vexed, is there…"

Wearing a weak smile, he swung his hand. The black miasma dispersed and vanished into thin air.

He'd escaped from the SEPB, the organization that had detained him.

He escaped from the mission thrust onto him.

And he also tried to escape from his loss of control.

"…"

He should've grown stronger.

He had to grow stronger.

There was something he was supposed to do, once he became stronger than anyone—

But he started forgetting what that was—

"—Am I…"

He was just an empty beast.

Just a simple Mushitsuki coward who ran away from everything.

"—Going to die here?"

Vague fear started spreading in his heart.

I don't want to.

It's cold here. There's no-one here.

I don't want to die here.

At least give me some more time—

Just enough time to recall my dream—

It happened when he clenched his weak fist.

"—So, this is important. When you're doing a background check, you need to approach the target like this, not allowing them to notice you're tailing them, and then end everything just like that?"

He heard a voice.

His consciousness, on the verge of drifting away, barely returned to reality. By habit, he searched for the owner of the voice.

"So you're lacking in emotion, Kirarin. Of course, making a preliminary investigation is important too. In conclusion you need some taste, yeah!"

The voice belonged to a girl seemingly around his age, meaning a teenager. The conversation being carried out with a special way of talking while putting emphasis on the "yeah"—perhaps this was because he was tired, but it was incomprehensible.

At first he thought she was speaking with someone on a cellphone.

"Are you there, Kirarin? Oh no. I've been swaying around too much while walking, yeah."

Yet his ears also picked up on small footsteps other than those belonging to the voice's owner.

Apparently two people were talking together.

"…Ah?"

He heard a girl's surprised voice. Running footsteps approached him.

He vacantly looked up the owner of the footsteps that stopped nearby.

Illuminated by the electrical light, the girl who was wearing some distinctive uniform was looking down at him.

First he noticed the pink jersey adorning her torso. From the belt of her miniskirt hung a small case like that of a gunman from a western. On her head was a strangely-designed school cap.

"Hmm? Hmmmm?"

The girl stooped down, glaring at the boy's face. The pigmentation of her short hair was light, allowing him to see her neck. Her youngish face was lovely, but he couldn't understand the meaning of the letters "momo" painted on her check.

As if thinking of something, she pulled out an object from the case at her waist.

It was a marker.

Commonly known as a thin pen used to draw letters on white paper and such.

"It'll still be very beautiful even like this. Like some fantasy created by carving out a part of reality."

Muttering to herself, the girl suddenly pointed the marker at him.

He felt the cold sensation of the marker on his brow. With a serious gaze like she'd been possessed, the girl was running her marker all over his forehead.

He knew the pattern she was drawing from how it felt on his forehead.

"…"

It was a simple symbol consisting of an arrow mark intersected with two straight lines.

But he had no idea what that symbolized.

"Coatl Coatl Para Emile."

Finishing her work, the girl recited with a satisfied smile.

A somewhat warm yet mysterious sensation was born inside his chest.

Yet that was all.

The night's silence swallowed the deserted residential district.

There was the girl, who was smiling extremely joyfully.

And him, who was dumfounded by this and looked up at her.

That was his meeting with Tanaka Momo.

There was no nervousness, exaltation or anything else but a sour silence.

If any of them had any sort of predictive abilities, perhaps they would have described this moment in the most clichéd way possible.

Fate—

An awfully hackneyed expression, one that would get laughed at.

In reality, the two merely smiled at each other.

"…Naturally, even the Coatl Head charm doesn't help in this situation."

The girl's smile was strained.

He couldn't understand the meaning of her actions at all.

"Kirarin, Kirarin. We have an injured person here, so let's apply first aid."

After taking these weird actions, the girl finally reached a sensible decision.

The moment after he heard the voice seeking help, the silent footsteps moved quickly. The figure swaying from afar rushed to him as if sliding on the ground.

It was yet another young girl. Her slim body was dressed in the uniform shirt of some school. On the slanted bangs of her hair—cut downwards from left to right—she had a star-shaped pin.

The movements of the girl called Kirarin seemed skillful. Standing unperturbed near his filthy and wounded self, she checked his pulse, illuminating his wounds with a penlight she brought out.

Yet suddenly she raised her face in surprise. She looked around her.

The girl holding the marker flapped her hand.

"Nah, you don't have any nurse uniform. This isn't the time to be cosplaying, yeah."

The person called Kirarin looked a bit sad but returned to treating him.

"Police? Ambulance? Or should we splurge and call both?"

Seeing that the jersey-wearing girl pulled out a cellphone, he tried rousing his body.

Don't—

Letting the officials know of him would be bad. Yet he couldn't let out a voice from his throat.

"Don't move."

Kirarin spoke for the first time. She had a voice that could calm and relieve anyone who heard it.

"If you move too much you'll be in a state of shock—"

While speaking, she then saw the goggles he was grasping and widened her eyes.

"You're…"

Gazing at his face again, she said something unimaginable.

"Are you perhaps—Kusuriya Daisuke?"

This time it was his turn to widen his eyes.

Who was that girl? The names of possible organization rose to his mind in succession.

"If I said I was… what would you do?"

He barely managed to squeeze out a hoarse voice.

"Kirarin, d'you know him?"

"He's an acquaintance of an acquaintance—no, not really."

The girl called Kirarin grinned.

"It's the continuation of a past request… maybe."

The other girl put a hand on her chest. Perhaps intending to welcome the injured boy, she gave him a slight bow.

"Welcome to Handyman Kirari☆."

When she'd lowered her head, there was a small metallic sound from the girl's pocket.

"Striving to be reliable and quick, I shall help you."

Reflecting the electric lights, there was something shining in the girl's pocket.

A necklace with a vividly glowing golden ring hanging from it.

If his meeting with Tanaka Momo was a miracle, then perhaps this mysterious handyman being here was predestined.

Ikarino Kirari.

That girl, connecting Mushitsuki with those who weren't Mushitsuki, was the most suitable person to watch over the end of the Fusion Type Mushitsuki who feared his own power.

Notes

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