Mushi Uta:Volume 8th

Novel Illustrations

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Episode 29. The Hail of Dream’s Fall

What kind of people were Mushitsuki?

She began having this question ever since meeting with a certain girl and parting from her.

“Hello!”

A girl lay on a bed inside a dreary sickroom as if holding her breath.

Hanashiro Mari.

This girl was, at first, nothing more than her classmate.

She looked back at the one who came to visit her—Ichinokuro Arisu—and Arisu would never forget Mari’s face of surprise.

“Umm…”

Mari looked confused.

—Have you mistaken the room?

She looked like she wanted to ask this.

“Nice to meet you.”

“…Nice to meet you.”

Thinking back on it, that silly moment was perhaps the start of everything.

Arisu, who was a middle school junior at Horusu Seijou Academy, and Hanashiro Mari, who hadn’t attended even a single day of school due to being hospitalized since the start of the year.

As Arisu was the type of person whose body worked faster than her mind, she found it fun to talk with the cool-headed Mari. Since the only thing healthy about her was her body, she thought she wanted to do everything she could for her friend who couldn’t leave the bed.

Mari should have also thought of Arisu as a friend. Arisu could say with pride that she had no reason to suspect otherwise.

However, Mari had—abruptly passed away from her sickness.

The relationship between the two girls was unreasonably cut off right there.

However, Mari was a Mushitsuki.

The silver Morpho butterfly that used to be Mari’s Mushi now came to possess Arisu—and that was when she first found out that her friend was a Mushitsuki.

Mushi.

These were beings that feasted on the dreams and hopes of adolescent boys and girl, possessing them.

Those who turned people with dreams like Mari into Mushitsuki were called the Original Three. Other than Sanbikime, the one who’d turned Mari into a Mushitsuki, there were the supernatural beings called Oogui and Shinpu as well.

Why had Mari not revealed to Arisu the fact that she was a Mushitsuki?

Why had Mari left her Mushi to Arisu?

Wanting to find out the reason for this, Arisu sought the people called Mushitsuki.

I want to live—

Trying to fulfill such an obvious dream, Mari struggled without anyone knowing of it.

Having lost its master, her small dream walked alone, involving many other people’s dreams.

Arisu and Mari.

The journey that began from their meeting continued even after she departed the world.

So Arisu thought—

Part 1

“The sea!”

Wearing a one-piece swimsuit, Ichinokuro Arisu leaned over the guardrail separating the road from the white beach.

“It’s the sea!”

Clad in a t-shirt, jeans and a cap on her head, Saionji Ena also resolutely leapt over the guardrail.

“It really is the sea!”

Clad in an unusually rough style of a jumper skirt over a striped shirt, Kujou Takako climbed on the guardrail while minding her skirt.

“—Yeah, it’s the sea, I guess.”

Kusuriya Daisuke had bags hanging from both arms and his back as well as another one at his feet. He looked up the midsummer sun that brought sweat to his forehead while being forced to carry four people’s worth of luggage.

“The sea!”

The three girls raised a cheer together, kicking the sand toward the beach with its calm water.

Horusu Seijou Academy entered its summer vacation.

Welcoming their last summer as middle schoolers, Arisu’s group came to a summer retreat on the outskirts of town for a certain purpose.

Ahead was the gently curving beach and the sparkling sea reflecting the sun’s rays. Sandwiched in the road along the sea behind them was planted a vast windbreak. Also, in the far distance beyond the beach, there was a pure-white tower on the cape—an astronomical observatory.

The sea and the sun, the windbreak and the observatory.

Coming to this simple terrain, Arisu’s group had only one great goal in mind.

“Haven’t we come here not for the sea but for the meteor shower…?”

As Daisuke left a sigh in the road behind him, the three girls all leapt toward the approaching waves with their clothes still on.

Regaining their senses once they became completely wet, they changed to their swimsuits and challenged the sea again.

“The sea!”

“It’s the sea!”

“It really is the sea!”

“That again?”

Unlike the girls who stood still on the white beach, Daisuke mumbled this with a sullen expression. Regardless of what he said, though, he too was wearing a swimsuit.

“Come on, hold the parasol already, Daisuke! Protect us from UV radiation!”

Arisu looked up the shining sun, narrowing her eyes from the dazzling light. Her frilled bikini and skirt were polka dot-patterned and she had a small ribbon on her chest.

“Kusuriya-kun! How’s my swimsuit? Well, how is it? Come on, I can’t tell with you averting your red face, look at me properly—eek! Don’t look so suddenly! I’m still not mentally prepared!”

Saionji Ena, clad in a bold low-rise swimsuit, gave the uncharacteristically blushing Daisuke a body blow right in the pit of his stomach. “W-what am I supposed to do then…” The boy crouched on the sand.

“Err, Daisuke-san. This sunscreen does not appear to be the one I’ve brought… but if I don’t use one made in France my skin gets all chapped. Can you go back to the inn and get it for me?”

Kujou Takako, who had an especially adult style among his classmates, wore a floral design one-piece swimsuit. She used her fingers to poke him as he held his stomach and trembled.

“I-it’s not fun at all! Why am I the only one not to enjoy this! It’s too unreasonable!”

Daisuke raised his sand-stained face for a shout. As he also normally looked plain, he wore a commonplace boxer-type swimsuit. His sole distinguishing feature was the band-aid on his cheek.

“Oh?”

Ena, who hid her chest using her hands, looked toward the far beach and seemed to notice something.

“Weren’t we the only ones to rent this place? There’s someone there. Look, Arisu.”

As Arisu looked there, she could see two figures. Ugh, she grimaced.

“Y-yeah… there certainly are. Someone with blond hair too pretty for her and someone who looks sleepy.”

“The blond one’s making a castle—wait, no. Isn’t that a character from the tokusatsu show called Carnivorous Corps? I wouldn’t expect a complete amateur to create something like that.”

“Oh, the sleepy one’s swaying. She broke the sand sculpture.”

“Looks like the blond girl’s angry. Oh wow. She’s thrown the sleepy one into the sea… err, she’s not floating, is she fine?”

“By the way, that blond hair… it looks familiar. Oh right, it looks just that girl from the class next to ours, Mitake Anneliese—”

“I-it’s just your imagination! She’s probably a worker from the recreation facility!”

“Right! It’s rude to stare like that, so I don’t think you should mind it!”

Arisu and Daisuke hurriedly blocked Ena and Takako’s line of sight. Daisuke then reproached Arisu with a whisper.

“Hey, Arisu…”

“I couldn’t do anything…! They said they really wanted to swim!”

While deceiving Ena and Takako with forced smiles, the two whispered to each other. Behind them, the swimsuit-clad Kasuou—Mitake Anneliese and the form of Yomori Neiko who finally floated to the sea surface could be seen.

“O-oh, really?” mumbled the puzzled Ena, but was apparently won over by her excitement that they monopolized the entire coast. She spread her arms wide as though to hug the ocean, her eyes sparkling.

“Anyway, as expected from Chairman of the Akasegawa Group. She actually lent us this wonderful place so easily despite our short acquaintance! I wish Nanana-san was here as well!”

The one who gave Arisu’s group the chance to be invited there was the girl called Akasegawa Nanana.

Nanana worked as the Chairman for Akasegawa Group that had many companies under its umbrella, colloquially called the Akasegawa Foundation. She and Ena had apparently hit it off at some party and even now remained friendly.

This area was once bought by the country to be used as a recreation facility for clerks, creating vacation facilities such as hotels, inns and other related things. However, after being in the red it was apparently auctioned off and bought by the Akasegawa Corporation.

Hearing that Ena was looking for a place where she could pass the summer’s greatest event, Nanana had offered this beach. Also, despite the fact it was still in the middle of construction, she even provided some workers for the minimal support of lifestyle as a bonus, which was really generous.

Takako put her hands together happily, and Arisu and Daisuke smiled as well.

“Being able to use this place as our own just to watch the meteor shower really is luxurious.”

“It really is.”

“Feels way too big for just the four of us, though.”

The greatest reason for Arisu’s group to arrive at this land.

That was the Perseid meteor shower.

Just like its name suggested, a meteor shower was a phenomenon where one could see many comets in the sky. The Perseid constellation meter shower was especially famous since it could be seen periodically, but since this year it was anticipated that the viewing conditions would be at their very best, it became the talk of the town.

The peak of the Perseid constellation meteor shower, meaning the period of time most comets would be visible, was tonight. Arisu could probably also see it from her hometown of Akamaki City, but the best place to watch it from would be a spot with no obstacles in the sky.

“Tonight’s the real deal! But it’s the real deal now too, we can’t let a single second go to waste! Attack!”

“Yeah!”

“Eek, my swimsuit fell off! What am I going to do, Kusuriya-kun?!”

“Right, I thought you’d set up something like that! But you haven’t even entered the sea, so I think you’re being too hasty, Saionji-san—wait, uh?! It really fell off! Why?!”

The sparkling sun scorched the sandy beach.

Figures of four swimsuit-clad people playing around in the calm waves were shook by heat haze.

Racing inside the sea, playing beachball, chasing off some sneaky thieves (or rather Kasuou and Neiko) trying to steal the contents of their cooler box, eating lunch and then diving in the sea again.

Since these four hadn’t had a lot of opportunities to have fun recently, they got wild as if they saved it all up for this moment.

By the time the sun started sinking toward the west, Arisu announced to Ena and Takako that she was thirsty and came to the beach.

Coming back to the parasol, she found someone already there, lying with a towel on head.

“Ena’s calling you, Daisuke.”

“…I’ll go, if you stop her from sexually harassing me.”

A boy’s low voice could be heard from beneath the towel. It was completely different from when he acted out a “normal” boy in front of Ena and Takako.

“Even though you’re really happy…”

“…”

“Oh, you’re not denying it.”

“I’m used to being hated, though.”

Sitting next to the disgruntled Daisuke, Arisu held her knees. She took out a carbonated drink from inside the cooler box and pulled on the tab. If Takako were to see her, she would probably say something like, “My, how slovenly to drink straight from the can.”

“When I’m faced with these kinds of situations… how do I put it, I’m not sure how to respond to them.”

“Hehe, I knew it wasn’t like you hated it—”

Arisu tried to laugh, but her strength suddenly left her hand.

“—”

Her vision blurred. She felt her consciousness being muddied as if something leaked from inside her body. The can fell from her powerless hand.

It fell atop the sand scorched by the sun and spread its contents—or so she thought was going to happen, but it didn’t turn out like that. The moment before it fell, a hand caught it from the side.

“Arisu.”

Despite hiding his face with a towel, Daisuke easily caught the can and called to her.

Her consciousness was brought back by the boy’s voice and Arisu started back to her senses.

“Are you alright?”

“…Yes, I’m fine.”

She turned her head, slightly forming a smile and accepted the can from Daisuke.

Rarely in the past there were times when her body didn’t work like she wanted it to. However, recently it wasn’t just her body, but even her consciousness nearly cut off. And the aftereffects also came much earlier every day. Daisuke obviously knew about this as well.

They knew the cause for it.

“I can’t just sleep like that. I want to play lots more.”

As she smiled and looked up at the sky, a silver glow flew into her sight.

While reflecting the setting sun, a lone Morpho butterfly danced in air.

It was the Mushi given to Arisu by her now deceased friend, Hanashiro Mari. Apparently, being given another person’s Mushi was unheard of.

“You too, Daisuke?”

She called toward the boy lying on the sand, but he made no reply.

Daisuke wasn’t just her classmate. He always remained at Arisu’s side to monitor her. He was also a Mushitsuki, and a combatant dispatched from the organization called the Special Environmental Preservation Bureau.

“You have to answer when your mistress calls to you. Are you listening, Daisuke?”

“I’m having plenty of fun.”

“Then look more cheerful! Arisu Chop!”

“Ouch! Damn, you’re so annoying!”

Daisuke swept off the towel on his head. His true face hidden by this cloth looked embarrassed to her. Seeing how stubborn he was, he probably didn’t want his face to be seen. Arisu smiled.

“Oh, so you are enjoying yourself. No need to be shy.”

“I’ve been telling you this just now! —And you’re the one not being honest.”

“What? What do you mean?”

“Can you really enjoy it? You’re the one who created this situation, so how can you smile all innocently. Really… it’s always like this, but I can’t follow your ideas.”

Arisu stared at him. She soon recalled, and then snorted.

Thinking about it, he was right. Everything that Arisu was attempting to do now was part of the plan that she herself had thought of.

However, she completely forgot about it.

Time spent with her friends who were as important as the late Mari was so fun, so everything else went out of her mind. Playing with her friends wasn’t the time to be considering Mushi, Mushitsuki or the situation she found herself in.

“Who cares about that right now?”

“Huh? Obviously you should—”

Although he was trying to argue, Daisuke immediately went silent upon seeing Arisu’s face. What expression was she wearing while looking at her two classmates playing at the water’s edge?

“…”

Kujou Takako fell. Since she lacked athletic abilities, her stamina probably reached its limits. Just like all others sons and daughters of the wealthy that attended Horusu Seijou Academy, she was a sheltered young lady, and Arisu heard that it took quite a bit of effort to have Takako’s parents allow this small trip.

Takako was also related to Daisuke appearing in front of Arisu. When Takako’s childhood friend became a Mushitsuki, the one sent to capture him to Horusu Seijou Academy by the SEPB was none other than Daisuke.

“Aren’t you overdoing it despite being scared?”

Daisuke said curtly. Since when had she started being able to feel his worry for her behind his detached tone?

Perhaps it was like this from the very start. He was feared among Mushitsuki as a demon, but Arisu knew that he possessed certain kindness.

“I’m not scared at all.”

She was thankful for him being the first Mushitsuki she met other than Mari. Although he always spoke as if he acted for the sake of his mission, he would save Arisu’s body and soul every day. Because she had his support—because he’d saved her countless times, even when she was about to give up, she rose again and again.

She also met a lot of Mushitsuki other than him.

Every such meeting ended up as a battle as if it was predestined. The same happened when she met Yomori Neiko and Kasuou who were now poking each other in the distance.

Yet now they were undoubtably her friends.

And not just these two.

At times fighting, at times hurting each other, at times even scared, those Mushitsuki—were definitely not her enemies. They might have been, once, but they also managed to hold hands again.

“After all, I’m not alone.”

Mushitsuki were always fighting against something.

Therefore, even as Arisu threw herself into the battle out of her own will, she was definitely not alone.

However, even so—

In the current state, which shouldn’t have existed, which was impossible, of being bound by the fate of becoming host to another Mushi, which led to her exhaustion as well as the splintering of both body and mind—

The possibility that the now-deceased Mari remained within the Morpho butterfly, trying to overwrite Arisu’s existence—

The mysterious beings called Mushi—

As well as how powerful was the enemy they were trying to take down—

“I’m… not scared—”

Just by recalling these, her body shook on its own.

However, even that fear—soon vanished.

“—”

A warm sensation enveloped Arisu’s clenched, shaking hand. Another hand, filled with even more warmth that the sand scorched by the sun, grabbed her hand.

“You don’t have to bluff now, stupid Arisu.”

Daisuke said. Although his tone was as curt as always, something about his expression and voice was overflowing with small kindness that could easily be missed.

“I’m not bluffing.”

Arisu grabbed back the boy’s hand slightly sunk in the sand. With their hands held under the sand, couldn’t be seen by the girls playing in the sea.

“Look. —I’m no longer scared.”

Arisu often said she knew no fear, but she was actually always scared.

Dying was scary, and people close to her dying as well—just like when Mari passed away, she felt very scared.

She was scared of facing a difficult problem, and failing was also terrifying.

However, Arisu had many allies.

Right now, the warmth of a kind hand was erasing Arisu’s fear.

Therefore—Arisu was no longer scared of anything.

“I’m not wrong.”

Arisu raised her face again.

Ahead of her eyes was her classmate, grabbed by Takako.

Saionji Ena.

Starting with her friend Takako, the many problems involving Arisu and Mushitsuki finally reached her other friend as well.

Therefore, Arisu had decided.

“There wasn’t any right answer in the first place.”

Daisuke spoke.

“But—you forcibly dragged out the right answer. I can’t think of any other way to solve it.”

“…”

“I won’t grumble anymore. My mission and my promise to Hanashiro Mari, maybe even the promise I made some years ago… I’ll settle all of them.”

She felt him put strength into his hand holding hers. She looked at his face intently.

“W-what is it?”

“Say, Daisuke.”

Her eyes looking at Daisuke were serious.

Silence fell between the two.

Arisu and Daisuke stared at each other for a while—and, finally making up her mind, Arisu spoke.

“You really are a womanizer, Daisuke.”

Daisuke blushed. He hurriedly released Arisu’s hand and raised his upper body.

“Wha—”

“You’ve obviously attracted Ena, and you even seem to have some secret promise with Mari… and you even have Ayuyu and Erii. You’re too unfaithful. If you keep doing things to my friends, I can’t stay silent.”

“W-what are you talking about!? I’m not really…! Actually, I’m the one in trouble here! It should be obvious! No, understand it already!”

“Who’s the one you actually love! Answer me, please!”

“What do you mean, love? I don’t have—”

Something like that—

She thought he was about to say that, but Daisuke stopped talking. Although he looked like he wanted to say something, he averted his face.

“What is it?”

“What about you?”

“Eh?”

“Takako has her childhood friend, and Ena… she’s probably making a pass at me. —Aren’t you the only one without someone like that?”

Now that he said this, he was right. Both Takako and Ena had someone of the opposite sex they were interested in.

She never thought this topic would come from Daisuke’s mouth. Even as she looked his frowning profile, the boy looked to be somewhat sulking.

“Are you still trying to be a girl despite that?”

“Despite what, exactly… if you’re talking about a certain body part, I’ll bury you alive.”

Reflexively hiding her chest, she spoke in a low voice.

It wasn’t how Daisuke worded it, but Arisu too wanted to be a normal middle schooler. It wasn’t like she had no interest in romance, and there were times she was conscious of the other sex.

Right now, sitting next to Daisuke on the beach like that led to a certain thought—

What she could feel so naturally.

“I’m having so much fun.”

Daisuke turned to look at her.

“I have my precious friends, I worry with them, I’m helped by them—when I think I can make many more friends, my heart flutters.”

She had the friend called Hanashiro Mari.

She made her precious friends Saionji Ena and Kujou Takako, and had the strong boy called Kusuriya Daisuke at her side. Even if they weren’t there, she could feel the existence of her Mushitsuki friends.

“You’re obviously also one of them.”

As Arisu said this with a smile, Daisuke made a vacant, foolish expression.

“What is it? I won’t let you say at this stage that you’re just doing this for your mission.”

“I’m—”

Daisuke tried to say something but fell silent. He cast his gaze for a moment and a little while later raised his face. He wore a painful smile.

“Friends, huh. …Right, that’s true.”

“You’re answering vaguely again! If you have any complaints, how about ‘partners’ or something? Sounds much stronger.”

“Doesn’t matter whether we’re friends or partners.”

Making this offhand reply, he lay on the sand again. Arisu clenched her fist to hit him again, but when she saw his expression, her thoughts stopped.

“I’ll become whichever you choose.”

Daisuke was also smiling happily.

“Yeah…”

Lowering her fist, Arisu found herself smiling as well.

“You’re finally an obedient slave.”

“Hey, there were only two choices there.”

Arisu smiled.

“Say, Daisuke. —Can you tell me about that Fuyuhotaru girl already?”

Arisu’s question was apparently a surprise attack. Daisuke’s face twitched.

Every time she used the keyword “Fuyuhotaru” he would grow silent and make a face as if he was enduring something. Just like he was now.

“So you won’t tell me?”

The determination and unfathomable power Daisuke showed while he was fighting. She already knew long ago that the word Fuyuhotaru lay in their roots.

She wanted to know more about him.

As a friend.

And at the same time—as an equal partner.

“Got nothing to do with you.”

While turning over on the sand, Daisuke looked to the other side.

“It’s got nothing to do with anyone. Not only you, it’s unrelated to either Hanashiro Mari or the Morpho butterfly as well… so why do you need—”

“It’s something important to you, right?”

“…”

“Then it has to do with me.”

Smiling, she looked at Daisuke’s profile.

“It’s about my friend, after all.”

Silence fell between the two.

The sound of the approaching waves resounded loudly, and the sounds of Ena and Takako having fun reached them.

Daisuke scratched his head, seemingly hesitating.

However, before long—

“It really has nothing to do with the Morpho butterfly, but—”

Arisu smiled.

Daisuke spoke a little.

About his first mission for the SEPB.

The story about the large disaster that cornered the country and the boy who faced a single person.

Everything, just like he said, was events unrelated to what started due to Arisu and Mari meeting, but—

Arisu was finally able to find out why the person important to her was strong.

Part 2

The orange sun sank into the horizon, and the moon rose from the eastern sky.

The vividly shining sea fused with the night’s darkness, striking waves while reflecting the moonlight. She could feel the nighttime air had more salt in it than it did during the day.

At the coast in midnight, there were several sets of footsteps on the sand.

“So we didn’t need a flashlight after all. The moonlight’s enough.”

“I’m glad it’s so bright. We’ll be able to see the stars well.”

“Poor Kusuriya-kun, forced to carry all of it…”

“Hah, hah… four flashlights as well as midnight snacks and changing clothes and camera, and for some reason a pillow… if you pity me then at least carry your own—oh, everyone’s averting their eyes, so you’re not even going to wait for me. Haha, well, I don’t care anymore.”

All wearing rough T-shirts, Arisu, Ena, Takako and Daisuke (who was carrying several large bags) walked on the silent beach.

There were lanterns on the road along the beach, but perhaps it wasn’t being supplied with electricity, as none of them were on. Since the recreation facility was on the other side of the windbreak, the only artificial lights they could see in the distance were those of the observatory.

The observatory on the hill was apparently built during the time this was a communal facility. Apparently, it was used by the region’s university, and it obviously had function for observation as well as living facilities for the researchers. Since they were right there anyway, Arisu’s group decided to spend the entire night there.

“Do your best, Daisuke. We’re almost to the observatory!”

“You said the same thing an hour ago, Ichinokuro-san…”

“Sorry, Daisuke-san. I’ve never carried anything heavier than chopsticks.”

“I’ve seen you carry something heavier all day long countless of times, Kujou-san…”

“This is impossible… alright, I decided. Scold me as much as you’d like, Kusuriya-kun!”

“I can’t do it, not responding to Saionji-san’s expectant eyes is the minimal resistance I can do…”

With Arisu at their head, the four Horusu Seijou Academy students walked next to the water’s edge.

The gentle sounds of waves wrapped their loud conversation mixed with laughter and the pleasant silence that fell after they stopped talking.

Above their heads a sky full of stars could be seen. As if trying not to lose to the wave-rippling water below, the twinkling stars used the shining sky to present a great ocean of their own.

The happy stars cuddling next to each other in the night sky would begin to change their appearance soon.

Both the stars that were shining now.

As well as those who hid their glow.

They’d burn their lives at that instant, streaming down the surface with unprecedented brilliance.

Seeing the shiny, flowing stars, what would she think—

When that time would come, when she saw their lights—what would Arisu be thinking about?

She prayed.

She wanted to have beautiful thoughts that wouldn’t lose to the moment these comets burned out.

“—Aaah! I’m at my limits!”

The path of these four that moved in order was stopped by Daisuke’s shout.

“As long as no one takes their luggage, I’m not moving even a single step! If you still want to go, kill me first!”

Becoming desperate and yelling, the boy collapsed on the sand, looking up. Perhaps really tired, his tone while his chest moved up and down with ragged breaths was perhaps his true self.

Arisu put a hand to her hips and sighed.

“Geez, you’re so selfish. —Well, we have no choice, so let’s take a break here.”

“It’s almost time for the meteor shower to start. Oh, Daisuke-san, can you bring out the sheets from the bag? Enough for all of us.”

“Even if you don’t look at me with those wild animal eyes, my lap pillow won’t run away so relax, Kusuriya-kun! Ehe, you’re so greedy.”

“I’m telling you to carry your own stuff! Me? Am I the selfish one? —Wow, my body started arranging the sheets without me noticing! Come back to your senses, me!”

“Geez… alright, it’s fine like that.”

Seeing Daisuke punch himself in the stomach after laying out the sheets, Arisu drew back her brows.

Sitting on the sand, she lay herself back toward the sky.

For a moment her back felt cold as it touched the sand hit by the sea breeze. However, soon the heat that it accumulated from the noon sun seeped in and it became a comfortable bed.

The sheltered lady Takako was a bit apprehensive at first, but she exaggeratedly steeled herself and lay down as well.

Daisuke pulled in the sheets he was about to draw from the bag. Looking somewhat exasperated, he also slowly lay his back next to the three girls.

“…”

No one opened their mouth, as if they hadn’t been playful until then.

They didn’t need to speak.

They were all taken in by the sea of stars expanding above them.

As Arisu faced up, she could see nothing but stars, stars and stars.

What she was seeing.

What she was feeling.

Sharing those with all four there made her unbearably happy.

Arisu knew of no words to convey this unreasonable happiness, and felt she didn’t need to.

There was no need to pass them along.

They definitely already understood—

“So pretty…”

Everyone responded to Arisu’s words by sighing in agreement.

She was so glad she came there—

She really thought so.

It was definitely no mistake coming there with her important friends—

“Say, Ena…”

How much time passed?

Arisu’s mutter passed between the four people waiting silently for the moment stars fell.

“Sorry to keep you waiting this long—”

The words flowing from her mouth weren’t something she was conscious of.

The sound of shifting sand was probably Ena moving her face to look at Arisu.

“What me and Daisuke have been doing all this time—is over.”

“…Really?”

Ena’s voice was low. It was too sudden, so she was surprised.

Arisu too moved her neck, looking at the lying Ena’s face and nodded.

“Yeah.”

Ena’s expression finally moved. She smiled, looking happy from the bottom of her heart.

“Really? Really really?”

Arisu nodded again.

“Then we can all play again? Just like before, everyday—”

“Yes, right.”

She could hear a voice of agreement from nearby.

Next to Ena and Takako who surrounded Arisu, Daisuke also lay sprawled.

“This is a bit late, but… it’s really late, but I’m having fun too.”

The boy’s voice was calm—and was much more honest that even Arisu had heard before.

“Kusuriya-kun—”

“I’m dishonest, and never been kind to anyone… I was never someone who could be kind, but—I was happy you became something like my friends.”

“It’s not ‘like’, we’re friends.”

As Arisu said this, she could hear Daisuke make a small laugh. It sounded a bit abashed, so she realized it really came from his heart.

“I even thought that doing this—that staying here like this isn’t too bad.”

Ena gulped.

“So—I’ll stay here.”

A small change appeared in the night sky that swallowed the boy’s pure voice.

“I also want to stay here with all of you.”

A small glow.

However, it was undoubtably the first one.

A belt of light crossed the sky that only had stars in it.

“Rea…lly?”

There was also a change on the surface.

“I—”

Ena’s hoarse voice was trembling as she held back her emotions.

Part 3

Why had Saionji Ena begun to imagine herself in the future, wanting to become this or wanting to do this?

According to what Ena thought, she fell in love with a magical girl she saw on an anime when she was young, and she also wanted a brilliant profession like an idol singer she saw.

However, that time, she noticed that her surroundings were too blessed.

Succeeding in their business, Ena’s parents raised her in a large home, and since she was skilled, she could learn most things better than the average person.

By the time she understood that magical girls could only exist in anime and became better at singing than an idol singer, Ena finally realized she was just a bit more talented than other people.

By then Ena’s parents already paid her no heed. That was probably because they thought she’d be able to do anything on her own.

Even her beloved sisters didn’t spoil her. From their point of view, as ones who gave it their all to succeed in the elite course, Ena was nothing but a target of envy.

The sociable Ena had many friends, but they were all the same. The boys she dated lacked charm and felt inferior since she could do anything, and also distanced themselves.

Her girl friends were the same. They would at some point inevitably develop some complex regarding her talents, sociability, appearance and wealth, so she only got more friends who fussed over her.

There were also times she tried to fit in. During gym class she’d fall, get bad marks on a test, and act out a clumsy girl in front of boys. Thinking back on it, it was extremely nasty, but—in actuality her friends felt a discomfort, and grew further from Ena.

Then what should she do?

Should she just use her talents to the fullest and try to achieve more difficult things?

Vanquish evil foes and saving the world?

If there really was such an enemy, perhaps Ena could do that. She had the confidence she could brandish a sword better than any hero, and if she did, everyone would worship her.

However, for Ena, that was meaningless.

Even if it was a dream more difficult to achieve than being a magical girl or an idol, granting it held no charm for her.

If Ena said something like this at this stage, would her family and friends laugh?

But it was true.

Even if she had the power to defeat the demon lord.

Even if she had a hundred talents that made everyone jealous.

If she remained alone—it was meaningless.

If she didn’t have any people who were happy at her dream coming true alongside her, it would be boring.

Ena was a normal girl.

She was lonely and wanted to be with friends all of the time, and she was a scaredy-cat that hated complete unknowns like Mushi.

Even so, the only thing that anyone noticed was that she was more skilled than other people.

No one believed her.

If it only made Ena lonely, she didn’t want anything that anyone would envy like a brave’s sword—

This lonely Ena met with Ichinokuro Arisu right after entering her second year of middle school.

—I’ll refrain.

Her first impression for her new classmate was definitely not good. Perhaps something bad happened to this girl who rejected Ena’s invitation to make her this unsociable.

However, Arisu changed.

Although something painful happened, she decided to grit her teeth and face forward. Once she came in contact with Ichinokuro Arisu’s renewed brightness, Ena began to feel admiration and respect for the first time in her life.

Arisu’s way of living was straight. Because of that she got wounded, and there were probably times she wanted to give up. Even so she got up to her legs again and had the strength to keep going. Therefore, while Ena was too excellent and made other people servile, nothing about Arisu’s behavior changed from when they’d first met.

Even her classmate Kujou Takako became a large asset to Ena’s life. Meeting with this calm and unruffled girl, she started feeling for the first time that not all rich kids of Horusu Seijou Academy were bad. If that girl, who looked weak but had a strong core became an adult, she wanted her to remain pure and innocent, from the bottom of her heart.

Ena finally found her element, playing every day with her two friends.

When Ena got a perfect score in karaoke, Takako would calmly sing a 30-point song and have fun, and Arisu would put too much effort and break the microphone.

When Ena caught a large number of dolls in the game center, Takako would take thirty minutes to learn the controls and Arisu who didn’t manage to get anything would kick the machine and get yelled at by the employees.

The three of them would then fill their cheeks with a five-layered ice cream.

Without restraining themselves—without lying to themselves—these normal middle schoolers played together.

When she’d finally managed to get what she wished for—she met with Kusuriya Daisuke.

At first, she thought of the boy wedging his way into the paradise she created with Arisu and Takako as an enemy. She mocked him, exposed his faults, thought of driving him out and interfering with him.

She realized long ago he was imperfect. —Or rather, had he really thought that his horrible acting as an honors student would really deceive her? It was fun to see him frantically keep up his act, and she became more and more amused to see him flustered.

—Don’t worry, Saionji-san.

It happened during their mock date, when a Mushitsuki took control of the mall. The situation had been solved without her understanding everything, and Daisuke was hugging the shocked Ena while smiling.

When she noticed it was already too late.

Even the existence of Kusuriya Daisuke became someone irreplaceable for Ena. His normal form, which was mere acting—no, had he noticed? His acting of being flustered, angry and laughing became way too good, so wasn’t the act becoming much closer than his real self that he was trying to hide?

Therefore, she didn’t regret falling in love with the act of “Kusuriya Daisuke”. But making fun of him so much that he didn’t realize she was serious was a major failure, though.

These days of happiness had also the spice of romance in them.

“I—”

Looking up at the starry sky on the midnight beach, the first comet fell.

Inside her vision that became moist and blurry she saw yet another new light.

And another.

And another.

The number of comets increased.

The Perseid constellation meteor shower—started.

“I also…”

Unable to withstand it, Ena used both hands to hide her tearing face while still lying on the sand.

More and more comets kept streaming.

The beautiful stars that left trails of light behind them.

That sight was breathtakingly beautiful—but Ena gained something much more important.

“I also—”

Ichinokuro Arisu returned.

Kujou Takako was at her side.

Kusuriya Daisuke—promised to always be there for them.

“Want us to always—”

Admiring magical girls, wanting to become an idol singer… those dreams as well.

Even her part in saving the world.

She would let other people have those.

Because someone other than Ena would definitely make them come true.

Ena had something much more important now.

The important friends she met with the probability of a miracle were at her side.

While possessing talent anyone would envy, she was nothing more than a normal girl.

She was just lonely and scared, so the dream Ena wished for from the bottom of the heart was as small as her—

An irreplaceable, precious dream.

“I want us to always be together…!”

The night sky with streaming stars changed its color.

It wasn’t like this due to the tears in Ena’s eyes.

It was just like dropping a drop of paint into some liquid.

The full starry sky was dyed in a vivid purple for an instant.

Neither the blinking stars nor the falling comets changed.

The night’s darkness that encroached the surface of the sky was simply filled with a purple glow.

This purple something that mixed with the comets was coagulating into a single spot in the sky.

“…Eh…?”

The purple glow gathered and formed—a woman’s figure.

The woman wearing round sunglasses floated in the night sky, her crimson coat fluttering—

“So you’ve come—Oogui.”

Hearing this calm voice, Ena came back to her senses.

“Kusuriya…kun…?”

At some point Daisuke rose up. From inside his bag that she thought had nothing but luggage he pulled out a pitch-black coat and wore it quickly.

“Sorry, Ena.”

The boy’s momentarily lonely smile vanished inside mechanical goggles that covered his face. He took a handgun out of the same bag as the coat and goggles and removed its safety device.

Daisuke’s voice became so low he sounded like a different person.

“This is the end—of my friend act.”

Ena’s expression froze.

“Daisuke!”

Arisu caught the silver rod that the boy threw to her. Swinging it as it elongated, Arisu reproached him.

“That wording was horrible!”

What was going on?

What was about to happen?

Unable to understand any of it, Ena froze there, her body raised. Takako next to her also looked surprised as she looked around her.

Along with a roar, an especially large star passed over Ena’s head.

No. —It was much too violent to be called a comet. It was large sphere of flames.

The mass of flames crashed down next to Arisu and Daisuke. Hellfire spread around, sending the sand around dancing. Appearing there and causing the approaching waves to be instantly boiled was a tall boy with his arms crossed.

“Haha, I was sick of waitin’.”

The boy standing imposingly as if he was some sort of king raised his scorching eyes to look at the woman floating midair. With his loose, wild hair and the tattoo on his cheek, not to mention the flames bursting from his entire body while he crossed his arms, the boy looked like a devil born from the flames.

She could hear sand being trodden all around her.

Ena reflexively turned around.

“…!”

She thought her heart would stop.

Although this road was supposed to be empty until now, there were countless shadows standing there now. Even now, more and more people appeared from inside the windbreak.

Leaping over the guardrail, a blond girl walked closer on the beach. She was clad in a pure white coat and even had white goggles on her eyes. This time, Ena didn’t mistake this girl.

“I left C behind just like you told me to, Kakkou. She’d certainly be nothing but a nuisance, fighting at this stage.”

She was Mitake Anneliese. Her belligerent smile that was completely different from the elegant one she showed in school was covered up by her goggles.

“You two, come to me.”

Saying this and grabbing Ena’s and Takako’s arms was a woman wearing the same coat as Anneliese’s. —She was the one who served as the vocalist for Ena’s favorite indie band, Yomori Neiko. Now that she noticed this, she only became even more confused.

The sea burst.

Giant waves rose up and shot at the night sky, unheeding of gravity.

The large amount of seawater swelled, creating a huge dome that surrounded the entire area. This transparent veil distorted the lights of the stars flowing in the sky.

“*Grin*. Leave the siege to me. I won’t allow her to escape.”

Yet another familiar figure managed to sneak there.

Since she’d asked her name later, she knew it. This girl who had a star sticker on her cheek was a student from another school called Kurisaka Ayuyu.

Obviously, there were also people Ena didn’t know.

“The warrior of love, Isa Himeko! I hastened here to join as the representative of teacher’s disciplesss!”

Raising an energetic voice was a girl wearing a cutely designed white coat. Her figure that had bat wing-shaped accessories on her back made her look like a little imp.

“Nihi. Since you didn’t call Ume-kun or Haruka-chan, does that mean you abandoned them, Harukiyo?”

Carrying a beautifully bound book to her chest, the girl who said this wore a twisted smile. She fixed the position of her glasses using her index finger.

What on earth was going on—

“Sorry for scaring you, Ena.”

As Ena was about to fall into panic, Arisu turned to her.

“I can’t explain what led to this right now, but—”

Leaving behind a kind smile, Arisu looked up at the floating woman. A silver Morpho butterfly landed on her shoulder.

“I’ll definitely protect you.”

With Ichinokuro Arisu at their head, Daisuke and the flame devil, Mitake Anneliese and the other boys and girls all formed a wall to protect Ena.

Standing stunned, Ena also looked above her—and shuddered.

The mysterious figure that Arisu and the rest were trying to intercept.

Rainbow-colored pupils that were visible behind the woman’s glasses were looking straight at Ena.

“Say—”

The woman’s mouth, dyed in a pure-red rouge, slowly moved.

“Will you tell me your dream?”

The woman’s charming smile overlapped with the night sky full of falling stars.

Part 4

Several weeks before.

At the observatory platform in the national park, when the lineup of the three strong Mushitsuki—Daisuke, Harukiyo and Rina was complete, Arisu told them of a certain plan.

If they were all together, it would definitely succeed—

She was convinced of this.

“Defeating Oogui—you say?”

The first to raise an eyebrow was Rina. The girl who controlled a large ladybug was beautiful even with her hair stained in dust and soil.

“My friend’s being targeted by Oogui. Right, Nanana?”

As Arisu turned around, the girl holding a cane that looked like an upside-down J, Akasegawa Nanana, narrowed one eye.

“Yahah. If you’re talking about Saionji Ena, there’s no doubt about it.”

“Not interested.”

Holding up his hair that was like rampaging flames, Harukiyo laughed it off.

“Why’d I gotta help save your buddies? Do I get anythin’ out of it? Hmm?”

“If you don’t intend to help then just being there would be enough, Harukiyo.”

“Huh?”

“Look with your own eyes and decide what to do on your own. But you should definitely realize—”

Arisu wore a provocative smile toward Harukiyo.

“In the end, you’re also a Mushitsuki.”

Harukiyo erased his light smile. While raising one brow, he spoke.

“Wherever I come, a ‘disaster’ always follows. I don’t give a fuck whether everything burns down, alright?”

“Do you think that these people gathered here are ones who’d be burned down so easily?”

Harukiyo looked between Daisuke, Rina and the other faces.

“—Ha. Hehehe.”

The flame devil leaked a muffled laughter and stopped speaking there.

“Isn’t that right?”

She asked the boy who maintained his silence, Daisuke.

“I know no Mushitsuki stronger than those people here. How about you?”

Clad in a pitch-black coat and his face covered by goggles, the boy opened his mouth—but sank into silence again without speaking.

They would never be able to hold hands.

Daisuke once said this.

However, that impossibility now became reality.

Hanashiro Mari’s Morpho butterfly attempted to make it come true.

It drew the strongest Mushitsuki together and made them look at each other’s faces, albeit awkwardly.

Even just them being in the same place was miraculous.

Therefore—

She didn’t think that hoping for further miracles was useless.

“It’s impossible.”

Finally opening his mouth, Daisuke spoke in a low voice.

“Even if we know Ena’s being targeted, we can’t tell when and where Oogui would come to eat her dream. Are we all going to stay around her all the time? Also, if Oogui appeared in the middle of town—“

Daisuke cut off his words and looked around.

The place that used to be the observation platform became no more than rough land. The surface of the mountain was shaved, trees were burned, and the exposed soil was piled up in all directions.

This happened because the Mushitsuki there all clashed for just a few minutes. If they used all of their powers inside the city, there would be an unimaginable number of victims.

“Never mind Ena, we might destroy the entire city.”

“Ena’s dream that I heard from Nanana…”

Wanting to be with her beloved friends forever—

So Ena said.

If that was so.

“I thought about it… but maybe the reason this dream has no concrete shape—is because of me and Daisuke?”

“…?”

“Oogui wants Ena’s dream, but she didn’t try to eat it yet. —On the other hand, if she’ll come to eat it someday, we might be able to summon her at that time.”

As Daisuke was puzzled and couldn’t understand the meaning of Arisu’s words, she turned to look at Nanana.

“Say, Nanana. Can you prepare some empty place? As spacious as possible.”

“If there’s any merit to me, I can give you as many as possible, heiress of the Ichinokuro household.”

While spinning her cane, Nanana spoke with disgust in her voice. Arisu calmly replied to her.

“You want to meet Oogui, right?”

“But you want to defeat that thing.”

“Then you can just bet on us failing. Right?”

Nanana shrugged.

“You have no intention of failing. —It’s written all over your face, you know?”

“Obviously.”

Arisu spread her arms and smiled.

“There’s no opponent that all of us here can’t beat!”

How stronger was she just from having Daisuke by her side? He was stronger than any Mushitsuki and saved Arisu from all sorts of crises.

And she now also had another Mushitsuki as strong as him, Harukiyo, there.

What would even be impossible for this group now?

Drawn by Arisu’s words, Harukiyo’s mouth slackened. Daisuke wore a sour look and Rina also had a complex expression.

However, none of them raised any objections.

And that—was her answer.

“Even if we do defeat Oogui, I don’t know what will happen after that? About us remaining Mushitsuki too…”

Rina spoke and her eyes changed.

“Also, I refuse to join this SEPB piece of shit. Even this pervert is better.”

Daisuke turned his goggles to Rina.

“This is my line. Her naivete will affect her allies as well. Even usable Mushitsuki will be weakened because of her.”

“Are you saying I’m weakening my allies? Can you please not pretend you understand anything?”

“They’ll become weaker just from thinking that they’re ‘being protected’. It’d be stupid to get us annihilated just to protect a single ally.”

As Rina and Daisuke glared at each other, Harukiyo went and grabbed their shoulders in a friendly manner. Apparently this older boy was very strong even when not using his Mushi, so they couldn’t shake him off.

“Still raising a tantrum, children? Isn’t it turning out kinda fun? Entertain me thoroughly. I’ll watch ya carefully, alright? Also, did you hear what she said just now, Kakkou? Apparently this hottie loves me more than she does you.”

“Don’t touch me so lightly, you pervert. It just means you’re my second most hated person.”

“It doesn’t change the fact that you’re a target for capture. If you want to watch something, watch out for stray bullets.”

Arisu cut in between the glaring Mushitsuki, grabbing both Daisuke and Rina’s hands.

They naturally ended up forming a ring.

“When we fight—Mari will definitely join us as well.”

At Arisu’s words, Daisuke, Harukiyo and Rina became serious.

“We’re all standing here like this thanks to her, after all.”

The many Mushitsuki called forth by the single Morpho butterfly.

That connection should have a meaning.

She would save Ena and defeat Oogui.

Also—

“Obviously, if it’s us we can do anything.”

She’d definitely also find the continuation of Mari’s dream—

Arisu had this premonition back then.

Part 5

Star kept streaming endlessly in the night sky studded with purple-colored scales.

Floating in the background of all the comets in the sky was a woman-shaped creator of Mushitsuki.

It was Oogui.

“Arisu!”

While resisting against Yomori Neiko that tried pulling her away from the battlefield, Ena shouted.

Arisu bit her lips.

Ena probably couldn’t understand what was happening.

Until just now, she was supposed to have been having the best time with her three friends.

Even so, the space that was supposedly theirs became a battlefield in the blink of an eye.

Arisu planned it to be so.

She kept preparing for this day in particular. Nanana offered this place to Ena because Arisu directed her to do so.

Although this was done to save Ena, she had deceived her friend.

She thought it was fine if it was to protect her friend, though.

Even so.

“Daisuke…!”

Why had he said something like that?

—This is the end of my friend act.

There was no way that was true.

When he said he wanted to stay there, those were definitely his true feelings. Daisuke also thought of Ena as his friend, and there was no doubt he stayed there to protect her.

“Don’t move your eyes from Oogui. If you lower your guard even a little, she’ll aim for Ena.”

Daisuke readied himself, but Arisu wouldn’t move her eyes.

“—I can’t make Ena’s dream come true.”

For a moment she saw Daisuke bite his lips.

“No matter how this fight tonight ends, I can’t stop in place yet.”

Arisu felt her chest being constricted.

His fight was not yet over. She just heard the reason for this from his own lips this very afternoon.

The Mushitsuki girl made into a Fallen by his own hands—while waiting for her return, he would keep on fighting.

“But Daisuke… is that fine? You actually want to always—”

“My current feelings don’t matter one bit. Because it’ll pain Ena even more.”

Daisuke put strength in his hand grasping the gun.

“Since I can’t make Ena’s dream come true, what I can do for her—is just protect her here.”

Saying this with a stifled voice, Daisuke raised his face toward Oogui. His profile looked pained to Arisu’s eyes.

“Idiot Daisuke…!”

Harukiyo sat on the spot, hugging his knees.

“Alright, as promised I’m having a first-row seat to this special show! If I feel like it, maybe I’ll follow someone’s lead!”

Acting all self-important to a shameless degree and deciding to watch silently from the frontlines, the flame devil turned to Arisu.

“Right now, there’s about 0% I follow you, though. Since I can’t even see that hottie around here, it’s quite the disappointment. If you wanna make me move, don’t disappoint me anymore, alright?”

Being glared by eyes burning with rage, Arisu couldn’t reply.

Harukiyo was right.

One of the most powerful Mushitsuki who should have come there was nowhere to be found.

“Rina—isn’t coming.”

Appearing instead of her was a long-haired boy, who approached Arisu.

“Just before we came here, we received information that a Mushitsuki child is being pursued by the SEPB. Rina headed to save that child. —I have a message from her.”

Aki, the boy who belonged to the SEPB but defected from it as he shared Rina’s ideals, spoke.

“’I can’t abandon any Mushitsuki in front of my eyes. —I’m sorry’.”

Arisu puckered her lips.

Knowing that one of the best fighting forces she expected would be missing, it would be a lie to say she wasn’t worried and disappointed.

However—it was very much like Rina.

If she abandoned even a single Mushitsuki, Rina would no longer be Rina. She would lose her strength and pride.

Unrelated to any other circumstances or fetters, she would use her full powers to rescue the Mushitsuki in front of her.

Because she was like that, many Mushitsuki were charmed by her and gathered at her side.

She couldn’t be brought there without distorting her raison d'etre.

Arisu smiled and nodded strongly.

“It’s fine, I understand.”

“Therefore—we came here instead of her.”

The gathering of Mushitsuki appearing one after another from the road or the windbreak were apparently Rina’s comrades.

“Rina hesitated until the very last moment.”

Aki passed his eyes from Arisu to Daisuke next to her. She could see a hint of hesitation in his profile looking his past comrade in arms.

“To be honest, I—no longer know what’s right. I betrayed Kakkou, left the SEPB and was supposed to create a place for Mushitsuki together with Rina. I do believe fighting you at the time was right…”

Daisuke glanced at Aki. However, without saying anything, he returned looking at Oogui.

Being ignored by his former comrade in arms, the boy wore a slightly sad smile.

“Now, though, Kakkou’s with you and even Rina wanted to come here. —You might think this is too late, but… I want to make sure. I want to understand why both Kakkou and Rina would help you.”

Arisu nodded.

“I know that.”

This fight couldn’t be done with the SEPB’s cooperation. According to Daisuke, the organization known as the SEPB was not motivated in fighting Oogui. They wouldn’t dispatch their combatants to a fight with uncertain results.

Therefore, including Aki, the Mushitsuki who did come to them were strong.

Also—she was even more glad at the fact that many Mushitsuki came there.

“Thanks.”

Arisu smiled.

Mari left her dream to Arisu, and Arisu wished to combine her powers with powerful Mushitsuki like Daisuke.

Finally, multitudes of Mushitsuki gathered there, brought by strong Mushitsuki.

They were connected.

The feelings of all these people brought by the Morpho butterfly.

They were definitely connected and kept expanding the ring—

“—”

Arisu looked up the sky dyed in purple scales and readied her silver rod.

Receiving Arisu’s gaze, Oogui moved her red lips with the streaming stars at her back.

“Such obstinate children you are. Really—”

Being looked by rainbow-colored pupils, Arisu felt a chill run up her spine.

The night sky that had comets in it tore into two.

No, that was wrong—

Appearing in the night sky was an outrageously gigantic swallowtail butterfly. It slowly extended its massive wings, spreading around a purple blizzard of scales.

“If you will stand in my way, I will not show mercy.”

“I won’t hand over my friend’s dream to the likes of you.”

The Morpho butterfly that landed on Arisu’s shoulder emitted a bright light.

Its body burst apart, becoming countless tentacles that fused with the rod. It instantly transformed into a spear shining in silver, and the Morpho butterfly’s momentum did not stop there.

“Mari—”

A tentacle extended from the silver spear. It wrapped around Arisu’s body, covering her entire body and permeating it in a silver pattern.

The silver pattern encroached one hand and one leg, as well as one eye through her neck.

The Morpho butterfly’s fusion brought welling power through her body. At the same time Arisu’s consciousness felt as if it was being drawn and crushed by something else.

“—You called me?”

Arisu’s mouth, with half her face covered in silver pattern, moved on its own.

“Arisu.”

A calm voice that was not her own.

That was undoubtably the Morpho butterfly’s true host—the voice of the late Hanashiro Mari.

Unlike the fusion until now, this controlling power violently assaulted Arisu.

The silver radiance emitted by the pattern blew away the purple scales covering the night sky. The Morpho butterfly’s pattern encroached her body even further and increased its glow as the surrounding air seemed to crackle. Sand danced around with Arisu in the center, and waves rippled on the sea surface.

“Mari—”

Grinding her molars, Arisu regained her senses. While grimacing, she glared at the floating Oogui.

“Arisu—”

Mari, who tried forcibly robbing Arisu’s consciousness, smiled using Arisu’s mouth.

The girl raised her spear clad in a silver glow high toward Oogui.

Arisu who was being encroached by the Mushi and Mari who came back to this world in pursuit of the continuation of her dream.

“Let’s compare our answers—”

Underneath the star-streaming night sky, the pair’s voices overlapped.

Part 6

Beyond the shoreline where purple glow and silver light contended, there was an observatory.

The half-dome openable roof was closed, and the lenses beneath it remained hidden. Originally it would have been used to greet this largest meteor shower, but its duty was left unfulfilled.

Arisu’s group was supposed to have arrived there, but now it was empty.

A lone boy casually sat on the zenith of this roof.

The suited boy sucked his cigarette, turning it down to ashes in one breath.

Without being surprised of the person floating in the sky.

While absently looking down at the beach—

Kuha, the boy exhaled pure white smoke.

Episode 30. The Slumber of Unforgettable Dreams

What are Mushitsuki?

Hanashiro Mari, who spent lonely days in her sickbed, always thought of it.

I want to live—

Since the grim reaper known as illness was at her side at all times, it was inevitable for her to have this dream.

She harbored a dream and became a Mushitsuki.

The one who turned her into a Mushitsuki was the being called Sanbikime.

It had a human form and spoke to Mari about what the things called Mushi were.

Mushi.

Those who possessed adolescent boys and girls and feasted on their dreams and hopes.

Those who made dreaming people into Mushitsuki were called the Original Three. Other than Sanbikime, who turned Mari into a Mushitsuki, there were the beings called Oogui and Shinpu.

For Mari, becoming a Mushitsuki wasn’t misfortunate.

In fact, it was very fortunate. By becoming a Mushitsuki, Mari had become able to freely run through the world outside the hospital, and perhaps her lifespan had been extended as well. The young man who was Sanbikime felt guilty about turning her into a Mushitsuki, but she didn’t begrudge him.

If she had any grudge—it was for her own fate.

Mari wanted to live, and yet the time left for her body was exceedingly short.

“Hello!”

As Mari despaired, a single girl arrived to her.

Ichinokuro Arisu.

Unlike Mari herself, who had begrudged this unreasonable world and already committed countless crimes, Arisu was pure and dazzling. She got in contact with her not out of sympathy but as a friend, so it didn’t take long for her to become an irreplaceable existence.

She believed that Arisu also regarded her as a best friend.

Between these two, things like Mushi and Mushitsuki were meaningless. Because she thought so, Mari never told anything about it to Arisu.

If Mushi changed Mari’s world—

Arisu changed Mari herself.

She wasn’t a lonely sick person, nor was she the cruel Mushitsuki called Hunter.

She became a commonplace, completely normal girl—the kind that Mari never stopped admiring.

However, even so.

She could never give up only on her wish to keep living, no matter what.

Would Arisu hate Mari for concealing she was a Mushitsuki?

Would Arisu begrudge Mari for deciding by herself to leave the continuation of her dream to her?

If Mari became Ichinokuro Arisu, she’d become able to gain a new life.

However, the only person who knew that “Hanashiro Mari” had existed was her friend Arisu. If she buried Arisu’s personality, the existence of Hanashiro Mari would vanish.

A new life or a proof that she lived as Hanashiro Mari inside a single girl.

These two competing wishes kept shaking inside Mari even after her death—

So Hanashiro Mari thought.

Part 1

Light rained above the midnight coastline.

One after another, the stars in the full sky drew lines of light as they fell to the surface.

The Perseid meteor shower.

In this night of falling stars, a girl’s voice echoed as though singing.

“Mari—”

Standing on the sandy beach with her two legs, Ichinokuro Arisu looked up at the sky. Grasping her rod shining in silver in both hands, the upper half of her body was covered by a pattern emitting silver light.

Arisu’s lips moved on their own, speaking in a different person’s voice.

“Arisu—”

Borrowing the body of her best friend, the girl who clung to her while supposedly having lost her life once—Hanashiro Mari.

Glowing wings flapped from the tip of the spear held by the one body with two personalities inside of it. These twisted, sharpened and became a spearhead spreading silver scales.

“Let’s check our answers—”

Arisu and Mari’s voices overlapped. Her trademark ponytail floated in air, and the blowing scales whipped off the sand on the coast.

Next to Arisu who readied her Morpho butterfly-transformed-spear were her reliable comrades.

The strongest Mushitsuki of the Special Environmental Preservation Bureau, Kakkou, aka Kusuriya Daisuke. Arisu’s partner who was stronger than anyone was clad in a dark coat, holding a large automatic pistol, and stayed at her side even now.

Wearing a bold smile and hugging his knees atop the sand was the flame devil, Harukiyo. Next to him also waited a girl hugging a thick book to her chest—the Librarian.

Kasuou, the girl of elegant facial features filled with fighting spirits was also there. The bat-winged girl who underwent her training for the sake of love, Isa Himeko, was also there. A self-proclaimed fortuneteller with the ability of past viewing, Kurisaka Ayuyu, was there as well.

The veteran combatant who controlled explosions, Aki. Arisu didn’t know his real name. He was leading some several dozen Minion-Type Mushitsuki.

Also—

“Arisu…!”

“Arisu-san—”

Wailing and nearly crying at the road near the coast were Saionji Ena and Kujou Takako.

These two were Arisu’s important friends who went to Horusu Seijou Academy middle school just like her. For their last summer vacation of middle school, they came to a place that had recreation facilities and an observatory in order to watch the meteor shower.

These two were not Mushitsuki.

Although they were being protected by the Mushitsuki and musician Yomori Neiko, they were completely unable to understand what was happening and were apparently confused.

The silver pattern on Arisu’s body encroached her right half as well.

“Now, Arisu—”

Her mouth opening on its own, Mari’s voice spoke.

“Tell me your answer.”

She looked up at the sky of falling stars.

More than a hundred Mushitsuki also looked at the same thing.

“Will you reject me? Or perhaps—”

Floating in the sky was a beauty in a crimson coat.

No—

Appearing there drawn by Saionji Ena’s dream was an inhuman, supernatural appearance.

One of those who ate boys’ and girls’ dreams to birth Mushi, the Original Three.

A monster in the shape of a woman with a gigantic swallowtail butterfly hiding the meteor shower at her back.

Arisu and the others called it—Oogui.

“Will you accept me and show me the continuation of my dream?”

“Will you tell me about it as well?”

Moving her lips that were red as if by a lipstick, Oogui whispered at her ears.

“I am interested. —How will you respond to the Morpho butterfly’s ghost?”

Oogui’s hair floated as if fanned by the wind. Her long limbs were raised toward the water horizon.

The scales pouring from the gigantic swallowtail butterfly hanging in the night sky whirled around Oogui’s fingertips. Starting with that, another gust of scales and another were created, slowly increasing in numbers.

The starry sky was covered in glowing whirlpools.

“After all, Ms. Ghost—you have no reason to fight against me, right?”

The coastline was wrapped in countless howls.

Whirls created by Oogui burst, transforming into Mushi with blurry outlines.

It wasn’t just around Oogui. The number of Mushi created in the entire night sky—was probably in the hundreds. These troops of purple Mushi that varied in shape and size filled the coastline to the brim.

“…!”

Arisu gritted her molars. Her arm gripping the spear unconsciously put more power in it.

She knew it.

Even if she brought a hundred allies, it was impossible to be at an advantage against Oogui.

That was because Oogui’s ability was—

“Why—is there the same Mushi as mine?!”

Raising a voice of astonishment was Aki.

He was a Minion Type Mushitsuki and could control lapis lazuli leaf beetles with an explosion ability. A purple-colored Mushi with the exact same shape was floating in air.

“Hehe…”

Protected by her own created army, Oogui narrowed her rainbow eyes.

“It’s not just my Mushi… Why are there so many Mushi I know here—”

Daisuke opened his mouth next.

“She can control copies of the Minion Type Mushi she created. —That is Oogui’s ability.”

“What—did you just say…?”

The agitation and shock included in Aki’s voice soon spread to his comrades. Most of them were Minion Type Mushitsuki—meaning, those made into Mushitsuki by Oogui.

Oogui could control all the abilities of those she turned Mushitsuki—

Arisu knew that, having had fought Oogui before.

Just like Daisuke and Kasuou, Harukiyo and the Librarian also had no reaction to that, so perhaps they also knew. Neiko, Ayuyu, Himeko and the rest looked surprised, but these Special Type Mushitsuki’s fighting spirits did not dampen.

However—

It caused a great deal of unrest among Aki and his comrades. Their commander Aki himself froze in place, and their unity was lost in front of the overwhelming difference in power.

Arisu bit her lips hard.

If this was the real leader of Aki’s group, Rina, who one of the strongest Mushitsuki, she was convinced she’d stand up even against that cruel reality.

It was a happy mistake that Aki and his comrades came there in place of Rina. However, at the same time it created a huge risk. The more people were there, the more chances chaos would spread among them.

“You guys! Calm do—”

Arisu tried raising her voice before it became a full-blown panic—

“—Arisu!”

The pattern on her face encroached the right half of her body.

Arisu’s consciousness was pulled away and Mari’s personality robbed her body.

Arisu—became Mari.

“Will you tell me your answer?”

Mari asked, using Arisu’s mouth.

“Tell me, quickly—”

She knew that Arisu couldn’t let her friend Ena become a Mushitsuki to protect her.

However, this meant—

It probably meant Arisu was rejecting the very existence of Mushitsuki, wasn’t she?

So did Arisu think even of Mari, another Mushitsuki, as something that shouldn’t exist?

“—Mari!”

The silver pattern receded toward the left side.

“I know that. But—”

Mari’s consciousness distanced itself—and Arisu’s personality came back to the body.

“Let’s start from your answer, Mari.”

The silver pattern transformed by the Morpho butterfly fought to steal Arisu’s body.

“My answer first…?”

“Yes, exactly. What do you want to do now, Mari?”

“T-that—”

“I’ve asked many people about you until now, Mari. There were many people who spoke about you as the scary Hunter, and some people said that you left me the Morpho butterfly to steal my body. Some even doubted you existed. Only Daisuke hadn’t decided anything, and was always watching over me, but to be honest—”

Arisu smiled.

“I always—wanted to talk with you like this. Even though we promised to meet tomorrow, you—”

—See you tomorrow.

The next day after this promise, Mari left this world due to her illness.

More than a year passed since then—

And Arisu was finally able to be reunited with her friend.

“Thank you, Mari. For keeping your promise. —I feel like I finally met you.”

“…!”

“So I wanted to hear this directly from your mouth. —I can believe your words.”

“Y-you’re planning to pick your answer after hearing mine!”

“I won’t do that, picking my answer after hearing yours.”

Arisu spoke calmly.

No, she didn’t even know if she was speaking with any voice.

Arisu and Mari’s conversation was passed between the two of them. In a world where only they existed and no one was able to interrupt them, the two girls faced each other, entwining their fingertips—

“I won’t… do that.”

Arisu repeated.

“—”

Mari couldn’t reply.

Arisu wasn’t the kind of person to wait for her opponent’s move in the game of rock paper scissors. Her best friend Mari knew that better than anyone.

“I—my answer—”

Mari’s voice distanced.

Arisu slowly opened her eyes. Apparently, she’d closed them at some point.

“I’m waiting… Mari.”

Mari was apparently undecided.

Mumbling whenever she tried saying something was Mari’s habit. At such times, Arisu would always wait for her friend to open her mouth.

Therefore, Arisu waited.

She slowly waited for her friend to bring out her answer. Just like she did in the past.

Because it was a tacit promise that they decided between the two of them—

“—Remember, you guys!”

Arisu opened her mouth wide, wringing out her voice.

“What painful memories you’ve had so far!”

Her clear voice echoed through the coast turned battlefield.

“How much you were hurt so far!”

All Mushitsuki including Daisuke turned to look at Arisu.

“All Mushitsuki are fighting, right? Because of that they feel pain and hurt others to protect themselves—they see their fellow Mushitsuki collapse, right? All while thinking that they may be next! It’s always like ever since you became Mushitsuki, right?”

Stabbing her spear glowing in silver into the sandy beach, she looked up the night sky.

“I’m not a Mushitsuki!”

Being protected by the swarm of purple Mushi, Oogui looked at the mortal world below her, sneering.

“Therefore, to be honest—I don’t want to fight.”

Her comrade Mushitsuki all made a stir.

“I mean, it’s really scary! I really want to run away right now! I don’t want to feel any pain and I don’t want to die! That’s obvious!”

This was her truest opinion.

If Arisu was there alone, she would’ve run away long ago.

“But all of you are actually the same, right? You’re scared, you want to run away, you don’t want to hurt and be hurt, but you convinced yourself to do it because you’re Mushitsuki, right? Nothing different from me when I’m not one, right?”

Arisu shouted herself hoarse.

“None of us want to fight! —We want to win!”

She glared at Oogui.

“We’re scared, we want to run away, we don’t want to hurt one another—but there is something we want! Something we want to grant!”

She raised her spear toward Oogui.

“Oogui’s strong and scary! I don’t know what’s going to happen even if we do manage to beat her—but we’ll still win! We’ll keep winning! If we do that, we’ll definitely get what we wish for.”

Arisu’s shout echoed throughout the coast.

“The dream we all want to come true is definitely—waiting for us beyond this fight we won’t escape from.”

The agitation vanished from all Mushitsuki on the beach.

However, they still didn’t put their legs forward.

The first step to participate in the battle.

The person fit for that role was right next to Arisu. She smiled at him.

“Right?”

The boy clad in a pitch-black coat, Kusuriya Daisuke, was silent.

However, just like always—he silently took a step ahead.

His reliable back, that saved her many times, became the frontline of Mushitsuki.

“Are there any people who called me a demon here?”

His low voice made all the Mushitsuki there go deathly silent.

“Someone scared of me? Someone with a grudge? Someone who hates me?”

The demon of the SEPB, Kakkou.

As he defeated more Mushitsuki and created more Fallen than anyone else, there was no one there who wouldn’t be scared of him. The silence enveloping the beach proved that.

“—That’s fine.”

The green pattern on Daisuke’s body emitted a bright glow.

“Just for today, I’ll fight with you.”

Looking up at Oogui, Daisuke asserted.

“Those of you who can imagine me dying here, you’re free to go.”

Until now he only fought with these Mushitsuki and they hated one another.

Although they would never agree with one another, now all their expressions were as one.

They were called by the Arisu, the girl who wasn’t a Mushitsuki, and the most feared Mushitsuki of all stood at the front.

Escaping this place—not even a single person tried to do so.

“Kasuou! Himeko! Aki! You know this, right? You all need to beat a hundred at the very least!”

“As if a hundred’d be enough for me!”

“Yes!”

Kasuou and Himeko responded bravely to Daisuke’s voice.

“Can we really defeat Oogui…? And if we do—what’s going to happen?”

Aki mumbled next to Arisu.

“I don’t know. But, at the very least—”

Arisu smiled.

“Starting tomorrow, no more Mushitsuki would be created. —At the very least, Minion Type Mushitsuki.”

“Yeah… that’s right.”

Aki smiled. That looked like a really happy smile.

“You were always so amazing.”

“Eh?”

“Hunter and Kakkou, and Rina and—”

The boy turned to look at Harukiyo, but the latter waved his arm, looking bored. The flame devil still didn’t seem likely to move.

“You’ve gathered so many powerful Mushitsuki here. When we first met, I only thought of you as someone misfortunate who was being possessed by Hunter’s ghost.”

“…”

Arisu neither affirmed nor denied Aki’s words.

Although she wasn’t a Mushitsuki, she used the power of Mushitsuki—

What could someone like her do?

What had she done?

She would now bring out the answer.

“Let’s go!”

Daisuke turned his muzzle toward Oogui.

The Mushitsuki all raised war cries.

“So you really are going to stand in my way?”

Oogui sneered.

Ena and Takako were stuck standing at the side of the road.

Arisu also readied her spear—

“—Arisu.”

The pattern appearing on Arisu’s body began encroaching her rapidly.

Arisu widened her eyes.

“Ma—ri—”

“I found—my answer.”

The silver pattern began dyeing Arisu’s body in the blink of an eye.

Inside Arisu’s vision, as her consciousness was being rapidly taken away—

The sound of Daisuke’s gun firing served as the signal to start the final battle.

Part 2

“—Are you reading that storybook again?”

On top of the bed in the sickroom that no one visited, Mari closed the storybook. Its title was The Magic Potion.

Raising her face, she saw Sensei was there. He was still young and wore a white coat, but rather than looking dignified, it made him look more innocent. After all, he wasn’t a doctor at the time but only an intern.

“…”

Before meeting Arisu, Mari felt sick with loneliness more than her actual illness.

She always stared outside the window expressionlessly. Mari didn’t know how to smile, how to be surprised at the scenery that never changed day from day.

Sensei too silently switched the water in the vase. Her main doctor was different, but as Mari was his first patient, he came to meet her, weaving the time between the busy times of his internship.

According to what Mari thought, Sensei didn’t fit the job of a doctor.

He was too kind.

He inserted too much feelings into his first patient Mari, and because of that he kept feeling guilt for what he’d done to her. —She couldn’t begrudge him as he forced himself to make this choice. That was the kind of man he was.

“A cherry blossom sapling is better, you say? No no, it ‘taking root’ in a flowerpot is a bad omen. You really are ignorant at certain things, Aria.”

Sensei mumbled to no one. As Mari turned to him, he held his mouth with a start.

“Oops, I spoke aloud again. This thing makes me look crazy to my peers. It really is a bother, geez.”

“Is Aria Varei still inside you, Sensei?”

Sensei was a normal intern. He was born, went through school, and finished medicine school. He had a family register and even a family.

At the same time, he was also—Sanbikime, one of the Original Three.

An inhuman being. A Prototype Mushi, a monster that created Fusion Type Mushitsuki.

He told Mari about it.

He said that Aria Varei was the Prototype Mushi called Sanbikime’s real name.

“Since he made me a Mushitsuki, isn’t he supposed to vanish?”

“That Aria. Such a liar.”

Other than Sensei being too kind, if anything changed in him at all, it was his somewhat otherworldly way of speaking.

More precisely, he himself wasn’t Sanbikime.

Sanbikime was a separate being that was residing inside him.

“’This irregularity’s the first time for me! I told you this already!’ —Is what Aria says.”

Sensei spoke to Mari. He apparently quoted the being living within him.

“…”

Being the first one seen by a monster and being made its receptable. Sensei was about as misfortunate as Mari—no, perhaps even more than her.

Even so, he was smiling calmly.

“When Sanbikime turns someone into a Mushitsuki, he separates from the host and goes to sleep until finding a different vessel.”

So Sensei said. Mari then took over.

“Then, the original vessel—loses their memories regarding those they turned Mushitsuki…”

“Both of us were hoodwinked. By this guy inside me, a crook that looks just like me.”

Sensei tapped his own chest with his fingers, laughing.

Sanbikime, Aria Varei, had no personality. Therefore, every time he was in someone, he would copy that person’s personality and communicate with the host.

Completely unlike the other Original Three that were Oogui and Shinpu, it was a troublesome system—apparently, this was what Aria had said.

“Wow, Aria’s greatly opposed to that. I can hear you even if I block my ears, so stop it.”

“So it’s irregular… because I was sick?”

“Aria thinks so. The moment someone becomes a Fusion-Type Mushitsuki, their body is remade. Therefore, he thinks that if someone’s body was abnormal from the get go and they become a Mushitsuki, it’d give birth to some sort of error. —Since you were reborn anyway, I wish your disease healed as well.”

His tone was half-joking, but she could clearly see the vestiges of guilt in Sensei’s profile.

—I’m sorry. What a horrible thing I’ve done to you…!

The young man had crumbled down crying only once in front of Mari as she became a Mushitsuki.

“I can’t ask for too much. If I hadn’t become a Mushitsuki, my heart would’ve stop when they tried to resuscitate me back then.”

“…”

“You’re not telling me that it was better for me to die back then rather than become Mushitsuki—right?”

“I can’t say anything anymore.”

The young man smiled.

“You can just decide yourself one day. Whether to forgive me—or punish me.”

He was already long resolved—

So was his way of speaking.

“The power of Aria inside me greatly weakened. Will he vanish or will he use his remaining power to create another Mushitsuki? If you want revenge, you should probably do it soon.”

Leaving the vase behind, the man spoke as if it was a joke.

“And Aria would lose easily to you. Not just Aria. Dio as well, obviously, but you might even be able to win against El.”

Shinpu and Oogui.

At the time Mari had no interest in the other Original Three. That was also before the young man had inadvertently let slip about the Undying Mushitsuki.

Right, that time.

Mari thought of it.

“—I’m jealous.”

“What?”

“Aria chose the Angel’s Potion.”

Changing forms.

Passing time.

Sanbikime would keep living forever.

For Mari, who was bound by an incurable disease, it really was the ideal.

“—I wonder if I could, too.”

Mari would never forget what expression Sensei had worn at the time.

He looked unbelievably stunned.

And more than that—he looked really sad.

“Is this Morpho butterfly my dream given shape? —It’s another me, right?”

As Mari reached with her hand, a Morpho butterfly came flying out of nowhere, glowing in silver.

“If so, then if I will leave everything to this Morpho butterfly—if I abandon this body, can’t I keep living inside someone? Yes, just like Aria.”

According to Aria, Mari was special among Mushitsuki. If she brought out her full powers, none would be able to stand up to her.

Since she was like that, then maybe, just maybe—

“This might be one method. If possible, you can try it. —But you know, living inside someone isn’t something like that, Mari.”

What was the difference?

Mari couldn’t understand the youth’s words.

“Remember this, Mari.”

That was around the time Mari just became a Mushitsuki.

After that, Mari came to know of the being called the Undying Mushitsuki—and with feelings close to envy, she spent her days looking for them.

“You’re going to suffer from now on, but please don’t lose sight of what’s really important.”

As she kept hunting Mushitsuki lying in Akamaki City, she became feared as Hunter.

“Aria was simply reborn like this, and doesn’t exist anymore. But you’re different. You’re living right here.”

And—she met with Ichinokuro Arisu.

The one and only friend to remember that the girl Hanashiro Mari had lived.

“You’re not like Aria. You’re not a being that doesn’t exist anywhere, nor anyone’s copy. The person called Hanashiro Mari is alive right here.”

Sensei spoke in an unusually powerful tone of voice.

“Keep being yourself and live.”

He was probably gone.

By now he was gone somewhere—he probably, just like he said, forgot about Mari and went to live a different life.

And Aria, just like he’d been programmed to, would gain a different personality and yield himself to his fate. Or perhaps he’d long since lost his powers and got erased.

After this, Mari had been thrown into the perfect solitude known as death.

“I… want to live—”

In her right hand was the Angel’s Potion.

In her left hand was the Devil’s Potion.

Holding both Potions in hand, Mari—

That day, she’d yet to understand the meaning of the words Sensei told her.

Therefore—

“Even if I become Arisu—”

Mari finally decided on the option that would allow her to regain a flesh-and-blood body.

Part 3

Spreading roars, the gun fused with the checkered beetle spit fire.

The recoil made sand leap from Daisuke’s feet, and the surface of the water’s edge was blown away in a circle.

“You sure haven’t learned your lesson, Daisuke-chan.”

The sneering Oogui’s round sunglasses reflected the lights of the night sky.

Forces of more than a hundred purple Mushi were hit by the unilateral firing of Daisuke’s launched bullets. Fire and lightning, all kinds of special abilities, were counterattacked by Daisuke’s gun and scattered.

However, in that time, Daisuke’s form vanished from the surface. His entire body glowing in a green pattern, the boy leapt, and while crushing the Mushi that blocked his way using his fist, he moved by leaping from Mushi to Mushi.

“—WOOOOOOOOH!”

Daisuke howled. Finally closing in on Oogui, Daisuke swung down his green-glowing fist toward her.

However, the moment before he hit, the purple Mushi jumped between them.

Along with an impact like the hit of a meteor, Daisuke’s fist blew the countless Mushi to smithereens.

“—Tch.”

Daisuke’s attack against Oogui was blocked just a step before hitting and he landed back on the beach.

“Hehe… I will fight all of you boys and girls after I have my dinner.”

Oogui’s rainbow pupils scanned the surface. Her eyes were settled on—

“—”

Saionji Ena. The girl who was being protected by Neiko along with Kujou Takako, now shook.

Oogui’s goal was to eat Ena’s dream. If she managed that Ena would become a Mushitsuki and Oogui would leave. That would mean the complete failure of those gathered here to protect Ena and to defeat Oogui.

The large crowds of Mushi filling the night sky began falling toward Ena.

“Don’t you fucking look down on me, you stupid insects!”

A large earthquake shook the beach.

Sand was blown away and the sea surface was evaporated. And—the purple Mushi were all instantly torn without any remains.

“No matter who comes near the great Kasuou, be they friend or foe, they’re getting themselves a new asshole ripped!”

The blond girl clad in a white long coat, Kasuou, howled. The black mist covering the girl with her sparkling blue eyes produced countless claws, knocking off the pursuing Mushi one after another.

“Mitake… Anneliese-san?”

Next to Ena, Takako raised a voice of astonishment. She probably thought that Kasuou, who’d infiltrated Horusu Seijou Academy as a monitor, was just a normal classmate.

“I fucking hate it that I’m suited for defense, but I’ll hold back just for today.”

Kasuou smiled elegantly at Ena and Takako.

“I don’t wanna admit this, but my ability’s much stronger when I devote myself to guard! I won’t let them touch even a single hair of yours! —ORAAAA!”

The flashing of the claws repeated alongside these war cries erased the purple Mushi. Further fulfilling their role to form a protective wall against the surroundings, they blocked the invasion of the pressing Mushi.

“Leave support to me! I’ll lower the number of enemieees!”

The bat-wings girl, Isa Himeko, shouted. She raised her index finger, thumb and little finger on her right hand, then held it aloft it as if she was a baseball player. A green-colored mist burst from her legs like a geyser. The spiraling mist became a green millipede.

“Yaaa!”

Himeko swung her right hand.

The intangible millipede ran through air, splitting its body midair. The many dozens of small millipedes struck the enemy Mushi like a shotgun.

The Mushi produced by Oogui raised a scream-like howl. Mushi captured by the millipedes lost their control and began attacking their comrades.

“Yaaa! Yaaa! Yaaa!”

Every time Himeko swung her right hand and then her left hand, many millipedes were shot into the air. Chaos sprouted between Oogui’s produced Mushi.

Even more attacks pursued the Mushi troops that had their advance blocked.

The small shadows falling down along with the meteor showers all exploded at once. The rain of explosive attacks dispersed the Mushi one after another.

“Now! Attack!”

It was Aki. Obeying the orders of the boy controlling lapis lazuli leaf beetles with explosion abilities, his comrade Mushitsuki began the counterattack. They started fighting against the Mushi created by Oogui’s scales, whether on the surface or midair.

“Nene! Leave Ena and Takako to Kasuou and start treating the wounded!”

“I know…”

Neiko who was next to Ena and Takako nodded at Daisuke’s command.

“Kororo! —You understand, right?”

Kurisaka Ayuyu, the girl with the star sticker on her cheek, smiled while thrusting out both hands ahead. She had covered the entirety of the coast with a dome-shaped liquid membrane in order to not let Oogui escape.

Daisuke nodded and turned his gaze.

“Arisu!”

Kasuou and Himeko, Ayuyu, Neiko, Ena Takako, Aki and his comrades, as well as Harukiyo and Librarian—all people on the beach looked at her.

However, she was unmoving.

The girl they’d been waiting for—Ichinokuro Arisu—was not there.

“…”

It was Hanashiro Mari there.

Mari, body fully clad in a silver pattern, stood like a statue while holding her spear, unmoving.

All of the people there didn’t know the existence called Mari.

There was only one girl who knew Mari in the truest sense of the word.

Therefore—

“I’m…”

Arisu.

Thinking about it, everyone there believed she was Ichinokuro Arisu.

The being called Hanashiro Mari was gone, she was able to escape the fear of death—

Mari could declare herself to be Arisu now, burying the personality of this body’s owner.

That was the answer Mari chose.

The sole method that would allow her to escape the fate of death and grant her dream to keep living—

“—No.”

Daisuke moved his eyes back to Oogui.

“Looks like you’re still Mari.”

Mari widened her eyes.

“How did you—”

“Arisu said she’d answer after you. So use your mouth to clearly say the answer.”

Daisuke asserted, readying his gun.

“I’ll hold out until your finish your answer comparison or whatever.”

Gunfire roared, and the blazing bullet erased several Mushi.

“Bastard, how dare you try to become Arisu and fool us right now!”

Mari turned back, her shoulders twitching.

“Hanashiro Mari!”

While shooting down Oogui’s Mushi assaulting, Kasuou shouted.

Mari became speechless.

“Hanashiro Mari-san…!”

Neiko, who used her ability to heal the wounded, raised her face. She looked straight at Mari’s face.

“Kakkun stands little chance to finish everything if he’s fighting alone. What will you do, Hanashiro Mari-san? *grins*”

“Don’t worry, Mari-san, until you find your answer I’ll keep fighting and fighting, taking care of at least some of the enemieees!”

“Hunter!”

Everyone who flung themselves into this mortal combat called Mari’s name.

They shouldn’t have known about her.

Nobody should have known about her existence, and yet—

“You have made so many friends, Ms. Ghost.”

Even Oogui looked down at Mari with a calm sneer.

“Hanashiro… Mari?”

“Are you the person Arisu-san told us about? Her friend?”

Even Ena and Takako called her name.

Mari’s heart throbbed.

When she was alive, this violent heartbeat was a sign for an incoming seizure. Along with her heartbeat quickening, the fear she supposedly threw away in the past was revived.

Right, fear.

Right now, Mari couldn’t understand the events around her—

“Why—”

Even as Daisuke tried facing Oogui again, he was repelled by all the Mushi cutting in. Although shedding blood from his head, he landed and stood on the beach as if nothing happened.

Kasuou who was protecting Ena and Takako leaked groans. Her mist was being shaved little by little by overwhelming long-range attacks.

“Why…!”

Himeko, who focused her whole power on attacking, was desperate in dodging the attacks of Mushi running on the beach. She’d already last one bat wing and counterattacked with her millipedes while her arms and legs were covered in lacerations.

Ayuyu, Neiko, and Aki were involved also in bitter fight. Other Mushitsuki comrades were also injured and being healed by Neiko.

“Why are you all calling my name…!”

In this battlefield full of screams of rage and Mushi howls, Mari’s shout echoed.

However, no one turned to look at her.

They all faced Oogui, their faces full of belief.

“Why are you all… calling my name now!”

They were all called there by Arisu.

They were supposed to be there for Arisu.

Therefore—Mari would become Arisu.

Now that she tried to bring out that answer, they all believed in Mari’s existence and called her name.

“I’m…!”

Ichinokuro Arisu!

She wanted to shout this, but no words came out.

If she became Arisu, she could keep living with them.

Forever.

Without suffering from illness.

Just like Arisu did—she could live while surrounded by many people and laughter.

“I’m—”

However, if she did that—what about “Hanashiro Mari”?

She would lose her witness, Arisu, and not even one person who knew Mari when she was alive would remain.

No one came.

No one knew her.

In the prison known as loneliness, she recalled her own form living there forever and shuddered.

“I—am—”

She should have been fine with that.

After all, Mari was lonely in the first place.

Even if such a lonely girl disappeared, no one would notice.

Therefore, Mari thought she could easily throw away that name—

“Hey, Hanashiro Mari.”

Among the echoing sounds of destruction, a low voice that almost seemed to be too conspicuous clearly called Mari’s name.

“Ya really think you can just take it back at this point?”

It was Harukiyo.

“Don’t you go and fuckin’ avert your eyes.”

The man with a flame tattooed on his check apparently still had no intention to move. The Mushi that were trying to attack him were being burnt to a crisp by an invisible heat wave.

“You’re the one who’s called ‘em. Everyone here, including me.”

Being gazed by these flaming pupils, Mari gulped.

“I won’t letcha deny it, alright? Ya can’t say it was Arisu, got it? —Hanashiro Mari! Your Morpho butterfly! Your dream that ya couldn’t throw away! All of them summoned us here! Everything happening here is just a bonus on top of that! Don’t you fuckin’ try to take advantage of the chaos to pose as Arisu!”

Harukiyo’s rage became a flaming wind and was blown at Mari. The gale hot enough to scorch her skin raised her ponytail.

“—”

Mari became speechless and stood there paralyzed. She looked up at the battle unfolding underneath the night sky full of falling stars.

This was.

The battle that might decide the fate of the beings called Mushi, involving so many Mushitsuki.

A decisive battle that might turn the world into one where no Mushi were born anymore.

Was this a mere prolongation of Mari wishing for the continuation of her dream?

“Or are you right now the result of your answer?”

The flame devil slowly rose up. With just this movement, the Mushi surrounding him were all burned away at once.

“If so—then name yourself.”

Mari gulped.

“If you’re ‘Ichinokuro Arisu’ who reached her answer, name yourself to all of us.”

The girl who finished her life in the jail-like sickroom, Hanashiro Mari.

The lonely girl who’d remain in no one’s memories, Hanashiro Mari.

She shouldn’t have felt any regret about that lonely name.

Even so—

“—”

She was speechless as though her throat was clogged.

Daisuke averted his gaze from the silenced Mari. The lights of his goggles drew an afterimage in the air as he looked up at Oogui floating in the sky.

“—WOOOOOOH!”

The pitch-black long coat leapt high into the air.

Leaping on top of the flying Mushi, Daisuke charged directly toward Oogui. His face and arms were dyed in blood. If he drew back even once, he would be unable to stop the momentum of the purple Mushi. Since he knew that, he hadn’t received Neiko’s healing even once.

“I’m gonna support Kakkou-san!”

Himeko gave up on defense. Even while getting her shoulders cut by the assaulting enemies, she unleashed her millepedes, impeding the Mushi that stood in the way of Daisuke’s charge.

“Go, Kakkou!”

Aki’s explosions annihilated the Mushi trying to attack Kakkou. His comrades also erased the enemies standing in Daisuke’s path.

The distance between Daisuke and Oogui shortened in the blink of an eye.

This time, he would reach Oogui—

Everyone thought so.

“Hehe…”

However, all purple Mushi vanished from around the bewitchingly laughing Oogui at once.

“Wha…?”

Agitation spread to all Mushitsuki on the surface.

The Mushi born by Oogui vanished one after another as if with a receding wave—

“Have you forgotten already, Daisuke-chan? I have punished you once, have I not?”

The purple Mushi all vanished without a trace.

Purple scales bundled in front of Oogui. These coagulated and formed a single, giant Mushi.

That Mushi, with its body shaped like half a dome that sported seven spots—

Aki leaked a hoarse voice.

“T-that Mushi’s—Rina’s—”

The giant seven-spotted ladybug formed by Oogui with great momentum unfolded its winds.

Bzzt—with that shrill sound, the air of the coast was instantly compressed.

Daisuke shouted.

“KORORO!”

“*grin* Understood!”

Ayuyu entwined her hands in front of her chest and made a gesture as though she was squishing something.

The water dome surrounding the entire coast narrowed down its scope. The water film compressed, becoming a cage to envelop Oogui and the seven-spotted ladybug.

“Heh—”

Oogui’s bewitching smile did not falter.

The seven-spotted ladybug flapped its gigantic wings.

Light burst.

An invisible shockwave blew away Ayuyu’s water film without leaving a trace.

All the parts of the ocean that could be seen exploded. Sand rose up, and a surge of overwhelming destruction assaulted everyone on the surface.

“Kh!”

Mari promptly spouted scales from her spear, cancelling the shockwave.

“Gwoh…!”

Kasuou swelled her own mist. She used a claw to pull Neiko close, protecting her along with Ena and Takako from the shockwave.

“—"

“Uh—”

Himeko and Ayuyu, to whom Kasuou’s claw couldn’t reach, were unable to do anything and were blown away. They were swallowed by the sand and tall waves and vanished.

“Gwah!”

Aki easily flew in air, pounded against the breakwater separating the beach and the road. His comrades also protected themselves in their own ways, but many were unable to defend against the shockwave and were blown away.

“Shit!”

Harukiyo too assumed a defensive position. Spouting crimson flames, he protected himself and the Librarian.

The shockwave pierced the coast only for a second.

The dirt and seawater thrown by the aftershock became a fierce rain on the beach.

Mushitsuki’s groans enveloped the coast—

“WOOOOOOOOOH!”

Daisuke’s howl echoed underneath the sky full of falling stars.

He probably received the full brunt of the seven-spotted ladybug. Daisuke, who readied his handgun while being upside down midair, was covered in wounds all over. His long coat was ripped and cracks ran along his goggles.

However—he managed to get within firing range of Oogui.

He never thought in the first place that Ayuyu’s ability would fully defend against the shockwave. His goal was to weaken it ever so slightly just enough for him to be able to counterattack.

A bombardment sound shook the coast.

Splitting the sea and grazing the seven-spotted ladybug, a bullet wrapped in hellfire hit Oogui squarely.

The upper torso of the woman clad in a crimson long coat exploded with a roar—and shattered.

“WOOOOH!”

Daisuke’s attack did not lose its momentum.

Further bullets pierced the remaining half body of Oogui. These punched through the remains landed into the ocean, raising huge water pillars.

Gunfire continued until Daisuke fell into the sea.

“—Hah! Hah!”

Unable to even assume a safe landing and crashing right near the breakwater, Daisuke stood up vigorously. With water dripping from his hair, he looked up the starry sky.

In front of his eyes.

In the space that several seconds ago had Oogui floating there—there was nothing now.

On the coast wrapped in silence, Oogui’s remains were falling toward the ocean.

Piercing through this silence was Kasuou’s cheer.

“—Fuck yeaaaaaaah!”

However, only Daisuke, Harukiyo and Mari were silent. They stared at the remains of Oogui that were falling into the sea.

“—That’s not good enough.”

Mari mumbled.

As if in reply to her voice—

Oogui’s body falling toward the ocean stopped in air.

“…!”

Daisuke grimaced. Oogui’s body swelled and something purple shot out from the sea surface just like the eruption of a volcano.

Creepily writhing and gathering in the night sky—were a swarm of Mushi, each about as large as a finger. Hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of those tardigrades covered in carapace clustered together and in the blink of an eye formed a human figure.

Hips, chest, both arms, neck and head—like a video played back, the tardigrades took the shape of a woman. Even regenerating the long hair and the round sunglasses took no more than a few seconds.

“—Have I not already taught you that it’s useless to disturb my mealtime?”

A tardigrade hanging from her index finger, Oogui smiled bewitchingly.

“So this—isn’t enough then.”

Daisuke groaned with a hoarse voice.

As long as the Undying Mushitsuki existed, Oogui could not be defeated—

While knowing that truth, Daisuke bet on this small hope. Kasuou and the rest who achieved victory once couldn’t hide their shock.

“Can we finish this now, please?”

Oogui moved in air as though swimming in the night sky, purple scales gathering in front of her again.

These scales slowly took the form of a seven-spotted ladybug—

“Kuh…!”

Daisuke looked around her.

Including him, his comrades that remained standing were very few. Ayuyu and Himeko both were unconscious, with half of their body buried in the sand.

If they received the seven-spotted ladybug’s attack in such a state—

Only the word “annihilation” came to mind. At that moment, a cool voice echoed.

“Alright then…”

Stepping ahead was the book-hugging Librarian.

The girl walked on the sand, her braid shaking. Harukiyo still gazed ahead without even seeing her off.

“It’s a waste to use your power on that. Can’t you give it a break?”

“Sorry, I already like their story. It would be a waste to not let it continue a little bit more. —Do you remember our promise?”

“I do things properly. I’ll protect your collection my whole life.”

“Good. Since I’m going to use my full powers for the first time in a while, I should get the world’s best storage.”

“…See ya, Librarian.”

The Librarian raised her book. Although there was no wind, the pages began turning.

“Nihi. If you were to participate as well it would even more interesting, Harukiyo.”

While the Librarian wore a twisted smile, Harukiyo was silent.

Behind the girl holding her back was something like a haze shimmer. A large object appeared in empty space. It was a divine door with the engraving of an angel and a devil.

Another identical door also appeared behind Oogui in air.

Both doors opened powerfully.

“Let me show you my Library Room, Oogui.”

An antique chair came flying from the door at the Librarian’s back. She sat on it.

Meanwhile, appearing from the door behind Oogui—was a large monster. This fanged giant that could appear in some fantasy film hugged Oogui with its thick arms.

“How about a reading session, just the two of us? —Nihi.”

Oogui did not resist. She narrowed her rainbow eyes, looking like she enjoyed it.

The Librarian was pulled by the chair and Oogui by the monster’s arm into the door.

As the pair’s forms vanished on the other side, even the door itself vanished completely.

“You can take this time to recover, to fix your positions, whatever you want.”

Harukiyo’s low voice echoed at this silent beach that now had its enemy gone.

“Even the Librarian’s not going to be able to hold her for long.”

As Oogui disappeared, the seven-spotted ladybug created from silver scales also scattered.

The people who had a narrow escape from death all stood there, stunned.

The first to move was Daisuke.

“—Nene’s safe, right?!”

“Obviously! —Hey, don’t just stand there, get healing already!”

Kneeling from fatigue, Kasuou turned to her back. Since she was used to fighting, she prioritized protecting Neiko, who possessed healing abilities.

Yomori Neiko started. At the back of the girl who began singing in a loud voice, a cricket possessing healing abilities floated.

Considering his own wounds, Daisuke shouted.

“Don’t think about later! Anyway, heal with all you’ve got! Make sure you heal even a single person more as quickly as possible!”

The wounds of the Mushitsuki on the beach were being healed little by little. Himeko and Ayuyu regained consciousness and leaked faint groans.

“Once you can move, reassume your positions and get ready! We can’t tell when Oogui comes back!”

“Wh-what…? What’s that—”

Thanks to being protected by Kasuou, Ena and Takako were safe. Takako was silent as if she remembered something, but Ena wasn’t.

“What’s happening here…?”

“Stay over there.”

Daisuke asserted.

Ena’s shoulders twitched. Seeing her frightened face, Daisuke’s tone changed.

“I can’t protect you if you’re far, Saionji-san. It’s better for you to stay near us.”

“Kusuriya-kun—is that you? Really…?”

“If you don’t want to become a Mushitsuki like you hate—follow what I say.”

Daisuke loosened his mouth with a lonely tone. Yet he soon turned his back, his long coat flapping.

“Harukiyo!”

The pitch-dark demon turned to face the flame devil.

“You—you still don’t intend to act even at this point?”

“Don’t you fuckin’ order me, Kakkou. Wasn’t you who called me here.”

Harukiyo glared at Mari, enraged.

“You lot called me.”

Mari gulped.

“Hanashiro Mari could just pulverize Oogui, right? Just like Oogui said, this battle’s meaningless for Mari. I was called here by you to settle this matter.”

“…”

“However, Ichinokuro Arisu—”

Harukiyo smiled boldly.

“Being taken in by her words and dancin’ with her wouldn’t be too bad.”

An azure light crossed the night sky where the comets were falling.

“…!”

The wounded Mushitsuki on the surface all startled and looked up the starry sky.

A giant door opened in the air again. A blue heat ray broke through the door, raging in the open air, and flew out of the destroyed door along with a purple mass.

It was an object that had a human eye buried inside insectile compound eyes. Several of them were floating in air, emitting a bright heat ray from the eye part.

Appearing from within the door was the one who controlled these countless Eyes—Oogui.

The Mushitsuki standing on the beach all became agitated. Only minutes passed since Neiko started singing. Half of the Mushitsuki collapsed were still down.

However—

Not only the Eyes flew out of the door. Several giants showed their upper torso, clinging to Oogui.

“How stubborn—”

Oogui frowned.

Another door appeared on the beach. The seated girl returned.

“You are a bother for these ladies and gentlemen on a break. Please go back to your room—“

The reappearing Librarian no longer had her glasses, and blood was streaming down her forehead. Her left shoulder was gouged and her arm limped next to her body. Her braid came unfurled and her long hair was plastered to her body by blood.

“Nihi.”

Leaving this sublime laughter behind, the Librarian was sucked inside the door again.

Oogui too was being dragged by the giants back inside. The Eyes floating in the night sky became scales and vanished again.

It was only a matter of time before Oogui got unleashed—

They all probably realized that. Nene’s song increased its intensity and Himeko and Ayuyu rose up, swaying.

“Mari!”

Daisuke and Harukiyo looked at her.

Mari was standing in place, unmoving.

“I know that—”

Her expression crumbled. She bit her lips.

“Everyone needs Arisu—but—”

A sob leaked from the depths of Mari’s throat.

Daisuke’s expression changed.

“Move, Mari!”

“…!”

A black object spurted like a geyser from beneath Mari’s legs. Unable to fully evade this sudden attack, she was swallowed by the impact.

“Uhh…!”

Mari’s body was captured by the squirming, indeterminate object. With both arms and legs spread apart, she was being crucified.

“There’s no way… Oogui shouldn’t be hereee!”

Himeko’s shout brought everyone’s surprise.

The identity of the black object restraining Mari—was a swarm of black tardigrades. These were the exact same Mushi Oogui created when she’d regenerated her body.

The tardigrades crucifying Mari kept multiplying. They became a tidal wave and were trying to cover the Mushitsuki on the beach.

“So you’re here—”

A wave of heat washed over the coastline.

“Undying bastard!”

Harukiyo howled as hellfire rose from his entire body. This fire pillar that was as large as a high-rise building formed a tiger beetle with tusks of differing lengths made of flames.

The large swarm of tardigrades covering the night sky was pushed back by the crimson tiger beetle. The tardigrades kept eating the flames while their bodies were being scorched, contending in midair against the tiger beetle that kept burning them while its body was being eaten.

“—Don’t just decide on your own to gather SEPB members and fight Oogui.”

The tardigrades rose next to the crucified Mari. They transformed into a boy.

He wore sunglasses that had lenses colored differently and had a small braid on his temple. He wore a black suit, completely unlike his appearance that indicated his age as late teens.

This wasn’t the copy of a Mushi controlled by Oogui.

He was the true host of the tardigrades and the one once sought after by Mari, the Undying Mushitsuki—

“This is a rather large breach of the rules, Kakkou.”

Director of the Special Environmental Preservation Bureau, Ichiku Kimitaka, twisted his mouth to a sneer.

Daisuke lowered his body and readied himself.

“And if it is a breach—what are you going to do about it?”

“If you retreat right this instant, I’ll generously overlook it.”

“How kind of you. Even the great Director is going to forgive me breaking the rules?”

“It’s a special case. It’s because you’re a Rank 1.”

“What was that?”

Not answering the puzzled Daisuke, Ichiku glared at Mari.

“Hanashiro Mari. I’ll also give you a chance to choose—between the angel’s potion and the devil’s potion.”

The Librarian’s door appeared in the sky again.

Azure heat rays, flames, lightning and all sorts of attacks blew from within the cracked door. It blocked the roars of destruction and the howls of monsters, shaking the Mushitsuki on the surface.

Apparently, the Librarian and Oogui being enclosed in the different space was reaching its limits—

“However, a moment before death, you threw away the devil’s potion.”

Ichiku’s pupils sparkled. This inhuman light was piercing Mari.

Mari grimaced.

—You mustn’t be deceived by the devil camouflaged as an angel.

So the Undying Mushitsuki who told her that definitely was Ichiku Mikitaka. Since his tone of voice was so calm he sounded like a different person, she doubted it until now.

“You came fluttering back down through the Morpho butterfly, so you only have the angel’s potion at hand. —You should have fully drank it.”

“Uh…!”

The tardigrades restrained her even stronger. It took everything she had just to not let go of her spear.

“You can’t shake it off. You keep hesitating, as you’re nothing but the dregs of a dream. In order to retrieve your full powers from when you were alive—the only choice is to take full control of that body.”

Daisuke took a step ahead. Ichiku turned to him, glaring at him with inhuman eyes.

“Don’t move, Kakkou. If you really wish to rebel against the SEPB, I’ll eat you later, not leaving even a single hair behind. Just wait there quietly.”

“Rebel, you say? The SEPB’s duty was capturing Mushitsuki, supposedly. —Then extinguishing their origin, Oogui, should be a mission of the highest priority!”

“I did order their capture. However—”

Ichiku sneered.

“Ending the existence of Mushitsuki—I don’t remember giving that order.”

“…!”

Daisuke, Kasuou and the rest of SEPB members all became speechless. Aki and his comrades widened their eyes the same way.

“What—did you just—”

“Can’t you understand what I said? The day you understand will come. Blaze Class Rank 1, Kakkou. As well as Harukiyo—as long as you two continue being Rank 1s.”

“…!”

Daisuke turned to look at Harukiyo. The flame devil revealed his hatred, spitting out.

“So you’re giving me that Rank 1 designation bullshit. What an honor. I can’t wait for the day of flammable trash.”

“You also possess the qualifications to become a Rank 1. —Hanashiro Mari.”

Going along Mari’s arm, the swarm of tardigrades clung to the silver spear. They constricted the blade emitting scales.

“In the past, you were supposed to have wished for a new life. At the very least, not defeating Oogui.”

The streaming Perseid meteor shower.

The overflowing roars and impact that broke through the door floating in the night sky.

Underneath the flood of lights in the night sky—

“Right now, what do you wish for?”

The question of the Undying Mushitsuki, Ichiku Kimitaka, pierced Mari’s heart.

=== Part 4 ===

Mari would be able to defeat Oogui—

Sensei had told her so.

“I can defeat Oogui…?”

“It’s just Aria saying that. That you might be able to.”

It was the usual sickroom, where only Mari and Sensei were.

In times where she couldn’t sleep, Mari would often pester Sensei to tell her about Mushi and Mushitsuki.

In this dreary sickroom where time stopped, questions and answers were repeated—

This sight was almost like a small classroom.

“Because you’re strong and have an ability that can do it.”

“My ability…”

“A Mushitsuki that was born of the Original Three and yet can defeat those who are like their parents… Until now, nothing like that appeared. —Perhaps one never should have appeared.”

“…”

“It is a small ‘bug’ created from continually creating Mushi—and because it’s a defect, it will probably never happen again. Mushitsuki like you being born, as well as Aria not falling asleep…”

A defective Mushi.

An ironic Mushi, quite fitting for Mari who suffered from an incurable illness. However—

“So that thing is telling me to defeat Oogui?”

Since Mari was focusing all her efforts on living, Mushi and Mushitsuki had nothing to do with her.

Although she asked such questions instead of hearing a lullaby, Mari herself never thought about getting involved in that bloody world even a little.

“Are you telling me that’s my—duty?”

“I won’t say that.”

“Liar. Then why are you telling me that?”

“I just wanted to tell you to be careful.”

Sensei’s tone of voice was as kind as always, and calm to a stupid degree as always.

“Oogui still doesn’t know about you. She doesn’t know about your power. For us, a mere small bug in the system, we can live peacefully as long as we do nothing. However, if we try and do something—it would probably not end pretty for us. The bug will spread, cracks will become rifts, and the world where it’s normal for there to be Mushi might suffer a fatal effect.”

“…”

“If it becomes like that, someone trying to fix that will definitely appear. It might become a fight against people who’d try to fix the bugs and protect the world where Mushi exist. —If you don’t like it, then you’d better not use your ability.”

“…What do you mean that only I can beat her? That Oogui has a special ability?”

“Oogui has—the power of undying.”

These words probably went out of his mouth inadvertently. Perhaps he was stopped by Aria. She even remembered Sensei clamping a hand over his mouth, his expression shouting ‘oops’.

“Undying…?”

As expected, Mari leaned ahead.

“Meaning, they can’t die?”

“No, to be more precise it’s a bit different, but—err.”

“Hey, tell me. Oogui can use the power of Mushi she’s created, right? Meaning, there’s a Mushitsuki with the power of Undying?”

Mari, who always feared death, couldn’t miss the word “Undying”.

“O-oh no, it’s about time for your examination—”

“Wait! You can’t do that, tell me more!”

Recalling how desperate she was, she now felt even embarrassed.

However, at the same time nostalgia welled up as well.

Thinking about it—she recalled with a bitter smile.

That might have been the first and last time she scuffled with Sensei—

Part 5

Even if she tried to recall it, she knew.

For Mari, the important thing was not Oogui, but the power of Undying—an immortal flesh.

Right now, in the place of the decisive fight against Oogui, she was being pressed to decide.

Her answer—she had supposedly made it already.

“Do you understand, Hanashiro Mari? What your answer means?”

Ichiku Kimitaka’s tardigrades covered the Morpho butterfly silver spear.

“If you were Hanashiro Mari, who possesses the qualifications of a Rank 1, I’ll overlook it. However, if you’re that Ichinokuro girl—I won’t show any mercy. Since she’s connected to Mushitsuki despite not being a Mushitsuki herself, I’ll cut off her fate right here.”

If Mari wouldn’t erase the existence of Arisu right here, Arisu would probably try to defeat Oogui. Ichiku would never allow it.

Mari grimaced.

“I—”

The Mushitsuki who had Arisu’s body as a hostage couldn’t move.

Only a single person.

Daisuke alone saw Mari and spoke.

“You can answer honestly, Mari.”

—We’ll find you, the true Hanashiro Mari.

The boy who’d grasped Mari’s index finger and told her this was none other than the one looking at her.

“No matter your answer—Arisu will definitely accept your choice.”

“…!”

Mari widened her eyes.

I won’t do that, picking my answer after hearing yours —

Arisu said that, and Mari also thought she wasn’t that kind of person.

However.

In the end, was that true?

The girl called Ichinokuro Arisu would never do anything cowardly. Because she always went straight into the heart of the matter and hated shortcuts or distractions.

However, what about someone other than her?

What about her friend’s answer?

“That’s not fair, Arisu… you’ve been silent for a while now—”

By yielding her answer to Mari, she didn’t even try to take back her consciousness.

“You haven’t even blamed me once until now—”

To be honest, she should have begrudged her long ago. It was natural for Mari to be hated and loathed.

After all, entrusting the Morpho butterfly to Arisu was nothing more than Mari’s selfishness.

Even so, Arisu didn’t blame Mari at all.

“You’ve waited for my answer—”

What was that about comparing answers?

It was just like Mari’s friend she was proud of did back in that sickroom.

Whenever Mari wanted to say something and would get stuck, Arisu would for her however long it’d take.

She always waited.

To hear Mari’s answer from her own mouth.

And if Mari said that with her words, no matter what answer it would be—

“I knew it, rather than me, it’s Arisu who’s changed a lot…”

Even if anyone else would laugh at her as stupid.

She intended on nodding along.

She tried to cowardly wait for her answer until the very last moment for Mari’s sake—

“If you exchange with Arisu, that’s fine. Just like promised, I’ll see you off.”

A Fusion Type Mushitsuki just like Mari, Kusuriya Daisuke, spoke.

“Also—I’ll keep chasing you until I defeat you.”

He was the only one other than Sensei and Arisu who noticed her existence. Only he alone never doubted Mari’s existence.

He saved Arisu countless of times, but also secretly saved Mari at times.

If he was about to keep going after her—

“How fantastic.”

A life of eternal chase.

That wasn’t too bad—

She really felt that way.

“—”

Many Mushitsuki watched Mari biting her lips.

Kasuou was looking at Mari. She wasn’t sure how to regard this violent girl.

Himeko looked at Mari. The fact she stopped being a crybaby and turned strong was probably, fitting her, due to love.

Neiko looked at Mari. She always looked sleepy, but she loved her singing voice.

Ayuyu looked at Mari. That girl decided she was her rival on her own, and every time she approached her she said something mean. However, she didn’t hate Ayuyu.

Ena and Takako looked at Mari. These were important classmates and irreplaceable friends. Every day in school was fun just from their existence.

Aki and his comrades looked at Aki. They all treated Kakkou unlike Daisuke, but she wished for all of them to be able to hold hands one day.

Also.

Harukiyo was looking at Mari. Had he noticed that the expectation hidden in his blazing eyes changed into something completely different from when they first met?

“I’m sorry—”

All of her memories with them—were those of the girl called Ichinokuro Arisu.

They weren’t Mari’s—definitely not.

“I’m really… sorry…”

However—

Mari was at her side.

She was together with Arisu, taking the form of the Morpho butterfly.

Gritting her teeth, she leaked a hoarse voice.

“…ank…”

Hanashiro Mari was a lonely girl.

Was that—really so?

No.

She wasn’t actually lonely.

The lonely girl called Hanashiro Mari was no longer lonely when she died.

The girl called Ichinokuro Arisu had released Mari from her lonely prison.

Mari no longer remained lonely.

“—ank you.”

And now, thanks to Arisu, there were many people who’d call her name.

They would surely—remember Mari forever.

Her mouth agape, Mari shouted.

“Thank you!”

For gathering due to Mari’s invitation.

For going along with the lonely Mari’s selfishness.

In the end, she couldn’t even tell if she was really Hanashiro Mari as she was during her life. Perhaps, just like Aria Varei, she was a mere copied personality.

However, that didn’t matter.

Mari finally remembered.

“Thank youuu!”

Tears came gushing out of Mari’s eyes.

That time when, the moment before the light of her life was extinguished, she looked down at her best friend from the roof of a private house.

She had no regrets in her life.

Because Arisu was there, she wasn’t alone.

However—she did have a selfish wish.

She ended up embracing a new dream.

—See you tomorrow.

She wanted to live with Arisu tomorrow.

She wanted to protect her promise with her friend and live with her, even for a single day.

“Thank you—Arisu…”

The continuation of Mari’s small dream—

The lonely Mushitsuki, Hanashiro Mari, was full with happiness and surrounded by so many people.

Hanashiro Mari.

Now that she was no longer alone, that name was so lovely.

She couldn’t throw it away.

The girl who was no longer lonely, Hanashiro Mari, definitely lived in this world.

Starting with Daisuke, she smiled at everyone on the beach.

“Take good care of Arisu.”

The promise they made that day.

—See you tomorrow.

Mari’s wish—

Had already been granted.

“—So that’s your answer.”

A low voice echoed on the beach.

A sound loud enough to tear heaven and earth resounded, and the gigantic door floating in the night sky was completely destroyed.

Arriving from the other side of this door blown to smithereens—was Oogui.

“Goodbye, Hanashiro Mari’s ghost.”

Daisuke and Harukiyo kicked the sand at the same time.

However, faster than they could save her—the tardigrades were eating the silver spear.

“—”

All those there would remember the girl called Hanashiro Mari.

Mari, who was released from the cage of loneliness.

When the Morpho butterfly spear would get eaten, she would die for real this time—

She accepted it with a smile.

Part 6

A witch visited Patricia who was afflicted with sickness.

She said as such.

Here is a potion made by an angel, as well as one by the devil. If you drink the angel’s potion, you will lose all your loved one, but in return your sickness would be cured and you would live on. On the other hand, if you drink the devil’s potion, your illness will remain and you will die. However, you will always be remembered by your loved one. Now, which will you choose?

And so, Patricia replied like this.

I want the devil’s potion.

And the witch granted her request.

Thus, Patricia entered an eternal sleep under the watchful eyes of her loved one.

Even so, Patricia never felt lonely, for her loved ones would regularly come to visit her on the hill where she rests—.

A pleasant wind caressed her cheek.

The usual sickroom.

On top of the usual bed.

As Mari opened her eyelids, she saw a youth in a white coat standing at the window.

Sensei apparently came to visit her again. He was refreshing the room’s stagnant air. His familiar back was the most reliable thing and it relieved her.

Next to her pillow was her favorite picture book.

Touching Potion of Magic, the youth turned to her.

“It’s fine. I’ll stay by your side until you fall asleep.”

Mari smiled.

Today she also used her power as a Mushitsuki and ran around a lot outside.

She talked a lot with her friend Arisu.

With this blissful mood, she closed her eyes again.

Mari was soon enveloped in sleepiness and wandered into a dream.

There was a girl who knew a lot about Mari there.

Patricia stood there.

She extended her hand with a smile, and Mari grabbed it back, also smiling.

“Good night, Mari…”

While listening to Sensei’s kind voice—

Hanashiro Mari, the girl who chose to drink the devil’s potion while she was happy—

Ran inside the depths of the dream along with Patricia.

Episode 31. The Prayer of a Shining Dream

Running inside the light, she could see a back.

“Mari!”

Ichinokuro Arisu extended her hand, calling her now dead friend. With her ponytail shaking, she desperately chased after her, but she couldn’t reach Mari’s back.

Scared and saddened to be left behind, Arisu’s eyes became moist.

“Wait, please…!”

Hanashiro Mari stopped in place. Her long hair fluttering, she turned around. —Her face was unchanged from when she’d opened her picture book in her bed, and was very beautiful.

“Mari—”

Seeing her friend stand silently in place, she felt a lump in her throat. She had too many things to ask and didn’t know where to start from.

Did you find the answer?

What sort of answer is it?

Will you stay with me from now on?

Will you watch the continuation of your dream with me?

“—Thanks, Arisu.”

Arisu widened her eyes.

Mari’s smile was bright.

“If you—and all the others—remember me, I’m no longer scared.”

“Eh…?”

“Can I ask you again?”

Looking back at the stunned Arisu, Mari faintly craned her neck.

“’Can I leave my dream to you?’”

The words Mari told her in the sickroom that day.

Thinking back, that was the start of everything.

Of Mari’s life.

Her dream.

Her doubts.

This single question packed all of Mari’s feelings inside it.

At the time Arisu couldn’t answer anything. She couldn’t understand the meaning of Mari’s words.

And—fate was twisted.

Mari was supposed to have passed away from this world, but resided within her Mushi the Morpho butterfly and was inherited by Arisu.

And now she thought.

What if it happened because of that time.

Since Arisu couldn’t answer her question, perhaps everything became twisted like this—

“I…”

And now as well, Arisu couldn’t get an answer.

If she answered, she felt that Mari would be gone.

She wouldn’t be able to meet with her precious friend anymore.

The outrageous loneliness and anxiety sealed Arisu’s mouth.

Mari made a somewhat troubled face.

“You’re—fine already, right Arisu?”

“—Eh?”

Seeing Arisu surprised, Mari giggled and smiled. She remembered her making the same face even during the time Arisu had mumbled that she got a bad result on her test. Whenever something bad happened to Arisu, Mari would let Arisu put her head on her lap while sitting on the bed.

At such times, Mari would say this.

“You’re fine already, Arisu.”

You’re fine.

In a gentle voice.

A little jealous-sounding voice.

Being told that, Arisu thought.

She wanted to do her best for Mari’s sake too—

Since Mari couldn’t move from her bed, Arisu wanted to do what she could for her.

So she felt.

“Mari…?”

Leaving a smile, Mari turned her body. Her hair bouncing, she distanced herself in a light gait.

“Mari! Wait…!”

Being afflicted by helpless anxiety, Arisu chased after Mari. However, unseen walls stood in her way, and she couldn’t approach Mari.

Mari was leaving.

She would be gone from Arisu’s side.

“Don’t go—”

What did her “fine” mean?

How was Arisu supposed to be fine with her precious friend gone—

“Mari…!”

Arisu desperately reached ahead, but Mari ran inside the light.

Her back was growing smaller—

She was wrapped in a blinding light, and vanished.

Part 1

The rain of light streaming in the night sky was the Perseid meteor shower.

Standing in lines on the greatly curved beach were the many Mushitsuki.

Clad in a long coat with his face hidden by large goggles, was the member of the SEPB called a pitch-black demon, Kakkou—Kusuriya Daisuke.

Swallowed by crimson flames, with his bright red hair standing on end, was the flame devil, Harukiyo.

Other than these two Mushitsuki who were named among the strongest there were Kasuou, Yomori Neiko, Kurisaka Ayuyu, Isa Himeko, and—Aki and the dozens of his comrades.

Even among the Mushitsuki in this country, a really powerful group of warriors was gathered here. He could puff his chest and say that. There shouldn’t be an enemy that they can’t beat.

Even so—

“—Hehe.”

Destroying the large door in the night sky, a woman figure floated in air.

With her long hair blown by the wind and her rainbow-colored pupils glittering under her round sunglasses, this beauty looked like some heavenly woman wearing an angel’s raiment. However, her beautiful features wore a sadistic smile as she controlled vile Eyes emitting pale blue heat rays that seemed as though they could tear both heaven and earth asunder. She calmly looked down at the Mushitsuki on the surface.

While wearing a human form, she was inhuman.

One of the Original Three, the Prototype Mushi who could give birth to Mushitsuki—

Oogui moved her bright red lips.

“Yet another rare visitor has arrived… my, this is quite the party.”

“If this is a party, the performance has already ended.”

The swarm of black tardigrades filling the sea surface swelled up, producing the upper half of a person.

SEPB Director, Ichiku Kimitaka, put back his sunglasses that had lenses of different colors and emitted a white breath with a Kuha. His speaking sounded mismatched, as he had a boyish voice yet an adult tone.

“It’s already time to eat the main dish—so let’s call it a night.”

“Oh, are you going to assist me?”

Oogui floating in air and the Undying Mushitsuki floating on the water. —These grotesque monsters’ eyes looked behind the Mushitsuki standing in the surface.

“—”

The two girls holding hands near the breakwater froze.

Saionji Ena and Kujou Takako. They were both Horusu Seijou Academy middle schoolers and Arisu’s classmates. Ena’s dream had invited Oogui there.

Their goal was to protect Ena.

As well as—to defeat Oogui.

Daisuke, Harukiyo and the many Mushitsuki all gathered there for that.

And the one who called them there was none other than—

“Arisu!”

Daisuke shouted.

“You’re Arisu, right! Get a hold of yourself!”

In the gathering point of all the comrades’ gazes, she—Ichinokuro Arisu—kneeled on the sand.

“…”

She widened her eyes, stunned, looking at the collapsed silver spear next to her.

The Mushi left by her friend, the silver Morpho butterfly that transformed into spear—was now a mere shadow of its former self. The tip had been eaten by the tardigrades and lost its brilliance. Even its grip that always seemed so powerful lost its power, so it became a mere inorganic rod.

“Arisu!”

Even Daisuke’s call didn’t enter Arisu’s ears. As she touched the spear with her fingertips, the glow became shards that scattered into thin air, melting.

Arisu grabbed the spear with shaky hands.

Although until now a violent power would try to rob Arisu’s body whenever she touched the spear, it showed no reaction. The broken tip merely scattered the remaining glow.

The Morpho butterfly—was dying.

She knew that well.

“Mari—”

She grimaced and looked back at Daisuke’s face.

The eyes of Daisuke, the other Mushitsuki as well as Oogui and Ichiku Kimitaka all focused on Arisu.

“Mari’s—gone—”

The existence of Hanashiro Mari couldn’t be felt anywhere.

Even though she was always at her side.

She always felt Mari watching over her with the Morpho butterfly nearby.

However, now she—could no longer feel it.

“There’s just no way—”

The comrades on the beach all gasped.

Ichiku Kimitaka loosened his mouth into a smile with a Kuha.

“So even when Hanashiro Mari’s personality vanished, the dregs of her power still remain. —Disgusting Mushi, how much do you want to keep existing in this world?”

“Sunnova—don’t fuck with me.”

The one to mumble in a low voice was Harukiyo. His blazing eyes glared at Arisu.

“Hanashiro Mari found her answer! Out of her own free will and with a smile, she decided to kick the bucket! Then why the fuck are you surprised!”

“No!”

Arisu raised her face and shouted without thinking.

“There’s no way that’s right! Mari would never leave me like that!”

“Arisu… no way, are you—”

Seeing Arisu confused, Daisuke was shocked. He wrung out a hoarse voice.

”Did you actually want… Mari to take over your body?”

Not only the other Mushitsuki became paralyzed at his words.

Arisu herself became speechless. She felt as if something tightened over her heart, not allowing her to breath.

Being told this by Daisuke, she noticed.

She hadn’t clearly wished for it.

However, perhaps Arisu had unconsciously wished for a single answer of Mari’s “answer comparison”.

“After all, if she did that—”

Arisu’s mouth moved on its own. A harsh voice that didn’t sound like her own leaked out.

“From now on… we can’t be together—”

Right.

Arisu wished for it in the bottom of her heart.

—See you tomorrow.

Although she’d promised this, Mari left this world.

However, Mari did not forget her promise with her.

Her best friend—changed into the Morpho butterfly and came back to this world.

Therefore, starting from now, they’d live together.

If Mari replaced Arisu, she thought that the Morpho butterfly’s power would also be perfectly revived. If so, then Daisuke and Harukiyo, with the powerful Mushitsuki called Mari as their ally, could perhaps defeat Oogui.

Saving Ena and beating Oogui—

As well as laughing and living together with Mari. Such a day would come.

A future where everyone was happy.

Even if it was a twisted fate where the dead came back to life.

Even if Arisu’s personality was erased by Mari, and only her body remained in this world.

They would all be there in that future.

Arisu and Arisu’s important friend.

There would not be a painful parting there.

“It was supposed to end without anyone saying goodbye—”

Mari was gone.

Her friend that was supposed to become a Morpho butterfly and come back was nowhere to be found.

The unbearable anxiety and sadness shook her body. She couldn’t accept that unforeseen reality.

She didn’t want that answer.

Where did she go wrong? Perhaps the very act of trying to compare their answers had been mistaken in the first place?

She invited so many Mushitsuki. She was supposed to keep advancing with her.

Even so, why now.

She wouldn’t even mind if she was wrong.

The fate that was supposed to be twisted was trying to return to normalcy at this stage—

“—Kuha.”

Kimitaka’s sneer echoed on the beach wrapped in silence.

“Haahahahahahahahahahaha!”

Roaring laughter that sounded as though it came from the depths of hell ridiculed the Mushitsuki standing on the coast.

“Arisu—”

“Y-you bastard—”

Not only Daisuke and Harukiyo, but even Kasuou and the rest were also speechless.

Those gathered in this place were all Mushitsuki who originally clashed and were nothing but enemies. Seeing the ringleader that invited them being beaten down, everyone all lost their opportunity to move.

“Mari…”

Arisu’s voice calling the spear that lost its power echoed in vain.

“Mari…!”

“It’s too amusing, I can’t stop laughing! This really is how you should look, Ichinokuro girl! Haahahahaha!”

Mari did not answer. Ichiku Kimitaka’s sneer just grew louder.

A wrecked, ruined door appeared on the beach that housed the gathering of Mushitsuki. It slowly opened, revealing a girl sitting in an antique chair.

Harukiyo gritted his teeth.

“The Librarian…!”

“—”

Nihi.

Although the girl wore a smile fitting to be accompanied by her signature creepy laughter, her body tilted forward. She fell from the chair.

In fact—the Librarian didn’t move at all. After saving her allies from the brink of annihilation, fresh blood spread around her.

Seeing the horrible state of the Librarian, Arisu fell straight on her rear. Neiko hurriedly rushed over to her and activated her regeneration ability, but she did not stand up again.

“In this state, if I use Rina-chan’s Mushi I’ll destroy even that delicious dream, right?”

Purple scales blew around Oogui. These gathered and formed into Mushi of all sizes and shapes, filling the night sky. Although they recovered to a certain degree while the Librarian bought them time, Oogui probably saw that Daisuke and the rest were exhausted.

“So it’s time to close the curtain. Before I laugh too much that my jaw hurts.”

Saying this while stroking his wide-open, ripped mouth, Ichiku Kimitaka made countless tardigrades gush out of his body. The large swarm of black Mushi multiplying again and again started pushing toward the beach.

“Arisu!”

Readying his gun again, Daisuke shouted.

Arisu couldn’t stand up.

“You’re pissing me off—”

A pillar of hellfire surged toward the night sky like gushing magma. Controlling his Great Yama tiger beetle made of flames, Harukiyo glared at Arisu with eyes full of murder.

“That what you wanted to show me? This ain’t the time to get disappointed from Hanashiro Mari… this was the number one disappointment of my entire life!”

Ichiku Kimitaka sneered.

“Hmph, didn’t I tell you? All of them are half-baked! Were you really expecting something, you idiot?!”

“I also told you—I hate you to death! Don’t think that if you so brazenly appear before me again, I won’t burn ya to a crisp, you Undying fucker!”

Daisuke faced Oogui floating in the night sky, while Harukiyo faced Ichiku Kimitaka.

While these battles restarted, Arisu—

“…Mari…”

Couldn’t move even a single step.

Part 2

The night sky full of streaming stars was suddenly covered in thick clouds.

No. What looked like clouds were actually swarms of small tardigrades. As Ichiku Kimitaka stood on the very top of this black mountain that filled the sea, more and more tardigrades gushed out into air, trying to cover the entire beach like the arm of a giant.

In the center of the comrades overwhelmed by these numbers, a crimson ball of fire broke through.

“You’re an eyesore!”

Causing sand to dance and the sea to split, the flame-clad Harukiyo pursued Ichiku. The Great Yama tiger beetle raised a loud howl, boiling the black cloud of tardigrades with an invisible heat wave.

Harukiyo’s fist pierced Ichiku’s chest. The impact and explosive wind caused part of the sea surface to explode.

“It really seems like you only come when people are angry, how are you even able to pinpoint these moments! Ya really want me to vent it all on you? Hmm?”

“You’re the unsightly one, Sehateno Harukiyo.”

Ichiku Kimitaka’s body crumbled down. The tardigrades moved to the sea surface, turning to Harukiyo’s back.

“Didn’t I tell you to leave, though? You know how it ends for the people around you when you come—surely you haven’t forgotten. Is this devil from hell pretending to be human and make friends?”

Tardigrades gathered, transforming to Ichiku’s upper torso. Harukiyo grimaced for a moment.

“—I’ll fuckin’ kill you.”

“I’m tired of hearing those words.”

Harukiyo had apparently decided on fighting against Ichiku Kimitaka. Not even looking at Oogui, he kept shooting down the endlessly gushing tardigrades with hellfire. His body perhaps supported by an invisible heat wave, the boy standing above the sea surface had firework-like flames emitted from his feet, boiling the seawater.

“…Mari…”

“—Tch.”

Glancing at the unmoving Arisu, Daisuke turned to look at Ichiku Kimitaka.

“Why’s the Director of the SEPB protecting Oogui! Aren’t the Original Three the SEPB’s enemies?!”

Shouting, he crushed to smithereens the Mushi assaulting him.

Ichiku emitted a Kuha with white breath.

“Don’t misunderstand, Kakkou. It’s not like I’m protecting Oogui.”

Every time Harukiyo howled, he produced a gigantic flame pillar that connected land to sky, and Ichiku ate the flames using an overwhelming quantity of tardigrades. This spectacle went way past a fight between Mushitsuki and into the domain of a natural disaster.

“This world has already accepted the existence of Mushitsuki. Mushitsuki’s existence would become natural, and will not change. If it’s not going to change—isn’t the only thing we can do is to advance?”

“Advance… advance, you say? What are you talking about!”

“Someone like you wouldn’t understand. That’s fine. You just need to keep being a Rank 1 Mushitsuki. However, if you can’t accept a world with Mushitsuki in it—if you uselessly struggle to change this present world, and stand in the way of advancing things—”

Harukiyo’s flaming palm crushed Ichiku’s body straight from above. However, soon the tardigrades welled up in a different location, reforming Ichiku’s body.

“We’ll annihilate each and every one of you as the SEPB’s enemies.”

Ichiku’s form, laughing with his mouth wide open, blurred and vanished to the side.

“…!”

Arisu put her hand on the sand, turning around.

“WOOoooOOooooHHHHH!”

Kasuou’s scream was erased by the sound of impact and a tremor. All the Eyes floating in the night sky all fired their heat rays at once, aiming at Kasuou who was protecting Ena.

These Eyes, made of insectile compound eyes that were connected with red, nerve-like strings and a human eye in their center—emitted from their pupils heat rays that had horrifying power.

“Kuh…! Come down here and fight, you bitch…!”

The pale blue heat ray shot by these several dozen Eyes were shaving the black mist. Even if she tried to counterattack, Kasuou’s attacks couldn’t reach the Eyes in the sky.

“Kasuou!”

The blond girl’s blue eye gazed at Daisuke who suddenly raised his gun.

“Don’t mind those! By the time you defeat one or two nothing’s gonna change! —You too, Nene! Don’t mind me! Save your power for the other small fries!”

“B-but…!”

Being protected by the mist along with Ena and Takako, Yomori Neiko was confused. It was obvious she’d hesitate. Kasuou was putting on airs, but it was obvious she was quickly exhausting herself.

Daisuke grimaced and turned toward the breakwater.

“Don’t come out, Himeko! You go back to Kasuou too!”

With bat wings on her back, Isa Himeko ran on the beach, weaving between enemy attacks. Ignoring Daisuke’s orders, she kept firing her millipedes toward the night sky.

Daisuke clicked his tongue and tried opening his mouth again.

Then, the Perseid meteor shower suddenly split the night sky. The bands of light changed direction and began raining down on the beach.

The roar reverberating on the beach let everyone know that this wasn’t stardust. A carpet bombardment like napalm bombs assaulted the beach, raising explosions.

“…!”

Arisu managed to escape a direct hit only due to pure luck. The aftershock blew her and she rolled on her beach. The ruined silver spear fell at her legs.

“M-my ability…!”

Seeing the rain of explosions assaulting his comrades, Aki gritted his teeth with pain.

Pouring down from the night sky was a swarm of leaf beetles created by Oogui. They possessed explosion abilities and were originally Aki’s Mushi.

“Eek!”

Himeko, who had no defensive abilities, was hurt by the gust of wind created by the explosion. Her small body rolled on the sand like a doll.

“Himeko!”

“—‘Mfiiine!”

Himeko stopped Daisuke from rushing over to her. She slowly raised her body and produced millepedes. —However, fresh blood streamed down her forehead, and her right arm hung limply at her side.

“There’s no one but me! I’ll create a path for you, Kakkou-san!”

“…!”

“So Kakkou-san, all you need is to do it again…!”

“Don’t just stand over there, Kakkou! Get on already—”

Kasuou shouted too. However, looking up the night sky, she wore a harsh expression.

“You need to do it again—”

Himeko and the other Mushitsuki were all the same. They bit their lips and couldn’t continue their words.

“Hehe—”

With the meteor shower at her back, Oogui’s rainbow pupils narrowed.

Harukiyo and Ichiku Kimitaka fought one-against-one, and Kasuou and Aki were engaged in a uniliteral defensive battle. Now that Ayuyu, who had no attack capabilities was stuck standing there and Himeko confused the net of Mushi enclosing them, there was no possibly counterattack other than having Daisuke directly attack Oogui.

However—

All Mushitsuki standing on the beach thought of the same thing.

Do it again, said Kasuou and the rest.

Even if Daisuke’s attack smashed Oogui apart once again—what would happen then?

The tardigrades would simply revive Oogui’s form as if nothing happened—

“Kuh…”

Daisuke didn’t try running toward Oogui because of that. If he went, his comrades would probably create a path. While wringing out their last powers.

However, at the end of that path—there was no hope.

Using the power of Undying, Oogui would revive.

“…!”

A single Mushi attacked Arisu. She hurriedly grabbed the silver spear.

“Why you…!”

She swiped the Morpho butterfly spear at the assaulting Mushi.

“Eh—”

However, the scales spurt from the spear merely engraved some small wounds to the Mushi’s body.

“Arisu!”

Even if Daisuke were to swing his gun, he’d be too late.

“M-Mari—”

Arisu could see neither the pursuing enemy nor the shouting Daisuke. She simply stared at the spear losing its brilliance, unbelieving.

The Mushi bit down the stunned Arisu—or attempted to.

The moment before, an azure explosion swallowed the Mushi.

“—Get a hold of yourself!”

It was Aki. He rushed to the listless Arisu and scolded her.

“You’re the one who called us here! How long do you plan on being like that?!”

She knew that.

Arisu was the one who gathered everyone here. She also knew that everyone’s morale was low because she couldn’t make any move.

But.

Arisu called all of them because none other than Mari was there—

“No… don’t go, Mari—”

Clinging to the Morpho butterfly spear, she felt its warmth vanishing.

“Arisu!”

While beating down the assaulting Mushi, Daisuke turned to Arisu.

“Mari’s—gone.”

“…!”

Arisu’s shoulders twitched.

“’Thank you’. —She said with a smile.”

Mari’s smile.

—Arisu… you’re fine already, right?

She recalled the words of her smiling friend.

You’re fine already, Arisu?

What meaning did that have?

Since Mari was gone, Arisu was obviously not fine.

She wanted to stay with her.

She thought she’d stay with her forever.

As long as Mari was there, she had the feeling she could do anything.

Even so—

“No—there’s no way Mari’s gone…”

With eyes full of tears, Arisu looked back at Daisuke.

“I mean, I haven’t even said goodbye yet… and she told me we’ll see each other tomorrow… so Mari will definitely…”

Even when Mari passed away from an illness it was sudden. She felt the same way she did when she came to the sickroom for her usual visit, only to find Mari’s parents silently waiting there.

The feeling that her head blanked out.

After that, an indescribable anxiety welled up.

It was supposedly sealed deep within her heart after that time—

Arisu recalled that.

“Mari will definitely come back—”

The fear that her friend, naturally at her side, would be gone.

Since she recalled it, Arisu couldn’t move even a single step.

Just like she stood in the sickroom at the time—

“N-no way, you—”

Daisuke was paralyzed.

“Always—thought that?”

See you tomorrow.

The two made this promise.

Mari—protected that promise.

“You thought this all along since Mari’s death…?”

When she’d just met Daisuke, she told him that she had no basis to be convinced about the Morpho butterfly being her friend’s dream entrusted to her.

“Isn’t it obvious? After all—”

She didn’t need any basis.

Arisu knew it.

She could clearly feel Mari at her side.

Right, just like Arisu wished for—

”Ever since I and Mari met, we haven’t parted even once…”

Seeing Arisu wear a weak smile, Daisuke’s expression hardened. He became speechless and stood in place.

“She was always at my side. So—she’d never just vanish without saying anything.”

This girl was the first one she could feel proud at saying she was her friend.

—Hello!

—Sorry. I don’t know my classmates’ names and faces…

Her precious friend.

Therefore, when Mari left this world due to her illness, this was the first “parting” for Arisu.

No—it wasn’t a parting.

Since Mari was the host of a Morpho butterfly, she came back. She simply made Arisu a little bit lonely.

“Mari… would come back again…”

Right.

Arisu had actually never parted from someone important to her before—

Daisuke held his head and groaned in a shaky voice.

“H-have I—always had this outrageous misunderstanding…?”

Since he was always rational, why was he so shaken by this—Arisu couldn’t understand.

“No, it’s not just me…! All of the people involved with the Morpho butterfly were mistaken right from the very beginning…! We thought that the origin of everything was Hanashiro Mari—kuh!”

The stunned Daisuke was attacked by a large swarm of Mushi. Even the famed Kakkou found it difficult to protect himself against this overwhelming difference in numbers.

Kasuou and Himeko, Ayuyu and Neiko, Aki and his many comrades all approached their limits. Even Harukiyo was having a tough fight against the tardigrades that wouldn’t run out no matter how much he burned them.

Arisu’s eyes caught the Librarian that remained collapsed and unmoving on the sand.

At this rate everyone, just like her—

It would advance toward the path of parting Arisu was the most afraid of—

“Let’s—”

Words came out unconsciously.

“Let’s run away—”

Arisu spoke toward her comrades engaged in this mortal combat.

She couldn’t think of any other word.

She didn’t want to see anyone get hurt anymore.

She couldn’t bear losing the people important to her—

“Let’s run away! Right now, run away!”

She shouted desperately.

“Let’s stop fighting…! It’s time to run away, quickly…!”

“Oh, you finally gave up.”

Oogui floating in the night sky raised up her red lips in smile.

“—Looks like it’s only you, though.”

“…!”

Arisu widened her eyes. She looked around the beach.

None of her comrades seemed about to stop fighting. Although hurt and about to collapse, they gritted their teeth and faced the enemy ahead.

“W-what’s wrong, you guys! We’ve got to escape…!”

Were they so absorbed in the fight they hadn’t noticed?

Did they not hear her due to the sounds of the battle?

Although these comrades supposedly gathered her after being invited by her, they wouldn’t lend her their ears now, for some reason.

“—Arisu. Do you even understand what you’re saying?”

Daisuke’s low voice gripped Arisu’s heart. As he beat the assaulting Mushi with power and crushed them, the boy didn’t even turn to look at her.

“Are you going to abandon Ena?”

Saionji Ena who was being protected by Kasuou started and looked at Daisuke.

Arisu gulped.

“T-there’s no way! We’ll take Ena as well and run—”

“That would be a problem for me.”

With a jesting tone, Oogui put her index finger on her chin, craning her neck.

“You must leave that girl to me… alright?”

“…!”

“We’re neither comrades nor anything. Even if you called us here, normally we’d fight the first thing after seeing each other. However—”

Daisuke glanced at Arisu and spoke.

“We’re all Mushitsuki.”

Arisu widened her eyes.

“We became Mushitsuki and keep living as Mushitsuki, and one day—we might die as Mushitsuki. In that alone, we’re all the same.”

The form of the comrades who struggled to death was burned into Arisu’s eyes. None of those who stood against this despairing challenge lost their fighting spirits.

“Did you really think people like us would stay silent, seeing a Mushitsuki being created right before our eyes?”

“…!”

Grasping the spear that was losing its shine, Arisu raised a groan.

Right.

Arisu had called those Mushitsuki.

These people, each and every one of them embracing a single dream and suffering, hurting and fighting for it, were all called here by Arisu.

“Ha! You’ve misjudged them, Ichinokuro Arisu!”

Ichiku Kimitaka opened his mouth even wider, sneering.

“That’s what Mushitsuki are! They’re nothing more than an animal fantasizing about an unfulfillable dream and then head for ruin! A stupid being that only knows of self-destruction! Since such creatures became natural in this world, I can do nothing but laugh! We can only keep moving forward!”

“Shut the fuck up, you shitty brat!”

Harukiyo’s hand burning bright smashed Ichiku’s face. Harukiyo grasped the black ashes, but Ichiku regenerated behind him, still laughing derisively.

“You too, bitch!”

The flame devil turned to Arisu.

“I really was fuckin’ naïve, to find this good dream and go along with your bullshit! Don’t put a damper on things at this stage!”

“A good—dream?”

“Yeah.”

The one who answered was Aki.

“If we beat Oogui—if we can beat the Original Three, then tomorrow… it might become a world without any new Mushitsuki born.”

While protecting Arisu from the assaulting enemies, the boy smiled. His comrades were wounded and he kept challenging an unbeatable fight—but he wore a carefree smile.

“A truly dreamlike world.”

Arisu lost all words.

—I already told you, right? Even if it’s impossible for you alone, then if we get all Mushitsuki.

Daisuke.

Rina.

Harukiyo.

And—Mari.

Back when all powerful Mushitsuki gathered, Arisu said this.

At the time she fully believed in it.

That together they could do anything—

“The one who showed me this dream is you, you know?”

At Aki’s words, Arisu’s strength left her knees.

She exhausted, kneeling on the sand, glaring at the sight unfolding in front of her eyes.

“WO—OOOhhhh! I toldja to leave me, Nene!”

“But at this rate…!”

“T-there’re too many enemieees!”

“I-I can’t hold any longer, Kakkun…!”

“Kororo! Retreat to Kasuou! —Kuh!”

Arisu unconsciously reached out with her hand.

“Ah… ahhh…”

Toward those Mushitsuki who never retreated even while becoming bloody.

She couldn’t stop them anymore.

None other than Arisu herself caused this.

“So…”

She had to admit it.

Beating Oogui was impossible in the first place.

Daisuke had warned her, and her insistence on this was stupid.

Thinking that if Mari was there along with many other people they could win was an outrageous mistake.

“I’m sorry—”

There was nothing to be done anymore.

Arisu’s vision distorted with tears.

She could see—no hope in their fight.

“It’s my fault—”

It was all Arisu’s fault.

They were supposed to keep living, yet because of her that future was being closed up—

“I was wrong—thinking that we’d be able to win—”

“You’re not wrong!”

The voice echoing in the battlefield made Arisu gasp.

The one to shout this was Daisuke.

Although he was supposed to be against Arisu’s plan of the decisive fight against Oogui from the very beginning, he strained his voice.

“What you were trying to do wasn’t mistaken! The one mistaken—was me.”

“Dai…suke…?”

While beating away Mushi one after another—groaning from his wounds and fatigue, Daisuke gritted his teeth.

“Us Mushitsuki kept fighting among ourselves, mistaking our opponents…! We thought that we’re going to end up killed by Mushi anyway—so we gave up on winning against them… as well as the Original Three!”

“The one who said we came here to win was you!”

Kasuou shouted. Her pretty face twisted, she used her full powers in desperate defense of Ena and Takako.

“You say that’s your fault? Don’t fuck with me! Think someone’s here stupid enough to let you lead them by the nose? The thing you were trying to do—all of us Mushitsuki actually wanna do it!”

Arisu became speechless.

“We were scared and couldn’t say it… we thought it was impossible…! But actually—”

Yomori Neiko also shouted. Normally she only spoke in a low voice, but, as if unleashing what she holding back, she now shouted at the top of her voice.

“We wanted to change this world with Mushi! It’s weird for us to get killed by Mushi just because we have dreams…!”

“Arisu-san’s not mistakeeen!”

“*Grin*. If you think you were mistaken, I really should have not accepted your invitation, hated rival of mine.”

“If there’s any mistake at all—”

Himeko, Ayuyu and Harukiyo all turned to Arisu and spoke.

“It’s just you right now. —If you don’t wanna fight, ya can be a cheerleader or something. Now that’s proper!”

Arisu bit her lips and grasped the spear that almost lost all of its light.

“I…! Understand that even if you don’t…!”

Her throat felt clogged and she couldn’t form words properly.

She didn’t have to be told this.

In such a helpless situation, they told Arisu she wasn’t mistaken.

She’d obviously want to cheer on these wonderful people.

“But—”

Actually, she wanted to shout at the top of her voice.

Even if her throat ripped.

She wanted to shout more loudly than anyone, and yet—

“Winning here is… I…”

It was too pathetic, how she was unable to fight.

The enemy they were facing was much too strong.

It was painful to see them unable to do anything and about to collapse.

She felt that it was too convenient for her to wish for this now, and she couldn’t let out a loud voice—

“…I…”

Someone’s hand touched Arisu’s shoulder as she drooped her head.

“Kakkou!”

It was Aki. While supporting Arisu who was liable to collapse at any moment, he called out toward his comrades in arms who was busy exterminating Oogui’s Mushi.

“If you hit Oogui one more time—can you beat her?”

Arisu raised her face.

“I can only try.”

Daisuke said clearly. His face glancing at her was caked in red blood.

“—Other than that, there’s no other way for us to survive.”

“Yeah, right… if you say it, it’s for sure. Your judgment always saved us at crucial times. Since long ago.”

Seeing Aki wear a nostalgic smile unbefitting the occasion, Arisu raised a brow.

“Aki…?”

“B-but, there are too many enemies for Kakkou-san to get closer to Oogui…!”

Himeko, also fighting in the frontlines with Daisuke, groaned while only just barely avoiding the enemies’ attacks.

“Yeah, so that means I simply have to lessen the enemy numbers, right? As long as there’s even one less.”

“…Eh?”

“Don’t be so surprised. —I did think about what to do if Rina was here.”

Aki’s expression was bright. Although he was shedding blood there wasn’t even a shred of suffering on him, and he even looked somewhat happy.

A very bad feeling came to Arisu’s chest.

“If we’re talking about mistakes… I made one, too. I forgot about fighting Mushi and only thought about how to survive. —I wanted to tell it to Rina too. Rather than fighting between Mushitsuki, it’s better for all of us to hold hands like this… that’s how you can see the future. —Right, you guys?”

At Aki’s voice, the comrades that accompanied him all turned. They all nodded, seemingly resolved.

“I did intend to bring the strong Mushitsuki among our comrades. The fact they’re still alive is proof. —I never thought the enemy would have the same exact ability.”

The boy’s words were right. Even while fighting Oogui, most of his comrades remained. It was obvious they were all used to fighting.

Thinking about it—Arisu recalled.

The leaf beetle user that was at Aki’s side not being there, was probably because she wasn’t specialized in fighting. She probably stayed with Rina, along with the other comrades that weren’t combat-oriented.

Before she could ask the meaning of Aki’s words, an explosion happened right next to Arisu.

One of the many azure leaf beetles exploded.

However, that wasn’t the fake Mushi created by Oogui—

“Aki…?”

Seeing all them exchange glances that had not a shred of doubt in it, the one to twitch wasn’t just Arisu.

“You—no way—”

Daisuke froze.

“We came here to win. That alone—wasn’t a mistake.”

Looking at Arisu, Aki smiled.

All his other comrades also looked at her.

“S-stop—”

Realizing what he was trying to do, Arisu weakly shook her head to the side.

And then it started.

Part 3

What was happening—

She rejected her feelings of understanding.

Her head blanked out and she stared wordlessly at the scene ahead of her.

“WOOOOooooHHHHHH!!”

Aki howled. He controlled one leaf beetle after another and blew up Mushi.

These weren’t the fake Mushi created by Oogui.

“S—stop—”

The voice leaking from her throat were so hoarse it didn’t sound like her.

“—OOOoooHHH!”

Every time an explosion echoed, one person standing on the sand fell down, and then another.

They all lost their strength and stopped moving. The life was gone from their eyes and they looked at Arisu emotionlessly.

As if they fell into hell.

A fear like the sense of falling caused Arisu’s legs to paralyze.

“S-stop this—”

“OOOH!”

The Mushi that Aki’s azure leaf beetle blew up again and again.

These were—his comrades’ Mushi.

He was blowing with his own hands the comrades that he himself had brought there.

They made no attempt to dodge Aki’s attack. Some of them looked at Daisuke, some as Kasuou and the rest, and some at Kasuou. All of them stood upright as they received the baptism of the azure leaf beetle.

An explosion and then a person collapsing.

At the same time one of the Minion Type Mushi melted into thin air.

When that happened, the same Mushi that Oogui produced also vanished.

This bizarre scene—

Arisu, Daisuke and the remaining Mushitsuki all watched it in complete astonishment.

As if these people left something to them.

As if these people yielded themselves to their important feelings.

Arisu could do nothing but stare at how their pupils lost all light.

“—Kuha.”

Ironically, the first to grasp this situation was their enemy.

“Haahahahahahahahahahaha!”

The Undying Mushitsuki, Ichiku Kimitaka, spread his mouth wide, laughing loudly.

“You’re trying to kill some of Oogui’s power by suicide? So shallow—and ridiculous! You are fools beyond salvation! Haahahahahaha!”

A devilish resounding laughter.

The comrade Mushitsuki falling one after another.

As if to exemplify the scene that Arisu had feared the most—

“—Akiii!”

Aki stood there, completely unable to accept the reality in front of her. This shout made her shoulders twitch.

“Stop iiit! Do you really think we’ll be happy if you do that?!”

Daisuke lost control of himself and shouted. He tried to violently grab the people around, but as an explosion resounded, they lost their powers. Losing their Mushi, they lost both emotions and memories to become Fallen and looked at him with dark eyes. Daisuke raised a wordless scream.

“What the heck’s that…?”

Even Harukiyo on the surface of the ocean forgot about Ichiku’s existence and turned to the beach with a tense face.

“Are you kidding me…! What the fuck are you doing on your own! Why did you give up! Saying ‘alright, see ya’ and leaving everything to the survivors, are you fucking looking down on us?! I can’t understand why you’d kill you own Mushi, you pieces of shiiit!”

It was natural to not understand. As Harukiyo always fought for his own sake and declared that he celebrated his life for his own sake, there was no doubt that the term of self-destruction never even rose to a corner of his mind. This caused the flame devil to be shaken like never before.

Although both Daisuke and Harukiyo tried to put a stop to it, the explosions kept going without ceasing.

Living corpses piled up on the beach one after another.

Even Kasuou who was supposed to be completely emaciated twisted her face in anger.

“Hey, you think this is some sort of pity, letting us live like this?!”

Even the wounded Himeko screamed with tears in her eyes.

“This… this is no fiiiiight!”

“*annoyed*… *annoyed**annoyed*…”

Ayuyu bit her nails, glaring at the sight in front of her.

“Wait…! Wait, all of you…!”

Neiko, heedless of whatever little energy she had, began singing loudly. However, she couldn’t save even a single person turned into Fallen by these attacks.

“Haahahahahahaha!”

“If you decide to do that, then escape! I can beat Oogui even without you doing this…! Stop this right now!”

“Fucking hell! So it turns out like that in the end! Why do I hafta see only things like that?! Why does nobody other than me ever tried to keep living?!”

Ichiku Kimitaka’s laughter and Daisuke’s, Harukiyo’s and the others’ shouts all overlapped.

However, it kept going.

One after another, the comrades collapsed—and stopped moving.

“S-stop…”

Seeing that, Oogui did nothing but look down and sneer.

“STOP IT!”

Arisu couldn’t help but shout as well.

He probably made another one of his azure leaf beetles self-destruct with one of his comrades. She clung to him as he rapidly weakened and became paler.

“Please, stop this! This… this is too much…”

Arisu hadn’t called them over there to do this.

This was no longer win or loss.

Even if they were to win this battle, if these guys weren’t there—it wasn’t the future Arisu wished for.

“Rina really… wanted to come here.”

While his body was being shaken by Arisu, Aki smiled listlessly. The boy’s hand grabbed an azure leaf beetle.

“’That girl says some outrageous and unimaginable things—but if we can make them come true, everyone will definitely be happy’. —She said this and smiled.”

Arisu came back to herself with a start.

Already, other than Aki himself, all of his comrades were collapsed on the beach.

The azure leaf beetle he was grasping was the final one.

“—“

Arisu turned back to the boy and shook her head.

She couldn’t think of any words to say to this boy that was on the verge of exhausting his powers. She wasn’t even sure if he could see her or not.

“Everyone’s thinking about the same things. After all, all of us—are the same, we are Mushitsuki.”

They were all Mushitsuki.

While the boy used the same words as Rina, in his hand—

“You’ve united all of us. —Thank you.”

The last azure leaf beetle exploded.

Arisu…

Was supposed to shout with her mouth open.

However, no voice came out and she just looked up.

“—”

The boy was stuck to the spot, unmoving, his pupils dark.

Although she could hear a pulse, she felt no warmth.

Although they were supposed to conversing just moments ago, Arisu felt nothing in those pupils.

Arisu buried her face in the chest of the Fallen Aki and sobbed.

Silence befell the beach.

Oogui was in the night sky, the meteor shower at her back.

On the ocean, Harukiyo and Ichiku Kimitaka wore opposite expression.

On the ground—the cluster of Fallens that looked like corpses.

On this beach, where not a single person moved, Arisu pressed her head against the chest of the boy who’d never smile again and leaked sobs.

She loved Mushitsuki—

Arisu once said this.

They told Arisu that she wasn’t mistaken.

She was very happy.

Because she was so unbearably happy—she didn’t want it to turn out like this.

Right now, Arisu couldn’t think of even a single way to save them.

“…ri…”

Arisu, who was overwhelmed by Ichiku Kimitaka’s laughter and felt powerless—

“…Hey, Mari…”

Could only cling to her late friend even in a situation like this.

“…What are… Mushitsuki…?”

The doubt she had at the very beginning.

A doubt she’d embraced this whole time.

This unanswerable question spilled vainly out of Arisu’s mouth.

“…Tell me… hey, Mari…”

The puzzled Arisu could no nothing but repeat that same question to everyone—

Everything she’d done this far.

All paths she’d taken so far.

These were all useless, as if she just came back to square one.

“—WAAAaaaAAAaaah!”

A high-pitched howl echoed throughout the beach.

It was Himeko. A green shadow surged from her body as the girl screamed toward the sky full of streaming stars.

“Fight! Fight, fight, fight, fight…!”

Subduing her fury, Himeko shouted as if talking to herself. Her eyes sparkled with fighting will, and she shot more and more millipedes toward Oogui floating in the night sky.

Daisuke readied himself. He took the posture to be able to jump onto a flying Mushi at any moment.

“Harukiyo!”

“I hate this… I hate this, but I can’t be picky here! If there’s no other way I’ll join hands even with you, Kakkou!”

Harukiyo changed the direction of his body and turned from Ichiku to Oogui.

In order to hit Oogui directly, there was no choice but to lessen the number of enemies.

They could only bet on the small chance Aki gave to them—

Everyone on the surface understood that.

However, Ichiku Kimitaka stood in his way.

“Weren’t you going to kill me, Sehateno Harukiyo!”

“Ayuyu!”

Daisuke shouted. He bit his lips and went silent for a second—then spoke in a low voice.

“—I’m counting on you.”

“*grin*. I’m happy for you to count on me, Kakkun.”

The sea surface exploded and a large water pillar rose. It fully enveloped Ichiku who was trying to attack Harukiyo’s back.

“Kuha, what a boring attack. —Nngh!”

Ichiku Kimitaka changed his expression.

All waves vanished from the ocean surface. It was way too calm to be even called a lull in the sea. The water surface was just like a mirror.

Ayuyu wore a twisted smile.

“*grin*. I never thought that the SEPB director would be a Mushitsuki. —You certainly possess some very important memories, right? Let me see those.”

The sea surface rippled and echoed noisily around the area.

And—

“Is this world about to become one that has Mushitsuki in it—”

Ichiku Kimitaka’s form was reflected on the ocean surface that became a giant screen.

However, it wasn’t the same suit-wearing form, and he wore no sunglasses either. Even if his appearance was unchanged from how it was now, he kneeled with a face full of despair.

“Will another useless Undying person like me will be born again—”

Ayuyu’s ability—was past viewing, the ability to dig out the memories engraved into a Mushi.

“Kororo, you bitch!!!”

Ichiku Kimitaka now wore an expression of pure anger. Perhaps really not wanting it to be seen, he let the tardigrades swarm eat the water pillar with intensity.

“Then I… we will—” the vision continued.

“Arisu!”

Daisuke turned to her.

“You need to run away!”

Arisu widened her eyes.

“Hanashiro Mari’s no longer binding you. So you—don’t need to keep holding onto her, either.”

Arisu?

Was holding onto Mari?

She couldn’t understand what he was saying.

Despite this—Daisuke’s words pierced her like a scorching sword.

“You’re already fine, right?”

For just a moment, the boy who was supposed to be by her side—

Wore a kind smile.

—You’re already fine, right Arisu?

Mari’s smile overlapped with Daisuke’s.

“…Ah…?”

Arisu mumbled a voice.

Mari’s and Daisuke’s smile—their two voices brought out a memory sleeping deep within Arisu.

“WOOoooOOooh!”

Kasuou wrung out her last powers and expanded her mist protecting Ena, Takako and Neiko. Although her mist defenses were just about erased by the Eyes’ heat rays, it retrieved its thickness using support from Neiko’s singing voice.

Above the enduring Kasuou, the numbers of Eyes lessened.

“Oh my… have you gone to sleep again? This child sure likes to nap.”

Seeing the vanishing eyes, Oogui leaked a giggling sneer.

“Ya! Ya! YAAaah!”

Even while spreading bloody spittle, Himeko kept launching intangible millipedes. —Since Aki took out his powerful allies, the number of fake Mushi created by Oogui also lessened.

However—

“—Ugh.”

A single Mushi of the rampaging, cannibalizing enemies managed to slip through the millepede attack. Unable to dodge the giant Mushi, Himeko was directly bit by its sharp teeth from the side.

“UH—AAAaaah! Kakkou-saaan!”

Although her SEPB coat was very resistant, it wasn’t able to fully defend against the Mushi’s biting power. The girl that became the fangs’ fresh prey vomited fresh blood.

Daisuke leapt. Jumping between all the Mushi that lost control due to Himeko’s ability, he rushed toward Oogui.

There were no longer any Mushi to stand in his way.

“This is useless…!”

Ichiku, who had yielded himself to anger and sneered, let his tardigrades eat the sea that became a large screen. The footage showing Ichiku Kimitaka’s past was almost literally worm-eaten.

“Ugh…! UuuUuuh…!”

Ayuyu was rapidly paling.

Undying and Mushi-eating—

Those were probably Ichiku’s abilities. The tardigrades were eating Ayuyu’s Mushi itself.

Everyone bet on the last ray of hope, using the remainder of their powers.

Everyone shouted, everyone fought in this situation, and Arisu—

“Ah… aaah—”

She remembered.

She noticed.

Widening her eyes, she covered her face with her hands.

“Aah…!”

Seeing the state of her fighting comrades covered in blood deteriorating rapidly, she received a flashback of the past.

In the usual sickroom, she saw Mari who’d never smile again and stood shocked.

That time, hadn’t Arisu thought the same as she did now?

She didn’t want to say goodbye—

This sad parting couldn’t be reality.

Wasn’t she just seeing a nightmare?

She couldn’t accept this unavoidable destiny in front of her eyes.

—See you tomorrow.

No such destiny could exist. Mari doubtlessly kept her promise and would come back tomorrow.

Hadn’t she thought this?

“…I-it’s… me…?”

And fate was twisted.

It was true that Mari tried to keep the promise. As well as the fact that she couldn’t give up on her dream to keep living.

However, it wasn’t Mari.

Arisu wished for it as well.

“I… I did it…!”

A tomorrow where the two of them would be alive.

That pair’s wish—

Was connected.

“I was the one…! Who dragged Mari back…?”

Another person’s Mushi used Arisu as its host.

This situation couldn’t possibly happen and it toyed with everyone.

They thought that the cause of everyone was just the lone girl called Hanashiro Mari. Even Arisu thought so, and looked for the vestiges of Mari’s dream for a long time.

But she was wrong.

What connected the Morpho butterfly to this world wasn’t Mari’s one-sided wish.

Hanashiro Mari and Ichinokuro Arisu.

Wishing to live, Mari reached out to this world—

And Arisu grabbed her hand.

Unable to accept the first bitter “parting” since she was born, Arisu, who felt lonely and anxious, grabbed Mari’s hand—and pulled her back.

“I made Mari…!”

And destiny was twisted.

The pair’s wish that shouldn’t exist of not giving up on a lost time connected to a Mushi that shouldn’t exist to this world.

While being a Mushi, the Morpho butterfly also possessed the possibility of erasing the being called Mushi.

It was natural for Arisu to inherit it from Mari.

After all, the Morpho butterfly that was there was the Mushi born from Mari’s wish, as well as the Mushi brought back to this world by Arisu’s wish.

The Morpho butterfly was two in one.

The defect in the world created by wishing to overturn fate, brought back even the host that was supposedly gone once.

The bug in the system created this way still continued—

“I’m sorry…! Mari…!”

Tears gushed out of Arisu’s eyes. The deadly fight she could see from the gaps in her fingers covering her face was distorted.

It wasn’t that Arisu got involved in it.

Coming back to reality, unable to remember her dream and crying, was Mari.

Arisu also had responsibility in making her friend shed so many tears.

“I’m sorry—”

She looked down at the silver lance at her feet.

The glow—

Was already fully gone from it.

“—Thank you.”

As Arisu reached out with great loneliness, Mari’s fingers intertwined with hers.

Giving her a “tomorrow” where they both lived.

Mari kept her promise.

Arisu got just a little bit of time to get stronger.

“Thank you… Mari…”

Arisu also didn’t get an answer.

Ever since that time Mari died from an illness.

Arisu couldn’t take even a single step forward since she was scared of parting, but Mari gave her the chance to move ahead.

And now—

Mari got out her answer.

Snap—the spear losing its luster made this small sound.

“WOOooOOooOOOH!”

“ORAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

Daisuke and Harukiyo howled at the same time.

The gun with its overwhelming destructive power crushed Oogui’s body to smithereens.

Furthermore, the giant Great Yama tiger beetle floating down from the night sky burned down these fragments.

This incredible impact made the ground shake. This tremor shook the entirety of the coast, and the ocean surface behind Oogui instantly boiled. Seawater began to drain down into seemingly bottomless caves gouged inside the water, creating a giant waterfall.

A full-powered attack by the two Rank 1 Mushitsuki.

There was no doubt that an attack stronger than that was impossible for any other Mushitsuki in this world—

“—”

Arisu raised her tear-stained face. She slowly lowered her hands covering her face.

Like a receding wave.

The purple Mushi produced by Oogui vanished one after another—

Along with a roar, the boiling sea surface was being filled with new seawater, making the cavity vanish.

“—”

They bet on a single hope.

Paying for this with many victims, they reached out to the future.

And what waited them at the end—

“—Kuha.”

Was the dark spot of despair.

Rising in the sky that had streaming stars in it was a lone Mushi.

Shaped like a tardigrade, it multiplied explosively. It quickly restored the shape of a human.

“Haahahahahaha!”

Blessed by Ichiku Kimitaka’s laughter, the tardigrades created the nude body of a woman, and along with a purple glow it wore a long coat. Above lips twisted in the shape of a crescent moon were produced round sunglasses.

Psssh, the sound of water bursting echoed.

The stumbling Isa Himeko near the breakwater had her body tilt. Her entire body dyed in blood, the girl tottered a step ahead—and fell.

There was the sound of stepping on sand.

Kurisaka Ayuyu lost her strength and kneeled on the beach. The girl whose Mushi was eaten by Ichiku Kimitaka’s Mushi—lost the shine of life in her eyes.

A groan echoed.

As Kasuou brought out all of her remaining strength she was now on all fours. Neiko who’d supported her was the same. Wringing out hoarse breaths, they both collapsed painfully.

Standing on their own legs were only three people.

Daisuke and Harukiyo who stood in shallow water.

As well as Ichinokuro Arisu.

Looking down these last three survivors—

“—Ehehe.”

An inhuman form that looked like it came from hell narrowed her rainbow eyes and sneered.

“Haahahahaha!”

The coast was filled with the madman-like continuous laughter of Ichiku Kimitaka.

Snap.

Arisu heard this small sound from the spear rolling at her feet.

Part 4

The Mushitsuki all lying in heaps.

Aki and his comrades killed their own Mushi, leaving their hopes for the ones remaining.

The Librarian, Himeko, and Ayuyu all fought desperately to grasp the string of a counterattack, and collapsed one after another.

The two great rivals, Daisuke and Harukiyo as well—expended their powers.

“Harukiyo… Take Arisu and the others and run off… I’ll buy time—”

Daisuke who was shedding blood from his forehead couldn’t even hold his gun.

“Haha… I’ll pass, it’s finally what I like—isn’t this the worst stage possible now? You’re the unneeded one here… grab the woman and scram…”

On the other hand, the hellfire surrounding Harukiyo’s body became no more than sparks and was burning down.

Complete annihilation—

The Mushitsuki gathered there for the future without any Mushi all yielded to the source of the disaster called Oogui.

“Ah…”

Arisu wailed.

The scene in front of her eyes was nothing but a nightmare.

The people important to her were having their futures closed—

“Nice face, Ichinokuro Arisu.”

Ichiku Kimitaka leered at Arisu with a mouth wide open.

“Drown in your despair—die.”

Die.

Everyone was going to die there.

Endless tears streamed down Arisu’s black eyes.

“Kuh…! Arisu—”

“You fucker… don’t ignore us…”

The two boys grew lively.

However—

The incoming attack by Oogui did not come, however long they waited.

Ichiku Kimitaka erased his smile. Grimacing, he looked up at Oogui floating in the night sky.

“Oogui? You bitch, what are you—”

Daisuke and Harukiyo also gazed overhead, looking surprised.

Oogui was unmoving, a bewitching smile on her face.

“—Arisu-chan?”

She opened her lips drawn with a bright red lipstick.

“There is a delicious smell coming from you, you know?”

“…!”

The men at the sea all changed expressions.

Arisu stood there shocked, just keeping on shedding tears.

“Daisuke…”

She looked at the boys looking at her.

“Harukiyo…”

Were they going to die there, too?

Because they were Mushitsuki?

Just like Mari—

Just like those collapsed on the beach—

Arisu would lose them.

“You can’t, Arisu! Don’t think of anything!”

“Fuck…! This is way beyond being the worst!”

“Oogui, you bitch…! Have you aimed for this from the very beginning and gone easy on—”

While all of them spoke together, Oogui looked down at them with a bewitching sneer.

Daisuke told her not to think of anything.

But seeing this horrible situation, how could she not think anything?

Ichiku told her to despair.

This was the opposite.

Seeing her dreaming friends lying down, she’d never be able to feel despair. She’d never be able to give up.

“Arisu-chan.”

Oogui whispered softly.

“—”

While shedding tears, Arisu thought.

All Arisu did was dream of a future where she lived with those important to her.

What were Mushitsuki—

She didn’t know the answer. She’d probably never find it.

However, there was something she knew for sure.

Right now, the people that Arisu was looking at—were Mushitsuki.

As she saw them fighting, getting hurt and collapsing all for the sake of their dream, she thought of a single wish.

“Will you tell me your dream?”

Oogui asked her.

“I—”

Arisu’s mouth moved on its own.

She couldn’t help but wish for it.

She couldn’t help but speak the small wish engraved into her heart.

“Don’t answer her, Arisu!”

“I won’t accept this, Arisu!”

While smiling at the boys yelling at her, Arisu—

“I want to save Mushitsuki.”

Clearly voiced her dream.

Part 5

—My dream, can I entrust it to you?

That day, on top of the sickroom bed, Mari asked this.

Arisu, without understanding the meaning of those words, couldn’t nod.

Months passed—

Mari asked that same question to Arisu again.

—Can I ask this again?

Mari became the Morpho butterfly and returned to Arisu.

One miracle was being able to erase the being called Mushi while being a Mushi, while the second miracle pulled her back into this world, reviving her.

However, Mari was gone.

The moment this important friend of hers vanished, she asked Arisu again.

—“My dream, can I entrust it to you?”

Arisu’s friend who asked her this, filled with all emotions.

The normal girl who wished to live.

The Mushitsuki girl who embraced a single dream and left.

Arisu—would never forget any of them.

Arisu spoke clearly.

“I want to save Mushitsuki.”

Oogui widened her rainbow eyes in exhilaration, rapidly falling down to the beach.

“What a nice dream—”

Daisuke grimaced and shouted.

“Arisu!”

Snap, there was a hard sound at her feet.

“—It’s fine.”

As Arisu smiled at Daisuke, she was surrounded by light.

“…!”

Oogui’s movements stopped midair. Her expression had the color of confusion for the first time.

“I’m already fine.”

The light enveloping Arisu was of a color familiar to everyone on the coast.

A blinding, silver light.

A warm, silver glow that rustled in the wind along with small particles.

“I’m sad at having said goodbye to Mari… but I’ll never forget her.”

She didn’t need words of farewell.

It wasn’t like before, where she couldn’t accept that parting.

Now, for the first time—she was able to part with Mari.

“I won’t forget.”

Her precious friend called Hanashiro Mari.

This girl who fought with her illness, lived for her small dream, and—after her death, came back because she worried for Arisu. She’d never forget this kind girl.

“Thank you…”

Mari had saved Arisu just as she was about to vanish into loneliness.

Daisuke and the other people she’d met all strengthened her.

“Because I wasn’t strong—”

Arisu became strong.

Just a little bit, but she became stronger than she used to be.

Thanks to the “tomorrow” Mari had given her.

The dream’s continuation where both Arisu and Mari lived together—

Although it was impossible, these were irreplaceable days.

Thanks to these humble days Mari had given her, Arisu was able to meet many important people.

Ena and Takako.

Daisuke.

And the people called Mushitsuki.

All of them gave Arisu power.

“So… I’m already fine.”

She would keep her best friend Mari in her memories and keep walking to tomorrow.

That was the answer of the stronger Arisu.

She was no longer alone.

With her memories of Mari and her still-living precious friends.

She was able to walk with them, live together in tomorrow—

The one emitting the light wasn’t Arisu herself.

A stick that fell to her feet.

The spear of the deceased Morpho butterfly was retrieving its vivid silver light again.

With small crackling sounds as though something was breaking, something that covered the surface of the spear was shattering down. Instantly melting into thin air, it looked like chains of rust.

She heard about it from Daisuke. The rod that served as the spear’s medium had been sealed by a Mushitsuki called Yakugami due to some circumstances.

However, Arisu no longer needed that limit.

“So you still cling on to life, Hanashiro Mari’s ghost—”

Ichiku Kimitaka twisted his face in hatred, emitting tardigrades. The black tsunami assaulted Arisu.

However, a fragment of light floating to the breakwater blocked the great swarm.

“…!”

The fragment of light morphed into a single, beautiful butterfly.

A silver Morpho butterfly.

Flapping its four wings, it stopped the tardigrades’ charge with overflowing scales.

“…!”

Daisuke and Harukiyo gulped.

Another appeared.

And then yet another.

Fragments of light rose all around the beach, as if to caress the fallen people there. They then changed forms one after another.

It was a swarm of silver Morpho butterflies.

This surface of glowing light took flight with Arisu in the center.

“It’s not a ghost. Mari left this to me.”

The continuation of Mari’s dream as she’d seen it.

Arisu received it. Now, Arisu finally realized its true meaning.

The days she would keep on living.

Arisu would keep living from now on, walking toward tomorrow with the people precious to her—

“I can see the continuation of Mari’s dream.”

Arisu reached for the horizon.

Silver tentacles shot from the spear at her legs, instantly encroaching Arisu’s entire body. The tentacles extended through her fingers, picking up the spear to her hand.

It wasn’t just Mari’s Mushi.

The Morpho butterfly that existed here was connected to this world through both Arisu and Mari’s wishes—

She felt this clearly.

“Let’s live all together! From now on, forever!”

As if rising from her legs, a pattern covered Arisu’s entire body. The blade tip that had been eaten by the tardigrades was restored, and it emitted a great quantity of scales.

This wasn’t the dregs of Mari’s left dream.

She could feel the Morpho butterfly eating the dream that Arisu imagined and shaking in happiness.

The silver lance that retrieved its full powers.

The swarm of small Morpho butterflies that danced on the beach.

These pressed back the assaulting swarm of tardigrades, not allowing them a single step toward Arisu.

The Morpho butterflies surrounded the shocked Daisuke and Harukiyo. They were engulfed by silver scales as if being protected.

“If you say the ghost’s gone and you made a new dream—all I need to do is eat you up again.”

Ichiku Kimitaka’s mouth ripped in the shape of a smile. The tardigrades multiplied so much they hid the night sky, became an avalanche and tried to cover Arisu.

“…!”

She widened her eyes and glared at the tardigrade swarm.

Following the will of their new host, the small Morpho butterflies set flight toward the tardigrades. The spread silver scales became a shield and stopped the avalanche in place.

Arisu swung down the spear in her hands with her full powers.

“Ah…!”

Ichiku’s expression of shock was erased by a silver flash.

The scales emitted from the spear became a huge blade, crossing the sea into two. The scales that swallowed the tardigrades created a valley that reached all the way to the horizon. The impact of the seawater flowing into the valley turned into an earthquake and shook the coast.

“It was such a delicious dream—and yet you snatched it from me, you naughty Mushi…”

Oogui floating in the night sky erased her smile and glared at the spear held in Arisu’s hand.

“Our dreams aren’t something to be given to you.”

Arisu glared back at Oogui.

Mari’s dream.

The dream of Mushitsuki.

They belonged to those that wished for them.

Therefore, Arisu would protect them—

“—Kuha.”

Tardigrades gathered on the sea surface, creating Ichiku Kimitaka’s form.

“Doesn’t change the fact it’s a pathetic dream. You will soon despair again, Ichinokuro Arisu—”

Harukiyo who stood in the shallow water came back to his senses and wore a weak smile.

“Haha, about time you woke up… you’re late, you idiot.”

“No—”

However, Daisuke stayed with his face tensed.

“—This is the worst.”

“Huh?”

Daisuke was looking at Arisu. Harukiyo did as well.

At least Arisu would protect them.

Ena and Takako as well.

She wouldn’t let anyone get hurt anymore—

“From now on, all of us together—”

Fanned by the storm of scales, Arisu’s hairpin flew off. Her ponytail crumbled and her long hair danced in the wind.

“Starting tomorrow—”

The pattern on Arisu’s body suddenly strengthened its glow.

For an instant, her black pupils and long hair were dyed in a vivid silver.

“The fact that so little remained of Mari’s dream was because she held the controlling power of the Morpho butterfly in check… so if she poured a new dream into it—“

Harukiyo could no longer hear Daisuke’s hoarse mumble.

Even Oogui and Ichiku Kimitaka stood in place as though frozen.

“We’ll live…! Live…! Together, foreveeeeer!”

With no one unable to move, they stared at the girl standing on the surface.

Daisuke mumbled with a shaky voice.

“It’s starting to Mature—”

While controlling the swarm of Morpho butterflies.

The girl with her eyes and hair glowing in silver.

Ichinokuro Arisu howled while holding the silver lance.

Episode 32. The Silver Butterfly Bridging between Dreams

The coast was filled with blinding, silver light.

On the beach the silent Fallen Mushitsuki were collapsed here and there, while Kasuou and Yomori Neiko also lost consciousness.

Kusuriya Daisuke was injured and it took every bit of power he had to stand by the breakwater. His face hidden by the goggles was covered in clotted blood and his SEPB coat was also in tatters.

Within Daisuke’s sight covered in red, the exhausted form of the familiar girl was there.

“From now on, we will—”

Wide open pupils. Long hair. A vivid pattern all over her body. As well as—the dream-eating Morpho butterfly in the shape of a spear and the swarm of small butterflies covering the beach.

All of them shone in silver.

Ichinokuro Arisu.

As if she was host to the Perseid meteor shower raining from above, the pattern engraved on Arisu’s body emitted phosphoresce.

“All live togetheeer!”

As the girl howled, nothing remained of her usual bright smile and lively, shining black pupils.

“Is this Maturation…?”

The flame devil Harukiyo standing next to Daisuke was frozen in shock.

Saionji Ena and Kujou Takako who were further away were unable to understand the situation and were speechless.

“AAAaAAaAAAAaAAAH!”

The coast’s air was shaken by this loud roar.

As if shaken by rage.

As if shaken by happiness.

As if about to cry in sorrow.

This scream, not unlike a bestial howl, didn’t sound like something that could come out of the mouth of the girl Daisuke knew well.

The girl called Ichinokuro Arisu wouldn’t shout with such a voice—

Erasing the howl, Arisu widened her eyes. Her pupils drawing arcs of light captured the enemies floating above the ocean surface.

One of the Original Three that give birth to Mushi, Oogui.

And—the Mushitsuki-hating man, Ichiku Kimitaka.

Arisu flung her silver lance toward the monstrous enemies blocking her way.

Even to Daisuke’s eyes, as someone who survived mortal combat countless times and was called the strongest Mushitsuki, the spear looked like it completely vanished. Due to its extreme speed and power the only thing he could register was a silver flash.

“—”

A soundless explosion raised sand throughout the entire coast.

The flash surpassing the speed of sound tore the sea into two, boiling both Oogui and Ichiku Kimitaka instantly.

The spear stabbed into far into the sea—and the ocean exploded. The coast was assaulted by powerful tremors, and explosive wind pressed closer to the beach. Large amounts of seawater rising into the air became a fierce rain.

These shockwaves, enough to make the air crackle, told of the spear’s destructiveness. If it struck the surface, it had enough power to completely demolish a small town.

Unable to withstand this attack that went beyond common sense, the two enemies on the sea surface were reduced to dust.

However—

“Hehe.”

“You fool.”

A black spot gathered in air, and Oogui and Ichiku Kimitaka were reborn.

“You threw away your one and only weapon—”

Ichiku couldn’t finish his words.

Arisu thrust her hand to the side and sand rose to it as if being sucked. The small butterflies dancing around gathered, fused with the sand and became a thin spear. It was somewhat smaller than the spear that held the Morpho butterfly’s body, but even seeing the light flickering on its surface it was obvious it held tremendous power.

Ichiku became speechless and Oogui erased her smile.

It wasn’t just their enemies. Everyone there couldn’t move as though frozen.

The girl controlling the shining silver butterflies dominating the sand who seemed inhuman—was clad in beauty beyond the domain of men.

An incarnation of dreams.

There were no longer any vestiges of Arisu’s lively face—of the commonplace and normal girl.

“…”

Daisuke gritted his teeth.

Was this—the end?

It all started from Hanashiro Mari’s small dream, involved many Mushitsuki and was inherited by Ichinokuro Arisu. Were these feelings about to end right here?

An Undying enemy and Arisu who completely became prey to the Morpho butterfly and had her dream eaten.

Daisuke was always next to her side protecting her. Even so, at the very end—

He couldn’t do anything.

He could do nothing but watch.

“Hey, Kakkou! If it Matures, what happens to the woman?”

At Harukiyo who grimaced, Daisuke couldn’t answer.

If a Mushi Matured, the host Mushitsuki’s dream would be fully devoured—and they’d lose their life.

Arisu wasn’t a Mushitsuki but even if she just had her dream eaten by the Morpho butterfly, the probability of her reaching the same end was high.

When Arisu died, only the Morpho butterfly taking over her body and the two Undying would remain—

Wasn’t that the worst result possible?

Arisu didn’t even turn to look at Daisuke. Right now, she couldn’t even see him. Now that the Morpho butterfly was Maturing, there was no doubt that Arisu’s will was being eroded by the Mushi. When she fully lost her ego to it, Arisu’s mind and body would fully become the Mushi’s—

“Arisu—”

Seeing the girl being controlled by the Morpho butterfly, Daisuke recalled the promise she once made with him.

A casual, small promise.

That was on the first time Arisu showed that she was scared from getting involved with Mushitsuki.

“You were the one who gave me your hand, telling me to take you with me…”

Arisu had wrung out her courage and said this to Daisuke.

At the time Daisuke grabbed her shaking hand back.

“If you go overboard, I’ll bring you back—I’m pretty sure I said this.”

The voice of the mumbling boy.

Was erased by the war cry of the shining girl.

Part 1

Family.

Friends.

Memories.

All of her treasures were packed into a single feeling.

As long as she had that feeling, she could do anything. If she lost this feeling, she would lose her very existence.

It was called a dream.

The path she’d taken so far connected here.

With this feeling in her chest, she would keep going on this path.

So she was convinced.

“—AaAAH!”

Arisu’s throat emitted an inhuman howl. She threw the thin spear she was grasping at her enemies.

At the same time, the surrounding sand rose up and transformed into a swarm of butterflies. One after another, spears of light were created and surrounded Arisu in the blink of an eye.

Right, left, right again.

Swinging both arms in speeds beyond human eyes, the silver girl kept launching spears.

“Nuh…!”

Silver lightning pulverized Ichiku Kimitaka’s half body and caused a giant explosion on the other side of the horizon.

“Could you please move, Arisu-chan?”

Oogui kept scattering her purple scales. In the night sky streaming the meteor shower, the scales formed and transformed into Mushi.

“Well, you might not be Arisu-chan anymore—”

Oogui who was trying to laugh suddenly turned back with a start.

“—”

Oogui’s body floating in the night sky scattered. The flash of light flying from afar hit the mark.

Arisu caught the light that pulverized Oogui and came back down to the beach. Shining particles were blown away and her silver hair danced.

Stopping in Arisu’s hand after this impact was the Morpho butterfly’s spear that she first threw at her enemies. The strongest weapon that came back to Arisu’s hands spread its blade-like wings.

“AAaAAAH—”

The war cry emitted from her mouth could be heard in the distance.

She was being eaten away—

The first precious feelings Arisu had since her birth were being eaten by something and erased.

Just like Oogui said.

Right now, the one moving Arisu’s body wasn’t herself.

Stealing Arisu’s heart and her body, and eating her—

Was a Mushi.

It wasn’t painful, yet unbearably painful.

Painful as though her chest was constricted, yet also brought a pleasant drowsiness and sleepiness.

—Hello.

Her late friend Hanashiro Mari’s smile.

—Ena Homerun!

—When he comes back, I will tell him, “welcome back”.

Her memories of her still-living friends, Saionji Ena and Kujou Takako.

—Geez, why’d I have to…

The days she spent with Daisuke at her side.

—I wanna get punished.

The flame-like eyes of the worthy rival Harukiyo, who came to look for Mari’s dream.

She was literally being eaten by a Mushi, having a hole open inside and having it be covered fully in black.

All of them were irreplaceable memories.

Everything that made up Arisu.

If they were gone, Arisu would cease being Arisu.

No, don’t go away—

She wanted to shout this, yet couldn’t shout.

“AaAAaAAH—”

Leaking from Arisu’s mouth was only the cry of the Morpho butterfly raising cheers.

There was no pain.

Even so, she felt extreme pain—in her heart.

This was what dreams being eaten meant.

The identity of the pain that Mushitsuki always faced and fought against.

Arisu couldn’t even struggle against this harsh pain that she’d never experienced before.

With the faces of her important people vanishing, she also started forgetting her own face they were looking at.

She was starting to lose sight of who she was—

“Are you trying to say that if you can’t change this world that has Mushitsuki with it then you might as well destroy the world itself? Ichinokuro Arisu—“

On the sea surface, Ichiku Kimitaka’s ripped mouth was created. Tardigrades gathered to this form, and the face clad in sunglasses with different colored lenses was restored.

Arisu’s body moved on its own and readied the spear.

The sense of duty to defeat the enemies in front of her eyes was just being dyed by a destructive impulse.

The resolution to protect her dream changed into a joy that controlled immense power.

“If this is the ‘saving’ you speak of, I’ll eat even that.”

The tardigrades tsunami pushed to the beach. Ichiku’s upper torso slid on top of the wave as if surfing, assaulting Arisu.

Arisu flashed her Morpho butterfly spear. Silver scales blew away both Ichiku’s body and the swarm of tardigrades.

“…!”

The next moment, an explosion resounded at Arisu’s feet. From within the swarm of tardigrades gushing out from beneath the sand extended two suit-clad arms.

Arisu’s shoulders were restrained by superhuman strength. And further from the tardigrades a ripped mouth flew out.

Although she barely stopped it with her spear, the ripped mouth broke apart into countless tardigrades and slipped away from the spear. Regaining its form again, the mouth stuck sharp fangs into Arisu’s neck.

“AAaAAH!”

A cry of pain leaked from Arisu’s mouth a cry of pain leaked. The strengthened silver body that fused with the Morpho butterfly scattered fresh blood.

“The world of Mushitsuki will not change.”

Ichiku Kimitaka’s dark eyes glared at Arisu. Without moving the biting mouth, he moved the throat behind the hole in his cheek and spoke.

“Under the name of the Special Environmental Preservation Bureau, Mushitsuki will forever keep living in despair—”

Being crushed by the tardigrades’ overwhelming weight, Arisu was pushed back to the breakwater.

“AaaAAAH—”

Arisu—no, the Morpho butterfly shouted.

Silver scales were spouted from the spear, and the tardigrades eating it were instantly annihilated.

“What’s wrong, Oogui?!”

Ichiku regenerated in another location as if nothing happened, glaring up the sky of streaming stars.

“As long as this woman’s there you can’t eat the dream you’re aiming for!”

“Hehe… looks like it.”

Narrowing her rainbow eyes enchantingly, Oogui produced several more Mushi.

Arisu crushed the pushing swarm of Mushi with a single attack from her spear.

However—

“…!”

A giant shadow fell down from overhead.

She hurriedly swung her spear and emitted scales. However, the half-dome-shaped Mushi alighting down wasn’t fully destroyed by this.

It was Rina’s seven-spotted ladybug. Although half its body was torn off, it bit the spear with its large mouthpart.

“—!”

This shockwave with power off the charts sank Arisu into the ground. On top of sealing the spear with its mouthpart, it continued by shooting a shockwave. Adding to seven-spotted ladybug’s weight, Arisu’s body stabbed even further into the ground.

Dirt was blown and oceanwater flowed in like stormy waves. The seven-spotted ladybug’s shockwave tore the ground asunder, dropping Arisu into the abyss.

Tardigrades spouted from within the torn earth. Ichiku’s arms extending from the surface pinioned Arisu from behind.

“—I will drop you into hell and close the lid, you old relic, Morpho butterfly. So you can never come back to this world again.”

Falling—

Along with the sensation as though she was falling, Arisu’s heart was assaulted by the sensation of being dropped into the deep abyss.

Arisu’s heart was being devoured by the silver spear she was grasping, and her consciousness was swallowed whole by the darkness.

The faces of those important to her.

The memories of the days she spent with her loved ones.

They were all being eaten by the Mushi and losing their form.

“—”

Arisu widened her eyes.

Letting her left hand go of the spear that had its movements restricted, she used her fist clad in a glowing pattern to strike the abdomen of the seven-spotted ladybug. Its body pierced, the seven-spotted ladybug flinched, and in that opening Arisu shot scales from her spear.

Light burst.

Both the seven-spotted ladybug and Ichiku Kimitaka boiled and a huge tremor shook the ground.

The girl leapt up from the depths of the holes created in the ground. Bursting through the waterfall of seawater, she leapt up stairs created by her small silver butterflies and up into the night sky.

Rotating midair, she landed on top of the carpet created by butterflies gathered on the ocean surface.

“Although weakened, you still are the remains of a Rank 1. So you can still crawl up, huh.”

“Hehe—”

Ichiku who emitted white breath from his ripped mouth and Oogui who sneered bewitchingly.

Ichiku said she had crawled.

But that was a mistake.

Even while facing these Undying enemies, Arisu kept falling.

She was desperately struggling inside the sea of darkness that tried dragging her heart and memories inside it.

Precious feelings she should have had.

She was supposed to be fighting in order to fulfill them.

However—

Arisu was starting to forget them.

She should have had people she wished to protect, but couldn’t recall their faces.

She couldn’t recall the name they called her with.

Although it was really said, she couldn’t even remember why it was sad.

Even her reason for fighting, the faces of her important people, was eaten by the Mushi every time she used her power—

The man controlling the tardigrades howled, attacking her.

The woman in control of swarms of Mushi including the seven-spotted ladybug was attacking her.

She stood against them to protect herself.

The more she fought…

The more she used her power…

The personality known as Ichinokuro Arisu was falling into the depths of the darkness, and—

“—!”

While Arisu fought against the two enemies, a flame ball attacked her from another angle.

She didn’t even need to swing her spear. Arisu easily repelled the fire with her bare hands.

“—Don’t you fuckin’ ignore me.”

The boy standing on the breakwater glared at Arisu.

“You’re ideal as you are right now. Finally feel like fulfilling your promise?”

The boy clad in fire wore a fierce smile. His blazing eyes glared at her.

“C’mon, do it. Fulfill my dream—”

She looked back at the boy with eyes of silver.

She couldn’t—see the boy’s face.

It should have been familiar to her. His voice should have been familiar to her. Although she saw him and heard him—her heart couldn’t recall his face and voice.

“Ha, you idiot,” spat the tardigrade man with a bored-sounding voice.

Arisu kicked the butterfly carpet. She reached the boy in the blink of an eye.

No…!

While struggling inside the darkness, Arisu shouted.

She couldn’t remember his face, but she did have the impulse that she couldn’t hurt him.

He was one of the people important to Arisu.

She only had this conviction.

Stop…!

Desperately stopping Arisu’s will, her body didn’t listen. He was acknowledged as an enemy that tried to hurt her, so she obeyed her self-preservation instincts and swung the spear at him.

That person’s important to me—

Arisu’s personality was sinking.

The power she couldn’t resist was dragging Arisu under the dark ocean abyss, and—

She completely lost sight of the exit.

“—”

Her silver eyes glowing, Arisu’s expression was gone.

She swung down the Morpho butterfly spear at the flame boy with mechanical movements.

However, the moment before the spear tore him apart—

“—WOOooOOOOOooOOOH!”

Grasping and stopping the spear spreading destruction was a boy whose face was hidden by goggles. His black long coat was ripped, and his left arm stopping the spear was covered in splattered blood.

“…!”

Arisu’s vision blurred. Silver and green lights clashed, burst, and both her legs fell on the sand.

The boy struck his forehead against hers.

It was powerful, but this wasn’t enough damage to affect Arisu as she was now. She soon raised her head and glared at the new enemy—

“Come back—”

The headbutt’s impact broke the boy’s goggles. His true face now revealed, his eyes looked back at Arisu.

What powerful eyes.

His entire body dyed in fresh blood, he was supposed to be so exhausted he could fall down at any moment, but there was not even a shred of weakness in the boy’s eyes. His overly powerful sight created ripples in the dark sea isolating Arisu.

“Arisu!”

Thrusting his forehead, the boy shouted.

The silver girl widened her eyes.

Arisu.

Ichinokuro Arisu.

That name—didn’t belong to the Morpho butterfly spreading destruction.

The boy’s call pulled up Arisu’s consciousness from the dark depths.

“What are you gonna do, losing to that Mushi! You’re going to keep living with us!”

The boy called her name.

“ARISU!”

Arisu floated from the sea of trance that the Morpho butterfly enclosed her in.

He called her.

The reliable boy who was always at her side was calling her name.

The silver lance emitted violent light.

However, just before floating from the darkness-colored ocean, a violent power of control pushed Arisu back down. She was trying to wake up and yet she was being dragged back into the dark ocean.

However, someone grabbed her hand.

—Arisu.

The hand was thin but filled with warmth.

Hanashiro Mari who wore a kind smile grabbed Arisu’s hand.

—Everyone’s waiting for you, Arisu.

The hand of her friend that was no longer there dragged Arisu’s consciousness out of the darkness—

“Arisu!”

She heard the voice that called her back.

Calling her name was the girl who shed tears far away.

The dream eaten by the Mushi.

The holes in her memories.

These were being restored as though by magic.

Clenching both hands atop her chest and crying was Arisu’s important friend.

Saionji Ena.

“Arisu-san!”

A friend just as precious as Ena, Kujou Takako, also cried.

Arisu’s pupils returned from silver to be black.

In the world that regained its color, the one who waited the closest to her than anyone—

—If you go overboard, I’ll bring you back.

Protecting the promise they made once, the one who called her back into this world was that boy.

“Whether or not I’ll come back quietly is another matter, I’ve said—”

When her body was paralyzed with fear and doubts, he always protected her.

Arisu who retrieved her ago called his name.

“Daisuke.”

“…I’m already used to you not being silent.”

Arisu who regained her black eyes as well as Daisuke who was bleeding from his head smiled at each other from up close.

Seeing Arisu’s survival, Daisuke let go of the spear. Then he buckled down on the beach.

“—Harukiyo.”

Behind Daisuke as he groaned painfully and finally exhausted himself, was a boy with eyes wide open.

“This isn’t like you. Weren’t you always trying to live seriously?”

“…!”

“Letting go at this stage makes you a failure of a Mushitsuki.”

Narrowing her eyes as though in teasing, Arisu spun her body. Her silver hair drew a shining arc.

“—So it’s not only Hanashiro Mari and the Morpho butterfly who are obstinate.”

Ichiku Kimitaka grimaced. He emitted white breath from his mouth open wide in hatred.

Oogui sneered derisively.

“It doesn’t look like you’ve come back to yourself, though?”

Arisu grasped the Morpho butterfly spear.

Oogui was right. Although she regained her ego, the Morpho butterfly was still eating Arisu’s dream, trying to erase her consciousness and encroach her body and mind. Only her pupils regained their previous color, and her long hair stayed colored a vivid silver.

“…”

Arisu’s arm grasping the spear slightly shook. Although she showed a smile to Daisuke and the others, her body clearly felt the frightening destructive impulse.

Just a bit more—and she would’ve tried to kill Harukiyo.

Maturation.

Only once, Arisu had seen a Mushitsuki about to Mature. Back then, in order to protect the host’s life, Daisuke killed the rampaging Mushi. By doing that the host became Fallen, but victims were kept to a minimum.

“—”

Arisu bit her lips.

Even now the Morpho butterfly was trying to Mature. The more they kept fighting the power of control strengthened, and it was trying to take over Arisu’s mind and body.

If it managed to achieve full Maturation, there was no doubt a tragedy beyond any imagination would happen.

Arisu would, most likely—die. Although she wasn’t a Mushitsuki in the strictest sense, if the Morpho butterfly fully ate her dream, she would undoubtably be unable to escape this fate.

And the Morpho butterfly would Mature.

Destructive impulse and the self-preservation instincts would give birth to a monster spreading all manners of disasters in the world. Not just Arisu’s precious friends, but many other unrelated people would get involved.

They had to avoid that.

Even if it managed to destroy Ichiku or Oogui, if the Matured Morpho butterfly remained, that tragedy would be unavoidable.

Without saving Mushitsuki—the hope connecting many Mushitsuki would be cut there.

Seeing Arisu stand in place, immobile, Ichiku smiled scornfully.

“What’s wrong, Ichinokuro Arisu? Are you finally getting scared?”

If she fought, the Morpho butterfly would give birth to a tragedy.

If she didn’t fight, the Original Three would keep giving birth to Mushitsuki.

Although she had the power to overwhelm her enemy—

Just from adding the danger of the Morpho butterfly’s Maturation to the equation, the road letting everyone keep living in the future—

There wasn’t even one.

The dream’s continuation would reach a standstill—

“—”

No.

There was a way.

Just one way remained for Arisu to make the dream she thought of come true.

The one and only way she had right now.

The single path that only she could do.

As Arisu managed to reach this path—she felt proud.

“Daisuke.”

She turned around and spoke.

“—Keep Ena safe, please.”

“Arisu…?”

As the boy raised his face in puzzlement, Arisu smiled.

She could smile.

For real.

She had no doubts at all.

Until now she was plenty scared and hesitant. She was saved by Daisuke countless times and by meeting many Mushitsuki, she became just a bit stronger.

If it was Arisu alone, it would have ended long ago.

The people she met due to Mari’s dream called Arisu back.

They were still connected.

The dream that began from a lone sickroom bed was still connected to the future.

Therefore, Arisu could head down that path with a smile—

“I love you, everyone…”

The hope passed from Mari to Arisu.

Now, it was going to connect to the future—

Arisu kicked the ground.

Part 2

Mushi—

These were supernatural beings that appeared in the country more than a decade ago.

It is unknown how they were born. It was only said that these Mushi preyed on the hopes and dreams of wanting to become something or doing something made by adolescent boys and girls in order to grow.

Those who were host to Mushi were called Mushitsuki, and in exchange for their dream being eaten they became able to use the Mushi’s special abilities.

If Mushitsuki had their Mushi killed, they’d become a living corpse with no emotions or memories, called a Fallen, or if they had their dreams fully eaten by the Mushi they would lose their lives along with that dream—only such results awaited them.

In the end—was that true?

In the days of searching for the dream her best friend left to her, Arisu met many Mushitsuki. All of them had strong feelings, all of them shouted while being hurt, and fought with something insane to death.

Arisu loved these dreaming people.

Did only despair wait in the future of such lovely people?

If the world really was made that way and she had to accept it—

Arisu wished to change that.

“Kuh…!”

Arisu kicked the sand and rushed, but the gigantic seven-spotted ladybug blocked her way. It spread its wings that were dotted by seven spots and tried tackling her while launching shockwaves.

“Kuhhh!”

Arisu cancelled the shockwave with her spear and used her left hand with its silver pattern to stop the body. She pushed the giant Mushi that was dozens of times heavier than her and further raised her running speed.

Rina’s Mushi was powerful. Arisu’s arm pushing it back was ripped and red blood flew around.

That seven-spotted ladybug also was the crystallization of a single Mushitsuki’s dream. Wanting to create a place for all Mushitsuki to belong to—the original host Rina spoke of such a dream.

That girl’s dream wasn’t there to be eaten by the Mushi. Neither to be used by Oogui.

It was there to be granted one day by Rina’s own power.

Not just Rina.

All Mushitsuki’s dreams were for their own sakes.

“AaaAAAH!”

Arisu’s long hair emitted silver light. The silver arm that won the contest of strength pounded the seven-spotted ladybug on the sand. Along with a tremor the giant body sank into the ground, creating a huge crater.

Arisu leapt, rotated in air and swung her spear.

“Ichiku Kimitaka…!”

She struck the suited man who was laughing literally from ear to ear using her full body’s weight.

Heaven and earth were swapped.

As if the world itself was reversed, oceanwater rose from the surface as far as the eye could see into the night sky. The swarm of tardigrades filling the water were instantly boiled.

“Uh—”

While wrapped in the roar that broke, crushed and erased everything, Arisu grimaced.

The tip of the swung blade expanded, and the Morpho butterfly flapped its wings.

“Uuh…AaaAAAAH!”

The pattern covering Arisu’s body shone. Her ego that just barely got back started thinning again. The Morpho butterfly ate Arisu’s dream, rampaging to take control of her body and mind.

“…!”

Looking at the spear in hand, she gulped.

The Morpho butterfly was looking at Arisu. Red eyes popped open on the unfolded wings, waiting for her to exhaust herself—

The Mushi wanted to spread their wings.

Even while they pretended to be the allies of humans and leeched on them, eating their dreams little by little in exchange for granting them power, they wished to Mature and become free.

That was what Mushi were.

They appeared in front of the dreaming beings called humans, pretending to be their friends while in fact they were predators after prey.

Were they their enemies?

Were they unbeatable?

Arisu—didn’t think so.

Even while resisting the Morpho butterfly rampaging in her hand, Arisu smiled.

“—Thank you.”

Twitch.

The Morpho butterfly’s movements stopped.

As if it was taken by surprise by Arisu who smiled while withstanding pain.

Or perhaps as if it was scared.

The power of control rampaging in the spear slightly lightened.

“You were always at my side. Always, ever since Mari died—”

Arisu didn’t know whether the beings called Mushi were the enemies of mankind.

At the very least, this Morpho butterfly here watched over Mari.

Although only for a short time, it extended her life.

That was a miracle.

It gifted Mari with a little more time, then sent her dream to Arisu.

And it wasn’t just Mari. The Morpho butterfly gave even Arisu a precious gift.

“You’ve called so many Mushitsuki. To make sure Mari wasn’t lonely… to make me even a little stronger.”

Therefore, she couldn’t give up.

The dreams that connected many Mushi couldn’t be cut off there.

“You wanted my dream, but—”

She smiled and raised her face.

The welling seawater turned into a light rain on the breakwater and black dots were born in it.

Ichiku Kimitaka’s form was restored.

“My dream’s going to become bigger and bigger. So big that you’ll never eat it all—”

The Morpho butterfly spear didn’t weaken its power trying to take control of Arisu.

However.

The wings closed with awkwardly stiff movements.

It became a spearhead again and emitted glow.

I’m watching—

She felt as if it told her that it was watching her carefully to see whether she despaired again.

“Thank you.”

As Arisu narrowed her eyes and returned that greeting, Ichiku Kimitaka attacked. Drawing the swarms of tardigrades, he swung down his not yet fully-reformed arm.

She immediately caught the attack with her spear, but the superhuman strength made Arisu’s legs sink into the ground.

“No matter how much power you gain, I’ll teach you that everything is useless.”

“Kuh…!”

Arisu swept her spear powerfully, blowing Ichiku back.

“—And it’s not just you, little girl.”

Ichiku, having formed in a different location, sneered.

Emitting white smoke from his ripped mouth, his form with red eyes glowing behind his glasses was already—a far cry from being called human.

The tardigrades multiplied with unprecedented vigor.

“You’re not the only one holding back Maturation.”

“…!”

The black Mushi expanded as though to eat the entire world.

“Even if you can kill me using power that would destroy half the world, no salvation will come.”

Kuha, the boy with red eyes emitted a white breath.

“If my Mushi lost control and Matured, it would just eat the remaining half of the world.”

Ichiku Kimitaka’s tardigrades, just like the Morpho butterfly, were undergoing Maturation—

No matter what she did, she couldn’t kill him.

She mustn’t kill him.

Ichiku Kimitaka’s death would mean the death of the world.

“No one can kill me. I must not be killed by anyone. —That what’s being Undying means.”

And as long as Ichiku was alive, Oogui would keep living.

Mushitsuki would keep being produced.

People strayed into a one-way street that was unchanging—that had no way to change.

If one had a dream, they’d become Mushitsuki.

If one became Mushitsuki, only a sad ending awaited them.

And what would happen to such a world in the future?

“The world will not change.”

Ichiku Kimitaka’s derisive smile broke the Mushitsuki’s hopes.

“The thing called a dream… will vanish from this world.”

Dreams would be gone.

The hearts of people wishing for something would vanish.

A world that desired no change.

Did this not mean that it was slowly dying?

“—But.”

Arisu grasped her spear.

“Mari… wished to live in this world.”

She raised her face.

Arisu’s friend had not despaired.

No—she probably gave up many times before. Arisu probably could never imagine how much her hopes caused her to doubt, to hesitate and to get knocked down.

But even so.

She never gave up that little hope.

“She tried to live desperately with Sanbikime—with the man called Sensei.”

“She simply struggled to live in vain. She’s nothing more than a pathetic loser, unable to give up her impossible hope.”

“No, that’s wrong.”

Arisu smiled.

The Morpho butterfly’s spear emitted silver scales.

It wasn’t the same glow that until now used to rip and attack.

This gentle glow that was even full of warmth filled the beach with Arisu in the center.

“Mari possessed the power to change the world…”

“…!”

The small butterflies, the clones of the Morpho butterfly, were keeping the tardigrades encroachment of the coast in check. They didn’t eliminate them by force, but instead spread around warm scales and were slowly pushing them back to the sea.

“And this power—is now here.”

The color of the world was being overwritten.

The night sky painted by the black tardigrades was slowly coming back to the background of falling stars.

“Mgh…!”

Ichiku’s eyes changed. He probably realized the nature of the spear’s scales.

Arisu did her best to hold back the spear’s power, glancing at Oogui.

“Hehe…”

By facing one against one with Ichiku, no people remained to stop her. As if saying she had no interest in the battle, she came down to the beach, only glancing at the contending butterflies and tardigrades.

Daisuke… keep Ena safe—

Without even turning around, she prayed in her heart. She knew painfully well that it was cruel to rely on him like this when he was covered in wounds all over. However, right now, she could do nothing but believe in her most trustworthy ally.

“You bitch—what are you trying to do!”

Ichiku howled. Perhaps starting to feel danger from the Morpho butterfly’s unknown power, he erased his sneer and leapt toward Arisu. The Undying man’s body split, and a ripped mouth made of squirming tardigrades and two giant arms assaulted her.

“Mari had been looking for you…”

The wall of scales protected Arisu.

“She kept searching for the Undying Mushitsuki until the very end.”

“She envied my immortality. She did nothing more but succumb to jealousy!”

“Maybe it was so… no, it probably was. Mari wanted to live, after all.”

Even the wall of scales was being eaten by the tardigrades. Ichiku fed on the Mushi’s power—

“But—it wasn’t just that.”

Mari kept her promise and came back not just to meet with Arisu.

—Can I entrust it to you?

The power to see the continuation of her dream was left to Arisu.

“After all, Mari was called Hunter…!”

Even as she grimaced and desperately fought the tardigrades, Arisu spoke.

“I know very well that I can’t kill you! I also know I shouldn’t kill you…! But Mari also knew all that! That’s why she called you Undying! Although she knew you were an opponent she couldn’t kill, she never hesitated in her attacks, causing her to be called Hunter! That’s a contradiction!”

“She was just mad with jealousy! Just like a child raising a tantrum, she went on a rampage without any logic! She was nothing more than the dregs of an ugly Mushitsuki!”

“Right, Mari was a Mushitsuki! Therefore, she had many sorts of feelings! She also felt envy and fear! She hesitated and surely also gave up! Because she was such a Mushitsuki—”

The defensive wall of scales was being eaten by the gluttonous tardigrades. The innumerable black Mushi ate the scales, scratching Arisu’s cheek with their claw tips.

“She didn’t give up on anything!”

She shouted, her eyes moist.

“Her dream of wanting to live! The promise with me! And—defeating the Undying Mushitsuki. Mari never gave up on any of those!”

“Cut the bullshit! She just didn’t know what she was doing, she couldn’t grasp the difference between dreams and reality!”

“You’re the one who doesn’t get it! The ones who called the Morpho butterfly an irregular Mushi is you SEPB lot! Mari’s Mushi invited many Mushitsuki, led them astray and twisted them—”

“That’s nothing more than a defect! One which I will eliminate here and now!”

“You can’t! After all—you yourself are nothing more than one of the people invited by the Morpho butterfly! You’re already deep in this. In the continuation of Mari’s dream…!”

The movements of the tardigrades attempting to eat Arisu froze.

“Go to sleep, Ichiku Kimitaka.”

Using the opening of the tardigrades flinching, the silver scales regained their vigor.

As the black Mushi touched the scales, they stopped moving, one after another, and dropped into the sea.

“Stay frozen in the moment your life stopped, just like Mari when she came back to my side—“

There was something she understood from having the Morpho butterfly consume her dream to let her use its powers.

“Just like the Morpho butterfly that lost its host and became stuck right before Maturation—“

It happened to Mari’s life as well.

And to the Morpho butterfly itself.

The moment before Mari left this world due to her illness, they were kept frozen and sleeping.

As if they were hibernating.

Both Mari’s feelings and the Morpho butterfly stopped at the very last second.

To see the continuation of her dream.

To eat a new dream.

Mari would rampage whenever she’d take over Arisu’s body, and the Morpho butterfly being able to use only its incomplete power was natural.

It was because Mari kept sleeping in the very moment before all power was gone, in a state where she embraced all possible feelings in her heart. Even the power Arisu exercised was nothing more than borrowing the cutting edge of the sleeping Morpho butterfly’s power.

Mari’s dream of wanting to live and the Morpho butterfly’s persistence to Mature.

The “last second” when these two overlapped and intertwined continued for more than a year—

“Remain Undying—while you go to sleep.”

This was the Morpho butterfly’s hidden power.

The power to twist even the destiny of death—enough to freeze even the flow of time and entice a deep sleep.

Just another bug created by this world where Mushitsuki kept being born.

“A power that can end the world shouldn’t be allowed to exist.”

“…!”

She could see that Ichiku was shaken.

Arisu smiled.

As long as the Undying tardigrades existed, the world was slowly dying. Even if she was able to kill their host Ichiku Kimitaka, at that moment the tardigrades would rampage and eat up the world.

And the Morpho butterfly.

The Morpho butterfly’s Maturation couldn’t be stopped. If it Matured, the world really would be in danger.

The lone way to clear the two disasters for the future, the Undying and the Morpho butterfly.

Arisu—had found it.

“—Kuha.”

A sneer was heard from within the tardigrades filling her sight.

“Haahahaha!”

The shout that sounded as if it came from the bowels of the earth shook the coast.

The number of tardigrades exploded. Even while those that touched the scales fell into the sea, they grew much faster than that and were eating the scales.

“…!”

Arisu raised her face, speechless.

Ichiku Kimitaka’s red pupil looked down on Arisu. Inside the pushing tardigrades, only a right eye burning with hatred could be seen.

“Go to sleep, you’re telling me—”

A pressure like never before burst the scales protecting Arisu.

“If you think that you, as someone who isn’t a Mushitsuki, actually have the right to change this world that has Mushi in it—”

“Kuh… UuUuUuh!”

This unbelievable pressure made Arisu grit her teeth.

Although she retrieved her sense of self, the fact that Morpho butterfly was on the verge of Maturation was unchanged. This overwhelming power shouldn’t have changed even a bit.

However, Ichiku’s hatred—surpassed it.

Her body was attacked by the tardigrades’ fangs and claws.

Her heart was attacked by the prickling hatred she felt on her skin.

They pursued her, trying to eat her until not even a single bite remained.

“—”

Finally, a small hole was opened in the wall of scales.

Instantly, tardigrades swarmed it, leaping toward Arisu.

“Mushitsuki will keep on existing. Otherwise, Mushi would lose even their meaning to be born…!”

Unable to do anything, Arisu was about to become prey to these tardigrades.

Then, however, a crimson fireball leapt in front of her.

“—GaAAAAaAAH!”

The flame devil stepped forward and defended Arisu from getting eaten.

Arisu widened her eyes.

“Harukiyo!”

“Guh—OOOAaAAAH!”

It was obvious at a glance that he already used almost all of his power. Never mind the scales that had no attack power, the indiscriminate tardigrades easily ate through Harukiyo’s weakened flames. The large number of Mushi tore through the boy’s skin, causing fresh blood to fly. Even his masculine face covered in a fire-patterned tattoo now had hideous gashes across it.

The great swarm of tardigrades wriggled, forming Ichiku Kimitaka’s right eye and half his mouth.

“You devil that outlived your time, what are you trying to—”

“What’s even going on here! Ah?! Shit! I wanna live! I haven’t lived enough, so I still want to have plenty more fun in this world!”

Harukiyo shouted.

Widening his flaming eyes, the Mushitsuki feared as the flame devil raised a howl full of rage.

“And yet, fuck me! What was I even doin’?! If I don’t wanna live I might as well run! It’s a bit painful, but not fun at all! If I wanna get punished then fighting you is the best! I won’t ever have this chance again! So what was I fucking doing! If I keep like this, my dream’s never gonna come true!”

While scorching the tardigrades and being eaten by them, Harukiyo shouted.

“Even so, I—no matter who says this! No matter what I myself think! I wanna do this, so there’s no helping those! The fuck’s this! What’s up with this un-Sehateno Harukiyo-like behavior! Haha!”

Harukiyo looked to be in pain, his face was about to cry, and he yelled in quite a childish voice—but the boy still smiled, with a cheerful sneer. Using all of his remaining powers, he kept shooting down the tardigrades headed for Arisu.

“I’m pissed off! This stinks! This’s your fault, Ichinokuro Arisu! Why’d ya do it, ah? Right now there’s a certain something I’d find harder to forgive more than anythin’ else—for you to die!”

“Harukiyo…”

Arisu’s expression crumbled.

She would get him to realize that he was a Mushitsuki.

Who said this to Harukiyo was none other than Arisu.

He probably knew.

Since there were many Mushitsuki who doubted and got hurt while fighting, just like Arisu said, he surely knew that better than anyone.

“I’ll just stab you from behind! If I do that, I…!”

The boy was shouting as if crying, smiling as if imploring. She found his back unbearably lovable.

“I’ll finally—”

Harukiyo’s howl stopped.

Arisu pressed her forehead against his back.

“I told you already. —I’m not going to kill you.”

Harukiyo grimaced. He smiled while crying and groaned.

“This is hell… just like you said.”

While Arisu desperately pushed back the swarms of tardigrades, she turned toward the beach.

There, yet another threat was trying to alight down.

Daisuke—

Grasping her spear, Arisu called the name of her most reliable partner in the world.

Part 3

Daisuke kneeled on the sand, wailing in fatigue and pain.

“Haa… haa…”

His bangs were plastered to his face due to blood, a line of blood dripped from his chin, and his goggles fell into pieces. The gun held by his limp hand—had no more bullets left.

He apparently reached his limits.

The cost of directly blocking Arisu’s blow when she nearly Matured was large. He was also already injured from his fight against Oogui, and his left arm that defended against the spear became completely numb. Although he strengthened himself through fusion with his Mushi, the left half of his body was dyed in blood and he could feel nothing but despair from its state.

Fight.

Keep fighting.

He always single-mindedly fought and survived, but finally—

His power to fight was completely depleted down to the very last drop.

Yomori Neiko who possessed the power of regeneration had exhausted herself and remained unconscious.

Death—

He could feel this cold, heavy fate creeping up his legs.

“—Kusuriya-kun!”

As he turned around awkwardly, the two girls who attempted to run toward him froze in place. Seeing the blood-drenched Daisuke, they shuddered and their faces froze.

“…Saionji-san… Kujou-san…”

The words that came unbidden to his mouth made him wear a forced, bitter smile.

I can’t believe that in this stage I—

With them in front of him, he unconsciously became not Kakkou, but assumed Kusuriya Daisuke’s face.

He referred to those girls, who went to school together with him, as Saionji-san and Kujou-san. Just like every day in class.

Since when—

He just so happened to meet the girl called Ichinokuro Arisu when he went for a mission in her school.

He then started monitoring the Morpho butterfly, a Mushi that lost its original host and yet kept existing.

Although this daily life was just part of his infiltration as an SEPB member, since when had he—gotten so deep into it that he revealed his true self?

“Why…?”

Ena threw a question at him with a hoarse voice.

“Why are you wearing that getup, Kusuriya-kun…? What’s happening to Arisu? Why—are so many people collapsed?”

“…”

“Is it my fault?”

Ena was crying.

“I mean, Arisu and you were protecting me, right…? Even those who collapsed were all—”

“Right, Ena-chan.”

A sickly-sweet voice that seemed like it would engulf them came from overhead.

The beauty with the meteor shower at her back danced in air, her crimson coat fluttering. Behind her round sunglasses, her pupils glowed in crimson as she looked down on Ena.

“Everyone came here, invited by your sweet dream…”

As Oogui moved her red lips, all the surrounding noise began to vanish like receding waves. As if the flow of time was slowing down, the sounds of Arisu’s battle and the sound of the waves were being isolated.

“—My—dream—”

Ena’s eyes were glued to Oogui as if she was being sucked in. Even Takako next to her now wore a vacant expression.

It finally started.

The time Oogui came to eat her dream.

One of the Original Three who gave birth to Mushitsuki, Oogui, would become charmed by the person she had her eyes on, then come to eat that person’s dream by asking about it.

“—”

Daisuke just watched it, completely helpless.

She probably knew he couldn’t do anything. Oogui didn’t even turn to look at him.

And it was the truth.

Once he managed to bring back Arisu from Maturation, that was all he could do.

He lost the power to fuse with his Mushi and his checkered beetle split from his body. It rubbed its long feelers against Daisuke’s knees that fell on the sand.

“Yes, the important feelings that you brought up in your heart with great care…”

“Important—feelings—”

The checkered beetle grew blurry in his vision.

Perhaps his eyes misted over from losing too much blood, or perhaps—he was approaching death and even his Mushi was starting to lose its existence.

He thought it would all end soon.

Daisuke completed many missions with the checkered beetle and he thought the monitoring mission on the Morpho butterfly would also end easily.

However, he was sorely mistaken.

The personality of the Morpho butterfly’s host, Hanashiro Mari, was revived, the flame devil and other unexpected Mushitsuki only stood in his way, and he was strung along by Arisu, who involved herself with Mushitsuki despite not being one herself.

“Come on, Ena-chan. They cannot wait any longer—”

It wasn’t just him.

The people invited by a single butterfly all had their lives twisted and derailed.

Arisu got a dream.

And now, right before his eyes, another girl had her eyes sparkling with a dream.

Who could have imagined this scene?

Who could have anticipated this end?

The hurt and exhausted Daisuke could no longer stop this flow.

In the end, he—couldn’t solve even a single thing.

“…Geez… this mission’s the worst…”

His body was rapidly cooling.

As he hanged his head, Daisuke’s eyelids became heavier.

He couldn’t hear anything.

He couldn’t see anything.

Quietly, his consciousness was starting to fall toward a warm light—

Greeting him there was a momentary sparkle.

A firefly glowing in pure white and a girl about elementary school age.

—So you too.

The girl he had met before, although she reached the very depths of helpless despair—she still hadn’t lost sight of her dream and offered her own Mushi to him with a smile.

—Don’t give up on your dream.

The checkered beetle glowed white for an instant.

On the cusp of fainting, Daisuke widened his eyes.

He rose up, raising his blood-stained face.

“—”

He didn’t have the power to stand again. Nor did he have the power to open his eyelids.

However, being supported by an unseen power and standing upright, Daisuke—was being looked by dark eyes.

The Fallen who’d lost their Mushi.

The eyes of Aki and his comrades who sacrificed themselves, leaving Daisuke and the rest with their hopes.

“Can you tell me your dream?”

Oogui’s sweet whisper echoed in the beach that looked like it had its time frozen.

“My dream is—”

Ena opened her mouth.

Enchanted by Oogui, her eyes were sparkling with happiness.

As if dreaming of a future full of bliss.

I want all four of us precious friends to be together forever—

She was about to mouth this dream.

“—A lie.”

This mumble cut through Ena’s voice.

Her mouth stopped.

“The Kusuriya Daisuke that’s part of that dream… is nowhere to be found.”

Ena’s expression froze. She slowly turned.

The eyes of the girl about to talk about her dream reflected the boy she believed to be her friend.

Daisuke, who stood there listlessly like some ghost.

“I’m… not Kusuriya Daisuke…”

The smile of the girl who had the same dream as him and had her Mushi killed by his own hands.

Aki and his comrades still looking at him despite becoming Fallen.

They didn’t allow him to sleep.

He was supposed to keep fighting only for his dream, but at some point, the feelings entrusted to him wouldn’t allow him defeat.

As long as there was still something for him to do, no matter how small.

Even if it was the cruelest decision of all—

Even if Daisuke became empty, his emotions made his wounded body move.

“I’m Kakkou…”

Daisuke glared at Ena with cold eyes.

—Take care of Ena.

He betrayed Arisu for trusting Ena with him.

What he was going to do was far from salvation. It might even give Ena more pain than becoming a Mushitsuki.

“Kusuriya—kun?”

“I’m a Mushitsuki… and infiltrated Horusu Seijou Academy to monitor a certain Mushi. So I acted as an inconspicuous normal middle schooler, and… pretended to be friends with you.”

Ena absently widened her eyes.

“Kakkou-chan—”

Having her blissful moment disturbed, Oogui’s rainbow pupils looked down at Daisuke. The purple scales became enough Mushi to cover the night sky and assaulted him.

“I kept always lying to you…”

Suddenly, the Mushi about to bite Daisuke to death all stopped the moment before doing so.

Daisuke made no move.

Oogui couldn’t kill him. —At least, not yet.

If she killed him right now, Ena would also lose her dream that was influenced by him. Due to her unsatiable appetite, Oogui couldn’t take his life.

“The Kusuriya Daisuke that played friends with you doesn’t actually exist anywhere…”

“There’s no—Kusuriya-kun?”

Ena mumbled, her face half-asleep.

“No, he’s right there. So, Ena-chan. Tell me your—”

Oogui led astray Ena with her rainbow eyes.

Daisuke denied it.

“He’s gone.”

He was there.

The days he spent with Arisu, Ena and Takako definitely had him there. He forgot about his mission, even about the fact he was Mushitsuki, and retrieved the form of the normal boy, Kusuriya Daisuke.

However—he was gone now.

Daisuke wore a cold smile.

“I’m Kakkou… I dragged you into this battle of Mushitsuki and used you.”

“You told me—you’ll always be there—”

“I lied.”

It wasn’t a lie.

He really did want to stay at her side.

However—that wish would no longer come true.

Daisuke recalled the path he’d taken. Since he became a Mushitsuki and fought as a Mushitsuki—what waited him was nothing but the path of a Mushitsuki.

For just a little bit of time, that path had been twisted by the Morpho butterfly, and he was even able to feel that he became Kusuriya Daisuke again.

Daisuke would become Kakkou again.

“I did nothing but lie to you…”

Therefore, he could bear this pain.

The pain of his wounds, too.

Even the sin of crushing Ena’s dream and the resulting pain ripping his heart apart.

There was no pain that the strongest Mushitsuki called Kakkou couldn’t bear.

“So I can’t stay with you.”

The one in pain—

Much more than it hurt Daisuke—

Was the normal girl in front of him.

“—”

Ena raised a voiceless scream.

Using both hands to hide her shaking lips, she wrung out a hoarse voice.

“I—”

Daisuke’s expression was set in stone. He bit the edge of his lips lightly so that Ena would not notice.

“Really believed you…”

Ena’s heart-rending scream called a storm to the beach.

Purple scales blew around the beach, burst and scattered.

The frozen time resumed its flow.

Arisu’s fight brought vibration to his earlobes, and the meteor shower streamed through the night sky again.

“—What a terrible thing you’ve done.”

Oogui floating in the night sky looked down on Daisuke.

“You wish to stand in my way so much that you’d even break your friend’s dream…”

Daisuke was encircled by countless Mushi in no time. Having her “meal” disturbed just a moment before eating it, Oogui was no longer smiling.

Now that Ena’s dream was lost, Oogui no longer had a reason to not kill Daisuke.

Even with death ahead of him, Daisuke moved not one muscle.

“I… can’t grant Ena’s dream…”

Seeing Ena break down in tears, he mumbled.

He was always called a demon, so he was already used to being begrudged. He was supposedly already used to being hated.

Even so—he bit his lips to suppress the impulse making him want to shout his lungs out.

“Rather than being bound by a Mushi to an unfulfillable dream…”

What else was he supposed to do?

He wanted someone who knew the answer to tell him. He would even offer up his life in exchange, if the other party so desired.

There was nothing he could’ve done.

He could only do this.

Ena’s figure shedding tears overlapped with the little girl who he’d turned into a Fallen.

—Then I’ll give you my dream.

He should’ve become stronger since then.

He thought he’d become stronger.

Did that mean he still didn’t have enough power?

Why did he always have only one choice—

“I hope that one day… you’ll find a new dream…”

Without being threatened by Mushi, something she could dream again and again.

Even if her dream was once broken, she could find a new one—

He thought this was how people should be.

He rose from the edge of death to cling to such a small hope.

This ended everything he could do.

“Perhaps I should make sure right here that you’d never stand in my way again—Kakkou-chan?”

Oogui curled her crescent-like red lips. The purple Mushi pursued him.

With the fate of unavoidable death in front of him, the smile of the girl with the same dream came to the back of his mind. His only regret was that his promise to meet her again didn’t come true.

“…I couldn’t give you your dream back… Fuyuhotaru…”

Daisuke wore a weak smile and mumbled.

Just as he was about to hang his head down and accept his end, it happened.

“…!”

His vision was dyed in silver. Daisuke unconsciously raised his head.

Oogui removed her eyes from Daisuke and gazed toward the sea surface. The Mushi about to attack Daisuke all stopped their movements as though paralyzed.

It wasn’t just the beach.

The sea and the sky.

All the visible parts of the world were divided into two colors, a vivid silver and an evil black.

“…Arisu…?”

The battle unfolding on the ocean changed its nature.

It was supposed to be a battle of attrition between Arisu and Ichiku, but it became a clash between the scales and the tardigrades.

Also, the scales emitted by the Morpho butterfly had a completely different feel than it had so far—

“…You… what are you trying to do…?”

A bad feeling welled up Daisuke’s chest.

Part 4

The night sky with streaming stars was split into two.

A silver glow and a wriggling black.

The world was divided into these two competing colors.

The Morpho butterfly’s scales filled with warmth caused the tardigrades multiplying by malice and hatred to drop into the sea.

The fallen tardigrades ceased their movements and vanished into thin air while sinking.

Her hair glowing silver, Arisu desperately contained the spear’s powers.

“Kuh…! UuUh…!”

“So that’s that Mushi’s ability…!”

His eyes shining red, Ichiku Kimitaka pursued Arisu. The Undying Mushitsuki no longer wore a human form. Swarms of tardigrades formed a giant face and giant arm, and fingertips wriggling indeterminately were trying to grab Arisu.

“WooOOOoRAAAAAAH!”

Putting his life at risk to protect Arisu, blood spurt from Harukiyo’s entire body. He wrung out his remaining power and shot down the tardigrades with flames while his face, neck, hands and legs were being eaten.

A mouth gigantic enough to rip through the night sky wore a derisive smile.

“It’s no use to try and put me to sleep.”

The silver scales were being pushed by the tardigrades. They continued multiplying much more than those that fell into the sea and vanished, so they were eating the scales back.

“My Mushi eats Mushi. That power is the same. —I’ll eat your scales until your exhaust your powers.”

The power to sleep and the power to eat.

Both powers momentarily competed, but even so the Morpho butterfly’s scales were not endless.

“…”

The more the Morpho butterfly used its powers, the pain deep within Arisu’s chest was revived.

Parts of her were being eaten.

The scales by the tardigrades.

And Arisu’s dream by her Mushi.

“Uh…gwAAAAH!”

Even Harukiyo, who was covered in fresh blood all over, passed his limits.

“Arisu…!”

She turned toward the voice echoing from the beach.

Daisuke stood there listlessly, the crying Ena behind him and Takako near her.

Seeing Oogui float in the sky, unmoving, she realized something happened.

She thought that Daisuke wouldn’t do that.

And yet he destroyed Ena’s dream for her sake.

Ena’s small dream melted away, so there was no doubt she felt pain.

Even so she would probably—find a new dream, someday.

She would definitely be able to find a way of life that was free and controllable, just like she was, without being afraid of Mushi. She would grant herself an even better dream.

“It isn’t like you, making that face.”

Seeing Daisuke about to collapse, she mumbled this.

“Really, you’ve worried me so much… idiot Daisuke—”

The spear Arisu grasped changed its shape.

The shining tip split into four, became the Morpho butterfly’s wings and spread.

“…!”

Ichiku’s crimson eyes shook.

The Morpho butterfly split from the spear. It slowly spread its wings, taking off from the rod.

“By doing that—can you keep moving forward?”

Many of her comrades became victims.

Arisu who lost her best friend was knocked out by her weakness.

This time she really was being eaten by despair until no one remained.

It would never end there.

Everyone would keep on living in the world.

“Harukiyo, you too.”

Smiling, Arisu put her fingertips on the back of the boy protecting her.

Spreading its wings, the Morpho butterfly landed on Arisu’s shoulder.

“Do you remember the promise with me?”

She would grant him a punishment much worse than death—so she’d declared to him before.

“Daisuke called me back.”

When she was about to lose to the Maturing Morpho butterfly, Daisuke had called her back.

“This time you—all of you, need to…”

“You piece of—what are you—”

As Harukiyo widened his eyes and turned, she met him with a full smile.

—I want to live.

She vividly thought back to when Mari wished for this from the bottom of her heart.

Perhaps coming through the Morpho butterfly, the memories of her late best friend were reborn in Arisu’s mind.

A wish strong enough to rip her heart.

A small feeling that anyone had the right to feel.

Arisu met this girl who had such a wonderful dream.

—Hello!

The dream entrusted to Arisu made her meet many more people.

Daisuke and Harukiyo.

Other important allies.

The dream that kept going through such varied meeting would not end here.

“I was so glad…”

Arisu smiled and hanged her face. Just by recalling this she broke into a smile.

There were some tough times in the days looking for Mari’s dream, but it was always fun.

It was much too fun—that there were times she was scared it would change.

This night, after comparing her answers with Mari, the situation revolving around the Morpho butterfly would also probably reach an end. Then, Daisuke’s mission would end and he would leave Akamaki City. She heard that Kasuou, C, Neiko and the rest would also leave with him.

Harukiyo would also go back to his days of wandering around to grant his dream. Rina as well. She would engage herself in what was both her dream and her duty, to create a place for Mushitsuki to belong.

All of them would leave Arisu.

Those who were invited by the Morpho butterfly and intersected would part, all go on their own different paths.

If it was going to cause her so much loneliness—should she just stop in place?

She also thought of that.

Forgetting all about the future, averting her eyes from her goal and mission, she wanted to spend her days having fun at the exact same place.

“I’m really happy I met all of them…”

As she raised her face again, the Morpho butterfly vigorously flapped its winds behind her.

Its four wings emitting brilliance made it look as though Arisu herself had sprouted wings—

“No way, are you—”

She leapt over Harukiyo who had his blood-covered face frozen.

“You bitch—”

The Morpho butterfly’s wings—Arisu’s wings enveloped the large swarm of tardigrades. Even while they resisted and tried eating the wings, the black Mushi fell into the sea and vanished.

She was afraid of these fun days changing—

Arisu, who challenged this decisive fight while scared of those feelings, froze in the middle of battle as expected and couldn’t move. She lost Mari, felt completely lost, and nearly ran away.

However, her precious allies pushed her back.

Even while getting hurt or becoming Fallen, they pushed Arisu’s back to get her to move again.

That was—being entrusted to her.

They weren’t really gone.

They all had a future they wanted, and they all just took a step toward there.

Now, even if they parted temporarily, if they all wished for the same future, they would definitely meet again.

Since Arisu wanted to meet them again, she possessed the courage to move toward the future they pushed for.

“I told you this was useless! I’ll eat that Mushi!”

The tardigrades multiplied explosively.

However, Arisu’s wings kept expanding and slowly enfolding around the black Mushi.

“If you say you’ll keep eating—I’ll just keep on making you go to sleep.”

Arisu smiled.

“Keep sleeping by my side.”

A silver glow blew around.

If the two Mushi, the Undying tardigrades and the Maturing Morpho butterfly were trying to stop the future everyone wanted—Arisu would seal them both.

“Right now, the two of us—shouldn’t exist in this world.”

Arisu and Ichiku Kimitaka.

No matter who lost, if their Mushi were going to Mature, they should sleep together.

To keep advancing.

To have everyone meet again in the future they wanted.

Arisu received the courage to do this from many people.

“UH—OooOOoOOooh!”

Ichiku shouted. The tardigrades were ripped from Ichiku’s body and he was sucked in by the silver wings.

Ichiku Kimitaka’s mouth that was trying to swallow Arisu and the gigantic arm that was trying to rip her were all torn apart and turned back to tardigrades. The swarm of black Mushi unable to multiply was being enveloped by the silver light and vanishing.

“So you’re listening to my wish.”

Looking up at the silver wings enveloping the black Mushi, Arisu grinned.

“Me and Mari… sorry for the both of us being such selfish mistresses.”

It happened just as she announced this to the silver-colored Mushi.

The air shook.

“—”

Arisu and everyone on the coast were shocked, widening their eyes.

The Morpho butterfly—was crying.

Although human ears couldn’t hear it.

The silver butterfly certainly cried. It shook its endlessly spreading wing, spouted scales and made the air vibrate.

The Mushi’s cry that shook the bodies of all those who heard it and made their heart tremble reverberated on the coast.

She didn’t know why it was crying.

Perhaps it was feeling something no human could understand.

Arisu felt her chest constrict and smiled.

“…Thank you.”

Finally, the Morpho butterfly’s sleeping overtook the speed of the tardigrades’ multiplication.

A hole opened through the black cloud covering the night sky.

More and more holes opened up, they turned into caves, and the falling meteor shower was revealed.

“GWOO…OOooOOH?!”

At the breakwater, Ichiku Kimitaka’s form appeared. As the tardigrades were sucked away and their silhouette was crumbling, he was regaining his former form as a human.

Arisu gritted her teeth and unleashed more of the Morpho butterfly’s power.

The wings covering the tardigrades slowly closed.

Being warmly embraced by the wings, the black Mushi’s numbers rapidly lowered.

And.

The final one.

Was drawn to Arisu’s chest.

With silver wings sprouting at her back, Arisu slowly reached with both arms to the black Mushi.

“Give—my Mushi back—”

Ichiku Kimitaka raised his face. There wasn’t the figure of the SEPB Director there.

“Ichinokuro—Ichinokuro Arisu—”

The boy who lost his sunglasses and had his braid come undone was just like the many people Arisu met thus far—

A simple Mushitsuki.

“A person like you who knows nothing trying to end the existence of Mushi… I can’t allow it!”

The tardigrade being drawn toward Arisu’s chest leapt. Its hard carapace shivered and it rampaged, trying to multiply endlessly again.

“…!”

The Morpho butterfly’s wings rippled, cracks running through them.

A single tardigrade was spouting a pitch-black wave.

So much hatred.

A curse.

The tardigrade resisted violently, as if it held all possible disasters in the world.

Knowing nothing—

Arisu certainly knew nothing about Mushi. Judging from Ichiku Kimitaka’s way of speaking, he apparently knew something about those beings called Mushi.

Knowing about them—wasn’t Arisu’s duty.

What were Mushi?

The one to ascertain this truth wasn’t Arisu.

It could be someone else.

It could happen one day.

For that sake—Arisu would create a path.

“The dream’s continuation—let’s wait there together.”

Arisu reached out both hands toward the tardigrade spreading hatred.

She gently wrapped her hands around the rampaging tardigrade.

How much time would it take for so much hatred to vanish?

Would there ever come a time when this hatred would melt?

The answer to that would not come now—

“Guh—OOooAAAAAaaAAH!”

“Until the day someone wakes us—”

The Morpho butterfly’s wings closed.

Carefully covering the tardigrade in her hands, Arisu was being slowly engulfed—

“—Arisu!”

She could hear someone calling her from the beach.

Daisuke was standing there, frozen. His face, revealed by his broken goggles—was weak, unlike his usual self.

“Arisu—”

The boy standing at the breakwater, Harukiyo, also made the same face. Even the flame devil of all people grimaced like a lost child.

Arisu grinned.

“You can’t die, you two, alright?”

If her important people pushed her back—if she was entrusted with so many feelings, Arisu could fight.

So this time—

Arisu would leave it to them.

She would push their backs, as they seemed likely to stop in place.

“As long as you’ll live—we’ll definitely meet again.”

As if thinking something about this word, Daisuke gasped.

Before taking the challenge of this decisive fight, she’d ended up meeting a young man whose name she didn’t know in town by chance. She now recalled his words.

—As long as we don’t forget, we’ll definitely reunite with our feelings intact.

They wouldn’t forget.

This day, when they all dreamt of the same future.

Therefore, she should definitely be able to meet all of them again.

She’d meet everyone in a world without Mushi.

Even if they parted right now, everyone’s dreams connected to the same future—

Grimacing with hatred, Ichiku Kimitaka shook his body. His knees fell atop the water’s edge with a splash.

Arisu grasped the black Mushi in both hands and rounded her body.

When the silver wings engulfed Arisu, a gentle drowsiness closed her eyes.

She didn’t know when they would open.

Perhaps they would never open again.

However—she wasn’t scared.

Although Arisu was always weak, she received power by the people precious to her.

“Everyone—”

She wasn’t going to say goodbye.

Someone of those important to her would definitely come to wake her up.

Instead, she should say those precious words just like the promise she made with her friend that day—

“See you tomorrow.”

Along with this promise of a reunion, Arisu closed her eyes.

Falling into deep sleep.

To wake up one day.

Having her important people tap her back, she stifled her own yawn.

Those who were hurt during the battle along with those who became Fallen.

Let us meet again in a world without battles.

Until then.

Until then.

With irreplaceable feelings in her chest.

Let’s keep dreaming—

Part 5

Silver rain poured on the beach.

The scales blowing on the ocean turned into a shining orb and fell above those who remained.

The Morpho butterfly’s wings were wrapped in light and hardened with the rain of scales around it.

And—

“Ari—su—”

Daisuke watched this, stunned.

Near the water’s edge, where waves came and went, sat a strange sphere.

A silver, glowing cocoon.

A Morpho butterfly cocoon held in place by protrusions and being hit by the waves.

“—”

Next to the cocoon there was the powerless Ichiku Kimitaka. His red eyes were slowly closing.

His expression distorted in anger was becoming calm and his jaw slackened. The Undying Mushitsuki looked down while on his knees and did not move again.

“Arisu…?”

Dragging his wounded body, Daisuke approached the cocoon. However, he didn’t even have the power to kick through the waves, so he lost to the water and stumbled.

Using both hands to raise his face from the water surface, he couldn’t even stand up.

He couldn’t understand what happened.

No—he actually already realized what Arisu did.

Arisu used the power of the Morpho butterfly and sealed the ability of the Undying tardigrade.

By offering herself as tribute.

By continuing to use her powers on the unbeatable existence of the Undying, she put him to sleep—

“Ari—”

With blood and seawater dripping down his hair, he was about to shout.

“—So I missed out on yet another delicious dream.”

A sweet whisper came down from the night sky.

Oogui looked down calmly on the cocoon Arisu slept inside in.

Daisuke raised his face.

Meanwhile, the meteor shower slowed.

The streaming stars watching over the Mushitsuki’s battle were vanishing.

“And she even took one of my cute Mushi along with her… what a naughty girl.”

Her rainbow pupils detached from the cocoon and looked down on Daisuke.

“…”

He looked up stunned at the swarms of Mushi surrounding him.

Nothing changed about him being faced with death. In just a few more seconds, Oogui’s Mushi would bite him to death.

Although he was in mortal danger—he couldn’t think of anything.

Both his feelings and his reason couldn’t acknowledge Arisu’s action.

“…”

However, Oogui’s Mushi did not come to attack him.

Oogui removed her eyes from Daisuke.

As if nothing happened.

As if she didn’t care that Daisuke disturbed her meal.

As if she’d already forgotten about Arisu sleeping inside the silver cocoon.

Oogui, looking to the great distance, sneered cheerfully.

“Ah, there’s another one—”

She would eat dreams and birth Mushitsuki.

She would keep eating and birthing.

The supernatural being called Oogui slowly floated into the sky.

“A delicious dream was born—”

Seeing Oogui who was going to leave for another new dream, Daisuke realized.

That was the being called the Original Three in the truest sense.

When a dream was born, they would eat it.

Mechanically.

People’s feelings and resistances didn’t matter.

As if the very existence of the Original Three was part of the system moving the present world and just kept existing.

Those who were simply part of the laws of nature had nothing but unsatiated desire and defensive instincts against the enemies standing in their way—

“—”

Daisuke stood up, wobbling.

This was the only chance.

Arisu had given up on her body to seal the power of Undying. Then Oogui also shouldn’t be able to use that power.

If he wanted to finish her off it could only be done right here and now.

If he let her escape now, Oogui would vanish somewhere in the world again. Since she would appear at varied places at random, the chance to strike her down would perhaps never come again.

“Oogui—”

He raised his gun and was about to step ahead with his shaking legs—

“—”

His bloody arm stopped. It had no power in it and only trembled.

However, he was warm.

As if he was scorching.

As if there was a bright-red flame dwelling in those eyes.

Harukiyo stopped Daisuke from heading toward Oogui.

“This is—the first and last time.”

While gritting his teeth so hard they looked about ready to scatter sparks, the flame devil spoke.

“Meaning, for me to stop you from wasting what Arisu’s done and die like a dog—”

Daisuke became speechless and looked up the night sky again.

“You’ll no longer stand in my way, right?”

Oogui turned to him, looking at him with rainbow eyes.

“Kakkou-chan—”

Daisuke stood in place, stunned.

Although he should have no longer any power to fight with Oogui—

“Ehehe…”

The form of the beauty narrowing her rainbow-colored pupils was wrapped in purple scales.

Forgetting even about her missed dream—

As if saying she didn’t even care about the girl called Ichinokuro Arisu snatching away one of her powers and going to sleep—

Wrapped in her glowing scales, Oogui was melting into thin air.

“Oh, but—”

Before vanishing, her red lips moved as if she recalled something.

“It does feel lonely to have less Mushi protecting me.”

The only chance—he didn’t know if it would ever come again, the best chance was vanishing right before him.

“Right… perhaps I will go to that girl who had that very delicious dream again and—”

Leaving behind this mumble Daisuke couldn’t understand, Oogui’s form vanished completely.

Remaining there were just the two boys covered in wounds, and—

The cocoon glowing in silver.

Ichiku Kimitaka, who slept with his head hanged.

Ena who was stunned kneeling on the beach and Takako snuggling up to her.

This.

Was the world Arisu changed.

The world that lost the girl called Ichinokuro Arisu in order to defeat a single despair, that of the Undying.

Daisuke was left in that truly calm world—

“—Haha.”

A snicker rose nearby.

“Haahaaa!”

The flame devil’s loud laughter echoed in this beach where only the ocean was heard.

“Look at this, Kakkou! The world did change somehow! This is a new world! As long as Undying’s not there, we might be even able to defeat Oogui! There might one day be a world without any Mushitsuki!”

As if invited by Harukiyo’s laughter, a small shadow floated in the sky above the coast.

Another one appeared, then another. These shadows growing in number—were a large swarm of flying Mushi.

Seeing their coordinated movements, he knew these were SEPB Mushitsuki.

“Nobody got turned into a Mushitsuki by Oogui and the Undying bastard was defeated! Isn’t this our grand victory, eh?!”

Daisuke cut through the waves, almost falling, and approached the silver cocoon.

He didn’t pay any heed to either Harukiyo’s laugh nor the SEPB members approaching the coast.

Finally, he reached the cocoon, gently touching it with his fingertips.

“—”

He ended up leaking a voice without thinking.

Thump.

Thump.

He could clearly feel a small ripple from the cocoon.

Arisu was sleeping inside.

While dreaming of a future where everyone lived, she was in deep sleep—

“—Well, shit.”

Harukiyo’s sneer stopped.

The flame devil in the edges of his sight was glaring at Daisuke.

No, not at him.

The burning eyes were staring at the silver cocoon.

“Welp, now that this idiot girl’s gone the world’s a lot more boring, though.”

Grimacing his wounded yet still masculine visage, Harukiyo looked up at the distant sky. He glared at the SEPB members heading there.

“I’ll get going.”

Daisuke still touched the cocoon, unmoving.

“How long’re ya gonna be standin’ there, Kakkou—”

Harukiyo’s body slowly tilted.

“Come and wake me up, huh… haha, suits me just fine. I won’t stop at nothing, though?”

Sneering boldly, the boy let his back sink into the water as if using the sea as a bed.

“Easy peasy—”

Along with the sound of splashing water, the flame devil vanished into the sea.

Harukiyo probably wouldn’t die.

He would heal his wounds and before long roam around the world with a happy sneer on his face.

But Daisuke—

“…Idiot Arisu…”

His shaking fingertips felt warmth.

He bit his lips.

Was the meteor shower slowing down?

As if saying that there was a silver glow right in front of them—

The world looked darker.

Just a little bit.

He stifled the groan about to rise from him.

“What am I—”

Harukiyo said this:

That the world had changed.

The possibility of a world without Mushitsuki was born.

However, for Daisuke that future felt like a distant world.

“What am I supposed to do without you…”

Did she want him to gather many Mushitsuki again like they did in this battle?

Should he make that devil flame his ally again?

Should he look for Oogui, whose whereabouts couldn’t be determined?

Even though right now only Daisuke remained there alone—

The girl who united Mushitsuki left him behind and went to sleep—

“…Without you…”

Hurt and knocked down as he was, he couldn’t even find words to tell the cocoon in front of him.

The girl who’d make him feel better—was gone.

As he cast down his gaze with his bangs over his face, he heard the sounds of kicking water approaching him.

“What does this situation mean?”

This familiar woman’s voice echoed from right near him.

“Kakkou.”

As he raised his face, he could see a suited woman from within his dribbling bangs.

Central Headquarters Deputy Director—Miguruma Yaeko.

“Conducting a fight without permission and this spectacle… how will you explain it?”

Daisuke made no reply. He no longer had the strength to open his mouth.

He could see two girls being restrained by members wearing white coats. Ena and Takako didn’t even resist and were taken by the members.

“It does seem like you weren’t the only one to have acted without any permission, though—”

Miguruma Yaeko kicked the water and peeked into the face of Ichiku Kimitaka who still looked down without opening his eyes.

Miguruma softly touched Ichiku’s face with her white finger.

“Director—”

She called him in a calm voice, unlike the one she directed at Daisuke. He couldn’t see the expression through her hair.

Ichiku made no move.

For a while Miguruma gazed into his face but finally muttered.

“—Looks like something different than the state of a Fallen. Is he sleeping…?”

On her mouth that had a mole on it she wore the smile of chains that could freeze anyone who gazed on it.

“And this is…”

Yaeko raised her face, turning toward the Morpho butterfly cocoon this time.

“This is—the Morpho butterfly? I cannot see Ichinokuro Arisu, though. Where is she?”

Daisuke made no reply.

“…Well, that’s fine. We will investigate this at Central Headquarters.”

Yaeko turned back. She spoke, still wearing her smile of chains.

“I will not ask you about your independent action here under the condition that you will not speak of what happened here. Of course—including the fact that the SEPB Director was a Mushitsuki. You are not allowed to tell anyone.”

Daisuke remained standing there stunned as Miguruma Yaeko spoke.

“I hereby declare your monitoring mission of the Morpho butterfly complete.”

Daisuke raised his face and looked up at the night sky.

“Good work, Blaze Class Rank 1 member, Kakkou. I permit you to return to the East Central Branch.”

There was a glow above Daisuke’s head as he still looked at the silver cocoon, not moving a muscle.

The last fragment of the meteor shower.

It fell and vanished in the faraway sky.

Part 6

The gentle sound of the shishi-odoshi echoed in the dusk-time courtyard.

With his sports bag hanging from his shoulder, Daisuke closed the door to the dreary room he’d spent many months in. Even doing just this much caused a sharp pain to run through his bandaged arm.

A week passed since the meteor shower.

After receiving some slight healing from Central Headquarters members that had healing abilities, he underwent a harsh questioning and investigation. He challenged Oogui and lost—although Daisuke included nothing more than this brief explanation, not only was he not punished, he was actually praised for managing to temporarily tranquil the Morpho butterfly’s danger.

And today Daisuke returned to the Ichinokuro mansion.

To prepare for leaving the city.

“…”

While heading down the corridor toward the door, he suddenly thought of something and turned in the hallway.

Was this house always so quiet?

Although he could hear the cicadas, he felt the mansion was especially quiet.

He knew why.

The girl who was always so lively and running around was no longer there—

“…!”

Daisuke widened his eyes.

The sliding screen at the end of the hallway was open.

It was the room of the girl no longer there—Ichinokuro Arisu.

He unconsciously hastened his pace. Rushing toward the open screen, he peeked into the room.

In the center of this plain yet still girly room sat a familiar back.

It wasn’t Arisu. Putting a hand on his chin and playing with a ribbon—the ribbon that used to bind Arisu’s trademark ponytail—in his hand was a tall man.

“Arisu…”

He was Ichinokuro Arisu’s father.

The current head of the great Ichinokuro family only rarely showed himself in the mansion. Arisu had apparently met him a lot outside, but this was Daisuke’s second time. His appearance was much younger than his three and a half decades of age would indicate.

“Her personality’s like mine, but her beauty was just like her mother.”

Arisu’s father was talking to himself. He probably realized that it was Daisuke from his footsteps and presence.

“As well as the fact she’s suddenly gone just like that.”

The Ichinokuro household had vast connections and Daisuke knew that they even had some sort of connection to the SEPB. He was probably already contacted regarding Arisu.

Arisu’s father never spoke about anything of that. Not even showing tears, not even glaring at Daisuke, he simply stared at air with black eyes like Arisu’s.

“…Sorry.”

He didn’t know who that mumble addressed.

Why was Arisu’s father apologizing—he didn’t think to ask this. Daisuke could certainly be said to be part of the reason Arisu got involved in things, but since he couldn’t save her, it wouldn’t matter what he said.

“…”

Daisuke stayed silent and left Arisu’s room.

As he slipped on his shoes and exited to the premises, someone unthinkable was waiting for him there.

“Kusuriya-kun!”

“Daisuke-san…”

Saionji Ena and Kujou Takako.

Perhaps having sat and waited there for a while, their Horusu Seijou Academy uniforms were heavily creased.

Daisuke strained his face for a moment. He clenched his fists.

“Say, Kusuriya-kun. What happened to Arisu?”

Her eyes moist, Ena approached Daisuke.

Takako also looked at him with an imploring expression.

“Arisu-san’s coming back soon, right…?”

The two classmates—former classmates—grabbed his clothes as he stood.

Unless something major happened, they wouldn’t get involved with Mushitsuki again, in all likelihood. They might get monitored as people related to the Morpho butterfly, but they should soon be able to retrieve their peaceful life.

Starting from now on, he had no idea what effect they would have on Arisu and Daisuke.

But at the very least—they would probably not get involved with Daisuke in the future.

In their lives without being threatened by any Mushi, his existence was unneeded—

“…”

Still silent, Daisuke started walking. Ena and Takako’s hands left him.

“Kusuriya-kun…”

“Daisuke-san…!”

The two girls did not pursue him. However, they called his name in a sad voice.

If he opened his mouth right now, he felt as if he would speak not as Kakkou—but as Kusuriya Daisuke.

He bit his lips and endured. So that they would have no regrets for Kusuriya Daisuke leaving them.

Sorry I wasn’t able to save Arisu.

Sorry I wasn’t able to make your dream come true.

Thank you—for calling me a friend.

Many words swirled around in his chest, but only one of them came out of his mouth.

“…Goodbye.”

He announced farewell in his mouth so that they wouldn’t hear.

And so he walked in Akamaki City’s streets, illuminated by the sinking sun.

Exiting to the national road, as he walked to the road, a white limousine approached him.

“—I have a message from Rina, do you want to hear it?”

The electric window opened and Akasegawa Nanana showed her face.

“Well, I’ll tell you anyway even if you don’t want to. Yahah.”

Matching itself to the pace of the silent Daisuke, the limousine ran on the road.

“’Explain what happened that night’—seems to be it? She apparently doesn’t like it that only you and Harukiyo survived. Obviously. I also know that since I was watching from afar, but since she wanted to ask you directly, I stayed silent.”

“…”

“No comment? Then I’ll tell you what I was told to say if you gave no explanation.”

Nanana tilted her wine glass, speaking while pouring red liquid into her mouth.

“’If all Mushitsuki involved with you are afflicted with misfortune, I will chase you to the ends of the earth and beat you’, she said. Yahah. This elegant princess sure is gallant. —Without even knowing that Minion-Type Mushitsuki like her are protecting Oogui.”

One moment Nanana smiled with one eye narrowed, then sighed coldly.

“Aaah… Mushitsuki are such vain creatures. I’m so disappointed. I’m already way past wanting to become one.”

On the other side of the closing window, the rich girl raised her glass.

“Goodbye, Kakkou. If possible, forever—farewell to you.”

Leaving these words of parting, the white limousine ran ahead.

It was natural for Nanana to be disappointed of Mushitsuki. The sacrifices gathered in the battle under the meteor shower were large.

It wasn’t just Aki and his comrades who offered up their Mushi in exchange for a meager hope. Kurisaka Ayuyu also became a Fallen and was sent to the Central Headquarters’ gathering facility.

The particularly gifted rookie Isa Himeko also suffered heavy wounds. Her life was saved, but he received a report that she would probably never return to the battlefield again.

The Librarian—passed away. He heard there was a bit of battle between her comrades and the Central Headquarters who tried to retrieve her body, but he didn’t know how it ended.

And the flame devil.

Harukiyo, officially acknowledged as a Rank 1 by the SEPB, vanished completely. Although he erased his presence without leaving any trace behind, nobody thought he died. He would probably appear out of a whim at some point.

They were all scattering.

Although for a short time, these Mushitsuki all acted as one on the night of the meteor shower.

They all held hands with the girl called Ichinokuro Arisu and dreamed of the same future.

Turning their backs to each other, they were growing apart—

“…”

Daisuke walked through Akamaki City.

Although he was there only for a few months, wherever he looked he could see small memories.

This road where every morning he walked with Arisu, beaten wordlessly and kicked by her.

The crossroads where Hanashiro Mari, who borrowed Arisu’s body at the time, grew bashful about her skirt.

And if he kept going along that road…

There would be Horusu Seijou Academy, where he spent time with Ena, Takako and others.

His legs carrying him there was perhaps due to him being used to the road to school—or perhaps because he wished to forget all about battle and return to his peaceful life spent in Horusu Seijou Academy. Even he couldn’t tell.

He wasn’t allowed to go straight ahead—

As he turned at the crossroads, he found another familiar face waiting for him.

“We’ve also been moved to the East Central Branch.”

The blonde girl, Mitake Anneliese. Her blue eyes sparkled with unchanged battle will. —Since she always possessed a lot of fighting power, she would probably become even stronger.

“Kakkou-san! What on earth has happened to Arisu-san…? Why was I the only one who wasn’t taken to that battle?”

Horiuchi Erii, codename “C”. Before long she would probably become the center of the SEPB. Right now, her mental strength was mismatched with her powers, but since she was still young, she had plenty of time to grow.

“C-chan…”

Yomori Neiko’s ability had, in a certain sense, the most potential out of those three. The more she gained battle experience, the more she’d be able to use her rare regeneration ability.

“Why was Arisu-san—acknowledged as a Rank 1?”

Erii pressed on Daisuke.

“Not Hanashiro Mari, but Arisu… why a person who’s not there!”

Ichinokuro Arisu was designated as a Rank 1 just like Daisuke and Harukiyo.

Only few people knew that truth. The basis for being a Rank 1 was uncertain. She had probably been judged to possess great power due to her sealing the Undying. Since Daisuke’s report was vague the classification of her ability was uncertain, so it was apparently indeterminate whether she was a Blaze Class, Irregular Class or Secret Class.

Daisuke tried to pass before the three girls—

“…”

His legs stopped.

In the road ahead parked a single vehicle.

Seeing the youth leaning against the car, he felt nostalgic. The young man used his index finger to fix his glasses, wore his characteristic faint smile and looked at him.

East Central Branch Head, Haji Keigo.

Daisuke’s original boss.

Someone was waiting for Daisuke.

Even if some took separate ways—there were also those who walked the same path.

He was now between the two.

Daisuke now hesitated and was about to stop.

He lost so much that his body was paralyzed.

Even if there was hope in the great distance.

In the end, how much had he lost before he reached this place?

Just like Arisu was gone from his side—

“Hey, Kakkou. You ain’t trying to run away now, right?”

Kasuou spoke from his back.

Run away.

He also thought of that as a way.

What was so bad about running away from the bothers of Mushitsuki life and living just for his dream? Would anyone blame him for running away?

“Or didja forget? We had a promise to finish our business once the whole Morpho butterfly thing was—”

He looked down at his clenched hand.

Although he was supposed to fight just for his dream, at some point he was entrusted with many things.

Could he withstand that excessive weight?

He suffered an unprecedented loss on the night of the meteor shower.

He lost so much that everything he could see turned to dust and scattered.

However—

“—”

The sensation of that time still remained in his hand.

That moment when Arisu went to sleep with the Undying.

Daisuke certainly caught a glimpse of hope.

If, at the time, Daisuke had just a little more power left—

Betting on his everything.

Betting on his dream.

If he could have repeated just a single, full-powered attack.

“…It’s not done.”

Daisuke clenched his fist.

He wasn’t enough right now.

If he was a bit stronger, he should have been able to hit Oogui with a full-powered attack at the time. If he managed that, then perhaps—

He might have been able to obtain the future everyone wanted.

No Mushitsuki would be born anymore, and Arisu would wake up—

He might have been able to return to his previous life.

Not any mission.

Not pretending.

Daisuke’s dream.

A true place for him to belong where he could live like himself, and that would definitely—

“Nothing’s over yet.”

As he raised his face, he could see the sunset.

A vivid orange.

Daisuke raised his hand toward the setting sun illuminating Akamaki City.

“Until Arisu comes back, nothing’s over.”

It was connected.

The blissful future Hanashiro Mari had envisioned.

The hope that Arisu had dreamt about and left behind as well.

Daisuke’s dream, too.

They all converged into a single road.

That path was difficult and very narrow—but Daisuke’s eyes could definitely see it.

“One day—”

He had the feeling that he could see a figure on the roof of a building illuminated by the setting sun.

That figure had a long scarf wrapped around it and held a silver spear.

This girl in control of a glowing butterfly smiled at Daisuke.

Hanashiro Mari, who had wished to live and invited many Mushitsuki there, watched over him leaving the city.

It was nothing more than an illusion.

However, Daisuke spoke clearly toward the sunset and that girl.

“I’ll definitely bring her back.”

Even if he were to yield in the middle of the road.

No matter how much he lost.

He would definitely bring her back.

If the people who left were all waiting in the future everyone dreamt of during the night of the meteor swarm, Daisuke would aim there in a straight line.

If a reunion awaited him there.

Daisuke—would start walking here.

Because Arisu gave him the strength to start over from square one.

“Definitely.”

As if to bless Daisuke’s departure—

The illusion of the girl smiling with her Morpho butterfly burst with a glow.

To be connected… Mushi-Uta Lost “Bug”

Afterword

Hello, this is Iwai Kyouhei.

The “Mushi Uta Bug” series has finally been concluded.

Was the shape of the goal we reached as you expected? Or perhaps different?

Especially to those of you who read the main “Mushi Uta” series, I believe I made you imagine all sorts of conclusions here.

Bug is only an event from the story’s past.

However, its conclusion was unknown.

If I caused you to feel things like “definitely”, “maybe”, “I want it to happen like this”—I would be really happy.

And this story moves from the world that lost its “bug” that shouldn’t have existed toward “Mushi Uta”.

Finally, we’re heading toward the real goal, connected to the present and the future.

The year’s ending, so I will do my best so you’d be able to read the sequel next year for sure.

It has been more than four years since the “Bug” series started serializing. An author so new he never even wrote short stories was supported by many people.

Onnai-san that was in charge of me, and Yamaguchi-san that is in charge of me right now.

llo-san, who always draws such wonderful illustrations.

I have the feeling that rather than being helped I was actually a burden on everyone involved, but all’s well that ends well. …No, I really do regret my actions. Please help me in the main series as well.

And to you the readers.

Being able to arrive at the goal after telling everything I needed to tell was above all else due to the support of the readers. If not for that, I doubt if I would have reached here.

I am most happy to be able to thank you in the afterword.

Thank you very much.

I would like for you to also read the story ahead of this conclusion. I would be happy if you kept watching over it.

Iwai Kyouhei

---

Hello, this is llo.

Nice to meet you, those who buy the books. I’m the one drawing the illustrations.

Alright. Mushi Uta Bug has ended. Dear me, we’re done.

Bug’s serialization and the work on the books was tough, but it became a good experience.

Iwai sensei, the editor, the readers who tagged along, thank you very much.

Personally, I’m happy that Mari-san managed to reach the goal safely.

Notes

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