Mushi Uta:Volume 9 Prologue

Prologue 0.00 The others

“Do you all feel proud of your business?”

The man sitting on an electrical wheelchair suddenly opened with this topic.

Despite his grizzled hair and the deep wrinkles carved around his eyes, the limbs visible from the jacket and shorts he was wearing exuded youth and power. To the extent it was strange he was in a wheelchair.

“Huh?”

The one uttering in surprise was a boy. He had sharp, clear-cut features and used the sunglasses pushed up to his forehead to hold up his swept-back bangs.

The swept-back haircut boy looked at the opposite side of the wheelchair—meaning, at her.

Why’s this wannabe merchant looking at me?

She became so angry that her thinking paused, so she pretended she hadn’t noticed his gaze.

“As for me, I do. Or perhaps it would be more precise to say that I have gained it at some point.”

Saying this, the wheelchair man looked at her. As if urging her to answer.

Hmph, she laughed it off in her heart. Since she was currently only wearing a jacket on top of a bikini, sitting on a wooden chair with no cushion was quite uncomfortable. Her gently curly hair clung to her skin by sweat.

The hut’s lobby was filled with humid, stuffy air. And what pissed her off the most of all was that the ceiling fan hanging above was spinning the wrong way. She recalled how that foolish woman, Anmoto Shiika, had amused herself by fiddling with the switch.

Since she was thinking of something else, she wanted to wrap up the conversation as soon as possible.

“Yahah. Must we have this conversation right here and now?” The effects of the wine she’d drunk just now still remained, so her speech was slightly slurred. Yielding herself to the pleasant drunkenness, she kept her thoughts.

Three merchants surrounded this wooden table.

Yet she couldn’t understand why one of them was even present.

Technically this was between her and the wheelchaired man.

Furthermore, they’d already reached a conclusion.

There was no need for this talk.

“Well, if we’re talking about pride… I do have some. Yes, I’m certain of it.”

The boy answered in a vague tone. He had plenty of his pride in his make-believe. But apparently the talk would not proceed until she answered, so she did it.

“Never really thought about pride. Yahah. What’s that? Can you sell it?”

The wheelchair man did not even nod. He flung another question at her.

“What do you all need money for?”

“It’s for whatever. Buying tickets for a game, the game itself, or the game’s prizes. It’s just staving off boredom.”

“Hmm… trust, maybe? I believe in ‘Sanpo Yoshi’, three-way satisfaction!”

“For me, it is simply a tool for self-assertion until I meet with a certain girl. If I carry plenty of money, I will be able to make people think I am superior.”

Exhausted by this long conversation, her drunkenness was wearing off. She had no interest at all, but still asked.

“Oh, and what will happen once you meet that girl?”

“Then it will become a means to finance the girl I’ve fallen for. That will be my pride.”

“Woah, seriously? I feel like I get it. Well, I do have one as well. One of my classmates is really cute—”

“If something like this will make her happy, she’s quite a cheap woman.”

“Was she happy, I wonder? By the way, I forgot to explain. If I take pride at simply using money for her sake, you’ll think that I’m just showing off.”

Isn’t that just being a sugar daddy?

She was disappointed at once having acknowledged this man as her rival.

Speaking of Munakata Kaiji, he was known as a large proprietor who rose in the world of business with flawless commerce. He controlled his employees as if they were his limbs, and his so-called self-centered style of management was, for better or worse, influenced by him being at the very top. For Munakata, this was probably the prime of his successes.

“You spoke in the past tense, so does that mean you’ve been dumped? Well, it’s in a man’s nature—and his privilege—to show off in front of a girl. You’ll feel like a complete idiot later, but even so, in the moment you wish to desperately catch their attention—“

She was filled with more and more doubts as to why this man was part of the meeting.

Was there any need to speak about this low-brow, poor, and the complete unknown called Chouya Nihei? If she was pressed to say anything, his way of doing things was similar to this country’s unique business style.

She wore her specialized business smile at Munakata. But she decided to be frank.

“If you failed, it means you’ve made a mistake in your way of using money, right? I feel confident I could buy anyone with money, no matter who they were.”

“Huh? Aren’t you contradicting what you’ve said before?”

“Is that so? I could buy a cheap woman for an even better bargain.”

Her own—Akasegawa Nanana’s style was closer to that of the west. She would analyze the market, cut away anything unneeded and invest in a different place. A style that controlled personnel and materials in addition to the market itself. It could also be called a form of destroying the status quo.

“What do you think business is… money is, exactly?”

She snorted at Munakata’s words without thinking.

“What’s happened to you? I’ve gone out of my way to save you, but did the shock from your prolonged imprisonment weaken even you, Munakata-san?”

There were three keywords—

Enclosure.

Bubble.

Paradigm Shift.

The one who found these mysteries was Munakata.

Even so, on the way there he’d stumbled and vanished.

The one to have saved him was Nanana.

Therefore, the right to solve these mysteries now passed to her. Since Munakata was also aware of it, it must’ve been quite vexing.

However, Munakata seemed unmoved by Nanana’s frivolous talk. He put an elbow on his wheelchair’s handrail and muttered.

“The thing that should be used for what’s important.”

“An accumulation of trash.”

“I think that… humanity, probably?”

A small conference of three merchants who differed in opinion and style.

A meaningless conversation.

Nothing more than a formality to ascertain who would get the reward.

The game was over.

It even reached the strongest Mushitsuki, Kakkou. Now that he left, there was no way it wouldn’t be over.

“Since I wish to be saved, I probably need to respect Akasegawa’s will.”

“And I don’t have any money in the first place. …Actually, it’s pretty scary…”

“So it’s settled then.”

“Umm… have you reached a decision? Sotheby-san’s still waiting.”

Opening the entrance to the hut, a swimsuit-clad Anmoto Shiika appeared.

Nihei muttered “Sotheby-san… why are you so friendly toward that monster?” while making a weird face.

“I will bid in that auction.”

The mystery of the three keywords.

The origin of the beings called Mushi.

Nanana practically had them all in her hands.

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