[Mushi Uta] Chapter 5.04: The Others

Here's the next chapter~ Pretty short as well...
Rina-chan~ ~ -sob-

Enjoy~ T^T

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Translated : Sveroz
Edited : Idoneyo, Skat, Wing, Akios

Version: 1.01
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5.04

The Others


“Rina…? I can’t hear what you’re saying….”

Rina felt that Daisuke’s voice was becoming very distant.

Perhaps his words were just a hallucination… Her consciousness was so taxed that she was hallucinating.

She tried to keep her heavy eyes open, and raised her head to see Daisuke’s face.

The same figure of her fellow classmate that she saw normally in the class entered her eyes; that slightly unreliable, less prominent boy in the class. It sure was hard to believe that he was actually (Kakkou), the strongest Mushitsuki that had pushed her into despair so many times.

--- Or could all of this have been a dream?

Rina thought about all these things in a daze. That’s right, this must be a dream… No matter how she thought about it, having her first love as her hated enemy—this joke was just too much.

However, the warmth coming from a pair of strong arms was clearly embracing Rina, as if it was trying to tell her something.

But I guess this is the only part that isn’t a dream, right? ---

Rina held tightly onto the arms of the teenage boy…… Treating it as if it was far more important than her own life.

“Hey Kusuriya, did you know? I’ve always been looking at you…”

--- Come to think of it, this all began months ago.

Having forgot to pack up after finishing her drawing, Rina returned to the arts classroom. Right in the middle of the classroom, which should have been empty, there was a teenage boy standing there silently.

It was a familiar face, one of a male classmate that she remembered being in the same class with. The two of them never had any chance to converse before.

Rina couldn’t bring herself to enter the classroom.

She had little impression of the teenage boy, only remembering about him roughly, but the presence that the teenage boy gave was different from usual. The teenage boy was staring at Rina’s drawing with a very calm expression. The expression on his face, though seemingly peaceful, looked like he was intentionally suppressing the feelings deep within him. That was something Rina had never seen before— No, she definitely had seen the same expression somewhere before.

Rina sat on top of the art materials piled up in the corridor. She couldn't simply forgo the drawing, but she couldn't just enter the classroom either.

The two of them just stayed at their spots, silent and motionless for thirty minutes.

The teenage boy looked at the drawing; Rina looked at the teenage boy.

--- Just at that moment, the teenage boy changed his expression for the first time.

He smiled.

It was not because he was laughing at the art piece, nor was it because he was making fun of it.

That was just a smile of envy.

It was like the expression she had while looking at the scene in the drawing, the same smile that she had while looking the smiles of happy people on the streets.

Rina felt that something inside her awakened.

The instant she saw the teenage boy’s smile, a warm pain pierced through her chest.

Thinking back on it, from that moment forth, Rina had always been looking at the teenage boy seated in the far front of the class. She wanted to see the inner world of this inconspicuous ordinary boy, wanted to know about his thoughts, that was why she had been always watching him.

“Kusuriya had always been noticing me too…”

Even if she was the enemy, even if she was just being watched, Daisuke had always been looking at Rina. Although the two had never exchanged glances with one another, they had been looking each other nonetheless. Knowing that, Rina felt happy about it.

It seemed that Daisuke had never noticed Rina’s gaze, and she had never noticed his.

If the two of them had found out that they were always looking at each other much earlier, maybe they wouldn’t have hurt each other like this----

But if it became so, the two of them would have to compete against each other for Shiika …

Rina smiled, and opened her mouth,

“I have finally remembered my dream……”

She preciously treasured the feeling of the warmth coming from the teenage boy’s arms and thought:

Because I’ve met Shiika and you… for that, I feel blessed ---

But… Perhaps this might be another hallucination…

Rina’s flame of life had already weakened by then, to the point that it was almost extinguished.

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Thank you for reading~
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