Mushi-uta Vol 2 - Okay, this is getting out of hand quickly. Senri?!

I entered Volume 2 of Mushi-Uta with every intention of seeing where the story would lead, but I wasn't expecting it to become a huge slog due to the author being unsure of how to handle the fact that the protagonist is already quite overpowered.

It starts with the aftermath of the previous volume: Kusuriya Daisuke (Kakkou) killed Tachibana Rina (Lady) and, in the process, left Haji unable to continue serving as leader of the special forces. This created a power vacuum that the higher-ups decided to exploit by preventing Kakkou from engaging in battle and moving him to the city where he lived in the past. He is deemed so strong that they fear him more than those who caused the bug infection in the first place.

Yes, they basically prevented him from fighting for 95% of the volume, resulting in the inevitable massacre of everyone else involved in the story until he had finally had enough and killed the villain in one short scene. The main heroine this time around is Senri, the little sister of Haji and the owner of one of the few bugs that, like the "Initial Three," is able to eat the dreams of others.

Senri is quite cute and the art style is, as usual, amazing. Shame she got carried away to the central base.

Even Shiika was like 'is this really the new leader?'. I understand her, Shuko is kind of unreliable.

There were other characters surrounding Senri who were introduced, slowly befriended by Kakkou, and then, before I knew it, killed one by one. At times, it felt comical because I knew what was coming based on how they and their dreams were introduced. You know that feeling when you suspect characters might just be "red shirts"?

Senri is unaware that she has a bug, and there are multiple factions fighting for control over her. We have Mushibane, of course, still trying to recover from their leader's death and becoming more radical. Then we have the Initial Three; two of them have appeared in the city, Oogui (Glutton) from the last volume and Shinpu (Priest) as a new entry. There are also a few other organizations that aren't very clear at this point.

Shinpu appeared and was killed almost immediately in one single volume, I wonder if they're going to add other overarching enemies later on in the series...

The new acting leader of the protagonist's group becomes Goromaru Shuko, a young woman who seems like anything but someone capable of taking over such a dangerous organization. On the positive side, she seems reasonable and more human than everyone else. I guess she is the first "permanent" ally for Kakkou going forward.

Most of the volume was spent getting to know characters who then died, so there's not much to say about them. I didn't have enough time to actually care about them, so their deaths left me rather unimpressed. In my opinion, death should be used sparingly to be impactful.

She is absolutely gorgeous even when changing. *head patting intensifies*

Oogui has that punchable face, I wonder if they're actually humans or simply posing as one. It was never clarified that part...

The volume ends with Kakkou disobeying orders, killing Shinpu, making the "Initial Three" become the "Initial Two", and marking the first bit of progress in the battle against those who caused this disastrous infection. The whole "disobeying will result in grave consequences" trope gets completely overridden by Shuko, which honestly feels like a slap in the face, given that everyone kept harping on about how severe the consequences would be...

I'm honestly still interested in the overall story and want to know what will happen to Shiika and the others, but I'm less optimistic about how it's going. Hopefully, the author will surprise me in the coming volumes. If it lasts so many volumes, it must mean it was interesting overall, right?