Editing Tasogare-iro no Uta Tsukai:Volume2 2nd Play (section)

===Part 2===

……What should he do?

The enemy’s defense was as solid as a rock.

He had no chance to surround the enemy, and a thick, protective wall was also spread out to prevent a concentrated attack on one spot. The tunnel that he should have left was filled with enemy pieces, and the soldiers protecting the <King> had already been scattered.

—Should he make a final, suicidal attack? No, he shouldn’t get desperate.

“Neight-kun, have you decided?”

“……P-Please let me think for a bit longer, just thirty more seconds.”

Without looking away from the game board by his hand, he shook his head in Mio’s direction.

Of course, his first priority was the <King>’s survival. Which meant the <King> must first escape to 15-F. However, his opponent’s archer was already on 12-F, cornering him. In that case, another plan was to move the <King> to 14-D. However, sure enough, an enemy piece was blocking him there as well. Standing there by itself was an ordinary <Pawn>. Since it was his turn right now, he could capture it with his <King>.

—His only fear was that……it was a <Jester> in the disguise of a <Pawn>.

This position seemed like it wanted him to eat that piece. It was very suspicious.

“……No way.”

“Huh? Neight-kun, what’s wrong?”

A question mark seemed to float over Mio’s head. However, on her face was a broad grin.

……But it’s no use, I have no more time. I have no choice but to take a chance.

“Well then, my <King> will escape to 14-D.”

“But my <Pawn> is there. Does that mean you want to capture my <Pawn>?”

Nodding silently, he placed his own piece on top of his opponent’s.

“Well then, go ahead and take a look.”

As Mio spoke, he picked up her <Pawn> and looked at its back side.

On the back of the piece was the sticker of a clown with a strange smile.

“Aaah, it really was the clown!”

“Yep, Neight-kun lost!”

While she wrote down the result of the game on something like a record book, Mio cackled.

“Well, in the beginning you were doing pretty good, pretty good. Have diligence, boy. If you continue to practice for a long time, someday you may even become able to see the light of day.”

……Mio-san’s personality is changing.

“It’s because I’m not good at games that require you to use your head.”

It would take up to three hours for the train to reach its destination. During that time, the class had decided to have a board game tournament among themselves. Although it was Neight’s first time playing this game, because everyone must participate he had been half forced to join the tournament. Furthermore, he had been unlucky and his opponent in the first game had been one of the potential winners, Mio.

“Besides, Mio-san is too strong.”

“It’s because I’ve heard that Xins-san also plays this game. I occasionally practice because I want to be his opponent one day. By the way, your playing style just now was the same as his.”

The same as {{Furigana|the Rainbow Color Reciter|Xins}}-san’s?

“He appeared in the interview of some magazine a while back. ‘At first Senpai forced me to, but then I started playing myself.’ is what he said.”

“Senpai?”

The outstanding Reciter and also the most famous, {{Furigana|the Rainbow Color Reciter|Xins}}. ‘Senpai’ was a word that didn’t seem to match at all with Neight’s image of him.

‘Senpai’, could it be Mother? No, but it probably should be someone who was in the same class as Xins and Mother. In any case, he couldn’t think of another person who seemed to act like that.

“It’s interesting, isn’t it? All the more so because he didn’t talk about it in detail. Whether or not it’s a senpai who went to the same school as him, that person who Xins-sama calls ‘Senpai’ must be an amazing Reciter.”

“No way. It’s just my stubborn dad.”

Slowly, the tanned girl casually raised her head and looked back from the seat one row in front.

“Ada-san?”

“Huh, Ada, do you know something about it?”

The girl waved her hand at them, giving off a feeling like she was smiling bitterly.

“Aah<!--h for consistency?-->, don’t worry about it. I was just talking to myself.”

“……Ah, really…?”

Neight and Mio absent-mindedly spoke at the same time. 

“Anyways, Mio, your opponent for the second round is me. Good luck.”

“Ah Ada, did you win your first round?”

Mio spoke up in surprise.

“Fufufu, try not to let your guard down. Actually, I play this pretty often.”

“Oh? I guess I’ll enjoy this then.”

For some reason, their eyes lit up suspiciously. Giving them a backwards glance, Neight stood up from his seat.

“Ouma-san, I’m going to go take a look around inside the train.”

“Aah, the first section of the train is taken up by another school, so don’t get lost.”

Without looking up from the game board, the class representative casually waved his hand.


<div align="center">***</div>


In the lead carriage which was set up as a private room—

“……You guys acting as scouts to the research institute, please be careful, alright?”

With a sigh, the female teacher wearing a suit the color of new leaves lifted her head as if she had suddenly thought of it. Sitting in a chair, Zessel watched her from the corner of his eye.

Teacher Kate, no, more like a teacher’s advisor. She was an instructor of Blue Recitations. Although she hadn’t been teaching for long, he had heard frequently in the staffroom that she was an excellent homeroom teacher of first-year students.

“Alright. But I don’t think it’s a very difficult task. All we need to do is get the research institution to keep in contact with us, and then it will be over.”

Enne spoke while stroking a decorative plant placed in a corner of the room.

—I highly doubt that.

Without speaking aloud, Zessel muttered in his mind. It was a habit of his childhood friend, Enne. Whenever she felt uneasy about something, she would always stroke a nearby plant.

The research institute that created the evil catalyst. And now, communications between them had stopped. Was it a simple malfunction in equipment, or did it involve something dangerous? Actually, last night, the headmaster himself had only whispered ‘be careful’ to them.  

“Well, Enne and I will take it slowly and carefully.”

……But he still felt anxious.

The report they had received from Mirror, who was in charge of gathering information, had been thirty pages long. It included the personal history up to five years ago of staff members, the research institute’s financial investments, and even the business’s achievements. However, the name of the researcher who manufactured the <Egg> was nowhere to be seen. That should have been the most important piece of information.

“Could Mirror-san have forgotten to include that?”

“Don’t get your hopes up. When he was writing up such a report, do you really think that perfectionist would forget to include something so important?”

—In other words, information about the person responsible for manufacturing the <Egg> couldn’t be found in either Tremia Academy’s information department or even Kelberk Research Institute’s headquarters.

“In the end, using that……”

In the middle of his sentence, Zessel shut his mouth. The sound of footsteps resounded in the aisle. It went on at a fast tempo, as if the person was running. The footsteps gradually approached them.

“Kate-sensei!”

At the sound of knocking on the door, the female teacher whose name was called out stood up from her seat.

“Ouma? What’s wrong?”

“A student from another school riding in a different compartment started a fight with our class, and before I could stop it, a girl from our class was—”

“What do you mean?!”

Her expression stiffening, Kate quickly opened the door. Standing before her was an out of breath male student.

“A girl…… Was someone injured?”

But, contrary to her expectations, although he was breathing heavily, he appeared calm. Rather than seeming worried, his expression looked tired.

“Um, no…… Brave students such as Ada and Serges have already begun fighting back.”

“Ah, the daughter of the Yung family? That’s too bad for the other school then.”

Without bothering to hide a bitter smile, Zessel stood up.

Ada Yung. Because of her special family circumstances, there wasn’t a single teacher in Tremia Academy who didn’t know about her. In other words, her situation was even more unique than the boy who was studying Night Color Recitations.

The Yung family was famous throughout the continent as a family of elite warriors, and she was their only daughter. The girl should originally have become the lead {{Furigana|exorcist|Gillshe}}, but she drew attention to herself by attending a Recitation school. At that time, her circumstances had become a popular conversation topic among teachers. Even the headmaster himself had asked her about her intentions.

“Ouma, has the dispute itself ended?”

“Umm, first of all, none of the girls in our class have been injured. ……Right now, our class is drinking {{Furigana|high-grade sake|juice}} to celebrate our victory. But it seems like there were some victims from the other school.”

Aah, causing trouble already…… Kate closed her eyes with a worried expression. Patting her on the shoulder, Zessel stepped out into the aisle in her place.

“I was once an acquaintance with {{Furigana|her father|Klaus-san}}, so I’ll go. It’s more fun doing something like this than sitting there and thinking.”

“You’d better not get into the fight as well.”

Did she mean that for real or as a joke? Her ambiguous tone of voice pierced her childhood friend like a nail. ……Yeah yeah, I understand.

“It sounds like the opponent’s attitude could be problematic. You can read over some of the data that I’m supposed to look over. After all, you should know that I get sleepy when I read something longer than a thousand words.”

“I’ve looked over it already.”

As expected of someone who had known him for a long time. Before he had realized it, his section of the documents had been stacked in front of Enne, who had just replied.

—Intervening in a fight, huh? It would be fun if the problem at the research institute was also that simple.

Holding back the words that he had almost muttered, Zessel began to walk towards the train’s rear compartment.


<div align="center">***</div>
 

The rear end of the train was designed to be a vacant space resembling a terrace. It felt pleasant to stand beneath the summer sunshine with his uniform fluttering in the sudden gusts of wind.

“A trip with everyone, huh?”

Holding onto the railings meant to prevent falls, Neight absentmindedly gazed at the passing scenery.

……But Arma isn’t here.

It was a change from the commotion inside the train. He couldn’t hear anything other than the roaring of wind blowing past his ears and the screeching of the train’s wheels on the rails.

In the hot temperature, it was pleasant to feel his uniform being swayed by the wind. However, he seemed to hear even the wind blowing with a somehow lonely sound.

Even though the trip’s liveliness should be enjoyable, the companion he felt closest to wasn’t here.

“—Hey, Arma. I’m riding a train for the first time in my life.”

Although his voice was drowned out by the gusts passing over the terrace, he briefly spoke to himself. He didn’t receive an answer. He shouldn’t receive an answer. Even so, following his usual habit, he spoke in the direction of his shoulder.

“It’s really fast and seems really sturdy…… But hey, it’s also slightly the opposite.”

“Slightly scary?”

……That wasn’t him just now.

The voice had come from somewhere close to him. He didn’t even turn around. Because that voice belonged to someone he was very familiar with.

“—Kluele-san.”

“I also snuck out of there.”

The girl’s scarlet hair fluttered in the wind. Before he could reply, she came over and stood beside him.

“Kluele-san, it seemed pretty tiring for you this morning.”

“It’s always like that.”

She gave a bitter smile like it couldn’t be helped. For a few seconds of silence, they stayed like that—

“I’m kind of relieved.”

Gazing at the changing scenery, the girl beside Neight gently nodded.

“Eh?”

“I often hung out with you during summer vacation, but sometimes you would have a pained expression. I wondered what could be so painful……Although I expected it for the most part, you never confirmed my suspicions.”

He never realized that about himself. He had simply been working hard on Recitations because he wanted to meet Arma and Mother again. He had intended to practice with that in mind. —At least, that was what he believed.

“Did I really have such an expression?”

“That’s what you looked like before I called out to you just now.”

Although she was smiling gently, her eyes seemed glow with a somewhat sad color.

“But I understand your reason for that, so relax. ‘I want to hurry up and meet Arma again’. You seem to be facing your worries straight on.”

Sensing other feelings hidden behind those words, Neight lowered his gaze.

……I see. I made her worry so much.

“—I’m sorry.”

“I understand how lonely you feel, so you don’t need to apologize. But hey.”

She gently looked in his direction.

It was the same as always. It was the same as when they had been together during summer break. It was similar to Mother’s serene expression.

“Mio and Kate-sensei and I, we’re all here for you. It’s fine if you rely on us more.”

Could it be, that’s the reason why Kluele-san had stayed with him throughout summer vacation?

“—The wind feels good, doesn’t it?”

It seemed that she hadn’t noticed his thoughts. No, perhaps she had noticed them long ago.

As if searching for something, the girl before his eyes lifted her head and gazed at the clouds.

“Since we were lucky enough to get the chance to go on this trip, we have to enjoy it, right?”