Editing Mushi Uta:Volume 6 Chapter 5 (section)

==5.03 The Others==

The Concertgebouw was filled with a great number of spectators.

The clamor of the people awaiting the curtain rising was heard all the way through the passage where only authorized personnel could pass to the actors' waiting room. 

A person clad in a black robe was walking through that passage.

The robe owner put their hand on a large door.

They slowly pushed it open.

Inside was a vast waiting room. All of the actors were already wearing their costumes, nervous. Some were checking the props, some were reviewing their scripts, and some practiced speaking against the walls. All of them were focusing in preparation for their own part. 

"Masaki!"

Being addressed, the person in the robe—Masaki Rio, turned around. She lowered her hood.

"Where have you been! Don't just disappear like that only because your turn is later!"

Receiving the scolding, Rio who was already costumed nodded expressionlessly.

"I'm sorry. I just relaxed outside."

Rio played the part of the younger sister of the protagonist nurse. The story went such that she, a Sister at a monastery, was confused for her older sister who allowed the Beast, an enemy soldier, to escape, and so was seized by the military. 

"You've passed at Harissi-san's recommendation. If you make any mistakes now you'll make him lose face!"

"…Right."

Although the staff member dispensed with Rio, he was still restless and looked depressed. 

"Still, having Harissi-san not appear even during the grand opening… where on earth has he gone to?"

"…"

Quite a few days passed ever since the play's advisor, Jarre Harissi, vanished from the theatrical company. The staff members and actors were perplexed, but as they were pressed for time by the busy work needed for the opening of the play, they eventually ended up barely even mentioning his name.  

Rio left the staff member and headed to her locker. She returned the cellphone she had stealthily hidden inside her robe into the locker.

She checked the LCD screen one final time.

There were 0 text messages.

In the end, the reply she had been waiting for never came.

"…"

She tightened her lips.

''The fact I passed isn't luck at all—''

She told herself once again.

Wanting Shachito to believe in that, she had sent him a message. But not receiving a reply from him probably meant that he had already forgotten all about her.

"I'm—"

Just as Rio's feeling were about to reach their peak, a black mist started drifting inside the waiting room.

It was foul presence.

It was miasma that twisted people's hearts.

As Rio cast her gaze down, she could hear the sound of a bell.

It was a horribly ear-grating, cracked metallic sound that seemed to dirty up the very air. 

Rio grimaced.

Although she hadn't heard it at all lately, the bell sound audible only for her was back.

"…"

Rio widened her eyes.

No, it was different from before.

Previously she should have heard it in her ears.

But this sound was—

Widening her eyes, Rio turned around.

The staff members and actors all raised cries of joy. They all rushed to a certain spot.

"No—way—"

Rio's face paled.

The bell sound wasn't heard from next to her.

She heard it coming from around a certain person who was smiling while surrounded by the staff members. Above his head, taller than anyone there, she had the feeling she could see something resembling black fog.

Unlike Rio who was only wearing a costume, a robe made of bizarre miasma was being materialized on him.

He was Jarre Harissi.

This man, with a smile on his bear-like face and encouraging the staff members around him, was someone who couldn't possibly be there.

Rio had seen it for certain.

On the backside of that building she saw—his corpse ''after he jumped off the roof''. 

Rio immediately ran away, but his death never made it to the news. The staff and the company also never knew of his death, and in the meanwhile continued their preparations for the grand opening like normal.

Why had she faced such a scene?

Where had the corpse even gone to?

She tried forgetting about Jarre just like all the people around her. 

"But—How—"

Seeing the pale Rio, Jarre wore a smile.

"Come now, it's showtime. Aren't you going to show everyone our great performance?"

The filthy robe that only Rio could see alighted down to Jarre's giant body.