Editing Tasogare-iro no Uta Tsukai:Volume3 2nd Play

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==2nd Play: If I Had Not Returned—==

That was a night like any other. The humid wind which bore the heat from the summer blew. The moon peeked in through the clouds above. Within the grasslands of the dorm, the bugs sung the final melody of the of summer. That’s right, it was just a typical night… except for the fact that all the bugs suddenly stopped singing.

Nobody realised the anomaly, be it the security personnel within the school, the teachers who stayed behind for security duty or the many students who resided in the dorms as the night continued to flow by. In other words, none of the reciters realised the peculiar situation.

What is it…… this feeling……?

the only one who realised the anomaly was she who trained to be a reciter but was not one, the {{Furigana|Gillshe|Exorcist}}, Ada Yung Gillshuvesher as she opened her eyes.
Something is wrong, something is—

“Serges, wake up”

She said as she shook her roommate roughly to wake her up.

“......nn, what? …… 3am? What’s going on to wake me up at such a time?”

“Something is off”

Ada quickly said as she got out of her bed dash off to grab her {{Furigana|Gil|Spear}}. She surveyed the surroundings from the window and she used he nose to check for and weird scents carried by the wind, only to find none.
Which means that…… the presence which I just felt has already entered the dorms?

“Serges”

She said as she looked at her roommate

“If I do not return in an hour, contact the dorm supervisor’s room directly and ring the dorm’s alarm immediately after.”

“huh?”

“Lock the door. Do not let anyone in no matter who it may be”

“Wai… Wait up—”

Without waiting for a reply, Ada sped off to the hallways of the dorm while keeping a watchful eye towards her front and her back.

There are no suspicious shadows to be seen or footsteps to be heard. 

……And yet, why does it feel like it’s so hard to breath?

Previously when she was fighting the True Spirit of the grey, she felt a piercing feeling on her skin as she faced killing intent emitted by the True Spirit. However, this time, She was feeling a chill that was totally different from that time, it felt like a slimy, murky chill was gripping her entire skin.

With her Spear in hand, she advanced through the hallway. The blade of her spear had been mended but she had not fully accustomed to the new weight and length of her spear yet. She felt a tinge of uneasiness. 
The presence which gave off the chill felt like it was coming on from her front rather than her back.

—What could there be exactly?

A drop of sweat trickled down her back. Despite her being confident that she concealed all traces of her presence, cold sweat continued to form on her back as she felt a tinge of uneasiness, as though the mysterious presence she was tracking had already discovered the presence.  

The distance from the presence is not closing.

Each time she moved towards the target, the target was also moving away from her at the same pace. 

……This is ridiculous. This was the First Recitation School’s female dormitory. For someone to have intruded into a place like this.

She moved along the hallway and climbed down the stairs.

The First Floor Main Entrance was an area which was slightly broader than the hallways of the dormitory.

Ada stopped herself at the corner before the bend which would lead to main entrance as the chilling presence she was tracking stopped its tracks there. There was no longer any doubt that the mysterious presence was also keeping track of her movements. 

……Its seems like the presence was inviting her to appear.

Ada bit her lower lip. What should I do? There was no point it continuing to wait at this corner as it was apparent that the other party was waiting for her to appear at the main entrance. 

Her hesitation lasted for shorter than the time taken for a single breath.

Ada walked through the bend at a leisure pace, appearing before the intruder.

“At such an hour in a place like this, what business could you poss—……”

She was speaking halfway through when her words disappeared from her mouth. She could not voice out the rest of her words.

This is because there was nothing before her eyes where the mysterious presence was felt.

—There is nothing? Something like this—

And then, while dumbfounded and standing still, her body reacted before her thoughts could keep up.

“tsu!”

With an animalistic instinct, she swung her spear towards the empty space that lay before her.

“Giin—” The sound of clashing between two hard objects reverberated through the air and her metal spear was deflected from that space.

In an instant, Along with the wind pressure, something was swinging down towards her from the same empty area as before. Ada swung her spear towards the empty space again.

This time her spear tip gave of the feeling of having gouged through something. Accompanying that, the painful throes of a living creature resounded through the lobby.

So it was like this afterall!

Ada created some distance with the creature by leaping backwards. She had finally grasped the true identity of the mysterious intruder. It was an enemy which could not be seen. It was a strange creature whose form could not be seen, a creature who blended into the night such that it could be said to be invisible from all angles of sight.

……What is this creature?

She continued to exchange blows with her enemy. This was not because of the strength of her enemy, but rather, because she couldn’t fully grasp the attack range of her opponent as well as its exact position.
In just several tens of seconds of combat, her breathing became ragged, something impossible for her under normal combat situations. Fighting by just relying on the presence exerted by her opponent, the flow of the air felt by her skin and the direction of the winds was more tiring than she had expected.

Throwing out a hit and then backing off immediately, she was employing a hit and run strategy. It was a strategy where if she missed her timing, she would receive an attack from the enemy immediately. With utmost vigilance, she continued doing this 10, 20 times repeatedly.

—ton— 
The sound of her opponent’s back hitting the wall could be heard as she repeatedly forced her opponent back.

This is where I finish it off!

Ada advanced one step closer to the enemy and unleashed what was unmistakably her strongest and fastest attack. It was impossible to dodge. With absolute confidence, she swung her spear down on her enemy from the top-right. The tip of the spear drilled through the wall, producing a sound.

The enemy was difficu…… well not really.
“—What?” 

[[File:Tasogare-iro_no_Uta_Tsukai_V3_p81.jpg|thumb]]

She subconsciously let out a breath due to the astonishment. At the same time, this was the first time Ada ever doubted her senses in her entire career as an Exorcist.

Without a doubt, there was something in front of her a moment ago.

And yet, the moment she cornered the invisible enemy, the presence in front disappeared as though it never existed in the first place.

……Was I fighting a shadow up until now?

No that’s not it.

A part of her clothes at the top of her shoulder and her elbow were torn, revealing parts of her tanned skin. There was no doubt that she had been fighting with something just now. It was definitely not just her imagination.

And yet it suddenly disappeared? How in the world?

During her days of Gillshe training, she had faced off against many different types recitation monsters. However, even among the vast data she had cultivated over her career, there was never anything like what she had just faced off against.

In the first place, it was unclear if that was even a recitation monster.

“—That was really no joke”

Ada’s body started quivering as she thought back towards the chase and the battle she had earlier on.

The day of the Opening Ceremony.

Within School’s territory, from the male dorms to the first-year school building, Neight had to walk for about 10 minutes to cover the distance.
There were several forks along the stone pathway which extended from the male dormitory to the school building. It was a pathway which connected to the strolling path and the female dormitories as well.

“……hmm?”

Halfway along the pathway, Neight’s footsteps came to a halt. This was right when he was walking across the passage which led to the field with the school lawn, just beyond the row of school buildings.
Above the verdant lawn, one could vaguely see a silhouette which looked like it had collapsed on the ground if they focused their eyes.

“e-erm…are you alright?”

Neight frantically started shaking the person which had collapsed on its side. 

“n…”

The person let out a small breath. It was hard to tell the gender of the person due to the white coat it was wearing but the high heels she was wearing the features of the figure betrayed her gender.

“Are you feeling unwell somewhere? If so then lets hurry to the doctor—”

His hand that was shaking her was grabbed suddenly.

h-huh.

“—who are you”

The girl questioned as she rubbed her eyes.

“er……. I…I am Neight……wait that’s not it, that’s what I should be asking you. What could you have been doing to suddenly collapse on the lawn”

“Collapsed? No, I was just sleeping”

Whilst continuing to rub the inner corner of her eye with her finger, the girl stood up. Maybe because she was wearing high heels, she looked to cut a very nice figure when she stood up.

Sle...Sleeping?

“I arrived here last night and then while I tried to find lodgings, this entire area is under the jurisdiction of the school. I couldn’t find anywhere to sleep so I decided to camp out here.”

“B…But at such a vacant place without anything. See, you got some grass stuck onto your back”

“mu. Thanks for that”

Neight helped the girl sweep off the grass stuck onto the clothes. While waiting for Neight to finish, the girl sent a glance filled with meanings at him.

“Hey young man. You seem to be wearing an interesting coloured thread.”

While wondering what she was talking about, Neight traced her gaze and realized that she was referring to the colour of his uniform’s collar which represented the colour of his recitations.

“From what I have seen, I thought that the students here use the different coloured threads for their collars to differentiate between the colour of their recitations. But…… hmm, a black coloured thread is really intriguing.”
 
—Tremia Academy— The students here are differentiated between their main specialization colours and their school year by the colour of the sleeves. Originally, there were no colours prepared for Night coloured Recitations, however, in Neight’s case, he had woven a similar coloured thread onto his collar.

“I am currently studying a non-conventional coloured Recitation”

“Oh? Do you mean say that you are studying Black colour recitations?”

Black coloured as opposed to White colour. Indeed, the first colour that would appear in most people’s minds would be black due to the stark contrast with White. The fastest way to approach such situations would be to just nod, However, Neight was extremely averse to that course of action.

“N…No, It is Night-coloured. They are called Night Color Recitations.”

“—Night colour recitals. oh!”

At that moment, the girl in front of him seemed to realise something as she slammed her fist on her palm. 

“I heard about it from {{Furigana|Caine|Rainbow}}, the colour which has not been officially recognized yet but was confirmed to exist. 
(TL Note: I have absolutely no idea why the Rainbow’s name was ever translated to Xins and I’m as shocked as any of you when I read the actual raw…. Anyways his name is カインッ in the original material. It always has been that since vol 1, I flipped back to check so…. Yeah… the Rainbow recitor’s name will now be translated to Caine Arwincle so take note)

(TL Note: Also, from here on out I’ll be using the square brackets for dialogue as in the novel so I can use inverted commas for individual’s thoughts to make the translations less ambiguous.)

The name which she spoke of was the same name of that of the legendary recitor which Neight knew of, the one and only Rainbow Recitor in this world. 

「Are you acquainted with Caine-san?」

「We are acquainted well enough to share rice from the same pot」

……What could that possibly mean? Neight tilted his head slightly as he could not understand the nuance behind her analogy. However, without any signs of realizing this, the girl continued to stare at Neight’s collar.

「By the way, why is it Night colour?」

「hmm, what do you mean by why?」

“It is an extremely simple question. If you follow the norm of recitation colours, it would be more appropriate to call it Black as opposed to the already existing White. Even so, why is it not black but instead called night-coloured recitations—is what I mean”

“e,err…… at any rate, it is a recitation method that was pioneered by my mother.”

In the past, although extremely rarely, similar questions had also been asked before. However, that question had been a forbidden question even for Neight himself.

—He did not know the answer as well.

Previously, Neight had also chosen times when his Mother seemed to be in a good mood to ask the same question. At those times, his mother would only reply with one sentence.

「Go and ask Arma.」

However, whenever he asked the question, Arma would always refuse to tell him the reason why.

「Why your mother told you to ask me this question, when you uncover the reason behind it you will be able figure out why yourself.」

And so, even until the end Neight was unable to find the answer. 

Before he was able to reach that phase, the current him was already struggling and doing his best to learn the Recitations that his mother had created and so he did not have the luxury to think of things such as how the name of the recitations came about.

That was why up until now, he had handled such questions by answering with “It is because it is an anomaly” or “It is because it is a weird colour”.

However, this female researcher was different. 

「Recitations are things which are have extremely logical structures. For your mother to have named it Night coloured instead of Black, I think that there must have been an extremely good reason behind it. What do you think? That would be the true reason why the colour of the Recitations is not named Black but instead Night, the reason why the Recitations need to be named Night no matter what.」

“……It couldn’t have just been because of mother’s personal preferences?”

the reason why the Recitation is not named Black but instead Night, the reason why the Recitations need to be named Night no matter what?

「u,umm……I’m sorry I also……」

don’t know, before he could complete his sentence, his shoulder was hit with a *pon* sound.

“Well don’t think too much about it young man. It is my habit to immediately voice out any questions I have. It might also simply be a play on words for all you know. Even if there was really a good reason behind it, it would not be a reason that would be so shallow such that it would be revealed in a place like this.”

A small smile floated on her lips as she folded her arms while appearing to be in a joyous mood.

「Y…Yes.」

After nodding in acknowledgement, Neight remembered his own situation. 

“The opening ceremony will be starting soon, if I don’t hurry up and get to the classroom.“

「e,erm, Its about time for me to—」

「mu. Oh right」

After straightening up his backpack and giving his farewell greetings, just when he was about to leave, the girl grabbed the cuff of his uniform.

「e……err what……what are you trying to do?」

「young man, its along the way. Guide me to the headmaster’s office」

「umm if you’re looking for the headmaster’s office its at the general affair building’s —」

「oh, no that’s not it, I know that much myself. Its just that I do not want to loiter around like an idiot within this ridiculously huge school compound and waste my time searching for it. It would help me a lot if a student like you would escort me through the shortest possible route there.」

「……err, I have to get to the classroom so…」

Neight tried to voice out a form of resistance but the hand grabbing onto his cuff had showed no signs of releasing him.

「I see. Then all the more we have to hurry up. Come on, lets set off for the headmasters office!」

“……someone save me.”

Neight thought as he hung his head down.

「—aaa, I’m running late!」

Neight ran up the stairs while trying to catch his breath. There was already no sign of other students as at this time, everyone had long since taken up their seats in their own classrooms.

First Year School Building, Second Floor. The class on the corner of the floor was Neight’s class.

Neight peeked through the door window. As he had expected, everyone had already taken up their seats and their gazes were pointed towards Kate Sensei.

「……u,ummm」

While feeling scared, Neight opened the door very slowly. However, due to how won-out the door was, the door let out loud creaking sounds which resounded throughout the whole classroom, attracting the attention of everyone in the classroom.

「S,Sorry. I got held up by a weird person on the way here so—」

He wisely tried to explain his reason for being late. However,

「Neight-kun, we had been waiting for you. Come, hurry and take your seat」

Rather than any signs of anger, Kate sensei’s voice contained a tinge of relief in her voice.

「……eh?」

Kluele who was sitting at the front of the classroom waved at him.

「Y,Yes!」

They were waiting for me? What could it be that cannot be announced until the whole class is gathered together?

Furthermore, today was the day of the Opening Ceremony. They should have been preparing to head off for the venue of the opening ceremony already.

「......Its seems everyone has gathered」

Kate sensei got onto the teaching pedestal after quickly scanning the students in the classroom.

「The original plan for today was to hold the Opening Ceremony. I believe all of you should already know that but...... Sorry that it is so sudden but the Opening Ceremony has been cancelled.」

—cancelled?
The students started chattering amongst themselves and showed no signs of calming down seeing this, Kate sensei let out a huge sigh.

「I will start explaining things in order. Currently, we have obtained information of suspicious phenomena repeatedly being observed around the continent.」

With a strong tone, Kate sensei continued speaking.

「We are currently still carrying out investigations to ascertain the nature of these phenomena so I cannot go into detail about it right now. …… However, I believe all of you should still remember the catalyst incident which occurred previously in our school. From the information we currently have, it strongly indicates that these phenomena are connected to that incident.」

The catalyst incident that occurred in our school— In other words, that egg rampage incident and also, the incident which we encountered during the summer break, the attack which happened at the research facility. The researchers were attacked by someone and were petrified. The research facility has been taken under the control of the Investigations Squad for now but the perpetrator currently still remains at large.

……Gray Colour Recitations

Neight had felt firsthand how terrifying these recitations are. Could it be, the suspicious phenomena occurring is referring to — other areas which have receiving attacks similar to that research facility? 

For an instant, Neight and Kate sensei’s eyes met. Kate sensei’s eyes appeared to be hinting at something towards Neight. However, immediately after, Kate sensei averted her eyes.

「As a result, our school has begun to take countermeasures against it」

Her words paused there. On the pedestal, Kate sensei straightened her posture.

「As of now, we are currently forming an Investigations Council to investigate this series of incidents. The Recitation Schools in the all areas has been designated as Investigation Bases for the council and will provide their support to the council. The Headmaster of our school, Tremia Academy, along with all the executive members will be holding an impromptu meeting this afternoon to decide on the members of the Council.」

……This place is really an unsuitable place for reading.

Under the excessively bright chandelier, Mirror narrowed his eyes. 

Tremia Academy, General Affairs Building 2nd Floor, Grand Meeting Room—

It is a large rectangular room with dark purple carpet was laid on the ground.

There were more than a hundred seats currently filled up, which was around a third of the total number of seats in the room. For an impromptu meeting, having a third of the seats filled as already amazing.

「Well then, it appears that there are still some people who have not arrived but as it is already the scheduled meeting time, we shall begin now.」

Delivering the opening address which resounded clearly across the room,  the headmaster, Zea Lordfill stood up from his seat.

The Anti-Grey Recitation Joint Executive Meeting.

The participants of meeting consisted of several members of the Board of Directors of the school, several members from the school’s management team and the teachers from each school year. On top of that, there were also a few members from the Information Processing Department present at the meeting.

In Mirror’s case, he was participating in this meeting primarily from the stance of a teacher, but he was also participating as a member of the Information Processing Department as one of the chosen specialists with regards to this matter.

「The details of the matter are as stated in the report summary distributed before this meeting. The summary was compiled in secret by members of the Investigation Committee, so I would like all of you to treat the information as insider information. In the past few days, at various parts of the continent— multiple instances of suspicious phenomena similar to the Research Facility Incident has been observed. The victims so far has been the various Research Organizations and Recitation Schools. From how all of the incidents so far been theft conducted at the catalyst storage facilities of each location. Hence, we have reason to believe that it was all committed by the same person.」

“……Grey Colour Recitations huh.”

Placing the documents in one palm, Mirror adjusted his glasses.

The Grey coloured Recitation Creatures and the Silver True Spirit. Mirror had heard the outline of the matter directly from Zessel and Enne who were involved in the incident which occurred in the Kelberk Research Facility’s Fidellia branch.

—Also, The place of the incident was also a catalyst storage facility.

This was not a crime committed for amusement. Afterall, there still is not a single hint of the perpetrator despite drawing the attention of all involved parties within the entire continent. The soundless Recitations capable of petrifying people. Certainly, for the purpose of invading there is no Recitation Colour more suitable for conducting it. Be it the flames of「Red(Keinez)」or the water of「Blue(Ruguz)」 , both of them would draw too much attention from the surroundings. In comparison, with Grey Color Recitations capable of disarming the targets and disabling them, there would be no such worries. I see, it’s no wonder the Investigation Committee is having trouble with this matter.

「Based on the view of the investigation team, the perpetrator may seem to only be using brute force approaches to create turmoil. However, it is deduced that the perpetrator is very cunning and is an extremely calculating person. The only clue the perpetrator has left behind is ……」 

Halfway through his words, the headmaster lifted up a flask containing grey coloured remnants.

「the catalyst which we believe had been used by the perpetrator.」

Which was basically akin to having nothing.

「We would like to implore the members of the school’s management team to come in contact with the investigation committee. For all the teachers, apart from taking note of what was previously mentioned, we would also like all of you to inform your students to report any sightings of suspicious individuals immediately. The Information Processing department should continue as before and stay in contact with the various research institutions and recitation schools. ……This will be the general outline for our subsequent actions. Are there any questions?」

After confirming that nobody raised their hands, the old man who governed the school rolled up the documents in his palm

「May I have a moment?」

Right as the meeting was about to conclude, Mirror stood up 

「The Information Processing department had been contacted by the main branch of the Kelberk Research institute this morning.」

「oh?」

「Their Vice-Chief cum Director will be coming over as their representative」

「The Vice-Chief— Saravina of the <Minor>」