Star Records, Practice room 5.

Sumire felt irritated as the conversation with Yuhi from last night resurfaced in her mind. 'Why did he look at her like that?' Isn't he the one being unfair?

"Hey, isn't this enough?"

Ran was the first to complain. The fact that Ran lasted three hours was amazing enough, and Sumire had to compliment him for this change. However, in the end, he still complained.

"Definitely not! The fact that you guys lost despite being under my guidance is a disgrace! What's more, you didn't even take second place."

Sumire emphasized. She did not mean to say it so bluntly. However, it is something that ought to be said.

'How could Quatro Light lose to two groups?' This is impossible. There is nobody around who is their level. Sumire watched the performance tape, and they did very well. It seems Yuhi giving them advice for the solo songs got rid of their unease. So how come?

It does not help how they will not give her the name of the ones who beat them.

The praise comes later, and she first has to criticize them. Although, she suppose spoiling them once in a while won't hurt either.

"Seeing a little girl train the number one group is something."

Her eyes twitched, annoyed. She doesn't know who said it, but Sumire turned around to hit the person with her fan when that person stopped her in his tracks.

She immediately recognized the owner."Soujiro!"

"As violent as ever I see."

"I'm sure you didn't come here to say this."

"Your right. Do you mind coming with me for a bit?"

"Eh? Um. .." Sumire said, surprised.

"You don't have to reject me that strongly. "

"N--no that's not it. " She was just slightly startled.

"Is that so? Then will you come along? I actually don't have that much time."

Even if he says that, what does he want her for?

"You can bring one of those guys over there if you're so concerned about me doing something."

Sumire glanced over and spotted that the four stopped doing their exercises and looked over at her and Soujiro with worried glances.

If they have that much energy to worry about her, then they should spare it on their training.

"Were only taking a short walk around the block. I'll be back in a few minutes!"

"What are we going to say when Yuhi-san comes?" Jun called out.

Ah! Right, she arranged to meet with Yuhi this morning. She got so caught up in training the other guys that she almost forgot. What does she do?

"Just tell him the truth, that guy. ..won't get mad or anything," Soujiro answered for her.

Sumire doesn't get a chance to respond since Soujiro grabbed hold of her wrist and pulled her along. Oh, she has seen this back before. Somewhere else, a very long time ago.

….

The two of them found a quiet spot, and Soujiro immediately started to talk. It surprised her how quickly he shifted into business mode. Sumire was still distracted, and her gaze remained on her wrist. Now that she thought it through, he never once held her hand even though he has the right to do so.

She wonders what this man thinks of her.

"First, let's start with talking business. Do you recall the investigation we were conducting at the beginning? Regarding the town that fell due to a mysterious disease? "

In other words, when they've finished speaking about business, he will start talking about personal stuff.

Soujiro is also going to confront things from now on, huh? He must have made his mind up after the fight. No, he may have been thinking about it even before they met again. She's sure that Soujiro never expected to see her again.

In the years he did not see her, he must have come up with an answer.

"I do. We ended up assuming that it was the toxic poison gas due to the traces of darkness we found on the sight."

"Yes, but that was wrong. It was bacteria."

"Bacteria? You mean it wasn't due to the darkness. But more to do with the environment of the place?"

She noticed the foul stench of the area when she visited before with Shin. However, she merely assumed that things were like that due to the mass famine.

Soujiro nodded. "Yes. It had nothing to do with that person."

"But the traces of darkness found there were his." Sumire frowned.

"Right, we can't get rid of that. Let's take this one story at a time, first of the bacteria. It took Ichinose's research team to analyze the stuff found on the site and when they did. They noticed a particular substance on the objects. The bacteria is parasitical and uses humans as hosts. Those who contracted the bacteria suffered from chills and fevers in the initial stage. As time went by, the symptoms changed, and they ended up experiencing violent vomiting, until the point where they would enter a coma."

"I read about the conditions they had to live in. But I assumed that was due to the famine occurring because of that person's reign. The initial symptoms too just seem like a regular cold or stomach bug. " However, now that she thinks about it. Someone had cut off a section of the report. Although she heard about the vomiting, she didn't know that they vomited until they entered a coma.

"That piece of information wasn't available to anyone. How did you know?"

"One question at a time. Anyhow, the infected ones began attacked regular individuals. They did not eat them as a zombie might. But they killed and tortured the innocent for mere entertainment. They treated it like a game." Soujiro said, shifting the screen of his PDA to show several images.

The images Soujiro showed her were completely awful.

"How horrible." She clenched her fist. "I understand they are the victims and if they were conscious they'd never have done it. But doing this isn't human."

"You think so? People have darkness in their hearts, you know. Like that man, Aki always said that there will always be strong darkness if there is a strong light. Similarly, if there was a weak light, the darkness would reflect it. You can't have one lower than the other, and it will always remain equal. In this case, the current generation has people with such an otherworldly vibrant aura and light. It's only natural that darkness reflected is the same."

She understands that logic, and generally looking at it, it is a fair-sounding argument. Since there's a bit of both, there can be harmony. However, for her to start seeing the darkness in all her companions hearts isn't something she can do. She is already struggling with her own darkness.

This person, too, probably had no malice towards her.

He simply prioritized his work over her and couldn't balance a relationship with her.

"Do you believe in the darkness in other people's hearts, too, Soujiro?"