Same time. A separate room.
"Now then, let me ask you one more time… you all knew it was a lie, and yet you still chose to drag Takanashi-kun through the mud, didn't you?"
The people standing before me were Takanashi-kun’s former middle school classmates.
On the monitor in the room, footage of Yamasaki being dragged away had been playing until just a few moments ago.
Honestly, Sara completely stole Kazunari's spotlight... well, it was a relief to see her handle it, so I suppose it’s fine.
If it had been me, I might have even added a kick for good measure… but a maiden like me shouldn't say exactly where I would've aimed, right?
At any rate, these guys, having watched everything from start to finish, all looked equally uncomfortable.
They had been forced to face the reality that Yamasaki—the guy they had spent so much time idolizing—was a genuine piece of trash. Plus, I had done a fair share of screaming at them myself.
"Let's put Yamasaki aside for the moment. You all knew that the rumors about Takanashi-kun were strange, that they might have been lies, didn't you?"
I scanned everyone slowly, as if sizing them up one by one.
I saw several of them nod.
I suppose the ones nodding now are at least slightly better than the rest.
Because Yuzuha had been yelled at by Sara-san, she had shriveled up, and our conversation had drifted into an awkward silence.
While a heavy atmosphere hung over the room, a staff member rushed over to Nishikawa-san. The timing was probably for the best.
Nishikawa-san listened to the whispered report and muttered, "I understand," before turning her gaze to the rest of us.
"It seems Natsumi's side is finished."
The report Nishikawa-san received was apparently about Natsumi-senpai.
Come to think of it, since I hadn't seen Natsumi-senpai around, I had assumed she was with Yuji while he was acting separately.
"Kazunari-san, this is something we planned on our own. I am so very sorry..."
Sara-san looked incredibly apologetic as she suddenly bowed her head.
It seemed there had been a plan in motion that I knew nothing about, but there was no way I could be angry at the people who were helping me; I felt nothing but gratitude.
I approached Sara-san, who was still bowing, and gently placed a hand on her shoulder.
"There's no need for you to apologize at all, Sara-san. Please, look up. Okay?"
"…Yes."
At my words, Sara-san raised her head and gave me a small, relieved smile.
"These two could probably flirt in the middle of a murder scene."
"W-Well, I'm not so sure about that."
As if in sync with Hanako-san’s exasperated comment and Todo-san’s retort, I heard a blatant sigh from Nishikawa-san.
She then raised her hand and gave a signal.
After a short wait, the door leading to the waiting room opened. Several staff members who had likely received the signal stepped out, followed by Natsumi-senpai.
It appeared she had been nearby all along.
"Come on, get in there already!!"
Was there someone on the other side of the door?
Obeying Natsumi-senpai's shout, people began to filter in one by one… a whole crowd shuffled into the room.
Ten? Twenty? There might have been even more than that.
As I watched them enter, I began to see faces that were undeniably familiar.
Wait… are these guys my classmates from my 3rd Year of Middle School Days?!
"What?! Why are they here…?"
Hearing my surprised voice, Yuzuha, who had been huddled in a ball, also raised her head to look at the group.
"Eh… why…?"
Yuzuha had the exact same reaction I did.
But how on earth…?
I didn't know how they had managed to gather them, but it looked like every single person from my old class was there.
Every one of them looked restless; they refused to make eye contact, staring at the floor or looking away. The guilt in the air was palpable.
"We had them in a separate room watching the entire sequence of events on a monitor. Natsumi was keeping an eye on them, but… judging by the look of things, she seems to have gone a bit too far."
I wondered what Nishikawa-san meant by "gone too far," but looking closer, I noticed several of them were actually crying.
Just as I was starting to grasp the situation, Natsumi-senpai offered a follow-up explanation.
"I was just so pissed off that I ended up losing my temper. All I heard from them were pathetic, childish excuses—how they had no choice, how they were scared of being left out… DON'T GIVE ME THAT CRAP!!!!"
?!
Natsumi-senpai must have worked herself back up as she spoke; her voice grew sharper and sharper until she ended on a full-blown scream.
Hearing that roar directed at them again, a few more of the classmates started sobbing.
"Whoa, there's a scene of carnage over there too..."
"Shh, she'll hear you."
Hanako-san and Todo-san really did make for a good duo.
While I was thinking such idle thoughts, one person emerged from the dense crowd and approached me.
"Takanashi-kun..."
How long had it been since a classmate from middle school had called my name? A year? Longer?
The girl who spoke to me had been the class representative back then.
I didn't remember her name, honestly—no joke.
"I won't make excuses, and I don't expect you to forgive me. But please, let me apologize. I am truly, deeply sorry."
She bowed to me with such force that her upper body was parallel to the floor.
That served as a trigger for the others, who all bowed their heads in unison.
I had a feeling Natsumi-senpai had lectured—or perhaps threatened—them into it, but I still never expected the day would come when these people would bow their heads to me.
"If Natsumi has spoken to you, then you understand the weight of what you've done, don't you?"
The person who answered Sara-san’s question was a girl who had been close to Yuzuha back then.
"Um… I know we did something terrible to Takanashi-kun, and I'm honestly sorry… but we were being deceived by Yamasaki-kun, too. Or rather, we were deceived by Yuzuha…"
"Eh!?"
Yuzuha looked stunned as she was accused of deception by a girl she had once considered a close friend.
That accusation acted as a catalyst, and the rest of the group started shouting all at once.
"I mean, Takanashi-kun wasn't even in the wrong! I'm ready to apologize sincerely!"
"We all believed it because Yuzuha talked about Takanashi-kun like he was a criminal… that's just too cruel!"
"Takanashi, I'm really sorry!! I know we were deceived by Yuzuha, but… I thought something was weird, and when I talked to the others, Yamasaki—"
"Yuzuha!! We're to blame too, but this was all your fault to begin with! Apologize to Takanashi-kun!"
One after another, they joined the chorus demanding an apology, turning their collective anger toward Yuzuha.
At first, Yuzuha couldn't keep up with the situation; she looked back and forth at her shouting friends, panicking and stammering "Eh!?" "Eh!?" but eventually, the reality of her isolation seemed to set in. Her eyes welled up, and she finally burst into tears.
Well… from my perspective, they were all equally guilty. That was my only thought on the matter.
However, I found myself busy enough just dealing with the apologies from the people I had been relatively friendly with back then.
"Kazunari… I'm really sorry!! It’s just an excuse, but back then, I was told that if I talked back, the same thing would happen to me…"
I knew the ultimate cause was Yamasaki's manipulation and Yuzuha's lies.
But being apologized to now… I just felt cold. Even as they begged for forgiveness, I could only give non-committal replies. I didn't feel moved; I felt nothing at all.
While I was dealing with that, the atmosphere around Yuzuha had turned savage.
"Don't you ever contact me again!!"
"Apologize to Takanashi-kun right now!!"
Watching Yuzuha being relentlessly blamed was a painful sight, but at the same time, it felt like I was looking at my own past.
No matter what I had said, no one would listen. Whenever I opened my mouth, I was cursed as a criminal and a villain… and then everyone left me. That was exactly how it was for me back then.
The only difference was that my situation had been a false accusation, while Yuzuha’s was entirely her own doing.
Abandoned by her friends and cursed as a criminal.
Witnessing the same thing happen to her that had happened to me, Yuzuha looked completely broken.
But why had they called those people here? Was there a specific reason?
The answer to my question came from a voice in a spot where I thought no one else was standing.
"Yuzuha, do you finally understand a little of Kazunari's suffering?"
The person who emerged from the shadows was, of course, my best friend.
He had said he would be acting on his own today, so he must have finished whatever he was doing and returned.
What exactly had he been up to?
"Yuji..."
"I'm the one who planned the gathering of your middle school classmates. If you really want Yuzuha to reflect, the quickest way is to make her experience the same pain you went through."
It seemed Yuji had anticipated exactly how this would play out.
It was easy to predict how the crowd would react once they realized they had been deceived.
However… to be honest, I had thought that if Yuzuha learned Yamasaki's true nature, she would be a little more willing to listen to me.
In reality, that wasn't the case at all. As I thought… am I just too soft?
"Well… you've looked after Yuzuha for a long time. Because of that, you can't help but see her through a guardian's eyes, like you're the one who has to fix her."
His words felt like they were supporting my train of thought.
But at the same time, it felt like he was indirectly telling me that I was indeed being far too lenient.
"Sasagawa-san, in the first place, what do you actually think of Kazunari-san?"
Perhaps prompted by Yuji's words, Sara-san asked a very fundamental question.
Setting aside when we were small children, what about middle school? By the time we were third-years, I was certain she found me a total nuisance.
"…Kazunari played with me when I didn't have any friends. He was always there for me. I… I loved Kazunari."
Yuzuha gave an unexpectedly honest answer. Although, the fact that she was terrified of Sara-san probably played a big part in that.
And… she used the past tense.
"Why could you do such terrible things to someone you cared for that much? Did you never feel sorry for Kazunari-san!?"
"Because… the uniform and the brown hair, everyone else was doing it! I wanted to do it too, but Kazunari always got mad at only me! He was always so annoying, and I hated it!! And then I heard he punched Kazuma-kun… they said he punched him because he couldn't stand that I liked Kazuma-kun… Kazunari was the bad one for interfering with everything I wanted to do!!!"
It was as if a dam had burst, and Yuzuha began to vomit out everything she had been suppressing.
So that was how she saw it…
Back then, I always wanted Yuzuha to go back to being the girl she used to be.
That's why every time I spoke to her, I’m sure I sounded like I was constantly lecturing or complaining.
Now that she mentioned it, I realized that from her perspective, those actions might have been nothing more than me forcing my ideals on her.
If Yuzuha felt that she wanted to change, no matter the form that change took, my interference would have been nothing but a burden.
"Then, someone started saying Kazunari was a stalker, and everyone started being nice to me… and since I hated Kazunari for being so persistent, I told them he was like a stalker..."
Yuzuha continued to speak in broken fragments, recalling the past piece by piece.
For what it was worth, I understood now that she had her own reasons and triggers.
I think there are parts I should reflect on as well, but that doesn't mean I can forgive her for what she did.
"Kazuma-kun listened to my problems and said he understood how I felt… but he said he couldn't be with me because Kazunari was in the way. At that time, I thought Kazunari was interfering again! He even tried to ruin things with the person I loved…"
She had been manipulated by Yamasaki even more than I had imagined.
But this line of reasoning… it was truly sickening.
Deep down, she still believed that everyone else was to blame.
Even after everyone had gone to these lengths for her… enough is en—
"ENOUGH OF THIS!!!"
?!
A loud voice suddenly boomed through the hall.
The voice seemed to come from the shadows where Yuji had just been. In the next instant, a figure charged out from the darkness.
The figure rushed toward Yuzuha and slapped her across the cheek.
SLAP!!
While everyone stood frozen in shock, the person who had slapped Yuzuha turned toward me and bowed deeply.
"…Kumiko-san."
I recognized her instantly.
Yuzuha's Mother… Kumiko Sasagawa.
A single mother who had raised Yuzuha all on her own.
"…Mother? Why are you here…?"
Yuzuha clutched her stinging cheek, visibly shaken by the fact that her own mother was standing right in front of her.
"I’ve already spoken to Kumiko-san. It seems she had at least suspected that Yuzuha might have done something to you."
Yuji's explanation confirmed what I had already begun to suspect.
I now understood clearly that this was the reason for Yuji's separate actions today.
"I understand that your wish for Yuzuha's reformation is a long-standing habit or a part of your nature. But isn't it wrong that you're the only one suffering while her actual family does nothing? That's why I brought her here. Just how long do you two intend to keep being a burden to Kazunari? Enough is enough!!"
Raising his voice, Yuji barked at both Kumiko-san and Yuzuha.
"Kazunari-kun… I am so, so sorry. Before I came here, I heard the truth from Tachibana-kun. I saw the footage on the screen, the person who claimed to be Yuzuha's boyfriend, and your interactions… I saw it all. Truly… I don't know how I can ever apologize to you… I am so sorry… I am so sorry…"
With tears in her eyes, Kumiko-san bowed her head over and over in deep apology.
And it wasn't just to me; she began to bow to Yuji, Sara-san, and everyone else present in the room one by one.
Once she had finished, she looked back at me to continue.
"To be honest, what Yuzuha did was so horrific that I have no idea what kind of apology would satisfy you, Kazunari-kun. Of course, as her parent, I will stay by Yuzuha's side and apologize to you. I will apologize to your parents as well. But besides that, I want Yuzuha to offer an apology in a way that you can find even slightly acceptable."
Kumiko-san, who had suddenly made such a statement, looked completely serious.
"Mother!? what are you saying…?"
"I will take responsibility and make sure she does it. Since Yuzuha did something truly unforgivable, please punish her in a way that makes you even a little satisfied. I know I’m not in a position to ask this, but please, keep it within a reasonable range… I will make sure she carries it out… please…"
It was a bizarre proposition, but Kumiko-san was clearly in earnest.
Her resolve was set; with a hardened expression, she gave me a firm nod.
In that case, what I wanted was…