The place that Haruyuki was brought to was somewhere he was quite familiar with—the western edge of the rooftop. First period had only just ended, so there were no other students there.
During his first year here, Haruyuki would make a delivery of bread and juice to delinquent students at this place practically every day. While clearly remembering those times, Haruyuki tried to go over to the antenna tower where the acts of bullying had happened. But, Ishio stopped him where he was and spoke.
“Here should be fine.”
Haruyuki blinked, and talked back.
“…But, we’re still within sight of the social security cameras here.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
Spitting that out, Ishio stuffed his hands into the pockets of his uniform and continued while leaning his back against the tall stainless fence.
“…Arita, you were summoned by that Sugeno, right?”
—Just like Haruyuki expected, that incident was already known within the class. This was the «strange rumor» that Takumu had mentioned in the Voice Call. He’d been careful, but had he been seen by other students when he entered into the counseling room? But still, it was too fast for this information to have spread like this…
While reconsidering that this wasn’t the time or place to think of unnecessary things like that, Haruyuki nodded slightly after staring fixedly at Ishio and the other boy standing a little ways away from him.
“…Yeah.”
“Then, it was you. You were the one that planted that camera in the female shower room.”
“No!”
His response was immediate. Looking down from high above at Haruyuki who was vehemently shaking his head, Ishio just rubbed his close-cropped short hair, but the other boy spoke out for the first time here.
“Well, we can’t say for sure that you did it, Arita. But, I don’t think the school would summon a student at this hour without any basis. If done poorly, it would lead to complaints instead.”
That hot-blooded Sugeno is the exception to that! That guy who said ‘what rights, what laws!?’!
Since Haruyuki was certain they wouldn’t believe that even if he claimed that, he had no choice but to remain silent. Then, Ishio took one, two steps towards Haruyuki, and spoke in a whisper.
“Being released after being receiving a summons is suspicious, but I don’t feel like there’s any evidence. But, I can’t leave it alone like this just because there’s no evidence.”
Suddenly Ishio grabbed Haruyuki’s necktie with his left hand and pulled him towards him tightly. He struck a burning gaze of anger at him from close range.
“Listen, when that camera was found, my girlfriend was also in the shower room. She received an incredible shock, and hasn’t come to school yesterday and today!”
At this point, Ishio’s actions were in clear violation of school regulations. But, the regular player of the basketball club shook off the other boy’s attempt to restrain him and swung his right fist far back.
“I can’t forgive you, Arita. No matter what, I have to do this!!”
And then, he swung his brandished fist with an inexperienced movement and—
There was a possibility that Haruyuki could avoid it. Ishio’s motions, which was nothing compared to the brawl-practiced punches of the students who had bullied Haruyuki before, were awkward. No, more than that, if Haruyuki used the physical acceleration command—«Physical Burst», he might be able to even reverse the situation and beat up Ishio here. Ishio’s face was greatly warped simply because it indicated that it was his first time hitting someone.
But of course, Haruyuki neither dodged nor fought back, and simply received the punch on his left cheek. Something like winning in a brawl with the power of acceleration was the lowest act, which was even mentioned in the laws of the Black Legion. A high-pitched sound resounded, and at the same time the impact itself pushed Haruyuki’s body back several steps.
If it was the Haruyuki of half a year ago, his heart might have broken at this point and he would be servilely begging.
However, the staggering but still standing Haruyuki sternly looked back at Ishio even while feeling a hot ache in his cheek, and shouted.
“I’ll say it as many times as I need to, I didn’t do it!!”
Then, Ishio clenched his teeth and began to make a fist again, but eventually he loosened it and responded back.
“…If that’s proven to be true, you can hit me as many times as you like. But…”
Thrusting forward his index finger instead of a fist and the basketball member with close-cropped hair declared it clearly.
“If you’re proven to be the culprit, I’ll break your Neuro Linker, so you can’t look at pictures or videos or anything else.”
Then, Ishio turned his body around, and walked towards the stairs with a long stride while rubbing his right hand with his left hand as if trying to wipe away the remaining sensation in it. The other boy also followed after him, leaving Haruyuki alone on the rooftop.
The scene just now should have been clearly recorded by the numerous social security cameras. If Haruyuki lodged a complaint of receiving an act of violence, despite the circumstances Ishio would be suspended from school at the very least, and would also lose his place as a regular in the basketball club.
But of course, Haruyuki had no intention of doing that. Ishio was just another person that had gotten dragged into this. Into a whirlpool of nothingness without light or warmth that was created by the cruel plunderer known as Noumi Seiji.
After tracing his cheek and confirming that he wasn’t bleeding, Haruyuki wearily headed towards the stairs and typed a mail on the way, in order to send a short message to Takumu.
After writing [It wasn’t anything serious, I’ll explain the situation after school, sorry for worrying you] and sending it, he continued and started to send a message to Chiyuri’s address too.
But, he stopped his hand just before he did it. It was no longer possible to erase Chiyuri’s concerns with just words. There was no way to take her back but to destroy the root of it all, Noumi.
Takumu immediately responded back with just a word of [Understood]. Feeling the worry of his best friend in that concise message, Haruyuki finally let out the tension in his shoulders and headed towards the classroom at a half-run in order to be in time for the next class.
Lunch break.
As soon as the chime rang, Haruyuki headed towards the school cafeteria alone.
With the third-year students absent, the dining hall was also naturally quite uncrowded compared to usually. Having no intention to eat on the rooftop where something unpleasant had just happened, Haruyuki lined up at the self-service counter. From the menu displayed in his vision, he selected okra[7] toppings with eggplant in his pork curry, and confirmed that the holo-tag appeared in front of him.
The obaa-chan in the kitchen filled up the curry at super-speed, and when she put the okra out onto the counter, an exact ‘CHARIIIN’ sound rang out.
Haruyuki’s gaze naturally moved towards the lounge at the east end of the cafeteria. But, he didn’t have the courage to burst into that place with white circular tables surrounded by decorative plants and with a clearly different atmosphere, and instead sat down at in the corner of one of many long tables that were lined up.
While picking up his spoon, he looked around his surroundings a little. All the students were enjoying their meals while making a lot of noise. No one was looking at Haruyuki—they shouldn’t be.
But Haruyuki couldn’t help but feel that all the people here were talking about “The peeping-camera perpetrator has come” with a telepathy-like communication method. ‘No, impossible’ is what he said to himself as he tried to deny it, but the unpleasant atmosphere that wasn’t quite outspoken when he entered Class-2C this morning had deeply permeated his skin.
He stuffed down the curry in order to drive that feeling away, but though he usually became unconditionally happy with just that, the lump that was blocking h
is throat wouldn’t go away at all.
If—
If at this rate, the belief that «Arita of 2C was the perpetrator of the peeping camera incident» took hold of all of the school’s students even without any evidence.
Overturning that might be difficult for even Kuroyukihime, the vice-president of the student council. Conversely, Kuroyukihime might also lose her current position in the school if she got dragged down with Haruyuki. Even if that happened for argument’s sake, he didn’t think that that person would ever abandon him, but—What if, in the worst case, Kuroyukihime was also looked at with cold eyes because of him? What if that person was alienated within the school like himself last year, and at worst was harassed in some way…?
Haruyuki felt the skin of his entire body shiver due to his thoughts.
His spoon dropped down onto his plate with a clang, and when he clutched his arms strongly with both hands—
Suddenly feeling a presence, Haruyuki looked up.
A group of four, five people that were walking somewhere much further away entered his vision.
In the Umesato Private Middle School, there exists a scholarship student system for athletic clubs just in case. This wasn’t a prestigious sports school, so the system was only to the degree of reducing school expenses for club members who put in good results beyond the municipal tournament, but even so it was apparent that there was a clear division for the so-called «scholarship students».
The group that held Haruyuki’s eyes were indeed those few athletic club elites. They were regular players of the female softball club and the hopes of the male swimming club, and standing among them and chatting with them while smiling was a small-built student—
That was without a doubt, the first-year student of the kendo club, Noumi Seiji.
The Umesato Middle School kendo club was certainly strong, but Noumi who had just entered the club this month had no regular game participation experience. Even though it should naturally take until the second half of the school year at the fastest for him to obtain scholarship student qualifications, for him to already be encroaching on that kind of group after only winning last week’s club tournament was shocking.
—But, you didn’t obtain that victory with your own power!
Haruyuki unconsciously bit his lip hard. At that moment, as if feeling the gaze that Haruyuki was shooting at him from a corner of a long table far away, Noumi fleetingly turned his eyes in his direction with a casual action.
Haruyuki saw the innocent smile that was on his girl-like well-proportioned face transform in an instant.
What appeared from under that mask that came off was a sadistically joyful smile that was cold like a razor that was thinly sharpened to the utmost limit.
—How is it Arita-senpai, the feeling of being covered in mud and slipping off a hill no matter how far you climb? The feeling of having your precious things stolen and broken one by one…?
And then Noumi returned his face to the front, and while turning his previous innocent smiling face to the senior students, unhesitatingly entered the lounge that was overflowing in dazzling light.
Even after his view of him was obstructed by the decorative plants and he couldn’t see him anymore, Haruyuki continued staring at the place where Noumi was.
It seemed there was no longer any doubt. Noumi was the one who secretly made it so that talk of Haruyuki being summoned by the homeroom teacher was spread around the class so quickly. No, possibly, he was also the once who informed the school authorities that Haruyuki had gone to school on Sunday.
As a huge anger and a fear that surpassed it welled up from the bottom of his body suddenly, Haruyuki desperately suppressed the urge to hit the table.
No. I can’t let my heart break here. If I do, I’ll just return to the servile me from half a year ago. That’s not all. If I get crushed here and sink all the way down into the bottomless hole that Noumi made, I’ll drag Takumu, Chiyuri and Kuroyukihime down along with me as well.
—I’ll crawl up from here.
Haruyuki muttered in his mind while clenching his spoon with all his strength.
—I’ve faced this kind of adversity many times. I’ll crawl up from here once again. No, I’ll get up no matter how many times it takes. I have already stopped walking towards only the bottom.
He stuffed a heap load of curry into his wide-opened mouth, and chewed it forcefully. The first-year female student sitting diagonally across from him gazed open-mouthed at Haruyuki as he emptied his plate at a staggering speed.
Chapter 4
Up until the clock hand reached 2 PM, Haruyuki felt like he was sitting on seat that as sharp as a horseradish grater. It could be said that he was slightly lucky that, thanks to Ishio of the basketball club confronting Haruyuki directly, there was an atmosphere of reserve from interacting with him any further than that.
Even so, the gazes of the girls were 30% colder than usual, and certain boys seemed be in the middle of deliberating over what nickname to give to Haruyuki right away. Before they could finish deciding between the last two choices of «Cameari[8]» and «Papayuki[9]», Haruyuki grabbed his bag and umbrella and escaped from the classroom.
He came out into the front yard where it was blackly pouring rain that had begun to fall since the afternoon just as forecasted, and let out a deep breath after stepping across the school gate. After he was cut off from local network while also receiving a message of «Please be careful heading home», all kinds of online messages from the Global Net appeared in front of him in exchange, and he quickly felt his heart soothed by that feeling of connection.
While he was attentively looking at the headline news along with the BGM sound of rain hitting his umbrella as he stood next to a wall about twenty meters from the school gate, familiar footsteps approached at last.
“Sorry for keeping you waiting, Haru.”
As Takumu suddenly lifted up a navy-blue umbrella, Haruyuki also moved his hand slightly. They lined up with each and began to walk along the sidewalk towards the east.
A few dozen seconds later, Haruyuki began to speak first.
“Is it really okay for you to be absent from club activities for two days in a row?”
“It’s fine, it’s fine. The club president and advisor don’t think anything of me who only joined hallway through while they’re in a daze over the genius rookie.”
“…That’s also a complicated subject, huh. Well, thanks to that Noumi attracting attention to himself, you’re on the other hand able to move easily, is what you mean, right…?”
They both gave bittersweet smiles, and returned to walking in silence for about a minute.
Once they saw the intersection where the Oume highway crossed with the Loop 7[10], Haruyuki finally began to talk on his own again.
“Today, I was summoned by Sugeno for the matter of the peeping camera incident …Of course, I’m not the culprit.”
“Obviously. That Sugeno, to summon you without any evidence…”
Stopping Takumu as he began to speak in an angry tone, Haruyuki added something else as if groaning.
“But, I’m in a position where I could easily be the culprit. That entire incident was a trap that Noumi Seiji put together. And I completely fell into it…”
It unexpectedly took a long time to explain the whole story of Noumi’s trap.
Several minutes later after they boarded the EV bus of the Loop 7’s outer circumference and sat next to each other on the back-most seats, Haruyuki had finally finished recounting almost the entire situation he had gotten caught in. The only two points he didn’t speak of were the source of the visual masking program that had been prepared by Noumi, and how he had run into Chiyuri stark naked in the shower room.
However, it seemed that the turning power of the wheels in Takumu’s head perfectly displayed itself this time as well and he instantly deduced the source of the program. Almost immediately after Haruyuki closed his mouth, his best friend took off his blue glasses and tightly pressed
his hand against his brow.
“……I see.”
The voice he let out was terribly smashed up due to strong self-reproach.
“It was that photo, wasn’t it? The group photo of the new kendo club students…So there was a virus attached to it. I’m sorry, Haru, I was negligent in checking it…”
“N-No, it’s not your fault.”
Haruyuki frantically shook his head many times.
“Most likely, that virus was set to self-destruct the instant the picture was read by the system with the kendo club’s enrollments tags. Even if you noticed it, I was the only target. Because from the beginning he was aiming at not Taku, but me…”
“No, I should have thought it was suspicious that the file size was so large. Despite that, I barged into your house when you were suffering and said such awful things to you…Moreover, I even hit you!”
Suddenly, Takumu put back on his glasses and lifted up Haruyuki’s right hand with both his hands.
“Uwah, hey, what are you?”
“Haru, hit me. If you don’t hit me, I won’t be able to forgive myself.”
“No, it’s fine, it’s fine, really!”
Haruyuki was flustered and switched his gaze between Takumu’s face and the front of the bus. The housewives and students that were riding along with them were looking at the two of them at the back while either wide-eyed or giggling. Since they couldn't hear their conversation, how on earth did they interpret this situation where the tall and handsome Takumu is bending over and clasping the hand of the small and fat Haruyuki?
However, Takumu kept slowly bringing his face even closer without worrying about the eyes around them at all, so Haruyuki whispered reluctantly.
“Wait, wait a minute, Taku, umm, I too…I too deserve to be hit by you.”
“Eh…? What is it?”
Looking at Takumu doubtful and frowning eyes, Haruyuki whispered “Sorry, Chiyu!” in his mind. She had told him to never talk about it, but Haruyuki didn’t want to close his mouth and act as if he were looking down on Takumu ever again.