“……Hey, what should I do?”
“Why are you asking me that?”
The girls were a bit flustered by Sota suddenly butting in, jabbing each other in the sides as they spoke.
“Ah, it’s nothing.”
Finally, one of them quickly grabbed the arm of the girl known as ‘Sadako.’
“Hey, get up. I barely pushed you that hard.”
“…….”
“This isn’t helping.”
It was a quiet mumble, but it wasn’t like Sota couldn’t hear it.
“You were bullying her, weren’t you?”
“No, no.”
The girl waved her hands while smiling innocently at Sota’s question.
“Why would we? We’re the ones here being hurt, right?”
She just stared blankly at the ground without answering.
“That’s right. We’re just taking care of her since she’s a part of our group, after all?”
“……Sounds like money came up.”
“Oh, that.”
The girl who grabbed her arm chimed in.
“She borrowed money. No matter what, she needs to pay it back.”
“What about any other stories?”
“Other stories? I don’t know anything about that.”
The girl said this, sighed deeply, and then let go of her arm.
Thunk.
Like a doll with its strings cut, her arm dropped lifelessly. The ground was dirt, but it wasn’t soft enough to say it wouldn’t hurt a bit.
“Ha, alright, fine. If you don’t want to get up, just stay like that. Let’s go.”
“Can we really just leave her like this?”
“Have we ever left her without her saying anything to anyone?”
“Well, that’s…”
“Hey, don’t stick your nose into other people’s business too much. Isn’t it enough for friends to sort out their stories among themselves?”
“Wait a minute.”
Seeing the girls trying to leave, Sota shifted his feet and spoke. Not expecting to block the path this much, the girls flinched and stopped.
“What? Are you going to do something now?”
“You didn’t explain anything.”
“I told you everything. We didn’t do anything. It’s not our fault she fell on her own!”
“Wasn’t it just now that you said it wasn’t a hard push?”
“Ha.”
The girl in front let out a small sigh.
She glanced around and stepped closer to Sota.
“So?”
“What about so?”
“Are you planning to hit her or something? If you want to, go ahead.”
“…….”
At that point, Sota found himself at a loss for words.
Not that he didn’t have things he wanted to say—
While Sota stood there unable to do anything, the girl started to smirk.
“Why? You don’t think you can do anything more here?”
Clearing her previously rough expression, the girl said, “Up close like this, hmm.”
Then she murmured, “Or maybe we can treat her a little better. But there’s a condition. For example—”
“For example?”
The voice that came from behind made not just the girls jump but Sota as well.
“Like, for example?”
If voices had temperature, Yuka’s voice was so heated it could melt nearby rocks.
In a moment of doubt, wondering if he was seeing a mirage, Yuka took a step forward.
“Why were you stopping midway through your sentence? Were you thinking of asking Sasaki to do something?”
“Y-You? Who are you?”
At Yuka’s appearance, the girls took a step back.
No, more than that, how did Yuka end up here?
“…….”
Yuka didn’t respond to that and took another step toward the girls.
While Yuka wasn’t particularly small compared to her peers, she wasn’t extremely big either.
But for some reason, Yuka’s spirit felt far greater and stronger than all the other kids combined.
She wasn’t even holding a sword right now.
“Should we give this a try? I don’t know what you were planning to do to her, but why don’t you try doing the same to me? If you’re scared of that, then why even bother with people in the first place?”
As Yuka spoke, the girls looked at each other.
Then they shot a fierce glare at Yuka and hurriedly moved their feet to leave.
They muttered something, but it looked like Yuka didn’t care at all.
“……Ha.”
After the girls left, Yuka let out a small sigh.
Then she turned to Sota.
“Why were you just sitting around here?”
“Ah, I was—”
“……It’s fine. I think I understand how this happened.”
Yuka glanced down at the girl still sitting on the ground before looking back at Sota.
Then she moved in closer to Sota and asked in a small voice that was almost accusatory.
“What? Were you planning to take care of her until graduation? You’re not even in the same class?”
“No, that’s not it—”
“If you meddle like this, it’s just going to make her life harder. Do you really think those girls will coolly forget what just happened today? I doubt that very much.”
“……Yuka.”
“…….”
At Sota’s words, Yuka fell silent.
For a moment, she stared at Sota with a blank expression, then sighed deeply.
She swept her face and, with a somewhat exhausted gait, walked over to the girl sitting down.
“……Can you stand?”
Though she said this to the girl, all the girl did was lift her head to look at Yuka.
“……Huh?”
Looking at the girl’s face, Yuka tilted her head.
As if she had fallen into thought for a moment, Yuka, still bent over, stared at the girl’s face and ultimately sighed long before reaching out to grab the girl’s arm.
Then she gave a firm pull to help her stand.
Stumbling and getting to her feet, the girl stared at Yuka and Sota with a blank expression.
Yuka turned back to Sota.
“So, what are you going to do now?”
“…….”
At Yuka’s words, Sota hesitated for a moment, then approached the girl.
He carefully opened his mouth.
“Um, did they just now… bully you?”
The girl’s gaze, which had been fixed on Sota, slowly sank downward.
It was as if she couldn’t speak.
He thought about brushing aside her hair that had fallen over her face, but he figured it wasn’t the time to do that.
The atmosphere was getting weird. Just standing here together looking at the girl made Sota feel as if they were troubling her, leaving him unsure of what to do.
“Hey, what class are you in?”
Yuka asked.
The girl’s eyes, hidden between her hair, shifted back to Yuka and then slowly fell.
“……Class B.”
At least the girl answered that question, and Sota felt a bit relieved.
“Then let’s go. After all, it’s just the next class over…”
Yuka started to say something but then fell silent.
Before that awkward silence could settle around them, she took the girl’s arm and started to pull her along. The girl staggered a bit but followed.
Sota felt he understood why Yuka was so protective of her.
Just next door.
It was a class they had heard quite a bit about since the beginning of last school year. Of course, the homeroom teachers could have changed with the new grade, but at least Sota and Yuka were still in Class A like when they were first years.
They were only moving up a floor, yet their positions in the hallway remained the same.
Yuka rarely talked about that class.
That class had a ‘victim.’ Yuka had transferred just shortly after that incident. It had been determined that the culprit of the serial murder case was actually a Yōkai, not a person.
According to Yuka, she had moved around schools a lot capturing Yōkai, but she had stayed in this school.
The details were unclear. All Sota had picked up was that the situation around here wasn’t exactly great.
Yuka’s somewhat excessive protective attitude toward Sota was due to that as well.
“…….”
Yuka, despite thinking otherwise, had a somewhat tender personality. Whenever she spoke about the stories of those who had been unjustly murdered, she always pretended to be calm, yet she seemed deeply shaken.
As if those memories reminded her of the people she couldn’t protect.
The three of them walked in silence for a while.
Even as they stepped out from the corner of the building into a place bustling with other students, or walked through the hallway filled with kids passing between classes.
None of them spoke as they made their way back to class.
“……We’re here.”
Yuka stopped the girl in front of the classroom door and said.
“…….”
The girl slowly shifted her gaze between Yuka and Sota before wobbling and turning away.
Then she trudged through the open door.
The kids in the classroom watched Sota and Yuka with curious eyes. Both of them made an effort not to pay much attention to those stares as they turned their bodies.
Even as they passed right by the classroom next to them, neither of them spoke a word.
Both Yuka and Sota were lost in their thoughts for quite some time.
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