“Did those kids keep bothering you?”
Sota asked that question and felt like an idiot for some reason. Hadn’t he seen it with his own eyes?
This wasn’t even the first time; they’d seen it happen before.
Had they really only been bullying her—
No, there’s no such thing as ‘just bullying.’ Those types of bullying are no different from torture, and whether it’s mental or physical, if it continues, eventually it will break a person’s mind.
…Sota remembered Shii’s condition.
She had been doing better while spending time with Sota, but since that incident last time, she’s been showing signs of anxiety again. Any wound gets a bit better over time, but it seemed like it would still be a while before Shii fully recovered.
He tried continuously reaching out and being there for her, but even so, Sota had his limits. Just like the kid in front of him now.
Yeah, thinking it over again, Sota didn’t have time for this.
Shii must be waiting at home. If he thought about it rationally, Sota needed to get back home right away.
Kurosawa Koto Ne still hadn’t responded.
What more could he do here? Sota seriously pondered. He had shown the girl’s arm in front of the kids, but that wasn’t what he had meant to do.
He thought there might be traces if she were being bullied.
“Let’s get out of here for now.”
No matter how much Sota tried to remain calm, there were some things to fear. He was scared those girls would really come back with the police, and he was also a bit frightened about running into a guy saying he came to see Kurosawa Koto Ne.
Above all, Sota didn’t particularly like alleyways. Since that incident last year.
Even though he spoke, Kurosawa Koto Ne did not move, so he ended up lightly grabbing the end of her sleeve with his finger and pulling. At the very least, it seemed she understood his action; she followed his lead.
Once he had brought her out like this, Sota felt a little at a loss.
“Uh, so…”
After pondering for a moment, Sota spoke up.
“Which way should we go? Backtrack?”
“…”
Kurosawa Koto Ne quietly looked up at Sota. It seemed like she just realized he was there.
Her eyes were still red. They say people suffering from albinism have such eyes, but Kuro’s hair color was way too dark to be considered albinism. Her skin was pale, but whether that was truly due to a lack of melanin was hard to tell.
“So… you know the way home, right?”
Tamachi Station is quite close to school. You could even walk there.
But that didn’t mean they were near Tamachi Station at this moment. Sota’s part-time job was near the school area, but Minato Ward has a lot of pedestrian traffic. As always, first-time visitors might get a bit lost around a bustling neighborhood.
Besides, this Kurosawa Koto Ne had a vibe that made it seem like she might get lost. How do you even explain it? It was like she had no idea what being bullied was, even while being bullied.
In the end, Sota brought that child, who didn’t answer his question, to the station.
Thinking back, he realized he didn’t even know how she commuted.
“From here, you can get home, right?”
Sota asked again.
Kurosawa Koto Ne gazed at Sota without a word, and finally nodded. At least she seemed to understand the word home, which he thought was a relief.
…No, with her being at Hanagawa High School, there’s no way she wouldn’t understand such a simple word.
“Um… well, I don’t know if I should say this…”
Sota spoke with a somewhat serious expression.
“When you’re being bullied like that, it’s important to ask for help from people around you… uhm.”
Was it that this girl hadn’t asked for help because she had no one to ask?
The homeroom teacher didn’t seem particularly interested in the students. If he had to pick, he was the type to brush off issues happening in his own class.
And the kids in the class seemed to notice Kurosawa Koto Ne being bullied but didn’t appear to care much about it.
What would change after a whole year of her being bullied if he said such things now?
“…I’m sorry.”
That’s what Sota said.
Did she understand?
After staring at him for a while, Sota finally relaxed his mind and returned home after seeing Kurosawa Koto Ne robotically walking toward the station like she understood she needed to do that.
*
Kurosawa Koto Ne acted as if she couldn’t speak. Of course, Sota knew she could speak, but he had already faced how the situation of ‘talking’ just didn’t come that easily.
So, he believed that Yuka wouldn’t realize he was slightly stretching her warning.
But—
Poke.
“Ugh!?”
Suddenly feeling a sharp poke in his back, Sota spun around to see Yuka glaring at him with an extremely displeased expression.
In her hand was a pen with the cap still on. It wasn’t sharp, but being poked strongly in the back all of a sudden hurt.
Yuka stared at Sota with an extremely annoyed look.
“…Sasaki.”
“Uh?”
Yuka often called Sota like this, but for some reason, she seemed even more upset today. Usually, it happened when Nanami or Hagiwara-senpai were involved.
The tip of the pen in Yuka’s hand began to move, aiming toward the window in the hall.
“Eek!?”
Just then, a girl sitting near that window shrieked like a bird. Coincidentally, a black object with red eyes was right in the spot where that girl was sitting.
Upon closer inspection, that black object was Kurosawa Koto Ne.
“…”
Sota met her gaze and pondered for quite a while on what to say.
“Um, Yuka.”
“Go ahead, make excuses.”
Yuka leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms while tapping her index finger, and suddenly, all the kids’ attention turned toward them.
Sota often heard the kids saying he was clueless, but that didn’t mean he was ‘truly’ clueless. Most of it was just their misunderstanding.
Every time Yuka reacted like that toward Sota, the surrounding kids would give him looks like, “Oh, he’s done it again.” To put it more accurately, the kind of pity you’d get from witnessing a boyfriend caught cheating.
Sota felt extremely wronged. They weren’t even in that kind of relationship.
Of course, he’d been hanging around girls like Yuka, Nanami, and Hagiwara-senpai, so he might have subconsciously felt a bit smug, but he never planned to do anything to those three.
On top of that, he felt even more wronged today.
No matter how much Yuka said that, how could he leave a girl who was truly suffering from bullying behind?
…Moreover, that type of story wasn’t something he should be discussing in front of friends.
“…Let’s go outside and talk.”
Sota stood up with a serious expression, saying that, and Yuka’s eyes widened a bit. Usually, he’d be a bit flustered around Yuka, but at least regarding what had happened yesterday, he felt justified.
He hadn’t expected her to come this far.
“Wait, Sasaki.”
Yuka called to Sota and hurried to follow him.
As Sota opened the classroom door and stepped outside, he felt the gazes of his classmates on him. Some looked envious, while others looked jealous. It was a bit strange how similar the expressions were between guys and girls.
Once outside the classroom—
“Sota!”
Should he say that was good timing or bad timing?
From beyond Class B, Nanami was waving at him cheerfully as she approached.
Nanami, who had been happily skipping toward Sota, stopped in her tracks upon noticing the black object between Sota, Yuka, and herself.
“…”
Was it a relief again—no, no matter how he looked at it, it didn’t seem like a relief.
Kurosawa Koto Ne was quietly looking up at Sota. And for some reason, Nanami and Yuka didn’t seem to like it when the girl was looking at Sota like that.
However.
Yuka looked at Kurosawa Koto Ne with a very cautious expression. To put it more bluntly, it was the kind of vibe that said, ‘What do we do about this?’ It seemed she felt a bit of pity, but maybe because of her job, she couldn’t go that far. Considering how many times she had seen blood while fighting, that seemed understandable.
Nanami also had a complex expression in many ways.
She didn’t seem to like Kurosawa Koto Ne looking at Sota like that, but since she had got a general idea of what kind of child Kurosawa Koto Ne was, it seemed she couldn’t quite bring herself to say anything.
And the atmosphere created by those two transitioned into ‘bewilderment’ as Kurosawa Koto Ne made her next move.
Kurosawa Koto Ne raised her arm.
The sleeve slid down slightly, revealing a bit of a blue bruise.
Only the three people surrounding her could see it.
Kurosawa Koto Ne didn’t say anything, but—
Sota immediately understood that this girl was putting into practice what he had said yesterday.
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