Soon, the bell rang, signaling the end of class.
Karuizawa Kei slumped over her desk, poking at her textbook with a pen. Her eyes wandered aimlessly; she clearly hadn't been listening to the lecture.
'100 points...'
Because a significant number of points had been docked at the very beginning of the term, the amount of Private Points each student received per month was already ager. Now, it was even worse. She had planned to save up for a new bag, but now that plan was down the drain.
'It's all that Yamauchi's fault!'
She stole a glance at Katsuragi Keima in the corner. He was still looking down at his ga, his fingers dancing nimbly over the buttons. It was as if everything that had just happened truly had nothing to do with him.
'How does he manage to stay so calm?'
Sato Maya was also spacing out. She'd have to drink fewer cups of milk tea, buy fewer snacks, and even hesitate before buying the new pudding at the convenience store. She looked at Karuizawa Kei, and as their eyes t, they sighed in unison. Sisters in misery.
Sakura Airi kept her head down, staring intently at her textbook. But upon closer inspection, her gaze was also a bit hazy. She was thinking about Yamauchi Haruki's final look.
Yamauchi did indeed look very pitiful. But he brought it on himself. It would have been one thing if he had just said strange things to her, but he actually tried to do that to Keima-kun! No... it's unforgivable!
Airi could pretend she didn't hear it when Yamauchi said weird things to her. But he had been badmouthing Katsuragi Keima behind his back... That was a line Sakura Airi absolutely would not allow anyone to cross.
'Forget it... I won't think about it for now.'
Horikita Suzune, anwhile, had been listening intently to the lecture from start to finish. Her notes were fast, her grasp of the key points precise—exactly like her usual self. But she was also thinking.
Katsuragi Keima had discussed the possible punishnts the class might face with her before. At the ti, she hadn't fully believed him. Now, she did. That man always seed to be able to see a few steps ahead. She glanced at Keima. The guy was just playing his ga, not even lifting his head. She retracted her gaze and continued with the lesson.
As for Katsuragi Keima—he was playing his ga the entire ti.
On his screen, his character was conquering a new dungeon. This was a ga that combined action and dungeon-crawling elents with Galge features. The dungeon design was quite interesting; the placent of traps and monsters was very creative. He was currently researching the most efficient route to clear it.
To him, the sighs, complaints, and whispers around him were just white noise. He heard them, but he didn't care.
Yamauchi Haruki was expelled. What did that have to do with him? Class points were docked. Would that stop him from buying gas? It would have a slight impact. But not much. He'd just eat a little less every day.
"That... even though it hurts to lose points, actually... I'm pretty happy Yamauchi's gone."
"You don't know, that guy used to brag to , saying he'd definitely be in the top ten and that we 'ordinary people' couldn't compare to him."
"When he was here, there was always this... indescribable sense of oppression."
Quite a few people in the class began discussing Yamauchi Haruki.
"Horikita, what do you think?" Ayanokouji Kiyotaka, who hadn't spoken, turned to Horikita Suzune.
Horikita flipped a page expressionlessly. "He shouldn't have been in this class to begin with." Her tone was flat, as if stating a simple fact. "Cheating, lying, shirking responsibility—leaving soone like that in the class only drags everyone down."
Ike Kanji and Sudo Ken sat in the corner, silent. But they exchanged a look, both seeing complex emotions in the other's eyes. Yamauchi Haruki had once been their friend. At least, they thought he was. But now, they only wanted to be as far away from him as possible.
"To be honest," Ike finally spoke, "I actually feel relieved now that he's gone."
Sudou Ken nodded. " too... even though it feels uncomfortable in my heart. I really considered him a brother, but that guy Yamauchi..."
In other parts of the classroom, low chuckles broke out. It was a laugh of relief. It felt as if a stone weighing on their hearts had finally been moved; after all, those who disliked Yamauchi were not a small number.
But just then—
"That's enough from all of you!"
A voice suddenly rang out, shattering the relaxed atmosphere. Everyone froze simultaneously and looked toward the source of the sound.
Hirata Yousuke.
He stood by his seat, his hands clenched tightly into fists, his entire body trembling slightly. His face, which usually wore a gentle smile, was now filled with rage.
"Hirata?" Karuizawa Kei was stunned. "What's wrong?"
"What's wrong?" Hirata's voice was shaking. "You're asking what's wrong?" He scanned everyone in the room. "Yamauchi is expelled! Our classmate is expelled! And you're all here being happy about it?!"
The classroom went deathly silent. Everyone looked at him with expressions of disbelief.
"Hirata, what are you saying?" Sato Maya frowned. "That guy failed and got expelled because of his own actions. He deserved it—"
"Deserved it?" Hirata interrupted her. "You say he deserved it?"
"Isn't it true?"
"Even if he did sothing wrong, he was still our classmate!" Hirata's voice grew louder. "How can you be like this? How can you happily discuss how much you hated him right after he left?!"
Karuizawa Kei stood up. "Hirata, calm down—"
"I can't calm down!" Hirata slamd his fist onto the desk. A loud BANG startled everyone.
"Do you know?" His voice was hoarse. "What it ans for soone to be expelled?"
No one answered.
"It ans his life is changed forever!" Hirata said. "When he leaves this school and goes back, what then? How will his family look at him? What will happen to his future?" He gasped for air. "And you... you're here being happy? Celebrating that he's finally gone?"
Kei's expression changed. "Hirata, what do you an by that? Are you saying we shouldn't be happy? Should we cry for him?"
"At the very least, you shouldn't be like this!" Hirata shouted. "At least you shouldn't be here clapping and cheering right as he's walked out the door!"
Kushida Kikyo furrowed her brow. "Hirata-kun, I understand you're sad, but—"
"You don't understand!" Hirata cut her off. "You don't understand at all!" He looked at Kushida, his eyes full of pain. "Do you know what it feels like for soone to be isolated? Do you know what it feels like to be abandoned by everyone?"
Kushida froze. Of course she knew. She knew all too well. But she didn't speak. She had no intention of talking about the past.
Hirata turned to the others and said loudly, "Yamauchi was wrong. He cheated, he lied, he pushed the bla onto others—I admit all of that. But—" His voice trembled. "But should he be treated like this? Abandoned by everyone? Forgotten by everyone? As if he never existed?"
The classroom was silent. No one spoke; no one dared to speak. Hirata's appearance was too terrifying. The person who was always gentle and smiling now looked like a wounded, angry beast.
"..." Sato Maya whispered, "Are... are you okay?"
Hirata didn't respond. He just stood there, shaking. After a long ti, he spoke. "I'm fine." His voice was raspy. "I just... rembered things from before."
In the second year of middle school, a friend was bullied.
Hirata, fearing he would be targeted as well, didn't step in to help, leading to his friend Sugimura attempting suicide by jumping off a building and ending up in a vegetative state. Hirata blad himself imnsely and vowed to help everyone around him. Later, to stop bullying, Hirata decided to use violence against the entire school, forcing everyone to "get along" through fear, which resulted in the total ntal collapse of the student body. Advanced Nurturing High School had assigned him to Class D precisely because of this history.
Hirata took a deep breath and walked up to Katsuragi Keima, his eyes locking onto him with intensity.
"Katsuragi-kun, Yamauchi-kun has been expelled. Can you really sit here and play your ga with a clear conscience?!"
"What else should I be doing?"
Keima didn't even look up; he just kept playing.
"What else?!" Hirata's voice rose. "Is that all you have to say? Yamauchi is expelled! Our classmate is gone! And all you can say is 'What else'?!"
"Hirata, Hirata-kun! This matter... what does it have to do with Keima-kun?!" The usually timid Sakura Airi found the courage to speak up loudly against the aggressive Hirata.
On the other side, Horikita Suzune let out a cold snort, looking at Hirata with a serious expression. "No matter how you look at it, this has nothing to do with Katsuragi."
Horikita felt that the Hirata Yousuke before her was completely unrecognizable.
Katsuragi Keima finally looked up. He looked at Hirata, his eyes as calm as water. "Then what do you want to say?"
"You—" Hirata was choked up for a second. "You should... you should feel sad! You should reflect! You should think about whether we did sothing that pushed him to this point!"
Keima pushed up his glasses. "Reflect on what?"
"Reflect... reflect on whether we fulfilled our responsibilities as classmates! Reflect on whether we reached out when he needed help!"
Keima was silent for a second. Then, he spoke. "Hirata."
"What?"
"Do you think Yamauchi Haruki reached this point today because we didn't help him?"
Hirata froze. "Isn't it so? If he had soone to rely on, soone to talk to—"
"He had people to talk to," Keima interrupted. "Ike and Sudo were his friends. And what did he do?"
Hirata was speechless.
"He got the answers but hid them from them. He got good grades and mocked them. Yamauchi used them as stepping stones to prove how great he was." Keima's tone remained flat. "Tell , whose fault is that?"
Hirata's lips moved, but no sound ca out.
"But he failed, so he was expelled," Keima finished for him. "And then you co here and say it's because we didn't help him." He paused. "Hirata, if you wanted to help him, what were you doing all this ti?"
Hirata's body stiffened.
"You're in this class every day. You didn't see him cheating? You didn't see that he never studied? You didn't see him badmouthing people behind their backs?" Keima pushed up his glasses. "You saw it, but you said nothing."
Hirata's face began to turn pale.
"You think you're a good person?" Keima continued. "You think standing up now to accuse us proves you have more of a conscience than we do?" He shook his head. "You just need soone to carry the weight of your own guilt."
Hirata began to shake. "..."
"I'm saying, you aren't speaking for Yamauchi at all." Keima's voice was as steady as if he were reading a manual. "You're speaking for yourself."
He stood up, looking Hirata levelly in the eye.
"Wh-what?" Hirata was shocked. It was as if the Katsuragi Keima before him knew exactly what had happened in his past.
In reality, Keima didn't know the details. But he had deduced it. Hirata suddenly displaying a reaction completely different from his usual self was enough to prove one thing: sothing must have happened in his past. Therefore, Keima followed the logic of Hirata's own words.
"Did you help Ike and Sudo? No. Did you help Yamauchi? No. You just stood there, watching everything happen, and then jumped out to accuse us after the dust had settled." He paused. "Because you don't dare to accuse yourself."
Hirata's legs began to feel weak. "..."
"I guessed," Keima said. "But your reaction proves I was right."
The classroom was in a state of absolute silence. Everyone looked at Hirata, their faces filled with astonishnt. No one expected Hirata to have such a reaction today. He was a stranger—far too much of a stranger.
"..." Hirata's voice was hoarse. "You don't understand that feeling... watching soone... watching soone..."
"I've watched it," Keima said. "I watched just now when Yamauchi was expelled. But I wasn't sad, I wasn't guilty, and I didn't feel like I should have done sothing." He pushed up his glasses. "Do you know why?"
Hirata couldn't speak.
"Because that was the path he chose for himself." Keima's tone was still dispassionate. "He chose to cheat, he chose to lie, he chose to bla everyone else for his own mistakes. From start to finish, no one forced him; he chose it himself."
He looked at Hirata and spoke slowly. "You—!"
Hirata seed to have completely broken down. In his agitation, he grabbed Keima by the collar—
However, Keima just kept playing his ga, seemingly too lazy to even acknowledge him.
"Hirata, you're starting to look like a stalk of celery."
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