Rescue

The Gym Back Warehouse reeked of damp rust. The setting sun slanted through a broken window, casting long shadows across the concrete floor. Class D's plan was reaching its conclusion just as they had intended.

Horikita Suzune stood at the top of the stairs, her gaze stabbing into the three members of Class C, led by Ishizaki Daichi. On the wall above the warehouse, a brand-new Surveillance Camera blinked with a faint Red Light, its lens aimed squarely at the site of the confrontation.

"What's the point of that? If you're going to frame someone, you should pick a place without cameras." Just as the three of them stared in shock, Ichinose's playful voice rang out.

"H-How... why is there a camera here?! There weren't any on the other floors! Isn't it weird that they only installed one here? Right?!"

Ishizaki turned to his companions as if seeking their agreement.

"We did check back then," the two of them answered in low voices, wiping sweat from their brows.

"Most of the corridors in the School Building don't seem to have cameras. But a few are exceptions. The Staff Office and the area in front of the Science Classroom. The Staff Office is obvious, since it has a lot of valuable things inside, right? And the Science Classroom has a lot of chemicals stored in it. Since there's a Science Classroom on this floor, of course they'd install cameras." Ichinose kept up the pressure.

"Why don't you check behind you? There's more than one camera, you know?" Ayanokoji added, as if delivering the final straw.

"T-That's impossible... How could this happen? We... we should've checked back then..."

"This is the third floor. Are you sure you checked the third floor? Maybe you checked the second or fourth by mistake. The fact is, there are cameras here."

"And you already gave yourselves away. Ordinary people don't need to care so much about where the cameras are. So! You three are Bad Kids who've been lying!"

Under Ichinose's words and Ayanokoji's occasional interjections, the three finally crumbled. But Ishizaki still tried one last time to fight back. "Even if that's true, why not just tell the school and have them punish us? So this must be something you installed yourselves."

"No, we have our own reasons. If we report this, we can prove that you started it, but Sudo wasn't completely blameless either. The school would decide whether to punish both sides. Our punishment would be lighter, but it would still have a negative impact on Sudo. And you might be expelled. Is that really worth it? That's why withdrawing your complaint is the best option. It benefits both sides." Horikita's words shattered his last hope.

"Ugh... L-Let me make a call." Ishizaki shakily pulled out his phone, ready to dial, but Ichinose stopped him.

The confrontation ended with Ishizaki and the other two agreeing to withdraw their complaint.

As she watched the three members of Class C leave in disarray, Horikita Suzune finally relaxed her tightly set jaw. She turned to Ichinose and Ayanokoji. Her voice was still cool, but held less hostility. "Next, we'll go to the Student Council Office and make sure they follow through and withdraw the report. Ichinose-kun, Ayanokoji, you..." She paused, apparently considering how to phrase the rest.

"I'll wait here for the good news," Ichinose said with an understanding smile. She knew Horikita needed to handle this final step in person. Taking the three members of Class C to withdraw their report would serve both as supervision and a warning. Horikita nodded without saying more, then gestured to the camera above before turning and striding toward the Student Council Office with the three Class C students, whose expressions were complicated.

The corridor fell quiet at once. Only Ayanokoji Kiyotaka and Ichinose Honami remained.

Ichinose watched Horikita walk away and let out a soft breath of relief. A smile spread across her face. "Phew... It's finally over." She turned to Ayanokoji.

"Yeah," Ayanokoji replied calmly. "By the way, were you the only one from your class who came to watch the show today?"

"Oh?" Ichinose blinked, smiling playfully. "I did ask Shimiya-kun to come along, but he said he had something else to do today, so I came to watch by myself."

Ayanokoji's gaze seemed to shift slightly, but his expression remained unchanged.

Ichinose seemed to be in high spirits. She turned to Ayanokoji, her face beaming with a bright smile and a hint of pride. "Oh, that was so satisfying! Thank you for letting me take the lead. It felt great~" She was referring to how she and Ayanokoji had played off each other during the confrontation with Class C, while Horikita had played the crucial role of silently applying pressure.

Ayanokoji glanced at her and punctured her enthusiasm in his usual flat tone. "Rather than saying I let you take the lead, wouldn't it be more accurate to say you took charge on your own?"

"Ahahaha, is that so?" Ichinose laughed cheerfully, unfazed. "Well, at least this brings things to a close." Her smile was sincere and bright, and she was genuinely glad the whole disturbance had finally settled down.

"Things are finally coming to a close," Ayanokoji agreed, unusually, though his voice still lacked inflection.

"We should also thank you for lending us the Points. We couldn't have afforded something this expensive otherwise." Ayanokoji looked at the Surveillance Camera he had just taken down.

"Oh, right." Ichinose seemed to suddenly remember something important. "Do you still need that camera prop? Shimiya-kun asked me to check. If you don't need it, I can take it back. He said you only have to pay half the Points. So, it looks like... we still came out ahead, huh?" She tilted her head, wearing a smile that was half sly and half embarrassed.

Ayanokoji put the camera in a bag, turned, and handed it to Ichinose. "We probably won't need it. You can take it back." He continued, "Getting half the cost back is a huge help. We'll pay you back the Points as soon as we can."

Ichinose looked a little surprised, but took the device. It felt quite heavy in her hands. "Mm. There's no rush. So what now? Should we wait for Horikita and the others outside the Student Council Office?"

Ayanokoji didn't answer at once. His mind flashed to the moment not long ago when Sakura Airi had fled in a panic, her words filled with tremendous courage and fear: "I'll work up the courage and try my best!" A powerful sense of foreboding seized him. Almost instinctively, he took out his terminal and tapped through a few screens. A location marker representing Sakura was moving, and its position... was rather secluded.

"I just remembered something urgent. I have to go!" Ayanokoji blurted out. Before Ichinose could respond, he spun around and raced toward a secluded area outside the School Building!

"Huh?! Ayanokoji-kun?" Ichinose was completely caught off guard. She was holding the heavy camera, but when she saw how urgently Ayanokoji had taken off, a sense of dread rose in her as well. Without a second thought, she carefully set the camera beside the wall and immediately ran after him. "Wait for me! Ayanokoji-kun! What's going on?"

Ayanokoji ran fast, and Ichinose struggled to keep up. They dashed out of the School Building, crossed the courtyard, and headed toward a landscaped area behind the Old School Building, surrounded by tall trees and rarely visited. Ayanokoji kept his eyes fixed on his terminal as he ran. Sakura's signal was just ahead.

No, he didn't need the terminal anymore.

A shrill female voice, choked with tears and filled with utter fear and despair, came clearly from behind the thick bushes ahead:

"Please stop contacting me...! I'm begging you... Leave me alone!"

"Airi-chan... Don't say that... I just like you so much..." A low, oily male voice answered, its obsession deeply unsettling.

As the two hurried closer, the frightened pleas and nauseatingly persistent voice grew clearer and closer.

"Don't... Don't come any closer! Ah—!"

"Don't be afraid. Let me get a good look at you..."

Suddenly!

"Yaaahhh—!!!" A girl's scream, filled with sheer terror, erupted. Almost at the same time—

BAM—!!!

A tremendous impact rang out, as if something heavy had slammed into the ground or a wall. It made their hearts shudder.

"It's Sakura-kun!" Ichinose cried out, her face turning deathly pale.

Ayanokoji also sped up and charged through the last stretch of bushes blocking his view. Ichinose followed close behind, her heart pounding in her throat.

The sight before them brought them to an abrupt halt, their pupils contracting.

Sakura Airi sat collapsed on the ground, her back against a cold brick wall, her whole body trembling violently. Her pink hair lay in disarray against her pale, tear-streaked face, smeared with dirt. Her clear eyes were wide open, filled with boundless fear and the dazed confusion of someone who had just escaped danger. Her School Bag had fallen beside her. More horrifying still, a great many letters lay scattered around her like snowflakes. Their envelopes bore twisted heart stickers, and the handwriting was strange and frantic.

In front of Sakura Airi, a middle-aged man in a rumpled old suit, with greasy hair and a sleazy, disheveled face, lay twisted on the ground. Shimiya Kuki had wrenched one of his arms behind his back at a professional, merciless angle. With his other hand, he pinned the man's head down, pressing his face hard against the cold ground. All the man could do was make pained, breathy sounds and struggle in vain.

Shimiya's head was slightly bowed, his bangs obscuring part of his eyes. His expression was impossible to read. He maintained a standard, oppressive restraint, his movements clean and precise, without wasting the slightest effort. A coldness radiated from him, utterly unlike the indifference he showed in the classroom.

He raised his eyes slightly to look at Ayanokoji and Ichinose as they rushed toward him. His gaze was calm and unreadable. Beneath him, the man who had just tried to lunge at Sakura was now unable to move, like a lump of mud.

Time seemed to freeze in that moment. Only Sakura Airi's restrained, broken sobs, the man's pained groans, and the rustle of wind through the leaves echoed in the deathly quiet. The sudden arrival of Ayanokoji and Ichinose did nothing to break the cold, utterly controlled space Shimiya Kuki had created.