The three people in front of me didn't answer my question. Instead, they struggled to support one another as they got to their feet, then wiped the sticky mixture of blood and sweat from their faces.
"Damn it... You're not a student from Class B, are you?"
"You know me?" I tilted my head and feigned confusion.
"Tch. This is why I can't stand you disgusting Class B people. Take my advice and stop sticking your nose where it doesn't belong!"
With that, the three of them staggered away before my eyes.
They'd taken my kindness for weakness, so I had no kindness left to give... Ah, right. After all—
I'd never thought of myself as a good person.
"If we're investigating the scene, wouldn't Kanzaki or Shibata be better choices? Why insist on bringing a useless figure like me along?"
"Haha, are you saying you're only good for decoration, like a vase, Raku? You don't have to put yourself down so much."
"That's just how it is."
"Not at all. Shibata has soccer club, and Kanzaki has some personal business to take care of. Chihiro and the others have activities, too. So you were the only one I could bring along, Raku."
"That makes me sound like I'm just sitting around with nothing to do..."
"Isn't that right? Even after thinking it over, I can't imagine what else you might be busy with. Besides, I heard from Kanzaki that you basically go back and fall straight asleep, without taking part in any activities. I know you're probably in pretty good shape, but you still need to exercise now and then."
I didn't think I'd ever told Kanzaki about that. How did she know...?
Even as my body followed Ichinose toward the scene of the incident, I couldn't help complaining about how casually she ordered me around. This freedom, where I was free but couldn't control what I did, was truly torturous.
I was already feeling tormented, yet my body still moved without hesitation.
Maybe I had a masochistic streak.
"So this is the place, then?"
I glanced around, spotted a sign indicating that we were on the second floor, and corrected Ichinose.
"We need to go up one more floor."
"Oh, it's the third floor?"
"Yeah." I nodded.
"Hehe, I remembered wrong."
That little "hehe" was so cute, it nearly melted my heart.
Just as Ichinose's adorable little sound left me flustered, hurried footsteps rang out from the stairwell. The next moment, someone collided with Ichinose.
"Whoa—!"
I hurriedly caught Ichinose as she fell, then checked the other person's face.
It was the other witness who had been there at the time.
"S-sorry, I didn't mean to. Are you two all right?" The girl steadied herself and quickly apologized.
"Please be careful on the stairs."
"I'm sorry, I was in a hurry... Huh?" When she saw me, her expression froze. Her body, curled up like a hedgehog, stopped trembling, too.
"Please slow down in the stairwell, at least... Are you all right?"
"No, um... It's nothing... I'm really sorry. And also... thank you... I have to go. I'm really sorry about what just happened." With that, she hurried off.
"Just be careful next time..." I said, but was it really okay to let her go just like that?
"Um, Raku..."
"What is it?"
"Could you put me down...?"
"Ah, sorry. It happened so suddenly I didn't have time to react."
No wonder Ichinose had been quiet this whole time.
"I understand. I just didn't expect you to suddenly pick me up... I thought the best I could hope for was to land on the floor."
"That's because you're so light, Ichinose. Good thing I reacted in time."
"I'm light... Anyway, do you know that girl, Raku?" Ichinose turned her head away, seemingly reluctant to admit it.
"I might have seen her before, but there's no way I know her."
"But her expression looked like she'd run into an old friend she hadn't seen in ages. And did I hear wrong, or did she thank you?"
"Maybe she was thanking me for stopping a disaster. Anyway, I definitely don't know her. I don't even know her name." I immediately distanced myself from her, to keep Ichinose from getting the wrong idea.
"I thought so, too. It's just... Never mind. We should get back to what we came here to do."
"Yeah."
After that brief interruption, we got back on track and headed for the third floor. But when we were only five steps away, we ran into some other students.
This time, they were students I knew very well: Ayanokoji and Horikita, the Student Council president's younger sister.
"Am I really such a sinful man?"
Looking at Ayanokoji in front of me, I couldn't understand why heaven had inflicted such an unpleasant punishment on me.
"Is it really that serious...? All right, actually, I agree it's a pretty big problem."
"...What strange thing are you two talking about?" Horikita looked at Ayanokoji and me in confusion. Ichinose, beside me, wore the same expression.
"It's nothing worth talking about..."
Chapter 24: A Crisis Lurking in the Shadows and the Beginning of Cooperation
Eysenck's theory of personality was proposed by British psychologist H. J. Eysenck. Its main ideas were a hierarchical theory of personality structure and a three-dimensional theory of personality types. He also developed the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ). After collecting a great deal of information about non-cognitive traits, he used factor analysis to identify three mutually orthogonal dimensions, and proposed that they were the three basic factors determining personality. One of these was introversion and extroversion.
The Eysenck Personality Questionnaire described a typical introvert as quiet, unsociable, reluctant to interact with others, conservative, and inclined to keep a certain distance from people, except for close friends.
The causes of introversion could be summed up in two points. The first was life experience, including one's upbringing; the second was personal ability, which also included being overly sensitive.
I singled out introversion not because it was particularly bad. In fact, introverts were better at resisting temptation and enduring solitude, and could devote more energy to introspection, helping them make their plans more thorough.
However, precisely because they thought too much, it was easy to predict their every next move. That made it possible to force them out of their own patterns of thought, turning events confusing and putting them beyond their control.
And so, introverts had no choice but to rely on outside help.
As I'd mentioned before, the Special Building housed a lot of equipment that wasn't used often, which made it a place where people rarely went. It was an ideal location for settling disputes with violence.
However, in this dirty little society filled with modern technology, cameras were everywhere. Nothing could escape the machines' watchful gaze.
Of course, surveillance technology had its own flaws. For example, video footage could never match the human eye's ability to recognize details. The same was true of wide dynamic range, white balance, and anti-flicker functions. Electronic devices also had limited lifespans, needed power, and could be damaged.
Even setting all of that aside, surveillance had a fatal weakness. Cameras could only capture what was happening in the moment. They could do nothing to reveal the truth beyond the frame, the background, the causes of an incident, or the words exchanged in an argument.
Take this incident, for example. The footage could only confirm that Sudo and three students from Class C had come here. It couldn't tell us why they'd come, why a fight had broken out, or how it had unfolded and ended.
Besides, the Special Building wasn't used frequently, so it didn't have as many cameras as the other school buildings.
There were outlets near the ceiling, but there was no sign that they'd been used.
The hallway had no obstructions. If there were cameras, it would be easy to learn what had happened from beginning to end.
If you were going to monitor the place, why not cover everything?
If there were surveillance footage, there'd be no need to make the question of who struck first an issue in this dispute. But even if we found out who had thrown the first punch, punishment would still follow. If the Class C students insisted that the other side had insulted them, at least both sides would end up losing. That would put Class C at a disadvantage, but they'd still have achieved their goal of winning.
The only way to truly resolve this dispute was to get the Class C students to withdraw their complaint or twist the facts and secure an outright victory. The former was troublesome, but still several times easier than the latter.
"If you're going to talk about something boring between you boys, don't waste our time."
"Please wait."
Just as Horikita was about to turn away, Ichinose suddenly called after them. It seemed our Class B would have to get involved in this mess after all.
"Is there something else you want?"
"I'm sorry for calling out to you so suddenly. Could you spare us a little time? If you're on your way to a sweet date, we'll leave right away."
"That's not the case," Horikita immediately denied.
"Ahaha, I thought so. This place is much too hot for a date... Actually, the student beside me witnessed the incident. I've already heard from him about your dispute with Class C."
"...You seem to have told outsiders a lot of information," Horikita said, then turned and questioned Ayanokoji.
"Kushida told her."
"Couldn't you have stopped her?"
"Actually, I don't see what's wrong with telling people about it. Or, to put it another way, telling them what really happened would help them understand the situation better."
"You really aren't afraid of trouble..." Horikita said, giving Ayanokoji a vicious glare.
She and Ichinose were complete opposites.
"Are you here to investigate the incident?"
"We just happened to wander over here."
"You're not dating, but you can still walk around together like that?"
"That's none of your business. If all you're interested in is meaningless small talk, then we'll be on our way." Horikita turned around as if to leave.
"Wait. We came here for the same reason you did. I want to find out the truth, too."
After Ichinose said that, both sides fell silent.
Horikita had stopped because Ichinose called out to her, but the pressure radiating from her back never let up.
"Um... Is it wrong to take an interest in another class? I just want to find out what really happened."
"I'm not interested in indulging someone else's curiosity."
She'd coldly turned us down.
Well, Horikita was a beautiful girl, after all. And since she was so beautiful, there was nothing wrong with her status, either.
"But you need help, too, don't you? Given the situation, isn't Class D at a huge disadvantage? One side must be lying about this violent incident. If your side is telling the truth, wouldn't it be awful to let Class C get away with it? It would be unfair, too."
"Absolute fairness doesn't exist in this society."
That was true. If absolute fairness really existed, humanity would have already reached its peak, creating a world without competition or progress.
Unfortunately, humanity was still far from such a place, and was even heading off course.
"Then we should still do what we can to oppose injustice. If the side telling lies wins, it'll lead to serious problems. Besides, I know what happened, so I can't just stand by and do nothing."
"Then how can you prove that you're helping us without ulterior motives? Our classes are on opposite sides, after all. Who knows if Class B has secretly allied with Class C?"
"That's impossible. Class C is the main class we're wary of. You might think what I'm doing is hypocritical. I don't think I'm taking on such a heavy burden, but we do have people we need to protect."
"Class B has also been harassed by Class C several times, and Raku is caught up in this dispute. He may not be one of the main people involved, but he's already been threatened by Class C students. If we just stand by, we'll only encourage them to cause even more trouble."
"So no matter how we look at it, we have to take action."
"...Is this the witness from Class B?" After hearing Ichinose's speech, Horikita reluctantly turned around and looked me over.
"Yeah. I gave you the details yesterday."
"...What do you think?"
"That's a rare thing to hear. You're actually asking for my opinion. I shouldn't be able to help much, should I?"
"Just answer."
"Well, I think working with the other side is a good idea..."
"Right? You're looking for witnesses, too, aren't you? The more people we have, the better, right?"
"More people doesn't necessarily help us. Besides, we've already found the other witness."
"Ahaha, then we can help look for other clues."
"I don't think it's a bad suggestion," Ayanokoji said, trying to persuade Horikita, who was still thinking it over.
"You and Raku seem to know each other quite well. You trust them that much?"
Before you continue