"'Every unfavorable situation in this world is caused by the people involved lacking ability...' Whoa, Yamauchi, don't you think this sounds a lot like the situation we're in now?"
In the hallway after school, Ike and Yamauchi walked side by side, chatting.
The former had a manga in his hand. It seemed to be at its most exciting part, and he couldn't help asking his companion about it.
Even though Hirata had said that during morning study, the two of them were still being more or less isolated by their classmates.
There was no helping it. They'd already earned the nickname "the idiot trio."
Whether they themselves had noticed was another matter.
"Aw, I can turn things around the moment I show what I'm really capable of. Yeah, yeah, just you wait and see." Haruki Yamauchi looked completely at ease, as if he really were hiding his true abilities.
Toru Hasegawa passed nearby without saying much.
Kanji Ike noticed him, though. "Hey, isn't that Hasegawa? Heh, have you got a girlfriend yet?"
That was always what he cared about most.
"You can tell from the fact that I'm alone right now, can't you?"
When someone greeted him, he had to respond. That was the most basic courtesy.
"Tell me when you get a girlfriend." Kanji Ike draped an arm over Toru Hasegawa's shoulder. "You weren't the Class A student who told us the inside scoop today, were you?"
"What inside scoop?" Toru Hasegawa asked, pretending to be confused.
Kanji Ike immediately explained. "That the first month of school was actually an evaluation by the staff. What, you're in Class A—don't tell me you didn't know?"
He just said it out loud? Did he think this was some kind of common knowledge?
"Oh, you mean that. It's more or less like that. But for me, it was just a matter of doing what was obviously expected, as a matter of course." Toru Hasegawa nodded, then continued, "In the future, you'd better not tell students from other classes about this kind of thing."
"What?" Kanji Ike didn't quite understand. Haruki Yamauchi quietly pricked up his ears beside him.
Toru Hasegawa thought for a moment. "No, never mind. You'll find out the answer at the beginning of next month."
"Why not just tell us now?" Kanji Ike still didn't get it. He scratched his head, looking utterly baffled.
"What I mean is..." Toru Hasegawa's gaze passed over their faces. "You need to learn to think for yourselves. Anyway, I have something to do, so I'll leave you to it."
With that, he walked away without a moment's hesitation.
"Did you understand what Hasegawa just said? And he sounded so full of himself, too~" Kanji Ike asked Haruki Yamauchi.
Haruki Yamauchi wore an expression that suggested he had everything figured out. "I understood perfectly. He told you to think more, Ike. You're just too stupid."
"Isn't that basically saying nothing?"
The two of them started fooling around again, not giving the matter another thought.
"...Why... tell them... all that..."
In the Special Building, where people rarely went, Toru Hasegawa met Airi Sakura around a corner.
She was leaning against the wall. Toru Hasegawa saw her gaze meet his for an instant before she lowered her head.
"People can't live all by themselves. You should understand that better than anyone, right?"
The fact that she'd been able to exchange contact information with him properly at the beginning was proof enough.
"Mm..."
The girl's faint voice came, and she answered Toru Hasegawa properly.
"Everyone wears a mask of some kind... Sorry, that must've sounded strange, saying that out of nowhere."
"No... Eek!" Airi Sakura secretly raised her head to glance at Toru Hasegawa, only to meet his gaze. She quickly lowered her head again.
The sun was setting, and the last glow of dusk streamed through the windows into the room.
"I guess it's time I tried to change, too..." Toru Hasegawa said, as if talking to himself, or perhaps to Airi Sakura. "This school has given me a pretty good feeling. Let's do our best."
At the very least, he had to get past the wall called morality.
Without answering Airi Sakura's question, Toru Hasegawa said that and prepared to leave.
"Um..." Airi Sakura called out to him.
"I can't answer the question you wanted to ask."
"That's not what I wanted to ask." Airi Sakura gathered her courage. "Can I really... be accepted?"
"I don't know. Whether it's fake or genuine, the one thing we can be sure of is that taking action creates variables. If you want to pursue change, then take action, for better or worse."
Toru Hasegawa looked back at Airi Sakura, though he wasn't really looking at her. He was looking at something only he could see.
97...?
Still a little short.
Where exactly was the gap?
At any rate, he was getting close.
Back in his dorm, Toru Hasegawa turned on the desktop computer that came with every room and connected to the internet.
He opened the blog page he'd found the previous night and read through it again from start to finish.
"The person leaving these comments really is strange."
The comments had started about a week ago—
[Do you believe in fate? I do. From now on, we'll be together forever.]
After that came harassing comments every day, all posted by the same ID.
If Airi Sakura updated her blog every day, she was sure to see them.
"I'd better look into it..."
Toru Hasegawa took out his phone and contacted Manabu Horikita.
"Good evening, President Horikita."
"So you're the type to contact me on your own? Nagumo didn't do anything to you yesterday, did he?"
"You didn't intervene at the time, but now you're concerned?" Toru Hasegawa chuckled.
"You should understand why. Let's get straight to the point."
"Fine. I wanted to ask: the Student Council is supposed to act as a bridge between the school and the students, right?"
"That's right. Before anything is submitted to the school, the Student Council steps in to resolve it first. Students' requests are generally passed on to the school through us, too."
Although they weren't speaking face-to-face, Toru Hasegawa could already picture Manabu Horikita's stern expression on the other end of the phone.
"Then is it also within the Student Council's jurisdiction when a school employee harasses a female student?"
"...What are you trying to say?" Manabu Horikita said after a brief silence. This wasn't something to joke about.
"I mean exactly what I said. Depending on the circumstances, this could lead to consequences that can't be undone. As a member of the Student Council, I shouldn't have the option of sitting by and doing nothing, should I?"
"I'll wait for you behind the dorms."
Manabu Horikita seemed to take the matter very seriously.
Toru Hasegawa saved the page he'd just opened on his phone and left the dorm.
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