Manabe Shiho

As the cross-class group task entered its second week, the atmosphere in Class D began to grow subtle.

It wasn't the kind of tension that was obvious. On the surface, Sudo still horsed around with Kanji Ike in the back of the classroom every day, the girls still clustered around Karuizawa, and Kushida Kikyo still smiled at everyone. But Kanzaki Toru noticed some extremely subtle changes. Sakura Airi was going to the restroom more often than usual, and every time she came back, she kept her head down and walked faster, her cap brim pulled lower. She hadn't said anything to him, but she'd barely touched her lunch for two days straight.

During break, he deliberately took a detour past the floor where Class C's classroom was. Late-spring sunlight flooded the hallway. A few girls from Class C were chatting by the windowsill. One of them, a girl with a high ponytail and a pair of brightly colored earrings, was speaking loudly. "Someone like her got assigned to a cross-class group? It's such a pain being in a group with her. She can't do anything, and she can barely even speak clearly."

The girls beside her laughed along. Kanzaki Toru didn't break stride. He simply passed them with an impassive expression. From the corner of his eye, he memorized the girl's face: high ponytail, brightly colored earrings, a habit of twirling the ends of her hair while she spoke, and a uniform skirt that was a little shorter than everyone else's. Her voice had grown distorted as it bounced off the hallway windows, but in his mind, the replay grew clearer and clearer.

He knew there was someone named Manabe Shiho in Sakura's group, but he needed to confirm that she was the girl he'd just heard.

After school, he found Shiina Hiyori at the Library's returns counter.

She was shelving a stack of returned books by their numbers, her light chestnut hair slipping over her shoulder as she bent down. When she saw him approach, she merely looked up, then continued sticking labels onto the spines.

"Do you know Manabe Shiho?" he asked.

Shiina's hand paused for a beat, then she pushed the last book into the shelf. "She's in Class C. She's not one of Ryuen's people, but she's sharp-tongued." She turned to face him, her calm, light brown eyes fixed on Kanzaki Toru. "Is she in Sakura's group?"

"Probably."

"Then you should be careful. She's not the type to get physical, but she's very good at using words to put pressure on people."

"What kind of things does she say?"

"She finds out what matters most to the other person, then keeps using it to needle her. Not once or twice, but over and over—until the other person breaks." Shiina's tone was matter-of-fact, without the slightest exaggeration, as though she were recounting something that had already happened. "Last term, she drove a girl to quit her club. She probably used a similar approach."

Kanzaki Toru fell silent for a moment. Sunlight from the hallway fell through the blinds in long, narrow stripes across Shiina's face, shifting between light and shadow.

"Is there a way to get the internal communications from Sakura's cross-class group?"

"The group uses the school's shared group-terminal logs for communication. The Library doesn't have the access to retrieve them directly." After saying this, Shiina took a mint from her pocket and set it on the shelf beside him. "But if all you want is to find out what Sakura has been dealing with in the group lately, there's a more direct way."

"What?"

"Ask her."

Kanzaki Toru picked up the mint. The wrapper caught the light between his fingers. "You're telling me what to do."

"I'm reminding you." Shiina sat back down at the sorting table and pulled over the next stack of books, her tone returning to its usual evenness. "You're considerate toward other people, but sometimes you forget the simplest approach. Sakura isn't fragile. You don't need to shield her from everything. You just need to listen carefully when she's ready to speak."

He stood where he was, unwrapped the mint, and put it in his mouth. A cool taste spread across his tongue, touched with a hint of sweetness. Shiina said nothing more and went back to sorting the books, as if that reminder had been nothing more than an offhand remark. But she still nudged a blank library card toward him. On the back, she'd written a line in tiny pencil marks: "Yamauchi is her lackey. The only member of a club in Class C to quit last year because of illness was Kobayashi."

After leaving the Library, he found Sakura on the athletic field.

She was sitting on a bench by the field, her camera resting on her lap. The afternoon sun was intense, and the lens filtered some of the light before it reached her violet eyes. She wasn't taking pictures; she was simply holding the camera on her knees, her hands lightly resting on the lens. She looked up at him but said nothing. Still, she didn't lower her head and look away as she used to.

He sat down at the other end of the bench. "I finished the spring rolls. Next time you make them, you can add a little more shrimp."

Sakura was silent for a while. "...Okay." Her voice was very soft, but she answered. Then she put her camera in her bag and stood up. "See you tomorrow, Kanzaki."

"See you tomorrow."

He watched her walk toward the dorms. She wasn't walking quickly, and her cap brim was still pulled low. But when she reached the corner of the field, she stopped and glanced back at him. From several dozen meters away, he couldn't make out her expression. Then she continued on her way.

Kanzaki Toru didn't follow her. Shiina was right; he couldn't shield her from everything. But that one glance back told him something—she knew he was looking into it. She was waiting until she was ready to speak.

The next day, during lunch break, in Class D's classroom.

Sakura Airi sat alone in a corner, a notebook spread out before her. Her pencil slowly sketched lines onto the paper—not taking notes, but drawing a quick sketch. Kanzaki Toru glanced at it. She had drawn a dead branch on the cherry tree by the field. Her strokes were stronger than before, and she had repeatedly darkened the shaded areas with crosshatching, as if pressing some emotion into the graphite. He didn't disturb her.

After school, at the back of the classroom.

Kanzaki Toru found Sakura in tears. She was leaning over her desk, her shoulders trembling slightly, but she made no sound. Her hat was off to one side, and her red, thick-framed glasses had been pushed up onto her forehead. A girl was standing beside her seat—not Manabe from Class C, but someone from Class D. One of Karuizawa Kei's lackeys, whose surname seemed to be Mori. She was also the one Karuizawa had sent to greet Sakura a few times before.

Mori held a tissue and bent over slightly, doing her best to keep her voice gentle. "Um... Sakura, do you want to go to the infirmary first? Or should I get Kushida?"

Sakura shook her head slightly, clutching the hem of her uniform skirt, unable to speak. Her lips were moving, but no sound came out—not because she didn't want to speak, but because she couldn't. Kanzaki Toru stood at the back door, watching Mori's expression. There was no hint of amusement on her face. She was simply flustered, unsure how to help.

Just as he was about to go in, footsteps sounded in the hallway. Karuizawa turned the corner from the vending machines, a can of red bean soup in her hand. When she saw something was wrong at the back door, she quickened her pace. As she approached, she took in Sakura's condition, Mori's position, and the fact that Kanzaki Toru was standing at the entrance without going in. She made her judgment in just two seconds.

"Mori, go fill Sakura's water bottle with warm water." She lowered her voice, pushed open the door, and walked over to Sakura's seat. Setting the red bean soup on the corner of the desk, she said, "It's hot. You don't have to drink it. Just leave it here for now."

Then she looked up. Over Sakura's hunched back, she met Kanzaki Toru's eyes at the door for a second.

That look wasn't a condescending order. It was an exchange of information—she had the situation in the classroom under control, and now he just needed to find out what had happened outside it. Kanzaki Toru gave a small nod and turned toward the stairwell.

He took his time. On the hallway leading to Class C, he deliberately passed by the spot where Manabe Shiho and her lackeys were gathered. Yamauchi stood beside Manabe, and the light flashed off her earring before his eyes. They seemed to have just returned from the store and were still carrying on with some conversation, their laughter high and shrill.

"She can't even speak clearly, so why does she come to school? She's really dragging the whole group down," one of the girls giggled. "It's such a pain being in a group with her. She can't do anything."

Manabe Shiho twirled the ends of her hair and added, "People like that don't last long at school. Just wait and see."

Kanzaki Toru didn't meet them face-to-face. He simply turned quietly into the stairwell at the other end of the hallway, pressing those voices and the glaring reflection into the back of his mind. Then, in front of the vending machine on the next floor down, he sent a brief written report to the encrypted contact list he shared with Horikita.

This time, Sakura hadn't hidden her pain in her lunchbox. She had finally broken down at her desk—and, by chance, one of their own had noticed first. That was the only thing worth being grateful for in all of this.

What he needed to do next was simple: turn the vague description of "verbal bullying" into concrete evidence that could be submitted to the Academic Affairs Office. But before that, he needed Sakura to talk to him—not just a few words, but everything she had to say.