Shuichi was not taken back to the classroom.
The review team moved him to an interview room without a one-way observation window.
The door could be opened from inside.
Iwahashi remained in the original classroom, where another team questioned him.
The two did not meet.
The reviewer first told Shuichi three things.
He could leave right now.
He could simply confirm whether he had identified the wrong person, without discussing the details of that year.
Or he could speak later, accompanied by someone of his own choosing.
Shuichi chose the third option.
He asked the female teacher responsible for arranging courses to sit by the door, then pushed a cup of water to the corner of the table without drinking it.
"He stood in the same place as he did that day."
Shuichi spoke.
"Always at the doorway. Never going in first."
The old Kiritani Settlement case was quickly retrieved from the border archive.
The file contained only twenty-seven pages.
There had been seven people in the raiding party.
Four had been identified.
Two had died in subsequent clashes.
One had never been identified.
Iwahashi had been convicted of unlawful entry, helping transport looted supplies, and concealing his accomplices.
The original judgment stated that he had not been proven to have directly injured anyone.
Not having been proven to do so did not mean no one in the settlement had been injured because of that group.
Shuichi's father's name appeared in a separate medical record.
A penetrating wound to the left leg.
A slash wound to the side of the waist.
Damage to the chakra pathways.
Unable to stand unaided after the injuries.
The medical record had not been included in the materials for Iwahashi's judgment at the time, because the treatment station could only confirm that the injuries had