Shuichi's impact statement was only four pages long.
It did not say he forgave them.
Nor did it say he would never forgive them.
The first page covered the day of the attack on Kiriya.
His father had fallen behind the house.
The medicinal herbs had been carried away.
Three sacks of grain the family had set aside for winter were missing.
He remembered Iwahashi smashing the wooden lock at the front entrance, and he also remembered the person who had actually wielded Gray Blade leaving from the back.
The two events had not been written as one.
The second page covered the aftermath of the attack.
His father could no longer stand unaided.
The family spent half its time providing care, and the other half proving why they needed that care.
Every time they moved, someone demanded another explanation of how the injury had happened.
Failing to find the person who had wielded the blade did not make a single wound disappear.
The third page covered the list.
Shuichi did not know whether he and his father really were in that sealed bag.
But ever since he had seen the words "related, living together, pending observation," he had begun to question every stranger's gaze from those years.
That impact had already occurred.
Even if it was later proven that the names on the list were not theirs, that could not turn today's fear into something that had never existed.
The last page contained only three requests.
Do not arrange meetings between him and Iwahashi or Kuriyama.
Notify him through written channels of any new evidence concerning him and his father.
Do not ask him to judge whether anyone had repented.
Before the hearing began, the hearing officer confirmed each point.
"You aren't requesting a public apology?"
"No."
"You won't