“Is Ayanokōji good at other sports besides fighting? He was pretty fast on his feet.”
“Who knows? I’m not really sure about that. At the time of enrollment, I didn’t have any major doubts, but thinking back on how he deliberately avoided getting high scores on written exams, it’s entirely possible that he also held back in sports he’s good at.”
“Then even if we found out he was in a club in middle school, it’s possible he was just holding back there too.”
“…Yes. If he had truly outstanding talent in some particular sport, then whether it was inside or outside the prefecture, there should at least be some rumor floating around about him…”
“I just tried searching for Ayanokōji-kun’s name, but nothing came up. I thought his last name was unique enough to catch something, but I couldn’t find any trace of records from his elementary or middle school days. Just unrelated celebrities or politicians.”
Kushida-san said this while scrolling through her phone.
Until he entered high school, he wasn’t the kind of student who would appear on the internet—for better or worse.
Even though it could be considered a lead, it certainly wasn’t enough to call it progress. Someone who holds a clue connecting to Ayanokōji-kun…
“That guy seemed like he knew something,” Ibuki muttered, as if recalling something. Almost at the same moment, I too remembered the person she referred to as that guy.
“What was his name again… um, the guy a year below us…”
“Ah, right. Yagami Takuya-kun.”
“Yeah, Yagami. He was pretty intense, or rather, kind of dangerous. He went wild and caused a lot of chaos. I heard he beat up Komiya and the others on that deserted island. Didn’t he also shout something about Ayanokōji?”
While Ibuki and I were recalling memories about Yagami-kun, Kushida, who had been quietly listening until now, stiffened at the mention of that name.
In the student council room, with Nagumo-senpai, Ryūen-kun, and the teachers pressing him, Yagami-kun was expelled as the perpetrator of the assault incident that took place on the deserted island.
However, back then, there was a moment when I suspected someone else might have been pulling the strings behind the scenes. I had this vague feeling that everything might’ve been orchestrated by Ayanokōji-kun himself.
There was no proof, and it was nothing more than intuition—but now, that old suspicion was beginning to resurface.
“Amasawa also showed up at the end. And those strange adults barged in too.” “That’s right… They claimed to be associated with both Yagami-kun and Amasawa-san.”
“I think so too. My memory has faded quite a bit, but I definitely remember hearing that.”
Yagami-kun and the others tried to get Ayanokōji-kun expelled. And it’s believed that Ayanokōji-kun lured Yagami-kun out by setting a trap using a letter…
What’s certain is that Yagami-kun and Amasawa-san were connected. But whether there was any connection with Ayanokōji-kun remains uncertain for now.
“Yagami, Amasawa, and Ayanokōji—could they have gone to the same middle school, or been acquaintances from way back? I’d say that’s more than a plausible possibility. For now, why not try searching for Yagami and Amasawa too?”
“Unfortunately, nothing came up. I just tried.” Kushida-san had apparently already started searching and turned her phone screen to show the results.
At that moment, something I had completely forgotten until now suddenly came back to me.
“Wait. Come to think of it—Yagami-kun went to the same middle school as me.”
“Huh? Seriously? Then doesn’t that mean he had nothing to do with Ayanokōji? Why didn’t you remember that sooner?”
“I couldn’t help it, could I? I didn’t even know him back in middle school. But Kushida-san is different.” Until now, Kushida-san had been silently listening, but she quietly set her phone down on the table.
“Kushida-san, you went to the same middle school as me—and you did know Yagami-kun. Isn’t that right?”
“Then this is on Kushida! Just spill it already!”
“Yagami Takuya… huh.”
After quietly listening, Kushida-san continued.
“Well, since Ayanokōji-kun transferred out, there’s no point in hiding it anymore, so I’ll tell you—but Yagami-kun and I aren’t from the same middle school.”
“…Eh?”
“What? What do you mean? This is getting really confusing.”
Ibuki-san was clearly confused. I felt the same way.
Right after the new first-years had enrolled last year, I distinctly remembered Yagami-kun coming to the second-year classroom and having a conversation that implied the two of them had gone to the same middle school.
There had never been any reason to doubt that, and I had completely believed it without question. But now, that entire foundation had suddenly crumbled.
And then Kushida-san explained to us why she had said that.
There were students from her middle school who knew her true nature. Although she had no memory of a junior student named Yagami Takuya, he clearly acted as if he knew her.
Fearing what might happen if she denied knowing him and he exposed her past, she decided to lie and go along with the idea that they were from the same middle school—for the time being. She did it to try to gauge just how much Yagami-kun really knew.
And that decision led to the worst outcome. Yagami-kun hadn’t even gone to the same middle school as her, yet he still knew the details of her past—and in exchange for not exposing it, he demanded all sorts of cooperation from her.
Apparently, Amasawa-san was also involved in the matter.
Bright Red
Part 2 of the conversation
“Is Ayanokōji good at other sports besides fighting? He was pretty fast on his feet.”
“Who knows? I’m not really sure about that. At the time of enrollment, I didn’t have any major doubts, but thinking back on how he deliberately avoided getting high scores on written exams, it’s entirely possible that he also held back in sports he’s good at.”
“Then even if we found out he was in a club in middle school, it’s possible he was just holding back there too.”
“…Yes. If he had truly outstanding talent in some particular sport, then whether it was inside or outside the prefecture, there should at least be some rumor floating around about him…”
“I just tried searching for Ayanokōji-kun’s name, but nothing came up. I thought his last name was unique enough to catch something, but I couldn’t find any trace of records from his elementary or middle school days. Just unrelated celebrities or politicians.”
Kushida-san said this while scrolling through her phone.
Until he entered high school, he wasn’t the kind of student who would appear on the internet—for better or worse.
Even though it could be considered a lead, it certainly wasn’t enough to call it progress.
Someone who holds a clue connecting to Ayanokōji-kun…
“That guy seemed like he knew something,”
Ibuki muttered, as if recalling something.
Almost at the same moment, I too remembered the person she referred to as that guy.
“What was his name again… um, the guy a year below us…”
“Ah, right. Yagami Takuya-kun.”
“Yeah, Yagami. He was pretty intense, or rather, kind of dangerous. He went wild and caused a lot of chaos. I heard he beat up Komiya and the others on that deserted island. Didn’t he also shout something about Ayanokōji?”
While Ibuki and I were recalling memories about Yagami-kun, Kushida, who had been quietly listening until now, stiffened at the mention of that name.
In the student council room, with Nagumo-senpai, Ryūen-kun, and the teachers pressing him, Yagami-kun was expelled as the perpetrator of the assault incident that took place on the deserted island.
However, back then, there was a moment when I suspected someone else might have been pulling the strings behind the scenes.
I had this vague feeling that everything might’ve been orchestrated by Ayanokōji-kun himself.
There was no proof, and it was nothing more than intuition—but now, that old suspicion was beginning to resurface.
“Amasawa also showed up at the end. And those strange adults barged in too.”
“That’s right… They claimed to be associated with both Yagami-kun and Amasawa-san.”
“I think so too. My memory has faded quite a bit, but I definitely remember hearing that.”
Yagami-kun and the others tried to get Ayanokōji-kun expelled.
And it’s believed that Ayanokōji-kun lured Yagami-kun out by setting a trap using a letter…
What’s certain is that Yagami-kun and Amasawa-san were connected.
But whether there was any connection with Ayanokōji-kun remains uncertain for now.
“Yagami, Amasawa, and Ayanokōji—could they have gone to the same middle school, or been acquaintances from way back? I’d say that’s more than a plausible possibility. For now, why not try searching for Yagami and Amasawa too?”
“Unfortunately, nothing came up. I just tried.”
Kushida-san had apparently already started searching and turned her phone screen to show the results.
At that moment, something I had completely forgotten until now suddenly came back to me.
“Wait. Come to think of it—Yagami-kun went to the same middle school as me.”
“Huh? Seriously? Then doesn’t that mean he had nothing to do with Ayanokōji? Why didn’t you remember that sooner?”
“I couldn’t help it, could I? I didn’t even know him back in middle school. But Kushida-san is different.”
Until now, Kushida-san had been silently listening, but she quietly set her phone down on the table.
“Kushida-san, you went to the same middle school as me—and you did know Yagami-kun. Isn’t that right?”
“Then this is on Kushida! Just spill it already!”
“Yagami Takuya… huh.”
After quietly listening, Kushida-san continued.
“Well, since Ayanokōji-kun transferred out, there’s no point in hiding it anymore, so I’ll tell you—but Yagami-kun and I aren’t from the same middle school.”
“…Eh?”
“What? What do you mean? This is getting really confusing.”
Ibuki-san was clearly confused. I felt the same way.
Right after the new first-years had enrolled last year, I distinctly remembered Yagami-kun coming to the second-year classroom and having a conversation that implied the two of them had gone to the same middle school.
There had never been any reason to doubt that, and I had completely believed it without question.
But now, that entire foundation had suddenly crumbled.
And then Kushida-san explained to us why she had said that.
There were students from her middle school who knew her true nature. Although she had no memory of a junior student named Yagami Takuya, he clearly acted as if he knew her.
Fearing what might happen if she denied knowing him and he exposed her past, she decided to lie and go along with the idea that they were from the same middle school—for the time being. She did it to try to gauge just how much Yagami-kun really knew.
And that decision led to the worst outcome.
Yagami-kun hadn’t even gone to the same middle school as her, yet he still knew the details of her past—and in exchange for not exposing it, he demanded all sorts of cooperation from her.
Apparently, Amasawa-san was also involved in the matter.
1 month ago | [YT] | 145