"Eye-witnesses?"
"Yes... We were tasked to gather eye-witnesses regarding an event."
Back on the comfy two chairs in front of the teacher who admittedly deplored to be used, I and Shizuku started to address the situation.
I have no problems doing all the talk myself, but Shizuku's help was starting to feel great, and as such, she immediately followed me up.
"Last month, near the festival's end, one of our classmates, Yulia, committed suicide..."
She began her sentence with little to no emotion to it, but as it progressed over time, it became heavier with emotion. That is skillful. Traces of guilt and sadness that could not be witnessed near the beginning grid-down all the way to the end masterfully. This is helpful on her part because it helps us to portray our point.
"I've heard about the incident. I am truly sorry for the tragedy."
"Really, you've heard...?"
Naturally, my question implied something else, which the teacher went ahead and thankfully say.
"Yes. It spread like wildfire; the rumor. There are many theories about who---"
"Who?!"
Perhaps I got too excited, but I immediately broke my previous sad posture and entered an ecstatic emotional state.
Upon seeing this, the teacher got slightly confused, but Shizuku said words that would clear that confusion.
"I'm sorry, she's not well right now, but what's important is to know whether there are people who know about the event."
I shut my own mouth and looked down on the ground, trying to calm my mood down. Though tasking.
"I see... Well, who has tasked you with the task of gathering eye-witnesses?"
Firstly, he needed to make sure that we weren't here on an egotistical whim. Therefore, he had to certify our source.
Shizuku answered swiftly without trails of hesitation behind her speech.
"Our teacher, Yuka. As you can see in the card, she was the one who has signed the card."
Nicely done of her to not exhibit our lack of knowledge. In the first place, we didn't know that we needed such cards to enter blocks. As I thought, this school's system is far from normal. Strange as it may sound, our presence, us criminals, here, might not be far from something staged.
"Oh, Yuka-sensei, huh? I know her and I've seen her before. Though we are not acquainted I am aware that she is the teacher of the only class that resides in block F..."
His skepticism grew stronger as soon as he ended his sentence. This caused my paranoia to bombard, but Shizuku persisted.
"It seems that you are aware of the rumor that has been spread about us... How we are all criminals..."
Wait, is she seriously gonna go with this strategy? There's no evidence that they don't know for sure.
"It's not a rumor, is it?"
Anxious, I attempted to speak, but I couldn't due to the fact that I wanted to see how Shizuku would lead this. If the teacher was convinced that we were truly criminals, we had to know why he was convinced in the first place.
"It's half-half. Let me be blunt for a second. Our class contains criminals, but not all of us."
"What?"
"It's true. This has ruined our reputation and made the principal enforce a rule where we couldn't interact with other students. It was a very revolting rule if I'm honest. There is no greater disrespect in being taken my own freedom of speech. Wouldn't you agree, Yukishiro?"
So that's her aim...
I looked up now and spoke with sour confidence.
"Honestly...! Me and Shizuku came from the same middle school and as we got to this school, we were surprised how we were put on F class, which is considered the worst class."
Further skepticism gained a wider dimension in the teacher's face. Perplexity all over the place.
I tossed the ball back to Shizuku.
"It began because the boys from our classroom are violent to the point of causing high-level types of chaotic actions. They would often brawl at the beginning and it got extremely violent..."
I received the ball.
"They are massive perverts who would resort to direct sexual harassment too..."
In my defense, I've been eyed by Tsudo quite a lot.
Ball tossed.
"Through their actions, the girls in our class have been labeled as criminals, or individuals who are of the same label as the boys in our class but..."
Easy catch.
"But that's not true at all! In the first place, the fact that we were placed on the lowest block makes us the perfect target for mockery, and our image is utterly ruined thanks to their malicious actions..."
As I attempted to toss the ball back to Shizuku, the teacher began to uphold a far more serious glare.
Doubt had risen to the surface.
Therefore, he spoke.
"That's not what I've been told."
Well, the main point of this was exactly so it could get to this point.
If we are labeled as criminals, why such is the case? Rumors? Perhaps. Yet, what is the source of such rumors? Or, more accurately said, who is the source?
All things considered, I stiffened my face as if someone had greatly hurt my feelings and asked the important question.
"Well, who told you so...? You know what, nevermind, we don't need to take this from a teacher who said he would help us only to doubt us a second later. Let's go, Shiz--"
Calmly enough, the teacher dispelled my dramatic stance without breaking a sweat by saying the magical words.
"Truth to be told, I'm skeptical about these rumors, because there should be no way for a school to have criminals in the first place. I don't believe the rumors. Even if they come from the almighty principal himself."
I knew it. Our image is being manipulated. As it should stand initially, this program was supposed to simply conduct criminals through their own system that the program had implanted. It made no sense whatsoever as to why the school knew so much about it, since this information should ultimately be confidential, I believe.
Acquiring a sense of information, I retook my seat and allowed Shizuku to take the lead with a sharp trade of miscellaneous glances.
"Thank you for not believing the rumors. However, may I ask why you don't believe it?"
"It's simple. This is a way for the principal to manipulate his own students. By ruining the image of those who are below other students, the students gain a sense of superiority that strives from petty rumors like having criminals in our school. It's a pathetic way of doing things."
"Has this happened before...? From the way you are speaking, it's as if you are speaking from experience. Ah, pardon my intrusion, I just couldn't help but notice..."
Shizuku is amazing at this. She deserves to be rewarded for her current efforts. I will make sure to show compassion towards her later.
What's important to note about Shizuku's way of speech is that it's subjectively affectionate. If she was motionless or utterly monochrome with her words, then they would be too demanding, however, by being significantly emotional with the way she says them, she makes others think that it wasn't her intention to bargain while it was all along.
"Sigh..."
The man adjusted his tie before speaking as if reminiscing something he particularly didn't like.
In addition to that, he retracted his long sleeves from his white shirt.
Without nothing else to motion with, he continued.
"It happens every year. Principal Yamato enforces new rules and changes the structure of how the school works. Sometimes even going to the point of drastically changing the appearance of elements within the school. Surely, you must've noticed how each block isn't the same, even though, in any other school, at least in the majority, each block should be aesthetically the same."
We kept on listening instead of mindlessly interrupting.
I wondered just how much time this person was willing to waste. He did mention earlier that a class representative can take over the teacher, even to the point of taking complete control of the matter that's being taught? It was a vague line, that's for sure.
"All of that is so unnecessary. It goes without saying that such elements are made to increase the gap in abilities within classes. There's no sense of equality and principal Yamato has no qualms about laying down a manipulative network just to widen that gap. That's why I don't believe the rumors that there are criminals in this school. However..."
Unfortunately, we both knew what he was going to say. I think anyone could've predicted this outcome.
It couldn't be avoided.
"I have recently started to increasingly believe that the rumor might've not been as fake as it sounded at first. Surely, you know why I think so, correct?"
There was no point in delaying this, though it could've been done. Alas, I surrendered to the idea of honesty and delivered the cold truth.
"Because our classmate died, right?"
This was the reason. In response to it, the man nodded with a stern glare shrouded in his eyes that pierced the veil of his glasses.
"Not associating the rumor to that event is a fool's idea."
Naturally, if you went to a school where there is a class that is labeled as a classroom full of criminals and suddenly, a suicide takes place and, most importantly, the student who committed suicide was from the class that is supposedly full of criminals, you wouldn't have trouble believing that.
Omega.
Are you USING THIS?! To deny me information?! As I thought, you really do think of me...
"Even then, I have my doubts. Do you know who is behind it?"
Given that he asked the question, I got straight to the core of the point in a flash.
"Actually, we don't. However, we believe that it was orchestrated by someone who was close to her during that event. Me and Shizuku here weren't around her because, as blunt as this is, we weren't friends with Yulia. Nonetheless, the fact remains; she committed suicide on a festival day. Someone, surely, saw the whole thing, or at least where she went and such."
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
"I see. So that's why you need eye-witnesses?"
It seems that he has gotten the point now. Shizuku shortly followed me up, speech-wise.
"That's our task. And it's not only us two that were tasked with this task in specific. All the girls from our class did too. And in order to gather eye-witnesses, pairs were attributed to each block."
"And you two were attributed to this block. Truly troublesome. Yet, do you have some sort of plan to gather eye-witnesses?"
I could've allowed Shizuku to speak here, but I opted not to and feigned helplessness by saying meek words while penetrating the white floor below with my daunting eyes.
"No..."
"Then, I can help you, surely. Other classes that are in charge of different teachers could surely simply deny your request, but I can help you two out. Come with me, if you may."
At last.
"Where are we going...?"
Although the teacher had gotten up from his seat and was marching towards the door, Shizuku asked that question before we could get up.
"Hm? My classroom. I'm sure they won't mind your presence! My students are nicely educated and they are also familiar with the same circumstances as you."
Without a doubt, he was referring to the circumstance of being at the very bottom, not the fact that we are criminals.
Regardless, we had achieved what we wanted.
So, without wasting any time, we followed the teacher and went to the classroom that was on the right side of the entrance of the block, almost fully near it.
As I had thought ahead in time, I immediately noticed that the structure of the classroom contrasted with our classroom's structure immediately. To begin with, our classroom's structure is beyond messy and has wooden chairs and tables; hardly something to be pleased about. Furthermore, there were no wall decorations, which was always something present in the previous schools I have gone to. Our windows' glasses have cracks on them and occasionally, I can spot a spider or two, which makes me want to vomit. Our multi-projector literally looks like it's about to collapse and our teacher's desk PC looks as if it comes from the last decade.
Nothing of that sort could be witnessed here. Instead of having a messy structure, the upper platforms of the ceiling were covered in a cold silver metal supported by almost blinding lights. In our classroom, we simply have two massive colossal horizontal lamps to illuminate the room whenever there is a necessity to do so. The most crucial detail was how this classroom's windows were framed with secondary glass, simply to protect the primary glass. I imagine that it's constantly clean in order to uphold a solid vision for anyone who sees the outside scenery.
Another difference was how instead of there being pairs or rather, tables for two, there was a huge round table that was shaped in a circle in which there were a grand total of 20 students around it. That number alone contrasted ours which was initially 24. We are down to 21 students yet perhaps this class's number of students was simply 20 from the start.
Also, a heater. For some odd reason, our classroom doesn't have something as simple as a heater.
Nothing out of the obvious, but we were assaulted by all the students' glares.
I put on a smile as I walked into the warm classroom and analyzed the number of exact students and read their body language immediately.
9 boys and 11 girls. Unbalanced. Some are mildly perturbed while some are wondering what exactly we are doing here.
We kept our silence. Shizuku in particular was having fun in a daze gobbling all over this superior classroom in terms of aesthetics.
"I'm back."
"Aren't they the ones from before?"
"Cuties, phew."
Two boys in particular, in the north-west direction of the circle-shaped round table, made such comments, which caused the teacher to lose a marvel.
It was fine for them to think like that. I even waved at them and some other students who came across my eyesight. More so, I silently said "Hi", with just my lips and not my voice.
By notable contrast, Shizuku was having trouble looking at all the students.
"No unnecessary comments, please. Izufusa, thank you for your hard work."
"My pleasure. I was just doing the class's representative's job anyways..."
Out of all the students, a particular boy was standing in the middle of the round huge table, on what seemed to be a desk. He laid down the book that he was holding in his hands in the teacher's desk and went back to his seat which was located in the south of the circle.
Despite being the class representative, he looked frustrated and tired. I had imagined that I would meet someone who would take joy in such a particular role, but I was wrong in assuming such.
He upheld his glare for two seconds long with me; his lips adjoined with an unmoving expressionless motion.
Ultimately, in order to eliminate the silence, their teacher went to his desk, seat down, and addressed the situation, while we remained with our backs against a wall.
"Would you two do me the favor of introducing yourselves and explain your situation?"
The wave of penetrating glares returned, every time...
It's so discomforting. I get that they have nowhere else to look, but Jesus Christ, I am not stress-proof.
......
"Hello... My name is Kyoko Yukishiro. You can call me Yukishiro. I am from F class. You might've heard of us."
I allowed their skepticism to grow, as we would soon enough clear it. It's best to give them the truth right now to clean it up.
...Shizuku was supposed to follow me up but she was biting her lips way too much. For some reason, she was all over the place, so I had to step in.
"She is Shizuku! Come on, introduce yourself."
Lightly patting her back, I pushed her forward and she almost tripped, causing me to almost laugh out loud.
On the other hand, I'm surprised that these students are eagerly keeping their mouths shuts as they invade our stress with their glares. Educated yet rude.
"M-My name is Shizuku! Nice to meet you..."
As soon as Shizuku was done with her small introduction, she went back to being with her back against the wall. A small pout came from her.
What exactly does she have to blame me for...
Instantly, by the time Shizuku adjoined her back against the wall, the class's representative, Izufusa, raised his hand abruptly though tall and spoke.
"...Pardon my interruption, but how can two F class students such as yourselves even enter this block in the first place? Isn't that against the rules, sensei?"
Well, he wasn't lying, but their teacher was quick to cut down the misconception of us being here unfairly.
Raising up a golden card that belonged to us, he quickly made Izufusa realize his mistake.
"I see..."
"Well then, how about we all introduce ourselves to Yukishiro and Shizuku here?"
Wait, seriously? What a gigantic waste of time...
"I'll go first! My name is Chiri!"
An energetic girl with a very short bob cut introduced herself despite the inner initial skepticism.
"I'm next, my name is Pikari."
This went on shortly for two minutes yet oddly enough, it was refreshing to see students so eagerly open up to me and Shizuku.
They don't seem to uphold bad tendencies.
Lastly, the teacher finally revealed his name, after Izufusa introduced himself again, for the last time.
"I go by the name of Eltanin. So, Eltanin-sensei, if you may."
"Aye, Eltanin-sensei."
Weird names, really.
What were their parents thinking, seriously...
"Now, Yukishiro and Shizuku need your assistance and I would like if you helped them out."
I am so thankful for faking all that shit earlier.
Because I am 100% certain that if it wasn't for that victim act we did earlier that we would get absolutely zero assistance. Yet we have managed to acquire the assistance of a teacher and now his class's assistance.
"Sure, but what, sensei?"
A girl named Hiyari didn't decline to help and instead, was immediately prone to know the full details here.
"Can I explain our circumstance?"
I asked as I turned my head towards the teacher's direction.
Outside of nodding to confirm, he added a few additional words.
"Be sure to say more than just your circumstance, in order to clear some misunderstandings."
Nodding, I explained our circumstances and went with the exact same story as earlier, thus manipulating them into believing that our classroom is not actually full of criminals; as the boys are the savage ruthless animal-like people who gave birth to such rumor through their brute action.
Whether it was because they were simply good people or because their teacher bought our stupid story, they believed it.
One certain individual didn't seem to truly believe our story, however, yet the individual didn't beg to differ, the individual stood in silence, watching us with a blazing glare of distrust.
"With all of that said... We would like for any eye-witnesses to help us out here."
At the moment I bowed down in front of them, Shizuku took out her cellphone and said words that would surely capture their interest while showing a certain image from her cellphone.
"This is what Yulia looks like. I got it from our teacher, Yuka. This is her picture from when she enrolled. Please make sure to tell us if you saw her during the festival."
Passing her cellphone to Hiyari, who was the closest to us, Shizuku implied Hiyari to pass the cellphone was she was done recalling if she had seen Yulia or not.
Frankly, this eye-witness strategy could either backfire extremely hard, as it is massively time-consuming, or it could benefit us greatly since the day Yulia killed herself was in a day when the school festival was ongoing. Without a shadow of a doubt, there is an eye-witness who witnessed a crucial part of this.
But, would you allow yourself to get caught by some random eye-witness? If it was me, I would've been extra cautious and would've done it in a location where most wouldn't be aware of.
"Ah, please touch the screen every five seconds. Just so the screen doesn't lock itself, pleaseeee..."
"I got it, I got it!"
Hiyari said so in a happy tone.
But, even so, the result turned out to be disappointing.
None of them claimed to have seen Yulia throughout the entirety of the festival. To be fair though, this school is massive and the festival was packed with a lot of tasks. We could afford to be laxer about the festival due to our own circumstances, unlike this class, probably.
Something to note is that although the result was disappointing, a certain individual looked at the image way more than the others did. I religiously watched every single one of them and there was just something about the individual's way of looking at the picture that captured my interest.
"Sorry..."
Ultimately returning her phone to Shizuku, after completing a full circle, Hiyari apologized.
It couldn't be helped. Our task was until the end of the day, so we could try our luck with other students from other classes from this block anyways. Nothing was truly lost.
Yet something kept me budging. A particular relentless feeling that someone here wasn't truly speaking their mind...
"Thank you for trying."
Shizuku bowed down as I did so, even though it was just a gesture in reality. Despite the fact that they didn't contribute absolutely anything.
"It appears that that's that. I am sorry that we couldn't help you."
I glanced at the clock. Time had flown by so quickly that it was already midday, lunchtime.
Soon enough, this classroom session would end. It was important to capitalize on that in order to achieve what I actually wanted to achieve.
"It's no problem. It's not an easy task, honestly."
"Try asking the other classes!"
"I can ask my friends from other classes, Shizuku."
Ironically, Shizuku is getting all the attention now. Even though I literally was the one who took the initiative to start the introductions.
She's even basking in their cheerful cooperation.
"Really?! That would be super wonderful! Eltanin-sensei, may I..."
Requesting whether or not she could exchange contacts with the one who had said that she could ask her friends from other classes, Shizuku looked forward to the teacher's answer.
Bringing forth goodwill, he allowed that. Thus, they exchanged contacts. No, it went even further than that. Shizuku literally exchanged contacts with every single one of them.
As a consequence, I got eyesight, but I was quickly labeled as anti-social for not having the patience to keep up with this harmonizing atmosphere.
Some of the boys nonetheless kept looking at me, despite Shizuku being the center of attention.
Can they get a bomb dropped on their heads? They are ugly as hell.
10 minutes later.
Currently, we are inside the cafeteria near block E. It stands like 20 meters in the north direction from the entrance of block E.
The great thing about this cafeteria is that its windows allow a frontal vision towards the entrance of block E. In other words, you can see which students leave and enter the block...
My eyesight is fixated on that entrance in specific.
"They were so nice! Sure, they couldn't help us out, but they offered me their contacts and were willing to help!"
"I bet they just lied to you so you don't feel bad about our failure."
At the moment, we were just standing front to front, doing nothing. Yet I was the one who requested that we would come here.
Shizuku must've thought that this was because I wanted to recapitulate the overall situation.
It wasn't.
"I don't think they are lying. Not everyone is evil, you know?"
"You wouldn't believe how many people that aren't labeled as evil are actually evil. Maybe their teacher took longer to reach the scene at the beginning because he had planned this with the guard and the guard fleed the scene on purpose just to make us think that we had hi---"
"Wooow, you trust literally no one, don't you?"
She's making me sound like I'm someone extremely paranoid who doubts everything, but I'm just taking caution.
"...Whatever, listen up, we are going to get someone to cooperate with us regarding Yulia's suicide."
"Eh? But we weren't successful, so how..."
Clearing her doubt, I raised my right index finger and pointed out of the window towards an individual who was leaving block E to have lunch. A lot of students were leaving the block now that it was lunchtime.
"Seriously...? What makes you think so?"
"He looked at the picture way more than the others did. It's pretty obvious he has something to hide and we are going to stalk him and find out."
"Okay, got it. How many meters should we keep away from him so he doesn't notice?"
I'm glad she is immediately getting down to these crucial details.
"First, we blend in a crowd of girls like us, who are walking in the same direction as he is. Then, we observe where he is going. A few minutes after he is done sitting on the table where he will eat, we do the same and sit on his table forcefully."
"Do you have something in store, in case he just decides to ignore us or flat out flee?"
"I'll pretend to be his clingy ex-girlfriend who is obsessed with him should he behave in an escapist way. You have a crush on him and need to confess to him, so you have an excuse too."
"Does it really need to be this?!"
"I have other methods, don't worry."
"Yukishiro... I don't even want to think about what sort of methods you have in mind right now. That grin of yours is full of malice. Do you enjoy making someone's life a living hell?"
What a stupid question.
"Of course I do."
"Ah... What was I even expecting... Anyways, let's get going."
"Yes."
On her order, we both got up and stalked the individual carefully. Perhaps he is slightly paranoid, but he would look back and forth like two times in ten seconds.
His destination was an Oriental restaurant. It was a very short walk as it only took us three minutes. We had to stay outside and spy from the outside window to see where he would seat.
Just like a true loner, he sat on a table all the way to the depths of the north corners, isolated from the majority of the students who were enjoying their meals. It was even a table for four, which made things easier.
"Yukishiro, do---"
"I will pay for the food. Don't abuse though. My kindness is rare."
She's been a great help today. If you don't reward the efforts of someone, they will soon see no reason to rely on you or stay by your side.
Already on the balcony, we went to the buffet and took out our desired pieces of food. After paying for two meals, we entered a conversation while directing ourselves towards the north corner of the restaurant. We didn't look in his direction and just kept walking in his direction but not look.
"He is looking at us, isn't he?"
"I imagine so. Keep the smile up and giggles. Haha! He can't know. Seriously?!"
Trading bubbling words back and forth we kept on faking a girly conversation until we had arrived at our destination.
On the sheer sight of the table that he was in, we expressed fake exclamation.
"Oh! If it isn't Fusa!"
I purposely misspelled his name just to provoke him.
"Yukishiro, you silly, his name is Izufusa!"
A cheap joke, but we got a cold response from Izufusa, who was not happy about the fact that we practically invaded his table and sat in front of him.
"Go away..."
No.