Episode 138: Something More Shocking Than Being Scolded

「See? Believe us, we don’t have anything to do with Yamazaki or Sagawa.」

It’s true that, based on the text, there doesn’t seem to be any evidence they were involved in the incident in the photo…

But the fact that they tried to blackmail me doesn’t just go away.

「Hayato, sorry, but let me handle the talking. Is that okay?」

「Got it. I’ll leave it to you.」

Since Hayato was cool with stepping back, I moved the conversation along.

「You say Yamazaki’s not involved, but you guys tried to blackmail me on his orders, didn’t you?」

I spoke firmly to emphasize that the tables had turned.

「Huh? No, he… well, he just told us to spread the rumors…」

Come to think of it, the RAIN history from earlier didn’t say much more than that regarding me.

That means the decision to actually blackmail me was something these guys did on their own…

I guess this is what happens with a group of people who only think about their own gain.

Yamazaki probably didn’t think he’d get tripped up over something as boring as spreading rumors.

「So it was your own decision. Anyway, along with the photo, I’m taking you guys to the police…」

「We’ll do anything, just not the police!!」

「It’s Yamazaki’s fault! The photo, this whole thing, it’s all Yamazaki’s fault!」

It looks like they’re planning to pin everything on him.

But that works for me… Yamazaki is a bigger deal than these punks.

This incident made it crystal clear that he’s got a bone to pick with me, and there’s a good chance he’ll escalate and target Sara-san or the people around me.

The possibility that he still has other acquaintances at this school remains, and I want to avoid Sara-san being targeted above all else.

In that case… including payback for the past, I’ve got no choice but to crush him.

And Yuzuha, too… if she’s the one who egged Yamazaki on for this, I can’t just leave it be.

If she’s gonna mess with me again, I don’t have any lingering affection for her just because we’re childhood friends.

「So Yamazaki’s the one at fault for everything?」

When I reacted like that, they nodded desperately to go along with it.

「Fine. I’ll put the police on hold until the situation with Yamazaki is settled. In exchange, tell me everything about him. If you aren’t involved, you can do that, right? By the way, I’m recording this whole conversation too.」

「I, I get it. We really aren’t involved with Yamazaki, so we don’t have any reason to protect him anyway.」

They’d toss their own friends under the bus in a heartbeat to save themselves…

These kinds of guys really are trash.

I mean, I only said I’d put it on hold; I never said a word about letting them off scot-free.

Still, even if I turned them in now, the chance they’re actually involved in the photo incident is low. If Yamazaki found out, he might take countermeasures that’d be a pain later…

「Sorry, Hayato, I kind of moved things along on my own…」

「No, it’s fine. Based on the story, it’s fuzzy if they’re directly involved, so I’ll leave it to you, Kazunari.」

I hope Hayato is okay with that.

I squeezed every bit of info I could out of them, but besides the stuff about the photo, there wasn’t much useful information.

Apparently, these two met Yamazaki through that Sagawa person. Their relationship was basically that Yamazaki would occasionally introduce them to girls, and in exchange, they’d help him if he needed anything.

But that only happened a few times. After Sagawa caused that incident, Yamazaki got cautious and stopped introducing them to girls.

Despite that, he kept making requests while acting like they owed him, and they didn’t like being treated like errand boys, so they decided to act on their own.

By the way, they knew Sagawa had caused an incident, but since Yamazaki kept insisting he wasn’t involved while telling them to keep quiet, they’d been suspicious.

When they saw Sagawa’s photo, they were shocked, and seeing Yamazaki in it made them convinced he was involved after all.

For now, since they told us everything they knew, the plan was to put things on hold on the condition that they’d talk if anything else came up… or so I thought.

「Kazunari-san, even if we put the police on hold, I think they should still face disciplinary action from the school.」

Sara-san might be right.

Even as part of a deal, just putting it on hold is way too soft…

「True, they probably need at least that much right now.」

「Yes. Dealing with idiots properly is a pain anyway, so I’ll report them so all three are punished for being accomplices in blackmail.」

「P, Princess, I was tricked…」

「Wait a sec, you said you’d put it on hold…」

「Be quiet.」

She didn’t even say it that loudly, but a weird pressure silenced the three of them…

「I only said reporting you to the police was on hold. Can’t your simple brains even understand that much?」

It looks like Sara-san was pretty pissed off despite saying she’d leave it to me, because her tone had turned aggressive.

「For Kazunari-san’s sake, I’ll report it as attempted blackmail. You’d better spend your time thinking of excuses for the teachers and your parents. You’re good at that, aren’t you? People like you only ever use your brains for things like that… how interesting.」

It looks like she’s holding back a little for the sake of future plans… maybe?

「In exchange, if it’s discovered later that you were involved… be prepared.」

「「「………」」」

In the end, several teachers took the three of them away. By framing it as them attempting blackmail over a rumor they happened to hear about me, we technically made it look like we were doing them a favor.

By the way, later on, these two ended up apologizing to me alongside their parents. Apparently, seeing their parents cry during the process was such a shock that they both apologized while sobbing.

The next day, they’d turned into plain, average high schoolers you could find anywhere.

As for Yamazaki, they said they really didn’t have any more connection to him, but I could ask whenever if I wanted to know anything. They’d become quite humble.

The guy named Tagami, who I never quite figured out, suddenly transferred schools due to some circumstances.

I wonder what that guy’s deal was in the end…

After the mess on the rooftop was over, we moved from the rooftop to the student council room since there was no meeting today.

It was because I needed to explain my situation properly, and Todo-san said she had something to talk about.

I’m sure everyone already had an idea of what was going on, but I explained to everyone what I’d told Sara-san the other day.

I was grateful that they understood everything much more smoothly than I expected…