Episode 153: Yuzuha’s Mother

Same time, different room

「Right, let me ask one more time… you guys knew it was a lie, yet you still trashed Takanashi-kun, didn’t you?」

The group in front of me were Takanashi-kun’s former classmates…

On the monitor in the room, we’d just seen the footage of Yamazaki being dragged out.

Sara totally stole Takanashi-kun’s big moment… well, it was satisfying, so I’ll let it slide.

If it were me, I might’ve even added a kick… oops, don’t ask a maiden like me where exactly I’d kick, okay?

Anyway, having watched the whole thing, these guys all looked equally awkward.

They’d just been shown the reality that Yamazaki, the guy they’d put on a pedestal, was a genuine piece of trash. Plus, I’d been yelling at them quite a bit.

「I’ll set Yamazaki aside for now. You knew the rumors about Takanashi-kun were weird, that they might be lies, didn’t you?」

I looked over everyone slowly, sizing them up one by one.

I saw a few of them nod.

The ones who just nodded might still have a chance at being decent.

Yuzuha had shrunk away after Sara-san yelled at her, and the conversation had kind of hit a standstill.

Amidst the awkward atmosphere, a staff member rushed over to Nishikawa-san. The timing was probably just right.

After listening to the whispered message, Nishikawa-san muttered,「I understand,」and then looked around at everyone.

「It seems Natsumi’s side is finished.」

The message Nishikawa-san received seemed to be about Natsumi-senpai.

I hadn’t seen Natsumi-senpai around, so I’d thought she was with Yuji, who was taking independent action…

「Kazunari-san, we planned this without telling you. I’m so sorry…」

Sara-san suddenly bowed her head while explaining apologetically.

It seems there was a plan I didn’t know about, but I’d never be angry at everyone who’s helping me; I’m nothing but grateful.

I approached Sara-san, who was still bowing, and gently placed a hand on her shoulder.

「There’s absolutely no reason for you to apologize, Sara-san. Please, look up. Okay?」

「…Yes.」

Hearing my words, Sara-san looked up and gave a relieved smile.

「These two would probably flirt even at a crime scene.」

「W-well, I don’t know about that.」

As if in sync with Hanako-san’s exasperated voice and Todo-san’s retort, I heard a blatant sigh from Nishikawa-san.

Then she raised her hand to give some kind of signal.

After waiting a bit, the door to the waiting room opened. Several staff members who’d probably received the signal came out, followed by Natsumi-senpai.

Apparently she’d been nearby.

「Come on, get in here already!!」

Was there someone on the other side of the door?

The people who’d probably been on the receiving end of Natsumi-senpai’s yelling started filed in, one after another… a whole crowd.

Ten? Twenty? Maybe even more?

As I watched them, familiar faces started appearing one by one…

Wait… are those the classmates from third year middle school!?

「What!? …Why are they here…」

Yuzuha, who had been curled up, seemed to hear my surprised voice. She looked up and stared at the group.

「Eh… why…」

Yuzuha had the exact same reaction as me.

But seriously, what is this…

I don’t know how they gathered them, but it looked like every single classmate from back then was there.

They all looked restless, avoiding eye contact by looking down or to the side. The awkwardness was thick enough to choke on.

「We had them in a separate room, watching the whole thing on a monitor. Natsumi was with them… and from the looks of it, she really let them have it.」

I wondered what Nishikawa-san meant by「let them have it」… but looking closely, several of them were crying.

Just as I was starting to figure out the meaning, Natsumi-senpai gave a supplementary explanation.

「I was so pissed off that I ended up yelling at them. Listening to them, it was all just childish excuses like they couldn’t help it or they were scared of being left out… DON’T GIVE ME THAT CRAP!!!!」

!?

Natsumi-senpai must’ve remembered more while explaining, because her voice grew sharper until she ended up shouting again.

Being hit with that roar, a few more people started sobbing…

「Whoa, there’s another demon over there…」

「Shh, she’ll hear you.」

Hanako-san and Todo-san really make a good duo…

While I was having that carefree thought, someone emerged from the dense crowd and approached me.

「Takanashi-kun…」

How long has it been since a classmate from third year called my name? A year? More?

The person who spoke up was a girl who’d been the class rep back then.

I honestly don’t remember her name… and I’m not even joking.

「I won’t make excuses, and I don’t expect you to forgive me. But please, just let me apologize. I’m truly, truly sorry.」

She bowed deeply, bending her upper body to its limit.

With that as the trigger, everyone else bowed at once.

I suspect Natsumi-senpai might’ve threatened… or lectured them into doing it, but I never thought the day would come when these people would bow to me.

「If Natsumi’s already talked to you, then you understand what you’ve done, right?」

The one who answered Sara-san’s question was a girl who’d been close to Yuzuha back then.

「Um… I think what we did to Takanashi-kun was really wrong, and I’m honestly sorry… it’s just that we were tricked by Yamazaki-kun, too… and by Yuzuha…」

「Eh!?」

Yuzuha, hearing her close friend say she’d been tricked.

And because that topic came up, it acted like a catalyst for the others to start talking all at once.

「I mean, Takanashi-kun wasn’t in the wrong, I’ll honestly apologize.」

「Yuzuha talked about Takanashi-kun like he was a criminal, so we all believed her… it’s too much.」

「Takanashi, I’m really sorry!! Part of it was being tricked by Yuzuha… but when I thought it was weird and talked to the others, Yamazaki…」

「Yuzuha!! We’re to blame too, but this is originally your fault! Apologize to Takanashi-kun!」

One after another, people joined in on the demand for an apology, all pinning the blame on Yuzuha.

At first, Yuzuha couldn’t keep up with what was happening. She looked back and forth at her yelling friends, going 「Eh!?」「Eh!?」 in a panic. But once she realized the situation, her eyes welled up… and finally, she burst into tears.

Well… from my perspective, you’re all just as guilty… that’s my take on it.

But I had my own hands full, receiving apologies from people I’d actually been somewhat close to back then.

「Kazunari… I’m so sorry!! …It’s just an excuse, but back then I was told that if I talked back, they’d do the same to me…」

I know the original cause was Yamazaki’s plotting and Yuzuha’s lies.

But being apologized to now… that cold feeling was stronger. Even when they apologized, I just gave half-hearted replies. I didn’t feel moved or anything at all.

That was how it went for me, but the atmosphere around Yuzuha was getting pretty savage.

「Don’t you ever contact me again!!」

「Apologize to Takanashi-kun!!」

Watching Yuzuha get torn apart like that was painful, but at the same time, it felt like I was watching my past self.

No matter what I said, no one would listen. Every time I opened my mouth, I was insulted as a criminal or a villain… and then everyone left… it was exactly like me back then.

The only difference was that I was innocent, and Yuzuha brought this on herself.

Abandoned by her friends and insulted as a criminal.

Experiencing exactly what I did back then, Yuzuha looked completely haggard.

But why did they call those people here? Was there a reason?

The answer to my question came from a voice in a spot where I thought no one was.

「Yuzuha, do you understand a bit of Kazunari’s suffering now?」

The person who stepped out from the shadows was, of course, my best friend.

He’d said he was moving solo today, so he must’ve finished and come back.

I wondered what exactly he’d been up to.

「Yuji…」

「I’m the one who planned to gather the third-year classmates. If you really want Yuzuha to reflect, the fastest way is to let her experience the same pain you felt.」

It looks like Yuji had predicted how things would flow.

It was easy to guess what would happen once people realized they’d been tricked.

But… to be honest, I thought Yuzuha would listen a bit more reasonably once she knew Yamazaki’s true nature.

In reality, that wasn’t the case at all… I guess I really am too soft…

「Well… you’ve looked after Yuzuha since forever. Because of that, you can’t help but look at her from a guardian’s perspective, thinking you have to be the one to do something.」

Those words felt like he was backing up my way of thinking.

But at the same time, I felt like he was indirectly telling me I’m too naive.

「Sasagawa-san, in the first place, what do you actually think of Kazunari-san?」

Maybe because she heard Yuji’s words, Sara-san asked a very fundamental question.

Childhood was one thing, but what about middle school? Especially by the time we were third-years, I definitely felt like she loathed me.

「…Kazunari played with me when I didn’t have any friends. He was always with me. I… I loved Kazunari.」

Yuzuha gave a surprisingly honest answer. Though, a big reason might’ve been that she didn’t want Sara-san to get mad at her again.

And… she used the past tense.

「If you felt that much for him, why could you do something so horrible? Didn’t you feel sorry for Kazunari-san!?」

「Because! Even though everyone else was doing it with their uniforms and brown hair… even though I wanted to do it too, Kazunari only ever got mad at me! That’s why he was always annoying and I hated it!! And when I heard he hit Kazuma-kun, and that he only hit him because he couldn’t stand me liking Kazuma-kun… Kazunari, who got in the way of everything I wanted to do, was the bad one too!!!」

Yuzuha started spitting out everything she’d bottled up, like a dam breaking.

So that’s how she felt…

Back then, I always wanted her to go back to the old Yuzuha.

So every time I talked to her, I think I was constantly giving her warnings and complaints with that in mind.

Now that she mentioned it, I realized that from Yuzuha’s perspective, I was just forcing my ideals on her…

If Yuzuha wanted to change, no matter what form it took, my interference might’ve been nothing but a nuisance.

「Then, someone started saying Kazunari was a stalker, and everyone started being kind to me, and since I hated how persistent Kazunari was, I thought he was kind of like a stalker…」

Yuzuha continued her story in fragments, as if remembering the past one piece at a time.

I understood that she had her own reasons and triggers for it.

I think there are parts I should reflect on too, but that doesn’t mean I can forgive her.

「Kazuma-kun listened to my problems and said he understood how I felt… but he said he couldn’t get close to me because Kazunari was in the way… at that time, I thought Kazunari was interfering again! Kazunari even got in the way of the person I fell for…」

It seems she was manipulated by Yamazaki even more than I’d imagined.

But this way of talking… it’s really starting to make me sick.

Deep down, she probably thinks everyone else is to blame rather than herself.

Even after everyone cooperated this much… enough is enou—

「THAT’S ENOUGH!!!」

!?

A loud shout suddenly echoed through the venue.

I thought the voice came from around the shadows where Yuji had been… and a split second later, a figure jumped out.

The figure rushed straight to Yuzuha and slapped her across the cheek.

WHACK!!

While everyone was frozen from the sudden event, the person who slapped Yuzuha turned toward me and bowed deeply.

「…Kumiko-san.」

Of course, I recognized her at a single glance.

Yuzuha’s mother… Sasagawa Kumiko-san.

A single mother who’d raised Yuzuha all by herself.

「…Okaa-san, why are you here…」

Yuzuha held her slapped cheek, violently shaken by the fact that her own mother was standing right in front of her.

「I’ve already talked to Kumiko-san. It seems she’d at least noticed Yuzuha might’ve done something to you… or something like that.」

Yuji’s supplementary explanation was something I’d partially expected.

And I understood clearly that this was the reason for Yuji’s independent action…

「I can understand why you’d want Yuzuha to turn her life around, since it’s your old habit, or rather, your nature. But isn’t it weird that only you, an outsider, are struggling while her own family does nothing? That’s why I brought her here. How long is this mother-daughter duo going to keep causing trouble for Kazunari? Enough is enough!!」

Raising his voice, Yuji yelled at both Kumiko-san and Yuzuha.

「Kazunari-kun… I am truly sorry. I heard everything from Tachibana-kun on the way here, and I saw everything on the screen, that person who claimed to be Yuzuha’s boyfriend, and your exchange. Truly… I don’t know what to say to apologize… I’m so sorry… I’m sorry…」

Kumiko-san bowed her head over and over, tears in her eyes.

And she didn’t stop with me; she started bowing to Yuji, Sara-san, and every single person in the room one by one.

After finishing her bows to everyone, she looked at me again to continue.

「To be honest, what Yuzuha did was so horrible that I have no idea what would count as an apology to you, Kazunari-kun. Of course, as her parent, I’ll stay by Yuzuha’s side and apologize to you. I’ll apologize to your parents too. But besides that, I want Yuzuha to give an apology that you can at least somewhat accept.」

Kumiko-san sounded completely serious when she suddenly said that.

「Okaa-san!? What are you saying…」

「I will take responsibility and make her do it. Yuzuha did something truly terrible, so please punish Yuzuha in a way that makes you satisfied, Kazunari-kun. I know I’m not in a position to ask, but please make it within reason… I will make sure she carries it out… so please…」

This was a pretty wild suggestion, but Kumiko-san looked like she meant it.

She seemed to have already made up her mind, and with a stiff expression, she gave a firm nod to my gaze.

In that case, what I’m asking for is…