Episode 150: Gratitude

The screening of the evidence footage ended, and the lights flickered back on in the room where the buzzing wouldn’t settle down.

Nishikawa Eri began her announcement over the microphone again.

「Did you all enjoy yourselves? I’m sure quite a few of you here were participants. I don’t know how much you realized, but this is prostitution brokerage. And as you saw in the footage, high schoolers were mixed in. This is a major incident.」

The buzzing in the venue grew louder.

People shouted that they weren’t involved. Others pointed fingers and blamed those on screen. Some made excuses about being tricked, and a few tried to casually slip out the back. But the doors, of course, wouldn’t open.

Every single one of them was hideous.

「Let me ask you all a question. You there.」

Nishikawa-san pointed at one person.

A staff member approached the man with a microphone.

Actually, this guy was connected to a new employee at Nishikawa-san’s company. Apparently, he was easily bought off when told the company was finished anyway.

In other words, he was a plant.

「Did you participate?」

「Um, I… well…」

He looked more normal than I expected.

He didn’t look like he was acting, so this should work.

「Let me change the question. Regarding participation or brokerage, were you forced into it?」

「………」

「When this is made public, I wonder what will happen to your company… or what will happen to all of you? I’m not very familiar with the world, so I wouldn’t know, but I’m sure you all understand quite well, don’t you? However, I’ve received reports that a vast majority were forced into this, victims, in a sense. Is that not right? You were forced, weren’t you?」

「It was forced! I was forced!!」

It was a total farce, jumping on Nishikawa-san’s leading question as if it were the only escape route.

But group psychology is a funny thing. The number of people following suit started to grow instantly.

「I was forced too!」

「Me too, me too!」

「I was threatened that I had to listen!!」

Voices erupted from all over the place.

A bunch of idiots desperately diving into the escape route Nishikawa-san had built for them.

It was easy to imagine what would happen to the company. If they didn’t have any loyalty to Yamazaki, it was only natural for them to run toward self-preservation.

Well… in the end, none of these guys are getting away.

The list of mixer participants has already been made.

Meaning, they’ll find out what’s coming for them later.

「Don’t mess with me!! I never forced you once!!! Why are you just blaming me on your own!! You guys were happy enough to let me take care of you!」

Yamazaki shouted with a desperate look.

If things kept going like this, all the responsibility would fall on him.

But did he realize that with his current statement, he just admitted the footage was real?

「Every single one of you…」

「Should we take a vote? Raise your hand if you were forced.」

Nishikawa-san cut Yamazaki off and kept the talk moving.

Beautifully, every single hand went up. It was quite a view.

I don’t know how it looked to Yamazaki, though.

「Hey, Yamazaki. Since you’re the one who gave the orders, it’s pretty pitiful to make excuses and leave these people to hang, don’t you think?」

「Shut up, Takanashi!!」

Yamazaki, who had no composure left, snapped easily at my provocation.

And as if to further rile up the crowd who wanted to believe they were victims, one more escape route was tossed out.

「I didn’t know there were high schoolers. And Yamazaki-san forced us to take them home. Right everyone? We didn’t know!」

When the plant shouted that out at the perfect time, everyone naturally jumped on it.

They all started confirming with each other that they were forced and that they didn’t know.

Because by acknowledging that they weren’t the bad guys, they wanted to feel safe.

「Don’t mess with me, you liars. Stop this already.」

「Hey, Yamazaki. How’s it feel to be isolated?」

Yamazaki becoming isolated in this development was also according to plan.

That’s why I said the line I’d decided I’d definitely ask if things reached this point.

It wasn’t just Yamazaki who reacted to my words.

Yuzuha, who had been staring blankly at the proceedings as if her soul had left her body, also gave a small shiver.

「How’s it feel to be in a situation like mine? How was it for me back then? No matter how much I shouted, nobody helped, nobody believed me. You can remember how pathetic I looked, can’t you? You’re in the same spot now, aren’t you, king of the hill? Fun, isn’t it?」

「Ugh…」

Yamazaki clenched his fists and shut his mouth.

It was because he remembered it all too well that he couldn’t argue back.

He looked frustrated. That’s the face he was making.

SLAM!!

The door to the venue suddenly opened with a loud thud, and someone came in at a brisk pace.

Looking frantic, they rushed straight to Yamazaki and started whispering in his ear.

Nishikawa-san, having judged the contact had been made, signaled a staff member, and DVDs were distributed to the participants.

It was a shocking package with a cover that listed real names, addresses, phone numbers, photos, and even family structures.

「Thank you for today. Those are DVDs of the footage from earlier. Since a detailed participant list has already been prepared… good luck to you all.」

The participants, who were implicitly told they wouldn’t be allowed to escape, started making a fuss while checking the personal info on the DVDs. They looked shocked, but they were basically pushed out of the venue by the staff.

And as for Yamazaki, who was hearing the report with an equally shocked expression, he was stunned.

「…What? It’s a lie, right? …Hey, stop the joking.」

「The contact came through… it’s a fact…」

He looked like he couldn’t process what he was hearing, asking back while staring at a point in space.

Looks like the higher-ups are totally finished too.

I wonder how long he stayed in that daze.

Yamazaki gradually started to shake, and finally, he glared at Nishikawa-san.

「…So it was all according to plan?」

「Did you enjoy the entertainment?」

Having come this far, Yamazaki realized he’d been played even though the conclusion was already set. A look of anger appeared on his face.

「Hahahaha, I see! So the ending is that the company goes under because of me!! I only did what my old man taught me! Why am I the only one who’s the bad guy!!!!」

Yamazaki shouted as if he weren’t the only one at fault. Would he use that same excuse for manipulating our classmates?

「Yamazaki, you involved your classmates too, didn’t you? You brought them to those places, didn’t you? Are you gonna say you aren’t the only one at fault for that, either?」

「Huh?」

Right, the scene where high schoolers were mentioned as Yamazaki’s classmates had been cut from the footage, so he probably thought that part wasn’t known yet.

Being pointed out, Yamazaki looked at me with a blank face.

And Yuzuha, who had been staring somewhere with a soul-less expression, also opened her eyes wide in shock at my words.

「I know everything. You had Sasagawa Yuzuha’s friends participate in those prostitution brokerage parties, didn’t you?」

「………」

Yamazaki was silent even at Satsukawa Sara-san’s question. I wonder if he was thinking of an excuse or was just panicking over the answer.

「…You’re a truly boring man. After everything we’ve talked about, with all the evidence gathered, can your pathetic brain not understand that we’re cornering you?」

「Ugh…………」

「K, Kazuma-kun, what does she mean? You said it was just to fill numbers for a mixer…」

Hearing our words, Yuzuha, who seemed to have realized something, asked Yamazaki with a face as white as a sheet.

「Oh, so that’s what you heard? Your friends were being used as take-out options for the men.」

Sara-san didn’t seem to have any intention of sugarcoating or holding back. She spoke the truth as straight as possible.

Hearing that, Yuzuha approached Yamazaki as if clinging to him and grabbed his arm.

「Kazuma-kun! That’s not true, right!? You wouldn’t do something so cruel, would you!? They’re all my friends!?」

「………」

「Can’t you answer? Well, with the evidence right here and no way to talk your way out of it, I guess all you can do is stay silent.」

Sara-san delivered the final blow.

Actually, I intended to do this part myself since I knew it would corner Yuzuha even more.

But Sara-san might have taken it on for me because she knew.

「Sob… why… what am I supposed to tell everyone… it’s cruel, how could you do that?」

Judging that his silence was the answer, Yuzuha started to cry, the tears streaming down her face.

But Yamazaki seemed irritated even by that sight, and he forcefully shook off Yuzuha’s hand that was gripping his arm.

「…Shut the hell up.」

He spat the words out as if muttering to himself, then started revealing his true feelings like he’d given up.

「I only put up with dating you because you have so many hangers-on I thought I’d use someday. Otherwise, who’d want to be with a stupid woman like you by choice?」

「!?」

He seemed to have completely given up, spitting out his true thoughts one after another.

Hearing them, Yuzuha looked like she couldn’t say anything, just staring at Yamazaki with tearful eyes.

「You moved exactly like I wanted you to, it was almost funny. Even in middle school, because you were the one out front cornering Takanashi, I was able to move easily behind the scenes. Poor Takanashi. He was always worried about you, and he even got angry and punched me for your sake, yet he ended up being mocked and called a criminal by you, of all people.」

After insulting Yuzuha, Yamazaki slowly turned toward me.

It looked like he was going to target me next.

「It was tough, wasn’t it, Takanashi? You spent all that time alone after that. You still remember it, don’t you? Right, Takanashi?」

He spoke to me with a nasty smirk, trying to provoke me.

It’s true that looking back, those were painful days.

But I’ve already changed my way of thinking, thanks to Sara-san.

Right now, I think all of that was just the struggle necessary to meet Sara-san.

Meaning… right now, that’s not a big deal at all.

I didn’t change my expression despite the provocation and just looked at Sara-san.

She seemed to understand exactly what I was thinking and gave a smile that was almost too kind for the situation.

Then she grabbed my hand and turned toward Yamazaki.

「Right, I forgot to thank you both for one thing.」

The biting tone from earlier had vanished, replaced by Sara-san’s voice, which was dignified and echoed through the room.

She linked her arm with mine and gave a smile to the two people in front of us.

「Thanks to you two being so incredibly brainless, I was able to meet my soulmate, Takanashi Kazunari-san… thank you. Yamazaki-san, your panicked display was truly a hilarious comedy. Was it a celebratory skit for us? If so, I’m getting bored now, so please end it… socially.」

The words from Sara-san’s cold voice, contrasting with her smile, echoed in the silent venue.

This line was completely unplanned, and it caught me off guard too.

「Kazunari-san, why don’t you give your thanks as well?」

Sara-san turned to me and threw the question my way, almost as if to mock the two of them.

Right, giving my thanks might be a good idea.

「You’re right. Yamazaki, Yuzuha, I’ll thank you too. Actually, when I think about how what you did led to me meeting Sara-san, I feel like I actually want to thank you. Your childish prank was the reason I chose my current school, but as a result, I met this wonderful person and we became a couple. There are times I still can’t believe it.」

With me giving my thanks with a smile, both Yamazaki and Yuzuha looked stunned, as if they didn’t understand what was being said to them.

「She’s cute, kind, amazing at everything domestic, she can do well in school and sports, she makes me delicious meals every day, and even though I end up acting spoiled, she hugs me and…」

Once I started praising her, I couldn’t stop.

As I continued while staring at Sara-san’s face, I could see her cheeks turning brighter and brighter red.

So cute.

「N, now, Kazunari-san, that’s embarrassing, so please stop. Besides, the same goes for you, Kazunari-san. You can’t leave someone in trouble alone, you’re kind to children… and above all, you cherish me so much… and there was the talk about Sasagawa Yuzuha the other day. When you show me that kind of kindness, I can’t help but fall for you all over again.」

She’s probably talking about when I told everyone what I wanted to do with Yuzuha during the meeting.

At that time, I’d imagined being scolded for saying something naive.

But Sara-san took it positively as a sign of my kindness. That’s probably why everyone else accepted it, too.

「After I said that, I was really happy that you accepted it and hugged me, Sara-san. I thought everyone would be mad at me… I was really happy for your kindness.」

When I spoke my honest feelings, Sara-san gave a kind smile and reached out to my head.

She gently pulled me toward her chest, and I let her.

「Kazunari-san, the most important thing to me is to respect your will and support it. Of course, if you’re about to go down the wrong path, it’s my job to stop you… but if that’s not the case, your will is my will. So I will support you however you want, however you wish. I will support you always and forever.」

Up until now, Sara-san has accepted my wishes and affirmed my thoughts.

She’s always stayed by my side and put me first.

Whether it was the stories of the past or this incident, she has literally supported me.

I think the probability of meeting a woman like her is basically zero.

Yet, I… we managed to meet.

「Sara-san… I’m so glad I met you… even if I used up a lifetime’s worth of luck, I still think it wouldn’t be enough.」

「…I think it was destiny, you know? Even if our schools were different, even if your circumstances were different, I believe I definitely would’ve met you and we would’ve been together…」

Sara-san squeezed my head a bit harder, and I felt something rest on top of it.

It was probably Sara-san’s face. She was holding me gently, as if she were wrapping her entire being around me.

「…………DON’T… MESS… WITH… ME… YOU BASTARDS!!!!!!」

!?

Ah, wait, what’s even happening now…