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Volume 3 Extra 1.1

Translator: Reflet
Editor: Weasalopes

Extra・People Involved In a Certain Incident and What Became of Them

Warning：This topic may contain content that causes some people to experience discomfort.

This will not affect the main story in any way, so anyone concerned can feel free to not read this particular section.

１．A Certain Public Senior High School Third Year・The Case of Matsushima Yukari（former female classmate）

　I will most likely have to shoulder these regrets for the rest of my life.

「Yukari, let’s go home.」

「Wait a sec. I gotta write an entry.」

「Kay.」

　I wrote in the class duty journal as I had my friend, Kono Shiho (same middle school) wait for me. This was your average school, with scholarly ability on the low side but no particular breaches in discipline or anything like that. This was quite recent after the new school year had begun, and as you would imagine, there aren’t usually incidents that occur around this time to write about.

「But wow, same thing as always, eh?」

「It ain’t like I wanna do this, mkay. The other two classes might get away wit it, but us third years gotta keep up appearances.」

「Yeah, but don’tcha think it’s ‘bout time we had one or two people who don’t try ‘n hang us for what we did in middle school?」

「I’m sure that Azuma-kun wanted to say the same thing at the time.」

　It had been three whole years since that event. The incident in question had finally begun to die down in the eyes of the public, but our generation was not done with its punishment. We had barely begun our third year, but by that point, any sort of chance at human relations was hopeless, and there was no indication that the environment would be changing anytime soon. After all, when we advanced to this school, the effects of the incident were still thick in the air, completely isolating any and all girls from that specific middle school. Us fellow girls had to band together in our own little group. The boys from the same middle school were better off, since some of them at least tried to stop the incident, but even they were not seen very favorably.

　Several scandals emerged after that as well. The school already lacked students due to the aging population, and this only served to ensure the closing of the school. Various circumstances had resulted in several students being the last students to enroll at said middle school this year. The underclassmen one year behind us were already not well off, but then you had the new students enrolling this year or the students coming in next year, still completely dragged into the mix of people to avoid. This was the gravity of what we had caused, and we truly felt that. The confidentiality was essentially zero at this point, yet even the juniors behind us had to take on the penalty. We felt seriously awful about all this.

「Hey, at least I tried to stop the other classmates.」

「Yup. So you got more leverage, but me ‘n Saki can’t say nothin’ even if we wanted to.」

「Saki’s one thing, but Yukari, they gotta forgive ya at some point, I think……」

「One person broke him to such a degree, ya can’t expect forgiveness for that.」

　That’s right. I broke one boy to a fatal degree. I wasn’t the principal offender; I wasn’t even an accomplice, but I was in a position to stop the incident from happening, yet I did nothing. I lightly brushed it off, thinking it to be the same pattern as usual, and didn’t see it as going beyond that. If I had actually been paying attention, I would have recognized that this was not only beyond the boy’s usual treatment, but it was just pure violence. Even a child could understand that much.

　And to top it all off, the worst part about what I did was despite not even trying to dispel the horrible rumors about Azuma-kun that the girls banded together and spread throughout the school, I still went to see Hiroshi-kun when he was finally able to go back to school in the infirmary, under the pretext that I was “visiting” him and “apologizing” to him, but this was only to fulfill my own satisfaction. And the worst part of that worst part was that until that moment, I didn’t even think what I had done was that bad at all. I don’t think I will ever be able to forget the look in Azuma-kun’s eyes that day.

「We just kept attackin’ Azuma-kun till he began makin’ that face. An until we saw that face, we didn’t even realize just how much this situation couldn’t be undone.」

「I heard that a buncha times already.」

「Then ya understand that I can’t be forgiven, right？」

「But it ain’t like yer the one to blame fer this, and ya don’t gotta shoulder it all by yerself either, Yukari. And I know that yer doin’ yer best now.」

「Nah, I’m just satisfyin’ my own conscience. I don’t wanna ever repeat that mistake again.」

　Since then, I’ve never let even a prank go unnoticed. Not if they were clearly joking around, but I was never able to endure letting even one person become a laughingstock, even if it were a trifling matter. I couldn’t even watch comedy skits on TV because they just made me uncomfortable.

　And when I continued doing those things, everyone around me naturally considered me a nuisance. I did my best to persuade them in as soft a manner as I could, ever so careful to not provoke them, but of course someone as dim as myself could never get that far, and I instead made an unnecessary amount of enemies. I felt danger approach me more than once or twice. Still, whenever I saw someone being forced to endure something, that same face of Azuma-kun’s flashed in my head, and I couldn’t just shut up and watch.

　No matter the cause, she would never allow bullying.

「Yukari. I get how ya feel, but we don’t got exams this year, so how ‘bout we lay on the downlow, yeah?」

「Too late fer that. Even the teachers gimme mean glares, plus the cat’s way outta the bag.」

「That ain’t the issue here.」

　Unfortunately for Shiho, I would not be yielding on this issue.

「Yurika, don’tcha dare try ‘n atone for your mistakes by crawlin’ on the ground ‘n makin’ a buncha enemies at this stupid high school. If ya really regret whatcha did so much, then ya gotta become an adult ‘n then try bigger things.」

「I know that much, but I can’t just disregard the things in front o’me ‘n then climb up the ranks. Besides, there’s no way I can just let myself live leisurely after all this.」

「The main offender ain’t even repented of what she did, so someone like you who ain’t even help her out should never be subject to all this bashin’.」

　I of course knew what Shiho was saying, but I had still contributed to breaking someone. I had to carry this for the rest of my life.

「Ya don’t look like ya get it……」

「I don’t think I’ll be human if I can just forget these regrets.」

「But if ya dwell on it too much then that’s gonna have a worse outcome……」

　Those words only made me realize my own clumsiness and stupidity. In fact, if I had Shiho’s sense of balance, then I might have been able to prevent that incident even though I wasn’t the main culprit.

「Sorry, Teacher. I can’t persuade Yukari……」