Needless to say, Sousei was thoroughly scolded, endlessly berated, and beaten to a pulp by his sister after that.
Even though the lecture was so intense and concentrated that it felt like all the hair on his body might fall out, it didn’t last long. Due to Sousei’s blunder, his sister needed to arrange for people to take care of all manner of cleanup. It must have been infuriating for her, but dealing with the aftermath was part of the job, and it wasn’t Sousei’s domain. His sister had been in charge of dividing responsibilities. Sousei wouldn’t have a clue about what he should do or how he should do it, and he didn’t think his sister would suddenly leave it up to him to take care of. Either way, there was no choice but to have his sister clean up the mess.
Thanks to that, Sousei was able to get about three hours of sleep. It would be hard to call that sufficient, but he didn’t have any notable dreams, likely because a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
He felt strangely refreshed when he woke up, but the wound in his left arm that he’d stitched before he went to sleep was aching an awful lot. He’d iced his chest—where his ballistic vest had caught a round—so it hadn’t swollen, but it seemed to be in a bad state. Perhaps it was more than a bruise. He’d have to consult his sister if he wanted to get it looked at by a doctor, and he wanted to avoid that if at all possible.
It was frustrating how many problems there were.
The fire was reported on TV and online, as expected. It wouldn’t have been so bad if an abandoned house had just burned down, but multiple unidentified corpses had been discovered at the scene. The world was watching and listening. Sousei briefly looked it up on his phone and saw an article about a seventy-year-old woman who’d heard mysterious gunshots in the area. It would likely cause even more trouble if the news reports kept running the story.
If that means I won’t be able to work for a while…I’d be really happy…
Sousei had a quick breakfast to get the necessary nutrients, then disinfected his wounds and changed his bandages. He got dressed and took some painkillers before leaving the house. The pills were over-the-counter medicine that could be bought anywhere, but they took effect almost immediately and didn’t make him drowsy. He decided to take the whole box with him.
When he got on the subway, he found himself strangely preoccupied by the newspapers other passengers were reading and any phone screens he happened to catch sight of.
Up till now, there have been cases where work-related…matters…were reported in the news as accidents or illnesses… There have been quite a few—well, quite a lot, actually. I think there were even one or two that turned into unsolved murder cases… Maybe three? But this one…
It seemed to have pretty significant repercussions.
…But you know? If I hadn’t killed Kinoshita, there might have been many more victims. And I’m pretty sure I didn’t cause any real harm to anyone other than him. Even that major confrontation I got caught up in was Kinoshita’s fault. I’m not the bad guy here…though I’m not a good guy, either…
As soon as Sousei arrived at school, a pressing matter was thrust upon him by his classmate in the seat right at the back by the window, resting her chin on her hand.
Asumi had confronted Kuchina again that morning, with Moena tagging along.
Or, more accurately, they’d gone up to her and casually said, “Morning, Miss Hitsujimoto,” as if they did it every day, but were completely and utterly ignored.
It was as if Kuchina had surrounded herself with an iron curtain. Though it wasn’t visible to the naked eye, it was clearly there.
Wakkuu was talking about the fire and getting the class extremely worked up. “This has gotta be a series of murders! I’m sure of it! It’s the work of a cereal killer! Y’know, I’ve never understood what they have to do with breakfast…”
“It’s not ‘cereal’ as in breakfast, it’s ‘serial’ as in ‘series’…,” Sousei couldn’t help but retort even though he didn’t want to get involved.
“Huuuh?! It’s ‘serial killer’ with an s?! I always thought it was ‘cereal killer’ like breakfast! But if I think about it real hard, I guess it wouldn’t make sense to kill cereal! Why would someone even do that?”
The class roared with laughter.
But Sousei found it hard to laugh.
He couldn’t stand being there, so he went to the restroom despite not needing to use the toilet. He washed his hands, since he didn’t need to go, and as he was, Yukisada walked in.
Before he went to do his business, Yukisada stopped and smiled at Sousei through the reflection in the mirror.
“At times like this, don’t you find it hard to figure out if it’s better to ignore the other person, or if you should say something?”
“…Ah.” Sousei unconsciously let out a little laugh. “I do a bit, yeah.”
“Should we say ‘Hello’ or something?”
“I reckon something short like that would be just right, but I feel like we don’t really say ‘hello’ that much…”
“Yeah, I guess not.” Yukisada grinned, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “Well then, how about ‘What’s up?’”
“That doesn’t seem like something you’d say.”
“‘Ciao’?”
“Like an Italian person…?”
“Here in Japan, I guess we’d say ‘hai.’”
“That kind of sounds like ‘hi’ in English though, doesn’t it…?”
“This is pretty tough, huh?” Yukisada laughed as he started washing his hands next to Sousei.
Sousei turned off the tap and dried his hands on his handkerchief. He tilted his head in confusion.
“Hm?”
“Hm?” Yukisada repeated, looking back at Sousei with a puzzled look.
“Uh… Did you just come to wash your hands, Yukisada?”
“Ah.” Yukisada turned the tap off and laughed again. “My mistake.”
Around when lunchtime was approaching, the pain from Sousei’s wounds got worse. The effect from the painkillers was probably wearing off. When the lunch break started, Sousei quickly devoured his energy bar and chicken, then took some painkillers at the drinking fountain. His phone beeped. When he checked it, he saw he had a message from Asumi.
✦ ✦ ✦
Where are you? Can you come talk in the corridor when you’re done eating?