Morning, sunlight shines through the windows and showers onto the bed in the room. Leaves on the branches dance with the wind, birds play around them and chirps in a joyful tone.
Waking up by the light and sound of nature, Shinji takes a deep inhale and sits up from the bed. There is no one else in the bedroom, he rubs his eyes as he stands up and stretches his body with a yawn. As he walks around the room, he finds a blue metal box on the table. He opens up the metal box, and he sees the cookies his mother baked.
With a warm smile, Shinji takes a piece of cookie and puts it into his mouth. However, as he takes a glance around his surroundings, he eventually finds himself in Wataru's bedroom, the cookies are still here.
Just then, the door of the bedroom is suddenly opened. By the next moment, Wataru enters the room, however, he does not look very fine, his face is as white as a ghost.
"Wataru...?" with a little curiosity, Shinji thought it would be better if he asked, hence he says, "Wataru, are you okay?"
While unexpectedly, Wataru first gives Shinji an astonished face, then he asks, "Izaki Shinji-kun... You can see me?"
What? Is he joking? Shinji thought with a chuckle, "Of course I can see you!" he said
Looking at Wataru's face, Shinji suddenly remembers the last scene when he saw Wataru last night. He was taken away by the hands covered in dried blood and mud, they moved him from the music room to the mountain foot. Wataru lost his conscious, he was bleeding, he hit the back of his head when he falls off the stairs. Then, he remembers nothing else, it is all blank, the last thing he remembers, would be seeing Yuina and Ai on the rooftop.
"What happened last night, Wataru?" holding his forehead, Shinji tries to recall, he asks, "I remember you were bleeding and... And I suddenly passed out too. How did we end up in your room?"
As Shinji said, Wataru's face turns sad, he starts to mumble. He is trying to tell Shinji something, but he does not know where to start. While there, outside of the building, noises gradually turn louder. Driven by curiosity, Shinji walks nearer to the window trying to find out what happened, but Wataru quickly closes the curtains. He clenches tightly onto the curtains, just like he is trying to prevent Shinji from looking out of it.
"Wataru, are you alright?" realizing Wataru is acting weird, Shinji asks in a concerned tone, "What happened to you?"
While Wataru frowns and shakes his head, "No... Nothing." he said.
Craning his neck out trying to take a peep from the gap of the curtains, Shinji asks in a curious voice, "It's so noisy outside, is the class starting? I haven't heard any bells yet."
"Yes, the class is starting..." said Wataru with a nod. But suddenly, he takes deep breath and turns to Shinji, "Izaki Shinji-kun, you don't have to attend class today, I'll take a leave for you from Ishiya-sensei." he suggested, "You should go home, take a bath and have a good rest."
Shinji does not know why Wataru is acting a little odd here, but he can tell there is something Wataru is trying to hide. Shinji will not expose him, because he is actually exhausted right now, just like Wataru said, he needs to take a bath and have a rest. As for that thing Wataru is concealing, Shinji will eventually find it out later.
Before Shinji leaves the room, he points at the blue metal box on the table and says, "There's some cookies on the table, my okachan baked them, you can return the box after you finish them."
As Wataru nods, Shinji takes the 1996's commemoration book he brought here last night and finally walks out of the room and proceeds to the gate of the school. However, on his way to the gate, he sees crowds of teachers and students gathering around somewhere near the bottom of the Forbidden Building, there are even police cars and ambulances, cordons are tied up. The atmosphere seems a little dense, Shinji hears them whispering.
"He was just a middle school student, he was so young..."
"The teacher too, he just joined the school, we haven't had the time to get to know him yet."
"What a pity..."
Scratching at the back of his head, Shinji thought, this isn't about curiosity, because this looks like a matter that everyone in Eitsuma Middle School should know.
Can't hold his curiosity back anymore, Shinji runs towards the crowds and squeezes into the middle. There in the crowd, he sees his friends, Kaito, Irie, Genshiro, Tetsu, and Momo. But something does not feel right, because the five of them are actually crying.
In a blank expression, Shinji pats on Kaito's shoulder and asks, "Kaito, what happened here?"
Kaito shakes his head and says, "Never thought we won't have the chance to play basketball together again..."
Shinji frowns, "Who?"
While Irie suddenly mentions, "He went home right after school yesterday, how does his body end up here in the school?"
"Body?" with their words sound weirder to Shinji, Shinji grabs his friends' shoulders and shakes them aggressively, "Guys! What happened? Who are you talking about?"
There, Genshiro continues on Irie's statement, "He's wearing his casual shirt, it's certain he went home before he got here..."
Clenching his fists tight, Tetsu frowns his eyebrows as he says, "Is it a suicide...?"
"Impossible!" while Momo does not want to believe it, tears streams down his cheeks as he yells, "Why would he commit suicide? He won't!"
Suicide? "Hey, who committed suicide?" shaking more vigorously on his friends, Shinji can't hold back but yells at them, "Guys, don't ignore me! Answer me, who committed suicide?"
There, Irie takes a deep breath, he then finally reveals, "Momo was right, Shinji won't commit suicide."
"What? I committed suicide?" with a bright chuckle, Shinji says, "Guys, I'm standing right here, what are you talking about?"
While just by Shinji asked, the people in front of Shinji walk away, there, Shinji finally sees what is laying in front of him. There are two black body bags, the one lying close to Shinji is smaller. The bags are both half zipped, Shinji can see their faces clearly.
Slowly squatting down next to the smaller body bag, Shinji peels the opening of the body bag wider, there, he looks at the face of the corpse, his breath shudders.
"Is that..." his hands tremble, his voice cracks, "Is that me...?"
It is him, his body is twisted, his face looks hideous, dried blood covered all over his body. There, abruptly, memories come rushing back. Shinji remembers the last face he saw on the rooftop. After Yuina left the rooftop, Kokoro came up, she first stabbed Ai with the viola bow, she then stabbed it into Shinji's chest. She drew the bow out, blood splattered. Shinji moved backwards and tried to escape from Kokoro, but he hit the edge of the rooftop. Kokoro came to him, she placed her fingertip on Shinji's forehead, and she pushed Shinji off the rooftop.
He is dead, Kokoro killed him. He is dead... But what about the body lying next to Shinji?
Moving close to the second body bag, again, Shinji peels the opening wider, so he could see the face. There, the face enters his sight unveiled.
"W-Wataru...?" he called, warm tears covers his face in no time, his voice cracks as he yells, "Wataru!"
The body lying next to him, it is Wataru, dried blood covered his head and hands. Kokoro pushed Wataru off the stairs, Wataru hit his head, he started bleeding, he lost so much blood, even after the hands brought him from the music room to the mountain foot, he did not make it. The injury was fatal, Wataru did not make it through the daybreak, he died.
As Shinji cries in sorrow, Wataru comes from behind, he hugs Shinji in his arms and pats on his head.
"Wataru!" losing control over his emotion, Shinji grabs onto Wataru's shirt, he cries and yells, "I'm sorry! Wataru! I'm sorry!"
Wataru pats on Shinji's head with his big palm, he does not say a word.
Whereas just by then, a police car drives into the campus. A young keiji gets down of the car and crosses the cordon, he enters the crime scene with an old music book in his hands.