After a nice dinner in the dorm cafeteria, I headed back to my room. There, I took out my phone and checked my remaining balance. My account total was displayed on the screen. I saw that I had 8,320 private points. It hadn't changed since this morning. Considering that we'd started the school year with 100,000 points, this was an incredibly low amount. I had nearly bankrupted myself just to buy the point Sudou needed to pass.
"It would be pretty great if we got those 87 points," I muttered.
Converted, the points came to roughly 8700 yen. Although that wasn't a giant improvement, it was still big bucks.
As I was playing around on my phone, my door suddenly swung open.
"Save me, Ayanokouji!" Sudou stood there, his face beet red.
"Why're you here? Actually, forget that – how did you even get in?"
I'd locked my door when I got back to my room. I hadn't forgotten, because I made it a habit. Had Sudou smashed through the wall or something? Just to be sure, I checked my door to see that it wasn't broken. It looked completely fine.
"This the room where our group meets, isn't it? Ike and the rest of us made duplicate keys. Didn't you know that? Everyone else in the group has a key, too."
He spun the keycard around in his hand.
"I learned this extremely important fact just now," I grumbled. It seemed my room was no longer safe. People could invade whenever they pleased.
"Anyway, forget about that right now. I'm in serious trouble! You have to help me!" he cried.
"No, I can't forget about it. Hand over the key."
"Huh? Why? I bought this with my own points. It's mine."
What an illogical argument. Even if you're ignorant of committing a crime, it's still a crime. Friendship doesn't mean automatically allowing people to do whatever they want.
"If you need advice or you're worried about something, why not ask Ike or Yamauchi?"
"I can't ask them. They're stupid."
Sudou slid to the floor with a thud.
"Buy some carpet, will ya? My butt hurts," he muttered.
I had no points to waste on interior design. Even though my room had seemingly been designated as our group's meeting spot, we hadn't gotten together once since the party. Even if I went out and bought a carpet, I'd have been the only one sitting on it. Just imagining that was surreal.
As I stood up to make some tea, the doorbell rang. Kushida, the Madonna of Class D, poked her head through the entrance. She looked as cute as ever. She saw Sudou, who was still sitting on my floor.
"Oh, Sudou-kun's already here," she said.
"Hey, Kushida, I want to ask you something. Do you perhaps have a duplicate key to my room, too?"
"Yeah, I do. That's so we can meet up here… Wait, did you not know about that, Ayanokouji-kun?"
She took a key card from her bag and showed it to me. I didn't spot any differences between her key and mine. They were exactly the same. Apparently Kushida thought I'd given permission to make these keys.
"Umm, well…should I return it to you?"
She apologetically handed over her key.
"No, it's okay. There's no point if you're the only one who returns a key. Sudou doesn't seem to want to hand his over."
Wasn't it fine for Kushida to have a key, anyway? I suppose that in the delusional part of my brain, giving her a key made it feel like she was my girlfriend. Men certainly are devious creatures.
"Since Kushida came, too, can we move on to the topic at hand?" Sudou asked.
"All right, I guess there's no getting around it. So, what do you need to talk about?"
It wasn't like I could bluntly turn the two of them away. Sudou began talking slowly, wearing a meek expression.
"You know how our homeroom teacher called me today? Well, it's… Uh… The truth is…I may be suspended. For a long time, actually."
"S-suspended?"
That was unexpected. Compared to how he'd acted at the start of the year, Sudou had been rather well behaved lately. He didn't sleep in class or talk during lectures, and he was doing well in his club activities.
"Did you insult Chabashira-sensei, by any chance?" I asked.
Sudou had been upset when Chabashira-sensei stopped him from going to basketball practice. With that in mind, he might've said something reckless.
"That's not it."
"Then what? Did you grab her by the collar and threaten to kill her or something?"
"That's not it, either."
Another denial. I hadn't expected that.
"It's probably worse than you're thinking…"
My first two guesses had been pretty serious, so if it was something worse, then…
"Oh, I got it, Ayanokouji-kun. He viciously beat Chabashira-sensei and then he spit on her!" Kushida cried.
"That's horrible. I mean, your wild ideas are way too awful, Kushida!"
"Ha ha, I'm only joking! Sudou-kun wouldn't go that far."
Even though I expected Sudou to immediately deny what she said, he seemed shocked by Kushida's joke. That was proof that something really was wrong.
"What happened?" I asked.
"To tell you the truth, I beat up some kids from Class C yesterday. Then, I got suspended. The suspension is probably my punishment."
Kushida was also shocked by Sudou's words. She shot me a look. I couldn't immediately process the fact that Sudou had gotten himself into trouble again.
"You beat them up? So, uh, why did you do that?" I asked.
"Just so you know, it wasn't my fault, okay? The jerks in Class C started it and tried to pick a fight with me. I just responded to the situation and turned the tables on them. Then they said that I started the fight. They're a bunch of liars."
Sudou still hadn't quite collected his thoughts. While I understood the gist of what he was saying, I still didn't know the fight's details or how it started.
"Just wait a minute, Sudou-kun. Can you please start over, and go a bit more slowly?" Kushida encouraged him to calm down and tried to get him to tell us the story.
"Sorry, I guess I just kind of skipped to the end and left a lot out."
Sudou took a deep breath and started over.
"I was talking with the club advisor about being a regular for the summer tournament."
I'd heard that Sudou was good at basketball, but I hadn't expected him to become a regular already.
"A regular player? That's amazing, Sudou-kun! Congratulations!"
"Well, nothing's set in stone yet. It's just a possibility for now."
"Still, that's amazing. We've only just started school."
"Yeah, I suppose. Actually, I was the only first-year student nominated to be a regular player. Still, it's not like it's definite. Anyway, when I was on my way back to the dorm, Komiya and Kondou, who're in the basketball club with me, called me over to the special building. They said they wanted to talk to me about something. I could've just ignored them, but I mean, I occasionally talk to those two guys during basketball. I thought it'd be better to just hear them out. So of course, I went to meet with them, right? Then, there was this Ishizaki guy there, waiting for me. He's Komiya and Kondou's friend.
They said that they couldn't stand that someone like me from Class D had been chosen as a regular. They threatened me, and said to quit basketball or there'd be a lot of pain in my future. I refused to quit, I beat them up, and now I'm here."
It was a rather hurried explanation, but I got the gist. Apparently Sudou was satisfied with his story.
"So then they painted you as the bad guy, Sudou-kun."
Sudou-kun nodded, an exasperated look still on his face. So the students in Class C had started the whole thing, and when their attempt to threaten Sudou had failed, they'd resorted to force. In other words, an act of violence. However, Sudou was an experienced fighter, so he'd managed to completely overwhelm them without breaking a sweat. Of course, they'd been injured. Since there was no evidence of what had happened, they'd lied the next day and told school officials that Sudou had beaten them up for no reason.
"If Class C started this, then Sudou-kun isn't at fault."
"Right? I seriously don't get this. I can't believe that teacher, either!"
"We should tell Chabashira-sensei tomorrow. We should tell her it wasn't Sudou-kun's fault," Kushida said.
Things probably wouldn't be so simple. Sudou must have already told the school what he'd just told us. But because he lacked clear evidence to support his claim, the school might still decide to punish him.
"Sudou, what did the school say when they heard what happened?"
"They said they would give me until next Tuesday to come up with proof. If I can't do that, they'll say I'm at fault and I'll be suspended until summer. On top of that, the whole class will lose points, too."
Apparently the school had decided to wait for evidence. However, Sudou appeared more worried about his basketball dreams than his suspension, or our class's loss of points. I guess he couldn't bear the thought of his youth being squandered.
"What should I do?"
"Sudou-kun, you didn't lie to the teacher, did you? I mean, it seems strange. They didn't believe you even though you said you didn't do anything wrong. Right?"
I felt bad for Kushida. She looked to me for affirmation, but I couldn't respond the way she wanted.
"Well, I wonder about that. I don't think it's quite that simple."
"What do you mean, you wonder? You're not doubting me, are you?"
"Well, the school doesn't trust you, right? It wouldn't be that odd for someone in your class, like Kushida, for instance, to support you even if you're lying. After all, they don't want their points to go down."
"Well…you might be right about that, I suppose."
Our current troubles wouldn't be resolved merely by discovering who'd started it. Perhaps those three students might face a one-week suspension themselves, as punishment. Those three guys had claimed they were beaten up. Without ironclad proof that Sudou wasn't at fault, he would definitely be punished. That meant only one thing.
"Even if the other party is at fault, it's still highly likely that Sudou will take some of the blame."
"Huh? Why? It was legitimate self-defense, wasn't it? Huh?!"
Sudou, clearly unable to understand, smacked the table. Kushida's shoulders stiffened in response.
"I'm sorry, I just got a little mad." After seeing Kushida's frightened expression, Sudou sheepishly apologized.
"But…why would Sudou-kun still take some of the blame?"
"Sudou hit them, but they didn't hit Sudou. I think that's a big part of it. In such a case, claiming it as legitimate self-defense is difficult. Had they come at you with a knife or a metal bat, I think things would have been quite different. Self-defense means that you have the right to defend yourself against sudden, dangerous attacks made against your person. So, I don't think we can really claim that this was self-defense."
How much consideration would be given in this situation?
"I-I don't understand, though. I was up against three people. Three! That seems plenty dangerous."
They'd likely take the number of people into account, but this was a delicate case. If the school were willing to place more weight on the number of people who'd attacked, Sudou could be declared innocent. However, it was dangerous to be optimistic.
"I think the school might have offered an extension because they found it difficult to make a judgment at this time."
As for the current proof, the key was in the injuries Sudou had given those three other students.
"I guess that their plan is to severely punish Sudou for punching them, huh?" Kushida said.
"Whoever reported it first has the advantage. The victim's testimony can work as evidence."
"I still don't get it. I'm the victim here! Being suspended isn't some kind of joke! If I'm punished for this, forget being a regular player. I won't even be able to play in the tournament!"
Those Class C students had purposefully allowed Sudou to beat them up in order to crush him. They wanted to destroy Sudou's chances of becoming a regular, even if that meant they might face some restrictions of their own. That was what I imagined their plan to be, anyway.
"Let's just come out and ask those three Class C students to be honest. If they feel like what they did was wrong, then surely they'd feel guilty about it. Right?"
"Those guys aren't idiots. They won't be honest. Goddamn it, I won't ever forgive them! Those damn nobodies!"
Sudou picked up a ballpoint pen from the table and, with a loud crack, snapped it in two. I understood that his blood was boiling, but that was my pen…
"If trying to explain the situation won't work, then we'll need to find ironclad proof," I said.
"Yeah. It would be nice if there was evidence that proved Sudou-kun wasn't to blame."
That'd be very nice, because then our suffering would end. However, Sudou didn't deny anything. He looked like he was deep in thought.
"There might be something, though. This might just be a misunderstanding on my part, but when I was fighting those guys I felt something…odd. Like someone was nearby, watching me."
He didn't sound entirely confident.
"So there might be an eyewitness?" I asked.
"Yeah, I think so. I don't have proof anyone was there, though."
An eyewitness. Hmm. If someone had seen everything, then that'd be great news for us. However, depending on how things went, it might drive Sudou further into a corner. For example, if the witness only saw the aftermath of their fight, that might spell Sudou's end.
"What should I do?" he asked.
Sudou buried his head in his hand. Kushida broke the heavy silence.
"There are two ways we can prove your innocence, Sudou-kun. The first way is to simply get those boys in Class C to admit that they lied. Since you weren't at fault, it's probably best to get them to acknowledge that."
That was absurdly idealistic.
"Like I already said, that's impossible. They won't admit they lied."
Like Sudou said, if they confessed to lying just to get someone else in trouble, they'd probably end up getting suspended themselves.
"The other idea is to find the eyewitness you talked about, Sudou-kun. If someone happened to see the fight, then we should be able to get to the heart of the matter."
Well, that was probably our only realistic plan.
"So, how do you intend to look for this eyewitness?"
"Asking people one by one? Or we could simply address each class as a whole," Kushida said.
"It would be great if someone just stepped forward, but…"
Since we'd been talking for quite some time, I started rummaging through the cupboard. I took out the instant coffee and tea packets that I'd bought at the school convenience store. Sudou wasn't really a fan of coffee, though. After preparing a kettle of hot water, I put everything on the table.
"This might sound kind of shameless, but…can you guys not tell anyone about this?" Sudou asked sheepishly. He took a cup and started blowing on it to cool it off.
"H-huh? You don't want us to tell anyone?" Kushida asked.
"If word gets out, it'll definitely get around to the basketball team. I don't want that to happen. You understand, right?"
"Sudou, even then, I—"
"Please understand, Ayanokouji. If I can't play basketball, I have nothing," Sudou pleaded, placing his hands on my shoulders.
Even if word didn't get out, this wasn't going to stay contained. If people found out that Sudou had used violence, they most likely wouldn't accept him on the team.
"But won't the students in Class C talk about how Sudou-kun was violent? I mean, that would work in their favor, I'd think."
That's exactly what I was thinking. It wouldn't be strange for them to talk about it amongst themselves, since that helped them and would hurt us. Sudou buried his head in his hands once again, as if to say "Seriously?!"
"What if word already got out?"
"No, at this stage it's probably only being discussed by the school and the people involved."
"Why do you think that?" Sudou asked.
"If those guys in Class C had intended to spread rumors, we probably would've heard about it already."
Representatives from the school had received a report and called Sudou in after class. There hadn't been any word about the incident this afternoon. At the very least, word probably hadn't spread much.
"So you think we're safe for now?"
How long would that last, though? Even if the school issued a gag order, word would eventually manage to get out. Before long, it'd spread. Right now, the only thing I could say with certainty was—
"Sudou-kun, I think it would be better if you kept your distance," Kushida said.
She seemed to understand everything.
"Yeah. It wouldn't be good if the accused tried anything," I replied, agreeing with Kushida.
"But, if I dump this on you guys—"
"I don't think it's being dumped on us. We want you to rely on us, Sudou-kun. I don't know how much we can do, but we'll try our best. Okay?" Kushida said.
"All right. I know this is a bother for you guys, but I'll leave it to you."
He seemed to understand that he'd only complicate things by getting involved.
"Well, we'll head back to our rooms. I'm sorry for barging in here."
"Don't worry about it. I just think it's weird that you made duplicate keys."
Sudou slid the key back into his pocket; he wasn't going to return it. Maybe I should put a chain lock on my door.
"See you tomorrow, Kushida."
"Yeah, bye-bye, Sudou-kun."
Sudou-kun left with a somewhat sad look on his face. His room was only a few doors down.
"Well. Aren't you heading back, Kushida?" I asked.
"I have a few things I wanted to talk to you about, Ayanokouji-kun. You didn't seem very enthusiastic about helping Sudou-kun."
As Kushida looked up at me with uneasy eyes, I had the sudden urge to embrace her. I stretched my back out and tried to shake those thoughts.
"There's just not much I can do. I mean, I can only really respond to Sudou's story. If it were Horikita or Hirata here, they'd probably be able to give expert advice."
"Maybe, but Sudou-kun came to you, Ayanokouji-kun. He came to you before Horikita-san, Hirata-kun, or even Ike-kun."
"I don't know if I should be happy about that or not."
"Hmm."
For an instant, Kushida's glare turned icy, which perplexed me. I remembered that Kushida once directly told me that she hated me. She always wore a gentle smile, so I occasionally forgot about that. But I might get burned if I forgot about it entirely.
"I think it might be better if you made more effort to blend in, Ayanokouji-kun," she said.
"I'm trying, more or less. I just haven't been able to. Like right now, I didn't have the guts to promise that I'd help."
She didn't share my anxiety about eating alone during lunchtime. Still, Kushida probably understood how I felt.
"Kushida, you're going to help, aren't you?"
"Of course. We're friends. So what will you do, Ayanokouji-kun?"
"Remember when I said it'd be better to talk with Horikita or Hirata? Well, Sudou hates Hirata, so that makes Horikita the obvious choice."
Though I doubted even Horikita could come up with a good enough plan to resolve this issue.
"Do you think Horikita-san will help us?"
"Don't know. We'll have to ask and find out. I don't think she'll just quietly stand by and watch as Class D collapses. Probably."
I lacked conviction. After all, this was Horikita we were talking about.
"I know that you're trying to dodge the question, but you'll help, too. Won't you, Ayanokouji-kun?"
I thought I'd managed to steer the conversation in another direction, but Kushida quickly brought it back.
"Is it okay if I'm useless?"
"You won't be useless. I'm sure you'll be useful, somehow."
She didn't clearly state how I'd be useful, though.
"So what should we do? Sudou-kun said that it wouldn't help, but I think it'd be good to talk with the three students he fought. To tell you the truth, I'm friends with Komiya-kun and the others. Therefore, it might be possible to persuade them. Hmm, it may be dangerous, though."
Kushida couldn't dismiss the idea of a conversation.
"It's risky. Aside from the question of who started the fight, those three reported it to the school. That means they have the upper hand. Also, I just don't think it would work, since they started it."
Getting them to admit they lied to the school wouldn't be easy. If the school found out, Class C would face a severe penalty. They wouldn't do something so foolish.
"Well then, I guess looking for the eyewitness is our best bet."
That would probably be just as difficult as persuading those three to tell the truth. Without any details to go on, finding the eyewitness would be next to impossible. Going around asking, "Did you see anything?" would be a waste of time and effort.
No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn't come up with any solutions.