The next day, during lunchtime…
'You did- WHAT?!' I exclaimed, almost choking on my onigiri.
Gōjun was as astounded as I was. We were both gawking at the reddish-brown-haired young man.
'It's so… vicious!'
'Oh, please!' Shunsui muttered at me, getting to his feet. 'They were not going to sleep with him! The woman, Rei, I chose her so that he doesn't suspect anything; she often goes to that bar. There was a photographer posted in front of the hotel where she was supposed to take him. And once they would have entered the building, she was supposed to tell him that she has to attend a nature's call and then disappear through a window of the bathroom. As to Tayuya Inukai, she is a student of another school. There was a camera recorder in her bedroom. She was only supposed to throw him into her bed, and then snatch the camera up to blackmail him with a video of his in such a compromising situation with a minor to push him to resign from the school. And, mind you! She was not alone in the apartment. There were two men posted in the living room, ready to intervene if he reacted violently.'
My expression turned awkward.
Apparently, he had thought about everything!
But, it's still vicious!
'I should have known it!' a voice exclaimed, out of the blue, causing us to freeze.
This voice… It's the voice of-
Slowly, we turned our heads around to stare at the red-haired male, without breathing.
Natsume-sensei!
The man had without any doubt overheard our whole conversation!
'I should have known it!' he repeated, his expression flabbergasted. 'Two consecutive proposals in a single weekend, it could not be true! The director didn't lie about you. I've been able to observe you myself. You spend your time intimidating everyone. Just who do you take yourself for, huh? For the small king?'
My heart skipped a beat, and instantly, I looked at Shunsui's face, feeling hurt for him; and so did Gōjun.
'Well, let me inform you that you've met your master!' the man stated, with rigor, thumbing at himself. 'I'm going to put an end to your reign, Shunsui Shigeizumi!'
And on these challenging words, he walking, calling the reddish-brown-haired young a wealthy brat over his shoulder.
I stared after the red-haired male for a minute, before I looked at Shunsui's face again.
Oh, Shunsui…
The latter exploded in a fury.
'Wah! Talk about of a "Gift of God"! What a despicable person! I hate him! How dare him?! This time, he has pushed the plug too far! That's enough! I'm calling Hideyoshi Daicho-san! I'm sure that he'll be able to find something or another on him that I could use against him!'
Eh?!
I cringed.
Hideyoshi Daicho? The Shigeizumi's family detective?!
Gōjun was equally surprised. 'You're going to ask Daicho-san to make an inquiry on him?!'
'Of course. As if I'm going to abstain myself!' Shunsui answered, with that terrifying glint returning to his eyes, and putting his fists up in front of himself, he roared, 'Saien Natsume, you better have a good stomach for it!'
***
After extracurriculars…
'Natsume-sensei!' I called, timidly, as I rounded the corner of the gymnasium.
Pausing down, he turned half-around to look at me from the distance, his expression a bit surprised.
'Kirigakure-kun...'
'May I speak with you for a minute?' I asked him, approaching him.
He looked further surprised.
'Okay,' he answered, scratching the back of his head a little, watching me intently. We both plumped ourselves down to sit there on the grass, with our knees almost to chest our chests. For a whole minute, I remained very quiet. I simply rested my folded arms on top of my knees, staring at the ground, not really knowing how to say what I wanted to say without sounding impudent.
'Kirigakure-kun, you wanted to tell me something, yes?' he stated, at one point.
I nodded in answer and decided to go for it at that moment, no matter how it would sound.
'Sensei, about Shunsui... you need to know that if he had been here, the life of the scholarship students would have been a real hell.'
I started recounting to him in a few words how the scholarship students and I had been the subject of Ijime and how the matter had been resolved, recounting to him some of the incidents with Hiyori Miyatsu as well.
Judging from the man's expression, he had not been aware of all of this.
'Shunsui… He does not use his power to reign upon others and crush them; he uses it to defend and protect the weakest,' I murmured, my eyes set on the ground again, a meek smile on my lips. 'It's very rare and very noble. And so, no, I don't think that he takes himself for the small king.'
I was looking at him again now. His expression was unfathomable.
'That's all I had to say,' I added, and getting to my feet, I bowed down to ask him to forgive me if he had found me impudent, before I left.
As I rounded the corner of the building, I almost tripped over someone's feet. That someone was none other than Gōjun.
I was surprised to see him.
Apparently, he had wanted to speak to the man too, to ask him to stop provoking Shunsui I suppose, but had paused down when he had seen me talking to him.
He was leaning against the side wall, with his hands dug in his pockets, his feet crossed in front of him, and without any doubt, he had been listening to everything.
I felt a little embarrassed at having been talking about Shunsui and he in their back. Not to forget that I had not informed them that I was going to speak to the red-haired male.
Straightening up, he shifted in front of me to fixate me for a minute before he, unexpectedly, cupped my chin with one of his hands and bent down to press his lips lightly against mine.
My eyes went wide; my heart skipping a beat.
When he pulled his face away, I touched my lips with my fingers to stare at him without blinking, my face all red.
There he goes, kissing me again!
What's happening to him?
He fixated me for another second or two, before he reached up again with his hand to flick me at the forehead, calling me silly.
Itai! Why did he do that?! I asked to myself, rubbing my forehead with my hand.
'Now, come on, Princess! Shunsui is waiting for us!' he declared and seizing my hand, he pulled it away from my face to hold it tightly into his, only to turn around and start dragging me away with him.
Oh, Gōjun...
***
Saien Natsume stared into the direction the dark-haired girl had taken for a whole while after she was gone, before he looked back in front of himself, pondering over what the girl had revealed to him on Shunsui Shigeizumi, as well as Gōjun Shoran.
Slowly, his mind drifted off to that young man named Junichi Okazaki, whose face was forever engraved in his memory. Junichi Okazaki and he were in high school together, and even in those days, Ijime was very common amongst schoolers. He was not very close to Junichi Okazaki, but he considered the latter as a friend. And he will always carry in his heart the regret of having failed to protect the latter from their classmates. He had no power over them. Junichi Okazaki has already left this world. He had committed suicide while they were still in high school because he could no longer support the Ijime he would suffer every day.
Shunsui Shigeizumi… I was wrong in judging your character. And I see that you have succeeded where I have failed, Saien Natsume thought to himself, lifting his eyes to gaze up at the sky. And that first day, when I think about it... I was angry- I still am; I don't understand this sentence that the judges have passed on me- and I took onto Kirigakure-kun only because I needed someone to take out my anger on. Her only crime was her bad timing. She was late in class and she became my target. And when you tried to defend her, you became my target as well. All this while, I'm been taking on the two of you without any motive. I haven't stopped taking my anger out on the two of you, as well as everyone else. But why am I so angry when I know what has brought me to this? I'm pathetic! I should apologize.
***
The following day…
We were on our way to the gymnasium after the end of classes to attend extracurriculars, when Shunsui's cellphone rang once.
Pausing down, he took it out of his pocket to look at the screen, his expression filling with anticipation as he informed us, almost breathlessly, 'It's Daicho-san. He has just submitted his report to me via e-mail. However, he warns me that it's still incomplete, but that he should be able to find more information soon. It doesn't matter! I'm opening it!'
Having paused down too, Gōjun and I looked at each other's face, holding our breaths.
'The report says that Saien Natsume started his career not as a teacher but as a lawyer. In fact, he has never taught before. Within a decade, he became a judge. I can't believe it! That guy is an ex-judge! But he has been removed of his office, and the reason cited is: criminal conviction!'
My eyes went wide.
A criminal conviction?
'Oh my god! I can't believe this! It's not possible!' Shunsui exclaimed, his tone stupefied, as he continued to read, his eyes darting across the screen. 'That guy- He's a murderer!'
'What?!' Gōjun and I gasped out together in shock.
'He has killed his WIFE, dammit! He is a convict under a suspended prison sentence! Apparently, there were mitigating factors! As community order, the court has passed on him an unpaid work requirement at a school! I don't understand this! How could a court have passed such a sentence?! He had been working at another school for around a year, but when the school got closed down last week, he was sent here. I can't believe it! How could he have joined Shigeizumi High School?!'
I was not breathing anymore. None of us were.
How is this possible? He has killed his wife?!
'Saien Natsume! I would never have thought to find something like this on you!' Shunsui declared, his expression grave. 'It's completely out of the question now that you stay in this school, you bloody psychopath!'
Just at that moment, the red-haired male came into view. He was coming into our direction, where we were standing behind the gymnasium.
'We need to talk!' he called at us from afar.
Clenching his teeth, Shunsui stepped forward, preparing to confront him, but Gōjun and I reacted on the spot. We both caught the reddish-brown-haired young man by his forearms with both our hands to stop him.
'Shunsui, wait! I think we should wait for Daicho-san to send us his full report,' Gōjun told him.
'We don't know exactly what happened!' I seconded, giving him a pleading look. 'We should wait to learn more about it first.'
'Have you both lost it?' he shouted at us, angrily. 'That guy has killed his wife!'
He shook our hands off him and went forward to meet up with the red-haired male, both stopping a few feet away from us.
Gōjun and I exchanged another look with each other, agitatedly.
'What is it?' the man inquired, giving us an intrigued look.
'We know about what you did, Saien Natsume!' Shunsui roared at him. 'We know that you have killed your wife!'
The red-haired male's eyes went wide in shock and he wavered a little.
'Why did you kill her, huh?! Is it because you didn't love her?!'
The man's eyes grew even wider.
'Or maybe, it's because you considered that she had become a burden for you because she was ill!'
Upon this, the man exploded in a fury.
Fisting Shunsui by his collar with both of his hands, he shoved the latter violently against the side wall to shout at him, with wide bulging eyes, 'Shut up! Just shut up! I loved her! I loved her more than anything else in the world! She was everything for me! But she had terminal cancer!'
His voice cracked.
My heart skipped a beat.
'The doctors couldn't do anything for her anymore. And while she was agonizing, she begged me to help her to commit suicide! She knew that she wouldn't have the strength to do it on her own! And yes, I killed her! With my own hands! I killed her! And in her last breath, she thanked me! It made me want to die!'
Time seemed to come to a standstill.
We stared at the red-haired male, completely frozen.
Not only did he lose the person that he loved the most in this world, but he had to help that person take her own life in order to put an end to her suffering. And he knew what would happen to him after that.
I couldn't even imagine his pain; what he must be going through.
Tears had welled up his eyes now, and falling onto his knees on the ground, he held his face with his hands as he cried.
'We were supposed to grow old together. She didn't deserve this. I didn't deserve it either. No, we didn't!'
Natsume... sensei...
Wiping his eyes and getting to his feet then, he walked away slowly to grieve far away from our eyes, while we all stood there, completely motionless and utterly voiceless.
For a whole moment after he was gone out of sight, none of us could muster the courage to speak a single word, until Shunsui smacked his hand in his own face to mutter at himself, 'Dammit! I'm so stupid!'
Gōjun and I looked at him.
Oh Shunsui…
My heart clenched.
His expression was filled with guilt.
Thank you for reading!
Glossary
Onigiri - rice ball
Saien - means "Gift of God"