2 Chapter 3.1: The unexpected witness Part 1

The class was temporarily excited but quickly returned back to reality. Like yesterday, they were trying to get information about witnesses.

On the other hand, I was standing in the back of a room like a ghost, feeling admiration for Ike's group and Kushida for being able to casually converse back and forth.

It was as clear as day that I, who can't even talk coherently, wasn't fit for the job of looking for witnesses. How can they talk so easily to strangers? They're monsters.

During the investigation, they gathered not only names but also asked for contact addresses. Kushida's presence probably prompted them to tell her their addresses immediately after being asked. That's also a great talent...

Even though Kushida and her group were walking to the second-year classrooms and asking all the upperclassmen, there haven't been any leads.

As time kept ticking, the number of students left after school was rapidly decreasing. When we stopped passing by other students, we decided to call it a day.

"We didn't find anything today either..."

In order to revise our strategy, everyone returned to my room.

Soon after, Sudou came by and joined in the discussion.

"What happened today? Was there any progress made?"

"Sadly, no progress was made. Sudou, was there actually a witness?'

I understand Ike's feelings of doubt. Even after the school reported the same information, there was no indication at all that a witness actually existed.

"Hah? I never said that there actually was a witness. I only said that I thought there was a witness."

"Is... is that so?"

"Certainly, Sudou-kun didn't say 'I saw'. He said that he thought someone was there."

"Couldn't that just have been a hallucination? You must be doing some strong drugs."

No, that's a bit too far... Sudou put Ike in a headlock.

"Hey—! I give, I give!"

While the two fooled around, Kushida and Yamauchi were still puzzling over the situation.

After the discussion continued on for ten minutes, Kushida spoke up, having come up with a new idea.

"I think it might be better to change the direction of our efforts. For example, let's look for a witness that might've witnessed the incident."

"Look for a witness that witnessed the incident? Isn't that kind of useless?"

"Are you going to look for the people who went into the building that day?"

"Yeah. What do you think?"

The idea's not bad. There might've been a few people that entered the building on that day, but the entrance is pretty easy to spot. In other words, if someone says that they saw a person entering the special building, we would be getting closer to finding the witness.

"That sounds like a good idea. Let's do that immediately."

When I noticed, Sudou was using up his stamina on a mobile game he got addicted to recently. It looked like it was called the "Generation of Miracles" something, but I didn't really know what was happening. After winning the match, he made a triumphant pose.[1]

Even though Sudou really couldn't do anything in the present situation, Ike and Yamauchi look disgruntled. However, since they were scared of Sudou's counter-attack, they decided not to point out their own dissatisfaction. Both of them stayed silent, pretending not to have seen anything.

It's almost Friday already. It'll be difficult to get anything useful on the weekend.

In other words, the actual time we have to find a witness is very short.

The bell rang and a visitor appeared at my door.

The small group of people that regularly visit my room have already gathered, so it was probably that person.

"Has progress been made?"

Horikita asked with a condescending attitude even though she probably knew the answer to her own question.

"No... not yet."

"I'm only saying this because it's you, but I have something—"

While she was talking, she realized there were a lot of shoes lined up at the doorway.

She turned around and held herself back in a panic.

Kushida popped out, probably worried that she would head back quickly.

"Oh, Horikita-san!'

Kushida waved at Horikita with a smile. Looking at her cheerful attitude, Horikita naturally let out a sigh.

"You can't run now, you know?"

"Seems that way..."

Horikita entered the room reluctantly.

"O-oh, Horikita!"

Of course, Sudou was the happiest to see her. He put his game on pause and looked up.

"Did you decide to help? I'm glad you decided to join."

"I don't intend to help. After all, you haven't found the witness yet, right?."

Kushida nodded her head dejectedly.

"If you didn't come to help, why'd you come?"

"I was wondering what kind of plan you guys had."

"I'm happy even if you're only going to listen to the plan. I wanted advice as well."

Kushida then told her about the plan that she came up with a short while ago. Horikita's expression was stiff throughout the whole explanation.

"It's not a bad plan. It might even produce results with enough time."

Time is definitely the issue here. It's doubtful if we'll be able to get anything done in the few days we have remaining.

"Now that I've checked up on the situation, I'll be leaving."

In the end, Horikita decided to leave without even sitting down.

"Did you think of something?"

When she was standing at the door earlier, she clearly had something to say.

She's not that amicable to have come to my room for no reason.

"...I'll give one piece of advice to help your weak efforts. It's hard to see what's right in front of you, after all. If there really is someone that witnessed the incident, then that person is most likely close by."

The information that Horikita gave us was much more significant than I thought it would be.

She's talking as if she already found the witness we weren't sure existed in the first place.

"What do you mean, Horikita? Are you saying you found the witness?"

Surprise and doubt came first before joy for Sudou. It's understandable.

Everyone, including me, was in disbelief until she replied.

"Sakura-san."

An unexpected name came from Horikita.

"Sakura-san, from our class...?"

Yamauchi and Sudou exchanged glances. They looked confused as to who Sakura was. That was probably expected, though. I also had to think about it for a bit.

"The witness is that girl."

"Why do you say that?"

"When Kushida-san was asking the class for witnesses, she looked down. A lot of the students were looking at Kushida-san, but she was the only one that looked uninterested. She wouldn't have acted that way if she actually was unrelated to the incident."

I didn't notice at all. Horikita's powers of observations are really impressive.

"Since you're one of the people that were staring at Kushida-san, it's only natural."

What a sarcastic tone.

"So, you're saying that this Sakura, Kokura something person is probably the witness?"

Sudou said something reasonable, unlike the role of a boke.

"No, Sakura-san is definitely the witness. Her actions made it obvious. Although she may not admit it, she's who you're looking for."

Horikita was acting like her usual self.

All of us were moved that Horikita was doing this for the class.

"Did you really do this for my sake...!"

Sudou looked especially moved.

"Nope. I just didn't want to waste this time and look shameful to the other classes. That's all."

"Um, so in short, you're saying that you helped us right?"

"You can interpret it however you want, but I'm just saying that you're wrong."

"Don't lie~. You're just a tsundere, Horikita~"

Ike hit Horikita's shoulders playfully, but she threw his arm onto the ground.

"Ouch!"

"Don't touch me. There better not be a next time, because I'll despise you until we graduate."

"I-I won't touch... even if I tried to touch... Ow, ow!"

She pinned him down in a headlock. Unfortunate, but he deserved it.

At any rate, those weren't the movements of a normal girl. Since her older brother does karate and aikido, does she do martial arts too?

"My a-arm is...!"

"Ike-kun."

Horikita talked to Ike, who was on the floor in pain. Isn't this just overkill?

"Should I revise it to, 'Despising you until we graduate won't cut it?'"

"Uu! Sho cruel!"

Ike was defeated by those final words.

But Sakura, huh... Of all people, it was a class D student.

It's hard to say whether or not this is a good thing.

"Isn't that great, Sudou? If it's a class D student, we definitely have testimony!"

"Yeah. I'm happy that there is a witness, but who is this Sakura person? Do you know her?"

Yamauchi replied in surprise.

"Are you being serious? She sits right behind you."

"No, that's wrong. She's diagonally in front of you to the left, right?"

"Both of you are wrong... she's diagonally in front of Sudou-kun to the right."

Kushida corrected them with a pout.

"Diagonally in front to the right... I don't remember. I do know that there is someone though."

That's obviously a given. If the seat diagonally in front to the right was empty, that would be strange.

This girl, Sakura, certainly doesn't stand out. It's a big problem that we don't know who she is.

"I probably know her, but I don't exactly know where I've heard her name."

I can't quite put my finger on it.

"Tell us how she looks like."

"Well, would it help if I say that she has the biggest boobs in the class? Excessively big, you know?"

Ike, who looked lively again, told us her physical characteristics, but I don't know who she is with that explanation.

"Oh, that plain glasses girl, huh?"

How'd you understand with just that...? I drew back a bit.

"It's bad to remember people like that, Ike-kun. That's pathetic."

"N-No, it's different, Kushida-chan. I'm not trying to be offensive. You know how you might remember a tall person by their height? It's just like that! The only difference is that I'm remembering other people by a different characteristic...!"

Ike tried to smooth over the situation when Kushida quickly lost faith in him. But it's too late.

"Damn it! It's different, it's different! I don't like a plan girl like her! Don't misunderstand!"

No, I don't think there are any misunderstandings here.

Everyone else shifted the topic towards Sakura as Ike broke down crying.

"Then the next step is to find out how much Sakura-san knows. Does anyone know?"

"Hmm, I'm not sure. We'll have to ask her directly."

"Can't we go to her room right now? We don't have much time."

The proposal from Yamauchi seems safe, but it also depends on her personality and character.

Sakura is an unusually shy girl. If people she didn't know very well suddenly appeared at her doorstep, it's easy to imagine that she would be confused.

"Then should we call her?"

Speaking of which, I forgot that Kushida has everyone's contact addresses in the class.

Kushida was on the phone for 20 seconds, but she shook her head and put her phone away.

"No, it didn't connect. I'll try again later, but it's a difficult matter."

"What do you mean?"

"She told me her contact address, but I think she'll be annoyed if I try to contact her, especially since she doesn't know me very well. Also, I don't think she was actually there to pick up the phone."

She might also be pretending to be gone.

"So she's kinda like Horikita?"

Why would you even think to ask that in front of the person herself, Ike?

She probably wouldn't mind. Rather, it didn't seem like she was interested in what Ike was saying either.

"Goodbye."

"Ah, Horikita-san!"

Looking like she was caught off guard, Horikita quickly stood up and walked towards the door.

By the time I got up and chased after her, I heard the sound of the door closing.

"Tsundere."

Sudou looked happy as he laughed, scratching his nose with his index finger.

She doesn't have tsun, nor does she have dere. I think she's a lost cause... No tsun, no dere.

Since we couldn't do anything about Horikita's absence, the conversation continued without her.

"I think Sakura-san's just a shy person. That's the impression I get from her."

It's strange to talk about a person's character without ever having talked to them before.

"Anyway, she's plain. It's a complete waste of what she has."

While talking, Yamauchi gestured towards his breasts.

"Yea, yea. Her boobs are super big, though. That's cute by itself!"

Ike seems to have already forgotten the regret he felt a few seconds ago and started to get excited.

Ah, but Kushida had a strained smile. Noticing her expression, Ike regretted his words once again.

This is a perfect example of a living being that keeps repeating its mistakes.

The problem is that even though I'm staying quiet, I feel like I'm getting treated the same way as Ike and Yamauchi. Kushida expression seems to say, "You're also obsessed with the boobs, right? You pervert." Of course, this is my own persecution complex.

"Um, about Sakura's face... Nope, don't remember anything."

I can barely match the name to the face. I remember seeing her face back when we were doing the bets. I also remember her breasts, though. Somehow, it seems like I'm just the same as the others...

Sakura gives off the impression that she would always be alone and hunched over.

"Which reminds me, I don't know if she actually talks to anyone. How about you, Yamauchi? Wait, wait a second... Yamauchi, you said that you confessed to her before, right? Were you able to talk to her?"

Oh right, Yamauchi did say that he confessed.

"Ah, ah. Well, I don't remember if I did such a thing."

Yamauchi pretended to have forgotten.

"Was it a lie..."

"Bah. No, I wasn't lying. It was a misunderstanding. It wasn't Sakura, it was a girl from the neighboring class. A girl who isn't as ugly and gloomy as Sakura. Oh, sorry, give me a sec."

Yamauchi dodged the question and took out his phone.

Sakura may be plain, but she's not ugly. I've never looked at her face directly, but she has pretty nice facial features.

But even then, I can't say with confidence because she has such a thin presence.

"First of all, I'll try to talk to her by myself tomorrow. She might be wary if there are a lot of people."

"That sounds good."

If Kushida isn't able to get through to her, probably no one can.