After I Picked up a Notebook Filled With Intense Emotions, the Girls Started Acting Strange - Chapter 52

─At the same time, Yuu started reading the notebook.

I couldn’t remember who the girl in front of me was for a moment.

But when I saw the thick, bottle-bottom glasses she wore, a flash of the past suddenly came back to me.

“…Uh.”

No voice came out.

I should have been able to scream, but my throat was completely dry, and I couldn’t force out a sound.

“Do you remember now? I know everything you did to Yuu-chan… to Shiomi-kun and me.”

“…Gasp.”

“You’re such an idiot, so I’ll kindly explain it to you. You don’t have a place to belong anymore.”

“…Wha…huh?”

“Because you made your girlfriend kneel in front of everyone. There’s no way you can talk your way out of that.”

This is bad. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad.

Realizing just how bad things were, cold sweat began pouring from me.

“And that’s not all. Everything you’ve said and done up until now… it will spread through the whole school.”

One step.

The girl who used to look pretty now seemed like a demon.

Another step.

As she came closer, I stepped back.

“You were wrong about everything.”

“A-a-ah…”

“I’ll expose everything to the light of day. I already have witnesses, proof, everything. You can look forward to it once we come back from the field trip.”

“Aa-a-ah…”

“How does it feel? Being crushed by the very people you stepped on?”

I fell onto my backside.

The dirt beneath me was slightly damp, but I had no time to care.

I felt the cold wetness seep through.

“You read it, right? I wrote that I would take everything from you. It already started a long time ago. Everything you thought you built, your grades, your club activities, even your normal daily life… all of it. Once people lose trust in you, you have no place left.”

“…Aaaaah.”

The heavy stress hit me all at once. I bent over and threw up on the spot.

My stomach hurts.

“Disgusting.”

Rei looked down at me and muttered.

She no longer looked at me like I was a human being.

“There is one good thing for you, though.”

“…Huh?”

I couldn’t understand what she meant.

Good thing?

Rei crouched down to meet my eyes and smiled sweetly.

It was the perfect smile of a beautiful goddess, one that could charm anyone.

…C-could it be? Could this be a prank? T-that must be it!!

Even now, I clung to convenient hope. A tiny bit of light returned to my eyes.

“There were one, no, two things in my plan that I didn’t expect.”

“…”

“One was Sena-san. Your childhood friend. The other was Orihara-san, the girl searching for her savior. At first, I planned to crush you all by myself… but things changed after I learned about them. I guided both of them so they would hate you.”

“…Aaaah.”

“So maybe those two girls might be misunderstanding you.”

I had an idea of what she meant.

Those two girls who had always been kind to me. Suddenly, they had changed completely out of nowhere.

At first, I thought Yuu had brainwashed them or tricked them. But after hearing Rei’s words, I finally understood why it happened.

It was all controlled by the demon standing in front of me.

If not, there was no way those two would think I was annoying. The reason they started treating me harshly was the person right here…

I wasn’t wrong. I wasn’t wrong. I wasn’t wrong…

“Look.”

“…?”

I turned my head in the direction she pointed at, by reflex.

“─Gasp.”

The strong orange light of the sunset poured through the trees, and the shadows stretched into strange shapes.

The edge of a shadow.

Someone once told me about that. If a couple sees it together, they will never share the same fate again.

And that shadow appeared right before me.

“Aah. Looks like we’re finished.”

“A-aaah…”

“Hehe. Let’s end this, shall we? I want you to lose everything. Yeah, even your life.”

As she said that, Rei stood up and took something from her pocket. A blade glinted in the light.

The moment I saw it, I understood that my life was in danger.

“U-uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.”

I let out a pathetic scream and ran for my life.

─She’s going to. She’s going to kill me!!!

Crying with tears and snot streaming down my face, I ran desperately.

I reached the resting area earlier, but didn’t look around and just kept running wildly.

And then I saw her.

“Haa, haa, haa… Y-Yukina!!!”

I grabbed onto her with all my strength. She was the only hope I had left. The fragile hope I heard earlier.

Yukina looked confused at my horrible and panicked face.

“Y-Yukina!! Listen!! Please listen!! Everything, everything was planned!! All of it, by that woman!!”

“Hey. Calm down, Shindou-kun. That woman?”

“Rei!! She tricked you!! She made you hate me on purpose!!!”

“Oh, really?”

“T-That’s… That’s it!? I’m begging you here!!!”

I shouted at Yukina’s carefree response.

On the other hand, she answered me calmly.

“Hey, Shindou-kun. Can I say one thing?”

“H… huh?”

And then.

“I already knew everything.”

She laughed.

…W-what?

I couldn’t think at all. But I knew one thing. I couldn’t stay here. If I stayed, I would be killed… just like before…!

“Uaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!”

I ran again.

I ran in despair and was completely out of control. I fell on the way, scraped my knees, bled, but I didn’t care. I just kept running and climbing the hill in a broken, desperate state.

“Hah… hah… hah… hah… uuh…”

I had run wildly for too long. My breath was ragged, and my stomach felt even worse than before.

I needed a toilet, but I couldn’t think anymore. I just stood there.

“Arata.”

A voice called from behind.

When I turned around, my childhood friend was there and was smiling.

“M-Mizuki. Mizukiii!!”

Yeah. My childhood friend. The one who knew me best. If anyone would save me, it was her.

Clinging to that hope, I stumbled toward her.

“What’s wrong? You look awful. Really, Arata is always like this. You can’t do anything without me.”

“…Ha. Haha…”

Ah, that’s right. This was it. This warmth. This is my childhood friend.

In the end, the only one I could trust was her.

Tears slid down my cheeks from relief.

The sunset was behind her, so her expression was dark and hard to see. But I could tell she was smiling.

“Mizuki… I… I… without you…”

“Come on, I can’t understand you if you cry that much. Look at me. Tell me what happened.”

“H-help me… everyone is… everyone is after me…”

“Hmm.”

“I didn’t do anything!! Nothing!! Please believe me…!!!”

“Yeah, yeah… that’s right. That’s right… That’s right.”

“…Mizuki?”

“…”

“M-Mizuki?”

“…”

Something felt wrong. She had been listening kindly a moment ago, but suddenly she fell silent. Even when I called her name, she didn’t answer. I slowly lifted my face.

And there.

“…”

“Hyaaah!?”

A smile filled with madness.

“You think I’d forgive you?”

“N-no… no!! That wasn’t… I was tricked─”

“Didn’t I already tell you?”

“…Huh?”

“I said I knew everything.”

Earlier. She must mean what Yukina said.

She knew everything?

She knew everything from the start and still chose to corner me?

She knew and still hated me until now?

“H-haha…”

This was a bad dream. A nightmare.

It had to be a dream. If I just slept and woke up, everything would disappear.

I dropped to the ground while holding my head in a daze.

I no longer knew what was real and what was a lie. Even the things I trusted were shattered. Nothing made sense anymore.

“A-Arata! Are you okay!? Ah, Imaoka-kun!! Can you come here!?”

Mizuki raised her voice in fake worry and waved at Imaoka, who just happened to be passing by.

“A-Arata!? What happened!?”

“Shindou-kun?”

“H-hey…”

Classmates gathered around me in worry.

“Arata…?”

And the moment Imaoka touched my shoulder.

“D-Don’t!!! Don’t touch meeeeeeeeeee!!!!”

I snapped.

“H-hey!! Calm down!!”

I pushed Imaoka’s hand away and thrashed wildly.

But then─

Gururururururu.

My stomach screamed in pain.

“M-move!!! Move out of my wayyyyyyyyy!!!!”

I shouted while forcing everyone back as I tried to run to find a toilet.

“S-Shindou. Calm down!!”

“Yeah? Tell us what happened!! Okay!?”

But everyone tried to stop me while thinking I was acting strange.

“I said get out of my wayyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!”

And then─.

“Ah… ah… ah… ah… aaa… aaah…”

I suddenly went quiet.

Everyone around me relaxed a little. But then.

“Ugh, that stinks.”

“S-Shindou?”

“No way, right…?”

A loud fart and an unpleasant sound echoed, and the crowd screamed.

“A-Arata… did you…”

“…”

“…”

“…”

No one could say anything.

“Aaaah… Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!”

My scream echoed through the entire area. And then.

“Bye-bye, Arata.”

◇◇◇

Afterword

I added a depiction content notice to the title because of the scenes.

Sorry for showing something so dirty.

Believe it or not, this version is actually a little milder.

(Not that part. That part isn’t milder.)

At first, I wrote it so that he pushed everyone away, fell down the hill, almost died, and then messed himself up.

While writing, I even started to feel a little sorry for him.

It was too much that he became way too broken, so I toned it down a bit.

Even so, it might still feel like a bit too much karma.

Well, maybe some people feel refreshed after reading it.

There is 1 chapter left, or maybe 2 if I can’t fit everything.

Please stay with me until the end.

If you can, I’d love to hear your reviews, ratings, and comments!