【003】Daily Life

【Tamura Misaki】

When I arrive at school, I take out my indoor shoes from my bag. I swap them for my sneakers at the shoe locker. The sneakers go back into my bag.

This is behavior based on experience gained from being bullied continuously through elementary, middle, and now high school. If I leave either my indoor shoes or sneakers behind, they disappear. As a bonus, my shoe locker gets treated like a trash can. Better to carry them myself from the start.

I glance at my locker anyway.

Pervert. Trash. Die. Et cetera.

Written in permanent marker, and the locker itself is dented from being punched.

This is terrible. Way too terrible.

I look away.

I can’t stand to keep looking.

“Ah—”

A voice from behind.

I turn around, and my body stiffens slightly.

A female student.

She wears her uniform pushed to the absolute limit of what the school rules allow, establishing it as her fashion statement. A red muffler wraps around her neck.

Hair color close to red, with large eyes.

Her naturally well-formed features are twisted.

I try to maintain a poker face.

But I don’t know if I succeed.

She is Satou Akane.

She was my childhood friend.

“…”

I turn my back to Satou-san.

Right now, I can’t look directly at her face.

Satou-san is the victim of that groping incident. I’m being treated as the perpetrator. Satou-san should have known I wasn’t the perpetrator.

I don’t hate her. That’s honest.

Satou-san had no choice but to follow the atmosphere at that time. If that’s the case, it can’t be helped. I try to accept it as something beyond forgiving or not forgiving.

But when Nanaka-san told me that Satou-san was actually the one who created that atmosphere, I was confused.

Everything I’d built up until now felt like it was crumbling all at once.

“Ah, Misa—”

I start walking. I might hear a voice from behind. I ignore it.

I stand before the classroom door. Laughter echoes from inside. Another day begins. I feel slightly heavy-hearted.

I open the door and try to enter.

Thud.

Something falls on my head.

White powder scatters over my head and shoulders with a flutter.

Clatter—the thing that fell on my head drops to my feet.

The moment I enter the classroom, all sound falls silent.

Snicker. Snicker snicker. Snicker snicker snicker.

Small laughs make the silence stand out even more.

What fell was a chalkboard eraser. One thoughtfully loaded with plenty of chalk dust. I inhale the swirling powder and can’t help coughing.

“Oh, wait, it was Tamura?”

The voice echoing through the classroom belongs to a male student.

Taniyama-kun, the de facto leader of this classroom. Excellent grades, outstanding athletic ability—an elite. He continues in a somewhat monotone voice.

“I was really trying to get Kumai, you know. Man, you’re unlucky.”

Kumai is our homeroom teacher’s name.

A blatant lie.

This class is a little strange.

No, it’s very strange.

This atmosphere has become the norm.

They see my state and snicker, or think serves you right. Punishment for a criminal. They brandish the righteous cause of punishment magnificently. The atmosphere says that’s correct.

I pick up the chalkboard eraser and place it in front of the blackboard. Then I head to the water fountain to clean off the powder.

Before I can open the classroom door, it opens.

The male student who appears sees me and lets out a startled sound.

Nishida-kun, the class representative.

“Whoa, that’s filthy.”

Nishida-kun says it loud enough for me to hear, then walks past. He greets Taniyama-kun from the same group.

Entering late is Nanaka-san.

Nanaka-san sees me and her eyes widen.

I immediately look away.

When Nanaka-san enters the classroom, classmates swarm around her.

“Mornin’, Nana!”

“Good morning, Mika.”

Takahashi Mika-san, Nanaka-san’s best friend, hugs her.

A happy, warm scene.

I’m not in it.

My existence has been erased.

◇

I clean my powder-covered uniform and hair at the water fountain and return to the classroom. My desk is in the second-to-last row on the hallway side. Having only one neighbor is lucky for me.

Today, my desk is covered in powder.

Apparently, there’s a chalk powder boom happening today.

I wipe away the powder with tissues and throw them in the trash. While I’m doing this, our homeroom teacher Kumai-sensei enters.

“All right, no problems today either.”

Kumai-sensei recognizes the bullying but has thoroughly adopted a policy of ignoring it. Perhaps the school itself has decided to ignore it.

According to what I’ve heard, Akigaoka Academy caused a scandal several years ago. They were severely criticized then. Because of that, they apparently don’t want to make problems public.

The weekly greeting activities are also part of an image improvement campaign, or so they say.

First period is math with Tanaka-sensei, nicknamed Necchi.

I’m going to be forced to do difficult problems again.

Every time after class, I look them up, and apparently they’re university-level problems.

Tanaka-sensei’s classes consist entirely of him talking and writing on the board. You can’t even solve a problem like this? That’s his catchphrase.

That day, I’m called on.

I stand in front of the blackboard, chalk in hand.

I don’t understand the problem, of course.

I know because I never skip prep work or review. This problem isn’t within the high school curriculum.

I hear snickering from behind.

I freeze in front of the blackboard, chalk in hand.

…I put down the chalk.

“…I don’t know.”

“You don’t understand even this kind of problem?”

Tanaka-sensei’s slightly high-pitched voice echoes through the classroom.

“You just wasted three minutes of our time. Time is finite. I’ve given you so many chances already, but you show absolutely no signs of improvement. Chances don’t just come to you on their own. You need to be able to solve at least this level of problem. Hey, do you even prep? Aren’t you just pretending you did? Huh?”

Nag nag nag.

Tanaka-sensei keeps going.

His expression shows superiority.

“Really, this class has excellent people like Taniyama-kun and Nakano-kun, but someone like you drags down the class’s grades. Do you understand? If your grades are low, it negatively affects me too. You’re really pathetic.”

Tanaka-sensei grins.

I’ve heard his words many times now, but they’re still sharp words that gouge out my heart.

“Really, it’s probably because you weren’t raised properly.”

Tanaka-sensei says that.

“—”

…What?

【Nakano Nanaka】

Misa-kun froze.

His eyes widened at Necchi’s words.

Misa-kun, who hadn’t shown any wavering even with all that bullying, had his emotions nearly surface when the topic of his parents was touched.

After that, Misa-kun was told various things by Necchi and returned to his seat. He was dazed afterward.

Seeing Misa-kun’s state.