【015】Atmosphere

□ School Underground Site Bulletin Board

#459 December 12, 11:45 PM
T killed Nechio.

#460 December 12, 11:46 PM
Hey, is that for real?

#461 December 12, 11:46 PM
You know how that class had really bad bullying? Apparently T’s at the center of it.

#462 December 12, 11:48 PM
Someone from T’s middle school here. T’s parents apparently died in an accident. Maybe he killed Nechio because he insulted his family.

#463 December 12, 11:49 PM
462. Genius.

#464 December 12, 11:51 PM
I’ve heard about that accident. Pretty sure they ran a red light.

#465 December 12, 11:53 PM
Ah, I heard it was a driving mistake though?

#466 December 12, 11:53 PM
Didn’t they hit someone?

#467 December 12, 11:54 PM
It’s all pretty vague, huh?

#468 December 12, 11:56 PM
Whatever, what’s the actual deal? Did T really kill him? No way I can sit in class with a murderer.

#469 December 12, 11:58 PM
You’d be killed first, wouldn’t you?

#470 December 13, 12:01 AM
Akigaoka’s scandals have always been terrible.

#471 December 13, 12:03 AM
T deserves to be bullied.

#472 December 13, 12:04 AM
This is punishment. Legitimate action.

#473 December 13, 12:05 AM
Whoa, Class 1-3 has entered the chat.

【Tamura Misaki】

“This is…”

When Satou-san and I entered the computer room, we went to the seat at the far end and pulled up the site called the school underground site.

“This is the true nature of the ‘atmosphere.'”

Satou-san scrolled through the bulletin board on the underground site. A storm of insults and abuse appeared one after another. It seemed to still be ongoing even now.

“This site itself has existed for a long time. But on this site, there’s definitely someone posting to make Misaki look like the bad guy.”

Satou-san seemed to be searching through the old bulletin boards.

“Hey, this is just hypothetical, but…”

“Hm?”

I looked at Satou-san’s face.

Satou-san kept talking while keeping her eyes on the computer.

“You hear this in mystery novels a lot, right? Like, someone actually wanted to kill Tanaka, and to avoid being suspected, they framed Misaki as the culprit.”

“…”

I held my breath.

If that were actually true, it would certainly be frightening.

“It looks like the people actively writing about Misaki are from Class 1-3.”

I said while reading through the flowing comments.

Occasionally, there were people whose comments were so distinctive that I could tell who they were.

“I’m not in Class 1-3, so I don’t know, but what kind of class is it?”

“Hmm, I wonder. I can’t really say anything weird from my perspective, but if I had to say, I think the school caste system is pretty clear.”

“School caste? What’s that?”

“Huh? You don’t know?”

“No.”

I was surprised, but I also understood.

In terms of the school caste, Satou-san would be in the upper tier. She was probably in a position where she didn’t need to be conscious of that term. Knowing that term means you’re conscious of it.

“Well, it’s like… status within the class?”

“Uh, huh?”

Satou-san seemed unable to understand the idea of status within a class.

“In our class, you can intuitively tell that people like Taniyama-kun, N—Nakano-san, Nishida-kun, and Takahashi-san are leading the class. Then in the middle tier are Ebina-san, Kurahashi-san—”

“W-wait a minute. Misaki, do you know everyone in your class?”

“? Yeah, I do?”

“That’s… kind of amazing.”

“???”

I didn’t really understand what was so amazing about it.

“Ah, found it. The very first comment.”

At Satou-san’s answer, I looked at the computer too.

There it was—

#035 October 18, 3:24 PM
Girl S in my class was groped.
The culprit is her childhood friend, boy T.

【Inoue Reina】

“Found it…”

While Nishida said the underground school site could be accessed by anyone, he hadn’t mentioned anything about the process of actually finding it. Thanks to that, I ended up spending an entire day searching for it.

To begin with, I find the very act of creating these underground sites disgusting. But that’s not the problem right now. Even if I deleted it, it would just pop up somewhere else. I have no intention of playing whack-a-mole.

The comments made me nauseous.

Is this what happens when anonymity is prioritized?

I felt like I’d grasped a bit of the abnormality of Class 1-3.

But there was a harvest.

This initial comment, I should call it.

Apparently the system records the time when comments are posted.

I was a bit surprised.

The time this comment was posted was on the day of the groping incident… no, right after it happened.

Which means…

【Takahashi Mika】

Huh? Wait, hold on, what?

Why are Tamura and Satou-san together?

Ah, what should I do? I feel like I saw something I shouldn’t have.

I saw them coming out of the computer room. Is something going on?

Those two should have a complicated relationship after the groping incident. This is the first time I’ve seen them together.

I don’t know. I feel uneasy.

Even after club activities ended, that feeling didn’t change.

What business could they have had in the computer room?

No, to begin with, not many people use the computer room after school, so were they looking for an empty room? But even so, why?

Come to think of it, everything’s been strange lately.

Including Nana.

Nana’s been hiding something recently.

She also looked irritated.

An indescribable anxiety.

My feet were heading toward the computer room.

Actually, wandering around school after dismissal time is prohibited, so I walked quickly.

I was about to enter the computer room when I stopped.

Someone’s there.

Who is it? Someone’s in there?

“—”

It was a miracle I didn’t make a sound.

Sitting in front of the computer.

Maintaining an expressionless face.

It was Nana.