Every Sin Deserves Punishment - Chapter 4: Classmates from Elementary School Days

Chapter 4: Classmates from Elementary School Days

I lost the fight against the upperclassmen.

Even with Nakiri joining my side, making the numbers even, they were still bigger in size. In hindsight, it was a fight we had no chance of winning. I lay on the ground, face up, accepting the stinging pain and the fact that we had lost.

On the other hand, perhaps the fact that we showed resistance made an impact. I no longer had to see the irritating faces of the upperclassmen.

After the fight with the upperclassmen, I became friends with Nakiri Yukiha, a classmate.

Though we became friends, all we did was compete against each other. We compared who could draw better on a piece of drawing paper.

We competed in the batting center to see who could roll the ball forward more times.

We wrote book reports and compared their quality, and we also had foot races. We compared everything we could.

I don’t even know why we were so competitive. Still, every day was fun, and I forgot about time more than when I played with friends of the same gender.

Nakiri probably felt the same way. As soon as the end-of-day ceremony in the classroom was over, we would rush out together, competing with each other. I thought those days would go on forever.

One day, there was a change in the days I spent playing with Nakiri.

“Umm… umm…”

At the twilight hour, in the sandpit soaked in orange light, I heard a hesitant voice calling out to me.

I frowned. I was in the middle of a contest with Nakiri. We were focusing all our energy on making the best sandcastle.

I might be overtaken by Nakiri while exchanging words with this person. Nakiri should deal with them instead. I thought about it and went back to my work.

No matter how many minutes passed, the presence did not fade away. I could feel someone standing very close.

I glanced at my competitor and met her chestnut eyes.

There was silence, but I understood what she wanted to say. Her usually composed expression looked somewhat uncomfortable.

I, too, felt a simmering sense of guilt within me. I couldn’t ignore them any longer.

Nakiri and I looked up at the same time.

A boy and a girl were standing there. I think I had seen them in the classroom before, but I didn’t know their names.

The two of them looked at us with anxious expressions.

I stood up at the same time as Nakiri, pulling my feet out of the sandpit, and spoke brusquely.

“What do you want?”

“Um, I was wondering what you’re doing.”

The timid voice I had heard earlier. When I focused my attention on them, the girl with the chestnut-colored hair looked away . I frowned again at her attitude.

“Can’t you see for yourself?”

“We’re making a sandcastle.”

“Huh, really?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

There was no surprise, no awe.

I felt a pang of irritation in my chest. Even though I had paused my work to talk to them, their attitude seemed rude to me. It felt like they were interfering with our competition.

Building a sandcastle is time-consuming. There’s a lot to do, like using water to strengthen the sand and carefully carving decorations with your fingers or twigs.

The sun was setting, and there wasn’t much time left to work. I couldn’t hide my annoyance and said,

“What’s wrong with you? We’re not a spectacle. Go away; you’re distracting us.”

“I think your way of saying it is harsh, but I agree that we are being a bother to you..”

The unknown boy and girl fidgeted with their fingers in front of them. I looked back and forth between the two, but they didn’t seem like they were going to say anything.

Just as I was about to return to my work, the boy raised his face as if he had made a decision.

“Um, we want to join you guys!”

“Join us? You guys?”

What could these timid people possibly do? They seemed so unreliable that they might start crying if I pushed them with one hand.

“Can you make something?”

The two nodded vigorously at Nakiri’s words.

“For example?”

“Like decorations for the castle.”

“Well then, why don’t you try decorating my castle?”

I was taken aback.

“Hey, we’re in the middle of a competition!”

Building the castle was the competition Nakiri and I had agreed upon. If a third person joined, it wouldn’t be a competition anymore, but Nakiri seemed to think it wasn’t a big deal.

“It’s fine. It’s almost time for me to go home, or my mom will get mad. Let’s just watch for a bit.”

Indeed, it was almost curfew time for me, too. When the sun sets, this area becomes pitch black. It’s impossible to shape the castle without being able to see your hands. If I’m not careful, I might even collapse the castle with my own fingers.

Ending the competition was unavoidable. But there were things I couldn’t give up.

“Then I win the castle-building competition.”

I declared with my chest puffed out. After all, Nakiri was the one who decided to stop, so there was no doubt that I had won by default.

Her well-proportioned face stiffened.

“Why? I didn’t lose.”

“You can’t say you didn’t lose when you’re the one who stopped the competition.”

“The castle isn’t finished yet. We can’t determine the winner.”

“But you lost, Nakiri.”

“I didn’t lose!”

Nakiri growled, sounding like a puppy ready to pounce, showing no willingness to listen.

What a sore loser! I glared back at her chestnut eyes, not wanting to lose.

“Done!”

After a few minutes of staring each other down, a voice came from the sandpit.

The exterior of Nakiri’s sandcastle had changed. It had subtle decorations, although not flashy, and it had an air of nobility, as if royalty lived there.

I compared it to my own castle and bit my lower lip.

It was clear that my castle was inferior. I felt like I had lost.

“Wow, that’s so cool!”

Nakiri rushed to the sandpit with a beaming smile.

After admiring her decorated castle, she looked at me and smirked.

“My castle is more amazing.”

“What?!”

My head felt like it was on fire.

I couldn’t accept this! I raised my voice.

“You’re using someone else’s help, and now you’re talking about winning and losing?”

“But my castle is more amazing, right?”

Nakiri looked at the outsiders, and the two of them nodded. Nakiri then turned to me with a malicious smile.

“Three to one, huh?”

“Huh? That’s not fair! Decorate my castle too!”

“Ehhh.”

The boy grimaced obviously.

The girl seemed willing. I could persuade them!

“Don’t say ‘ehhh’! Just do it!”

“Y-Yeah!”

The girl moved, and the boy reluctantly followed. They sat down in the sandpit and started to work on my simple castle, making it look more impressive.

A fairly good-looking castle emerged. I put my hands on my hips.

“Yeah, it looks good. As expected of my castle.”

“Why are you so proud as if you did it, Shikura-kun?”

Nakiri gave me a piercing look, probably jealous of how my castle turned out.

This competition was my victory after all. I turned to the girl with a cheerful expression.

“Well done. I’ll praise you for that.”

“Thank you.”

The girl looked down and blushed. The girl who used to be as stiff as an ice sculpture was now smiling warmly, regaining her human touch.

“What are your names?”

“Usually, the person asking should introduce themselves first, right?”

“You came up to us, so you must know who we are, right?”

“Y-Yeah. You’re Shikura-san and Nakiri-san, right? We are—”

Feeling more confident after the praise, they introduced themselves.

Sougou Nobuyuki and Mibu Minami. From that day on, they joined Nakiri and me in our time together.

◇

I could see the ceiling.

I sat up in bed, tensing my abdominal muscles.

I slipped my feet into slippers and reached for the curtain covering the window.

I shook my arm lightly, and a cheerful sound rang out, filling the dim room with sunlight.

Today is Saturday, and the amount of homework assigned is not much.

At Tokyo Seiki High School, there were no teachers constantly urging us to study. As long as you finished your homework, you could enjoy a free day off. The only school rule enforced was to wear the uniform when entering the school.

What you do and where you go on holidays are your own responsibility. Everything is allowed in the name of freedom.

If there were a student who fully enjoyed this freedom, I would respect them in a way. Freedom is like a pufferfish. If you get carried away with the delicious taste, you might end up in ruin due to the accumulated poison.

Teachers don’t take care of students who lag behind. If you don’t understand something, you have to come and ask on your own.

The teacher’s office has no walls. It’s open for easy questioning, but so is for other students. At certain times, a line of students forms. If you say you don’t understand something vaguely, teachers will send you back for wasting their time. You need to identify the points you don’t understand in advance.

I stuffed my breakfast into my stomach and turned to my study desk. I spread out textbooks and notebooks, finished reviewing, and flipped through the pages of the textbooks to prepare for the next lesson.

At that moment, my smartphone alarm went off. I put away my stuff and stood up from the chair.

I took my jacket from the hanger and put it over my shirt. I grabbed my pouch and headed for the entrance, glancing at the photo frame.

A woman holding a hose against a garden background smiled within a wooden frame. It evoked a scene of somewhere other than a sterile apartment.

“I’m off.”

I left a smile at the entrance and turned the doorknob. I exposed my body to the holiday air outside and looked up at the sky dotted with white clouds.

Hearing the sound of the auto-lock behind me, I walk towards the elevator. With the force of inertia, I cut through the entrance and blend into the cityscape outside.

I let the buildings and people engaged in conversation slip into the background as I enter a small building and check the directory.

I opened the door to the family restaurant.

The sound of a bell welcomed me. I looked around the stylish interior but didn’t see the two people I was supposed to meet. I told the staff that I was meeting friends and approached a four-person table.

I sat down in the corner chair and took out my smartphone. I surfed the net while thinking about the possible direction our conversation could go.

I’m not here to reminisce about the past. I’m here to make sure that Sogou and Mibu don’t spread any unnecessary gossip. That’s the only reason I came to this family restaurant.

Twenty minutes after the agreed meeting time, the sound of the bell stimulated my eardrums, and I looked up.

At the entrance stands a boy and a girl in casual clothes. The boy with his hair parted to the side and the girl with curly hair. The two of them wave at me.

“Nice outfit! Did you dress up with me in mind!?”

Mibu leans forward, closing the distance. I instinctively straighten my back.

What a familiar attitude. It was like she was treating me as a close friend. She didn’t understand at all why I had changed the date of our meeting.

if we were to start chatting back there, it’ll naturally go into the direction of my past. My past is a collection of unpleasant memories for me. It’s not something for outsiders to hear.

In the courtyard during lunch break, Yoshiki was there, ready to take on the challenge of a vibrant high school life. If we, the rotten ones, got involved with him, we would only make him unhappy.

That’s why I arranged to meet with the two of them on a Saturday. I specifically chose a distant family restaurant to avoid running into acquaintances and set today’s meeting.

Since their first words weren’t an apology for being late, it seems that changing the day was the right choice. I’ll make sure to firmly keep them quiet this time.

Sogou sat in the chair facing me.

Mibu doesn’t follow suit. Instead, she passes by Sogou and, for some reason, sits down next to me.

I quietly lift my body and create some distance between us.

“Hey, Shikura are you listening?”

Mibu raised her voice, thinking I might not have heard her question.

I scowled at the volume of her voice and put my index finger to my lips.

“Quiet down, this is a restaurant. Also, I’m hiding my surname. Please make sure to call me Ichigaya from now on.”

The two of them stared blankly.

I emphasize my point, and they nodded in agreement.

“By the way, can I ask why you’re hiding your surname?”

“There was that incident in elementary school. You should understand why without me having to explain, right?”

My voice became sharp. The two mouths in my field of vision closed.

I was bullied in elementary school.

It started with a disagreement with Nakiri. My belongings were hidden by an unspecified number of classmates, my desk was vandalized, and the ostracism escalated to the point where I was beaten and kicked.

I was confident in my fighting skills, but against dozens of people, my strength was useless. I lost my place and became a shut-in, eventually transferring to another school.

Sogou and Mibu were also in the same school. They didn’t try to stop the bullying, but they didn’t actively participate either.

I was beaten and kicked, but even for just a while, we were friends. Those memories made it hard for me to hate them.

“Hey, Shikura, do you use RINE? Let’s exchange contacts!” (T/N: Based off of LINE.)

Mibu held out her smartphone to me, and I blinked.

I knew that people used communication apps to stay in touch with acquaintances, and it was considered a status symbol.

But is this really the time to be saying that? I was supposed to be discussing something serious. The audacity to shift the conversation to exchanging contact information—does this girl have nerves of steel?

Or perhaps it was because her nerves was made of steel that she could blow away the past and push forward. She seemed shy in elementary school, but people do change.

Or maybe it was natural for people to change.

I am a high school student now. My appearance and personality had changed significantly from those days. It wouldn’t be strange if Mibu’s shyness had improved.

Mibu insisted, and I tapped the screen of my smartphone. I didn’t know how to get the app, so I handed my device to her to install it.

Her slender fingers tapped the screen, and she handed my smartphone back to me. I thanked her and took my phone back, examining it in my hand.

The familiar blue device now seemed like just another smartphone.

“This is my smartphone, right?”

“Of course. What are you talking about? Oh, and I added Sogou’s contact, too.”

“Really? Thanks.”

Sogou smiled.

For some reason, I don’t feel happy at all. I shove my smartphone into my pocket and compose myself before facing the two of them again.

“It’s a rare reunion. I want to talk about something fun… but before that, there’s something I want to ask. What happened to the classmates who bullied me?”

Wrinkles formed on the two’s foreheads.

“Are you seriously asking that?”

“Yes.”

Hell is empty, and all the devils are here. Shakespeare left such a famous quote.

The elementary school I once attended was indeed a demonic lair crawling with juvenile demons.

The demons who drove me to the depths of despair graduated with smiles. Back then, I imagined that and cried myself to sleep.

Although my trauma has lessened, my heart still aches from time to time.

I have no courage to contact those demons myself. To find out how they spent their time after that, I can only ask the two of them.

Sogou and Mibu looked at each other.

“Things didn’t go back to normal, did they?”

“Yeah. After you left, a different person got bullied, and it even became a widespread problem at school.”

“Even after I left, the bullying didn’t stop?”

“Yeah. They probably couldn’t forget.”

“What is?”

“The taste of bullying. You know, they probably enjoyed beating and kicking you.”

Sogou raised both arms playfully.

The smile that seems to say it’s all just someone else’s problem makes my chest burn with frustration.

I quietly clench my fists and crush the surging anger within me.

The events of those days were traumatic. For a while after becoming a shut-in, I couldn’t stop crying at night. Even when I tried to stop, my body trembled so much that I couldn’t calm down. Even as a high school student, I sometimes still had nightmares about it.

My friends, especially those who went to the same school as me, were talking about what happened back then as if it were a joke. I felt like I had a thorn in my stomach. It was more than just unpleasant; it was infuriating.

“Are you angry, Shikura?”

“Is that how I look to you?”

Mibu looked down as I turned my gaze away.

Sogou took a breath and tried to explain.

“Don’t glare at me like that! That’s the only conclusion we could come to, right? Everyone was laughing, so that was clearly the case! Right!?”

At Sogou’s words, Mibu meekly nodded.

“Was it… the same for you two?”

My voice trembles.

Was it anger, sadness, or loneliness? Even I, who had asked the question, didn’t know.

The two heads shake vigorously in response to my question.

“No, no, no! We were just trying our best not to get their attention!”

“Yeah! Even I wanted to save you from that hell, Shikura! I swear!”

“I told you to stop calling me that right?”

The two of them shrank back.

“C-Calm down, your expression is really scary you know?”

“Y-Yeah, why not laugh? Your smile was so cute back then.”

They looked up at me with their shoulders drooping, like scolded children. Apparently, I had unconsciously made my expression stern.

I turn back to the window. I adjust my facial expression with the reflection in the glass and turn back to the two of them with a smile.

“My bad, let’s stop talking about this. What are you two up to? I studied karate for three years in junior high. Through a correspondence course, though.”

Even after my social anxiety improved, I couldn’t bring myself to go to school.

When I stood in front of the school entrance, my heart would race, and I’d feel short of breath. For me, in that state, the correspondence course, where I could communicate through a computer screen, was a blessing.

“Karate, huh? So, you wanted to avoid being bullied again?”

I almost clicked my tongue. I had the impression that Sogou was smarter than Mibu, but when it comes to insensitivity, Sogou seems to excel at it.

Mibu elbowed Sogou in the side.

“You, just be quiet. Ichigaya, did you also join the Karate club here in high school?”

“No, I joined the broadcasting club.”

“Is that so~?”

Mibu’s elbow rested on the table, and she seemed disinterested.

I continued undeterred.

I talked about the unexpectedly rigorous activities of the broadcasting club, how they spent their after-school time, and searched for harmless topics to steer the conversation in a cheerful direction.

I wondered why I was here.

It was a precious holiday, and I could have been doing what I wanted at home. Did I want to drink coffee that badly? Did I want to pay to have an unpleasant time? I couldn’t understand myself.

I just wanted to escape from this place.

With mixed feelings, I quickly ended the compact reunion.