Chapter 8

Now, back to the time when everyone except Shouko was worried about Satoru’s disappearance and began to form alliances with each other, even though they had lost their sanity.

“After all, ……… Shouko-san is most likely holding Satoru-kun captive.”

“I also think so.” 

“Satoru, Satoru, Satoru, Satoru, Satoru, Satoru…..” 

“It must be her since she’s the only one who’s not here. She hasn’t been to school in a week.”

Karen, Misuzu, Mika, and Sakura. The four gathered in the empty student council room after school and were about to reach a conclusion.

Originally, Shouko was a truant student, but Satoru saved her, so she started coming to school.

“Does anyone know where Shouko-san’s house is?”

Although Misuzu tried talking to them, they had been checking each other and snarling at each other until then. In such a relationship, there was no way anyone knew where her house was. 

And if they had known, they would have rushed into Shouko’s house first.

“Can’t you use your authority as Student Council President to do something about it?”

“Due to the pesky privacy laws, even if I ask they won’t tell me. If something goes wrong, the teachers, and by extension, the school, will be punished.”

“In other words we don’t have a choice but to wait for that girl to come to school?”

“Yes, but since she is in the streaming business, she can live comfortably for the rest of her life…Though I can’t say for sure, she has enough money, possibly to not come to school and imprison Satoru for the rest of his life.”

“I know right~ I’m a voice actor, so I also have money, and I thought I’d support my older brother and live with him the rest of my life, so if she has the same idea as me, she might not come to school anymore.”

Dark clouds loomed over the discussion among the four (excluding Mika).

When no one spoke anymore, they thought we couldn’t come up with any more ideas, so they got up and decided to either look for Shouko’s house or ask Shouko when she got to school, so they ended the discussion and left the student council room.

Karen left school and wandered around the city under the excuse of looking for Satoru, not wanting to go straight home.

Oh right, let’s stop by a cafe near the station. I was about to enter the store, looking for the image of Satoru, when I saw a figure like that woman out of the corner of my eye.

“….eh?”

At that moment, the clouded mind cleared and suddenly I turned to look at her. That running silver-haired woman, albeit from behind, was indeed Shouko.

Karen, who was faster on her feet than the others, was naturally faster than Shouko, who was not as athletic as her and didn’t get out of the house much, and managed to catch up with her.

“Stop right there. You’re Shouko right?”

“….what? I’m busy right now.” 

The face that looked back was of Shouko, the girl I was looking for.

Chapter 9 (Messy room)

Although Shoko was reluctant, she couldn’t believe that the woman in front of her would back down so easily, so she reluctantly decided to listen to Karen.

The two of them were led by Karen to a cafe near the station, but the atmosphere was so grim that it could be called the worst.

“……So, what do you want to ask? I’m busy so I don’t want to spend too much time on this.”

“Don’t worry, it’ll be over soon. What I want to ask is, aren’t you imprisoning Satoru?”

“……..”

Shoko thought about what Karen said for a short time.

She probably doesn’t know where Satoru is or what he’s doing right now. She is the only one who has that information. 

On top of that, Shoko thought that not only Karen, but other girls probably didn’t know the current situation either.

If I now honestly said that Satoru was kidnapped by a strange woman, I would lose the advantage. 

However, if I nod in response, Karen and the others will try to take him back. After all, it’s easy to imagine that after this conversation ends, she’ll stalk around to my house.

I was sure that if I gave a poor answer and my lie was discovered, I would be in trouble, so I decided not to lie and give a slightly vague answer.

“…I didn’t lock him up.”

“So, do you know where Satoru is?”

“Who knows? I don’t though.”

Karen’s blood rushed to her head in response to Shouko’s answer, and she considered pouring the cafe au lait she ordered earlier in Shoko’s face, but thinking it won’t look good in front of Satoru, I suppressed my agitations and calmed down with a mouthful of cafe au lait.

“…..You really didn’t imprison Saotru?”

“…I’m saying I didn’t.”

“There’s a possibility that you’re lying. So, let me confirm.”

“……..”

Shouko thought again. She thinks that Karen’s trust is not worth a hair, but she could imagine that Karen will stalk her many times in the future.

Right now, I’m in a situation where I have to find out about that woman and where Satoru is as soon as possible. In that case, Shoko thought it would be better to deal with this matter as soon as possible, so she nodded reluctantly.

After drinking what she ordered, Karen followed Shouko with conflicting feelings.

This is because if Satoru wasn’t in Shouko’s house, there would be no hope for her. Also, when she observed her behavior, she didn’t seem to be in a hurry, so she got the feeling that Satoru isn’t really in her house.

Karen tried to calm herself down by believing that he must be there…

“Look, Satoru isn’t here, right?”

I entered Shouko’s house and looked in every room, but Satoru was nowhere to be found.

Distraught, I searched every inch of the room, but all that there was a mess.