The Tenth Year of Silence —The Reason I Killed That Child— - Planted Sin —The Isolated Classroom

The fog had wrapped itself around the city since morning and refused to let go. On the fifth floor of an apartment building in Aobagaoka, Yagumo Chitose stood by the window, gazing down at the cityscape drifting vaguely beyond the white, murky air. The June sea fog should have thinned out long ago by this time of year, yet this year it clung stubbornly in place. As if the city itself couldn't bear to release the fog—as if it needed it to keep hiding something. *(Teacher Matsumoto's testimony and Kobayashi's testimony. If I cross-reference the two, Mio met with a man in fishing cooperative work clothes near the old Hamagiso before she disappeared. And she saw something that made her afraid—"Papa will get in trouble.")* Chitose looked at the notebook spread open on his desk. In neat handwriting, the two testimonies were written side by side. Below them, in red pen, he had written: *"High probability that Mio witnessed some kind of secret near the old Hamagiso."* Chitose unconsciously rubbed his left wrist with his right hand. The old scar beneath his sleeve ached faintly, perhaps reacting to the damp air. He'd gotten it in middle school, when he'd tried to uncover the truth and ended up being cornered instead. Back then, too, he'd been alone. But not now. Chitose pulled a map from his desk drawer. Naoto had given it to him yesterday. A detailed map of the area around the old Hamagiso, and a roster of the fishing cooperative workers from that time. The roster listed the names of the men who had belonged to the cooperative at the time of the incident, printed in faded ink. *(The man Mio met is in this roster.)* Chitose traced each name with his finger, one by one. Twenty-three in total. He needed to narrow down which of them had been working near the old Hamagiso at the time of the incident. From the living room, his mother's voice drifted in. "Chitose, did you eat breakfast?" "I did." Chitose answered briefly. His mother said nothing more. In this house, not prying too deeply into each other's lives was a rule that had taken a long time to establish. Chitose slipped the roster and map into a file and put it in his backpack. Today, he planned to stop by Naoto's shop before heading to school. He'd report the two testimonies and confirm how to read the roster. Naoto had said, "If we can identify everyone who was at that location, we'll definitely get there." Chitose believed those words. When he stepped outside, the fog had thinned slightly. He walked toward the bus stop, breathing in the damp air. The orderly streets of Aobagaoka had lost their outlines in the mist. Rocked by the bus, he got off at Kirigasaki Station. The road from the station toward Hamazaki Ginza Street was quiet, as always. In the morning shopping district, more than half the shops still had their shutters down. When he reached the fresh fish shop "Minazuki," Naoto was outside with a hose, spraying water on the pavement. Short hair mixed with gray, a scruffy beard. Sun-darkened skin. The small old scar on his left ear stood out sharply in the morning light. "Good morning." Naoto turned off the water and turned around. His dark eyes, holding a subdued light, fixed steadily on Chitose. "...Yeah." Naoto set the hose aside and gestured Chitose inside. The interior smelled of ice and salt. The display case held fish caught that morning. Naoto pulled out a round stool from behind the counter for Chitose. "I've compiled what Teacher Matsumoto and Kobayashi told me." Chitose took the file from his backpack and opened his notebook. "One week before Mio disappeared, she was meeting a middle-aged man in fishing cooperative work clothes on the forest road near the old Hamagiso. That's from Teacher Matsumoto, who was her homeroom teacher at the time. And three days before she disappeared, Mio told her classmate Kobayashi, 'I saw something amazing. If I tell, Papa will get in trouble.'" Naoto listened in silence. His former fisherman's hands—thick-knuckled—clenched hard on the counter. "So Mio saw something near the old Hamagiso. And that something was the kind of thing that would get me in trouble." Naoto's voice trembled faintly. "...Yeah. That's what it comes down to." Naoto closed his eyes. Deep wrinkles carved into his face. "That girl was keeping secrets from me. Trying to protect me, carrying it all alone... and that's why—" Naoto's words cut off mid-sentence. Chitose said nothing. Whatever he said wouldn't reach the weight of this man's ten years. After a while, Naoto opened his eyes. "Did you look at the roster?" "Yes. Twenty-three names. I need to narrow down who was working near the old Hamagiso at the time of the incident." Naoto pulled an old file from beneath the counter. "This is the cooperative's work log from back then. It records who worked where and when, in detail. Cross-reference this with the roster, and the people who were at that location will surface." Naoto placed the file in front of Chitose. "I'm entrusting this to you." Chitose took the file. "Can you really trust me with this?" Chitose looked into Naoto's eyes. "I'm still just a high schooler. Not a detective, not a cop. And you're handing me all of this." Naoto stared at Chitose for a while. Then, slowly, he spoke. "You stopped in front of my shop that day. In that moment, I had a gut feeling. This kid will see it through to the end." Naoto's voice was low and strong. "I'm not good at trusting people. But once I do, I trust them to the end. I trust you." Chitose held the file to his chest. "...I understand. I will get there. No matter what." Chitose bowed deeply. When he left the shop, the fog had cleared completely. A thin sunlight fell on the arcade of Hamazaki Ginza Street. Chitose started walking toward the station. *(Now I have all the leads. All that's left is to cross-reference the roster with the work log.)* A quiet sense of certainty settled in Chitose's chest. That certainty would be brutally shattered a few hours later—though Chitose had no way of knowing that yet. When he arrived at school, Chitose headed to his classroom as usual. As he walked down the hallway, he felt the students passing by glancing at him. He tried to tell himself it was his imagination. But the stares were definitely directed at him. When he entered the classroom, the murmuring stopped for an instant. Chitose sat down at his desk. The students around him whispered about something. He couldn't hear the words. But their gazes pierced his back. *(Something is wrong.)* Chitose opened his notebook and pretended to check his schedule for the day. Lunch break. On the stairs leading to the rooftop, Saya called out to him. "Chitose!" Saya came running up the stairs, her light brown curls bouncing. On her right wrist was a faded blue bracelet. Mio's keepsake. "Hey, I need to ask you something." Saya spoke, slightly out of breath. "What is it?" "Yesterday, a man named Kurahashi came to your house—is that true?" Saya's voice dropped slightly. "...Where did you hear that?" "A neighbor saw Kurahashi in front of your apartment building. Kurahashi is a city councilman, right? Why would he go to your house?" Saya's eyes fixed on Chitose, serious. "He politely told me to stop my investigation. Said it was causing trouble for the community." "Wait, hold on. Why does Kurahashi even know about your investigation?" Saya's voice cracked. "I don't know. But he had an accurate grasp of my movements. He even knew I'd met with Teacher Matsumoto and Kobayashi." Chitose spoke calmly. Saya bit her lip. "...Something feels off. I always thought Kurahashi was a good person—a community caretaker. But listening to you, something doesn't add up." "Have you spoken with Kurahashi before, Saya?" "Yeah. At community events, a few times. He's always smiling, saying 'for the good of the community.' But that smile—it always bothered me somehow." Saya rubbed her own arm. "Be careful. People like that will crush you without ever dropping the smile." Saya's words lingered heavily in Chitose's chest. After school. In the school library, Chitose spread out the work log and roster Naoto had entrusted to him. The library was quiet, the noise outside distant. Chitose cross-referenced each name on the roster with the dates in the work log, one by one. *(Who was working near the old Hamagiso at the time of the incident...)* Chitose's finger stopped at a certain name. "Kaido Shoichi." Former head of the old Hamazaki Fishing Cooperative—a member of the Kaido family. According to the work log, one week before the incident, he had been conducting survey work along the forest road near the old Hamagiso. *(The Kaido family. The family that held the old cooperative's interests. And rumored to be colluding with Kasuya Kosan.)* Chitose wrote Kaido Shoichi's name in his notebook. *(Is Kaido Shoichi the man Mio met? Or was it a different worker?)* Chitose continued reading through the records. Then he noticed a teacher standing at the library entrance. "Yagumo." A low voice called his name. It was his homeroom teacher. "Come to the staff room for a moment." The teacher's face was pale. Chitose packed his materials into his backpack and headed for the staff room. When he entered, several teachers looked at him. Their gazes were a mix of curiosity and wariness. "Yagumo, the police went to your house, I hear." For a moment, Chitose didn't understand what he'd been told. "...The police? To my house?" "You didn't know? The school was contacted earlier. They found belongings of Minazuki Mio in your room." Chitose's mind went blank. *(Belongings of Mio? From my room?)* "There must be some mistake. I never put anything like that in my room." Chitose forced the words out. "Tell that to the police. In any case, go home early today. The police are waiting at your house." Chitose left the staff room. His legs were shaking. *(Someone planted Mio's belongings in my room.)* *(To frame me.)* Chitose broke into a run. When he reached his apartment building, a patrol car was parked out front. Breathless, Chitose took the elevator. He got off on the fifth floor and opened the door to his home. Two unfamiliar men stood in the entryway. In suits, holding up police badges. "You're Yagumo Chitose, correct? We're from Kirigasaki South Police Station. We'd like you to come with us voluntarily as a person of interest in the Minazuki Mio kidnapping case." From behind Chitose, his mother came running. "Chitose, what is this? What did you do?" His mother's face was ashen. "I didn't do anything." Chitose looked into his mother's eyes. "I didn't do anything." But even to his own ears, his voice sounded terribly weak. Prompted by the officers, Chitose entered his room. The room had been ransacked by unfamiliar hands. Books had been pulled from the shelves, desk drawers left open. "This was found in your room." The officer showed him something in a plastic bag. Chitose felt his breath stop. Inside the bag were several torn pages from a blue cloth-bound diary and a faded blue hair tie. Torn pages from Mio's diary. And the blue hair tie Mio was said to have been wearing on the day of the incident. "These aren't mine. I didn't put these here." Chitose spoke with a trembling voice. "But they were found in the gap of your bookshelf. Do you have any idea how they got there?" "No. Someone put them here to frame me." Chitose looked the officer straight in the eye. The officer's expression was blank. "In any case, let's discuss this at the station." Chitose was taken away in front of his mother. "Chitose...!" His mother's voice stabbed into his back. Chitose didn't turn around. Interrogation room, Kirigasaki South Police Station. Chitose sat in a cold chair. Across from him were the two officers from before. "Let me ask again. The torn pages from Minazuki Mio's di

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Episode 4

Name: The Tenth Year of Silence —The Reason I Killed That Child—
Author: Novelia

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