No Saviors (COTE)

Chapter 4: Disorder

Things hadn't been going as well as I'd hoped. 

Yukimura had decided to help Kushida since the students who were studying with her struggled more. However, it seemed as if there had been a disagreement. The trio simply didn't understand what Yukimura was trying to teach them, even with Kushida's help. 

And so, Yukimura had given up on them after about a week. 

"This is ridiculous," Yukimura complained to me. "They don't even have the knowledge of an average middle schooler. How can you possibly expect me to teach them up to high school level in such a short amount of time? It's their fault for not paying attention in class anyways. I'm done."

And so, time continued to pass with those three in particular not studying even a moderate amount. 

Kushida and I tried to get them to study with us, but even on the rare occasions when they agreed, progress was very slow. 

No matter what tactics we used, they almost always claimed to be busy. I had noticed them hanging around with Sasaki, so naturally, I wondered if he had something to do with this. 

Then, the day of reckoning finally came. 

The midterm wasn't particularly difficult objectively. It was probably about the same as any other high school test in terms of difficulty.

However, this wasn't true for the trio. 

When Chabashira finally revealed our scores, my worst nightmare suddenly became a reality. 

"Sudou. You're three points away from passing. Ike, you're two points away. Yamauchi, you're one point away. I'm sorry, but you all will be expelled."

How could I let this happen? 

Then I noticed who was at the top of the class.

Sasaki Hayato - 94

He could have helped them. He took away their studying time because he wasn't at any risk. 

Could he really have done something like this on purpose? Just to get them expelled?

No. The very thought was a copout. This was my fault for not being able to get them to study. Now they were about to be expelled because of my negligence.

Then, my memories flashed through my mind.

I remembered sitting in that room with my former best friend, alone. 

Sugimura had been my friend since childhood. We had been best friends all the way up until middle school, where we were placed in different classes. There, I began to make new friends and become very popular. Sugimura suffered a much different fate. He was bullied day after day, relentlessly. I watched it happen right in front of my eyes but didn't do anything to stop it. I saw the bruises all over his body day after day and did nothing. 

"If I stick up for him, they'll just bully me as they bully him. It's not my responsibility anyway," That's what I had thought. 

There was nothing I could do. Either the bullies would get bored of him, he would stop coming to school, or someone else would save him from this. That's what I thought.

But I was dead wrong. 

On a day that is etched into my mind forever, I walked into the empty classroom. Empty except for Sugimura. I hadn't talked to him in months, so we sat silently in the room across from each other. He was just as bruised as always. After a while of sitting in the room, it happened.

Sugimura stood up without saying anything and jumped out of the window of the four-story building.

I was mortified. But I couldn't do anything but sit there. Someone else saw him and dialed 911, but it was too late. He had suffered fatal brain damage, and while they managed to get his body on life support, he was legally brain-dead.