COTE: Self-Preservation

Y2V4: The End of the First Half

The air was calm as Nanase told me about her past before she entered this school.

"I had originally enrolled into a different school, but the Acting Director informed me about your existence. He told me you were the reason behind his death. And he said that if I expelled you, I'd be able to meet with your father. In all honesty, I intended to ask him to bow and apologise," Nanase recounted with a flat voice, but that voice, it was barely above a whisper.

It was futile.

Even in the case that she did expel me and that man did meet up with her, he'd never bow, never apologise. It's an outcome that would never arrive.

She had one of those tones that are so detached from reality that they're almost alien. One that had given up on everything. Life was too dreary to endure for these people. One that couldn't move forward.

But still, I was starting to understand who exactly Nanase was.

"I... I understand that this wasn't your fault now. You didn't have any idea about such a thing, and seeing how this school is cut off, you couldn't do anything," Nanase began.

In Nanase's eyes, tears began to well up.

"I just... I wanted to take out all my frustration on somebody, somehow..."

At the end of it all, Nanase was just a person who wanted to avenge her best friend.

"And I couldn't even do that... I was seen through at every moment. I can't defeat you, Ayanokouji-senpai, I know that. I'm sorry for all the trouble I caused you."

She buried her face in her hands, unable to look at me as if she was ashamed to do so.

I didn't say a word, letting her let it all out.

If you show a person logical proof that they don't need to cry, it wouldn't work. Why? It's because life would be too easy that way. Human beings cry and, sometimes, that's what's needed.

"I'm sorry... I won't bother you anymore," she said meekly.

Since she couldn't be satisfied with anything, she kept writhing about it in vain. Masks in one layer after another - as many as ten or twenty - had fastened themselves upon her, and she could no longer tell how sad any one of them was.

"Nanase, if I may say something selfish... I'd like to talk to you once we get on the ship once again. Until then, can you not do anything rash?"

It was an unwritten rule of the world to not butt into other people's business. Don't open their hearts and judge them for what they hold inside.

But maybe, just maybe, that was the wrong approach.

Perhaps someone needed to lend a hand to guide the souls out of the dark into the light. If that were to happen, how many fools would be saved? That man would never think of doing so.

But, then again, most wouldn't do that, he's not alone. They see what they see, and what they see, they ignore.

"If that's what you want," she said weakly.

Not only does Nanase need to think about her place in this school, but... I also need to think about everything she had just told me.

I just wanted to buy some time for now.

* * *

"You really made everything a hassle," Utomiya complained.

I had entered F9, which was lit by a campfire.

"And judging by Ryuuen Kakeru-senpai's location, it was worth it," I told him as I showed him the screen.

The method to avoid Ayanokouji finding out about me was simple.