Haibara’s Teenage New Game+ - Volume 6 - Chapter 5

Final Chapter: Gray Winter

It dropped to freezing the next day, as though the warmth from yesterday had been an illusion. The weather forecast announced that winter had come. Starting today, the temperature would be in the single digits. I clad myself in a coat and scarf and arrived at school. I headed up to my classroom but found everyone gathered in the hallway for some odd reason.

“Hey, Natsuki,” Tatsuya called out when he saw me.

Miori uncomfortably stood in the center of the group with her head hanging down.

“What’re you guys up to?” I asked.

Nanase, who was in unusually high spirits, replied, “Motomiya-san gave us a very detailed breakdown of what happened. Isn’t that right?”

“Well, I worried you all a lot, so the least I could do is explain what happened... So, yes...”

“You’re acting weird. What kind of mood is this?” Miori’s being excessively subservient.

“Excuse my phrasing, but she just outed all the skeletons in her closet,” Serika said bluntly.

Hey, you could phrase things nicer, then! Just because you preface yourself with “excuse me” doesn’t mean you’ll be in the clear! Look, Miori’s about to keel over! Her mental health is in a fragile state!

“Miorin, you’re going to attend practice again starting today, right?” Uta’s mouth was curved up, but her eyes weren’t smiling.

“Y-Yes,” Miori responded timidly. “That’s the plan... I’m sorry...”

Dang, this is a bizarre sight.

“I think you should give all the girls on the basketball team a proper explanation too, but what do you want to do? Wakamura-senpai and the others would gladly listen!” Uta said with a smile.

Boy, oh boy, can I picture that... Those upperclassmen will gleefully tease Miori until she drops. I thought this when we were all on the phone too, but Uta’s furious.

“Uta-chan, it’s time to forgive and forget,” Hikari said with a wry smile, trying to pacify her.

“But Miorin didn’t ask me for help at all. I went to her for all sorts of stuff, and I thought we were best friends, but she went and drove herself into a corner!” Uta complained with a pout. “Now I sort of understand why she couldn’t come to me for advice, though.” She sighed and then hugged Miori tightly, burying her head in Miori’s chest. “But I was so worried! Really!”

A gentle smile crept across Miori’s face, and she caressed Uta’s hair. “Sorry, Uta. I won’t do it again.”

“That goes for me too!” Hikari threw her arms around Miori from behind.

Miori sandwich. I’m jealous. Oops, my true feelings leaked a bit there! That looks suffocating, mm-hmm. I watched the heartwarming sight from a step away. I was aware that other students were also observing us. We were causing quite the commotion first thing in the morning, so naturally we would draw attention.

“Look, it’s Motomiya-san.”

“I’m glad she’s safe.”

I heard two girls make comments.

News of Miori’s disappearance had spread somewhat. After we found her, we’d wanted to keep the incident between our group, but we couldn’t completely suppress all the gossip, since the police had reached out to our homeroom teacher and the girls’ basketball coach.

Eh, that’s all resolved now, so the rumor will quiet down on its own soon. My optimism was quickly dashed by what I heard next, and I couldn’t believe my ears.

“I feel so bad for Motomiya-san.”

“Yeah. She went out with Shiratori-kun because he threatened her, right?”

I couldn’t process what they were saying.

“Apparently, she loved someone else, but he forced her to date him.”

“Makes sense: she didn’t look all that happy.”

They whispered to each other as they stared at Miori. It sounded like they were sympathizing with her and condemning Shiratori Reita at the same time.

“Man, I always thought that guy was kinda shady.”

“Same! It was way too suspicious how there wasn’t a single bad rumor about him, but now it all makes sense.”

Some boys from class one were joking with each other and laughed. By no means were there scores of people involved, but there were enough students talking about a similar rumor.

“Is it actually true? I didn’t think he was that kind of guy, though.”

“Check this out. This was getting passed around yesterday night. It’s messed up!”

Oh, is something trending on social media? Right when the thought occurred to me, my phone vibrated. It was a DM from Yamano.

Yamano: Look at this right now. There’s a post about Shiratori-senpai going viral

I clicked on the link she’d sent me, and it launched Minsta. The post was a video, with Reita clearly in it. Someone had secretly filmed it from the shadows, and it looked like he was in some sort of back alley. There was a group of rowdy-looking delinquents gathered in that narrow street, and for some reason, Reita sat right in the middle of them.

“Reita-san, what happened to your latest girl?”

“We broke up. We were only dating because I threatened her, anyway, so no regrets here.”

The video cut off several seconds after that conversation.

The person who had published the video commented, “Caught some nasty stuff on tape.” The post already had tons of other comments that were criticizing Reita. The fact that it had popped up yesterday night and blown up to this degree already made me feel like someone had a hand in this matter.

“That dumbass...” I recalled my conversation with Reita from two days ago. He obviously wasn’t being himself at the time. I’d been concerned about him on my way to school. It felt like we’d split up after a big argument, so I was contemplating how to reconcile with him. Nevertheless, I’d optimistically thought things would somehow turn out all right.

“Is it me, or is the mood around here weird?” Hikari said, taking stock of our surroundings.

“You’re right. Are they gawking at us? We’re not even doin’ anything.” Perplexed, Tatsuya furrowed his brow.

“I see what happened...” Serika’s expression twisted into a frown as she stared at her phone. She’d likely gotten the same message from Yamano.

“Guys, what’s wrong?” Miori looked confused, but I didn’t know how to respond.

The morning bell rang just then. No time to explain now. The students loitering around the hallway trickled into their classrooms, and we had no choice but to go with the flow. I took my seat. Our classroom was aflutter with more chatter than usual. Reita was nowhere to be seen; everyone’s attention was on his empty seat.

Our homeroom teacher entered the room. “We have a morning assembly today, but before that, I have an announcement.” Our teacher stood in front of the podium and enunciated each word with an impassive tone. “Shiratori-kun has been suspended for a week due to an infraction of violence.”

The teacher’s statement added credibility to the post I’d seen. It was the worst news I could possibly hear...

The cold had gradually become more and more severe, bringing winter along with it. My breath was white, and the wind was frigid. The leaves had fallen from the trees, leaving only the branches. Winter erased a myriad of colors, and before I knew it, the world had transformed into a gray landscape.