Chapter 173 – Critical situation

The paper only had this one sentence, and even if it was a prank by an elementary school student, it wouldn't be this superficial. No one would believe such an obviously fake lie.

The content, less than ten words, stated that Ichinose was a criminal but did not specify any charges. It was so blatantly false that even a second glance would be a waste of time.

Yet, what was most baffling and troubling for Shiranami and Amikura was that despite the note being something that should have been thrown directly into the trash, Ichinose was unnaturally stiff, staring at it for over a minute!

Something was very wrong!

It would have been understandable if Ichinose had laughed it off, not taken it to heart, or even angrily thrown it away.

But the fact that she kept looking at that single sentence over and over was particularly worrisome.

"Honami-chan," Amikura approached worriedly, taking hold of Ichinose's rigid arm, seemingly trying to transfer some warmth to her friend through this gesture.

Kanzaki and Shibata looked on with immense concern. Finally, Ichinose snapped out of it, as if her neck had been petrified, shaking her head very slowly: "I, I'm fine."

But you don't look fine at all!

Amikura kept this thought to herself, not voicing it out loud. Right now, Ichinose was clearly shaken, her eyes exceptionally dim. The usually bright Ichinose now looked as wilted as frostbitten eggplant.

Anyone familiar with Ichinose could tell how uncomfortable she was feeling at that moment. Amikura wanted to help Ichinose, but didn't know how to start, so she just took the paper and half-hugged Ichinose.

Kanzaki was immediately furious, turning to the classmate who had handed over the paper, and noticed it was a member of Sakayanagi's class: "Where did these slanderous letters come from?"

Even though Ichinose's reaction was very unnatural, almost like a guilty person whose secret had been exposed, what of it?

Based on his understanding of Ichinose, Kanzaki unconditionally believed that their class rep could not possibly be a criminal! Even if one didn't trust Ichinose's character, as someone standing on the side of the class, Kanzaki could not allow outsiders to attack the integrator of their own class like this.

So, Kanzaki's first statement already defined the letter as slander, framing the situation as a personal attack meant to smear someone's reputation.

"I, I don't know," the student was also perplexed, "Just around dinner time, for some reason, these words, these slanderous letters, were everywhere in the lobby on the first floor. We have no idea where they came from."

"Damn it! Who could it be!" Kanzaki cursed fiercely, truly furious at such actions: "Let's go, Shibata, we need to check the dormitory surveillance! And Shiranami, Amikura, you guys take Ichinose back to her dorm first."

Shibata immediately agreed, and they split up to carry out their tasks. The girls escorted Ichinose back, while the boys ran to the dormitory manager to inquire about the surveillance footage, hoping to find the person who spread the slanderous letters.

However, in response to their request, the dormitory manager pointed at herself with a look of distress: "I didn't know at first either, I just saw a box of photocopies at the door."

"It had a notice from the school administration attached, so I distributed them in the lobby. Now I'm really worried about getting blamed by the higher-ups."

Kanzaki was out of breath with frustration. Could it really be this way? Deceiving the dormitory manager to distribute them? What a cunning trick! He then asked the manager for the cardboard box.

The box, which originally contained the slanderous letters, indeed had a school distribution notice on it, but Kanzaki, upon closer inspection, noticed that the words "sports festival medical team" had been erased.

He immediately realized that someone had deliberately collected stickers from the medical team during the sports festival to deceive the dormitory manager, unwittingly turning her into an accomplice.

The trail ended there. With so many cooling materials distributed by the medical team during the sports festival, and relatively many stickers, it was impossible to find out who had secretly taken one.

Even if he desperately tried to investigate, he wouldn't uncover anything.

"Kanzaki, what should we do now?" Shibata was also very worried about their class president and hoped the assistant class rep could come up with a solution.

"Now, now?" Kanzaki was also at a loss. The enemy was lurking in the shadows, leaving no trace, very well-hidden, and exceedingly cautious. With all leads cut off, no matter how clever he was, he couldn't catch anyone.

If they couldn't catch the person, then the next best thing was to minimize the impact of the situation!

Kanzaki suddenly became spirited, growing more anxious as he spoke, "Shibata, I'll join you in collecting those slanderous letters. We can't let more people see them!"

"Ordinary people won't believe this kind of slander, after all, Ichinose's character is well-praised throughout the grade."

"But if we ignore it, and even one out of ten people believe the slander, it would be bad for Ichinose."

"Understood." The two quickly set about collecting the slanderous letters, but just as they managed to gather up the ones in the first-year hall...

They learned from other students, to their despair, that it wasn't just their area; the second and third-year dorms were also rife with the same slanderous letters being widely spread.

With this rate of spread, it seemed likely that by tomorrow, Ichinose would become infamous, the subject of discussion among all the students on campus.

Ichinose was alone in her room, sitting curled up with her hands around her knees, her face pressed painfully against her knees, her eyes dull and lifeless, lost in past memories, unable to extricate herself.

Each time she remembered, she recalled the regret and self-reproach she saw on her mother's pained face, recognizing her mistakes as she was forced to bow her head in apology.

Such intense regret, once remembered, was like a bottomless mire, dragging her down desperately as if it wouldn't allow her to struggle free.

As Kanzaki predicted, by Tuesday, the talk of Ichinose being a criminal had escalated dramatically.

From the seniors down to their freshmen, nearly all the students were discussing this serious matter.

"Impossible, right? That's Ichinose we're talking about, how could she possibly be a criminal? Stop joking, you must not have met her. She's a girl purer than an angel from heaven."

"That's your bias speaking, let me tell you, you can know the face but not the heart! You didn't see Ichinose last night; she stared at that paper for over a minute! Why would she look so long at such a short message?"

"Uh... now that you mention it, she does seem a bit guilty, huh? You were there last night? Then come on, tell me more in detail."

In a moment, Ichinose became a highly discussed celebrity. Sometimes, people just love spectacles; even though it was only two days since the sports festival where Yukio took first place and Nagumo made a fool of himself, they seemed to have faded into the background.

Only discussing Ichinose seemed to be at the forefront of campus trends.

***

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