Chapter 47: The Truth Behind The Truth

Chapter 47: Chapter 47: The Truth Behind The Truth

Junpai’s monologue, POV

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7:59 pm

Three hours later, the sun had fully set over Shinjuku, leaving behind a dark neon skyline painted in hues of electric blue and crimson.

Mataguchi checked his phone as the group had just finished watching an exciting movie.

Earlier I had given my phone to Inosuki after pretending to smash it to the ground from depression. They tried talking to me but I looked af them like noise and not human so they stopped.

"Man, that was a crazy transition," Aki blurted out beside me, blinking against the sudden brightness of the screen. "The sound design in these new theaters is insane. Did you feel that bass, Junpai?"

I didn’t answer, merely nodding my head in a slow, catatonic rhythm. Aki seemed to have not be completely affected by the cause of events that had played out but his constant worry of me still remains.

I needed it that way, I mean if I started talking if I decided to leave he would neither say he wants to come along so he could help rehabilitate me or something.

Beside Oota, Shion let out a soft breath, her tear-streaked face turning toward him. "Oota...? Are you okay? You’re shaking..."

"I thought it was a romance genre but it was actually a horror series" Oota responded his voice shaking.

"Oh yeah you didn’t look at the description, didn’t you?" Shion responded holding and pulling Oota head closer to her, resting it on her shoulder.

"Sorry about that"

"W-well it’s a bit bad, y-you couldn’t watch the movie without worrying"

"Thanks" Oota muttered while relaxes from tension.

"...."

Shion went into silent, her face flashing a blushful expression. "Oh...i almost forgot...I’ve got a kitten on the loose" Shion playful said her expression still embarrassed and red but for some reasons it was unreadable, her tone and voice was her usual cheerful attitude.

Wasn’t she just like too scare to talk properly earlier?

"A..kitten..?" Oota whispered, he was totally relaxed, his eyes closed.

"Yeah, a kitten...but I also have a dog I need to tame....the kitten is my favourite" shion added stroking Oota’s hair gently.

I just watched this exchange and felt strange about it, it seemed to me that after a that she was just comfortable after getting a terms with Oota.

I know own she had this feelings for Oota but it didn’t feel nature to me.

"Well...I don’t....think it’s....cool to have one favourite....it seem pretty unfair....for the dog" Oota said while he fell asleep. Shion chuckles a little.

"I see....then I’ll treat the dog proper then"

"..." Shion went silent as well slowly stroking his hair with a gentle touch and care.

I made sure not stare at them.

After some moments of looking at the credit roll.

"I should go use the restroom" I muttered.

"S-sure bud" Aki approved watching me stand up.

"You guys can wait for me on the outside if you are done" I muttered before leaving, not waiting for Aki to respond.

After spending my sweet time on the toilet I checked my phone which apparently i was with. I had given Inosuki my secondary phone which was on an ongoing call. The phone screen was locked so the call wasn’t emanating when Inosuki took it. And due to the tension of the time he didn’t pay close attention to it.

I walked out to meet up with them they were already to leaved, I had on earbud on the left was less noticeable to others.

The cool night air of the theater plaza did little to settle the phantom static humming in the back of Inosuki’s mind.

"Okay guys! See y’all at school!!" Aki shouted out

While Aki hauled a broken me toward the station lines, and Mataguchi walked a steady three paces ahead his hands buried deep in his pockets, completely detached Inosuki intentionally slowed his gait. He kept his eyes locked on the white pigtails bouncing gently against Shion’s pastel sweater just a few steps ahead before he went his separate way.

Oota, Shion and Inosuki walked their separate ways as well.

After some moment through the ongoing call I could hear Oota separating the group as well. Mist have reached his destination leading to his dorm.

I on the otherhand was indulging on Aki conversations, I wasn’t playfully but still replied as if I wasn’t completely forced on other matters.

It was just us so I didn’t wnat it to look awkward.

"Inosuki-kun." The voice broke the silence in Inosuki’s presence. It was soft, slightly breathless, and carried the heavy, exhausted cadence of a victim trying to hold together the remnants of her composure.

It was obviously Shion.

Shion had stopped walking. Or so it sounded like from the audio.

"You’ve been looking at my left wrist for the last three blocks," Shion said quietly.

"I don’t mean it as an attack okay. But look at data, Shion. The coloration is entirely symmetrical. If Nanami had grabbed you in a sudden fit of aggression to force you back onto the cabin bench, then doesn’t that mean the counter-pressure of her thumb would have left a deeper, isolated indentation on the interior radius? This mark looks like a uniform compression ring."

I see so that was his reasoning.

Shion let out a small, bitter laugh a sound that carried a frighteningly realistic blend of exhaustion and frustration.

?"A uniform compression ring," Shion repeated softly.

She sounded exhausted or something.

"You always look at the geometry of a situation, don’t you, Inosuki-kun? That isn’t nice but yeah...i do understand were you are coming from."

?"P-people are predictable, Shion," Inosuki replied, his voice dropping into that cold, private frequency.

I know he doesn’t want to push further, the message I had sent earlier was a boost for him. Giving my own view of the situation forced him to take actions he wouldn’t normally do.

Still I needed to know the truth.

"Our emotional outbursts are chaotic, but their physical mechanics follow absolute physical laws.... A hand grabbing a wrist requires leverage. Leverage requires an uneven distribution of pressure. Not to be so diect but your wrist doesn’t show that. It shows a tight, uniform, self-sustained grip. The kind of mark left when you hold your own wrist to steady yourself... or "

?"You’re right about the mechanics," she whispered, stepping slightly closer.

"But you’re entirely wrong about the data selection....more simply what you saw. You isolated the compression ring because it fit your baseline suspicion of me. You’ve been looking for a reason to classify me as an suspect since the outburst . But you ignored the rest of the physical canvas."

? "The canvas is was clear."

?"Is it?" Shion added.

"Look closer, Inosuki-kun. Look at the dorsal side of the joint, right below the thumb line. Do you see the tiny, blue-grey subcutaneous discoloration? The one that sits exactly three centimeters above the main compression ring?"

?"That," Shion said, her voice trembling slightly with a sudden, raw wave of vulnerability that felt dangerously real, "is where her thumb actually pressed when she first reached out to stop me from opening the pod door. It’s light because she didn’t hold me there. She grabbed me, her thumb dug in for a fraction of a second, and then I pulled away."

"The uniform compression ring you concluded? That happened after I stumbled back against the bench. I was terrified, Inosuki-kun. My hand was shaking so violently that I grabbed my own wrist with my right hand to force myself to stop trembling before the doors opened. I squeezed myself to keep from screaming."

?"You think I staged the button?" Shion continued, her voice cracking as a single.

"You think i did all that for a reason? Inosuki-kun... I’m a sixteen-year-old girl.."

"I left the voice recorder running because when Nanami-senpai started talking to me, her voice changed. It became cold. Robot-like. It scared me. I wanted proof that the sweet, perfect senior Junpai was idling over was completely hollow inside."

" I didn’t force those words out of her mouth. She said them herself. She admitted she was executing a simulation to keep him happy."

"Besides for what reason will I want Junpai relationship to end?...I was happy he got someone."

"So now I’m starting to think it’s was my fault for interfering to begin with"

?She took a half-step back.

?"You’re so obsessed with finding a monster in our circle that you’re willing to invent one?," Shion whispered.

I’m starting to think I had made the wrong call. Doing this will only hurt Shion just as much as it hurts me. Just listening through the phone I know she wasn’t actually involved but was caught up on it.

I’m starting to hate myself cause I still love Nanami even though she might had planned all this.

"You’d rather believe that your underclassman is a slut than admit that a beautiful first-year student could simply be a cruel, detached person who used Junpai for access."

"Look I didn’t - " Inosuki tried calming her but it didn’t work.

"You’re protecting your own comfort, Inosuki-kun. Because if Nanami is the villain, the world makes sense to you. If I’m the villain, you get to play the hero who saves the others from the scary girl."

?"... ...i never wanted this," Shion said softly, her tone sounding completely broken and scared.

Inosuki sigh heavily, "I’m sorry, you are right. I was overthinking things a bit too much on my part"

".....what if, what if i didn’t.....i just kept quite" Shion added still scared and saddened.

"It’s.....alright, it’s my fault for going this far" he added

"....you sure " Shion asked.

"Yeah" Inosuki muttered. He immediately returned to his baseline tone. He didn’t buy into the story but had decided to back off from it.

"Okay we should get going" Inosuki suggested.

I immediately ended the call there, they was nothing much to actually listen to.

Stupid.

What a fool I was today.

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"Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge."

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