C38

Chapter 38: A Different Purpose

Sunday.

Reo was playing Asuon in his room while thinking about yesterday.

After his parents returned from school yesterday, his mother had told him about how things would go moving forward.

“I spoke with Mr. Yamaoka today... and it's been decided that you can take a break from school for a while.”

For the foreseeable future, there was no need to force himself to attend school. The school would prepare teaching materials and assignments for that period, and they said they would follow up on the academic side as much as possible.

The school's response was surprisingly attentive.

Why go this far?

Gazing at the game screen, Reo found himself pondering that.

Had this turned into a far bigger deal than he anticipated?

As he thought about that—

Ping.

A notification arrived on his smartphone. Glancing at the screen, it was from Shigumin.

‘Heading to the hunting grounds now.’

Seeing that, Reo thought about it anew.

...When on earth did I exchange LINE with Shigumin?

Thursday. When he returned from the hospital, went to sleep, and woke up, a massive flood of notifications had arrived from Shigumin.

Looking through the history, he could tell when they had exchanged info.

It was just that from around Wednesday night, his memories had grown murky, and he couldn't remember that part.

After thinking for a short while.

(Well, it's not really a problem, is it?)

Shifting his consciousness back to Asuon, he continued monotonously hunting the monsters right before him.

After doing that for a bit, Shigumin's avatar showed up at the hunting grounds.

Joining forces, we continued hunting just like that. We pulled together a bunch of low-level mobs and chipped away at them all at once with area-of-effect skills. I picked up the enemies Shigumin dropped, and headed straight for the next group. After repeating the same movements several times, we moved on to boss farming.

Today's opponent was a large boss monster with nine heads.

—The Nine-Headed Demon God, Rotus.

Its firepower was high. But its mechanics were simple.

Once the battle with the boss began, we closed the distance while dodging incoming attacks, and hammered skills into it at the opening. We piled on consecutive attacks right after Shigumin's hit connected, wearing down the boss's HP.

While continuing that kind of battle, Reo found himself thinking about his visit to the psychosomatic clinic.

The questions had been utterly ordinary.

At first, he was asked about daily matters like sleep, meals, and what he usually spent his time doing.

After that, being asked about things at school led him to deduce that his mother's actions this time were related to the fake confession incident.

Regarding the school matter, he had simply answered what he was asked, but...

Was it really just that which earned him a diagnosis of psychological burden?

Honestly, he had no idea just how much of a psychological burden a fake confession like this typically constituted.

Judging solely by his own sensibilities, he figured it was more than enough reason to take a break from school.

That was why, because they had gone out of their way to pull off such a flashy reveal, he had calculated that he wouldn't have to go through any unnecessary trouble, allowing him to stay home resting throughout the event period.

...However.

To begin with, just how severe of an incident was that?

He couldn't judge by his own standard alone.

Should he ask Shigumin?

Reo: ‘Shigumin’

Shigumin: ‘What?’

Reo: ‘If a fake confession is exposed in front of a large crowd of classmates, to what extent does it become a psychological burden?’

Even during that, the battle with the boss continued inside the screen.

Shigumin's character dodged the boss's attacks, maintaining distance while releasing skills.

After a short while, a reply came from Shigumin.

Shigumin: ‘Depends on the person, I guess’

Shigumin: ‘Normally, I think it takes a pretty heavy mental toll’

Between attacks, text was typed out flatly.

Shigumin: ‘Getting exposed in front of a large crowd gives you nowhere to run’

Shigumin: ‘Wouldn't it be weird if you didn't get mentally messed up from that?’

While looking at those words, Reo dodged the boss's attack.

The battle continued inside the screen.

Yet, his consciousness drifted slightly somewhere else.

...I see.

So that was what kind of event it was.

At that time, Reo had looked only at the result of getting to stay home from school. A reason had been created. He had thought that was more than enough.

He hadn't thought deeply about how that event looked from the surroundings' perspective.

Reo replayed the events of that day.

To organize what on earth had happened in that classroom—something he hadn't bothered to think deeply about until today.

◇

Monday after school.

In a classroom where his classmates remained, Kujo suddenly started spilling the beans on the fake confession, and the classroom's atmosphere—which had been normal until then—changed in a single instant.

Amidst that, the first thing that caught Reo's attention was Kokona's actions.

She was obviously shaken.

That wasn't the reaction of someone who had been informed in advance.

Kokona hadn't known the truth of the fake confession would be revealed in front of her classmates.

At the very least, she shouldn't have grasped that it would be done in that format.

If so, a question remained.

Why had Kujo acted without notifying Kokona?

Given that he didn't notify Kokona, it was highly likely it was carried out on Kujo's own judgment.

Then, what needed to be considered next was the reason.

Why had he chosen that method?

If the sole purpose was to convey the fact of the fake confession, there was no need to choose that setting.

There had to be a different reason for deliberately doing it in front of the classmates.

There were a few conceivable reasons.

A sense of superiority.

A need for validation.

The desire to demonstrate to those around him that he was on top.

People sometimes take actions beyond what's necessary out of emotions like that.

Yet, that alone didn't add up.

That action carried a commensurate level of risk.

Considering the risk of the school finding out, the impact on those around him, and even the possibility of Kujo losing the standing he had built for himself, relying solely on superiority or a need for validation made the burden far too massive.

If what could be gained was merely temporary emotional gratification, the possibility of what stood to be lost was vastly greater.

Kujo wasn't an idiot incapable of even that simple calculation.

He held a clear position not just within the class, but also in the soccer club.

He was a person looked up to by those around him.

It was hard to imagine a person like that taking actions that endangered their own standing without a single thought.

Even so, Kujo executed it right then and there.

Then, there had to be another reason.

So, re-evaluating the events of that day once more.

What snagged in his mind was, after all, Kokona's reaction.

Kujo kept talking even though Kokona was trying to stop him.

...What was that about?

No matter how you looked at it, Kokona was bewildered by Kujo's actions.

It was easy to think that's why she tried to stop him.

Despite that, Kujo drew a bizarre interpretation.

And on the grounds of that interpretation, he directed words toward Reo.

At the very least, that didn't look like he was respecting Kokona's intentions.

If anything, he was using even Kokona's reaction as material to justify his own actions.

Thinking about it that way, perhaps Kujo was trying to accomplish something even if it meant ignoring Kokona's wishes.

Just what on earth... was that?

Right then, he recalled another thing that bothered him.

Kano's actions.

Kano had pointed her smartphone at the scene.

She wasn't just watching the situation.

It looked as though she had intended to record it from the very beginning.

Yet, that too left a question.

If the goal was merely to convey that it was a fake confession, there was no need to film a video.

Explain it to the people present, and the matter would be over right there.

Even so, Kano filmed it.

...Come to think of it, she said something about how it'd be funny to look back on later... but was that really the only reason?

A thing like that was a bundle of risks.

Even if she deleted it afterwards, the fact that someone had filmed it remained.

With the testimony of the people present, it wouldn't end as a mere prank, and the severity of the problem would escalate exponentially.

He couldn't understand the reason for deliberately increasing the danger to oneself.

Even so, Kano recorded the video.

Then, there had to be a true reason there as well.

The reason Kujo chose the method of a public display in front of a crowd.

The reason Kano filmed the video.

If those two seemingly separate actions were heading toward the same purpose...

Reo rethought the events of that day once more.

Then, a single question arose.

Who was the person suffering the greatest disadvantage from this incident?

It wasn't me... it was Kokona.

Kokona was active as a model.

Her name recognition within the school was also high.

A person like that gets recognized as the one who pulled off a fake confession in front of her classmates.

It might not end merely as a problem within the school.

How she was viewed by surroundings. The impact on her activities as a model.

What she stood to lose was vastly greater than him.

Thinking about it that way, meaning emerged even for the period of fake dating between Kokona and him.

That act held zero merit for Kokona.

If anything, it only increased the risk when it was eventually found out to be a fake confession.

Even so, Kujo and the others went out of their way to make it look like they were dating.

To ensure that relationship was recognized not just within the class, but all the way across the school.

Considering that, a different perspective opened up.

Was Kujo and the others' true target really him?

There was no hard proof.

Yet, Kujo and the others' actions possessed consistency.

It made sense if you considered that the target wasn't Reo, but Kokona.

He didn't know what the purpose was.

Still, wasn't Kokona the one being targeted from the very start?

And as for himself... he had thought he was using them, only to find out he was being used instead.

..........

...A conclusion couldn't be reached with just the information currently at hand.

Reo temporarily shelved that line of thought.

Meanwhile, the boss's HP gauge steadily diminished.

Shigumin's attack chipped away the remaining scraps of the boss's HP, and Reo hammered in his final skill during that opening. The moment his blade caught the boss, its HP hit zero, and its massive frame collapsed and sank into the ground.

Gazing at that scene, Reo suddenly thought:

"...Come to think of it, what are Kujo and the others doing... right now?"