Part 7

Ran Ibuki opened her eyes. The gentle sunlight illuminated the whole dormitory, but she immediately shut her eyes again, resisting the comforting light.

Ran: (Here it is again... My eyes hurt so much.)

Ran closed her eyes shut, squeezing a few tears out of their corners, and tried to lift her right hand.

Ran: (Can't lift it up... Okay.)

She relaxed and focused on her thoughts.

Whenever I took command of her body after she fell asleep, Ran would always wake up afterwards with sore eyes, and delayed nervous reaction speeds. It usually took her ten or so minutes to recuperate from this.

Ran: (Might as well think about what I'm going to do today while I'm recuperating.)

Ran: (The murder has yet to happen, and the class president said that last time was a special rapid case. Probably their normal pace is usually much slower.)

Ran: (Not only will there be random nonsensical private affairs getting in the way, they'll probably need to spend some time figuring out a method and then waiting for the right opportunity. And until they, they'll have to live an ordinary school life. I guess I'll go to the classroom and see what their lessons are like.)

Ran: (If it's miss Sakura lecturing today, I hope she'll punish me by telling me to stand in the corner~)

Ran: (After that, it'll be lunch, and then I can go check out the tunnel. I'll give it a good look-see today, and estimate whether it's plausible at all to dig through the collapsed tunnel by hand.)

Ran: (Maybe there's something in the tool closet I checked out last night that could help me with excavation.)

Ran: (After that... the class president. I don't know why she had to confess to me. I hope miss Sakura won't come to any misunderstandings.)

Sai: Oi, Ibuki, you're late.

Ran: You never had any intentions of calling me to come to class at all, did you.

She was always the one left behind. Nobody would ever-

Sai: Why're you just standing there like a dummy? Don't tell me you skipped breakfast or something.

Sai: You saw the food I left out for you at least, right?

Ran: Oh, yeah, the milk and cookies? They were pretty good.

Aya: Ran-chan, how come you only just now showed up?

Aya: You missed my amazing chemistry lecture!

Ran: You're responsible for chemistry classes at this school?? Damn. I guess we can only hope on self-study for our future college entrance exams, then.

Aya: Rude.

Aya: Can you believe how rude this upstart's being. Tsk-tsk.

Koizumi: Good morning, Ibuki-san.

Sai: Hey, Ibuki, you don't have any textbooks onhand, do you. Come on, push a desk over, we can share textbooks for the time being.

Ran: (Can't believe I get to watch miss Sakura teaching a lecture in class! That's miss Sakura for you. She hides multitudes of potential!)

Thinking about miss Sakura, Ran started giggling.

Sai: Ibuki, what are you even doing. You're grossing me out here.

Ran: O-oh, nothing...

Forty-five minutes later, the bell rang again, signaling the end of the class.

Ran: (I can't believe how... ordinary that was.)

Ran: (When she was tutoring me one on one, miss Sakura was FAR more expressive than this.)

Ran: (She would always use weird gesticulations and even weirder metaphors and comparisons to illustrate her point. Maybe she was more expressive back then because it was a one-on-one tutoring session?)

Ran: (She would even hug my waist with one arm and write equations on the paper with the other~~~)

Ran: (The current miss Sakura isn't the miss Sakura who knows how to take care of me anymore.... )

Ran: (It's fine, it's fine, miss Sakura will remember it all, I'll help her remember. Calm... calm.)

Ann: How was my lesson, Ran? Were you able to take it all in?

Ran: I was mostly just staring at you. I didn't really pay attention to the content of the lecture.

Sai: Holy shit, you need to get a room. I swear, you're almost as disgustingly romantic as Asakura is.

Ran: I was only speaking the truth. I don't see how it's disgustingly romantic at all.

Ann smiled awkwardly.

Ann: Well, next time I give a lecture, you better listen attentively, or else I'll make you stand in the corner!

Ran: Okay!

Ran: (Now that sounded a bit like her old self.)

Ran: (Though I probably don't need to come to classes after this. As far as the distinctive features of their teaching methodology itself goes, besides the thing where they have students serve as teachers, there's nothing else special going on. I probably can't get any useful clues from the classroom.)

Ran: Ah? Nothing, I just, it was just that I thought that she and Miho looked the most like they could be schoolteachers so I was watching her write on the chalkboard and thinking about that and I promise I only like you miss Sakura there's nobody else that I could possibly have feelings for.

Ann: Uh-huh. I mean, actually, I'd love it if you paid more attention to others. A person's life can't be completely dependent on another single individual.

Ran covers her face with her hands, and when she speaks again it is in a darker tone than previously.

Ran: Miss Sakura, if you had not lost your memories, you would never have been able to say such words as that.

Ran: That which is my life, is a life spent only with you. I need nothing else.

Koizumi: What do you plan on doing this afternoon, Ibuki-san?

Ran: (Ugh, why is the class president asking again? Miss Sakura's right next to me, I've got to fend her off quickly.)

Ran swallowed her mouthful of fresh scallops and answered.

Ran: I'm going to check out the tunnel.

Koizumi: We can go around 3 in the afternoon. I can prepare some tea and snacks!

Ran: Ah? Is that really necessary? It's not that far away.

Ann: I think it's a splendid idea. Koizumi's pastries are always quite delicious.

Ran: (AN OPPORTUNITY!)

Ran: Then, would you like to come as well, miss Sakura?

Ann: Oh, no, Koizumi invited you, not me. I shouldn't intrude. You two enjoy yourselves.

Koizumi: It's fine. If Ibuki-san wants to go with Sakura-san, I can prepare the biscuits and pastries for you to take along with you.

Ran: That would be wonderful yes let's do that.

Ann: -_- Ran.

Ran looks into Ann's face, enjoying the feeling of getting lost in her expression. It filled Ran with pleasure.

Ran: (Finally. That serious tone is a bit of the old miss Sakura shining through again.)

Ran: Okay, I got it. I'll come to your room at 3 in the afternoon to meet up with you, prez.

Hearing Ran's agreement, Koizumi's eyes lit up for a moment.

Koizumi: ...If possible, could we meet by the entryway to the dormitory itself?

Ran (immediately suspicious): Why? The rooms are so close together, why can't we just go downstairs together?

Koizumi: ...Mmm... Okay, I guess.

Koizumi's attitude was very displeasurable to Ran.

Ran: No, I asked you why. You can go ahead and tell me why, you don't just have to just roll over and be all like 'okay'.

Koizumi shook her head.

Koizumi: It's nothing. Just a personal problem.

Ran: (Well, now I'll look like an asshole if I keep overriding her.)

Ran: (Whatever, it's not a big deal. Miss Sakura is here and I'll make a bad impression if I keep pushing Koizumi against her will. Let's just go with what Koizumi wants from me.)

Ran: Fine. Dormitory entrance by 3. It's settled.

Koizumi: Okay! Thank you, Ibuki-san.

Ran: It's fine. I just arrived.

Ran: I mean it, I mean. I literally only just arrived. Haven't waited long at all.

Koizumi, slightly nervous: Mmm...

Ran: Forget it, let's just go.

Ran headed into the tunnel. The light dimmed immediately. She turned on the flashlight on her phone, but the light was too weak, and insufficient to light the path ahead.

Ran: (Well, this is a pain.)

Ran: Well prepared, aren't you.

Koizumi: Mm-hm. I was hoping I could help you, Ibuki-san, so I made a lot of considerations while packing.

Ran heard confidence from Koizumi's voice. She didn't like it.

Ran: Look, prez, I really like miss Sakura. Like, take the amount you think a person can possibly love another person, and multiply that by, like, ten thousand, and that's probably coming close to accurate.

Ran reached the end of the tunnel and inspected the rocks.

Ran: So, I really think that you should give up on me reciprocating.

Koizumi: Don't worry about me, Ibuki-san. I'm only doing what I want to do. You don't need to feel any burden at all.

Ran: It's already become a burden to me. And, miss Sakura seems to be very concerned about you- more than she is for me.

Koizumi: I'm... sorry, Ibuki-san.

Koizumi hesitated a few moments before speaking again.

Koizumi: Sorry.

Ran decided to ignore her repetitive apologies, and turned the flashlight on the rocks.

Ran: (Doesn't look like there's anything to it.)

Ran puts a hand on the rock. It's wet.

Ran: (Lichen...)

Ran sets the flashlight down, after finding a loose piece of rock that she judges won't cause anything else to topple if she pulls it out.

Ran: (Probably can dig this one out without collapsing anything else.

Ran: Prez, come up here and help me move this rock.

Koizumi Hyuga stepped forward quickly, and helped Ran illuminate the pile of rocks. After that, Ran reached out, and grabbed the rock wedged in the crack.

Koizumi: Do you need me to help?

Ran: No need- just hold the flashlight! That'll be enough!

The rock was wedged tightly. Ran used all the force she had, but even then it only caused the rock to shake back and forth within the crack, and emit irritating sounds of friction with the other rocks.

Koizumi: Ran!

Koizumi: Do you need my help?!

Ran: No, I'm good. Flashlight. Shine a light down that crack will you.

Ran: (Hm. Looks real. At least it isn't de-manifesting or anything.)

Ran feels the wet lichen detritus still stuck to her hands.

Ran: (And the lichen was real too. It didn't vanish just because it was removed from the tunnel.)

Ran looks up, at the clouds drifting over them in the sky. It's beginning to rain lightly.

Ran: (So, the problem isn't with the tunnel itself. Perhaps the entire school and the whole nearby foot-accessible area is considered one unitary whole.)

Ran: (Let's go over the anomalies again. Firstly, nobody is concerned about clearly being unable to leave here. Some kind of cognitohazard?)

Ran: (Indefinitely available supplies for everyday life, maintaining the stability of the environment.)

Ran: (And, of course, the murder game where revival is possible. Let's assume that's the purpose for which we've been brought here.)

Ran: (Hmm... Yeah, I think I've got it. Cognitive disruption, a closed bu stable environment, and certain strange and distinct rules. I've encountered many supernatural phenomena like this before.)

Ran: (The primary culprit behind this whole scenario can probably be designated as the being who wants to see us murder each other back and forth. The question is where this being is, and why it selected us in particular.)

Ran looked to her side, to see Koizumi diligently holding an umbrella up for the two of them.

Koizumi: Is Ibuki-san planning to clear out all the rocks in the tunnel by herself?

Ran: Nah. There's way too many to move without serious excavation tools or time. Not to mention we haven't even gotten miss Sakura's memories back- can't leave before that's fixed.

Ran: (That's right. If it's the same sort of anomaly as the Red Ruins, then I haven't the foggiest why the rules have caused miss Sakura to lose her memories.)

RED RUINS HAVE BEEN ADDED TO YOUR LIST OF TERMS LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOO

The Red Ruins

A region situated in the far eastern reaches of Russia, with an area of approximately 6.6 square kilometers. Humans who enter the area will be compelled by certain rules (details lost due to memory loss) to participate in a certain activity. All participants will depart the ruins after 12 days without any sign of injury. However, their personalities will become drastically altered, and they will from then on behave in a way that is consistent with common behaviors displayed by average adult citizens of the Soviet Union in the 1960s. Furthermore, they will loudly proclaim their beliefs and declare their manifestos in public gathering spaces.

Ran Ibuki once entered these ruins, but escaped from them after only one day. Her personality was entirely unaffected.

Ran: (If memory loss is part of the 'rules' that this place operates under, then all of us should have lost our memories. Even I've only forgotten how it was that I got here.)

Ran: Still, there's still a path here, so let's keep going and see where it leads.

Ran: (Even in the worst-case scenario, if I slipped and fell, I probably wouldn't sustain any injuries as long as I slid down the incline. Let's keep going.)

The rain grew heavier and heavier. Ran couldn't help but constantly blink her eyes.

She felt like with every step she took, the road in front of her became thinner and thinner.

Ran: (Let's stop here, for now.)

There was a sharp left turn in the path ahead. The tunnel here turned the other way.

It was very difficult to push through this bend in the storm, so Ran decided to turn back.

Ran: President? What're you doing here still?

Koizumi: I'm- worried...

Ran: Are you an idiot? This road's only wide enough for one person. With you like this, how're we supposed to get back?

Koizumi: I-I'm sorry, I'll turn around immediately.

Ran: W-wait!

Ran: Sorry, I shouldn't have yelled at you.

Ran: Don't rush yourself. Make sure you turn around slowly and carefully. I'm not angry at you.

Koizumi: O... Okay.

Koizumi slowly began the difficult process of turning herself around, on the narrow path, in the storm.

Ran, to support her, held one of her hands, while Koizumi grabbed onto a rock that was slick with rain with the other.

But when Ran took her hand, Koizumi flustered, and her grip on the other rock tightened erratically. Because the rock was slippery with rainwater, she lost her grasp on it when she clutched it tightly.

Koizumi lost her balance, and tilted backwards. Ran immediately leapt forward, trying to grab Koizumi's shirt, but she missed.

Ran: (Wait, I can't grab her-)

Koizumi sat on the ground and cried her eyes out. She wiped her face ceaselessly, as the rain and tears together turned her eyes red.

The picnic box and the umbrella, now badly bent, had fallen to her left. Her pants had been torn in the fall, and her scraped leg was exposed to the air.

Koizumi: Ibuki-san... I'm sorry... What do we do??

Ran: (I shouldn't have grabbed her, back then. I should have gone back to the school and called for help.)

Ran: (Can't be helped now. Let's calm the class president down, first.)

Ran: Feels like the class president sure falls down often, huh

Ran: C'mon, let's calm down and find a place to hide from the rain.

Ran reaches a hand out and pulls Koizumi to her feet. Koizumi immediately stumbles into Ran's lap, forcing Ran to support her.

Ran: What's wrong? Can't stand steady?

Koizumi shakes her head, smiling wryly through the rain.

Koizumi: I'm fine... don't worry.

Ran: (She's got a sprain, doesn't she. Well, in that case, we probably shouldn't wander about randomly.)

Ran: Let's go hide from the rain under that tree, and then call for help from the other classmates.

Koizumi, about to cry again: I... I'm sorry...

Ran: C'mon, it's okay, don't cry. It's not a big problem.

Ran: Look, we said that we'd go to the tunnel when we were eating. In the worst-case scenario, they'll notice that we're not back in time for dinner, and they'll come out here to look for us.

Ran: Miss Sakura's all kinds of clever, y'know. I betcha she'll figure out that we slipped off the side of the path instantly.

Koizumi, still crying, nodded her head. She didn't seem particularly cheered.

Ran: (Okay, let's maybe try something else.)

As Ran thought to herself, she suddenly felt that the sound of the rain falling in the branches, and the sound of the wind whistling between the trees, was actually quite lovely.

Watching the raindrops leave perfect ripples in the puddles, listening to the soft swishing of the leaves animated by the wind, time seemed to slow for her.

Ran: (I've been running here and there nonstop, doing this and that. Feels like this is the first time I've run into something I can't do anything about, where I can only choose to wait.)

Ran: (Honestly, even though this is actually an actual disaster, it's kind of relaxing.)

Ran lowered her head and shoulders, and her breathing became relaxed. She was enjoying a rare moment of rest.

Koizumi, noticing Ran's change of disposition, slowly stopped crying as well, and turned to face her.

Ran: Hey, prez, y'know, it's a good thing you prepared thoroughly. Our situation's not that bad because of it!

Ran: We've got a place to sit to avoid the rain, and a tablecloth to keep our feet and pants dry. There's tea and biscuits in the lunchbox too, right? We might as well treat this as a real picnic.

Koizumi: Thank you, Ibuki-san. I wish I could be as calm as you...

Koizumi was trying her best not to waste Ran's efforts in cheering her up. She did her best to smile, and wiped away her tears with her fingers.

Ran: Well, that's all thanks to miss Sakura, really. I was a lot worse before I met her.

Ran: Before that, I'd have probably been crying even harder than you are, right now.

Koizumi: Really? Can't imagine that Ibuki-san-

Koizumi stopped speaking. Ran supposed she must have suddenly remembered the image of Ran, grabbing Ann from the old shower room and dragging the two of them away together. It was probably easy to imagine Ran crying her eyes out, with that context.

Koizumi: But even though you may have been influenced and changed by Sakura-san, you're still able to make the choices that you yourself want. I'm so jealous of that, really.

Ran: What's that mean? I don't get it.

Koizumi: From my youth, everything in my life was fully decided by my parents. The elementary school and middle school I went to were all places where they had influence. What I used for my day-to-day life and what I did with my time was pretty much all dictated by them. I never had a chance to choose.

Koizumi: Same with this high school, really. I didn't want to come here, originally, but they still sent me here anyways.

Ran being Ran as usual: (Well, ignoring the class president's feelings for a moment, it's very important that she actually has an understanding of what a 'normal' school ought to be like- and, more importantly, that she remembers just how she wound up in this place. That's an important change to my understanding of the situation.)

Koizumi: Well, I've gotten on quite well with everyone, though, and I've already gotten used to having my choices made for me.

Ran: I feel like you're making a mountain of a molehill, here. Plenty of people have their choices made by their parents for them, from their childhood to their adulthood.

Ran Ibuki made a concerted effort to not let her own memories of her own parents appear in the middle of this conversation. She deliberately pushed them out of her thoughts for the moment.

Ran: (I have miss Sakura, I only have miss Sakura...)

Ran: Besides, miss president, you've surely got plenty of decision-making ability. You choose when to sleep and what to eat and how much to eat every day, right?

Koizumi smiled wryly.

Koizumi: Indeed, since I left my parents and came here, I've become capable of deciding all these things on my own.

The way Koizumi said that made Ran feel a chill on her spine, like some of the stray raindrops had finally penetrated through and landed on her back.

Koizumi: Though, they said that, after I graduated, I should become a teacher- but I'd much rather become a reporter.

Ran: Well, being a teacher seems like it'd fit you. I'm a bit surprised you want to become a reporter, actually.

Ran: I feel like you're more suited to a sedentary job. I feel like your parents' plans for you honestly aren't half bad.

Koizumi hugged her knees, shrinking down into a little ball.

Koizumi: I've been buffeted by all these 'not half bad' things, my whole life. Even though I don't like them, I can't elucidate a good reason to refuse them- and so I can't refuse them at all.

Ran: What, do you need a reason to refuse? Just say you don't want to.

Koizumi: I don't know. But I always feel like I need to try to oblige, when someone makes a request of me.

Koizumi: Like being the class president- really, Miho would be much more suitable. But the class selected me for some reason, so all I can do is to try to do my best in the position.

After Koizumi finished speaking, Ran wasn't really sure how to respond. She wasn't very good at this interpersonal relationships stuff. If there was a specific problem to resolve, she might have been more useful.

The rain fell harder and harder, showing no sign of abating.

Koizumi: Ibuki-san.

Koizumi: Even though I recently just talked about how I'm always forced to make decisions by others, this time, I chose of my own volition to confess to you, Ibuki-san. To be this close to you, right now- I'm very happy about that.

Koizumi: Maybe this will help boost my self-confidence.

Ran: Ha ha well you definitely came to the wrong person. I definitely can't help you with that.

Ran: Ha ha well you definitely came to the wrong person. I definitely can't help you with that.

Ran: I'm as far from 'confident' as you could get. All of the things I do, the source of my faith in those actions are all rooted in miss Sakura.

Koizumi: Then... Ibuki-san, can you become the source of my confidence, then?

Koizumi: Then... Ibuki-san, can you become the source of my confidence, then?

Ran: No way. I don't have that kind of ability.

Koizumi clutched her hands into tight fists.

Koizumi: I'm sorry. I'm acting like my parents, trying to force you to do something you don't want to do.

Ran: (What, so, the class president CLEARLY knows I'm not willing. Why's she still trying to make me do it?)

Ran: It's okay. These are totally different things anyways. Right now I'm more worried about when exactly they're going to come to save us. I don't want to miss Sai's dinner.

Koizumi: Then let's drink some tea while we wait.

Ran: Mmm. This is going to be a real camping experience, then.

Smiling, Koizumi extracted a thermos from the lunchbox, and poured Ran and herself each a cup of tea.

Ran: (Alright, I think I've successfully alleviated the president's tension. Time to ask her about miss Sakura.)

Ran: Right, prez, when you saw miss Sakura the first time, what kind of condition was she in?

Koizumi: Sakura-san, huh.

Koizumi: I first saw her in a room in the dorms. Sakura-san seemed quite normal. She was sitting by a window, and after she saw me, she waved hello to me first.

Koizumi: And then it turns out, when I asked her, she didn't even remember her own name. She told me that she saw all the other rooms had people in them already, so she decided to wait here.

Koizumi got out the biscuits from the lunchbox.

Koizumi: Ah, Ibuki-san, try this chocolate cookie.

Ran: Oh, thank you. What happened after that?

Ran drank some tea to go with the chocolate biscuit. The crisp texture of the biscuit and the intermixing of the bitterness of the tea and the sweetness of the biscuit caused Ran to take another bite despite herself.

Koizumi: Well, it was because there was a registration sheet, lying on the table, on the first floor of the dorms.

Koizumi: Sakura-san said that she was waiting for me to arrive, so that she could deduce by elimination, whether her name was Koizumi Hyuga or Ann Sakura.

Ran: That's miss Sakura for you. She's never lost her composure in her whole life before and probably never will.

Koizumi: I think she definitely lost her composure when you dragged her out of the shower room kicking and screaming. You, that is, I mean. You were the one kicking and screaming, not Sakura-san.

Ran: -Guh.

Ran: (The class president has a real talent for making uninvited snarks, huh. And she says she lacks agency.)

Ran: ...Okay, well, once we got to the tunnel, Sakura-san definitely calmed back down. And then she led me right back to the school with just a few words.

Koizumi: Honestly, me and the other students are all very curious what you two have been through together. The passion that you express for Sakura-san seems to be quite different from that of a regular romance.

Ran: That's because it is different from a regular romance. Just saying 'I love you' can't begin to express the way I feel about miss Sakura in my heart.

Koizumi poured Ran another cup of tea.

Koizumi: If it's possible, could you tell me a little about the two of you?

Ran: Well...

Ran: (Strange. In front of other people I usually hate talking about miss Sakura. But, faced with the prez, it feels like it wouldn't be a big deal to discuss it.)

Ran: Okay, let me think about what to talk about.

Ran described a few uneventful and short snippets about her ordinary daily life with Ann Sakura, to Koizumi.

Even so, Koizumi still listened attentively, and occasionally let out a laugh.

Ran continued speaking up until they heard some voices calling out on the other side of the woods.

Ran: And then miss Sakura... Hang on, do you hear that?

Koizumi: Mmhm! Yes!

Koizumi nodded vigorously.

Koizumi: I hear it! I think it's Sai!

Ran: Took'em long enough. Let's go. Can't believe I actually enjoyed the conversation, prez.

Koizumi: I'm glad that you enjoyed it, Ibuki-san! I'm happy too.

Koizumi stood up. The sunlight, so clear after the passing of the storm, shone on her body, and Ran saw her smile as if she'd put down all the burdens weighing on her up to now.

Koizumi: Ibuki-san, once I graduate, I'll definitely tell my parents.

Koizumi: That I don't want to be a teacher. This time, I'm sure I'll be able to tell them properly, because I've got Ibuki-

Koizumi Hyuga's words pierced through Ran's brain. A pain unlike any she'd ever suffered before took over her whole consciousness.

Ran: (Wh...)

Ran knelt on the floor and gasped for breath. The sound of her breathing was so loud it made her ears ring.

Ran: (Koizumi... Hyuga.....)

Ran Ibuki opened her mouth, as though that would help the pain in her cranium stream out of it.

Koizumi: Ibuki-san!

Koizumi seemed terrified as well. She knelt down besides Ran, without any idea what to do.

Koizumi: Wh- Ibuki-san!

Ran: Koizumi- you're- this-

Everything before Ran began distorting and swapping, before finally fading out into infinite darkness.

Everything before Ran began distorting and swapping, before finally fading out into infinite darkness.

Even Ran Ibuki, so distant from others, knew full well, that the math teacher, Koizumi Hyuga, was a person who was resigned to giving way to the desires of others, someone who perpetually responded to conflict by attempting appeasement.

Other teachers frequently foisted off the work they didn't want to do themselves onto Ms. Hyuga, like she was a garbage can without a lid, into which you could shove any kind of trash.

One day, Ran found Ms. Hyuga, crying by herself in a rarely-visited corner of the school. She asked the teacher,

[Even after one grows up, is finding a hidden place to cry all anyone can do?]

Koizumi Hyuga felt pain at these words. She knew the situation that Ran Ibuki had been in, at school, but she'd never paid particular attention to it.

After all, nobody had requested that she do so.

She started trying to help Ran Ibuki. This was the first time, in a life that'd been completely decided by her parents, that she'd made what felt to her like a meaningful decision.

After that, the two of them often met in a corner of the school, to chat about anything and everything.

Ran had also noticed that this teacher seemed particularly interested in her. Such a thing was itself a great help to Ran.

Afterwards, Ran met Ann Sakura, and became more and more outgoing. Koizumi was happy to see such a change in Ran, as well.

Koizumi gained great encouragement from witnessing Ran's transformation. She told Ran that she was going to make a change, as well- that she would open her mouth for the first time, to reject her parents' demands of her.

[Ibuki-san, I'm definitely going to tell my parents, that I don't want to be a teacher, and that I don't want to get married either.]

But, starting the day after Koizumi expressed her determination, she never came back to school ever again.

It didn't take long for the students to be informed that Ms. Hyuga had left her position due to getting married. For a while, the rumor mill went wild with this. Some people whispered that she'd gotten pregnant before she'd married and thus been fired quietly; other suggested that she was a sexually promiscuous person.

The students and teachers alike began taking all of Koizumi's previous actions and magnifying them, finding each and every fault in them. Even small issues that hadn't been worth discussing before had become evidence in support of Koizumi Hyuga's obvious promiscuity.

Ran Ibuki was surrounded by the terribly disgusting rumors. These statements, targeted at Koizumi, pained her own heart as well.

She imagined the things that Koizumi must have experienced, after defying her parents for the first time. Ran wanted to fight back against the rumors for Koizumi's sake, to eliminate the false rumors that plagued the school, but she couldn't open her mouth.

Ran hid herself in the secluded place where she'd meet with Koizumi each day, crying and dry-heaving.

She knew that she, like Koizumi Hyuga, had the exact same lack of ability to make independent decisions. If she foolishly decided to try to make a difference, she would only invite destruction down on herself.

That was why, any changes and decisions she made, had to be done together with Ann Sakura.

Ran freed herself from the memories. She'd remembered everything about Koizumi, now.

Koizumi Hyuga

Late Showa

Investigation 4, Alacrity 3, Charisma 6

Uniform is a sleeveless dress with a short jacket with long sleeves. After being selected as president, she's decided to take the responsibility very seriously.

Often indecisive and hesitant, and often tends to go with the flow when others propose ideas or suggestions. Often falls into confusion when faced with unexpected situations.

Responsible for teaching mathematics at ths chool.

Was Ran's math teacher in high school. After getting to know Ran for a year, departed from her position at the school. Was the only teacher who ever sincerely cared for Ran Ibuki.

After Ran Ibuki and Ann Sakura began dating, contacted Ann Sakura a few times. Koizumi expressed a flinching emotional reaction to Ann Sakura, but also expressed understanding and support for Ran Ibuki's feelings.

Ran: It's fine, Koizumi-sen... sei...

Koizumi: Sen... sei??

Ran trembled as she looked up at the high-schooler aged Koizumi Hyuga.

Ran: (So... Koizumi-sensei was, in the end, after graduating from high school, unable to refuse her parents' demand for her to become a teacher, just like how she was forced to get married after coming of age anyways...)

Ran: O-oh. I'm fine, Koizumi.

Koizumi: Okay...

Koizumi still seemed quite confused. She must have been wondering why, after kneeling on the ground for a few minutes, Ran had suddenly called her 'sensei'.

Ran: (Koizumi-sensei appearing as a highschooler here, and my brain having been wiped clean of all memories about her, without any sense of abnormality until they were returned...)

Sai, from far away: Ibuki! How'd you fall all the way down there??

Ran: (This memory is so deep and realistic- I can be certain that it actually happened.)

Sai was waving at them from the top of the cliff.

Ran: (I haven't lost my memories- someone stole them from me!)

Ran stared at Sai and didn't answer her.

Ran: (Then, are the other students in a similar situation, relative to me? Do I have to reclaim my memories from them, one by one? If so, then where are miss Sakura's memories hidden?)

Ran took a deep breath. She felt like she was approaching the true nature of this school.

But it was far from enough.

Always blushing?

Seems like a very good and obedient person.

The design on her hairband is...?

Suitable for glasses 👓

Why confess to me even though she knows there's no purpose to it?

The shame and regret I feel with regards to Koizumi-sensei is because of selfishness. Through the process of getting to know her, I discovered that this person, someone upon whom was stacked the markers of 'maturity' and 'teacher', was also just a person as weak as me, and just as deeply mired in a sunless swamp as I was.

Conversing with Koizumi-sensei gave me great reassurance. When she disappeared, festering rumors grew in places she could no longer see. If I could have stood up for her at that point, perhaps I could have left in my heart the vainglorious idea that I'd once done anything at all for another person. Perhaps I could have borrowed that and lended some meaning to my life, and given myself a deed worth boasting about just a little?

But I couldn't do it, I'm sorry, Koizumi-sensei...