Aspirations of the Unknown
4/20/16
Shujin
Noon, Lunch Break
Ryuji Sakamoto
Ryuji was casually lounging in the student council room, eating his lunch. Before he got recruited into the student council, he found the rooftop to be a perfect place for him to find the peace and quiet he needed, away from Kamoshida and everything.
Now that he’s part of the Student Council, he found the Student Council room to be a better place for him to seek privacy. Sure, not many students would use the rooftop, but it was still public, so anyone who really wanted to could drop by.
On the other hand, with the Student Council room, he could eat in peace without having anyone drop by... three sharp knocks interrupt him.
He sighs. So much for that line of thinking. Of course, he’s still the acting Student Council President, so he often gets called in the midst of lunch to attend to trivial matters or to break up fights.
He gets up from his seat and moves towards the door. He opens it and finds Mishima.
Ryuji is a bit surprised as he nods. “Mishima? What are you doing here?”
Mishima smiles. “Hey, Sakamoto! I was hoping I could find a quiet place to eat. I was going to use the rooftop, but Yuki and that gymnast girl Yoshizawa, along with another girl I’ve not had the chance to know, are there. If I stayed there, it would have gotten weird. Anyway, I also wanted to ask something of you.”
Ryuji shrugs. “Go ahead.”
He lets Mishima go in and sit down, while Ryuji closes the door. Ito and Mari were probably enjoying lunch in their respective classrooms; that bodes well for his preferences of not being disturbed. Mishima is an exception; after all, Yuki and the rest of them did recruit him to the team just yesterday.
Ryuji goes back to sit down and continues eating the yakisoba pan that he picked up from a bakery before school. Most days, the school cafeteria would run out of food by the time he got down there, so he always bought food before school, even if it was a little expensive. He always changed his food up though so he wouldn’t get sick of it too easily.
A period of silence continued except for the sounds of eating. Mishima finally broke the silence. “Hey, Sakamoto, once we deal with Kamoshida, are you going to rejoin the track team?”
Ryuji looks up. “That’s unexpected. Huh. To be honest, I haven’t actually thought that far ahead. It’s been almost a year since I quit track. When Kamoshida quits, I’m not sure. It’s complicated right now; the Student Council is already understaffed as is with the continued absence of Niijima-senpai, so if I were to rejoin the track team, I’d have to continue duties, at least until we can find a suitable replacement.” He sighs. “Although, I probably won’t be able to handle two afterschool activities, given how much work a Student Council President has.”
He looks up. “Even still, rejoining track… it’s difficult. At first, I wanted to join track so I could get a scholarship somewhere so my mom wouldn’t have to worry too much about college tuition. When I quit track, of course, she strangely wasn’t mad. She somehow understood that quitting track for me was a matter of principle. I even told her my suspicions about Kamoshida, and you know what she told me? “If that’s what you think you should do, then that’s what you should.”
Mishima looks down. “You said your mom, but never mentioned your dad.” Upon seeing Ryuji wince, Mishima shrunk. “Sorry, is that a sore subject?”
Ryuji heaved. “It’s… alright. They divorced, for reasons she couldn’t tell me. All she said about it was that my dad never cheated on my mom, but it was like... a short while after they had me, the love they had couldn’t last. It was like maybe the love they had was fleeting; maybe they never did truly love each other. I have no idea. Even now, I don’t know what to think of the guy. I've never met him and probably never will.”
Ryuji rolls his eyes. “Anyways, enough about my family. Track is… complicated. With Kamoshida gone, the reason that made me want to quit track will disappear. That being said, it’s been a while since I did any sort of track and field. I mean I still exercise and keep in shape, but that thrill I used to have… it hasn’t fully disappeared but it’s not driving me anymore.”
Mishima nods. “Oh.”
Ryuji raised an eyebrow. “Weren’t you always going on about how you wanted to play volleyball? I thought I remembered you joined the volleyball team.”
Mishima nervously chuckles. “Well… that… I quit. I wasn’t making any headway and I didn’t enjoy playing it.”
A sharp set of knocks interrupted them. Ryuji sighs. “And I thought I could eat in peace. At least I finished my yakisoba pan.”
He gets up and opens the door. Ms. Kawakami is standing there. “Kawakami-sensei, hello.”
Ms. Kawakami looks around. “Sakamoto-kun, I have something to talk to you about... Mishima-kun, I’m surprised you’re here as well. Great, that simplifies everything.”
Ryuji is perplexed. “Talk to me about what?”
Ms. Kawakami looks around before speaking. “Apparently, some high schools in Tokyo have made scholarship offers to the school and both of your parents to recruit you two. Sakamoto-kun, you’ve been offered a track scholarship at another school not far from here. Mishima-kun, you’ve been offered one by a school located in Minato Ward. Both of them, I’m told, are excellent schools, on the same caliber as Shujin is, with direct pipelines to prestigious universities here in Tokyo.”
Ryuji holds up a hand. “This is the first time I’m hearing about this.”
Mishima pipes up. “Me too. Kawakami-sensei, where did you hear this from?”
Ms. Kawakami elaborates. “I heard it from Ms. Chuono.” She mutters under her breath, “That woman sure does love her gossip.” Ryuji, being closer, could hear her just barely. Kawakami refuses. “Anyway, I’m pretty sure it went to the principal first. I’m not sure why they made their offers when the semester has already begun, but your parents have already been informed of it. Ultimately, you will have some input on the offer, but the principal has supposedly encouraged both of you to take them up on the offer. Your parents will ultimately be the final decision-makers, given you’re still both juveniles.”
Ryuji nods. “Thanks for telling us this, Ms. Kawakami.”
Ms. Kawakami waves her hand. “Whatever happens, know that I’m rooting for you, Sakamoto-kun. Even if you’re not in my class, you’re still a student of mine. You too, Mishima-Kun.” She walks off towards the teacher’s lounge.
Ryuji closes the door. Mishima speaks up, “That’s weird. The mention of scholarships when we’ve already started Spring term here at Shujin…”
Ryuji nods. “Right, it’s too weird, especially when we’re already dealing with Kamoshida. It almost feels like… Nah, it couldn’t be. On the other hand…”
Mishima groans. “Enough with that. Are we going in today?”
Ryuji shakes his head. “Yuki just texted me no. She’s gonna be doing something else. Also, Mona hasn’t finished making those grappling hooks for all of us yet.”
Mishima nods. “Speaking of Mona, I saw him in the cafeteria, surrounding by a flock of first-years.”
Ryuji smacks his face. “He’s a play-boy all right. Those girls better not get their hopes up too high; I’m sure he has a crush on Takamaki or Amamiya, either of the two.”
Mishima pokes his face, thinking. “Weren’t you in a relationship with Takamaki?”
Ryuji sits down next to Mishima and begins to extend his arm around Mishima, making a vice grip. “We broke up. Ironically, she still isn’t over me yet, at least that’s what I’d like to believe. Truthfully, I wouldn’t care if Mona put the moves on Takamaki; she was getting rather annoying with her constant whining and stalking anyways before everything with Kamoshida. I could finally rest in peace knowing she has a new boyfriend.”
Mishima raised an eyebrow. “You mean she’s not a lesbian?”
Ryuji, drinking his thermos of tea, spat it out. “No! I mean… I don’t know... she did kiss Yuki, but it was probably to tease me. I mean the both of them weren’t exactly on the best of terms when Yuki first started school at Shujin and I was her boyfriend, after all.”
Ryuji coughs. “Anyway, we better finish lunch. We have free time today. I’m thinking of going to Protein Lovers today after school. Got to keep in shape for the next infiltration. Also, help my mom with groceries.”
Mishima nods. “Heading to Akihabara. I need a new computer mouse. My old one’s been acting up on me.” They continued eating, then parted ways when the 5-minute bell rang.
4/20/16
Shujin
After School
Yuki Amamiya
Yuki was about to prepare and head out to Takemi’s to continue helping her with her very still suspicious medical concoctions when outside the gate, she saw Ann.
She made the internal choice to walk over and tap Ann on the shoulder. “Hey!”
Ann flips around. “...Oh, it’s you! Just the person I was going to look for.”
Yuki is befuddled. “You were looking for me? You sit in front of me during class.”
Ann rolls her eyes. “Yeah. I just got off the phone with Shiho. She’s been released from the hospital. Unfortunately, she can’t come to school yet; she’s been undergoing therapy sessions first. When the doctor says she’s okay to start coming back, she will. Until then, I’ve been emailing her all the assignments and class lecture notes I could get.”
Yuki, remembering Ann’s grades in the previous timeline, couldn’t help but shudder. Barring Ryuji back then, she had the second-worst grades of the group, only excellent at English. “I hope you took good notes for her. She doesn’t need horrible notes; she’ll only fail.”
Ann huffed. “I do so take good notes... okay, maybe a little exaggeration, but they’re fine! Anyway, she’s currently at home right now. She’s been meaning to ask me when you’re going to drop by and visit her.”
Yuki looks up. “Now that you mention it, I haven’t actually gone to see her… I’ve been too busy preparing for that other thing that I didn’t have the time to.” She grimaced. “Still, I was planning to…”
Ann looks at her. “Come on! Shiho really wants to talk to you. She keeps saying she wanted to talk to you ever since then but you’ve never dropped by. At least hear her out in person.”
Yuki contemplates the matter. She indeed was the one who prevented Shiho from jumping; she must have felt scared and hopeless. After all, Yuki was the only reason she wasn’t physically hurt. Yuki nods. “All right. I suppose I can spare one day with her.”
Ann nods. “All right! Let’s start heading over there. I’ll lead you over there; I’ve been to her house plenty of times before.”
Yuki stops her before she can walk off. “Ann… you didn’t tell her about what we’ve been doing, right?”
Ann stops. Yuki couldn’t see her face. “No… I haven’t. I really want to, but I just couldn’t say it. I think she’s too smart to not know that we’re not up to something, but I can’t tell if she suspects something.”
Yuki looks around. Shiho’s parents had a house outside of Harajuku. It was relatively quite nice, and in a good neighborhood, affluent by a stretch.
Ann led her up to the gate and rang the doorbell. The gate buzzed open. Ann then leads Yuki inside where Shiho opens the door.
Ann walks up to Shiho and gives her a big hug. “Shiho! Are you doing alright? Are you eating well?”
Yuki takes a quick glance at Shiho. Shiho seemed calmer, though it looked like she lost a bit of weight. She also seemed to be paler than last they met. Maybe she didn't go outside too often.
Shiho carefully extricated herself from Ann. “I’m doing much better, Ann. Thank you for asking. Did you bring me your notes? I hope they’re not chicken scratch; I swear I couldn’t read half of the notes you gave me yesterday.”
Yuki snickers as Ann pales. “Not you too, Shiho! Oh, before I forget, Yuki came along today. She wanted to check in with how you’re doing; she’s sorry that she didn’t have time to come by before today.”
Yuki walked closer to Shiho and then hesitated. A handshake or a hug? She wondered; usually, she wasn’t the expressive type aside from a handshake of solidarity.
Shiho thankfully took the initiative and gave Yuki a hug. “Thanks so much, Yuki.”
Yuki, unsure, reciprocates. “It was nothing.”
Shiho shakes her head. “Mmm, no. If I had managed to jump off that roof, I would be in excruciating pain right about now, if I wasn’t dead. In addition to all of that…”
Yuki prevents her from going in that direction of thinking. “Don’t worry. Just focus on taking care of yourself.”
Shiho removes herself from the hug. “Oh yeah, I should invite you two inside. We’re all going to catch a cold if we stay out too long.”
Shiho walks inside. Ann and Yuki follow. Inside, Yuki felt quite at home with the cozy feeling the decor gave her. Shiho leads them up to her room, where she has a couple of cushions and a couple of bean bag chairs situated around a small table. She takes a seat on a cushion, Yuki and Ann on the bean bag chairs. “My parents are out right now, so it’s just me usually, at least until you guys visited.” Yuki detected a hint of bitterness in her voice.
Ann spoke up. “So when are you going back to… school?”
Shiho looks down. “My therapist recommended that we move schools immediately so that I won’t reopen and relive the trauma. Additionally, it all has to do with…”
Yuki interjected. “That’s good for you. I noticed you seemed resentful when you mentioned your parents. Are they being… difficult?”
Shiho sighs. “They’ve always been… out-of-touch with me. I don’t even think they cared that much when they got the call from the hospital and the principal. I’m grateful that I don’t have to go to school for the time being, that they drive me to the therapist, and that they let me have my privacy while I’m dealing with everything, but other than that… I wish they cared about me enough to show me.”
Ann put a hand to her mouth. “Shiho… you don’t mean to say you think your parents don’t love you or anything like that?”
Shiho nods. “You took the words out of my own mouth. It’s what I believe; how else would they have not cared when I went to them beforehand about all the abuse and even now, when I’m relying on some antidepressants to cope with everything? They haven’t even started looking for a new school for me to transfer to.”
Yuki sharply inhales and exhales. “About the antidepressants… are they working for you?”
Shiho fidgets with her hair. “Well… I take them in moderation. They kinda mess me up if I rely too heavily on them so I use half-doses than what my doctor prescribed to me.”
Ann looks down. “Are you going to transfer?”
Shiho looks out the window. “It’s… difficult. On the one hand, I feel like I can finally go to school after everything with no fear of having to think about the past. On the other hand, I know… that person is going to laugh at me and I don’t want him to have the satisfaction that he got away with it.”
Yuki nods. “It’s a hard choice. I would personally choose the former not because you’re weak, Shiho, but because it resembles a new beginning for you.” She sharply jabs Ann.
Ann yelps, “Ow! O-O-Of course, I agree with Yuki.” Her voice turns sad. “It’s going to be lonely without you around, Shiho, but we can still hang out after school.”
Shiho gives a small smile. “You’ll have Yuki with you even if I’m not around.”
Yuki nudged Ann. “You know, Shiho, you can always stay at Ann’s place. Have a proper sleep-over.”
Shiho nods. “I’ve been to her apartment before; it was a real pig-sty, that place. Clothes and shoe-boxes everywhere; I couldn’t find somewhere to sit everytime I went to her place.”
Ann stews in frustration. “Hey! I’m a model and I live by myself, you know! I try my best to clean up, but when you’re expected to have a big wardrobe, what can you do?”
Shiho has only the smallest of smiles as she continues, “I did pack a duffel bag in the unlikely case I had an irreconcilable disagreement with my parents. I’ll be sure to keep that in mind.”
Yuki holds her hands out. “You mind if I can look at the notes Ann wrote for you?”
Shiho, wordlessly, hands over the pictures on her phone. Yuki peruses it. “Wow, Ann, she was right, your notes really are chicken scratch.”
Ann bumped Yuki. “Hey!”
Yuki continues. “Ann, are you just not that interested in class? I mean I know how boring Inui, Ushimaru, and Hirata are, but still... this is illegible.”
Ann turns a deep shade of crimson. “...Don’t you hate school too, Yuki?”
Yuki looks at Ann. She had to be careful with how she answered considering her background. “Huh? I mean I was an idol, so I didn’t have much time to go to school. I’ve always had homeschooling with private tutors; being in a classroom is… refreshing, for a change of pace.” She realized: too little, too late. Oops.
Ann slaps her head. “You’re an idol? That means... Oh my god, I was talking to the Yuki Amamiya!? I’m so sorry! If I’d known... I wouldn’t have said those mean things about you and… kissed you. That explains it... I mean an idol is always busy practicing and appearing on variety shows, so you never had time to sit in an actual class.”
Shiho raised an eyebrow. “Kissed her? As in, locked lips? I never knew you swung that way, Ann.” Yuki detected a hint of mockery in her voice.
Yuki could only nod at Shiho before Shiho’s jaw dropped to the floor. Shiho continued, “Wow… I mean… just wow! Kissing a girl you’ve only just met… takes guts. Especially if it’s a girl doing it to another girl.”
Yuki looked at Ann with something akin to confusion. “What was up with that kiss anyway?”
Ann groans. “Now you’re both teasing me? Stop! I just did it because I wanted to tease Ryuji. I was pissed that he broke up with me and that he got chummy with Yuki being the new student here too quickly. I decided I just wanted to see him flustered so I just did it.” She put a hand up. “Moving on! How is life as an idol, by the way?”
Yuki calmly said, “It’s very strenuous and very active. My schedule is completely full and breaks are nearly non-existent. Between private tutors and the show business, I barely have actual downtime for myself.”
Shiho punches Ann. “Ann, don’t be rude. That reminds me, you must be that Yuki Amamiya that was mentioned in the news. If you’re her, you went on extended hiatus. I’m sure Yuki doesn’t want to be reminded of that life; she wanted to live a more slow-paced life as a teen like us. The thing is, I thought your family didn’t live in Tokyo and that you had an older sister who was a seiyuu.”
Yuki holds up her hands. “It’s alright. The thing about me going to Shujin is a long story, and my parents don’t want me to talk about it. Anyways, Shiho, how about I lend you my notes?”
Yuki digs in her satchel for the notes she took in her notebook and then hands it to Shiho. She flips through it. “Wow, I’m impressed. I can actually study off of this if I wanted to; it’s so neat and detailed.”
Ann scoots in. “Really?” She looks in the notebooks and then turns back to Yuki with puppy dog eyes. “Please, can you tutor me?”
Yuki raised an eyebrow. “Really? You’re gonna give me that look?” She makes eye contact with Shiho. “Don’t the two of you have study sessions before?”
Shiho grimaced. “I always made sure to try to stay on top of class even with volleyball, but Ann… she’s a special case. Aside from English, I’m pretty sure she’s relatively hopeless.”
Yuki sighs. “Ann, you do know exams are coming up right?”
Ann plays with her fingers. “Aargh… I’m sorry, okay! I’ve been busy with my model side gig; models keep not showing up and I haven’t had much time to study at night because I get stuck on the stupid worksheets Hiruta gives us. I keep practicing, but I keep getting stuck, and I don’t have time to ask Hiruta about the problems after school because I immediately get called to work.”
Yuki rolls her eyes. “Fine… after we’ve dealt with everything… we’ll see about making time. I expect you to make time for me, especially during Golden Week.”
Ann blanched in shock. “Even Golden Week?”
Yuki nods. “Yes, unless you’d prefer me to not help you.”
Ann got down and bowed. “No! I mean yes! I need you to help me with class! I’ll be sure to call in sick or something, anything! Just please don’t let me fail! My parents will cut my spending allowance if I don’t get good marks.”
Yuki sighs. “Let’s get to work starting today, I guess. By the way, you said you lived alone. I’m guessing your parents…”
Ann looks down. “They’re abroad, working at one of their fashion shows. I have a housekeeper who comes by once a week to clean and there’s a live-in cook with me who cooks my meals. They give me an allowance, and they keep in touch, but the last time…” She winced. “They weren’t so happy with my grades so they gave me until the next exam to change it. If I don’t… I’d be forced to rely more on picking up as many modeling gigs as I can, so I can satisfy my... inner food blogger and my clothes addiction.”
Shiho rolls her eyes in exasperation. “I love sweets as much as you do, Ann, but don’t you think it would be smart to cut back on that?”
Ann is in shock. “You’re not calling me fat, aren’t you?” She covers her eyes with her arm. “You’re just so mean, Shiho.”
Shiho lightly punches Ann. “You’ve no idea what to do without me, though.”
Ann lowers her arm. “Yeah… anyway, I don’t want to rely on my looks for everything. Plus, I don’t know whether I want to commit to being a model as a career, so I need to have good grades to get into a university.”
Yuki’s phone buzzed. She checked it. The text was from Mona. Got the materials for the other grappling hooks. Think I will make grappling guns instead this time.
Shiho notices Yuki checking her phone. “Something the matter?”
Yuki, startled, placed her phone back in her pocket. “No! It was just a friend. Shiho, when’s your parents coming back?”
Shiho blankly stared. “Who knows… maybe they’ll come back tonight… maybe they’ll sleep in at their workplace…”
Yuki grimaces. “Sorry… I didn’t mean to make you think about that… I was thinking maybe the three of us could have a study session here…”
Shiho checks her phone. No text from her parents yet. “It’s great! If my parents aren’t back at night, maybe we could order food and have a movie night. They said they’d… left money on the counter if it came to that.”
Yuki wonders if maybe the two of them will have to intervene on that front; Shiho could hopefully handle it, but seeing as this behavior had been going on from her parents for some time... Yuki worried that it was putting a
mentally taxing burden on Shiho, not having her parents care enough about her, treating her as if she was a separate person distanced from their family.
Ann jumps on board. “Yes! I’m totally down for that. Maybe we wouldn’t even need to order food, we could make something ourselves instead!”
Yuki nods. “Whatever we decide, let’s study. Ann... you better get serious about this.”
Ann dismisses the thought. “Yeah, yeah, I’ll pay attention… here and in class.”
Narukami and Shirogane, Investigators
Around the Same Time
Naoto was busy compiling all the information she gathered from Shiho Suzui on the accusation of rape towards Suguru Kamoshida. She worked on it for days now; she even tried to go to Shujin to see if there were any more victims willing to come forward and offer testimony. Of course, there were none, not with the perpetrator still holding his job in the school.
Naoto felt sick to the stomach with Suzui’s testimony. As much as she didn’t want to force Suzui to continue going, she did. That being said, she could very much feel the disgust in her voice as she recounted what he did to her. Naoto made a silent resolution that she was not going to let Suguru Kamoshida get away with this.
Hours passed by before she decided it was time to clock out. She was almost nearly done filing her report.
A phone rang. It was the office phone. Naoto picked it up. “Naoto Shirogane of Narukami and Shirogane, Investigators. How can I help you?”
Naoto silently listened as the other voice in the line talked. She then asked the caller a question, to which there was a response. When done, she bid adieu and hung up.
She slammed her desk in frustration. For some reason, her contacts in the police force had recently just mentioned to her that the police were dropping Shiho’s case of sexual assault and the police chief indeed just called her right now to affirm that yes, he was dropping the case. Naoto had tried to get a question in edgewise telling him to reconsider, to which the police chief had said that the prosecutor’s office would not be taking up the case for prosecution and that it was out of their hands entirely, as the decision had been made by the higher-ups. She held in her emotions as she bid him a good day.
Naoto found it hard for her to command much respect among the police. Even if she was cold and logical, the fact remains that she was a woman, and even if she made her peace with that fact, the male-dominated police force saw her as a woman and saw her behavior as something not befitting of one.
Even still… Naoto found it difficult to let this one go. Shiho Suzui… even though their circumstances have been vastly different, she felt a sort of kinship with her. She seemed to be the type to not give up, to not give in.
Naoto resolved that if she has to, she’ll conduct her own investigation secretly, even without sanction.
After all, Masayoshi Shido is indeed a part of the higher-ups in the National Diet and the executive branch. Odds are if she looked into this, there is the slightest chance she could very well find something to help her with her mission assigned by Mitsuru Kirijo.
Naoto looks at a picture of Shiho Suzui, attached to a dossier on her desk with all the evidence she currently has. I may be down, but I’m not out.