Chapter 75
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 75
Chapter Title: Evidence (3)
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Mid-September, when the intense sunlight was finally starting to weaken.
A playground at an elementary school somewhere in Miyagi Prefecture.
A man was roaring there.
Siuuuuuuuu-!!!!
That man's name was Mori Takuya.
Right now, he was the god of the elementary school soccer field.
"That's cheating!"
"Ugh! If only I were 20 cm taller!"
"His spiritual pressure! The spiritual pressure is too strong!"
'Did these kids all take drugs or something?'
Well, that was half a joke. He'd just joined in on the kids' lunch break soccer game for some exercise after a long time, as a physically superior elementary schooler.
"Oh? A student with that kind of talent?"
But it didn't look that way in someone else's eyes.
Anyway, this Mori Takuya—no, I—had just completely demolished the opposing team in the lunch soccer game and was cooling off my sweat in preparation for the next class.
"Um, over here!"
"Hm?"
Momiji approached from behind, hiding something, which made me tilt my head in confusion. She blushed shyly and handed it over.
And that something was a towel I desperately needed right now.
"H-here's a towel!"
"Oh, thanks, Momiji."
I wiped my sweat with the towel instead of the shirt I was wearing.
After wiping off the sweat so refreshingly, I felt bad handing my sweat-soaked shirt back to Momiji, so I told her I'd wash it myself.
But Momiji shook her head at my words.
"N-no! I lent it because I wanted to!"
"Still, no matter what..."
"A-anyway, I do all the laundry, so it doesn't matter... Argh!"
Even as I tried to say more, she snatched the used towel and ran off.
A passing old man (the principal) saw the scene and muttered,
"Ah, young love~"
Hearing that mutter, I grumbled inwardly, What is this, some shojo manga?
"Takuya! Class is about to start, hurry up!"
"Ah! Coming right now! Momiji, you head back too!"
After wiping his sweat, Takuya shouted for Momiji to hurry back to class and headed inside.
And while Takuya was heading back to class like that, Momiji was off in a spot far away where the kids rarely went...
"Heh, hehe. Takuya's scent... so good..."
It was a creepy act that might have shocked Takuya beyond belief if he'd seen it.
"Snuuuff♥ Haa...♥ Takuya♥ Takuya♥"
Of course, she had no self-awareness about it.
Momiji sniffed the towel soaked with Takuya's sweat for quite a while before barely making it back to class in time.
A few days later.
There wasn't much change in my daily routine, but it seemed different for others.
I sipped my drink while watching Haru chatter away beside me.
Her stories were mostly about Hiro.
"So, Hiro was like..."
Wasn't their relationship rocky just recently?
That was already a few days ago. From what I'd heard from Haru, in just these few days, Hiro had turned into the sweetest guy imaginable.
And that was naturally good news for me.
No, beyond good news.
'Right on plan.'
Everything was going according to my plan.
You might wonder what plan, but surprisingly, this was all my strategy.
I'd stimulated Hiro's jealousy to instill normal thinking in him.
Of course, doing it once or twice wouldn't have much effect.
There's that saying: the first two times are coincidence, but from the third, it's inevitable.
So, to make it seem inevitable to Hiro at least, I had Haru wander around various places.
And I didn't forget the meticulous detail of plotting routes along Hiro's usual paths so he could see it.
Human trash, you say?
No. This was all for Hiro's sake, really.
From my life experience, humans don't change from just one or two things.
Like how habits from age three last to eighty, people's thinking and beliefs don't shift easily.
If they change easily, it's either something superficial or they've hit their head and become half a different person—I'd never seen otherwise.
That's why I kept applying steady pressure, creating an environment where Hiro couldn't avoid changing. And now, their relationship had improved to a not-bad level.
'Honestly, haven't I done everything for him at this point?'
In fact, the scenario progress was looking pretty good.
It felt like we could easily hit 100% if things kept going like this.
Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.
'Is this the limit for raising salvation without more events?'
In truth, all the possible salvation gains had already been maxed out, and now it was stagnating.
In other words, we needed a special event to boost salvation.
Something big enough to skyrocket it in one go.
And I knew just the right person to create that special event.
-Ding.
That person was, naturally...
[Ah. Not doing gatherings lately? Ah. That girl I was training last time ran away. Soon I'll...]
...the PE teacher.
And that wasn't all.
I grinned sinisterly as I looked over the secret videos, diary, and items I'd pulled from that teacher's house.
'Alright... now, what should I do?'
I pondered how to craft the ultimate event.
During track and field club practice, when the members were deep in training.
Kumoto, who should normally be sternly yawning hugely and nitpicking the students, was acting completely differently today.
-Tap tap tap tap.
He was anxiously shaking his legs, fidgeting restlessly.
"Hey, what's up with that shady teacher?"
"Dunno, but I heard those files of his finally leaked."
For reference, those files were the rumored list of students Kumoto had messed with.
-Zap.
Anyway, after that exchange, the two students felt Kumoto's piercing glare and quietly resumed training.
'These punks, that punk, ignoring me!'
Kumoto stared at the two training for a while before shaking his legs again and sinking back into worry.
'Damn it, more importantly, which bastard took them? My collection, my precious photos!'
The reason he was brooding wasn't far off from what the students had said.
It was the photos of the girls he'd used as playthings, the list, and the few special collections he'd gotten from them.
If it had just been the collections lost, it wouldn't matter.
He could always build more.
But the photos and list were different.
They were blatant weaknesses of his own making.
And in Japan—no, the world—no one stays unscathed once their weaknesses are exposed.
Especially if those weaknesses could kill you instantly.
That's why Kumoto couldn't help trembling and drowning in anxiety.
He was in a situation where not having something stab his chest any moment now would be the weird part—not just exposing his weaknesses, but publicly.
'Where the hell are they? There were definitely no signs of anyone breaking into the house!'
Tracking whoever took the materials was no easy feat either.
Like a ghost had done it—there were no traces of anyone entering anywhere.
In this situation, Kumoto's nerves were entirely consumed with thoughts of his weaknesses.
Meanwhile, down below, one person was running her heart out.
That person was, of course, Haru.
Thanks to her improved friendships lately and Kumoto not bothering her, she could run with plenty of leeway. As if in reward, her form was actually starting to pick up again.
Even the seniors who'd been glaring at her fiercely had softened up a bit.
Feeling satisfied that she could run happily like this, Haru suddenly thought.
All of this started after meeting that one boy.
'Come to think of it. Everything started changing after I met Takuya-kun.'
A miraculous boy who vanished quickly like a god, but surprisingly played like a normal kid—that was Takuya-kun in Haru's mind.
Of course, to be a bit more honest, he was a kid who knew how to say and act cool beyond his years?
Anyway, things had been going smoothly ever since meeting him lately.
Maybe that's why. Haru thought of Takuya like that inwardly, running around the track with a smiling face.
Unfortunately, Kumoto caught sight of it, and seeing Haru smile filled him with rage.
No. More precisely.
'That bitch! She's mocking me! How dare she... wait, could it be?'
He tried to get angry.
That's when the recent events flashed through his mind, bringing on a sudden suspicion.
In truth, it was absurd if you thought about it even a little.
How could a student sneak into a teacher's house undetected and steal stuff from inside?
It defied common sense.
'Yeah! It has to be that bitch!'
But in his panicked shitstorm of a situation, Kumoto had no spare mental bandwidth to think rationally.