CK 65

Chapter 65…

To Run or Not to Run
She Ran Away

The sunlight poured down, and heat radiated back up from the asphalt.
Walking was fine, but standing still under this heat was brutal.

“Ugh, it’s so hot…” I muttered aloud without meaning to.

Right now, I was standing in front of the city hospital.
Under the shadow of the bus stop, I was waiting for the boy and girl from earlier.
The reason? To hear Sandayama-chan’s story.

It was thanks to Tomoharu-chan that I managed to make up my mind about doing that.
When I told her about my situation and thoughts over the phone, she said,
“I think that’s important too,” and even advised me,
“If you go, the city hospital is probably the place.”

Still… I felt a little bad about leaving the whole search for Sandayama-chan to Shirou-kun.

But since we still didn’t know what that giant scorpion’s goal was,
it wasn’t wrong to make sure the people who were there earlier were safe.
…Probably.

…By the way, when someone gets injured at school,
is the city hospital really the place they get taken to?
It wouldn’t turn out to be some other hospital, right…?

But more than that—it’s hot. Even with a handheld fan, it’s still hot.
Maybe I should’ve bought an ice cream on the way here…

As I started to regret that, I saw people coming out of the hospital again.

But since I started waiting, quite a few people had already come out.
This time probably wasn’t them either… or so I thought, squinting to look closer.

Wait—that’s them! The two I was looking for!
Thank goodness—they hadn’t gone home yet, and I was right about the hospital!

But then I noticed the vice principal walking beside them.
My excitement instantly deflated.

The vice principal… she’s scary. And Ma-kun told me to stay away from her
because “she’ll give you trouble if she notices you.”

Still, if I wanted to hear their story, I had to go talk to them… right?

As I was thinking that, the vice principal walked off somewhere else,
and the two started heading my way.

…Now’s my chance.

Feeling that, I ran after them and called out,
“Ah, um! Excuse me!”

They both looked startled—I guess I surprised them.
The two exchanged glances.

The boy spoke first.
“You followed us all the way here? I told you—there’s nothing to talk about.”
“Um… who are you? And what are you talking about?” said the girl,
standing awkwardly as if favoring her left leg.

Seeing that, I felt a twinge of guilt.
Without thinking, I murmured, “That injury…”

“Ah. I twisted it when that monster attacked earlier.
They told me to come to the hospital just in case.”
“…Because you were trying to help her, right?”

The boy’s voice was bitter, almost spitting the words out.

I figured—they’d been fighting earlier. Something must have happened.

But after he said that, the girl’s expression sharpened immediately.

“Souma, that’s a horrible way to say it. Suzuhoko’s our friend—our teammate.”
“But she ran away. She’s not our friend or teammate anymore.”
“There you go again! Try thinking about how she must feel!”
“But you got hurt because of her!?”
“That doesn’t matter—it was my decision!”

And just like that, they started fighting again.

I had to stop them—it was right in front of a hospital, after all.
Besides, I wanted to learn about Suzuhoko-chan.

So I raised my voice to cut through their argument.
“Um—! What happened between you and Suzuhoko-chan!?”

☆☆☆

“Sorry you had to see that… It was embarrassing.”
“No, it’s fine! I was the one who tried to make Souma-kun talk about Suzuhoko-chan…”

Somehow, their fight had settled down.
We’d moved to a park near the hospital.

Along the way, we exchanged introductions,
and I explained my situation.

Their names were Kosaka Souma and Yoshii Rina.
Both were first-years like me, and both were in the track team—
Souma in sprints, and Rina as the manager.

Right now, Rina and I were sitting on a bench,
while Souma paced back and forth nearby.
…He was definitely still frustrated.

“So, you want to know what happened with Suzuhoko, right?
I guess I can talk about it…”
“You should just leave it alone,” Souma muttered coldly.

“Souma, be quiet,” Rina shot back sharply.

“I mean, you don’t have to tell me…”
“But Suzuhoko might be in danger, right?”
“Well… probably… I can’t say for sure yet…”

In the end, I gave them a vague explanation about Yodomi and Fallen Stars.
I didn’t mention that we were the ones fighting them, though.

I just said, “Suzuhoko-chan might be targeted, so I want to help her somehow.”

Rina looked conflicted.

I mean, of course she would be—if a stranger asked you to talk about your friend’s past,
you’d hesitate too. You’d probably refuse.

If someone I just met asked me to tell them about Ma-kun’s past,
I’d refuse as well.

But after several seconds of silence, Rina finally said,
“Okay, I’ll tell you.”

“About what happened to Suzuhoko and us.”
“Really!?”
“Yeah. We want to help Suzuhoko too, after all.”
“…I don’t,” Souma muttered coldly again.

“Don’t say unnecessary things,” Rina shot back.

“First off, Suzuhoko and I have been friends since elementary school.
When we got to middle school, she joined the track team and took up javelin throw.
I joined too, as a manager, and that’s where we met Souma.
There weren’t many first-years in the track team back then,
and only the three of us showed up to practice seriously every day,
so we naturally became close.
Both of them were good enough to almost reach prefectural record times,
so they practiced really hard.
But before her final third-year tournament, Suzuhoko hurt her elbow—
and couldn’t compete.
After that, she quit and stopped coming to school as often.
Then, when the second term of our third year started,
she finally began showing up more,
but by then… she’d already changed a lot.
It was harder to talk to her.
Even so, we went to the same high school later,
and since she got in through recommendation,
I thought she’d start javelin again—but…
she’s still been like that ever since. We honestly don’t know what to do.”

“That’s awful…”
“She got hurt and just ran away from it all,” Souma said bluntly.
“There you go again…” Rina sighed in exasperation.

It must be terrible to have your years of hard work end before you ever get results.
…So Ma-kun was right when he said she’d “lost her will for everything.”

…What could I even say to Suzuhoko-chan?
What does she want, really?

I didn’t know.

But—nothing would start if I didn’t do something.

I took a deep breath, stood up from the bench, and faced Rina.

“Thanks for telling me. I’ll keep looking for her.”
“Please do. I’ll also check if she went back home.”

“Thanks! That really helps…” I said gratefully.
Since I didn’t know where Suzuhoko-chan lived, her offer meant a lot.

…But even if she checked, it wouldn’t matter if we couldn’t reach each other.

…Ah—right!

“Hey, would you like to exchange contact info?”
“Good idea, yeah—let’s do that.”

We both took out our phones and swapped contact information.

Now, if Suzuhoko-chan went home, Rina could tell me.
I really hoped she had.

…but until we could confirm that, I’d keep searching.

Because—I want to do what I can.

After thanking them both again,
I left the park behind.