Chapter 89
When I ca to, I was running. I bolted out of the university grounds and tore through the streets, single-minded. Despair outweighed exhaustion so much that my ragged breathing didn't even matter.
Inside my head, mories of the person I treasure spun round and round. mories of kindness. mories of being saved from the bullies. All of them precious treasures.
Then, suddenly, they blackened, grew muddy, and vanished. Anyone would know despair if what they treasured were destroyed before their eyes. That's exactly what this feels like.
"Why... Why...!"
My legs hit their limit and, staggering, I sink onto the riverbank levee. I sit right on the ground and curl up. I tried to escape the rising regret by thinking of nothing... It was useless.
If I hadn't spoken the truth, he would never have revealed his final motive. I would never have heard such a despicable motive—killing people just because he was rejected.
I berate myself for having exposed the truth. And then a colder version of spits at the self who keeps blaming : "In solving a case, sentint is useless."
Honestly, I couldn't agree with either side. It's absurd. I'd forced myself to be ruthless toward others, yet when it ca to myself, I grew weak...
I grew even more afraid.
At the approaching footsteps I absent-mindedly looked around. There stood the President who had chased after . My heart filled with guilt toward him; apologizing was all I could manage.
"I'm sorry... President... I'm sorry. I'm truly sorry..."
"H-hey, hold on... I have no idea what you're apologizing for..."
"I told you before, didn't I... back when the case happened at the apartnt your grandma runs... 'Being family isn't a reason not to suspect them... I hate unconditionally excluding relatives from suspicion or covering up their cris just because they're family,' I said..."
"...Yeah, I rember that. So you suspected my grandma?"
"Yes. And yet, in this case, the whole ti I was thinking the opposite! I kept wishing my precious Kiriyama... senpai wasn't the culprit!"
The President shook his head sideways. For a mont I just gaped, not understanding what it ant.
He went on to explain the reason properly.
"What you're saying, what you're thinking—none of it's wrong."
"Huh, but... I... suspected your... grandma... and didn't want to suspect Kiriyama-senpai..."
"Look, Hyoga..."
"...What is it? What do you an?"
Maybe what I'd asked him was sothing very difficult. Perhaps no one could listen to such complaints and simply say, "I see. Then I'll give you an answer."
That's what I'd thought.
Yet he said it.
"You know what? People's feelings and intentions don't contradict each other. There are tis you suspect soone thoroughly, and tis you believe in soone thoroughly. That's only natural. Living people—sotis emotions sway intentions. When that happens, just go with the emotion."
"B-but..."
"You're afraid going with emotion will lead to disaster... Don't worry. You had intention. It'll stop you right before things go too far. That's what you did, right? The fla of intention you held in your heart, stronger than emotion, let you expose the truth without running! You faced your fear!"
He gave an answer to my doubts.
A cold wind brushed my cheeks, and the surrounding grass began to rustle. My heart had cald considerably, and I realized my own words were becoming gentler.
"Thank you... Hearing you say that, being praised like that, makes feel lighter. My emotional turmoil was only natural, wasn't it?"
"Yeah, it's not weakness. In fact, it's the strength to face the truth. You did the right thing."
The setting sun lit him up, dazzling . I truly thought he was wonderful. Yes, there's a gap between his looks and personality, but more than anything, the kindness and sense of justice he was born with were shining.
I couldn't hold my head up before such a person.
"President, you're amazing. To give an answer to sothing like this... I'm always in your debt. All I do is expose truths through reasoning I never even wanted to do. I'm no use to you, President."
"Hey, hey. Getting all modest again?"
"Huh?"
What did I do?
"Your heart helped plenty already. About Grandma, rember?"
"At the ti, I only suspected her and accused the wrong person as the culprit. And I arrested soone you knew. I figured I'd earned your hatred... not your thanks..."
"Seriously! You always downplay yourself at tis like this! What's your type? Not tsundere or ntal-hermit or anything. That 'nervous laugh'... was that about ?"
"President!? Tell !"
When I pressed him, the President echoed that statent of mine—the very words I'd feared had hurt him deeply.
"'Being family isn't a reason not to suspect them,' you said."
"Huh?"
"About Grandma. She'd been acting a little strange even before that incident..."
"Acting strange?"
"Like she hated soone, or sothing like that... Like she bore malice toward sothing..."
"Um, malice? From what I sensed, she didn't seem to show that much malice..."
At first I wondered if it was about an illness. But the more I listened, the less it seed that way.
"That's what you'd think on the surface, right? But take a look inside the room. Rember the parcel next to the insecticide spray?"
When I thought back, it was there in my mory—one item I hadn't touched because it didn't seem related to the case.
"It was filled with fumigation pesticide."
"Fumigation... you an the kind that kills insects with smoke...? Huh? If she'd used that in that apartnt...!?"
"Yeah. All the insects the other tenants kept, and the precious ones she kept herself—every last one would've died..."
"But... that doesn't necessarily an she was going to use it there..."
"That's what I thought. So I swapped the fumigant for fireworks of a similar shape... And sure enough, when I was staking the place out, she showed her tail... Grandma... Right there in one of the apartnt rooms... a spectacular fountain firework it was."
"Sothing like that...!?"
"I didn't want to believe it, but that's the truth... From what I heard, after Grandpa passed away she grew desperate. And with all the talk of murder around her, she stopped valuing life... and did it. She was even planning to take her own life, it seems."
"No! That can't be!"
The President's face, which had been tinged with sorrow, instantly turned bright again, shining like the sun.
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