Sakamoto Hichiro

My arm hurts, which makes sense, although not as much as it should. Everything's gone wrong since we all arrived, but I've tried to keep positive. And I actually managed quite well until today. Today was pretty non-positive.

"So what do you think they're going to do about it?" Ichinomiya whispers. We both know what it is. What happened by the cliff, and what's happened to Yamaguchi since then.

"I don't know. But I think we're not going to like it." I reply. I mean, we don't know what happened to Maeda after the first incident. I feel pretty bad about whatever's happening to Yamaguchi right now. To be fair, though, it can't be terrible since Maeda was alright after whatever happened to him.

I fell. I remember a split second of seeing her lunge forward trying to reach me. I remember the thorns wrapped around my arm, catching me.

I ran through the forest with the rest of them. I can remember every step, every pile of leaves I stepped in. I saw her and Agent Okazaki threatening each other. I trudged back through the forest with the others being rushed by Agent Kuroki. I saw Yamaguchi dragged off to the office. And now I'm sitting at the front of the classroom wondering what on earth is happening. We all got rushed back here pretty much straight away after that. I didn't see who picked up the gun, but I'm pretty sure it was Agent Kuroki.

The door opens and Yamaguchi lurches inside, and then it slams shut again. Most of us instinctively pull back, some of us lean forward to hear if she says something. I lean forward. Some of them seem scared of her, but I don't think she has bad intentions. Okazaki can't see that or she wouldn't have done that. Right?

"Are you alright?" Mizutani asks her.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She replies, and she seems to mean it. She isn't acting very different to how she normally acts, from what I remember, apart from being a bit shaken, which you would be in this situation.

"What...did...you do?" Akamatsu asks her, and she's trying to hide her uncertainty, choosing her words as carefully as possible. She's friends with Yamaguchi, from what I remember. Which seems to be everything at the moment.

Yamaguchi seems to panic a little. "Nothing. I didn't do anything." It seems like she's partly trying to convince herself. Akamatsu glances at all of us, and her face says she doesn't know what to do. Neither do I. Actually, I think no one knows what to do here. I'm just wondering what to do now when Maeda stands up and walks towards her.

"We need to talk."

I don't think anyone was expecting that.

"Maeda. Really? Now?" Mizutani seems shocked, but not in a confused way. Actually, it's more angry. My mind flashes back to seeing them talking together on several occasions. Apart from that, they don't really have anything to do with each other.

"Now seems like a good time." Maeda says, quite calmly for the whole situation.

"So the whole time you asked me to keep everything a secret, just...doesn't matter?"

"Mizutani. I wasn't planning on saying anything yet. But we can't exactly not tell them, can we?" Maeda says. The rest of us are really confused by this point, questioning what exactly is going on. What do they know?

"Ok, much as I love watching you two argue about something only you two know about, I think I speak for everyone when I say I'd like to know what you're talking about." Miura interrupts. I have to agree with her.

Mizutani and Maeda share a glance, and then Maeda goes to speak.

"When we were younger..." And then stops.

"Yes...?" Asks Sugiyama.

"You know what Ritsu told us? About the fact that some random scientist broke into our houses about seven years ago? And that our teachers will tell us more when they feel it's right? So that kinda...caused us to..."

"What?" Kugimiya asks, a skeptical look on her face.

"Do you remember feeling a stinging feeling after that?" Mizutani asks quietly. There are a few nods around the room, but mostly we don't respond.

"Basically, the weird stuff you've all experienced is the result of that incident." All of us turn towards the door, where Karma has just opened the door, and he Hayami and Isogai are watching us.

There are a lot of looks exchanged around the room. This is not the explanation I was expecting. To be fair, I don't know what we were expecting. There aren't really many explanations we'd expect.

Yamaguchi gives him an odd look. It's clear she's unimpressed by this explanation

"Well that's a great explanation, I'm so glad you told us." Kugimiya says, and the sarcasm in her voice is easy to hear.

"Anyway, you need to come outside with us now." Isogai says. There's a few grumbles, but we follow them all the same. We go down the hallway, still filled with sunshine like earlier. Out the doors, into the sunlight, where the teachers are standing in a group. A couple of them watch us as we come out, and then when we're standing in front of them.

"OK class, it's time you learnt about...well... assassination."

Aand... I am very late. Again. This is probably going to be a normal thing, I'm afraid. So this was an... interesting chapter (I say that every chapter, anyway) to write. Thanks for reading!