Chapter 5:

4/15-Ann hardly listened at all to what Mr. Ushimaru was talking about. Government something or other, it was all very boring to Ann and she stared out the window instead for entertainment. Hearing him shout at the class to settle down or Akira-kun's phone buzzing again couldn't keep from staring out this window. Ann had tried calling Shiho again this morning, but her phone went straight to voicemail. Ann had texted her countless times but received no response to any of them. What is going on with that girl?

"Hey! What's that?!" a student stands and shouts across the room. Ann is brought out of her daydream finally to pay attention and looks out the windows to the hallway at what the boy is looking at.

"Enough! This is a classroom!" Mr. Ushimaru shouts.

"Oh my god! She's going to jump!" a girl sitting behind the boy shouts.

"Suzui?!" Mishima-kun says as he stands. Ann's heart drops into her stomach.

"Shiho?!" Ann shouts as she leaps from her chair. Fear of what may await her out there freezes Ann where she stands, but only momentarily. Ignoring the warnings of Mr. Ushimaru to stay in their seats Ann runs from the room along with other students to the hallway to get a better view of what's going on. Ann reaches a window in the hallway and presses her hands and face against the glass to see if it really is Shiho.

Ann is speechless, it is Shiho. Even from this distance and angle, Ann can see new bruises on her visible body. Ann can only stand there and watch, helpless to do anything but watch as her friend stands on that ledge high above her. And then, she falls forward.

Ann screams from the bottom of her heart. She covers her face but the people around her still wince from the deafening volume of the shriek to escape her mouth. Ann opens her eyes just in time to see Shiho hit the ground and cease to move.

Time stops. Ann stands there and stares for a thousand years or more, watching, waiting for her friend to move. C'mon Shiho! Please! Get up and brush it off like you used to do when we were younger and playing in the gym. But Shiho doesn't move. Ann finally regains feeling in her legs and begins running. She shoves and pushes people in her way, not caring who she's nearly trampling. She must get to Shiho.

Ann arrives in the courtyard, finally. She had to take a detour to the practice building to get around and she kneels next to Shiho along with some of the other teachers at the school. She's not moving, and her eyes aren't open, but she's breathing. Ann weeps at the body of her mangled friend. Students standing around them begin to pull out their phones and take photos or videos, but Ann pays them no mind. She can't. Ann cries but her body is numb to the world. The pain in her heart is all she can hear, all she can feel.

Teachers begin to shout that class is still in session and give half-assed attempts to get students to disperse. A paramedic steps away from Shiho and turns to a group of teachers.

"We need someone to go with her, are there any teachers around?" he asks.

Ann takes longer than usual to comprehend the question before choking out that she'll go. Ann looks back at Shiho to see her eyes are beginning to open.

"Shiho… why?" Ann asks.

"Ann? I'm sorry… I just can't take it anymore…" Shiho replies.

"Was it… Kamoshida?"

Shiho looks as if she's seen a ghost before her eyes close once again and a paramedic pushes Ann out of the way to load Shiho onto a stretcher. Ann stands and gets into the ambulance with the paramedics.

XXXX

Akira can only stand and watch in disbelief as Takamaki-san gets into the ambulance with the paramedics and Shiho. He doesn't know how to feel. Akira has never seen something like this in person. Ryuji snaps him out of it.

"That guy…" he says. "Hey, wasn't Mishima acting weird?"

"He may know something," Akira replies.

"Well we're gonna make him talk this time," Ryuji says. Anger seems to be exuding from Ryuji right now, and normally Akira would try to calm and center him. But a girl nearly died, calm is for another time. Akira and Ryuji take off after Mishima into the school.

They manage to corner Mishima into a corner as Ryuji shoves him hard into a locker. Akira puts a hand on Ryuji's shoulder and Ryuji unpins Mishima from the lockers and turns to look at the two of them.

"What'd you do that for? That really hurt," he asks.

"Why'd you run like that?! HUH?!" Ryuji shouts back.

"I-I didn't run…" Mishima says. Ryuji loses it and slams his fist into the locker next to them.

"SHE JUMPED AND TRIED TO KILL HERSELF!"

"L-leave me alone," Mishima manages to choke out. The poor kid looks scared almost as bad as Shiho looked before she jumped.

"Just tell us, Mishima-kun," Akira asks calmly.

"Shiho… She was called out by Mr. Kamoshida. He told me to get her and summon her to his office yesterday…"

"What…?" Ryuji asks.

"He does it all the time. It wasn't just me or Shiho either. He'd nominate someone when he was in a bad mood. Hit them. He would… well he wouldn't just hit the girls. They got… worse. The angrier he was the worse it was," Mishima explains. "I was in his office just as he got off the phone with someone yesterday. I'd never seen him so mad. He shouted at me to go get Shiho… and I did."

The pause lingers there between the three of them. Akira doesn't know what to think. He can't think. The only thing running through his mind is saving a woman being raped got him here and now he's seeing what happens if you don't rescue someone from it. The dichotomy of it all wrestles back in forth in Akira's head before he comes back to his senses again.

"THAT SON OF A BITCH!" Ryuji shouts before taking off running. Akira has only a moment to realize what has happened before he's chasing after him, hearing Mishima's running footsteps behind him too.

They chase Ryuji into the PE faculty office where Kamoshida is sitting at his desk looking over some spreadsheet on his desk. If Akira didn't know any better, Kamoshida's posture would indicate that nothing has happened today out of the ordinary.

"You BASTARD! The hell did you do to that girl?!" Ryuji shouts at him.

"What are you talking about?" Kamoshida asks in a poor attempt of ignorance.

"DON'T," Ryuji shouts as he kicks a chair across the room, "play dumb with me!"

Kamoshida's face turns red as he shouts, "THAT is enough!"

"What you did… wasn't coaching…" Mishima says. Akira looks at him and sees the boy's face is paler than the shirt he's wearing.

"What did you just say?" Kamoshida asks glaring daggers at Mishima.

"You… you ordered me to call Shiho here… I-I…. I can only imagine what you did to her."

Kamoshida stands up and Akira realizes for once just how tall and built the teacher is. He takes a step towards the three of them, eyes darting between all three.

"You're going on and on about things you have no proof of. I'll just say it was consensual," Kamoshida says as he begins to smile. "And, you're only making these claims because you can't be on the team, right?"

"That's not what this is about!" Mishima shouts back.

"Even if it is exactly as you imagine it to be, hypothetically speaking… what can you do?" Kamoshida taunts them. "We just received a call from the hospital, Shiho's in a coma. And her chances of recovery are slim… how would someone like that make a statement?" Kamoshida's face returns to its normal color as he closes his eyes and rubs the back of his neck.

"There's no chance of her getting better, I hear… the poor girl," Kamoshida sighs.

"No… no, no, no, no…" Mishima begins repeating to himself repeatedly.

"You goddamn—"

"This again?" Kamoshida asks turning to Ryuji. "Do we need to have another case of self defense again Sakamoto? You know I barely need an excuse."

"You shut your mouth, you son of a bitch!"

Ryuji pulls back his arm to strike just as Akira begins moving forward to stop him. Akira grabs his arm and holds it, as Ryuji turns to stare furiously at him. Akira tries to calm his face as much as possible and just shakes his head.

"No, no. By all means, let him attack me." Kamoshida chuckles. "Not like it matters, heh heh. Everyone present right now… will be expelled. I'm reporting all of you at the next board meeting."

"You can't make a decision like that!" Mishima shouts.

"Can't I? Who would consider what scum like you have to say?" Kamoshida taunts. "I'm impressed you'd be hanging around with the likes of him Mishima," Kamoshida says gesturing to Akira. "Seeing as you leaked his criminal records…"

Akira doesn't know what to say or how to react or feel. This can't be happening. Barely a week at a new school and he's already getting expelled? And Mishima, leaking his record. Now Akira knows how everyone at school managed to know about it.

"Mishima," Ryuji begins.

"I-I had to do it! He gave me no choice!" Mishima pleads. Kamoshida begins to laugh as he turns back around to his desk.

"Are we done here? You're all getting expelled so get the fuck out of my office."

With nothing else that they can do, Akira and Ryuji, both seething with anger, walk around Mishima and out of the office.