Chapter 9 - Repercussions Pt 2

Many people with communication disorders have a disposition which does not allow them to join their friends when they see them with someone whom they don't know.

And the emotion they feel…

Is something that others might call jealousy.

—————

The Same Day, 7 PM

A knock on Komi's front door. Shuuko put down the utensils she was cooking with and opened the door.

"Hello, we are looking for a girl named Shouko Komi, is she here?" asked a policeman standing on the other side. There were two of them.

"Yes, she's my daughter! Why do you need her though?" Shuuko exclaimed, a tiny bit nervous.

"We just want to ask your daughter questions, Miss." said the other policeman.

"Ok, come on in! She has anxiety so she might be hard to talk to." Shuuko remarked. "Shouko! Come down here!"

The policemen sat down on the couch in the living room while Komi's mum made tea for them.

Komi climbed down the stairs and into the living room, instantly noticing the policemen. "Did I… do something wrong?" she whispered.

"These nice policemen just want to ask you a few questions, ok?" Shuuko encouraged.

Komi nodded and sat down on a blue armchair in the living room.

"So, Shouko Komi, we want to ask you some questions about Nene Onemine and Ren Yamai. We've been told you know these two."

Komi nodded.

"Ok, if you don't know, Yamai assaulted Onemine yesterday afternoon. When questioned about it and her motivations behind it, she stated that it was before Onemine touched a girl named Shouko Komi. According to her, they were some sort of goddess."

Komi looked at the floor ashamed.

"So, we just want to ask some questions about what your relationship with Ren Yamai is, that's all," stated the other policeman.

After about ten seconds of waiting, Komi grabbed a piece of paper from off the coffee table in the middle of the room and wrote, 'She's a friend of mine, I think?'

The policemen nodded. The other one took a huge gulp of tea.

'It's also not the first time she's done something like this. Around the start of the school year she kidnapped one of my friends for hanging out with me," she continued to write, seeming a bit sad at what she was writing.

'If I'm being honest it makes me feel uncomfortable at times. Sometimes I see her following me in the corner of my eye and things like that. Apparently, she thinks I'm a sort of god…'

Komi stifled a tear.

"Ok, thanks for your cooperation. We'll keep you updated on the state of the case."

"We should get going now," the other police officer replied.

—————

Hospital, 10 AM

It was now the next day, Thursday. Onemine was laying in the same hospital bed, leg propped up, scrolling on her phone. The door to her room opened. "Hello, Onemine-san, your breakfast is ready and some people are here to visit you."

"Thank you!" said Onemine, taking the plate with her breakfast on it. As she was about to dig into her food, a police officer walked in.

"Huh…"

"Hello, you are Onemine-san, right?" asked the officer.

"Yes…" she replied, placing her plate down on her bedside table.

"It's alright, you're not in trouble. I just want to ask some questions about what Yamai-san yesterday."

"Oh, ok."

"We'd like to hear your side of the story that day, you being the victim of course. From the beginning, if you can," the policeman chuckled.

"Well, it started on the Saturday before. I was at a friend's house with a few of my friends. We were playing Truth or Dare when one of the dares a friend of mine named Shouko Komi got was to punch the person to their left."

Onemine took a sip of water from a glass on the table next to her.

"That was me, and she ended up punching my nose, breaking it. Another friend of mine, Hitohito Tadano, helped me heal it when I started getting angry at Komi. I rushed up to her and shouted at her, trying to punch her. I fainted though before I could do so."

Onemine squirmed a bit saying the last couple sentences, embarrassed at what her past self had done.

"Then, on Monday, I don't know how, a classmate of mine, Ren Yamai, figured out what had happened on Saturday. When I was at my locker that day, she approached me and started making fun of my forehead and saying 'Just wait until tomorrow.' I didn't think much of it at the time and just went shopping for groceries then back home."

"Ok, what happened the next day, the day you got assaulted?" asked the policeman calmly."

"Then everything was normal until the end of the day. When I was walking home with my friends, I had left my phone back in class. They went ahead while I went back for it. When I walked into the classroom…"

"Do I tell the officer about Yamai's friends? I haven't told anyone about it since I didn't want that many people getting in trouble…"

Onemine remembered what her mother had told her, that she shouldn't feel guilty because none of it was her fault, she wasn't responsible.

"I've made up my mind…"

"Then the door locked and Yamai and her friends appeared out of nowhere. They tied me down to the desks that were stuck to the floor and started kicking and punching me. After about 5 minutes they stopped."

"Hmm, this is new. It was not only Ren Yamai that attacked Nene Onemine," thought the police officer, pondering over this new information.

"I started talking to Yamai-san, eventually I apparently insulted 'Komi-sama' by calling her a person too. Then, her friends left. Yamai-san grabbed a baseball bat and said she was going to kill me, swinging the bat twice at my leg."

"That's when you broke your leg," the officer added.

"Yes. She tried to hit me in the head but Tadano-kun saved me by stopping Yamai-san. After that, I don't remember much because I blacked out, waking up in a hospital bed," Onemine finished.

The policeman paused, scribbling down some notes and processing the information.

"I'm sorry this happened to you… Thanks for your input, though. Ren Yamai already admitted guilty to any crime placed against her so this is only to grant us a better understanding of the actual event, ok?"

Onemine nodded. "Yamai-san already pleaded guilty? Why? Surely she'd want a trial…"

"Thank you for your time, Onemine-san!" the officer said, picking up their things and walking out the door.

"Yeah, you too…"

—————

School had finished and Tadano had walked home. Opening the door, his mum, Jeanne, greeted him. "Hello, Hitohito! Some policemen are here to ask you something!"

"Hello, Tadano-san," said a police officer who was standing in the sitting in the living room with Jeanne. "Um, hello? Have I done something wrong?"

"No, not at all. We are here for is to get you to sign a form for a witness summon on Friday at 3 PM. You have been claimed to be a witness of the assault of Nene Onemine by Ren Yamai. She's already written a plea of guilty but a sentence still needs to be decided."

"Jeez, this is serious…"

Tadano sat down. "Here's the subpoena, can you just fill in your information and read over it, please?"

Grabbing a pen off the coffee table, Tadano filled in his credentials. "Thank you, Miss Tadano, we should get going now," said the officer, addressing Tadano's mum.

—————

Friday, 7:50 AM

Tadano got a notification on his phone. Otori had added him, Komi, Onemine, Nakanaka and Najimi to a group chat called 'Friends'.

Nakanaka sent a message not soon after, 'Hi guys, I've noticed you've made a group chat.'

Otori sent a text as well. 'Hello, I figured out how to make a group chat with all of us in it!' Najimi was just spamming the built-in emojis and stickers in the app.

"This is a pleasant surprise," thought Tadano.

'Hello, how are you all doing?' typed Komi, worried about being in a group chat for the first time. "Come on Shouko, send the message…"

Building up her courage, Komi clicked the dreadful send button. Najimi responded with a simple 'good' and then went back to spamming, now doing any cursed images from her camera roll.

The others all responded with similar comments saying how they were. Komi felt relieved that her message went down well. She had texted people before, of course, but not that many people at once.

However, Onemine hadn't appeared or said anything. "She's probably just asleep, she is in hospital after all…" thought Otori.

'Do you guys want to do anything this afternoon?' asked Nakanaka.

'I'd like to, but I have to go to court for Onemine-san,' Tadano replied.

Everyone else in the group chat was surprised. 'Wait, what?!' Nakanaka typed.

'I got a visit from the police yesterday saying I was a witness for what happened with Yamai-san so I would need to appear for her trial on Friday,' Tadano texted, explaining his situation better.

'Wow, are you going to be alright?' Komi questioned, sending another message, getting better at communicating on a group chat.

'Yeah, I'll be fine. I'm not in trouble or anything!' Tadano stated.

"Tadano-kun… Hopefully, it goes well."

—————

Friday, 1:30 PM

Tadano had skipped school for the day to prepare for the trial. He and his mum, Jeanne, were sitting in the living room of his house on the couch. "I'll be fine, Mum," said Tadano.

"Are you sure? You said this girl attacked your friend with a baseball bat. What if she goes crazy in the court ro-"

"The subpoena said she's not even going to be in the court room, I'll be fine," replied Tadano.

Jeanne stayed silent for about 20 seconds. "Ok… We should probably get you properly dressed now."

Tadano sighed, then got up. His mum insisted on him wearing his father's fancy suit. His mum handed him his dad's old suit, Tadano entered his room and shut the door.

After a couple of minutes, Tadano came out wearing a black tuxedo with a white shirt and a royal-looking blue and black tie. He had brown leather shoes on and a leather belt as well.

"You look wonderful!" his mother exclaimed, fixing up his tie a bit.

"Is this necessary, mum?"

"Of course, you need to wear something formal," his mum replied.

"Yeah, but it doesn't need to be this fancy. I can just wear dress pants and a nice shirt," Tadano stated.

"No. This is your father's suit as well, so it's special. I can't think of many occasions you would wear it…"

"Ok, fine. Anything else we need to do?"

"Not that I remember… That means we could just start going now!"

"Wait, why so early?" Tadano asked.

"Better late than early, right? What if there's traffic and you miss the trial? Then you'd be in a lot of trouble…"

The mother and son duo entered their car and started to drive off to court.

—————

The Tadanos got out of the car, entering the courthouse. Walking through the door, Jeanne asked a secretary which room was the one Hitohito was needed at.

Wandering to the court, Jeanne and Tadano sat down in the waiting room. There were quite a few people in there.

"Hi, Tadano-kun!" said Onemine who was also sitting in the waiting room with her mum. She was holding her

"Oh, hello!" Tadano replied.

"You're dressed… elegantly," Onemine stated, noting Tadano's suit. She was just wearing her winter school uniform.

Tadano laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his head. "Yeah, my mum made me wear it, sorry…"

"Oh, no, don't apologise! I think you look great!" Onemine said hurriedly. After a couple of seconds, her face turned bright red. She looked away and stared at the ground.

"So this is the girl Hitohito is here for… She seems nice, it's a shame what happened to her," thought Tadano's mum, watching the situation unfold.

A lawyer representing Onemine was also sitting in the waiting room. Her mother had gotten a lawyer as soon as she could for the sentencing.

"Hitohito, I'm gonna pop to the shops, you'll be alright?" Jeanne said.

"Yeah," Tadano responded

After waiting for a while, the court was about to start. The group of people in the waiting room walked inside. The room felt sort of surreal to her. Doing the normal court etiquette, that her mother told her, like bowing to the judge and standing up when they entered the room, Onemine, Tadano and the rest sat down in their spots.

Onemine's lawyer spoke. "Your honour, members of the jury, my name is Hazel Smith, representing the prosecution in this case."

—————

2 Hours Later

The court trial had finished. Onemine, Tadano, Jeanne and Onemine's mum were sat down at a pizza restaurant across the road. Onemine's mother had offered to buy both Tadanos food.

Onemine and Tadano were sat down at one side of the table and their mothers were on the other side.

"Here are your pizzas," said a waitress, placing down two cheese pizzas on the wooden table.

Each of them grabbed a slice and started eating. The atmosphere was awkward, no one talking. It felt like nobody wanted to be there. Onemine was sitting gloomily.

"Hey, Tadano-kun… Don't you think that Yamai-san's punishment was a bit too… harsh?" Onemine whispered.

Tadano shook his head. Onemine was a tiny bit surprised, she expected him to have the same opinion as her.

"6 months in juvenile with rehabilitation training… I feel like that's too much…"

"Nene, you know I can hear you?" her mother said, slightly unimpressed.

"Oh, uh, um!" Onemine stuttered her face turning red.

"Listen, I've already told you this, you shouldn't feel bad. The girl did something horrible and she got punished for it."

Onemine stayed silent. "Hey, Onemine-san, think about it. She's getting rehabilitation training as well, so hopefully she'll be a nicer person when she comes back out!" Tadano added.

"Yeah… you're right," Onemine stated, getting happier.

"Thanks for this. Do I owe you anything?" Tadano's mum addressed Onemine's mum.

"No, It's alright, your son helped out with the case," she replied. Onemine's mum leaned in, whispering. "And, I think he's helping out Nene as well. She seems a lot happier when she's with him…"

Jeanne looked at the two of them. They were now chatting, talking about random things. "Yeah…"

"Oh, we should probably tell the rest of our friends the trial's over!" Onemine exclaimed, biting into her pizza.

"Sure!" Tadano replied, pulling out his phone and telling the group chat what had happened.

Onemine swallowed the food in her mouth. "Oh, what's that?"

"Otori made a group chat with you, me, Komi-san, Nakanaka-san, Osana-kun and herself," Tadano replied.

"Oh, neat!"

Tadano put his phone away and picked up his slice of pizza. His phone buzzed in his pocket but he didn't notice it.

'Oh, that's a lot longer than I expected… I guess she deserved it though," Nakanaka responded.

'Wow, it's going to be weird without her around for that long (0︿0)' Najimi texted.

Otori simply didn't see the message. Komi, on the other hand, didn't know how to respond.

—————

Author's Notes

Another chapter done! As always, any feedback is appreciated!

If this chapter seems shorter than others, the original draft had a proper 1k-word section for the actual case. I ended up disliking it and cutting it from the story. With that gone I probably could've not made this chapter a two-parter… Never mind!

Secondly, I'm on break from school for two weeks so I'll be writing more and chapters will (probably) come out a bit sooner for a bit!

Thanks for reading, see ya next time!

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