"This may be really painful for you and if you aren't ready to talk, we won't pressure you to. If you are, we ask that you be fully honest with us. Nothing is your fault, Takamaki-san."This lady came across as kind but I knew this was an act - I would eventually be required to answer and more people supposedly in my corner such as Kawakami-sensei and Taku brought in to force me to do so. It was time to make my peace with the whole affair.
"Did you ever develop romantic feelings for Kamoshida?"
"...Yes."
"When did you become aware of how you felt towards him?"
"After the third date or so. We went to the beach where he told me stories of his time as a young volleyball player and how the times had changed since then whilst my modelling was my focus."
"Did you feel safe around him?"
"Yes and no. I've always been conscious that my looks are what brings the most attention to me. There was this reassurance that he would keep lusty guys away from me. At the same time, my skin would crawl at the thought of being alone with him. His mood swings were pretty horrifying, often violent and he never cared how much stronger he was compared to me."
"It's okay, Takamaki-san. You can take as long as you need." As long as I need? I can at least confirm this woman doesn't want to stop getting answers out of me.
"No…I want this out there now. I caught wind of what the other girls and boys were in his eyes. Those assessments were nothing more than snide comments and had little to do with the try-out itself. It was how we started: I thought I was protecting my best friend from him. I let myself believe there was something good inside him and that I could keep others from going through what I could."
"To the best of your knowledge, do you believe anyone else knew of your relationship with him?"
"No. His deputies and assistants would just tell me to buzz off whenever they saw me in the office. It was a good thing they thought not to ask questions. I couldn't think of anyone else that would have known." As the interviewer wrote down her notes to my answer, she then asked about Ren.
"Let's talk about the transfer. He happened to come along and immediately made himself an enemy of Kamoshida's along with the majority of the school."
"He was not trying to do that on the first day."
"Whether intentional or not, he ended up one of Kamoshida's targets. How did this affect your standing with Kamoshida?"
"One way or another, I grew closer to the transfer and before I knew it, I was helping him. Naturally, I put distance between Kamoshida and I leading to our breakup."
"Did the transfer find out about it?"
"He did. It didn't exactly impress me that he put the moves on my best friend on the first day back. I couldn't help but confront him over it and all he seemed to want to do was piss me off. Trying to talk to me about my best friend of over a decade!" Oh snap. Cool it now, Ann. He and Futaba will laugh if they see you still getting worked up over it…
"That little chance encounter may have saved both of their lives."
"How so?"
"They needed each other that day. He wouldn't have anyone to confide in and Shiho would have done something reckless." At the same time, their relationship isn't in the healthiest state. They click so well with one another but neither are really opening up or going that next step.
"Sorry, where were we going with this?"
"You ended up assisting his efforts along with your friends and an unlikely adversary." Adversary? Who could they be referring to?
"Mishima-san was one of the main enablers of sorts to allow Kamoshida to do a large portion of what he did. From the accounts we've gathered, you decided to work with him on the transfer's request." What the hell? Have they taken Ren's statement already? It seemed I'd need quick feet to get info out of this lady and keep up the story Ren has spun.
"I did, yes."
"How could you be so sure that you could trust him not to back stab you? He most likely knew of your relationship and how much further risk it posed to the transfer's plans." Except we didn't back then. Ren's gone and flipped how we went to Mishima for help - I can only assume he was under harsh scrutiny during his questioning.
"He's a victim too. Whatever his intentions were in helping Kamoshida, he still went through the same torrid abuse. He was powerless to actually try to stop Kamoshida so he hoarded evidence in case someone who was capable to stop him would come along."
"So he believed someone else would get rid of Kamoshida."
"At least at a point in time. You'd need to ask him." I can't elaborate any further on my classmate or else he really will end up in cuffs.
"What do you feel towards Kawakami-sensei?"
"I think she's been under a lot of stress. How does she have any sort of relevance to Kamoshida and I?"
"She and Kamoshida were once very good friends. Did she ever come up at all when you were alone with him?" Wait…they were once something?!
"Apart from his meandering opinion that she's too tired. Otherwise, no." Keeping my surprise hidden from the questioner, she continued to dig further.
"Do you think she knew about the two of you?"
"No. What is this? Why is she now the focus? Neither Kamoshida nor I would have made her aware of us." I wasn't going to be the one to throw her under the bus - she could do that herself. What sort of victim shaming did they want me to do? I didn't sell out my classmate so now the teacher is next on the chopping board?
"Why was that not an option?"
"I was scared that he'd do something to interfere with her. He got the old P.E. coach removed from his post. Now that you've mentioned their prior relationship, I could only imagine he'd hurt her too." It's honestly going to be hell for Kawakami-sensei.
"Do you wish to leave here?" Mom and Dad are still abroad so I need their permission. Plus, it would mean uprooting my friends, my job and my life all over again…
"We've not decided where if at all just yet - we're still deliberating over my options."
"...You were more than just friends. You dated Kamoshida-san once, didn't you?"
"If you all know this much, don't dance around these questions."I asserted. This was way before he'd came to the school and back when I was too stupid to think straight.
"Did you recommend against his arrival?"
"Profusely."
"Did you disclose your prior history and concerns as well?"
"I did everything in my power to stop him entering these walls!"
"So when did that stance change? Not to rehash the interview but three of your students have crossed hairs with him and the damage he's afflicted unto them will sit with them for the rest of their lives."
"...It hasn't. He happened to gain too much control under our noses. Need I mention that backers from your overall department and the sports industry were there to clean up the mess?"
"The two students you neglected aside, you actively engaged in a scheme with your boss that endangered a student before he had even stepped foot into this school. His circumstances became no more than Vanity Fair gossip to everyone. His personality should have indicated far earlier that you should have held him back from his curiosity. I would not expect the Ministry to be as kind to spell it out for you." No doubt, I'm out of a job once that gets kicked off.
"..." This man's vibe was off putting. His demeanour was anything but honest - I judged correctly given how he clued me into what the whole point of this questioning was.
"Kawakami-san. Not all hope is lost. I'm not here to try and rip your head off. In fact, none of you here within this school are worth anything to us. All we want is the kid. A true danger to society, he continued uncontrolled and unsupervised for a prolonged period which couldn't have been possible without support. Tell me, when did you begin to work with him?"
"I don't sell out my students."
"Kawakami-san, why are you choosing to defend Amamiya? This does nothing for you. Just comply with our questions - it's in your best interests considering how central you are to this case. The department is more than willing to show leniency given the circumstances…" Oh. I see. This was one of those sorts of guys.
"He'd run you out of the building in a heartbeat. And me - central? The only reason I can think you're coming this angle is because you don't have another fall guy to sacrifice."
"Hmm. What if I told you he's a suspect for kidnapping and blackmail? He happened to be one of the last people Kamoshida was alone with. It's not in my best interests but why don't I just show you?" I watched the clip in front of me for a while showing Suguru under interrogation. It was seemingly fine until Amamiya-kun's name was brought up. What…happened?
"I'll let you take the time you need, Kawakami-san."
"Does Amamiya-san scare you?"
"He has scared me once. He was so angry over how I was hiding this relationship from my best friend. She was the first person he ever had in his corner coming into this city…to me, it felt like it was the result of him baring out his loneliness and it was then I wanted to trust in him. And it's because of me, he got hurt so badly. He didn't deserve something like his scar." Requesting me to be honest on how awful he is? A weird choice, Ren, but very much like you. Always putting us first at your own consequence…I'll trust you can figure your way out!
"But now, there's nothing about him that's scary. He looks at me like I'm an eyesore, never tries to give me the time of day and how he just has to reason everything in order for it to make sense is infuriating! The amount of times he's acted like what anyone says isn't worth a shit still amazes me."
"..." As the questioner wrote her notes down, I continued my honest thoughts:
"In all honesty, those are nothing but nitpicks. He's made my best friend smile in a way I've not seen in such a long time, allowed me to accept myself and gave me the courage I needed to face forward. How can I not like him, no matter how irritating he can be?" I've got to stay to keep that dummy in check, don't I?
"The kid used the both of them to get this outcome. Takamaki was his in and Mishima was his arms and legs to mentally wear down Kamoshida to this point."
"You have no way of proving those two facts are linked." I argued. He then displayed two videos to me of both Takamaki-kun and Amamiya-kun, both of which just happened to be filmed by Mishima-kun…I'll be having words with them all.
"Amamiya-san has taken Takamaki-san, fully aware of how vulnerable her position was, and outright manipulated her into assisting him. Having caught onto Mishima-san's spying, he then coerced him into spilling what he had on Kamoshida, prolonging the abuse of the victims further." It's disgusting that this was the way I found out how their relationship started but I'd like to hope they've both put their differences aside at this point.
"...Don't you see how vulnerable he was? He went to Takamaki asking her for assistance in that way precisely because they were both alone. I wasn't someone he could trust or someone who trusted him and many like me weren't trustworthy." I responded back. This person will have no choice but to happily report back to his bosses with nothing to show.
"Tch…"