Chapter 13:

Interlude – A Fragment of Memory II

Those Summer Nights


I never stopped to think about the future. I would go to school and after I finished my studies I would work, that’s the only thing I ever thought. Because of that, I didn’t know what I would study after high school. My grades are always pretty good, so I shouldn’t have any problem getting into whatever college I end up choosing.

The tomorrow was something I took for granted.

My life in high school wasn’t much different from middle school, I had a good number of friends and I continued to not be part of any school club. Watch classes, speak with friends, return home, spend some time with my mother and dad, study and have some rest. Every day was basically the same.

During weekends I would try to break this routine by having a walk in the city with family or friends and playing some story driven games at night.

A certain day of December, when I was in the first year of high school, I went to ask something to a friend of mine called Naoto and he was with another guy from my class. They were talking about a new game I had some interest and that was when my friendship with Souma started.

After speaking with Souma for some time, I started to think he was somewhat interesting. If left alone without any familiar face near him, he would stay silent all day. But if you’re his friend, he could spend hours talking with you.

But even after finding a new friend, nothing changed for me. As always, I was still the same. And then, summer arrived.

It was hard to believe when the police came to visit me because of what had happened at school. They were suspecting that Souma or Hayato had killed a very popular girl, Mei. I only knew both of them for a few months only, but the idea they would kill Mei was ridiculous.

After talking with Souma and Hayato, it was clear that Hayato wasn’t affected at all by what happened, but Souma was suffering from some sort of post-traumatic stress disorder, so I wanted to help him if I could.

When Souma told to us what happened with Akira I got concerned with him because the story was just crazy. Because of that, I went with him and the others to check on Akira that night. We didn’t find Akira so that made my role as his friend, as his mental supporter, more difficult.

And in the end, I couldn't really do anything. Hayato was murdered too and it was very difficult to keep smiling in front of Souma. But at least, I needed to keep him safe, I needed to keep him away from school at night. So I asked to him to stay home, but he lied to me and continued to do his night investigations.

I’m not a member of his family, I didn’t really had any power to stop him, so I tried to make him renew his promise with me. In exchange I would help him do whatever he was doing during one final trip to school at night.

And when the night arrived, I didn’t want to make my parents worry about me, so I said to them I would visit a female friend from my class and I asked Naoto to give me a ride to Souma’s house. Very few people knew about Naoto having a bike, not even Souma knew about that.

Naoto asked me if I wanted him to go with me and Souma, but I said I wanted to be alone with Souma. He accepted that and went home after leaving me at Souma’s house, saying that I should call him after we finish.

At school, I helped Souma with his search and I even proposed for us to do all he wanted to do so he wouldn’t have any reason to return here later. Everything was going smoothly, but we had yet to find anything.

After we had searched more than half of the school grounds, I got tired and I stopped to rest for some moments. Souma wanted to continue searching, so I would sit somewhere near him to watch, but I received a message on my phone and I needed to check something.

That’s when the tragedy happened.

Until the very end, I couldn't believe on what was happening. I would never imagine that person doing something like this.

And then, everything went dark.