Chapter 6: Planned Regret【Part 2】
【言語に関するご注意 / Language Notice】本作はすべて、英語と英語の表現で書かれています。翻訳作品ではなく、オリジナルの英語ライトノベルです。あらかじめご了承の上、作品をお楽しみください。
See chapter one for the main author's note.
Jiro
The outside air hits me with a sudden chill, blowing straight through my school uniform. The streets are quiet. The thick bandages on my wrists do nothing to ease the growing discomfort of the desolate alleys.
A sharp gust of wind sends dry leaves scraping across the cobblestone. In the distance, a sudden peak of laughter cuts through the dark and clips off just as quickly.
My head tracks the sounds automatically. The reflex happens on its own, and there is no real energy left to stop it.
The pools of lamplight offer a narrow path of comfort while I track the map as efficiently as possible.
The surrounding quiet finally breaks at the edge of the main square. The area is still lively, dotted with small groups of people.
The stone fountain glows warmly in the center, illuminating clusters of students nearby. Their shared warmth and easy conversations drift over the breeze. The sound of their laughter brings a sudden urge to pause—to just step off the pavement and lose myself in the crowd, if only for a moment.
But my feet refuse to share the thought and keep moving forward, leaving the warmth behind.
I slip back into dimmer side streets, the noise of the square quickly fading into the shadows behind me.
A sleek facade looms ahead in the dim street, sterile white light beaming from the glass windows. Along the top walls, a clean white band glows. The same design from the other buildings earlier today... Now the pattern makes sense.
The lobby inside is even emptier than the clinic. With eyes fixed on the front desk at the far end, my footsteps echo against the polished floor.
The officer behind the desk tracks my approach. A polite smile stretches across his face the closer I get. “Good evening. Can I help you?”
“Yes, could you perhaps help me file a report about an incident that happened earlier today? It is... about an assault on me and my friend.”
His smile fades, replaced by a professional nod. He pulls a paper form out of a drawer and sets it on the counter between us. “If you could hand over your student ID card, I will fill out the basic information for you here. Please tell me what happened.”
The card slides across the counter and he starts taking notes.
The words spill out in a messy rush—the initial theft, Renji being dragged by skaters, the trap at the intersection. It feels different saying it out loud, my voice straining when I have to describe the actual beating, and how much worse they treated him while I could only watch.
The scratching quickens and stalls with the rhythm of my words, tracking every hesitation.
His eyes linger on the bruise across my face as the scratching stops. “That sounds like a terrible experience... Do you have any descriptions of the suspects? How many were there?”
“There were at least ten. Or maybe fifteen,” I say, realizing only now that I never actually did a headcount. “A petite girl with blonde hair and an orange ribbon, I think. The others wore animal masks and... nothing else really stood out.”
The pen stalls completely. His gaze drops to the mostly blank paper before a hand rises to rub the back of his neck.
“…So we are looking for a petite girl with a ribbon, animal-masked skaters, and an unknown number of accomplices with similar masks.”
Hearing him repeat the words back to me feels like a slap.
Masked skaters. A ribbon. It is completely useless information. What was I thinking? Coming here was a mistake.
“Actually,” I say, reaching out to slide my card back off the counter. “Never mind. Forget I said anything.”
He looks up from the form without protest. The pen clicks shut, and his fingers gracefully fold the paper before moving it to the edge of the desk.
“Without more details, there isn’t much we can do, I am sorry,” he says quietly.
We break eye contact. I turn around, starting a faster pace than before.
“Thank you, anyway.”
The glass doors push outward, and the outside wind strikes me with sudden violence. The cold stinging against my bruised face feels like a direct punishment for wasting his time.
I really didn’t think this through.
Wandering back to the main square, I decide to sit onto the edge of the stone fountain. Just gazing up at the starry sky, I let out a heavy sigh that leaves me feeling empty.
I just wanted to help. But everything I do turns into a dead end.
With a numb hand, I pull out my phone to check the map, the scratched screen illuminating the dark. Changing the destination, the dotted line pinpointing the distance to my assigned dormitory.
Of course, it’s a long walk.
Leaving the lively square behind, I plunge into the residential grid. The dark turns the already unfamiliar streets into a dizzying maze. Every corner looks identical. Brick walls give way to narrow, winding paths that split without warning, offering no landmarks to anchor my bearings.
I squint at the digital map, but the bright screen only blurs my night vision, rendering the dimly lit street names even more difficult to read.
My bound wrists throb in time with my footsteps. Every small flight of concrete stairs feels like a mountain, and the cool night air scratches at the back of my throat. I keep guessing at left and right turns until my sense of direction feels entirely hollow.
By the time the numbers on the buildings finally match my destination, my legs are heavy as lead. I just want to find my room and sleep.
An uneasy realization hits me before I can even reach for the handle.
The roommate.
I stand frozen in front of the door, already calculating the sheer amount of energy it will take to deal with introductions, polite small talk, and the inevitable, exhausting explanation of why my wrists are wrapped in bandages.
I press my student ID card against the electronic lock anyway. It is not like I have anywhere else to go.
The mechanism clicks open. I slowly push the panel forward and step inside. A series of strange, rustling sounds echo from further down the entryway.
* * * * *
Discover what happens next in: Chapter 6: Planned Regret【Part 3】
Written by Limited_Infinity. Extras, official publishing platforms and updates are publicly available only on the Patreon page “_Limited_Infinity_”
To support this series, you can engage with it and rate it
* * * * *
