Ending the matter(part 2) - Dead Logic

The footsteps grew louder and louder. Shuhi prepared herself for a greeting.

"Coming." a female voice spoke.

The door knob started spinning and the door slid open. It was Ondo's mother who responded.

"Good morning, ma'm. I am Ondo's friend, Shuhi. I just needed to do a few talks with Ondo kun." Shuhi said, bowing her head a little.

"Oh I see. But Ondo hasn't come home yet. You can wait inside." Ondo's mother said with a smile.

"Thanks but I actually have piano class in an hour. So I can't wait for long." Shuhi said.

"It's okay. You can still wait inside till then. He might return in that time."

Shuhi agreed to wait in Ondo's house. Earlier, Shuhi lied about her having a piano class. In reality, she didn't have any. It was only to establish a time limit.

"I know Ondo kun won't be home now. He is at school, doing his election related work. One hour is more than enough time to investigate." Shuhi thought.

While sitting on the zabuton, Shuhi saw Ondo's mother going to the kitchen to grab some food to serve. Earlier, Shuhi noticed how Ondo's mother seemed desperate and didn't let Shuhi go.

"If I think about this using social psychology, even giving the excuse of the piano class, most people would let me go. Pushing further after giving a hard deadline risks making someone look aggressive or socially awkward, which most people naturally avoid. But in her case…"

Shuhi looked at the kitchen and saw her coming out with a tray that had tea and cookies. Another plate had peeled off apples.

"You really didn't have to bring all that…" Shuhi said, realizing it would be a pain to finish all by herself.

"No, it's nothin. You gotta eat."

Seeing the amount of food, Shuhi could think of one thing, "Geez…She really wants to keep me here."

Then a sudden realization hit her, "Wait a minute…maybe it's like, Ondo doesn't have a true friend or more specifically a girlfriend who he would bring home. Seeing me visiting here gave Ondo's mother a hope for him. Maybe that's why she badly wants us to unite."

Shuhi drank the tea and asked if the stairs inside the house would lead her to Ondo's room or not. When Ondo's mother responded affirmatively, Shuhi asked permission to go to Ondo's room. As expected, Ondo's mother granted permission.

After that, she started going upstairs and reached into Ondo's room. Inside, she saw the usual decoration of a high school student's room. The one thing that grabbed her attention was a red frame on the wall to her right side. It had a few medals hanging. She assumed it was probably earned by Ondo by doing great in social activities. A shelf had a few picture frames. She started looking at it one by one.

"Strange…all of them are Ondo's high school photos. Not a single middle school one. Here is one group photo," Shuhi took a photo in his hand and looked closely at the faces in it.

"They are…I saw them with Ondo kun. They must be Ondo's allies in the election."

She put down the picture where it was before and sat on the bed,

"Something happened in Ondo's middle school life. He doesn't talk about middle school, he has no friends from there and not a single thing resembles his middle school life's memories here. People usually have some. It's as if…he completely wants to remove that time's memories around him. What happened back then? A trauma maybe. Maybe a dark past of bullying."

After that conclusion, Shuhi left Ondo's house telling that it was getting late. She knew Ondo's mother would feel very bad but Shuhi had no intention to go that road in the first place. After returning home, she quickly grabbed her phone and started searching for some archived news.

Shuhi and Ondo were the same age. So she could tell Ondo was in middle school 2 years ago from now. So she started checking news more than 2 years older related to school events. Since Shuhi couldn't come up with any answer based on her experience, she saw doing research on older news as the best approach for now.

She couldn't rely on her experience because at the time Ondo was in middle school, Shuhi just got out of the organization's grasp. It took her time to mix into the society and then she started her high school. So it was her first time going to school and she didn't have any middle school life.

Upon searching, a shocking news came in front of her. 3 years ago, a middle school boy committed suicide. He was found dead inside his room, hanging. At first, it seemed like Ondo and the suicide are two completely different topics. Any type of connection was not visible in Shuhi's eyes. But she knew even the most random things could be related. She needed to investigate further.

The news had the school's name so she quickly changed to a formal dress from school dress and headed there. When she reached there, she was surprised to see some of the teachers recognized her after hearing her name and school. Two events made her popular.

Earlier, she made an unbelievable result of getting 85 on exactly every single subject. And then she exposed two question leaker groups, improving the academic settings of the school. She could only guess that the teachers in her school have connections with many other teachers of many other schools. They must have spread the events while gossiping.

Whatever, it was good for Shuhi since it would have been strange that a student from another school wants to know about a student of this school. At least now this was less awkward than being that.

"The school is running this year's student council president election and I wanted to know more about the candidates beyond what they show at school." Shuhi said to one of the teachers.

"People change a lot from middle school to high school. I thought hearing from former teachers might help me understand what kind of person Ondo kun really is." Shuhi cleared her intentions. Though the reason she gave was a lie. Originally, she wanted to find any connection between Ondo and the suicide.

"Oh that's it? I am glad to hear that students like you exist," the teacher said with a smile.

"Meaning? Students like me?"

"Kids nowadays believe whatever is in front of them pretty easily. No doubting, no questioning…like how are they gonna learn? Teachers always can't teach A to Z. It's a student's duty to drag out everything he wants to know from the teachers. You here are a perfect example of it. Instead of accepting what is presented in front of you, you are digging deeper to know more properly. I like your motives," the teacher explained.

"So will you tell me about Ondo kun? Like what kind of student he was? His affects on this school, his school relationships etcetera."

"Oh, sure. As much as I have seen of Ondo, he seemed to hang out with the same people. He didn't make any friends beyond them."

"Did anything major happen during his time here?" Shuhi immediately pressed another question.

"I wouldn't say anything major. He seemed…your average school kid, average grade, average sports performance," the teacher answered.

"Ondo kun here seemed very gentle towards everybody. Always offering a helping hand. Was he always kind like that?"

"Now this thing…I can't say for sure. All of his achievement's news started coming after he left our school."

"By left, you mean…"

"He left after 2 years of enrolling here. After that, he enrolled in a different middle school I can't remember the name of."

"Now this is new…" Shuhi thought, "Ondo kun spent his 2 years of middle school here and the last year in a different school. That makes his middle school life here from 2020-21. Then in 2022, he joined another school. After that, he entered high school in 2023. The suicide happened in 2022, after Ondo kun left this school."

Shuhi then recalled the pictures and trophies from Ondo's house. There were dates written on some of them. "The suicide happened on 22nd February, 2022. The oldest trophy Ondo kun had was earned on 31st March, 2022 for some kind of social peace works."

Then Shuhi thought from the very start. Ondo having no connection with his middle school friends. He didn't even have any group photo of that time as if he tried to erase his entire middle school life's history. Ondo was a very ordinary student in middle school, different from who he was. Ondo changed schools and 1 month after the suicide, Ondo won his first ever trophy, gaining spotlight.

All of this small info helped Shuhi design a theory of what happened and that theory linked Ondo with that boy.

Chapter 48 - Ending the matter(part 2)