……never mind.

This is what Matsuo Ryohei deserves.

Masashi Yukimura finally looked away and decided to pretend he hadn't seen anything.

Hasegawa Teru did not take the dagger offered by Vili, but instead slowly and firmly shook his head. His movement was small, but the determination it conveyed was unquestionable.

“I’ve said before… my dream is to be an investigative journalist, and that’s not just talk.”

"The duty of investigative journalists is to expose the truth, no matter what dangers and darkness are hidden behind it, even if it endangers their own lives, to speak out for the innocent and fight for the weak."

"I will never become like Matsuo Ryohei, someone who uses vigilante justice to trample on the law and satisfy his own desires."

Willie: I don't know why, but I felt like I was being lectured...

Noticing the boy's slightly strange expression, Hasegawa Teru hurriedly explained, "N-Of course! This is just what I demand of myself!"

"Everyone has the freedom to make their own choices!"

He was so anxious that his tongue almost tied itself in knots, and finally he looked at Willy with a pitiful expression.

The boy looked at him seriously for a while, but finally couldn't help but chuckle.

He said casually, "Don't worry, I didn't take those words to heart."

He admired Teru Hasegawa for having such firm ideals and beliefs at such a young age, and for moving straight along the path.

But at the same time, he also knew that he was the one and only great magician Vili, and would not easily change for others.

He would do the same thing again if something like this happened again.

Thinking this, he took two steps forward without thinking, and happened to step on the man's hand on the ground, and then rubbed the sole of his foot twice.

There's nothing he can do; he just doesn't like this guy.

Meeting Hasegawa Teru's hesitant gaze, Willie spoke as if oblivious to his surroundings:

"So you mean you want to hand him over to the police, is that right?"

Hasegawa Teru nodded repeatedly, then asked cautiously, "Is it alright?"

As if he had finally had enough fun, Willie lifted his foot and stood to the side, seemingly unconcerned by what he heard.

"—As you wish."

A familiar, shimmering light shone on Matsuo, and his wounds disappeared at an alarming rate. The moment the light vanished, apart from his tightly closed eyes, he looked no different from usual.

But in reality, although the wounds on his body had disappeared, the excruciating pain continued, causing Matsuo to twitch unconsciously from time to time, looking like a fish on a chopping board.

"He got off too easy."

Ignoring the scene, Kii Kanade shook her head and sighed.

"You noticed both Yoshida Yuta and Matsuo Ryohei's names on the graduation photo, which means they were elementary school classmates. So what?"

Turning his gaze away, Masashi Yukimura steered the conversation back on track.

Hasegawa Teruya tacitly ignored Matsuo and continued:

"At the time, I didn't pay much attention to it, but I was just wondering why, as our homeroom teacher, Matsuo Ryohei never stopped the rumors about the ghost of the old school building or mentioned his relationship with Yoshida Yuta.

"The next day, I kept pestering my mother about it. Although she didn't believe I had seen a ghost with my own eyes, she was so annoyed by my nagging that she finally told me everything she knew."

“Back then, Yoshida Yuta and Matsuo Ryohei were classmates since kindergarten and were inseparable.”

Everyone says they are best friends.

Although the ghost hadn't understood before, it had been listening quietly. Upon hearing this, it looked down at the man on the ground with curious eyes.

He was unaware of the reason for his birth. Even though he had the consciousness of being a supernatural being, he always believed, due to people's misleading, that he was the real Yoshida Yuta.

So... I was good friends with this person when I was alive?

“This school building was built by the government and was originally intended to provide accommodation for teachers from other places. But we don’t have a large population here, so there are many empty rooms in the school building.”

“Matsuo Ryohei… His parents divorced, and he grew up with his mother. When he was old enough to start elementary school, his mother abandoned him and went to work in another city.”

“He has no other relatives here, so the school makes a special exception for him to live in the school dormitory, where at least meals are provided and the teachers can help take care of him.”

"Although they could no longer go to and from school together, Yoshida Yuta and Matsuo Ryohei remained very close and stayed together all the time, even when they were about to graduate from elementary school."

"And then... came that earthquake."

"I don't know about other places, but in Twilight Village, Yoshida Yuta is the only dead."

“That day was an ordinary workday, and everyone was going to school or work as usual, but Ryohei Matsuo was resting alone in the school building because he had a fever.”

“When the earthquake struck, my mother was helping to evacuate the students, but when they finally took a headcount, they discovered that Yoshida Yuta was missing.”

"Some students said... he went to see Matsuo Ryohei."

"Now it seems that this is indeed the case."

"Matsuo Ryohei escaped, while Yoshida Yuta was buried under the rubble... becoming a cold statistic of death."

"I thought at the time that the teacher was unwilling to talk about this because it was a scar in his heart that would cause him pain if it was touched."

As Hasegawa Teru spoke, he unconsciously glanced down at the wound on his chest, his eyes filled with complex emotions.

“But more than that… I’m excited about uncovering the hidden truth.” The boy pursed his lips. “Even though Yoshida Yuta has forgotten everything, I once read that electronic devices can detect traces of supernatural beings.”

"So on that day, I secretly took the camera from home and told my friends that I wanted to prove to them that ghosts exist."

"The door to the old school building was hinged, but with my size, it was easy for me to squeeze through the gap."

“Everything went smoothly at first…” Hasegawa Teru narrated the whole story from his own perspective, “As soon as we met, I made a request to Yoshida, and he readily agreed.”

"But later..."

"Matsuo Ryohei has appeared."

"He was very surprised to see me, and put on his teacher's airs, scolding me for coming here alone at night to play some kind of adventure game."

"I was a little unconvinced, so I argued with him that this wasn't a game. I asked him if he and Yoshida Yuta were elementary school classmates or best friends?"

"I just blurted things out without thinking, trying to prove to him that I had found out a lot on my own. But I didn't expect that he would act like a completely different person after hearing that..."

Hasegawa Teru's body tensed slightly, and the muscles on his face twitched involuntarily.

"Then, he saw the camera I was holding and tried to snatch it from me. I was no match for his strength, so I dropped the camera and ran away."

"But when I ran to the door... I found that the door had been locked from the inside at some point."