Chapter 13 Sanada leaves the group chat, Yukimura, you're protecting her.
Outside the teaching building, cherry blossoms fluttered down.
Risa reached out and caught a petal, smiling softly.
Kirihara followed behind, wanting to say something but holding back.
"Um... Risa-nee..."
"Um?"
"Are you really going to hire a lawyer and sue them, as you just said?"
Risa turned around and gently flicked his forehead: "I won't tell you."
When the two arrived at the platform, the tram was just slowly pulling into the station.
Inside the enclosed carriage, Kirihara's eyes gleamed under the overhead light.
"Risa-nee, your statement about 'legal consequences for online defamation' was brilliant! I never knew you could launch such a beautiful counterattack without violence. I was thinking..."
His voice suddenly lowered, "...in the end, it was of no help at all."
Risa was taken aback by what she heard.
"Who said you weren't helpful?"
She subconsciously reached out and touched the boy's fluffy seaweed-like hair: "In my opinion... the moment Akaya rushed over and blocked my way, he was so handsome that I couldn't take my eyes off him."
"R-Really?" Kirihara suddenly looked up, his emerald green eyes reflecting the carriage lights like two clear springs.
“Of course.” Risa looked into his eyes. “It was because Akaya stood by my side without hesitation that I had the courage to fight back.”
There was not a single falsehood in those words. When the boy forcefully pushed through the crowd, blocking her way like a city wall, a long-lost warmth surged from the depths of her heart to every part of her body.
—Exactly the same as back then.
When she was caught in a media storm, her younger brother did the same thing, weak but firm, holding her hand and saying, "Sister, after I'm discharged from the hospital, I'll definitely be your hero and let me protect you."
A sour feeling welled up in her throat, and Risa hurriedly closed her eyes.
But she couldn't hide the slight upturn of her lips: "So... my adorable little brother has long been my hero!"
"Ding-dong—"
The announcement that the tram was about to arrive at the station suddenly came on.
When Risa opened her eyes, she found Kirihara staring at her with wide, bewildered eyes and red ear tips.
"Idiot! Don't say things like that so bluntly!" the boy said, then covered his mouth shyly and turned his face away.
Awkward, yet unable to hide the joy.
......
When the tram stopped at the platform, Kirihara grabbed Risa's wrist and excitedly ran out.
"Risa-nee, there's a super delicious ramen shop around here! It's on me today!"
Before Risa could react, he pulled her out of the car.
The doors closed behind them, and the tram roared away, leaving them standing on the unfamiliar platform.
Half an hour later.
Risa looked around; the streets were deserted, not a soul in sight.
"Where is this?"
Kirihara scratched his head, looking confused. "That's strange, I remember it being this way."
Risa sighed and took her phone out of her bag: "Never mind, I'll do the navigation."
"Hey! I'm Rikkai's ace!" Kirihara muttered defiantly, "How could I possibly get lost..."
Five minutes later, they stood at the same intersection, looking at each other in bewilderment.
Risa: "......"
Kirihara: "..."
Risa sighed and looked at him helplessly: "Next time you get lost, I'll leash you like a dog."
"Heh~~ Matsuno-kun is quite experienced in taming wild animals?"
A clear, pleasant voice came from behind, carrying a hint of a smile.
Risa turned around to see Yukimura standing at the end of the path strewn with falling cherry blossoms. The twilight bathed him in a soft glow, and a slight smile played on his lips.
Memories flood back: the rooftop in the afternoon, the stinging eyes, the uncontrollable tears, and the handkerchief he handed me. The faint lavender scent on that handkerchief seems to linger in my nostrils now.
Risa paused, her fingertips slightly curling. But her professionalism allowed her to quickly regain perfect composure and maintain her composure.
"Ah, it's the Minister." Kirihara's exclamation broke the delicate atmosphere. He ruffled his messy curly hair. "What are you doing here?"
Yukimura's gaze swept lightly over Risa before returning to Kirihara: "Just passing by." He paused, then added, "You guys... got lost again?"
Upon hearing the word "again," Kirihara's ear tips instantly turned bright red.
"I'm not lost! I... I'm calculating the optimal route..."
Risa chuckled and reached out to ruffle the frizzy seaweed-like hair: "Yes, yes, how could our Rikkai's ace player make such a basic mistake as getting lost?"
"Risa-nee, what you're saying sounds like you're coaxing a child..." Kirihara puffed out his cheeks, but didn't dodge her gesture.
"Really?" Risa blinked, but caught a glimpse of Yukimura's slightly narrowed eyes out of the corner of her eye.
In those deep, purplish-blue eyes, a faint light shimmered that she couldn't decipher.
"By the way, Minister, I want to take Risa to that super delicious ramen place."
Kirihara waved his arms excitedly, enthusiastically inviting, "Want to come with us? That ramen shop's chashu is super—"
“Next time,” Yukimura interrupted gently, his gaze sweeping over Risa’s instantly tense profile. “I’m going to the nearby flower market later.”
"Just a heads-up," Yukimura raised his hand, his long fingers pointing southeast, "the 'Blue Willow' you're looking for should go in that direction and turn right at the second intersection."
His eyes curved into crescent moons, but his words were a devil's whisper: "If you continue down this street, you might end up at Kanagawa Port."
Kirihara's face instantly turned bright red: "I... I was going to go that way anyway."
Risa couldn't help but chuckle.
"Hmph!" Kirihara grumbled, grabbing Risa and trying to leave. "Risa-neechan, you're not allowed to laugh."
“Akaya,” Risa suddenly spoke up, “would you like to wait for me up ahead? I have some things to discuss with your Yukimura-senpai.”
Kirihara blinked in confusion, looked at Risa, and then at his own club president.
"Oh... okay."
Before leaving, she still couldn't shake the feeling of worry, adding, "Then, I'll wait for you at the convenience store. Risa-nee, hurry up, that store always has a long line during rush hour..."
As dusk settled, only Risa and Yukimura remained on the street.
Risa took out a neatly folded handkerchief from her uniform pocket.
"Here you go."
She handed over a handkerchief: "Thank you for lunch. I'm so sorry I got it dirty."
Yukimura lowered his eyes, his gaze lingering on the handkerchief for a moment. Finally, he reached out and took it.
"I'm leaving now."
Risa took a step and brushed past him.
"Matsuno-san."
The boy's voice made her stop in her tracks.
Risa slowly turned around, just as the streetlights turned on.
Yukimura stood at the edge of the halo, his composure replaced by a complex emotion.
"About this incident..."
He paused for a moment: "I'm sorry."
If he had come forward to clarify from the beginning, if he hadn't taken a wait-and-see approach and let the rumors fester...
"Yukimura-kun doesn't need to apologize."
Risa curved her lips into a smile—the kind of impeccable yet emotionless smile she had practiced a thousand times in front of the camera.
"This was originally my own business. On the contrary, I should be apologizing to you for dragging you into this."
Yukimura's pupils contracted slightly.
The evening breeze brushed the stray hairs by her ears. The person standing under the streetlight now was completely different from the girl with red-rimmed eyes during the day.
Her smile was flawless, just like the defensive barrier he had once erected against everyone.
-
Following the navigation, Risa quickly found the ramen shop hidden deep in the alley.
The warm yellow glow of the lanterns bathed the wooden signboard, and wisps of steam rose from behind the curtain.
Kirihara buried his head in his food and wolfed it down, oil from the pork bone soup sticking to the corners of his mouth.
"Risa-nee is amazing," he mumbled, puffing out his cheeks. "Those winding maps and routes made my head spin."
The rising steam cast a thin blush on his face, and his emerald eyes, like a cat's, were clear and bright.
Risa paused slightly in her grip on the chopsticks.
I remember my younger brother was the same way. He could solve the most difficult math problems, but he would always wander around aimlessly at the crossroads.
She took a tissue and gently wiped away the soy sauce stains from the corner of the boy's mouth.
"But Akagi is amazing on the tennis court. I can't understand those complicated spin shots at all."
"Hehe!" Kirihara's eyes lit up instantly, and he unconsciously straightened his back.
"Of course!" He waved his chopsticks, almost splashing soup onto his tracksuit. "I'm going to defeat the Rikkai Big Three and become the world's number one tennis player!"
Risa rested her elbows on the table, her palms supporting her chin as she chuckled. She gestured to the owner, who then added another portion of char siu to the nearly empty bowl of noodles.
"Go for it, future world number one!" Her voice was bathed in the warm yellow light as she watched the boy frantically catch the slipping soft-boiled egg.
really......
Such a pure, angelic smile...
It is the most effective way to heal the heart.
-
The Liu residence. Under the table lamp.
In Renji Yanagi's notebook, a new entry was added to the evaluation report on Risa Matsuno:
[Impact Assessment]: Personal conflict → Campus cleanup → Regional policy adjustment (?)
[Behavioral Pattern Analysis]: Seemingly a passive counterattack, but actually...
The phone vibrated at just the right moment.
Sanada initiated a call in the three-person group chat and reported in a deep voice: "The results of the joint decision by the Disciplinary Committee and the school have been released. Morita and Suzuki have both been suspended from school, and their support groups have been reorganized."
Liu Lian'er swiped through the data charts on her tablet and said, "On the surface, this matter seems to have subsided. But the public opinion I've been monitoring shows that the topic has spread to the district-level education forum."
Sanada's tone was grave: "We've been too lax! Isn't this going too far?"
“Sanada,” Yukimura interrupted softly, as if laughing, “Do you really think that Matsuno Risa pulled this stunt just to get Morita and Suzuki suspended from school?”
Sanada was taken aback.
Liu Lian'er seemed to understand: "She issued two statements in a row, which shows that she was determined to win from the beginning and had the decisive evidence. But she chose to release it at the best time, when the other party was most arrogant, when there were the most onlookers, and when the director was about to arrive for inspection. So she not only wanted to win, but also to win beautifully, to win in a way that no one could find fault with, and to intimidate everyone who wanted to mess with her."
Yukimura agreed.
Sanada: "If it were just to achieve this goal, she wouldn't need to go to such lengths."
“That’s what I’m also puzzled about,” Liu Lian’er said. “Why go through all this trouble? What are they trying to achieve?”
Instead of answering, Yukimura asked, "Renji, Sanada, have you ever heard of a saying?"
"What?" they both exclaimed in unison.
Yukimura: "A strategist enters the game himself, and with one move, he wins half a move against fate."
Renji Yanagi's pupils trembled slightly. Sanada remained silent on the other end of the phone.
Placing oneself at the center of the maelstrom is a way to build momentum. Every seemingly passive step is actually a way to lure the opponent into a trap. The final victory is no longer just about personal grudges; it's about rewriting the rules of the game.
"...Is that possible? She's just a high school girl..." Liu Lianji stopped halfway through his sentence. It might not be impossible, after all, he still hadn't figured her out.
Moreover, from her prior contact with Yagyu Hiroshi, instructing the Disciplinary Committee to secretly record events, to calculating the opportune moment to release information on the forum to attract students' attention, and finally provoking the other party to take action... everything was meticulously planned and executed. This woman's cunning and audacity are unfathomable.
Sanada still felt they were overthinking it: "Aren't you two overinterpreting things?"
Yukimura said leisurely, "When things first started to escalate, I asked Yagyu to help her out. Do you know what her response was at the time?"
"What?" came the unanimous exclamation once again.
Yukimura: "She said, 'The show has only just begun, mind your own business.'"
Liu Lian'er: "......"
Sanada: "..."
Liu Lian'er pondered, "If that's really the case, this person is definitely not simple. What should we do next?"
Yukimura smiled and said, "As long as it doesn't interfere with the tennis club, let's wait and see."
Liu's pen left a small ink dot on the paper. "But her way of doing things is like she's a completely different person compared to before..."
"Renji, humans are like tennis. The ball you think you've figured out might evolve into a completely new move the next second."
"Yukimura, you seem to pay special attention to her, even a bit protective of her." This wasn't a question, it was a statement.
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone, then Yukimura's chuckling voice came through: "Don't you think she's like an interesting math problem?"
Liu Lian'er remained silent.
He understood what Yukimura meant: the conditions were all there, but he just couldn't figure out the standard answer.
Sanada couldn't understand their cryptic conversation, so he left the chat.
Renji Yanagi and Yukimura exchanged a few words and then ended their conversation.
After hanging up the phone, Liu Lian'er looked back at her notebook.
He pondered for a moment and wrote down after "Behavioral Pattern Analysis":
What appears to be a passive counterattack is actually a leveraging of its own strengths and the rules to achieve macroeconomic effects far exceeding expectations. This demonstrates strategic depth.
[Conclusion]: Danger level: Unfathomable.
He closed the notebook, his brows furrowed slightly.
Matsuno Risa, did you do this unintentionally, or did you plan this all along?
-
A few days later, the official account of Rikkai University Affiliated High School released a strongly worded announcement.
Decision on Seriously Handling Cases of School Bullying and Online Defamation
The announcement not only detailed the disciplinary violations and punishments imposed on Misaki Morita and Yui Suzuki, but more importantly, it included supplementary explanations at the end:
[Follow-up Measures]
In light of the issues exposed by this incident, our school has proactively reported the situation to the Kanagawa Prefectural Board of Education and the Youth Internet Protection Center. The Prefectural Board of Education takes this matter very seriously and has decided:
1. A special working group was established to conduct a one-month special investigation and rectification of school bullying and cyberbullying in primary and secondary schools in the county.
2. Promote the "Lihai Incident" as a typical case and incorporate it into the legal education content for teachers and students in various districts and counties.
3. Strengthen the accountability mechanism and hold those responsible for failing to handle or conceal school bullying incidents accountable.
This announcement was like a boulder thrown into a calm lake, stirring up ripples far beyond the campus.
Classroom for Grade 2, Group A.
During a themed class meeting, the homeroom teacher held up a copy of the Kanagawa Shimbun, pointing to a prominent position on the front page: "Kanagawa Launches 'Clean Campus' Campaign; Rikkai University Affiliated High School Incident Draws Public Attention."
"Sanada-kun, as the class representative, please read this report to everyone."
Sanada rose and walked to the podium, took the newspaper, and began to read it aloud in his usual calm and clear tone:
"At a special meeting, a relevant official from the county education commission pointed out that the recent incident at Rikkai University Affiliated High School was handled promptly, openly, and fairly, demonstrating the school's determination to maintain a clean and hygienic campus. Particularly noteworthy is the rationality, awareness of evidence, and respect for rules shown by the victimized students, which provides a valuable model for handling similar incidents..."
All eyes involuntarily turned to the figure in the back row by the window.
Risa Matsuno was resting her chin on her hand, gazing at the cherry blossoms fluttering outside the window, seemingly oblivious to it all, or perhaps, completely indifferent.
But if someone could see her inner monologue above her head at this moment, they would surely notice tiny bubbles slowly rising to the surface:
[After making such a big fuss, no one should dare to mess with me anymore, right? (●'v'●)]
Hmm, looks like I can relax and lie down now. O(∩_∩)O
[Here comes my wonderful, laid-back high school life! o(*￣▽￣*)ブ]
A note from the author:
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That concludes our discussion on school bullying! A new chapter begins tomorrow!
Oh, and the paragraph comments are now open too. Welcome to join in! [cheering emoji]
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