Almost every night, Matsuo Ryohei would see those eyes appear in his dreams, hanging like the bright moon, looking down at him from above.
In his imagination, those eyes should be filled with resentment, anger, and fear.
But what he saw was just as transparent as that day, with everything clearly visible.
After Matsuo Ryohei confessed everything, it was as if a heavy burden had been lifted from his shoulders, and he suddenly slumped down.
The atmosphere remained silent for a while. Hasegawa Teru quietly glanced at Yoshida Yuta beside him, as if he hadn't expected that Yoshida was such a person in his previous life, while the latter seemed to have no idea what he was talking about.
The other monks remained silent. Matsuo Ryohei's gaze unconsciously swept among them, but he couldn't detect the slightest emotion in any of them, which made him uneasy.
“According to you, Yoshida Yuta’s death was just an unfortunate accident,” Yukimura Masashi concluded. “Given the circumstances, you, being just a child yourself, were unable to save him and had no choice but to escape the school building first.”
"Immediately afterwards, you asked the adults for help, but by the time they found Yoshida Yuta, the boy had already stopped breathing."
Ryohei Matsuo nodded: "If you don't believe me, you can go to the people who participated in the rescue back then. They can testify that what I said is true."
"I genuinely wanted to save Yuta..."
His eyelids drooped slightly, and he was about to get lost in his own emotions when he was abruptly interrupted by Yukimura Masashi.
"What else?"
"Wh-what?"
Ryohei Matsuo seemed not to have heard him clearly and repeated blankly.
Masashi Yukimura pressed his high nose bridge and explained patiently, "Before performing the exorcism, I thoroughly investigated everything about Yuta Yoshida, including all the reports from back then."
Ryohei Matsuo's face suddenly turned deathly pale.
"None of the reports mentioned that he saved you."
“The dead cannot speak, therefore… it can only be you who has never told anyone else about this.”
"If I'm not mistaken, today should be the first time you've recounted the whole story in detail."
"But these are only your side of the story."
As if she hadn't noticed the man's expression, Kii Kanade added with a smile.
"Why hide this?" he continued, picking up where Yukimura Masashi left off. "Is there some unspeakable secret? Or are you worried that the lies you told back then wouldn't hold water?"
"In the end, if your heart were truly so open, you wouldn't have come to the school building every night after hearing the rumors of the ghost, repeatedly checking 'Yoshida Yuta's' memories."
"Furthermore, I would never... commit such a cruel crime for this."
He pointed his folding fan at Hasegawa Teru, the crisp sound of the fan closing like the announcement of a gavel.
The most ridiculous thing is that the ghost in front of him is not the real Yoshida Yuta at all. He cannot tell the police the truth, nor will he take revenge on Matsuo Ryohei for what happened back then.
But the harm that Hasegawa Teru suffered was real.
Matsuo Ryohei, who trapped himself in his own web, couldn't be more foolish.
"You know in your heart that Yoshida Yuta died for you."
"Stop talking...stop talking!"
Matsuo Ryohei thought his voice was calm, but it actually exploded like a thunderclap, even startling himself.
The pain lingered in my heart, but my heart continued to beat strongly.
Bang, bang, bang.
“You have no idea…” he began breathlessly, “you rich people living in big cities have no idea about my situation!”
"Dusk Village is a closed and backward place. As long as there is something new, everyone will talk about it with great interest. Rumors will spread like wildfire to every corner."
“When I was still young, my parents divorced. I was given to my mother, who was struggling financially, instead of going to live in a big city with my father. I was forced to stay in this village and grow up.”
Hasegawa Teru was surprised to find a deep resentment in the man's eyes.
"Later, when I was in elementary school, my mother abandoned me and left, only sending money back home every month."
Do you know what they're all saying about my family?
“They said my dad left home because he had a new family in the city and didn’t want me and my mom anymore.”
“My mother has also gone to a big city. Although she is still sending money back, one day she will realize that I am a burden and abandon me to get a better life.”
"I am a child no one wants."
"Adults all tell their children not to play with me because I have no parents to guide me, I am of low character, I am despicable, I am a wicked child who deserves no redemption."
"Only Yuta... only he was unafraid of those rumors and stayed with me all this time."
"How could I possibly hurt him?!"
“But just as you suspected before,” he pointed at Kii Kanade, “what would everyone think of me if I told them the truth?”
"They'll say I killed Yuta!"
"Because that's just who I am, a selfish and petty person, beyond redemption."
"So...so..."
His breathing became rapid, and he tasted a salty, bitter liquid in his mouth—tears that had fallen sometime earlier.
"So I told them I didn't see Yuta."
"He came to find me... but we missed each other."
“Yuta is already dead, so… it’s only natural that the dead would sacrifice themselves for the living.”
Ryohei Matsuo, with a strength he didn't know he possessed, managed to sit up despite the pain in his body, and then knelt down in the direction of the ghost.
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