Chapter 34: Ishi Vs. the Students

The festival was now only one day away. Ishi believed most of the hard work leading to it was over as he returned to his classroom. However, the room was an outright mess as he walked in. Desks were turned about, papers scattered across the floor, and a whole lot of bags were opened and searched.

“What’s this all about?” He asked. Immediately, everyone turned to look at him with disheveled looks on their faces.

“We have a totally grade A emergency.” Ryugi rushed up to him and gave the boy a good shakedown. “The money we raised, it’s gone missing!” That really was trouble indeed. Also, he didn’t appreciate her saying the word, ‘we’, in this context. Most of the fundraising was thanks to the efforts of him and Rinse.

“That really is... A problem.” He said, still being physically shaken. “Now can you… Stop shaking me?” She did as he asked and let him go. Now that he wasn’t getting brain damage, the boy could try and properly think.

“We’ve turned up this entire room.” Said Fuma. “There’s no way it’s still in here.” The only thing yet to be searched at this point was Ishi’s desk, since the boy wasn’t here. Unfortunately a quick check there didn’t turn up any leads.

“Now where could it be?” Rinse thought out loud. “After we were finished, the two of us collected the envelopes and brought them here.” He recalled that was shortly after seeing Koto. Though that left them with a fairly large time period for it to disappear.

“Do you think that someone… Stole it?” It was a hefty accusation to pull out, but they couldn’t rule anything out as of yet. But to do something like that would be extreme. There was a lot of money in that envelope and all of it was needed for their set up. It was due to be paid by the end of the day, so time was of the essence for them all.

“I’m pretty sure we’re all accounted for.” Ryugi said, but she did think of someone. They all did, as the students slowly turned their gaze towards the boy who was last to be here. This wasn’t lost on Ishi, who defended himself quickly. “Except...”

“You guys can’t honestly think that I took the money.” He responded. There was not a single once of nervousness in his tone. No concern about being the one found guilty, as he knew for a fact that he was not the culprit. “You’re wasting your time on me.”

“Are we?” Ryugi asked. “Then where were you before you got here?” He would’ve normally answered this question. However, he was attending to something rather private that needed to be kept secret until it was time to reveal it.

“That’s my business. But don’t worry, it has nothing to do with our class.” That cast doubt among the classroom, with their glares turning much sharper in his direction. “Besides, there’s no motivation for me to do that.” His family was pretty well off, so it wasn’t a matter of being too desperate for cash. Not to mention that Ishi never wanted to spend money on anything.

“But you’re the one who hates the festival the most.” Someone brought up a point. Though he would say that hate was a strong word for his feelings towards the event. Apathy was the more accurate term for it, and he was reluctantly along for the ride.

“Yeah, you probably want to ruin all our fun and get us in trouble.”

“Or maybe you want to dodge the responsibility?” They were getting rather upset at him. They resembled more of a mob rather than his classmates. However, Ishi was unmoving in emotion. There was no fear as he combated them with words.

“You idiots, I was one of the people raising money.” He had a defense for everything they threw at him. “Don’t you think it’d be a waste of my time to pull something like this? Look, I’ve had a long day, so please I don’t want to spend more of it with you guys.”

“Don’t think you can just leave.” Rygi stopped him by grabbing his shoulder. “No one’s leaving until we find out who took the money.”

“Hey, let’s cool down here.” Rinse tried to calm the tension.

“Y-yeah… Please everyone…” Youna was unprepared for this to unfold. She had no power despite being the one who held the most among the class. “Don’t fight…”

“What makes you so certain someone stole the money?” He spoke up. “Perhaps it was simply lost, or misplaced?”

“Are you accusing me, or someone else of losing it?” Ryugi got right up close to his face. There was a staring contest between the pair, which only led to more tension among the classroom. Things would be hitting a boiling point if they didn’t find a way to cool down.

“I don’t make accusations without evidence.” He replied. “I’m only suggesting another route.” Some believed that this could be his way of covering his trail by taking them down the wrong road. Though even if what he was saying was correct, they’d have no way of beginning to track it down. “Unlike what you believed, I don’t want our final culture festival to fail either.”

“Come on now, let’s not start blaming each other.” Rinse took command of the class. “If we turn against each other, then it’s going to ruin everything.”

“Why are you so eager to defend Hirose?” Ryugi asked as she backed off the boy. “What makes him so special that you spend so much time with him?”

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“Defend him?” She got a bit nervous, a rarity coming from this girl. When she looked over to Ishi’s face, who had shown little emotion during this crisis, she remembered the day before during the encounter with Seyuki. He seemed more upset with it than now. What made now so different that he seemed more indifferent. Was it because of Koto, or was it something about the circumstances.

“She doesn’t need to defend me.” He spoke up for her. “I’m more than capable of taking care of myself.”

“It’s because he does care.” She blurted out the words without thinking. It caught them all by surprise, which led to a lot of questioning looks by her classmates. “Ishi’s trying his hardest too, just like everyone else here.” When he told her that people relied on him, she understood him just a little bit more. Even if his attitude didn’t show it, nor would he ever say it out loud. “People need him now, that means he won’t let them down.”

“Kind of cheesy when you say it out loud.” He was unmoved by her speech to the students. “I’m not a cliched person you know.” All he knew was that he was not the culprit. Perhaps no one was, but that wasn’t going to solve their problem with the missing cash.

“Sorry.” Ryugi was the first to apologize among the crowd. “She’s right, and I shouldn’t have called you a thief before we knew for sure it was stolen.”

“Well that’s great and all.” He was fine with the suspicion being thrown off of him, even if he wasn’t going to express any gratitude. However, that still left them with little time before the money needed to be turned in to rent the equipment. How were they to bring up the cash of 100,000 yen before it was too late. “How do you suggest we fix that?”

“I don’t know.” She responded disappointed in herself. Some self-appointed leader she turned out to be. Unless, there was still one final desperate plan in her mind. “What if we asked all of the students for some money?”

“I doubt anyone has cash on them now that it’s after school.” He poked a hole in the idea, but there were few options available to them. “But, if we asked every single person in this school, then they’d only need to contribute very little per person.”

“Then, we have to get started quickly.” Youna spoke up. That would’ve been their plan for the next hour were it not for the arrival of a certain adult figure in their lives. This being their teacher, who opened up the door.

“Hello everyone.” He greeted them, not even seeming surprised to see the mess the room was in.

“Teacher, the money’s gone missing.” Rinse informed him.

“You really didn’t even want to hide that fact?” Ishi was actually impressed she did that.

“No it hasn’t.” Their teacher responded. “It’s already been submitted to the teacher’s office and will be used to procure the equipment our classroom needs for the culture festival.” The entire class’s jaw’s dropped in response to his news.

“What, by who?” Ryugi asked.

“By me of course.” He laughed as they stared at him in disbelief. “I know it sounds harsh, but I was actually testing all of you.” Every year, some class would inevitably lose their money. Whether it was due to thief or being misplaced irresponsibly didn’t matter. The results were typically rather poor when it occurred, so he had made it a point to try and teach his students how to handle a tough situation like that.

“That’s not cool.” Ishi scolded the man. “Things could’ve gotten really serious here.” If the students had targeted someone other than himself, then this could’ve gotten really out of hand.

“I was always around to settle potential fights.” He responded. The man wasn’t concerned about something like that happening, especially not when these were his students. “You’re all going to be going into adulthood very soon, so you’ll all need to be able to handle crises like this in your future.” Their teacher then turned his attention to all of his students, sans Ishi. “And perhaps, learn to know when you’re in the wrong.” Upon being told that, everyone went right up to Ishi and apologized to the boy.

“All right, I forgive you.” He said so that they could get off his back. “Honestly, if you all come up at once, that’ll irritate me even more.” Still, he was glad that things turned out fine. This time around, they had passed the test.

This really had been a long day for him. So the boy was more than ready to leave the school grounds and return home. Rinse had one more day at work until she got it off for the festival, so they’d be separating once they left the school.

“I know you said you’re not looking forward to it, but I hope it’ll be a lot of fun for the both of us.” She said as they were about to bid farewell. “Even for you, you know.”

“Yeah, whatever.” He didn’t care as much about her gesture and began to walk away. However, there was one final thing left for him to say, as he stop his stride. “And by the way… Thanks.” He said, then continued on his walk. She looked at him now with his back turned to her and smiled.

“You’re welcome.”

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