Vol 5 Epilogue (2/2)

“I had a feeling…” said Satoshi+ “I had a feeling that that was the case I’ than you are, but even if we overlooked everything during this Hoshi+gaya Cup, I doubt things would be able to go back to the way they were If this is unrelated to school, there’s nothing we can do about it after all”

Thinking back on it, Satoshi+ had told ht after the race had started Make sure I don’t take it all on

“How did you know?”

He relaxed his shoulders while still dexterously holding onto the mountain bike’s handlebar

“No real reason I was just thinking that nothing really happens to anyone on caht after they enter school Additionally, we kept seeing Ōhinata off-campus as well”

He then looked forward and continued

“Above all, we’re students We can’t extend our reach beyond the school There was nothing we could’ve done from the start, Hōtarō”

Was that really the case?

In reality, what Satoshi+ was saying was true When ere inwe could see Now that ere in high school, we couldn’t do anything beyond Kah

But was that really, truly the case? If ere to lead our high school lives without a hitch, ould coh School If ere to dutifully continue this for six more years, ould eventually leave the place called school altogether If we continued to think that we couldn’t extend our reach beyond school during this entire duration, ould be suddenly thrusted out into an unknoasteland, bewildered as the sun started to set

He was probably wrong

Just like Chitanda had already carried out various dealings in society, just likethe world, you should be able to extend your reach anywhere The only thing inhibiting that hether or not you had the will to do it

As an energy-conserving advocate, I didn’t possess this will of course At this moment, however, the s sedimented in the bottommost depths of my heart

Chitanda had told , she wanted me to help her I told her that I would In the end, however, I couldn’t do anything

I could make any number of excuses Above all was the fact that after I cleared up thebetween the further than that would just be unnecessaryon my part

But what if when I said, “I would just be et involved,” I was actually thinking “Talking about those kinds of things is a pain, so I don’t want to get involved” instead? Rather than it being an issue of whether or not I could even do anything to help, wasn’t I si her?

…I was so incredible tired My thoughts wouldn’t co to Satoshi+ as he tried to consolearound in my head at the time

“Satoshi+ Do you recall hearing the name ‘Sonoko Sōda’ before?”

I ended upit far too quietly however

“What’d you say?”

“…No, it’s nothing”

No matter how ht to light, I felt that there had to have been inciting incident, aChitanda in the first place For exa that friend’s name

Thinking about it like this, I could only re which Chitanda had clearly said a name in front of Ōhinata; it hen she referenced “Sōda” while talking about finding ies Hadn’t Ōhinata started to fear Chitanda from the moment she mentioned she was an acquaintance of Sōda’s?

Without that first naht that it was siuous fa with her earlier, Ōhinata referenced her “friend” using “sonoko” only once, correcting it to “anoko” quickly after[2] Couldn’t it have sounded similar to her friend’s name and thus inspired the fear from then on?

It was si concrete, so I’d have to confirm it with Chitanda And yet, if I didn’t have the resolve to try and save Ōhinata, I probably didn’t even have the right to ask her in the first place

As we approached the edge of the shrine gate beneath the massive tori, Satoshi+ climbed on top of his mountain bike once more

“From here on, it’s an official school event Make sure you run properly”

I nodded and saw hiradually picked up speed froaya Cup course All of the second-years were probably already at the finish line as I could only see first-years in front of and behind ō Hospital Beyond it, I should begin to be able to see Kah School

I turned back following a gust of wind, but as I looked across the group of suffering first-years, I couldn’t find that s, suntanned face As for how far back she was, there was no longer any way anyone could approximate that now

Translator's Notes and References

Juinal idiom is “the paper walls have eyes”

Jump up↑ Sonoko and anoko both mean “that person,” but they also sound soirl’s first name