Just as it felt like I was out of options, Reona — who had been absent until now — walked back into the classroom.
“Huh? Everyone’s looking grim. What happened?”
“Reona, listen — Yagami stole my wallet.”
“What — Ryouya-kun? I can’t imagine him doing that.”
That was Reona’s response to Shirogane-san, who launched right back in, still keyed up.
“But circumstantially he’s the only one it could be.”
”…A question, though: Misuzu, are you sure you were robbed? Maybe you put it somewhere different from usual.”
“There’s no way I—!?”
Shirogane-san, looking unconvinced, started patting at her belongings — and the second she opened her hand-purse, she froze.
”…It’s here.”
“See? Exactly like I said.”
Shirogane-san’s face went rapidly through a sequence of unfortunate colors. Thanks to Reona, the misunderstanding had evaporated and my innocence was clear. Case closed — except Reona kept going.
“So — let me actually ask: why was everyone so quick to railroad Ryouya-kun as the criminal?”
Reona was radiating an intense pressure across the entire classroom, and no one was answering. The whole class had a deer-staring-at-an-oncoming-truck quality.
“If no one’s going to answer, I’ll answer for you. It’s because you didn’t like seeing Ryouya-kun being friendly with me and Riona — that’s it, right?”
A subset of my classmates visibly flinched. Direct hit.
“Since we’re already here — I’ll tell you the part you don’t know. The reason Riona and I started being friendly with Ryouya-kun is that he risked his life to save us from being murdered by a man with a knife.”
“Wait, what — seriously?!”
Reona ignored the murmur that ran through the class and kept going.
“So Riona and I owe him our lives, and we are infinitely grateful. If, going forward, anyone tries to put Ryouya-kun on trial like this again… I will make sure they see hell.”
The Reona who said that was emitting pressure on a level that bordered on the supernatural — closer to demonic warrior than high schooler. Homeroom at the end of the day had the energy of a funeral wake, and our homeroom teacher, who had no idea what had happened, was visibly bewildered. Needless to say.