Chapter 196
AN: This time too, why did it become like this…… Bu, but, well, I think that it’s fine if there is at least one of this kind of troublesome person isn’t iiit.
Sporadically growing weeds, old stone walls, and a blue sky that looked discolored were spread out. Things other than those which entered the field of vision were only the laundry stand, a rusty drum can with uncertain usefulness, and also the granny bike with a punctured tire leaned listlessly on the stone wall.
(Nothing has changed other than Okaa-san’s bicycle huuh~)
On the porch, with the cry of cicadas and the refreshing sound of the wind chime as BGM, the one who was kicking her legs back and forth while staring into nothing in a daze ‘bohee~’ was the eldest daughter of this household――Hatayama Aiko.
That day, Aiko, who had managed to return from another world, received interrogations not just from police and mass media, but also by school officials and government officials that spanned many days. After all, she was the only adult among the group disappearance. Even if the students were talking about fantastical stories they had experienced, the ratio of sympathy toward them was high, but for Aiko who was a working adult, she was seen with a sterner gaze by the society.
Having said that, all of them had talked about it beforehand and the conclusion that they reached was to talk about the events in the other world Tortus as it was without changing anything; also, Aiko herself didn’t have the confidence that she could fabricate “a really convincing story” that could convince the surrounding. So in the end, she could only give an explanation with content that was the same as what the students were talking about, which made her feel really ashamed as a working adult.
Naturally, in regard to her inability to bring back some of her students and how the students became obsessed with “wild delusions”, even though in reality those weren’t Aiko’s responsibility at all, but a flow which was pressing the responsibility to Aiko was starting to appear.
That flow was powerful. Furthermore, even idiotic opinions which said that perhaps the disappearance itself was actually the full responsibility of Aiko was also beginning to appear.
It was an incident with too many mysteries. The culprit was unknown. Some students didn’t return. The returnee’s wild delusions. Because all these affairs wouldn’t settle down without someone taking responsibility, a scapegoat so to speak, it was Aiko who was chosen to hold that role.