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The Truth Revealed
The next morning, we find Yankumi walking through a housing project. She briefly stops in front of a mailbox. The name Kazama is written on it. Clearly Ren’s family is not wealthy and he’s probably a student at Akadou Academy because no public school would accept him. Compulsory education ends in the final year of junior high school, at around 15-years-old.
Ren opens the door and Yankumi cheerfully says good morning. He doesn't utter a word and tries to close the door, but she catches it and tells him she has something to tell him. He’s not interested. She wants to know the truth. Given that she’s at his home at the crack of dawn, he accurately surmises that he can trust her to a point.
The next time we see them, they’re walking along the banks of the river. He’s several strides in front of her and has his hands in his pockets. She tells him that someone claims they saw him the night of the incident. She asks if it’s true. Was he in the vicinity? He stops walking and she begs him to tell her the truth because she wants to hear everything from his lips.
Grimacing, he remains silent. She pushes him. “You won’t tell me?”
Loudly, he admits he was there. She closes the gap between them and demands to know why he lied and said he was at home.
He has a question for her. “Would you have believed me if I’d told the truth?” She doesn’t answer. It’s just as well because he’s not done. “Just being there would have been enough for them to label me the criminal! It’s always like that. When something happens, I’m always the first one treated like a criminal! When the book fees were stolen in elementary school and when a classmate lost his wallet in middle school, I was always the first suspect. No matter how many times I denied it, no one believed me.”
Yankumi calls his name because she feels his pain. As she suspected, he’s just a hurt little boy in a grown man’s body. “You truly…didn’t do anything?” He insists he didn’t do anything and as she stares into his eyes, he admits that he was in the vicinity that night, but that’s all. He walks away.
She calls out again and says she believe him. He stops in his tracks. He didn’t see that coming. “No matter what the other teachers or the police say, I believe you.” He can’t believe she isn’t going to bust him. She says she’s his homeroom teacher and she isn’t going to sell him out. Instead, she thanks him for telling her the truth and restoring her faith in teaching, in students and in education. He’s still somewhat skeptical of her motives, but he accepts it for now.
She stuns him further by saying they should find for the real culprit. She asks if he saw anyone suspicious and Ren says he didn’t see anything. She’s willing to listen to anything he remembers. In frustration, he tries to reiterate his point when something hits him. She presses him. Ren says he collided with a guy. He was pissed and ran after him, but the guy got away. Yankumi is thrilled. Now they have a lead. She makes him tell her everything he remembers.
Page 1 - Hell is an
Page 2 - The Return of Yamaguchi Kumiko
Page 4 - Don’t Turn Your Back on Them
Page 6 - Cheers, Crime and Boyz on the Loose
Page 8 - Misconduct, Punishment and a Lie
Page 12 - The Fight to Save an Innocent
Page 13 - Redemption: A Leader is Born
Page 14 - To Protect What is Important