The confession - Dead Logic

Shuhi finished explaining everything they had discovered at Haruto's last known location. She described the empty road, the complete absence of physical evidence and the conclusion she and Akari had reached after examining every possible explanation they could think of. The more she spoke, the heavier the atmosphere in the room became. Haruto had disappeared while infiltrating a police operation, and if their suspicion was correct, the organization had somehow intervened before taking control of the entire situation.

They still didn't know exactly what had happened to the police officers or where Haruto had been taken, but one thing had become increasingly difficult to deny. The chances were high that the organization had found him.

Rina listened without interrupting, sitting near the unconscious police officer they had hidden inside Shuhi's room. When Shuhi finally finished, Rina remained silent for a few seconds before looking at her.

She reminded Shuhi of the horrifying situation Haruto could be in if he was really under the organization's control. She also raised her voice on the importance of returning to the organization asap.

Then Shuhi remembered about one last thing. To solve Hiroshi's problem. She had been thinking about it ever since they decided to leave the organization-related matter aside for the moment, but the problem remained far more complicated than she wanted to admit. She had destroyed Hiroshi's reputation herself, and although she had done it for a reason, that did not change the fact that an innocent person had suffered because of her manipulation.

"I want to fix it," she answered, "Hiroshi didn't deserve what happened to him. I was the one who created that situation, so I'm going to be the one who repairs it."

Rina tilted her head and studied Shuhi's expression,

"Do you have an idea?"

Shuhi looked away for a moment, thinking through several possibilities before finally shaking her head. "Can't think of any…"

Rina's lips curved into a small smile. "Then you're in luck. I have the perfect idea."

The following morning began like any other school day, at least from the outside. Students walked through the school gates carrying their usual bags, talking about homework, examinations and whatever else occupied the minds of ordinary teenagers. Among them were Shuhi, Akari and Rina, but their preparations had been anything but ordinary. Before leaving the house, the three of them had carefully emptied their school bags. Their textbooks, notebooks and other belongings had all been removed, leaving the bags almost completely empty.

They would borrow whatever books they needed from classmates and somehow make it through the first period without attracting attention. Their real objective would begin before the second period started, and everything they did before that moment was simply preparation.

Shuhi sat quietly at her desk while the class continued around her. She listened to the teacher, occasionally borrowed a textbook from another student and behaved as normally as possible, but her attention was never completely on the lesson. She knew what was coming. The strategy had been discussed and divided into separate stages, and there was very little room for improvisation. Still, one particular part required something that no ordinary disguise could provide. She needed to become someone else.

Inside her mind, the familiar prison stood beneath an endless darkness. Its iron walls were enormous, disappearing into a space that seemed to have no ceiling. Behind one of the bars stood another Shuhi, the personality she had constructed over years of psychological conditioning and survival. She stared at the version of herself standing outside the prison, her expression remaining calm even as she prepared to alter her own emotional state.

"I need someone emotionally weaker," the free Shuhi said quietly. "Someone who can break down naturally. Someone who can become frightened, cry and hesitate without making it look like an act."

As soon as she finished speaking, countless tiny white particles began drifting through the darkness. At first they resembled dust floating through the air, but when Shuhi focused on them, she realized that every individual particle contained a letter, a tiny fragment of information. Thousands became millions as they poured into the empty space, surrounding a slowly forming human figure. The information began assembling itself into behavior, personality traits, emotional responses, memories and speech patterns. The new version of Shuhi gradually took shape, almost identical to the original yet fundamentally different in the way she carried herself. Her eyes looked softer, her posture less confident and her emotional responses far more vulnerable. The original Shuhi watched the process with clinical attention, observing how every small piece of information was being assigned to the personality she needed.

When the construction was complete, a new prison cell appeared beside the first one. The current in charge Shuhi stepped inside. The iron bars closed around her, and the lock clicked into place. Outside remained the newly created personality, carrying the memories and behavioral patterns required for the role. For the next several minutes, that was the Shuhi who would exist in the outside world.

The bell eventually rang, signaling the end of the first period. Students began shifting in their seats and talking among themselves after the teacher left. Shuhi remained still for a few moments before slowly standing. Her fingers trembled slightly as she looked toward the rest of the class, and several students immediately noticed that something was wrong.

"I have something to confess," she said quietly. Her voice was so fragile that the nearby conversations gradually disappeared. She lowered her head, took a shaky breath and then suddenly covered her face with both hands. "I was wrong!" she cried before breaking down completely.

The reaction was immediate. Several students rushed toward her desk, asking what had happened and whether she was alright. Two girls gently held her by the arms and helped her sit down while others stood around them with confused expressions. Shuhi continued crying, taking several attempts before she could force the words out. "The previous president... Hiroshi-senpai... was innocent!"

The classroom immediately filled with whispers. Students looked at one another, trying to understand what she could possibly mean. Someone asked what had happened, while another wondered whether she had discovered something about the incident that had previously gone unnoticed.

Shuhi wiped her tears but couldn't stop her hands from trembling. "I was being blackmailed,"

she finally managed to say.

"Someone forced me to frame Hiroshi-senpai."

The students became even more attentive. One of the girls holding her asked who had threatened her, and Shuhi hesitated before answering in a broken voice. "It was a student named Akari. He told me that if I refused to do what he wanted, he would leak my personal pictures to the school."

Shock spread through the classroom almost immediately. Several students reacted with disgust, while others began asking who this Akari was and whether he was really a student at their school.

Shuhi continued before anyone could organize their thoughts. "Little did I know that Hiroshi-senpai was being threatened too. I found out that he used to have a problem with gambling, and Akari used that against him as well. When we crossed paths in the old building, I thought Hiroshi-senpai was attacking me because he wanted to, but that wasn't the truth. Akari had been controlling both of us." She lowered her head again, allowing tears to run down her face. "In reality, Akari was the one who made him hurt me. I was too scared to say anything because I thought he would release those pictures. But I've had enough. I can't keep living like this anymore!"

The classroom erupted. "Who is this Akari?" someone demanded, while another student immediately answered that he was a first-year student. Several students began moving toward the door, apparently intending to find him themselves.

In the middle of the chaos, Shinichi remained at his desk with his phone held discreetly in front of him. He had recorded the entire confession, and the moment Shuhi finished speaking, he stopped the recording and immediately sent the video into the school's online groups.

The effect was almost instantaneous. In one of the first-year classrooms, a student received the video and watched it with widening eyes. When he finished, he immediately turned toward the boy sitting beside him. "Akari, is this about you?" he asked.

Akari looked at the screen and watched Shuhi's confession. He remained silent as the other students gradually noticed the video as well. Whispers spread throughout the classroom, followed by accusations.

Someone demanded to know whether he had really blackmailed Shuhi, while another student asked what kind of person would threaten someone with private photographs. Akari slowly backed away from the growing crowd until his back nearly touched the door.

For a few seconds, he said nothing. Then his expression changed completely.

"Yeah, I did it," he shouted, "You got a problem with that?"

The classroom immediately became hostile. Several students moved toward him, shouting questions and insults while Akari stepped backward. He realized that remaining there would make the situation impossible to control, so he suddenly turned around, opened the door and ran into the corridor. "Get him!" someone shouted, and the students immediately chased after him.

The commotion spread throughout the school like a spark running through dry grass. Doors opened as students looked into the corridor to see what was happening, and once they heard that Akari had supposedly blackmailed Shuhi and manipulated Hiroshi, more students tried to catch him.

Akari ran through the corridor and took the stairs upward while students and eventually several teachers followed behind him. He continued climbing until he reached the rooftop, pushed the door open and stepped outside. By the time the students and teachers reached the rooftop entrance, Akari was already standing behind the railing.

"Don't come near me!" he shouted.

The teachers immediately stopped. One of them raised both hands, trying to calm him down.

"Akari, listen to us. Step away from the railing and we'll talk about this."

Akari shook his head violently. "I said don't come near me!"

He turned toward the edge, leaving himself with nothing between his feet and the drop below. The students behind the teachers began whispering nervously, while a few had already taken out their phones and started recording the scene.

Akari stared toward the school grounds below. "I hated that jerk," he said, his voice filled with bitterness.

"Hiroshi. Everyone thought he was perfect. The model student, the student council president, the person everyone admired. I envied him."

He turned slightly toward the teachers. "So I decided to destroy him. I was the one blackmailing him. I was the one who made him hurt that student. I did all of it."

A teacher carefully took one step forward. "Akari, please don't do this. Whatever you've done, you can still explain it." Akari immediately shouted for him to stop.

Then his foot slipped.

For a moment, his body tilted dangerously backward. The teachers instinctively rushed toward him, but Akari desperately tried to regain his balance. His arms moved frantically before he fell.

A collective scream came from the students. Several teachers reached the railing and looked down, only to freeze at what they saw. Akari was lying motionless on the ground below, face downward, with blood spreading around his body.

The scene immediately became chaotic. Some students screamed while others backed away from the railing in horror. One student dropped to his knees, unable to process what he had just witnessed, while another turned away and threw up.

The teachers tried to keep everyone away from the edge and called emergency services. At that time, a police van arrived at the school, and two officers quickly stepped out before rushing toward the area. They pushed the students and teachers back and established a perimeter around the body.

One officer crouched beside Akari and checked his pulse. After several seconds, he slowly stood and shook his head. "He's no more." The second officer opened the back of the van and brought out a stretcher. Together, they carefully placed Akari's body onto it and carried him toward the vehicle while the surrounding crowd watched in stunned silence.

One officer entered the driver's seat while the other climbed into the rear compartment with the body. The doors closed, and the police van pulled away from the school.

Only after the vehicle had traveled far enough from the school did the two officers finally remove their hats.

"Bravo!" Rina exclaimed.

Shuhi released a long breath and looked toward Akari.

"All thanks to you, really."

Akari, who had been lying motionless only moments earlier, suddenly sat upright on the stretcher and wiped the fake blood from his face with a towel.

"Hey, girls, was my acting good?" he asked while examining the blood smeared across his clothes. Shuhi couldn't help but laugh.

"It was top notch. Honestly, I think you should become a movie actor."

Akari looked pleased with himself. "You really think so? Sadly, I don't have either the opportunity or the desire to become one."

Rina nodded in agreement. "You did great."

Shuhi looked toward the van's windows and then back at him.

"Now quickly, we need to get somewhere less crowded. We stole this van, so we'd rather not get caught before we've finished everything."

Akari nodded, but Rina suddenly looked toward him with an amused expression. "Yeah, all that's fine, but what about knocking out two more police officers? Thank Gosh you made that drug."

Akari wiped another patch of fake blood from his cheek and sighed. "Let's just get out of here first."

The stolen police van continued down the road, carrying three teenagers who had just manufactured an entire suicide in front of a school full of witnesses. To everyone left behind, Akari was dead, his confession had been recorded, and the mystery surrounding Hiroshi had seemingly been solved.

But inside the moving van, the three of them knew the truth. Akari's death had never been real. It was simply the final disappearance of his identity as a student, leaving behind a story that would be almost impossible for anyone to connect back to them. And with that, Rina's plan had begun to erase the damage Shuhi had created.

Chapter 59 - The confession