#59 Information

"Tch" Yuichi clicked his tongue and ran after Sakura which slightly surprised Horikita.

'She knows something for sure...Iwamura also admitted that he is an eyewitness but he didn't say anything regarding the event itself.' Horikita thought, watching Yuichi's back with a suspicious look.

'I should have anticipated that someone like Horikita will go try to talk to Sakura without a care in the world. She probably thinks that I was the one who told Horikita, due to my connection to her.' Yuichi thought with a slightly irritated expression while running after Sakura.

He was slightly afraid to lose points for running in the hallways so he occasionally slowed down when he noticed CCTV. Yuichi thought for a bit where she could go before an idea hit him.

Yuichi made his way towards the roof where he finally found Sakura.

"Sakura-san, I haven't told anyone." Yuichi called out and said with a serious expression.

"...Iwamura-kun?" Sakura didn't really respond to his words as he anticipated and instead, he saw her glance at him briefly before checking her digital camera with a worried look.

"...Is it perhaps broken?" He approached her and asked in a low voice.

"...It doesn't want to turn on." Sakura replied with a sad tone.

"...If you want, I can pay for the repair, after all, I am slightly at fault." Yuichi said with an apologetic smile. He had a pretty good idea of how she must feel right now, he knows how much she enjoys taking pictures, if something similar happened to his equipment for basketball, he would be visibly upset too.

"Huh? How so?" She asked with a confused expression, remembering how he just told her that he never said anything to anyone about her being an eyewitness.

"Look, I have never said anything to anyone about you but I and Ayanokoji just convinced Horikita to help Sudo and she was already suspicious of you due to your mannerism when Chabashira-sensei asked for eyewitnesses and now that you ran away, she is confident that you are hiding something. I should have anticipated that Horikita will go confront you about that, for that, I apologize. I can pay for the repair of your camera since I still have a lot of points left." Yuichi explained.

"I-I see...No, thank you for the offer but I still have a warranty..." Sakura said but it looked like she wanted to say more, making Yuichi slightly tilt his head to the side.

"I-I have never suspected that Iwamura-kun broke his word..." Sakura said while glancing sideways in a nervous manner.

"Why is that so?" Yuichi asked with a genuine confused expression.

"Eh...I mean...Iwamura-kun doesn't seem like the type of person who would break his word" Sakura-san said politely with a nervous expression.

"Even so...I am still at fault so at least let me be the one who goes to the store and solves the problem with your camera." Yuichi said with an apologetic smile while extending his hand in an inviting manner but not too forcefully.

"Ah! You don't have to, really! But...if you can accompany me to the store, it would be good, that is only if you don't mind..." She panicked a bit while waving her hands in front of her before she asked with a really nervous expression while looking to the side as if she was afraid to meet Yuichi's eyes.

'Tsk, I guess she won't give it to me, well, at least I tried' Yuichi thought that if he could convince her to give her broken camera to him, he might be able to find some kind of evidence in its memory card before going to change it to the shop.

"Of course I don't mind, after all, I was the one who offered to go even alone. Would you like to invite anyone else?" Yuichi quickly replied with a smile before asking her.

"Eh...I am not really great with the groups but perhaps I wouldn't mind one more person, however, I don't really have anyone in mind who would go with me..." She replied slightly in a timid manner.

'I guess another girl's presence would be good for her not to panic too much however she doesn't have any friends in our class...Maybe Mei can go with us...she is kind of timid and shy too so they might understand each other.' Yuichi thought and decided to ask.

"Would you be fine with Mei-san's presence?" Yuichi asked with a curious expression while holding his chin.

"Hmm...I-I think yes, I am sorry for trouble" Sakura thought for a while, probably remembering who Mei was because Yuichi used her first name out of habit before she replied and lightly bowed her head.

"Really, don't worry about it. We can go this weekend if that's all right with you." Yuichi suggested and Sakura just nodded her head in response.

Yuichi also gave her his number in case the plans would change and also because he needs to contact Mei and ask her first but hopefully she will do it for him. At worst scenario, he can promise her to take her for clothes shopping, in case she already has plans for this weekend.

He watched as Sakura left the roof with a visibly better mood before he took his phone out of the pocket and contacted Mei regarding this matter. Mei was visibly confused about why would they go with Sakura when she never saw her talking with Yuichi but she still agreed when Yuichi explained in more detail.

[Iwamura-kun, I have finally gathered all information I could. Would you like to meet up after school? I also have some other matters to discuss with you.]

Yuichi received a new message while he was about to leave the roof to return back to the classroom and noticed it was Ichinose. The way she formed the sentences showed that she was already aware of the entire case as Chabashira-sensei told Yuichi's class that they will inform everyone about this incident just to look for eyewitnesses.

[Sure thing, thank you for letting me know, where would you like to meet up?] Yuichi replied while slowly descending the stairs.

Ichinose replied that it's nothing and any place would do but they can remain inside the school building if he wants to.

After Yuichi returned to the classroom, Ayanokoji asked what was it about and if everything is alright while Horikita leaned closer to them to clearly hear them.

"Everything is alright, I guess Sakura-san just panicked a bit, she isn't hurt at all." Yuichi explained and Ayanokoji just nodded his head while Horikita looked like she wanted to hear more.

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After classes ended for the day, Yuichi met up with Ichinose and she handed to him a small stack of papers.

"That's all I could gather, I hope it will be enough." Ichinose said with a bright smile that would make anyone's day immediately much better.

"Hm...That's actually a lot...How much did it cost you?" Yuichi muttered while reading information gathered by Ichinose however only after he asked, he noticed that he slipped up.

"Huh? How do you know that I used points to buy these?" Ichinose asked with a surprised expression.

'Crap, I messed up.' Yuichi admitted that he let down his guard too much around this girl despite this being only their 3rd or whatever meeting.

"Eh? Well, you know, information always comes with the price unless it is your friend who had all of those details, isn't that so?" Yuichi said with a silly smile while scratching the back of his head awkwardly.

"Hmm, I see! Only a few thousand, nothing serious." Ichinose replied with the same smile but it was hard to imagine what she was thinking behind it.

"I can pay you back, I didn't do anything serious for you to spend your points for me" Yuichi said while taking out his cell phone, he didn't want to be in debt or anything.

"Not at all, it was really nothing! Plus I am also helping you because Kushida-chan is my friend so don't worry about it. However, I still have something to tell you, a warning if you can call it so." Ichinose waved her both hands in front of her to stop Yuichi and make him put his phone away.

"All right, what is it?" Yuichi closed his eyes and put his phone away before opening them again and asking her to get straight to the point with her warning.

"The one who is behind all of this...I think this is all just Ryuen-kun's plan, he has also involved our class in his some kind of conspiracy once before. Iwamura-kun, you should be careful around him." Ichinose warned him with a worried look.

"Ryuen? Got you, I will do my best to remember your warning. Thank you for your help, Ichinose-san, you have helped our class a lot." Yuichi muttered with closed eyes before he opened them and calmly thanked her for her help.

"As I said before, it was nothing, I am glad I could be of help, see you later Iwamura-kun!" Ichinose said before running off, waving back to Yuichi on her way.

Yuichi waved back at her before he also turned around and started walking through the school's hallways with his hand in his pockets. He stopped walking and glanced from the windows at the peacefully setting sun with slightly cold eyes.

'So they are just puppets? How disappointing...' Yuichi thought with a disappointed expression.

Once you cut off the puppets' strings connecting them to their puppeteer, they become completely useless, unable to make a move.

'What a beautiful sunset.' Yuichi thought while observing the sunset and unintentionally his mouth curled up.