Sports Day…?
Xiao Chun Miura narrowed her eyes. ‘The anonymous report letters… what do they have to do with Sports Day? Is it just the timing? What does it represent?’
She pursed her lips and asked softly, “Kanzaki, do you think there’s a connection between the appearance of the report letters and Sports Day?”
“Because looking at the content and locations of the reports, there’s no commonality. The locations where the reported students appeared are scattered across every corner of the city, and there’s no connection between the students themselves.”
‘Since there’s no commonality in the content, why would he think it’s related to Sports Day?’
Xiao Chun wanted to ask that, but the words stayed at the tip of her tongue.
It was hard to believe that someone as cautious and alert as Kanzaki Sou would jump to conclusions without solid reasoning — but because she couldn’t see the link between the report letters and Sports Day, Xiao Chun could only reserve judgment for now.
Perhaps sensing Xiao Chun’s skepticism, Kanzaki’s tone softened slightly.
“Miura, I hope you’ll let me explain why I think this way. As I said before, to verify the content of these letters, I specifically looked through the report records the Student Council has received since the last school year. The actual conclusion is that before Sports Day was held, the Student Council had never received similar, large-scale anonymous reports in electronic format. In fact, we rarely even saw written reports between students.”
” — Not even a single one?” Xiao Chun’s eyes widened in surprise. “Not even last school year?”
“I checked all the records; there wasn’t a single one,” Kanzaki answered firmly. “The time they began appearing in clusters was right after Sports Day ended.”
Xiao Chun fell silent.
” … So you mean, Kanzaki, that something we didn’t notice happened during Sports Day, and that’s what led to the current situation?” she asked tentatively after a moment.
But Kanzaki shook his head.
“Actually… I can’t find a concrete link between Sports Day itself and these report letters either. I only think so because the content of the reports is too scattered, and the only commonality is that the targets are all students from our school. So, based on the scale of the actions involved, I can only assume this matter has some sort of macro-level relationship with the school itself.”
He paused before continuing.
“In comparison, before the reports started exploding, the only major event that spanned the entire school and captured everyone’s energy and attention was that Sports Day. It was the only and most obvious turning point. That’s why I think it might be related to Sports Day.”
“I see…” Xiao Chun responded in a low voice.
“If we consider the recent abnormalities around the school, they also started right after Sports Day ended — “
Kanzaki was still explaining, but Xiao Chun’s thoughts had already drifted away.
Because of the topic just now, she thought of another possibility — one that Kanzaki could never consider.
There wasn’t another person in this world besides Xiao Chun who would consider such a possibility.
Because those who saw the world from her perspective… from her viewpoint, there was only her.
The girl lowered her head, her long hair falling over her cheeks and shielding her face from Kanzaki’s gaze.
To the Protagonist Kanzaki Sou, and indeed to everyone in this world, Sports Day was just a regular school activity in Academy life.
No one would think a sports event represented some vital secret or determined anything related to the truth of the world.
But Xiao Chun knew truths that no one else in this world, including Kanzaki, could ever understand.
— This was a world that changed based on Kanzaki Sou’s actions. And during Sports Day, Kanzaki’s actions had undergone a very clear change.
‘… Is it because of me?’
This thought was like a thin silver needle, precisely piercing the depths of her consciousness and bringing a dense, shivering pain.
In the original Game Script, Sports Day was a crucial turning point for the relationship between Kanzaki Sou and Haruka Kondo; it was the key Plot Trigger for her to establish her dominant position as the Childhood Friend.
However, to survive in this crumbling world and prevent herself from being kicked out as a Background Character, she had interfered heavily during Sports Day.
Ultimately, she had prevented Kanzaki from taking the next step in his relationship with Haruka Kondo during that time.
After that successful interference, the System had told her that the world had become distorted as a result, warning her to be cautious for a while.
At the time, she was just relieved she had saved her own life.
But now, after hearing Kanzaki say that the anonymous report letters began appearing after Sports Day ended, a terrifying thought occurred to her.
‘What if… this malice directed at Arisa Kiyono is actually a chain reaction caused by my interference with the Sports Day plot?’
Though absurd, it truly explained the current problems.
Because the Main Route of Sports Day had deviated, the world became distorted, and the subsequent plot began to collapse.
Was all of this… because she had ruined the original outcome of that event?
Xiao Chun felt a deep sense of exhaustion. While trying to save herself, she had unintentionally pressed the fast-forward button on the world’s collapse.
And the Kanzaki Sou in front of her was still painstakingly searching for so-called clues and connections.
He was working hard to protect his classmates and was anxious about the peace of the school, completely unaware that all this malice he faced actually originated from the seemingly weak, helpless, and inexplicably silent girl before him.
From Kanzaki’s perspective, Xiao Chun had simply fallen into a silence of her own after hearing this massive truth.
— She couldn’t explain it either. There were too many things she couldn’t clarify to him.
“Miura?” Kanzaki’s voice rang out again, tinged with worry and inquiry. “Are you scared? Sorry, I didn’t mean to burden you.”
Xiao Chun slowly raised her head. Her face was indeed pale, and her eyes held an unease that Kanzaki could recognize.
But it was different from what he guessed; it wasn’t just simple fear, but a frantic anxiety born from the sense of helplessness growing in her heart after seeing through destiny’s tricks.
— Now that the distortion had happened, and Arisa Kiyono was caught in it, did she have any choice other than to keep walking down this path of collapse?