Cardfight!! Vanguard: Generations Volume 3 [Alice Secret]

- Part 2

Wednesday, 10th June.

During homeroom, I was working on making questions with Matsushita and Sakigamiya as usual.

Just like yesterday, Kawaguchi got up to leave.

"Kawaguchi-san, wait!"

Tadokoro got up to run after him hurriedly, but Taiga stopped her while shaking her head.

"I know you want to help him, but it's no use. You know what he said to us."

Apparently, when Tadokoro and Taiga went to check if Kawaguchi was okay yesterday, he told them to leave him alone and swatted them away like flies.

"But this isn't right... Kawaguchi-san isn't usually like this. I want to help him!"

"He's still finding his own way to deal with things. Let's be patient. When he feels better, he'll tell us."

Even though Tadokoro was adamant about saving Kawaguchi from losing himself deeper, Taiga gently told her to back down since it was his wish to be left alone.

"Will he...?"

Tadokoro had her doubts on whether or not the Kawaguchi she used to know would return.

"Poor Tadokoro-san... she's trying so hard for him. Bless her."

Sakigamiya said as she watched what happened. Matsushita nodded in agreement.

"It's a good thing we put her in Taiga-san's group. Without her, I feel like she'd lose focus on what matters right now."

Matsushita was right. While it was good to help out others, it couldn't be at her own expense. If Tadokoro kept chasing after Kawaguchi, she wouldn't have any time to focus on herself.

"With the way Kawaguchi-san's acting right now, he's basically become the new Kouji."

Even though he was coming to school, Kawaguchi didn't do anything in class and kept to himself, just like Kouji. Sakigamiya was worried that he'd eventually stop coming into school altogether, since that's what Kouji's done since Monday.

"We just have to hope he'll take the exams seriously."

"Ugh, if only Shigeru-san didn't expose his past to everyone! Stupid delinquent."

Sakigamiya huffed. Matsushita sighed. Then, Yukina tapped my shoulder to get my attention.

"Yuu, can I speak with you for a second?"

"Sure."

I excused myself and followed Yukina outside into the hallway to talk.

"What's up?"

"I found out something huge about Minanohara. Look!"

Yukina excitedly took out her phone and showed me a screenshot she took in her gallery.

It was a newspaper article about the middle school from late October 2046, two years ago.

The headline, "Student Shoved Over Balcony", plainly but succinctly explained what happened.

"Come to think of it... I feel like I've heard of this before."

"That's because we did. Do you remember back in our 2nd Year of middle school? People used to talk about this in class."

"I've never heard it get linked to Minanohara, though."

"Same here, but look. This article specifically states that it's Minanohara."

Yukina zoomed in, showing me the section detailing the setting of where this incident took place.

"Did any other articles about this mention Minanohara?"

"I couldn't find any, unfortunately... the rest don't mention which school it takes place at. This was the only one I could find online."

"It doesn't sound very credible."

"I know it doesn't seem legit, but I think it's genuine."

"Why's that?"

"In the first place, this article was written by a reporter who lives in the area. The others I found were written by people who lived elsewhere. Secondly, this is an article from a printed newspaper. This scan of the paper is the only physical version I could find. The rest were published online."

Yukina opened up another article in her browser and handed me her phone.

"Lastly, comb through the details and compare that article with this one. Notice how vague the online versions are? The newspaper clipping specifically mentions the gender and ages of the two people in question."

That was true. The online article she used as an example only talked about how a student pushed another student off the balcony, leaving them hospitalised, along with a statement from the school.

Meanwhile, the newspaper article dug deeper into the details. It explained that a fourteen year old boy pushed his same aged classmate off the balcony after school, leaving him hospitalised with a fractured skull and ruptured organs.

"This is a really good lead, especially because we were the same age as the boy when this happened."

"The only issue is we don't know the identity of the two involved..."

Since the boys in question were minors, it was illegal for the newspapers to name them. However, this meant we couldn't verify whether or not Matsushita and Sakigamiya were involved. This information was useless if the incident didn't relate to them at all.

"We're stuck back at square one. We need someone who attended the school at the time to fill in the blanks."

"Let's make that our priority then. We have one half of the puzzle, so we just need the other half."

"Yes... I'll try asking Ichinose-san and Taiga-san, since they might know something about it too."

Since they also attended the same middle school as us, they might've heard something about the story that me and Yukina didn't.

"It's worth a shot."

"Alright! I'll go over to B Class right now then."

"Do you want me to come with you? Machida-san might try something if you go alone."

"While it's be reassuring to have you with me, you're also busy. I'll be fine."

"You sure? I don't mind, really."

"Yeah. I doubt things will go bad, Toujou-sensei will be there."

"Alright... good luck with that."

"You too!"

Yukina went to gather more intel from B Class. As she did, I called out to her.

"Thanks for the hard work."

"No problem!"

Yukina smiled, her long pink hair shimmering as she looked at me over her shoulder.