Date Her Instead Vol. 7 (Final Volume)

Chapter Twenty: Katsumi Equals Confusion

Looking carefully at the x-ray in his hand, the doctor eventually let out a small sigh. "Well, it looks like you got lucky," he said to Haruna, who was sitting on the examination table. "There doesn't appear to be any substantial damage." "R-Really?" Haruna asked, surprised. "W-What about that loud cracking sound it made?" "If I had to guess," the doctor answered. "It was probably something to do with the already-present damage in your ankle and the force of impact on the track you were running on."

He put the x-ray down into a folder, closed it, then looked at Haruna. "I want to be very clear here," he said sternly. "What you did today was incredibly reckless. As I said, you got very lucky. If things had turned out any worse, you could be looking at a lifetime of walking difficulties. The fact that you're getting away with just needing a brace and careful monitoring for a month or two is practically a miracle. However, I can say with certainty that if you ever try something like this again, or experience really high impact to your ankle of any sort, you will cause permanent injury to yourself. Do you understand?"

"Y...yes..." Haruna said quietly, unable to look the doctor in the eye. Having it all told to her by a professional definitely helped to put the severity of her actions into perspective. "Good," the doctor said. "I'm going to go talk to your parents now, but otherwise, you should be free to go." The man then walked out of the room, leaving Haruna to her thoughts.

She looked down at her ankle. It was now covered in a thick, black wrapping that was sure to keep everything in place. Having had it put on before coming back to the examination room, Haruna had already experienced a bit of difficulty trying to walk with it on. "This sucks..." she thought, but really she knew she had no one to blame but herself. "If I had actually stopped to think instead of focusing so much on what Ikehara-san said..."

Haruna just hadn't been able to help it. Hearing Katsumi threaten Kanako had ended up giving Haruna tunnel-vision. All she had cared about was doing what she thought needed to be done to protect her. But... perhaps, if she had done more against the teachers, or made more of a scene with Katsumi, or came up with some other plan, or... The list went on. Now having the time to think, Haruna was feeling worse and worse about the outcome that had resulted. Really, the only good thing that had come from it was Kanako had gone on such a tirade against Katsumi that it had been impossible for Katsumi to do anything. "Then again, it's not like she'll stay away from Kanako completely..." Haruna thought.

She kept thinking as her parents took her home. Along the way, they both had several things to say to their daughter, but Haruna was hardly listening. At this point, she had already heard it all, and she felt like she had more important things on her mind at the moment. "Ikehara-san is bound to escalate even more considering she took things this far," Haruna thought. "I need to find some way to stop her."

To stop her. It sounded so weird to actually think something like that. "It's like she's become some sort of super villain or something," Haruna thought, and when thought of it that way, Haruna wondered just what she could really do. It's not like she had any proof that Katsumi was the one responsible for her current situation, and really, aside from being incredibly annoying, she hadn't actually done anything other than the blackmail and sticking too close to Kanako. The blackmail was one thing, but if Katsumi had actually stuck to her word, those pictures most likely didn't exist anymore, and when it came to her hanging around Kanako, Haruna doubted the police would consider it more than one girl wanting to be closer to another. "Not that I really want to get the police involved anyways..." Haruna thought.

In the end, it really came down to this being high school drama between high school girls, which meant it felt like it was up to Haruna to fix it. "After all, if I hadn't been so stupid, maybe it wouldn't have come to this," she thought.