The Boy With The Blank Stare: The Promise

Chapter Eight: Lofty Goal

Saihara's POV:

I feel like I've just said an unforgivable lie. I promised Ouma something he may have been holding onto for years, a single wish a desperate and lonely soul made when everything else was ripped away from him, a wish from someone with nothing left to lose when the world tore away his mind, body, and spirit and stole what mattered the most to him.

He asked for something...something I don't honestly know if I can give him. He wants the person, the person who did all this to him, to his friends, to be punished for his crime as he should have all those years ago...

And I promised him I would bring him that much-needed closure. 

But I don't know how I can actually do that, it didn't even hit me at the time the reality of what I had promised him, I wasn't thinking logically but out of my pure desire to finally let him move forward with his life, to finally give him that opportunity but the reality is...I don't know how to do that.

I'm not even a real detective! Sure I've worked on cases before, but I'm not some super ultimate detective-I'm a high schooler! I don't even have the advantage of the case happening recently, because it was four long years ago in a warehouse that I doubt even Ouma knows the exact location of due to him being knocked out before hand.

If there even was evidence left behind the first time, I doubt its there anymore, whether because the sub physically removed it or because of just nature, or maybe the police hid even more than I'm already suspecting.

Because that promise I made to him is not just to find the man who dealt the killing blow-but who exactly hired him to perform that job, and the people behind making it look like a group of teenagers commited suicide.

What type of evidence was destroyed or omitted to keep it hushed up? Was...did my Aunt even get to see the body of her own daughter when she had passed? Did any of them see the bodies? And what lie had they told Ouma's mother when he was in the hospital to explain such horrible injuries and disabillities?

Does she know the truth? Or did Ouma never tell her...

...

Well...there is one other person who can help me right now.

I grabbed my phone and looked for her contact.

~-~-~-~

"Hello?" a voice called out, I was on the rooftop of the school waiting for her, I got up and turned over to see Harukawa, "oh...thanks for meeting me here" I told her, "your message was very vague" she told me.

I bit my tongue, I didn't know how much I could put into the message without the fear of someone else hearing. "Sorry about that, I just wanted to make sure it didn't get recorded" I told her, "well that sounds not suspicious in the slightest" Harukawa said rolling her eyes a little. 

"I know what really happened," I said immediatly, her eyes widened a little before her stoic face returned, "who told you?" she asked hesitantly, "Ouma, Ouma told me what happened...about the origins of the fire...and what really happened to him and DICE...and how he survived..." I told her.

She didn't say anything for a while, only looking down at the floor, her posture became more defensive before she finally took a deep breath and turned back to me, "I didn't think he would ever tell anyone about this to be honest" she admitted.

"I understand why though...what happened was horrible" I said shuddering at the thought, "yeah...but that still doesn't explain why you wanted us to meet" she said questioning my intentions.