"What a bunch of 'good kids' you've got here."
Even though she had already seen the surveillance footage once, Yaeko came apart all over again as she watched it for the second time. She pointed at each parent who had arrived, her voice sharp with mockery.
"Snatching my daughter's hearing aid wasn't enough for them? They had to turn her into a joke too?"
"Encircling my daughter, laughing and jeering without stopping—it's hilarious to them, isn't it?"
She pointed at the screen, showing the entire process of what had happened on the street. Yaeko's eyes were hard as they swept over every single parent in the room. Not a single one of these students, who were in the same class as her daughter, had stood up for her. Instead, every last one of them had joined in on the harassment. It was disgusting.
Did they think my daughter was just a toy?
"Speak up! Weren't you laughing back then? Are you all mute now?"
Yaeko didn't just aim her fury at the parents; the children themselves weren't spared.
"And here I was, wondering why my daughter, who treasures her hearing aid like it's her life at home, kept 'accidentally losing' it every time she went to school."
"Some 'accident' that was."
"Ma'am, can we just... can we sit down and talk this over properly?"
A woman in casual clothes who shared a striking resemblance to Naoka Ueno spoke up, unable to endure the verbal lashing any longer. The moment the words left her mouth, Yaeko's anger flared back, hot and vicious.
"Talk it over? The records show that your daughter was the ringleader who snatched the device and started tossing it to that boy."
"And now you're asking if we can 'talk it over'? Talk my ass. If it were your daughter being tormented, would you be sitting here 'talking'?"
"Well? Speak! Answer me!"
Yaeko glared at Naoka, who was clutching her mother's hand. She immediately recognized the girl from the video as the second primary instigator. The broad, sweeping anger she had been venting suddenly snapped into focus. She tore into the woman with everything she had.
Naoka Ueno looked stunned. She had been infatuated with Shoya Ishida since elementary school. Seeing that he took such pleasure in bullying Shoko, and since she herself hated how Shoko just took the abuse without fighting back, she had joined in to get his attention.
As kids, the term "school bullying" probably wasn't even in their vocabulary. They were just looking for fun, following the crowd, and they never imagined things would spiral this far. Now that they were in a police station, they were all starting to feel the first real fear.
The parents and kids weren't the only ones enduring this; the Police Chief was standing not far away, sweating through his uniform. Usually, the standard procedure would be for him to mediate, calm both sides down, and then work toward a resolution.
But Ren was staring at him. He was just standing there with a calm, friendly smile, watching him.
Who the hell would dare step in under that stare? Certainly not the Chief. He could only stand by and wait for Yaeko to finish her tirade before he dared to mediate.
Through the recording, the Chief also saw that the meeting between Ren and Shoko was a total coincidence. Realizing this, he felt a surge of envy for the girl.
She really ran into someone who'd step in today.
Whew...
Yaeko finally took a breath, her voice raw from the shouting. Ren shifted his gaze, and the Chief took that as his cue to step in.
"Ms. Nishimiya, can we begin discussing the resolution for this incident?"
The Chief was an expert at reading the room. He was exceptionally polite to Yaeko. Since he didn't know if Ren would stay in contact with the girl, he defaulted to assuming they would, choosing the path of least risk. For once, Yaeko was benefiting from her daughter's "connections."
"I'll leave it to you, Officer," she replied. She smoothed her expression back into her usual gentle mask and nodded to the Chief. Her fury was reserved for the perpetrators and their guardians; she had no reason to take it out on the police.
Yaeko also realized how "irregular" her behavior just now had been, which only fueled her curiosity about Ren's true status. Her daughter's luck was truly incredible today.
"The recordings clearly indicate that Shoya Ishida was responsible for losing the first two hearing aids. Therefore, the Ishida family will be responsible for the full compensation of those two devices."
"Ms. Ishida, do you have any objections?" the Chief asked, following the protocol for the theft and loss of property.
"No objections," Miyako Ishida replied, shaking her head. She had seen exactly how her son had snatched the device from Shoko's ear and tossed it out a window. For the first time, she felt a genuine, burning anger toward her own son.
Seeing that she accepted the compensation, the Chief continued.
"Furthermore, as Shoya Ishida and Naoka Ueno were the primary instigators, and considering they are minors, the ruling is one week of detention and education in a juvenile reform center."
"The other students, acting as accomplices, will be sent to the same center for three days."
"Do the parents have any objections?"
The punishment was heavy. Since Ren hadn't explicitly demanded they be "ruined," the Chief chose to leave them a chance at a future. This satisfied the need for accountability without completely destroying the students' lives.
"Of course, if you can obtain Ms. Nishimiya's forgiveness..." the Chief added, leaving a narrow option open.
The parents' eyes lit up at that. As long as their kids didn't have to go to a reform center, they were willing to negotiate anything. Their kids were just accomplices; they could pay some money privately to Yaeko and make this all go away.
"I'm sorry, but I do not accept any form of settlement."
Before the parents could even open their mouths, Yaeko cut off their delusions. If it hadn't been for a kind soul like Ren helping them, Shoko—given her personality—would have likely suffered in that school until she died without ever uttering a word of complaint to her mother.
If she forgave them now, would they just think that bullying Shoko was something they could get away with as long as their parents threw some money at the problem? To prevent that, and to finally get some justice for her daughter, Yaeko refused to even consider a private deal.
Perhaps they would offer her a huge sum of money to buy their children's "futures"—money that could ease the struggle of her household and her own exhaustion. But between a hard life for herself and a hard life for her daughter, Yaeko chose herself.
She could take the hardship. Shoko could not. With Ren's backing, she had to strike them hard enough to make it hurt—hard enough that they would never forget the price of going after her daughter.
The final verdict was set:
The Ishida family pays the Nishimiya family 200,000 yen in compensation.
The primary culprits, Shoya Ishida and Naoka Ueno, receive one week in a juvenile reform center.
The accomplices receive three days in the same center.
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