VOLUME 6

Chapter 1: Part 7

My flashback ended, and I nostalgically thought back to what had happened in the summer. But the people around me did not look as happy. Our presiding judge, Haruna, had a serious look on her face, while the jurywoman Yuu was staring at the screen with no expression on her face. The prosecutor, Sera, stood up, her ponytail swis.h.i.+ng from side to side behind her, before fixing me with a sharp stare.

“Like that, due to the actions of the accused, Aikwa Ayumu, I was stripped of my swimsuit in public view. Even before that, it is the undeniable truth that there have been countless occasions when he looked at me in perverted ways. Judge, we request the death penalty.”

“Yeah, death penalty sounds about right.” A single bespectacled juryman crossed his arms and nodded arrogantly.

“Stop jumping to conclusions! Also, Orito, you shouldn’t be talking!”

The accused will be reminded that he has the right to remain silent.

“Are you forcing me to?”

“So, does anybody have an argument against this evidence?”

Judge Haruna said that, and Tomonori stood up. Sera sat back in her seat, and just watched Tomonori with cold eyes.

“I’m sure Aikawa didn’t do it cuz he wanted to!”

“I see. In other words, you admit that he’s indeed done these things?”

Sera gave the courtroom a victorious smirk.

“Well, you got me there.”

Tomonori scratched her cheek. She was useless. This d.a.m.n lawyer… she was getting completely run over.

“The defense lawyer gave up!”

“Yuki-chan, that was fast!”

Two jurors began to raise a fuss. They were cla.s.smates of mine and Tomonori’s, and also members of the basketball team: Anderson-kun and Mihara Kanami.

“W-Well, sure he’s done all these things… but Aikawa is a good guy! Let me give you some proof of that!”

Tomonori had an eager look on her face as she began her counterattack, but things were already rolling downhill here.

“You’re already trying to argue sentence reduction and extenuating circ.u.mstances? It’s a bit early for that!”

Anderson-kun, looking like an English gentleman, echoed my feelings on my behalf.

“Eh, but… he clearly s.e.xually hara.s.sed her.”

“Yuki-chan should be saying that it was an accident, right~~?”

Mihara shook her head in resignation. Tomonori clapped her hands, as if just realizing that she had that option.

“Ah, yeah! It was an accident!”

“Was it an accident? The accused, you may answer!”

Bang bang. Haruna pointed her hammer at me.

“It was an accident. I was desperately trying to fix her strap.”

“Liar.” The juror who said that was clearly a perverted guy. Just by looking at his pervy spiky hair and his pervy gla.s.ses, you could tell. His name was Orito. Orito something something or whatever.

The prosecutor once again fixed me with a sharp stare.

“Well, fine. Let’s say it was an accident… why didn’t you warn me at all?”

“Because you’re d.a.m.n scary. Also, I thought it’d be better for you too if I fixed it without you noticing.”

“But, you’re clearly grabbing onto her strap.”

Mihara followed up with that comment. A picture of me holding onto Sera’s swimsuit straps was being shown on screen.

“As I said, I was trying to fix it-“

The prosecutor raised her hand at that moment, as if trying to prevent me from finis.h.i.+ng my sentence.

“I would like to pose a question to our male jurors. Would you try to grab a swimsuit strap if it was about to come off? Or would you warn the girl?”

“I’d warn her,” said Anderson-kun.

“I’d get excited,” said Orito.

Bang bang. Haruna gave the courtroom a smile, as if signaling that she had reached a decision.

“Sold for two thousand yen!”

So cheap! She probably just had wanted to say that all along, didn’t she? Acting like an auctioneer…

Tomonori seemed at a complete loss for words. I also couldn’t say anything here. But then…

“I… I think… I wouldn’t be able to warn her… either…”

I had felt like I was playing at an away game and was surrounded by enemies on all side, but then appeared a G.o.ddess descended down to earth to save me.

It was another one of my cla.s.smates, who had been called here as a juror and who was sporting her usual two pigtails: Hiramatsu Taeko.

I would also be unable to warn her. = “It’s not just oniichan! Yuu wouldn’t be able to do it either, hmph!”

“Yeah, see?! I declare presumption of innocence! I incest that the defendant did not intend to do evil!”

Uhh… who’s incesting who again? It seemed that she was so preoccupied with remembering the legal vocab (presumption of innocence) she had just learned that she had forgotten the word “insist.” (1)

“Well, okay then. Let’s move onto the next recording.”

Sera’s eyes were clear: it seemed that this trial had just begun.

TRANSLATOR’S NOTES

(1) Okay okay, admittedly the pun was not on the word “incest.” In the original j.a.panese it was “s.h.i.+chou” (to trial listen to something) versus “shuchou” (to insist).