School Girls' Stories - Year 3

Chapter 32 – The Final Verdict

For six weeks Yuki sat in a London hotel, wasting Fuji’s family’s money every night she stayed. For six weeks Yuki paced her room, sat in the back of a courtroom, and waited, knowing what the verdict was going to be. He was accused of owning, selling, and conspiracy of drugs. This was no simple accusation, there was such an amount of evidence against him that even Shinwa’s lawyer seemed defeated.

Six weeks and now she sat in the back of the courtroom, tears flowing down her cheeks as the jury came back into the room. Fuji had talked her through this, had told her the English words she would need to listen for. Every day they had gone over it, and Yuki knew, she just knew, what the jury was going to say. The came back after only three hours of deliberation, and though three hours had been a lifetime in the eyes of Shinwa and Yuki, in the eyes of the court three hours meant their decision was too easy to come by.

“Yuki, there’s something I have to tell you.”

“Shinwa…”

“Yuki, you are the most important person in the world to me, and I want you to know the truth. I know what you have heard, or must have heard. I want you to know, while I was with you, I was not doing drugs. It seems I should have been, the squalor I was living in, but I was giving all of my money to my family, to keep them alive. I was trying to help, but instead I was hindering for they used the money for drugs and were never even taking care of my sister. My… my sister!”

“Shinwa, wait…”

Shinwa shook his head furiously. “No, Yuki, you have to listen to me, because I do not have enough time.

“Ririka knew, she knew about the drugs, and she had been blackmailing me while in London. She told me if I did not do as she said she would accuse them of what it was they were hiding. I could not allow that. I could not allow her to ruin my parents’ name, even if they deserve it.

“Part of her agreement was that I stopped speaking to you,” Shinwa said hesitantly, watching Yuki’s face fall in defeat. He had given her up, and to her it was so easy, but she did not know how much he tore himself up, wishing he was with her, and how every moment Ririka was not around, bribing him with whatever founded information she found this time, he had snuck away to call Yuki, to message her, to anything to let her know he really was thinking of her every moment he was away. “I thought it would not last long,” he admitted. “Like every little thing with Ririka, I thought she would get over it, move on to a new flight of fancy, like the man she started seeing, but that wasn’t enough. She dragged me around like a puppy, hoping to deflate me, and she was. I started giving in to the drugs that were offered me, I had to, anything to keep my mind occupied. Don’t look at me like that.”

The lead chairperson passed a note over to the security guard, the bailiff, who walked over to the judge and handed the piece of paper to the man in the regal black and the courtly wig that some still wore in London. The judge read the piece of paper out loud for all to hear. “We, the jury…”

Yuki’s tears were falling fast. Her eyes stung, her body shook, and she waited for him to finish, because he had to finish his story. She listened, her ears wide open though her heart was closing in on itself. “It was Ririka, it was all Ririka. She was the one selling drugs, she was the one in conspiracy, but I had always been a pawn. The whole reason she kept me around was not over some crush she had felt in Japan, she black mailed me for a reason, a good reason. She had set it up so that if, when, she was caught I would be the one to take the fall, and when I took the fall what evidence did I have to the contrary?

“When I knew it was coming I came to see you,” Shinwa said. “I knew I was going down, I had already been searched and a lot had been found, but not enough to arrest me. I was told not to leave the country, but I did, I fled to Japan so I could see you, even if for one last time, and you knew, you just did not know what you really knew. Yuki…”

“…guilty of conspiracy, and…” the judge went on, rattling off the verdict Yuki had already known was coming. It was all she could do not to cry out, to rattle off the sob that was lodged in her throat and would not move. Shinwa’s name was on her lips as she saw him nearly fall, the lawyer holding him up as the bailiff came by to put the handcuffs on him, sentencing already ready. This was not how it was supposed to work! It only worked that way on television, didn’t it?

“Shinwa Kiseki’s… sentence… life in prison…” Yuki only heard certain parts of the words, she could not stay in focus that long. She was blacking out, her whole mind was reeling.

“Yuki…” he repeated again, his tears running freely down his face. “Yuki, I’m sorry, I did not mean for things to end this way for us. I wanted this year, to get on my feet, and then I was going to take you with me, we would… you would become a manga artist and I would sail the world, and we would be happy. Yuki, I’m sorry.”

He was being taken away, he was being taken away and would she ever see him again? Would he be allowed visitors? Should she move to London, because now that she had seen him, now that she knew the truth, she knew she could not leave him?

“Yuki, I love you so much.”

She stood, watching him leave the room, her head blacking out several more times, but she forced herself to hold onto those pews, forced herself to watching him be dragged away from her. She stood regally, her head held high, though the tears were streaming down her cheeks and inside she was hollow and dying.

“Shinwa, I love you!” She jumped across the table, much to the guards dismay, he was growing tired of her antics, and wrapped herself in his arms, kissing him fast and soft all at once, taking him in, drinking in his essence. This may very well be the last kiss they share and she was not going to just let it go so simply.

The guard pulled her away from him and Shinwa was quickly lead away from her with a promise. “No matter what…”

“Shinwa…” the word was quiet as she whispered it. She did not even realize she was doing it, the court was erupting, the flashes were going on cameras, the jury was looking lost as they were bombarded and the judge banged his gavel. “Shinwa!” she called a little louder, ignoring the cameras being thrust into her face, the cameras that were intent on the former lover’s reaction.

“…I will come back to you. You are the only one I will ever love, my heart, body, and soul have always belonged to you.”

The door slammed, leaving Yuki alone in the cold room before a guard came in to retrieve her and lead her out of the station. The slamming of the door echoed in her head for six weeks.

“Shinwa!” she was screaming, trying to push through the crowd as more guards came rushing through, trying to stop the commotion that had erupted. Before she could move she was being thrust back into the benches that were the hard seats and suddenly the court was silent as the judge stood, looking infuriated.

When the doors opened, allowing two more entrants into the room, the judge positively scathed a blood red look their way, his look hardening more when he saw who it was. The first face was familiar, after all she was a famous face on television. Ririka, who only went by one name, like Madonna, though she looked pretty ragged at that moment, which put a smile on Yuki’s face.

The other girl, though unrecognizable to everyone in the crowd, was the one Yuki was more intent on looking upon, a girl she recognized all too well. There, pushing Ririka through the door, was Kuniyasu Karin, looking everywhere until her eyes fell on Yuki, and she nodded in her direction. That one nod meant every, I’m sorry, here you go, and this is the last time I help you. That nod meant the world, and it might just mean Shinwa’s freedom.