Extra chapter for reaching 200 Power Stones.
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"No," Haruya said softly. "It's not wrong. But it's not enough. An apology isn't a magical word that erases the past. It's the first step. The first step towards showing someone you've changed, that you're willing to do better. You're not going to feel better just by saying you're sorry. You're going to feel better by actually being a better person."
Ishida's head was bowed, his black hair falling into his face, hiding his eyes. "I don't know how."
"Then let me help you."
Ishida's head shot up, and he stared at Haruya, a look of profound shock on his face. "Why would you do that?" he asked. "Why would you help me? You don't even know me well, and don't you hate me for what I did?"
"Because you're trying to do the right thing," Haruya said. "Even if you don't know how."
Haruya's words weren't a judgment, but they were a quiet truth.
"What do you want me to do?" Ishida asked, the desperation still in his voice, but now it was tinged with a fragile hope.
"Meet me tomorrow," Haruya said.
He walked to his desk, grabbed a sheet of paper, and began to write.
He wrote down the address of the Sumeragi Bakery, his handwriting neat and precise. "We can talk there. You can just tell me what happened. We can figure out how to make things right."
He handed the paper to Ishida.
Ishida took it, his fingers brushing against Haruya's.
The paper felt heavy in his hand, like the weight of a promise he might not be able to keep.
He looked up at Haruya, a million unasked questions in his eyes, but Haruya just gave him a quiet, reassuring smile. "I'll see you tomorrow, Ishida."
As Haruya turned and walked out the door with his bag, Ishida stood there for a long time, the paper clutched in his hand.
He didn't know the answer. He just knew that for the first time since that day, he felt something other than despair. He felt... a little lighter.
...
4th of June.
The next day, Haruya arrived at the Sumeragi Bakery fifteen minutes early.
It was just as cozy, with the quiet sound of conversation and the rich scent of brewing coffee and newly baked pastries.
He quietly asked Rina and Hiroki not to disturb him for now.
Sensing the serious mood, the two of them agreed.
Haruya found a table in a secluded corner and ordered a hot cocoa.
And he waited.
Every time the door chimed, his head would turn, his perfect perception registering every detail of the person who entered.
He saw a young couple holding hands, an elderly man reading a newspaper, and a mother with a small child, but no Ishida.
Haruya was starting to think he wouldn't come.
Just as he was about to give up when the chime of the door sounded again.
He looked up and saw him. Ishida was standing in the doorway, his shoulders hunched, his head bowed.
The boy looked at the ground, a single, agonizing line of tension in his body.
With hesitation, he was about to turn and leave, but Haruya stood up and waved him over.
Ishida saw him, and his face, already pale, went even whiter.
He walked to the table, his movements slow and hesitant, as if he was walking on glass.
Nervously, he slowly sat down opposite Haruya, his hands still clenched into fists.
"Why are you so nervous? It's just a meeting at a bakery." Haruya laughed.
But Ishida seemed to have even lost his sense of humor.
"I didn't think you'd come," Haruya coughed, trying to regain the "regular" mood.
"I didn't think I would, either," Ishida admitted, his voice raspy. "I... I almost ran. I don't know why I'm here."
"You're here because you want to be," Haruya said, pushing a glass of water towards him. "And because you're tired of running."
Ishida took a deep, shaky breath. He picked up the glass and took a long drink.
The cold water was a shock to his system, a much-needed jolt of reality. H
e set the glass down and finally, for the first time, looked at Haruya, his eyes filled with a raw, agonizing sincerity.
"I'm not the person you think I am, Sumeragi-san," he said. "The things I did... they're unforgivable."
"Wasn't it just during that time when you tried making fun of her unnatural speech?" Haruya said, trying to make the boy realize. "It was bad, but the crime doesn't match the punishment. I'm guessing you're just using this as an excuse. You've hit rock bottom, so you're now trying to shut everyone off."
Ishida was silent for a long moment. He didn't know where to start.
It felt like a dam about to burst, a few weeks' worth of secrets and pain on the tip of his tongue.
He looked at Haruya, at the boy who had a seemingly perfect life, a boy who had no reason to care about him, and yet, here he was.
Ishida took another deep breath and began to speak.
He spoke about the past, about the deep-seated boredom that had gnawed at him, a restless energy with no outlet.
"I didn't know any better," he confessed. "I was bored, and she... she was an easy target."
The words came out with a painful honesty.
Speaking about the cruel jokes he and his friends would make outside the view of Haruya, mimicking her voice and her quiet way of speaking.
He described the thrill of the other students laughing, of the attention he got from being the ringleader.
It was a way to fill the void inside him, a way to feel powerful.
Then, he spoke about the backlash.
The day he was singled out and blamed for everything.
The moment his so-called friends, Kazuki and Keisuke, had turned on him, pointing the finger and making him the scapegoat.
The betrayal, he said, was a deeper cut than any of the verbal abuse that followed.
He spoke about being ostracized and bullied for the past few weeks, how the tables had turned on him with a cruel, poetic justice.
"I learned what it feels like to be on the other side of things," he gulped, his voice like a hollow whisper. "It's not fun. It's horrible."
He confessed his darkest secrets, his deepest fears, and the shame that had followed him like a shadow since then.
Ishida spoke of the X's he had placed over people's faces, a way to isolate himself from the world so he wouldn't get hurt again.
Haruya listened without interruption, his golden eyes fixed on Ishida's bowed head.
He didn't offer a word of comfort or judgment.
He just took it all in, a silent, unmoving presence as the boy in front of him laid bare his shame.
His perfect memory replayed every word, but his perception processed more than that.
He saw the genuine remorse in Ishida's trembling hands, the pain etched into the sharp lines of his shoulders, the quiet, desperate hope in his whispered confession.
A person who had truly hit rock bottom, not in some grand, dramatic way, but in a quiet, agonizing, soul-crushing one.
When Ishida finally fell silent, the only sounds were the distant chatter of a few customers and the muffled noise from the kitchen.
Haruya gave him a moment to just be, to feel the profound emptiness that comes after a confession of that magnitude.
"That's a heavy burden to carry," Haruya finally said, his voice soft but unwavering.
It was the same thing he'd said the day before, but it carried a new weight now, a deeper understanding. "A heavy burden. But you don't have to carry it alone anymore. Move on, Ishida. Life will always get better."
He quietly reached out across the small table and gently placed a hand on Ishida's shoulder.
Compared to Haruya's iron grip that he gave Ishida when they first met, this touch was firm and steady, a silent promise of support.
Ishida flinched at first, his body tensing, but then he slowly relaxed into the touch, as if it was the first human contact he'd had in weeks that wasn't born of hostility or fear.
"What you did was wrong," Haruya said, his voice still gentle. "And what they did to you... that was also wrong. The two wrongs don't cancel each other out. But you can't change the past. All you can do is change the future."
Ishida's head rose slowly, a single tear running down his cheek. He looked at Haruya, at the boy who he once considered his greatest enemy, and who had now calmly listened to his deepest, darkest secrets and still offered a hand.
"How?" he whispered, his voice raw with emotion. "How do I change the future?"
"By doing the right thing," Haruya said. "By showing people that you've changed, not with words, but with actions." Haruya squeezed his shoulder. "People in the classroom have ostracized you, but don't worry. We'll slowly deal with that."
Ishida looked at the hand on his shoulder, and a fragile hope began to bloom in his chest, a tiny, tentative flower in a field of ruin.
He was still scared, but for the first time in a very long time, he felt he could do it.
"Okay," Ishida said, his voice raw but determined. "Okay. I'll do it. I'll do it with you."
Haruya's smile was a warm, genuine thing. It was the first time Ishida had ever seen it directed at him, and it felt like a ray of sunlight on a long, dark day.
The conversation that followed was not just about the past; it was about the future.
It was about what they could do, how they could help, and how they could find a way to make things right.
It was a new beginning.
The two boys who had once never thought positively about each other were now sitting across from each other like new friends.
They talked for hours, the quiet conversation a stark contrast to the noisy, bustling bakery around them.
The shadows grew longer as the sun began to set, and the excitement in the bakery slowly died down.
When they finally stood up to leave, Haruya's hand was again on Ishida's shoulder.
"See?" Haruya said, a soft smile on his face. "It wasn't so bad, was it?"
Ishida looked at him, a small but genuine smile appeared on his lips for the first time in weeks. "No," he said. "No, it wasn't. Thank you, Sumeragi-san."
They walked out of the bakery and into the late afternoon.
The city lights were a comforting glow, a silent testament to the millions of stories playing out in the dark.
Ishida looked at his hand, at the spot where Haruya's hand had been.
The warmth was gone, but the feeling remained, a quiet comfort, a sign that he was no longer alone.
He looked up at the stars, and for the first time since that day, he didn't feel like a prisoner of his past.
He felt like he was finally free.
'Now I understand why others like you so much. You're like a beacon of hope, Sumeragi-san.'
...
A/N: Ishida's redemption has finally arrived. Might be a constant visitor of Haruya's friend group, but the cast of A Silent Voice, except for Nishimiya, might slowly fade into the background. Honestly, it was already what was happening as soon as Haruya cut the bullying in its infancy. The original plot just revolved around it and the results, but since that never happened, there is not much to still even include the rest of the cast about. Maybe I'll think of something eventually though. We'll see.
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POWER STONE GOAL - 1 EXTRA CHAPTER WHEN REACHED:
50 POWER STONES (✔)
100 POWER STONES (✔)
150 POWER STONES (✔)
200 POWER STONES (✔)
250 POWER STONES (X)
300 POWER STONES (X)
350 POWER STONES (X)
400 POWER STONES (X)
450 POWER STONES (X)
500 POWER STONES (X)