The other parents, having received the same notifications from the police station, began to arrive one after another.
The first to arrive with their child was the mother of the spiky-haired boy who had led the bullying against Shoko—Shoya Ishida.
Still clueless about what was happening, Shoya was dragged into the station by his mother, Miyako Ishida, looking utterly bewildered. On the way, Miyako had asked him if he'd done anything wrong at school. Shoya had simply shaken his head. In his mind, "teasing" someone was just a normal bit of fun.
Upon entering the station, Shoya spotted Shoko sitting with Yuzuru. He assumed their meeting here was just a coincidence. Just as he was about to step forward and say hello to Shoko...
SLAP!!!
A crisp, stinging sound echoed through the entire station.
The slap drew everyone's eyes. Heads turned instantly toward Shoya's area. Shoya stood there, clutching his burning red right cheek, staring in shock at Yaeko Nishimiya, who had stepped between him and her daughter.
He didn't understand why he had been hit for no reason.
"Stay the hell away! Don't you touch my Shoko!"
Yaeko was not a weak woman. She couldn't have carried the entire Nishimiya family on her back alone if she were. Seeing the main culprit who had bullied her daughter have the audacity to approach Shoko, Yaeko hadn't hesitated for a second before delivering that slap.
Facing Shoya with a face full of fury, she stared him down without yielding an inch, shielding Shoko behind her with a hard, protective stance.
"You...!"
Shoya, who had never been hit by his mother at home and acted like a little king at school, couldn't swallow this insult. He opened his mouth to curse at Yaeko.
SLAP!!!
Another slap landed, this time on his left cheek.
There. Perfectly symmetrical. Both sides were now a matching, angry red.
This time, Shoya didn't even reach up to cover his face; he was trembling with pure, unadulterated rage.
"Hello. I am Shoya's mother, Miyako Ishida."
"Ma'am, hitting my child for no reason is a bit much, don't you think?"
Miyako pulled the fuming Shoya behind her, protecting her own child. Her previously gentle expression sharpened. She didn't even hit her own son; seeing this stranger deliver two slaps without a word of explanation made even the good-natured Miyako lose her temper.
Women are weak, but mothers are strong.
The two mothers, each protecting their own, began their standoff.
"A bit much? You think me hitting your kid is a bit much? Then what do you call your kid bullying my daughter at school? Is that 'reasonable' to you?" Yaeko sneered.
With Ren's "privilege" in play, Yaeko hadn't had to wait for everyone to arrive. She had already reviewed the surveillance footage. The image of how these kids treated Shoko was burned into her mind. Now that the boy was standing in front of her, there was no way she was backing down.
Just because he's a kid and she's an adult? To hell with that.
If you make a mistake, you get hit. If the family won't educate the child, then a stranger will do it for you.
Normally, this would have been handled by the police once all participants and guardians were present, following the law and a formal ruling. But this little bastard, Shoya, had the nerve to act like nothing happened and try to greet Shoko. It was the spark that blew the lid off Yaeko's suppressed rage.
"Bullying your child?" Miyako hesitated, casting an inquiring glance back at Shoya.
At home, Miyako was quite lenient with Shoya. As long as he didn't get into serious trouble, she didn't mind. At most, she'd ask a few questions or remind him not to get hurt. In her eyes, Shoya was just a "good boy" who was occasionally a bit mischievous.
Under normal circumstances, Miyako would have believed Shoya unconditionally. But the look in Yaeko's eyes told her that every word was the cold, hard truth.
"I didn't! I was just playing with Shoko!" Shoya grabbed Miyako's sleeve, staring stubbornly at Yaeko.
"Playing? How were you playing? By snatching my daughter's hearing aid for fun?" Yaeko was almost driven to laughter by his sheer audacity. If she hadn't seen the footage herself, she might have actually believed his lies.
"Hearing aid?" Shoya didn't even know what a hearing aid was. He was confused by the word, but he didn't deny taking her things.
"The kid might not know what it is, but surely you do, Miss Ishida."
Yaeko couldn't be bothered with the boy anymore. She turned her gaze to Miyako, whose arrogance had completely deflated as the realization set in. Whether it was a hearing aid or anything else, taking someone's property was wrong. That was the most basic principle a parent should teach.
Clearly, Miyako had failed to teach Shoya that principle.
"Ma'am, I..." Miyako tried to salvage the situation, but Yaeko cut her off ruthlessly.
"Miss Ishida, there's nothing left to say. We're already here. We'll wait for the other parents, and then we'll let the police handle it according to the law. Whatever the consequences are, they'll be faced."
Yaeko only wanted justice for Shoko. There was no room for compromise in her heart.
"Sigh..."
Miyako had no defense against Yaeko's iron-clad resolve. She could only do as suggested and wait. Even now, she didn't blame Shoya out loud; she took the entire burden of responsibility onto herself. It was her fault for not restraining him properly.
Yaeko sat back down next to Shoko, acting as a human wall to separate them from the Ishida family. Shoya, realizing he had truly messed up, hung his head, not daring to look at his mother. No one could tell if he was actually sorry, but he certainly knew he was in deep trouble.
Miyako stroked Shoya's head, trying to comfort her son, while her gaze drifted toward Shoko, who was partially visible behind Yaeko. As the sole provider of her household, Yaeko was lean from overwork—she wasn't "stout" enough to completely block the view of Shoko and Yuzuru.
Shoko was signing incessantly to Yuzuru, smiling every now and then.
The sight was heart-wrenching for Miyako. It's easy for mothers to empathize with one another. Miyako immediately put herself in Yaeko's shoes.
A daughter raised with so much hardship... finally saving up enough money to buy her a hearing aid to give her a better life... only for her to be tormented at school, with the very device meant to help her being snatched away.
The empathy turned into a deep, hollow sense of guilt. Guilt for failing to raise Shoya right.
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