Demon Slayer: I was taken home by Shinobu Kocho at the beginning.

"Well, don't ask anymore. I won't tell you until Ichinose gives me permission."

Kamio Tatsuya said this very frankly, and Shiina didn't press him further; she knew how to keep her distance.

"So, Ichinose doesn't have a way to directly clarify this rumor, right?"

“That’s right. Given her personality, she definitely wouldn’t lie and say she didn’t do it.” Kamio Tatsuya sighed. “If this continues, she might have a mental breakdown.”

"No! We absolutely cannot let it get to that point." Shiina immediately rejected such a future. "We must stop the rumors from spreading!"

Even knowing that Ichinose had made mistakes in the past, Shiina still chose to continue helping Ichinose.

"It's no use. The school won't get involved in rumors of this level. If you want the student council to get involved, Ichinose will have to ask for help herself."

"That's impossible, isn't it? If she could, she would have asked the student council for help long ago." Clearly, after spending more than a week together, Shiina had come to understand Ichinose quite well.

"That's right, so if we want the school to intervene forcefully, we have to make a big scene."

"You're not planning to spread all sorts of weird rumors around the school, are you?"

As expected of Shiina, he immediately understood Kamio Tatsuya's thoughts.

"If you want to stop it, this is enough."

“But this method only treats the symptoms, not the root cause. The thorn in Ichinose’s heart is still there, and it might suddenly erupt at any time in the future.” Shiina shook his head. “So we still need to solve Ichinose’s problem from the root.”

"If we want to solve this problem at its root... the only way is for Ichinose to confess to her own students."

Tatsuya Kamio sighed.

It takes courage to openly confess one's dark past, especially one as serious as Ichinose's.

At least Kamio Tatsu didn't know how to convince her to face the past.

"Go for it, Tatsuya?"

Faced with Shiina's sudden encouragement, Kamio Tatsuya was a little confused. "Wait, what are you talking about?"

"Ichinose just needs a little courage right now." Shiina's eyes were full of encouragement. "Although I don't want to give it to her, there's nothing I can do about it, isn't there?"

Kamio Tatsuya remained silent.

In short, let's try stirring up the water first.

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

"It seems there are guests."

Tatsuya Kamio nodded.

"I'll open the door."

When the door was opened, the person outside surprised Tatsuya Kamio.

"Ichinose? Come in."

"excuse me."

Ichinose looked apologetic and went into the room, where she saw the ladies' shoes in the entryway.

"Is Kamio-kun entertaining guests?"

"Ichinose."

At that moment, Shiina heard the commotion and came out as well.

"If I have guests, then I'll do it another day..."

Before Ichinose could finish speaking, Shiina walked over and grabbed Ichinose.

"Please stay. We were just talking about Ichinose, and we were worried about you."

"Eh? Is that so?"

Ichinose looked at Tatsuya Kamio, who nodded in agreement with Shiina's statement.

"Then I'll excuse you."

Soon, the three of them sat down around the kotatsu.

A brief silence fell over the room, and Ichinose tried to speak several times but couldn't get a word out.

Seeing Ichinose's hesitation, Tatsuya Kamio decided to take the initiative.

"Ichinose, be honest with your students."

"Eh?"

Ichinose was startled by Kamio Tatsuya's words; she hadn't expected him to suddenly say something like that.

"Before this, could you tell me who else you told about your situation?" Tatsuya Kamio asked. "Of course, I didn't tell anyone, and Hiyori doesn't know either."

Ichinose glanced at Shiina, then hesitated before giving her answer.

"Not long after the start of the semester, I told President Nagumo about this."

Before the training camp, Ichinose trusted Nagumo, since he started in Class B and even helped Class B advance to the next class.

Therefore, Ichinose naturally felt a certain amount of admiration for such an impressive senior.

However, during the training camp, Nagumo easily shattered Horikita Manabu's trust in him, which made Ichinose realize that Nagumo might not be the person she thought he was.

And it was right after that that rumors about her started circulating in the first grade.

“It seems that it was Nagumo who told Sakayanagi about you.” Kamio Tatsuya shook his head. “Originally, he conspired with Katsuragi to expel me during the training camp and then tell Katsuragi about you.”

As a result, Katsuragi and I teamed up to betray him, causing him to lose trust in Katsuragi and thus cooperate with Sakayanagi?

At this point, it's no longer important to investigate why Ichinose told Nagumo what happened; what's important is getting over this hurdle.

"I'm sorry, it's all my fault, because of what happened back then, Nagumo-senpai..."

Ichinose recounted what had happened, looking somewhat dejected.

In summary, Nagumo, that bastard, is seducing naive young girls.

Just a month into the semester, Ichinose probably hadn't realized the importance of intelligence at the school.

However, Nagumo, relying on his familiarity with the school's rules, pretended to be a good person and easily got information out of Ichinose.

Thinking about this, Tatsuya Kamio once again admired himself.

Because he had carefully observed and chosen Asahina when he was trying to get information from upperclassmen at the beginning of the semester, he probably would have been tricked.

After all, that guy's face looks very deceptive.

"Ichinose, go and be honest with the students in your class."

After learning the whole story, Tatsuya Kamio looked at Ichinose with a serious expression.

"Huh? But, but..."

Are you worried that your students won't forgive you after they find out about this?

Tatsuya Kamio saw through Ichinose's concerns at a glance.

"Yes, I'm a little worried."

"Don't worry about it. If the students in some classes don't forgive you, you can just transfer to Class C. I just happened to get some points during the last exam."

Kamio Tatsuya's idea wasn't exactly good, but it wasn't bad either.

Sure enough, Shiina's eyes lit up.

"I'd love to welcome Ichinose to Class C. Class C already has a lot of problem children, even if Ichinose..."

"Ah, sorry, I didn't mean to say anything bad about Ichinose, that's not what I meant."

Halfway through her speech, Shiina realized that her language was not organized correctly and quickly waved her hand to apologize.

"It's okay." Ichinose shook her head, her expression still hesitant. "Shiina-kun, could you tell me about what happened to me before?"

“If Ichinose-san is willing, I’d be more than happy to be a listener.” Shiina grasped Ichinose’s hand, which was clenched tightly due to her unease.

Then, Ichinose told Shiina about what she had done before and the consequences, saying the same things she had told Tatsuya Kamio before.

After hearing this, Shiina didn't say anything, but he gripped Ichinose's hand tighter and tighter.

"Ichinose-san, good luck!"

In the end, it was Shiina who uttered these words of encouragement to Ichinose.

"The mistakes of the past cannot be changed. The most important thing is to face them, confront them, correct them, and atone for the mistakes we have made, isn't that right?"

Yes, Tatsuya Kamio nodded, just like that incident.

Even in this world, the ugly face of the Japanese government remains unchanged.

Ichinose nodded.

It wasn't that she was afraid to face her mistakes; what she feared was that her classmates would distance themselves from her after learning about her past.

She didn't want to give up the friendships she had built with her classmates over the past year.

"I understand. I will confess to everyone tomorrow and beg for your forgiveness." Ichinose's gaze hardened. "After that, may I ask Kamio for your help?"

"Of course I'll help you. Also, good luck."

After encouraging Ichinose, Ichinose wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes and smiled again.

"As expected of Ichinose, she's very determined."

“After all, it’s Ichinose.” Kamio Tatsuya smiled. “No one is perfect, but it is the greatest virtue to admit one’s mistakes and correct them. If you make a mistake, just make amends.”

Even if someone is killed, in Kamio Tatsuya's view, it is not something that cannot be made up for; at most, one can make amends with one's life.

Shiina, who was standing to the side, nodded in agreement, clearly agreeing with Tatsuya Kamio's point of view.

Now that Ichinose has agreed to face his past and accept the judgment of the entire class, the next step is for Sakayanagi.

Although I don't think Sakayanagi will hold this against her, what if she does?

At that point, it would be necessary for Tatsuya Kamio to escalate the situation.

Chapter 260 The Trust of the Class Students

After finalizing the plan, Ichinose prepared to get up and say goodbye.

Just then, her phone rang, and after looking at it, her expression suddenly froze.

"What's wrong?"

Her changing expressions naturally did not escape the notice of Tatsuya Kamio and Shiina.

"Sorry, I have to go now. It seems like Kanzaki-kun is about to get into a conflict with students from other classes."

Huh?

That Kanzaki?

Did they get into a conflict with students from other classes?

We should go and see how high or low it is.

"I'll go with you. After all, I'm the vice president of the student council."

With that, Tatsuya Kamio put down his pen and crawled out of the kotatsu.

Ichinose hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

"Then I'll leave the house to Hiyori."

"Bye-Bye."

Shiina waved to Tatsuya Kamio.

Once they reached the first floor, Ichinose turned to look at Tatsuya Kamio.

"Can we run? Although Kanzaki-kun always seems very calm to me, I'm still worried that something might go wrong."

"Okay, no problem. Where is it?"

"At the school, next to the gymnasium."

So the two of them started running towards the school.

The dormitory is not far from the school, at most less than one kilometer away, and even including the distance within the school, it is less than two kilometers.

However, Ichinose's stamina was clearly not comparable to Kamio Tatsuya's, so it took the two of them almost ten minutes to get there.