Friday has rolled around, and I still haven’t been able to think of a real plan. It’s currently 11 AM, so there’s still a few hours before any of the schools lets out for the day. It’s not too out there to think that Ariel’s not the rebellious type who plays hooky, right? After all, she told me straight up that she follows a curfew that her parents have set up for her. But then again, just how did she manage to meet that guy and get so close to him in just a week?
…I need to gather more information if I want to be able to do something. It would be best to try and figure out who that guy Ariel was with is, but I have no idea where to even start on getting that information. Back in the old world, governments would use things such as social security numbers in order to keep track of citizens, but that really isn’t the case anymore unless you live in LOVE, and even then, they can no longer keep track of you if you manage to escape.
I hate to say it, but I may want to try looking at one of those child molester vigilante websites. As much as those groups fail far more often than they succeed, there’s still a chance I could potentially find the information I need from them. What these websites do is create profiles of people they suspect to be child predators and dox them in the hopes of delivering justice. Not only do these websites suffer from the same problems that already plague general vigilante communities, but after these websites managed to garner something resembling successes, the smarter child predators began to put in more effort in disguising themselves and keeping their information online more private.
In short, if I’m to get any useful information from these websites, not only does the guy that’s hitting on Ariel need to be dumb enough to be public about his intentions, someone from the local area not only needs to be aware of it, but also needs to be the type of person who posts to these sorts of vigilante websites. Well, I did see him kissing her at the park, so I guess the “he’s dumb enough to be public about it” qualification can be safely checked off.
I decide to go to the most well known of the vigilante websites, pedowatch.xyz. It’s been around for longer than I’ve been alive and has gone through many controversies throughout its existence. The most notable of these controversies was “The Gunweeb War”. It started when members of pedowatch were basically accusing any and all otaku of being predators due to them enjoying “pedo shit”. This led to a lot of innocent people being harassed, if not outright assaulted and killed for no other reason than their hobbies. Eventually, members of the otaku community decided that enough was enough, proceeded to dox the members of Pedowatch, and after the first revenge killing of a particularly abrasive member, war was declared by both sides.
Now it’s not like the Pedowatchers weren’t armed themselves, but there are several reasons why this conflict isn’t referred to as “The Pedowatch War”. Although the war started off with both sides on equal footing and having an equal amount of supporters, it turns out the members of Pedowatch had underestimated the Gunweebs greatly and the Gunweebs were slowly, but steadily winning more battles. You see, “Gunweebs” also known as “Military otaku”, are a group of people who’d strongly embraced the anarchistic nature of the territories after the fall of the old world due to the fact that they could own and use any weapons they wanted whatsoever. Compare this to your average member of Pedowatch, who was more unlikely to be knowledgeable about warfare tactics nor even so much as own a gun.
Then there was the fact that due to the doxing, it was discovered that the admin of Pedowatch was a thirty year old woman in a relationship with a thirteen year old boy she had met via Pedowatch. This revelation caused Pedowatch to bleed followers and lose support in the war. Although she tried to go into hiding, the Gunweebs eventually sniffed her out and killed her, ending the war. After the war, Pedowatch got a new admin who erased all the current profiles on the website, made new rules that forbade minors from joining the website and required users to have better arguments for why a profile should be up beyond “they like anime porn”.
Despite those changes, the damage done to Pedowatch’s reputation from this conflict was catastrophic. To put it into perspective: This war occurred only a year before I was born, and even as an adult I can still easily find people online who refer to Pedowatch as “the group that gets mad about people jerking off to Bomba-chan as a way to cover up their own child molestation”. It doesn’t help that even with the current administration, there still have been cases every now and then of false accusations from the website ruining a person’s life. Still, it’s been a long time since the war and defenders of the current Pedowatch have started to make their voices heard. And I guess those defenders are why I decided to go with the website compared to all the other vigilante websites.
The website has a somewhat bland looking interface, which I guess makes sense given that the goal is to resemble sex offender registries of the old world. It would seem to be that despite the negative reputation it garnered after the war, Pedowatch has an active userbase (even if that userbase is only 5,000 people). A quick glimpse at the database shows that it has many entries and is still being updated as recent as the current hour. There’s also a forum on the website where users discuss database entries and if/how they should be edited, not too unlike something you’d see on a wiki.
Of course, I can’t just spend all day (or week, given by how many entries there are) looking up individual profiles if I’m to stop something bad from happening. Thankfully, the website has a rather versatile system to help locate profiles of people in your area. Although the concept of “states/provinces/governates/etc.” are no longer a thing in the territories, the old world concept of area codes still are and they’re incredibly useful for ordering stuff online. Turns out area codes are also useful for helping me get a listing of all suspected child predators on Pedowatch.
After typing in the area code to where I live, three profiles popped up. While I didn’t recognize the first two profiles, the third profile was immediately recognizable as the guy from the park. His name is Dick Richards and he’s an English teacher at the local middle school. I don’t recognize him from my time in school, but according to the profile he only started working there two years ago. The profile itself is recent, only having been made five months ago and with the top of the page having a box reading “All information on this profile is just rumors. If confirmed to be false, this profile will be deleted”.
The profile goes on to detail about how there are rumors from the families of young girls concerned that this new English teacher is doing unsavory things with their daughters. The main point of contention raised is how he sometimes takes “problem” female students (and only the female ones) out on “counseling sessions”, with claims of students referring to it as his “harem”. However, no one’s been able to get any concrete proof of him doing anything yet. I mean…I guess I got some concrete proof when I saw him kissing one of his students. But I’m pretty sure me logging in to make a post about it would just be seen as another rumor since I don’t have photographic evidence of the incident. At least I know who the guy is now.
The question now is what I should do with the information I have. Again, I can’t talk to Ariel, because I highly doubt she’s going to listen to me and I have no interest in becoming a member of Pedowatch and turning into a child predator vigilante. Maybe I could try warning her family? She and her brother do seem to be regulars at the store, so maybe I could talk to Mildred and have her say something to the brother. It could work…Unless Ariel’s brother hates her. That’s a possibility. Once the time for school to get out comes, I decide to head to the park. If nothing else, I’d like to prevent anything bad happening in the park.
When I arrive at the park, I can see a homeless woman passed out on one of the benches. I myself go ahead and take a seat on another bench far away from not only the woman, but also from general human sight. I didn’t bring anything with me, so outside of spacing out, staring at nature, and daydreaming, there’s not much for me to do. A shame that phones in the Territories don’t have the same fancy games and internet features on them like the phones in LOVE do. I could at least be doing something on my phone if that were the case. Since school’s out for the day, I can hear random kids walking by the park and chatting. Most of it goes through one ear and out the other, but a conversation between some girls catches my attention.
“…Hey, did you hear what happened with Ariel?”
“Oh god, what’d she do this time?”
“During gym class, she took Elizabeth’s clothes out of her locker and dumped them in a mud puddle outside!”
“What a freak, I always knew there was something wrong with her when she transferred here last month.”
“My sister knows her ‘brother’. You know he was an only child until last month. Wonder what happened to her real family?”
“…I bet she ran away to go suck dick. Why else did she go wander into the boy’s changing room on her first day here?”
“I share English class with her. She’s become a member of Mr. Richards’ harem. Guess even whores gotta start from somewhere.”
“You think she’s fucking her new ‘brother’?”
“Totally.”
The group of girls laugh loudly as they talk. There’s a lot to be taken from their conversation. That Ariel is adopted, doesn’t seem to be liked all that much by her peers, and the fact that middle school kids are just as awful today as they were when I was in middle school. Something tells me that it’s going to be a while before Ariel passes by the park, and even then, there’s still a chance she might not come around. At least not without that guy. Let’s see, when I saw them at the park before it was around 3:30 PM, and it’s currently 2:20 PM…So I still have about an hour to wait before considering giving up.
The more I learn about Ariel, the more I question the rabbit hole I’ve found myself crawling through. I thought she was just some random obnoxious kid at first, but the more I learn about her, the more I feel as if I’m stepping into a minefield by getting involved with this. But then again, it’s not like I’m really doing anything with my life, so fuck it. Why not spend time on helping out a girl who may end up killing me as a way of saying “thanks”. I probably won’t get anything out of it, but it’ll help stave off thoughts about being miserable.
It takes about a half hour or so before the sounds of students chatting and walking diminish. I see the homeless woman wake up not too long after. She seems dazed and is shaking, most likely suffering from some sort of drug withdrawal. She stands still for a few seconds before stumbling out of the park and leaving me all alone. While checking the time on my phone, I finally hear familiar voices.
“…I heard you caused a commotion in gym class today, what’s that about?”
It’s him.
“Well, there’s this girl Elizabeth, who’s a total cunt! She put itching powder in my uniform, so I returned the favor by throwing her clothes into the mud!”
And of course, she’s also there.
“You shouldn’t swear so much Ariel, men don’t like that.”
“R-Right, sorry.”
I keep my focus on my phone, making sure to not turn around to the voices. Confronting the two of them when they’re just talking is a bad idea, and I can’t risk having Ariel recognize me. I need to wait until things get really bad before I step in.
“Well, it’s not like the teachers can do anything about it, but that girl may try getting back at you, so watch out.”
Depends on the school and territory really, but yes, the school staff around here really don’t give a shit about interpersonal drama between students unless said drama leads to a student trying to murder others at school. The only real “punishment” I recall ever occurring during my time in school is that teachers would kick you out of class if you were being too noisy. This really wasn’t much of a punishment though and many students would purposefully get loud in class just so they could play hooky or skip a period they didn’t like. I myself purposefully got kicked out of class once because I really needed to pee, and I had a teacher who was strict about bathroom breaks.
“Everybody at this whole damn school has been against me since my first day when they tricked me into going into the boy’s changing room!”
Listening to this conversation is making me uncomfortable, but I know that I can’t just leave either.
“Listen, Ariel. You’re a beautiful and smart young lady. The other kids know that and are jealous. You can’t let them get to you. Come here…”
Silence overcomes the park. Even though I’m still not looking their way, I have the strong feeling that they’re kissing again. After a minute of silence, I can hear more talking. However, their voices are so low I can’t make out what they’re saying. After a minute or so, I can hear footsteps walking…into the forest. I think now would be a good time to get up and do something.
I get up from the bench and walk towards the trees by the park while making sure to stay as quiet as possible. It would seem to be that they didn’t go too far out into the forest, because their voices are audible as soon as I approach the trees.
“…It’s okay just lie down on the grass.”
Has this seduction of Ariel been going on since she started school here, or just this week? Either way, this guy’s disturbingly good at seducing young girls.
“A-Are we really doing it here? We don’t have any birth control, what if I get pregnant?”
“It’s okay, they sell abortion pills at the pharmacy.”
He responds to her concerns nonchalantly, as if this isn’t the first time he’s had this conversation. There’s a silence before he talks again.
“There’s nothing to be ashamed of if you’re nervous. A girl’s first time is always difficult. How about we get you relaxed?”
This is followed by the sound of ruffling clothes. I can’t tell who’s getting undressed, but I have the strong feeling that I should start getting ready to intervene. I look around for something I could use as an improvised weapon. There are small rocks scattered all over, with a particularly large one a few inches away. I decide to go ahead and try to pick up the larger rock. The conversation between Ariel and the teacher continues.
“Umm…I-I think I just don’t want to do it here. I want my first time to happen somewhere more romantic.”
“Nonsense. It doesn’t matter where you make love, it’s always romantic by the nature of the act.”
It takes some difficulty, but I manage to pick up the large rock and carry it in both arms.
“…If you’re too nervous about sex, we can just do something lighter for now. How about giving me a blowjob?”
I quickly mentally prepare myself. Then I force myself through the trees and pop out on the other side, seeing Ariel and the shirtless teacher together. I have no time to pause, so I throw the rock in my arms at the teacher, which managed to land on his left foot.
“Aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
He falls down to the ground to hold his foot. Ariel looks at me confused. I walk up to her and offer my hand.
“Let’s get out of here.”
She nervously takes my head and we run out of the forest and park. After a few minutes of running, I decide to stop simply because I can already tell that this is too much physical exertion for me today. Ariel’s still holding onto my hand.
“…Let’s go to that abandoned house. And you don’t need to hold my hand anymore.”
She timidly lets go of my hand. While we walk to the house, I can feel her grabbing onto my jacket. I decide to not say anything about it, even though I know it’ll look weird to strangers who come across us. The walk to the abandoned house is done in complete silence, with neither of us saying anything to each other. Once we get there, the both of us sit on top of Marisa’s grave and the silence continues for a few more minutes while Ariel still keeps clinging to me until she finally breaks the silence.
“…I knew that was you at the park.”
Author’s Note: Just one more chapter before this arc is done. Something I’m hoping to achieve with this series is to be able to discuss serious subject manner without coming off as preachy or miserable. Am I succeeding in that? Who knows?
