Chapter 067: Hachiman: Sakayanagi, do you believe in luck?
The school isn't very large, but it is the prestigious institution all middle school students aspire to attend, with all sorts of facilities fully equipped.
Subjects like chemistry and physics often require not only theoretical knowledge but also hands-on experiments. Aside from the two layers separating Class A and Class B from Class C and Class D, the school is quite wealthy and directly allocated an entire separate building for experimental purposes.
Even so, this experimental building hasn't been fully utilized.
Perhaps because of this, the building doesn't have any security cameras installed.
Of course, very few people are aware of this.
Most students don't venture into such a remote part of the school and wouldn't deliberately seek out places without cameras, trying to exploit any loopholes in the school's system.
However, some people do keep an eye out for places without cameras.
For example, Sakura Airi.
Before she enrolled here, she was a model for a flat magazine, and she liked taking photos, especially selfies.
But due to her personality, she would never go to places that were crowded or lively.
Therefore, quiet places, where there weren't many people and even lacked security cameras, were the places where she felt safest.
From this perspective, Sakura is quite clever, Hachiman thought. This school has a lot of cameras, and the locations without cameras that have been discovered so far are probably the student dorms, the railing near the lake, and around the vending machines. And now, another place where discussions and private meetings can take place has emerged.
But...
"That..."
Sakura Airi seemed a bit timid next to Hachiman.
But after all, she's a girl, and she carried a fragrant scent with her.
Hachiman had already become immune to it.
He had to thank Kushida for some of the interactions; otherwise, he might have been nervously flustered at this moment.
After all, seeing Sakura's true face—such a top-tier beautiful girl...
Well, it's hard to stay calm.
In fact, he had always found Sakura quite cute, so seeing her real appearance felt entirely natural.
But…
"Hachiman, are you really, really sure about coming here?" Sakura's voice was cautious, or perhaps lacking in confidence.
Because Hachiman had come here after she mentioned her sixth sense and believed that something might happen in this area, so he came to check it out.
But sixth sense isn't always 100% accurate.
Just like today, she didn't expect to come here with Hachiman.
The camera issue had been resolved by him, and when she encountered the store clerk, it was scary—thank goodness for Hachiman.
She knew how to be grateful.
So Sakura was still being quite obedient.
"Well, let's take a look," Hachiman said. "I actually hope something happens."
The idea that Class A might take action, which Hachiman mentioned to Ichinose and others, was not unfounded.
The current time and opportunity were just too good.
If they let it pass, it would be a huge loss.
Class A students had gathered all the class points at the start and used them to buy information about the school's true nature.
Now, after some time, any spending would make them seem less resourceful compared to students from other classes.
At the same time...
The information they had obtained through their points... had been compromised.
True, Class A students were strong.
In six days, they had lost only 4 points.
But...
Hachiman knew that by revealing the class evaluation scores, he had disrupted Class A's advantage.
Because if he hadn't exposed those scores, the students from other classes wouldn't have known about the school's true nature in advance.
And since Class A students were prepared, they would be better than the previous year's class, allowing them to create a larger gap between themselves and the other classes from the start.
That was Class A's advantage.
But now, that advantage was gone.
The published figures showed that Class A and Class B only had a gap of just over 100 points.
Class A was still ahead, but that score wasn't safe.
So there was a high chance that they would do something to maintain and solidify their position.
However, Class D had not received any information from Class A.
So perhaps Class A had approached Class C students, gathering information from the sociable Kushida. It seemed that some of Class C's students had been delinquents or troublemakers during middle school.
Now, Class C's representative, Ryuen Kakeru, had once been a very famous ruffian leader.
In fact, just from the fact that Class C had a representative, it showed that Class C students were quite formidable.
Because they had achieved something that Class D lacked... unity, rather than a disorganized mess.
Hachiman hadn't met Ryuen, but he had seen his name and face on the roster.
But the methods that delinquents or troublemakers would use might not be something regular students could easily handle.
Class A's target was probably Class B, but Hachiman didn't think his class would be safe.
After all, all four first-year classes were involved. If one was attacked, all of them could be.
Of course...
Perhaps Class D would be underestimated and seen as the easiest to handle, so they might be the first target.
Thinking this...
"Is that guy not coming?"
Suddenly, an impatient male voice echoed in the hallway.
Hachiman and Sakura were just around the corner of the stairs.
The voice was not far from them.
Hachiman's body reacted immediately.
He was quick.
In an instant, he rushed forward, grabbed Sakura, and covered her lips with his hand.
"Shh."
Hachiman made a quieting gesture, probably to signal Sakura to stay quiet while he tried to eavesdrop.
But…
Eh, eh, eh!?
She was hugged by a boy, a boy, a boy!
Sakura hadn't even realized what had happened before Hachiman grabbed her.
But facing Hachiman's actions, she had no choice but to obediently nod her head.
Meanwhile, Hachiman's attention was focused ahead.
He could already see the side profile of the boy who had spoken.
From the information he had, he recognized this as a student from Class C named Ishizaki Daichi.
This meant that although he had spent 80,000 points to get the class roster, the information was now being put to use.
Furthermore, because he had sold the information to Sakayanagi, Hachiman actually hadn't spent any money at all.
"Can I borrow the camera for a bit?" Hachiman whispered.
"Mmm... yes." Sakura, perhaps remembering that Hachiman had told her to stay quiet, nodded obediently.
At this point, she really wanted Hachiman to release her soon.
Because this contact felt strange, and her heart was racing.
Hachiman, holding the camera, lightly walked to the corner. Because he was standing on tiptoe, he didn't make a sound.
He then quietly switched the camera to video mode.
Peeking out, he looked toward the hallway.
In the hallway, three boys were leaning against the wall, smoking and complaining.
"Don't worry, he'll come."
One of the delinquent boys with brown hair flicked the cigarette butt onto the floor and crushed it underfoot, sneering. "That fool who gets triggered by a single word—after seeing the letter we wrote, how could he possibly hold back?"
"You're right."
The other delinquent, with medium-length red hair, also laughed. "If this guy weren't so stupid, we wouldn't have gone after him."
"Hey, keep it down!"
Ishizaki Daichi, whom Hachiman recognized, scolded them. "Sudo's coming soon, so keep your voices down. We don't want him to hear us. If we ruin Ryuen's plan, we're all done for."
"Make sure he beats all of us up later."
"I got it."
Hearing Ryuen's name, the delinquent with brown hair shuddered slightly and nodded.
"Damn it! Where are you? Get out here!"
Just as the red-haired delinquent was about to speak, an angry voice suddenly came from the stairwell below.
"Keep it down!"
Ishizaki Daichi cursed, "Are you stupid?"
They had deliberately chosen this place, which didn't have cameras, so they wouldn't be discovered.
This fool was making so much noise—was he trying to make sure everyone could hear them?
"Grab him!"
Ishizaki's expression changed, and he ran down the stairs. The other two pulled the red-haired delinquent back up.
At the same time, Hachiman saw the newcomer's face clearly.
The red-haired boy surrounded by them wasn't anyone else—it was Sudo, from his own class, Sudo Ken.
He had excellent athletic ability, like a natural-born athlete.
He was also good at basketball and had already become a regular team member shortly after joining the club.
Although Hachiman had thought that Class C might attack Class D first, it seemed they had chosen... Sudo as their target.
...
"What the hell do you want!?"
Sudo's angry voice came.
The three delinquents had nearly completely restrained him. Two were holding his arms, while the other was pulling at his collar, trying to lift him up.
Sudo had been holding back all this time, remaining extremely restrained.
After all, everyone in his class was holding themselves back, trying to maintain their class's evaluation score, so he didn't want to lose points for his class.
"Beat him up!"
The three delinquents exchanged glances, then Ishizaki Daichi shouted first.
Then, he swung his fist toward Sudo Ken.
The other two also coordinated and shouted in unison.
Surrounded, Sudo's pupils shrank, but Ishizaki's fist was already flying toward him.
He braced himself and took the hit.
Then, almost instinctively, he broke free from their restraints and swung his fist toward Ishizaki.
Ishizaki, sensing the attack, instinctively adopted a blocking posture, but then suddenly lowered his hands, as if he had given up resisting.
At that moment...
Bang!
Sudo Ken's punch landed first, hitting Ishizaki square in the face.
"Damn it! Want to fight? Come on!"
Sudo Ken cursed loudly, clearly furious.
To him, it was obvious that the other side had made the first move.
Even if this was brought up afterward, he could argue that it was self-defense.
At that point, he would be able to avoid most of the responsibility.
In that case, he wouldn't have to worry about a thing.
It must be said, considering this step, it really put Sudo in a difficult position.
However, the unfortunate truth is that he fell for the trap.
"Th-those people did it on purpose."
Sakura's timid and surprised voice rang in Hachiman's ear. Perhaps because she saw the fight, the girl's face appeared somewhat pale.
Sakura didn't hear the earlier conversation among Ishizaki and the others, but she had seen the fight scene.
"Mm."
Hachiman lightly nodded.
Even Sakura could see that Sudo was completely trapped and couldn't see the situation clearly.
Although he was currently facing three people, a careful observation would show that the three boys preparing to fight him were deliberately holding back.
At the same time, though it seemed Ishizaki Daichi made the first move, from an observer's point of view, it was clear that while he arranged for two delinquents to hold Sudo, when Sudo struggled, they didn't use their full strength.
This meant they were deliberately letting Sudo break free and fight back!
This wasn't a real fight.
Now, they were provoking Sudo, essentially setting him up to get angry.
"Ah~ that hurts!"
"Damn it, Sudo, stop!"
"Ah, you're done for, Sudo, you're done for!"
?
"Did I use that much force?" Sudo said, completely confused. "And, Komiya, I haven't even touched you yet! Are you trying to play act or what?!"
The other red-haired delinquent, Komiya, had already fallen to the ground.
"Wh-what should we do..." Sakura, who had never seen such a thing before, seemed nervous.
"Sudo fell for it." Hachiman said. "This isn't just a normal fight, Class C students are trying to stir things up."
"And what we can do is..."
Class C students were using violent methods, and if they stopped here, everyone might be threatened.
So...
Perhaps it was time to take this opportunity to fight back.
"And Sakura," Hachiman looked at her, "can you keep quiet about this for now?"
"Eh? Uh... mm."
Sakura nodded.
Actually, with her introverted personality, if she were alone and saw a scene like this, she might not even dare to show her face.
...
So.
The next day.
When Hachiman arrived in class, he wanted to check on Sudo, but he found the students in the class looking uneasy.
Because.
"It's all Sudo's fault, we're going to lose a lot of points now!"
"We were all trying to control ourselves and maintain the class evaluation score, but that idiot Sudo..."
"We don't even know how many points we're going to lose!"
From a distance, Hachiman could already hear the noisy voices inside Class D.
"I told you, there are three of them on their side!"
"But..."
At the same time, Sudo was desperately trying to explain something to Kushida and Hirata, while Ike and Yamauchi were lying on their desks, muttering, "It's all Sudo's fault..."
It seemed like something had happened.
When Hachiman arrived, he noticed that Sakura, who usually needed to be teased to cheer up, was nervously glancing over at him.
Hachiman gave her a reassuring look.
"Hikigaya-kun," the angelic Kushida ran over from Sudo and caught Hachiman's attention, also drawing the attention of Hachiman's seatmate, Horikita Suzune. "Something big might happen."
When Horikita looked over, the one who was good at gathering information quickly explained, "The members of Class C's basketball club have filed a complaint against Sudo. They say that after club activities ended, Sudo attacked them alone."
"And they want the school to make a proper judgment. If necessary, they're asking for Sudo's expulsion!"
"..."
Horikita didn't speak, or rather, she seemed to feel that this was a bit too much.
After all, she hadn't experienced anything like a fight herself.
However, she looked at Hachiman.
Because if this issue wasn't handled well, it could affect the class evaluation score.
Soon, Chabashira-sensei entered for the routine morning meeting, but today, it was undoubtedly about the incident where Sudo attacked someone.
"I was acting in self-defense, it was self-defense!" Sudo sat at his desk, pounding the table and trying to defend himself.
"I told you, it wasn't like that! There were three of them!"
Sudo's face was filled with anger as he desperately tried to explain to his classmates. "They made the first move! I was just defending myself! Self-defense!"
"But, they've already filed the complaint."
Clearly, others didn't believe Sudo's words.
Considering his usual delinquent behavior, always provoking others, it was hard to imagine that he would only fight back after someone else struck first.
They were more willing to believe the seemingly absurd report—that Sudo Ken fought against all three of them alone.
"Chabashira-sensei," Hachiman asked. "Class C filed a complaint against Sudo?"
"Mm." Chabashira nodded, then looked at him. "The student council president has accepted it, and a hearing will take place next week. Sudo, I, and two other defenders will need to attend."
This was the information she had just received.
And this news was quite significant.
Because once it was confirmed that a fight had occurred, there would be a severe point deduction.
This would be especially scrutinized in the behavioral assessment.
If the situation was serious enough, the deduction would be even greater.
So...
Class D was now left with only 480 points, and with the usual one or two points being deducted daily, it meant that Hachiman's plan to accumulate class evaluation points this month... was about to fail?
But only Hachiman knew, everything was under control.
Class C's actions in this behavioral assessment would lead to them becoming Class D.