COTE: A Man On A Mission || Love is War?

“Even you can’t forgive yourself?”

• ! •

Eh?

Hearing powerful but creepy words, Ichinose instantly turned into a scared little bunny with long ears.

Because what on earth is Hikigaya-kun talking about?

“Don’t you want to admit it?”

Of course not!

Hachiman nodded, he won’t be fooled by this kind of silence that is not wanted, “Indeed. Because I came here with new hopes for this school, I feel that I finally have a chance to be reborn. I want to study hard and have a good future or accumulate enough points to graduate with.”

“And, you chose to let go of the past, and even took initiative to tell a senior about the dark history that you had kept in your heart. But Ichinose didn’t expect to be betrayed by this senior.”

“In fact, you know very well, right? This time, they are targeting you, not just because of some class competition. Sakayanagi from Class C will not target you as a strategy in this manner because in the letter a few days ago, there was one rumor that I agreed with.”

“That’s the first rule. If you’re in Class A, your class won’t be able to keep its status. So only the class that Ichinose was born in is easy to beat.”

“And Sakayanagi must know such things, so there’s no point in her competing with your class.”

“• •” Ichinose who was just called a retard. ’Ah this....I don’t know how I feel after being rejected so harshly all of a sudden....’

“Um, Hikigaya-kun, what you said earlier... I told a senior about my dark history. Is this...”

“This is true, isn’t it? Your behavior now has proven that Author-san was right about you!”

“Author?” But Ichinose’s expression became more and more shocked.

“Don’t show such an exaggerated expression,” Hachiman really didn’t like her face, “I am just looking at things from the perspective of a human observer.”

“Observer?” It seemed like this was first time that Ichinose heard this title.

“Yes, that’s because after class I usually have no friends, so I can only stay in my seat, but I don’t want to be bored, so I start observing the people around me. I call this kind of behavior a human observer,” Hachiman’s camera was very cruel right now, “You’ll discover a side of people that you never expected.”

’Forehead.....I always feel that Hikigaya-kun has a lot of negative emotions now.’

“It’s not nice to bother you at this late,” Ichinose still pretended to be a good hearted kind angel, “But Hikigaya-kun, I don’t quite understand what you’re saying.....”

”It seems that you don’t trust me.” Hikigaya-kun said as if he was sighing, “Ichinose, I’m disappointed. I thought we were friends.”

“Mmmmm—” Ichinose-san suddenly felt that her conscience was severely condemned.

Finally, after she opened her mouth and was unable to speak for a long time, she finally said, “Um, Hikigaya-kun, can you tell me how you know that I have a dark history?”

”It depends on analysis.” Hachiman won’t show mercy, as long as she is going to be a fool who doesn’t know shit, “First, you were reported for having a huge amount of points, and then it was report from Sakayanagi.”

“At that time. You responded directly, flexibly and appropriately, without appearing to be humble or overbearing. And Sakayanagi won’t let anyone who targets her have an easy time, so she has some countermeasures for this.”

“• •” Air conditioner.

“Did the students from Class C catch people from Ryuen-kun’s class red-handed?” Ichinose who didn’t know anything at all.

“Fine, be like this. Two days before they were caught red-handed, I saw boys in Class C looked listless, and I concluded they might be doing something which required a lot of energy and prevented them from sleeping well. Then caught perpetrators red-handed, I knew that Sakayanagi had arranged for students in the class to wait for the criminals.”

“Hai! Hai!” Ichinose nodded excitedly, as if she was solving a mystery puzzle.

“• •” Air conditioner. ’Man, what’s the point if you don’t even use me....?’

Sakayanagi is her friend, although she looks weak and polite. But she is also representative of the class.

She is very decisive in doing things, which is completely different from her.

It should be said that you can’t judge a book by its cover.

“But Sakayanagi didn’t stop. That’s why there was a rumor that she arranged for Hashimoto to degrade your good girl image.”

“Eh....your words are getting ou----”

“I think she thinks that Ryuen’s class is not the culprit. It is better to say that she has obtained more important information from Ryuen’s people. Then she found out that Class D was just a tool. The people behind the scenes gave Ryuen and his friends some orders. When Sakayanagi learned about this news, she couldn’t believe it, so she arranged for Hashimoto to take action. The purpose was to get the answer,” As Hachiman said this, he looked into Ichinose’s eyes, “To get the answer, whether the news she got is true.”

Woo.....

Ichinose quickly avoided his gaze.

“It seems that you really know who is behind,” Hachiman added, “And you also know that your dark history has been exposed by the other party.”

Ah this.....At this point, Ichinose-san no longer knew where to look.

Because now she felt like she was not wearing any clothes in front of Hikigaya-kun.

Because everything is seen through.

Ichinose has no more fig leaf to cover her naked body.

After being brought here by Hikigaya-kun, she found that what she wanted to hide was seen through by him.

And now, Hikigaya-kun was looking at her.

“I am a Human observer.”

“….” Ichinose.

Meow. She seemed to be under tremendous pressure.

As a student with strong affinity and excellent social skills, she actually understands that although Kushida-chan also looks like a little angel, she is not quite the same as her.

After building a good relationship with others, Kushida-chan seems to like to break through walls of others’ hearts and get their secrets.

Become close friends.

And now, it seems that her own secret has been seen through by Hikigaya-kun.

“Okay.” Ichinose finally gave in to the look in her eyes, “Actually, it happened last month. Not long after the forest exam. I met a sophomore who had a very painful experience. She was in a very bad mood and even wanted to drop out of school. She told me about it.”

“Then....” Ichinose seemed a little hurt, and then said, ”I told her about my past, hoping to encourage her that there is still hope in life.”

”But...” She was now wavering again, and hesitant to speak.

In other words, she found that she might have been betrayed by this senior.

“....” And Hachiman was thinking.

Timing between Ichinose and this senior who met was very subtle.

The forest exam was over, and that was when Nagumo withdrew from the election.

At that time, Nagumo did not want to withdraw from the competition for power, so he had to use Kiriyama to command the entire school.

So he has to clear the obstacles for Kiriyama to become student council president.

There are only 111 sophomores and 132 juniors left.

Among them, Sakayanagi has a fixed 100 votes among third graders.

Therefore, even if Nagumo collected remaining 32 votes from third-year students, he still had to get the support of the first-year.

At least get support from two classes.

Otherwise, he still can’t be better than Sakayanagi.

Because Sakayanagi will definitely get 40 votes from her own class, and then 100 from 3rd grade, minimum is 140 votes.

Hachiman and Sakayanagi have a good personal relationship, so Nagumo probably thought that votes from his class were also for her.

Then Sakayanagi has a guaranteed 180 votes.

Nagumo’s side is becoming dangerous, and at least one and a half classes of first graders must be conquered.

’Among them, Ryuen’s class is extremely poor, so they can be bribed with money, but Ichinose’s side...’ Suddenly, Hachiman felt that everything is connected.

’If Nagumo wants to collect tickets, then Ichinose’s class, that is, she, must be conquered.After conquering Ichinose, you can get the tickets for her class.As for the Ryuen class attacking Ichinose... it was obvious that Nagumo had paid a price that was enough to tempt children. He could even arrange to do something.And it is not surprising that Nagumo chose Ryuen’s class to take action.In the last semester, Nagumo had shown kindness to Ichinose several times, but it was ruined by me several times. So he also knew that his image was gone....’

Then, he needed to change approach.

This is disgusting in another way.

’First arrange someone to get close to Ichinose, and then gain her trust. A kind person like Ichinose is easy to be fooled.Isn’t this just a replica of the Kushida incident? However, Nagumo’s methods are much more extreme than Kushida’s, who knew other people’s secrets, but she would not reveal them unless there was danger, or she would use secrets to attack the other party.But Nagumo deliberately set a trap for Ichinose.The reason is not difficult to guess. It is probably that... Ichinose can actually be in Class A, but was assigned to B.So there must be some deduction. He wanted to see if there was anything muddy here.’

However, Hachiman does not think there is anything really terrible about Ichinose’s dark past.

’Because, according to the words of an experienced person like Kikyo Kushida, rumors must be a mixture of both truth and falsehood, so some of that released were true.’

’1. Ichinose is not fit to be a class representative, even now in Class A she will fall down quickly because of her.’

’2. Ichinose has been chosen as the next student council president’s secretary.’

’3. Ichinose Honami is a fallen angel and should not be in charge of class points.’

’These are three most mainstream rumors summarized so far.’

’The first point can be ignored. It is probably true. Being a little sheep in this school will get you eaten up.’

’Is this only thing true? Uncertain.’

’Because 3 rumors were spread under Sakayanagi’s instructions.’

’When she went to catch Ryuen’s class, she must have caught rumor that class wanted to spread, and then found something unbelievable in it.’

Therefore, Hachiman feels that first is not the key point.

’As for the second point, Ichinose is going to join student council.

This is possible because Sakayanagi is probably very confident that she can become the next student council president, so she may invite Ichinose to join.’

According to Hachiman’s thoughts, people like Sakayanagi might expel all the senior student council members.

’It is really possible to expand the membership of Student Union by asking classmates.So since two are real, does that mean third one must be fake? It is also of great concern.Ichinose Honami’s behavior is not good, she is a fallen angel. If first two are true, then last should be false.Her good conduct has always been recognized by everyone. No matter what grade you are in, there are people who like her.’

’If a person has bad character, no one will approach her.’

But there is a problem with this.

’Ichinose is also a very smart person, at least smarter than Kushida.She is kind, good at communicating with others, and has many solutions to deal with problems.So, why did you remain silent when rumors were spread like this?’

’So, last rumor might be true. Ichinose Honami has a dark side that cannot be exposed.And Sakayanagi probably got this news from Ryuen’s class, so she couldn’t believe it.That’s why they chose to let Hashimoto spread targeted rumors to test Ichinose.After this, her choice was still conservative.’

’So, she probably had already tried to get the answer she wanted.Ichinose has behaved inappropriately in the past.’

But Hachiman didn’t think that Ichinose was the kind of person who would do something extremely evil.

’Take the last time when her classmate Chihiro-chan confessed to her, and she was thinking about not hurting the other person.Nagumo arranged for Ryuen’s class to attack, and his tendency was quite obvious.’

’Either he wanted to force Ichinose to drop out of school, as her class was leaderless and he could do something shady to her, or he wanted to help Ichinose and gain her favor.’

’Similar to a hero saving a beauty.’

Hachiman tends to favor the latter.

“Did you really eat human flesh?”

xxxxxx

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