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

’Kushida, if this is the way you want to vent, definitely not love...’ Hachiman rudely thought to himself.

In this way, he spent a very nervous day after parting with Kushida. The next day was Wednesday, so had to continue taking classes.

“You....”

“....Hikigaya.”

“Are you stalking me?”

“....I don’t think so. It was a chance encounter.” Hachiman meets Kiyotaka in the elevator who seems to be not ready to go to school, taking yawns.

However, two did not talk too much. They just kept a proper distance and walked towards teaching building together.

“Hikigaya-senpai, Ayanokoji-senpai.”

As two were walking across the lawn, they were approached by a cute girl with golden hair.

This is junior girl Nanase who has  a pair of clear and firm blue eyes.

Although they were wearing the same uniform as Kushida, but when freshmen wore it, gave people a  nostalgic feeling like they were not junior schoolmates and really became Senpai.

“Are you friends? I saw you two yesterday in a cafe?”

“Hello. Nanase, have you successfully formed a team?”

“Eh? This...In fact, yesterday, Hosen-kun forced us not to form a team. He only allowed one team spot to be sold for 500,000. Everyone was impressed by his violence, so...This kind of thing...” Junior Nanase seemed to be very resistant.

Then, subject changed by herself.

“.....” Kiyotaka, who noticed the manipulation using his own eyes.

“By the way, Hikigaya-senpai, what do you think of violence? Are you in favor or against?”

“.....” Hikigaya-senpai knew that a bastard who is currently standing beside him must be laughing inside at his misery, “I don’t think there’s a yes or no argument. It should be about how and when to use it.”

“I see, there is such a saying,” Nanase has also read this quote on the internet. It seems like she is thinking about Hikigaya-senpai’s plan.

“Then what about Ayanokoji-senpai?” Nanase Tsubasa looked at the boy who didn’t even open his mouth yet with very big eyes.

“.....” Kiyotaka felt that his presence was very low. ’Logically speaking, this Kouhai Nanase shouldn’t know anything regarding me..But, I often felt this girl look at me first when she saw me and Hikigaya...Even during her first arrival with Hosen, I noticed both....Is she waiting for my reply?’

“If I have to choose between the two, then I should be the affirmative one.”

“Me too, Senpai! Me too!”

“Nanase-san——”

She wanted to say something more, but the friend she just made at school called her away.

She had no choice but to look apologetic to two seniors and then followed her classmates away.

“Do you know her?”

“I don’t have any memory of her.”

“.....” Hachiman. ’You don’t have any memory of her, which means that you and Kushida are similar to each other in some way, both of you remembering everything around you? Really, I still couldn’t understand genius...But, According to my analysis, this Nanase actually has some issues. But judging from her previous behavior towards others. This school girl seems to be a good kid who is upright, does not succumb to violence, and is tough and polite. She must have some problem that made her want to ask others. Then, you want to get the answer from here. But this is not necessarily the case.....’

Hachiman thought of the plot of a passionate manga he read in junior high school.

’That was Naruto, and before Uchiha Itachi exterminated his clan, he asked Kakashi if it was very important to fulfill the promise made to his friends. Then, Kakashi’s answer at that time was. So, Itachi went to exterminate the clan. It sounds very creepy. Looking at this girl now. Hello, hello. Nanase, are you planning to do something dangerous? You asked about violence, so you want to use it?!’

xxxxxx

Although they met a junior girl, distance from dormitory to teaching building was not far, so Hachiman and the others arrived at classroom quickly.

As soon as he arrived, immediately found that classmates were discussing about forming teams.

Although only one day had passed since they learned exam rules, students discovered that nearly a quarter of their classmates had successfully formed teams.

“Why didn’t you call me after you successfully formed a team, Akito?”

“Ichinose’s exchange meeting was right there. It’s your fault that you didn’t go! I have no obligation to help you find a place.”

As soon as Hachiman arrived in the class, he found that something was not right with his classmates.

It should be said that some of them were blaming each other.

And after listening carefully, he found out that it was about what Karuizawa reported yesterday.

They followed Suzune, Kushida to Ichinose’s exchange meeting.

Then, many people successfully teamed up with some first-year students on the spot.

But if this kind of thing doesn’t explode on its own, we can only check it from the OAA data.

That is to say, some people haven’t successfully formed a team yet, but they keep refreshing the query to check data on OAA to see who has successfully formed a team, right?

“Hikigaya-dono—”

Hachiman came to his desk and put down his schoolbag. Immediately a student came over.

He is a slightly plump classmate from another row who is good at using computers.

“What’s the matter?” Hachiman looked at him.

”Um... no, no,” But, Sotomura quickly shook his head, and then returned to his position, senses giving a high alert to run.

Even though Hachiman was confused, he looked at his phone.

Someone was talking in Yukimura’s cram school group. It was Miyake.

He was the first one to arrive today, and ended up being besieged by several students.

Among these students, two are poor with only E academic ability, and the other two have D-

It turned out news that he had successfully formed a team was discovered.

Then they were asked, since they had formed a team, why didn’t they bring us along? Why did you go to the exchange meeting and only formed a team on your own?

There are more poor students in this class than Chabashira Sae could ever manage properly to teach.

They never sympathize with others and never reflect on themselves.

“I’ve already said it. I went to the exchange meeting yesterday and happened to meet a junior from Class B of first grade. With his help, we successfully formed a team!” Yukimura who arrived very early, was surrounded by people with no faces.

Hachiman checked the OAA data.

A total of 12 people from Grade 2 Class B successfully formed a team.

Eleven of them were members of Karuizawa group, and then included Yukimura’s cram school.

However, compared to Yukimura who is now being held accountable or asked for help, Karuizawa team is very calm.

Because Karuizawa and her group of hot girls are usually aggressive, and now Student council president has been changed, but her identity as the discipline committee member is still retained.

In particular, some people heard that Asahina-senpai from Class A of 3rd year had to spend 1 million points to buy position of the Discipline Committee.

Karuizawa-san’s is free, in other words, she has approval of the student council president.

But in eyes of ordinary students, it is better not to provoke her. So, the small team of Karuizawa is very relaxed now.

Discussing what to eat in the evening.

And Hachiman also knew why he was approached by the classmate from Sotomura just now, because he also successfully formed a team.

The person Hachiman teamed up with was a junior from Class A, Grade 1, Ichika Amasawa, who had an A academic ability.

Sotomura probably hoped that he could help make some connections, and see if this A-level junior girl could introduce other first-year students with good academic ability.

However, this kind of exam only requires passing and not dropping out of school, rather than competing for first or second place to get class evaluation scores or rewards.

Hachiman is unwilling to pay attention to this garbage class. Because, real solution is not the current one.

It should be to use class’s brand effect and money to bribe first-year students. You can bribe students with both good and average academics.

On the one hand, these students can team up with own classmates, and on the other hand, can choose people who seem to have average academic ability but... are excellent in other aspects.

In other words, The evaluation is not just based on academic ability, but also on future development of these first-year students in other project exams.

Then, build a good relationship now.

After all, since there is an inter-grade exam, will definitely be a second one.

So this can be a win-win situation.

However, Hikigaya-kun is not the class representative now, so he looked at the person sitting next to him.

’One advantage of coming to this class every day is that, a very beautiful girl sitting next to me, and sometimes when I am distracted, I can even look at her profile....And today, Horikita’s face can also score 95 points!’

Just right at the moment, Suzune also looked over, “You seem to be in a good mood today.” She seemed to be in a bad state.

“It’s okay. Something good happened yesterday,” Hachiman looked at Suzune intently, but girl turned her head away and was not going to talk to him.

“...Are you angry?” ’Although we have been desk mates for more than a year and I have seen her calm, expressionless, serious, or angry face for more than a year, her attitude today is stronger than usual....’



“I’m usually like this.” Suzune said this in a leisurely tone, but this sentence can be translated as, [I am angry].

“I was just analyzing calmly and rationally. You were supposed to attend Ichinose-san’s exchange meeting yesterday, but it seemed like you went to hang out with Ayanokoji-kun. Then I was thinking of reserving a spot for you to form a team, but you already made it with a first-year student in Class A, whose academic ability was also A. Moreover, this morning in elevator, you walked away with Ayanokoji-kun. I was just thinking about the difference between two of us.”

“…” Hikigaya-kun recognized it immediately. ’So this is not anger but the poison called jealousy! By the way, since you were in the elevator just now, say hello to me!’

“Did you seriously reserve a team spot for me?” Hachiman asked very calmly as if to not blast her bubble.

Although he no longer needs to form a team, if there are vacancies, they can still be given to those who need them.

“Yesterday, Yagami from Class B of first year introduced some classmates to come here. I blocked a spot. And your academic ability can only be rated D right now. Although it seems safe, it would still be more reassuring to team up with someone like C or B-, right? This time, our second-year students will exceed the syllabus by 20%. I have asked Chabashira-sensei privately, and content beyond the syllabus may rise to level of what will be learned in college. So, even if you prepare in advance and study on your own, you won’t get many points. Then for us, test paper only becomes a full score of 80 points.....Then, possibility of getting high scores and making points will decrease. That’s why we need some first-year students with good academic ability to form a team....I was just worried----”

“Right....” Hachiman thought up for a moment on how to make it up for her, “Would you like to have lunch together?”

“???” Suzune looked over in confusion, “Are you trying to bribe me?”

In fact what she wanted to ask is a very serious question like, are you asking me out on a..Date? But, she just chickened out at the last moment.

xxxxxx

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