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

Horikita Suzune just chickened out at the last moment, of wanting to confirm if he is asking her out?

”You were busy attending Ichinose’s exchange meeting yesterday, so you didn’t have much time in evening.”

”That’s right, you fooled me...” Result, Suzune didn’t prepare lunch today.

”The situation of founding a partner is quite special. At that time, I wanted to get out of that situation, so had no choice but to pair up with her.”

’Although I don’t know what situation Hikigaya-kun is referring to....But team member he got was better than the ones I chose, so I really had nothing to say....But, my heart still feels angry....!’

xxxxx

Classroom.

”Kushida-chan is awesome-”

~hehe~ Girl named, Kushida-chan showed her full sociability at an exchange meeting of Ichinose yesterday.

Although she didn’t get a spot on the team for her best friend Wang Meiyu, it was mainly because girl herself is a top student, so she can be used to exchange with other classes for a 1 top + 1 poor student.

It was at Yukimura’s suggestion they decided to adopt Ichinose’s class’ plan.

However, she did invite Inogashira Kokoro, whom Kushida usually played well with, to form a team, so she immediately received praise and gratitude from her friends.

Because Inogashira-san’s academic ability is really not good, and she doesn’t have many points left. So Kushida-chan was really helpful.

”Kikyo-chan?” Mei-chan discovered that Kushida seemed to be happily chatting with them just now, but now she seemed to be frowning.

”No, it’s okay.....” But, Kushida simply glanced at her phone before resuming the discussion with her friend.

[I’m going to have lunch with Horikita.] by Hikigaya-kun♡

’What? You cheating bastard!!!!’ Kushida feels that he doesn’t understand at all. ’Because you are in a relationship with me now, aren’t you? So what does it mean that you want to have dinner with Horikita Suzune?!’

Although as a close and intimate friend, Kushida-chan has come into contact with many students in love, she also knows that it is not just about sweetness, but also about jealousy, worrying about boyfriends cheating, or considering that other party has got someone impregnated, and even more negative emotions.

’It’s so annoying! Am I going to be exposed to such negative emotions just after I started dating? Obviously, love is used to relieve mental stress. But now it has become a terrible negative effect!’ Kushida-chan felt that something was definitely wrong.

xxxxxx

”Ding ding!”

Hachiman found that he had received a single message from Yukimura on his phone.

Actually, he received it last night.

It’s just that he was studying about trying to date with Kushida last night, so ignored him.

But if ignore him now, he will continue to send messages. The following is Yukimura’s information.

[Hikigaya, there are 39 students in class right now. A total of 12 have formed teams, but there are still 27 who are left....]

[Among our class, those with academic ability above B- who haven’t formed a team are me, Horikita, Kushida, Hirata, Koenji and Wang Mei-yu]

To be honest, it is not easy to find someone willing to take lead in a class like this.

Even Suzune feels quite frustrated and tired, is now back to her reading.

Hachiman then sent a message.

[Horikita told me yesterday that she thinks method of combining top and poor students in Ichinose’s class, exchanging with other is a good idea, which can solve the problem of forming a team with double number of people at once.]

[We can appease the students first and talk about it later in afternoon. On the one hand, class is unwilling to give points and cannot recruit people. On the other, there are too many poor students. So we will continue to use the lottery method.]

[There are 6 top students in our class, so we can exchange with 6 poor students from other classes. But for the rest, they can only recruit people by themselves.]

In other words, top students are willing to agree....

[Understood] Yukimura looked at his phone and then put it down.

At this time, Chabashira-sensei walked in.

Today, she was quite ordinary, still wearing black silk stockings, but it was a pity that she didn’t wear high heels today.

”Chabashira-sensei.” Seeing her coming in, Yukimura, who was surrounded, said quickly, ”Can I borrow the meeting time for a while?”

”Oh?” Although Sae-chan no longer has any ambitions, she still hopes that her students can grow.

Even if he is from Class D.

So, Yukimura stood at the podium and began to talk about plan proposed by Hachiman.

In other words, today team of six top students in class will be sold.

But you can get along with 6 poor students in your class for free.

”Why is this happening...!”

But yesterday, classmate Hirata had already asked in group that if they formed a team with first-year Class D, each student would have to contribute 100,000 points, but those with good academic ability or who felt they were okay were unwilling to contribute, so only poor students were left who were willing to contribute 80,000 points.

And now, does that mean that 6 people don’t have to pay?

This method has made some poor students feel satisfied!

Because there are 10 people in class with academic ability ranging from E- to E+.

So even if the lottery draws 6, probability of them winning is very high, they can get through it safely.

These sleeping bots who don’t want to do any hard work now feel very much satisfied.

But, some random people were immediately looked disgusted. Those are with academic ability D and D-.

Because, Yukimura’s proposal to replace top students with poor meant that E-level students were disposed of.

But isn’t it still a bit dangerous for those with D academic ability?

”That’s it in general. After that, we’ll have to rely on everyone’s own efforts. That’s all I can do. Besides, teaming up with first-year students is everyone’s own responsibility, isn’t it?” In other words, after making this arrangement, you have to put down your responsibility and be selfish.

”--” But, Chabashira-sensei remained quietly standing aside, in fact she has decoded by now most people in this OG Class D are selfish.

And it’s not just Hachiman’s batch, but even before whom she taught and was classmates with.

Compared to leaderless or chaotic situation when people first entered school, they are now barely able to get by.

Although Chabashira was a little surprised that it was Yukimura instead of Suzune who was standing on the podium.

But she also knew the reason why Hikigaya didn’t want her to come up now. ’This is extent of the matching that can be arranged, and rest is students’ own responsibility. If it was Horikita, she would definitely say something like ”After all, it’s because you are not academically capable that you were left behind, so I really can’t understand what you have to complain about?”

So, now students began to look forward to lottery after school in the afternoon.

During lunch break, a very terrible news came.

xxxxxx

”Everyone, something bad has happened!”

Some students have been following team formation information on OAA.

But it happened quickly.

”All students in Class A of first grade have been matched. And there aren’t many students left in first-year class B, and same goes for C!”

That is to say. Just a lunch break was over and food was taken up by Ryuen, Ichinose and Sakayanagi.

So, only candidates left to match with are... Class D of first grade, right? And would Hosen really be willing to match up with them?

”I’m sorry. They are still the same as yesterday, insisting on matching 500,000 points per person.”

The students stayed in classroom, and someone sent a message to contact people in Class D of Grade 1.

Among them, Kushida-chan, who has the best communication skills, was forced to use her assets, and contact students in Class D.

But result was... they even rejected plan of binding and exchanging the top with poor students.

”Things suddenly became quite difficult....” Suzune passed a comment like that, And now, Hachiman was staying with her in the library.

From data query on the tablet, we can know that first-year class A has been fully matched, while there are still 2 people left in first-year class B who have not.

One of them is Yagami Takuya, fanboy who expressed his desire to be matched with Kushida-senpai at the exchange meeting.

The first-grade class C has also been fully matched.

There are still 40 students in Grade 1 Class D who have not been snapped up.

In other words, this was Hosen’s order, otherwise would match with anyone.

”Yeah....” Hachiman sighed too.

xxxxxxx

Sakayanagi, Ichinose done. Ryuen’s class was still short of a dozen students.

But there are still 27 people missing in Hachiman’s class.

The plan that Suzune learned from Ichinose, which was to match top students in her own class with those in the other class, and then have top students in other match her own class to form a combination of top and poor students, was also ineffective.

Because now there are only 2 people from Class B of Grade 1 and 40 from Class D.

”So....” Suzune sat on a seat on the first floor of library, looking at the beautiful girl with long silver hair across the table.

Hiyori’s skin is white and translucent, somewhat like the snow girl described in novels.

However, she has a very scary, and dark aura, reading a book, ”Ryuen-kun is also annoyed now. But it shouldn’t be a big problem.....”

The school gives one week to make pairs.

Now, most of matches have been completed just the next day after the exam rules were announced.

Although deadline is still there, still 10 people in Class D of Grade 2 who have not been matched.

”Because even if Hosen is holding on and passively matching, when time is up, school will randomly match. But your Class D should be fine, Shiina-san,” Well, at least Suzune thought so, this is way of trying to provide comfort.

”....Are you teasing me, Horikita-san?”

”• •” Suzune didn’t say anything to that kind of question, knowing she was trying to look superior in front of a girl whom she lost in a quiz before.

But remaining 10 unmatched students in Ryuen’s class all have academic abilities above C+.

Even if you encounter E...it shouldn’t be a big problem.

When Suzune came to the library, she happily walked towards Hiyori, without any kind of restraint, hoping to unite with Ryuen.

Because first-year class D refused to match with others, number of students in Ryuen’s was not fully matched.

But now it seems that Ryuen class is preparing to respond passively.

”Anyway, let’s invite 1st-year Class D students out first. I’m counting on Kushida to do her job.”

”Indeed,” Suzune had no objection.

”.....” Kushida-chan who didn’t even open her mouth until now. ’Your sister! Like hell I would!’

But, girl started texting messages even though she was cursing loudly inside her heart.

xxxxx

After waiting for about 10 minutes, four of them sat at Hiyori’s desk and looked at entrance of the library.

But this is Hiyori’s territory, she just sits there and eat her books.

As for Suzune, when she saw Nanase Tsubasa, went straight over to her.

”Hello!” However, person who greeted her was Kushida-chan. This is also time when Suzune finally learned how to use her.

Because the person who has Nanase Tsubasa’s contact information is Kushida, who is good at adjusting the atmosphere at times like this is also her superpower.

Although Kushida felt unhappy that her lunch was taken away by Horikita, she now had to be her tool.

Only, her circle of friends in Kushida Empire is also expanding, so now she has decided to accept the first-year students as well. So, took the initiative to contact junior Nanase.

”This way, this way, Nanase-san.” Kushida-chan trotted over and held this junior’s hand, even making her way using her fingers as if welcome an extraordinary person.

This gesture seemed to make Nanase feel a little flattered.

Hachiman thought that if he gave Kushida a few more days, should be able to get some information out of this junior high school girl.

Hachiman always felt Nanase was in danger, but it didn’t seem to be to him, so it seemed there was no problem if he didn’t ask any questions.

”Actually, I also looked at the data matching on OAA today,” Nanase is smart and knows this must be the reason why she was found out, ”The students in class are a little worried about evaluation score becoming 0. So even though people were ordered by Hosen-kun, everyone still wants to get some extra points.”

Meaning, exam was treated casually.

Even though you might not be able to get class evaluation score in this exam.

If you are matched with a sophomore who is not very good, or even fail together, you will have no money in the next three months. So, students in Grade 1 Class D started to panic.

However, due to existence of Hosen, people dared not operate it at will.

It seems to be at a stalemate.

”Then we also considered applying to students in Class D of second year to form a team. We offered 300,000 per person, but were rejected.”

’Um....From this perspective, you are actually quite naive. Because what you said means that your class actually wants to get points from them and become the only one, right Then both parties are in a dilemma, so price can be cut down....’ Hachiman’s camera was coldly analyzing this junior as to find out her faults.

”It seems that if we want to solve the problem of forming a team for this exam, we have to deal with Hosen,” Even Suzune also began to think.

But, Kushida-chan remained quiet.

Just like she had excluded Koenji from her own Kushida Empire a long time ago, she didn’t want to include everyone in the category of friends, and would not add anyone who was difficult to deal with.

Especially someone like Hosen who actively commits violence in class.

”Ding ding!”

Just when the negotiations seemed to be stuck, Nanase Tsubasa suddenly picked up her cell phone.

”Huh!” She seemed a little surprised.

”What’s wrong?” Suzune obviously noticed her condition.

”Hosen-kun sent a message,” Nanase gave an answer to her question in a troubled manner.

Hosen was suspended from school, so he didn’t attend class.

The other party also has a tablet issued by the school. So, current matching situation is queried.

”He said previous price of $8 million had dropped. The advantage is no longer to our class now, so if you agree. Then let’s meet here in the library tomorrow night to talk. And in terms of price, our class can go down. However, I hope you can send three people who can speak up.”

“.....” Suzune.

“???” Kushida-chan. ’Why do you mean by $8 million? Shouldn’t it be yen?!’

”No problem,” Hachiman agreed directly, ”But the negotiators on our side will be replaced. Horikita, Kushida and I will not participate.”

Huh? At this time, everyone looked at him in confusion.

Because you’re not participating?

xxxxxx

Author’s Note

If you want to Read 45+ Advanced Chapters ahead of everyone. Support this novel, join me on Patreon!

Link - /CoteLover

We have a stockpile upto Chapter 770 for you to binge-read! 🥳

Ichinose & Hiyori’s Chess vs Sakayanagi in bedroom, if you’d like to Read now! 😈