Hikigaya doesn't want to be a force of strength

After all, Hikigaya himself felt that his actions were too bad. Not only did he expose the fact that he was the leader of Class D to Class C, but he also sold Class D's method of changing its leader to Class C.

No matter how you think about it, a traitor like me should be tied to the stake and tried.

However, Chabashi Sae did not do so. Not only did he not judge him, he did not even show any anger, which really surprised Hikigaya.

Moreover, Hikigaya had originally expected that if Chabashira Sae, as the homeroom teacher of Class D, was genuinely dissatisfied with his behavior, he would probably take some more vicious and direct methods to force himself to take action for Class D.

Specifically, he was threatened with expulsion or forced to not be allowed to go out of school to visit his sister if he did not help Class D.

Hikigaya was more worried about the latter situation.

If Chabashi Sae uses the matter of visiting Komachi as a threat, I'm afraid I really have no good way out and can only surrender.

Of course, if the other party did this, it would mean a complete break-up, so he would try his best to negotiate with the tea pillar teacher and take the initiative.

If the other party refuses to give in, he will choose to drop out of school without complaint.

After all, if he had to choose between this terrible school and his lovely sister, Hikigaya would not hesitate at all and would definitely run away immediately.

Anyway, his goal is to be a full-time househusband. Even if he doesn't have a graduation certificate or diploma, he can still survive by finding someone to support him.

What's more, even if he was forced to drop out of Tokyo Metropolitan High School, it didn't mean that he couldn't transfer to another high school.

Maybe I can go to Chiba's General Affairs High School as originally planned.

Anyway, dropping out of school might be a huge pressure and bottom line for most people in this school, but for Hikigaya it won't have even the slightest impact.

As the saying goes, as long as you don't treat troubles as troubles, troubles will not exist.

Hikigaya is the man who has taken this sentence to its fullest potential.

Unfortunately, Chabashi Sae did not make any threats to him in the end. Instead, he adopted a laissez-faire attitude towards him.

The other party’s last sentence is also very concerning.

However, Hikigaya didn't think he would get involved in class struggles, let alone take the initiative to get involved in the mess that was happening in Class D.

Chabashira-sensei still underestimated his own loneliness as a lone ranger.

……

After leaving the deck of the cruise ship, Hikigaya decided to go to the restaurant for dinner before the main group arrived while the cruise ship restaurant was open.

No matter what changes happen in life, eating is still something that must be done.

The restaurant on this cruise ship is indeed top-notch. Not only does it have a variety of rare dishes and special ingredients, but it also adopts the form of a completely free buffet.

Whatever you want to eat, just take the plate and go over and get it.

Right now, due to the torture of a week on the uninhabited island, many first-year students had similar ideas as Hikigaya and rushed to the restaurant to eat as soon as possible to comfort their stomachs that had been tormented for a week.

"As expected of a corrupt high school funded by the government, there is no restriction on the supply of so many dishes..." Hikigaya took a lot of food in one go and piled it all on his plate, making it very high. "Such corrupt and extravagant behavior, I must supervise and comment on it!"

Talking to himself, Hikigaya walked towards the corner of the restaurant with great interest, like a fisherman with a good harvest or a scavenger returning victoriously.

Due to his habit as a lone ranger, he naturally would not look for a conspicuous seat, but would first look for a hidden and remote location.

Soon, he found a nice seat, which was not only blocked by flowers but also had no one around.

He sat down happily, picked up the chopsticks expectantly, and prepared to eat——

"Hikigaya-kun?"

The sudden sound startled Hikigaya. He looked slowly in the direction of the sound and found that there was someone sitting at the other end of his seat, but he couldn't notice it because of the flowers.

"Sorry, I'll leave right away!"

At this moment, Hikigaya felt like he was relieving himself on the side of the road and accidentally discovered someone standing next to him. He was so embarrassed that he wanted to leave immediately.

The girl sitting in the seat quickly said:

"It's okay to sit here. I don't mind."

"This……"

Hearing the girl's familiar voice, Hikigaya's brain, which had been a mess due to embarrassment, finally recovered and looked at the other party in surprise, "Shiina, Shiina?"

"Yes, it's me."

Shiina Hiyori smiled, her long silver hair draped over her shoulders, and she showed the same gentle attitude as before.

Since the entire Class C returned to the cruise ship in the middle of the exam, Shiina was not as tired as the students in other classes.

The girl's face, just like before, gave people a strange feeling of being close yet distant, hazy and unclear.

Normally, meeting familiar people again should be a happy thing.

But now, when Hikigaya met Shiina again, he inexplicably recalled their last separation on the beach.

At that time, Shiina expressed her willingness to be friends with him, and Hikigaya agreed on the surface, but looking back now, she realized that it was a hypocritical answer.

He only said that out of formality, and in fact, he did not agree with their friendship in his heart.

Hikigaya felt inexplicably uncomfortable whenever he thought of this false and hypocritical attitude, and even felt a little restless right now.

However, Shiina Hiwa's attitude is much more open-minded than his.

The girl looked at him with a peaceful smile. "This time, Class C was able to achieve such a result, thanks to your great help, Hikigaya-san. Thank you."

"No, I'm just doing this for myself."

Hikigaya shook his head. The deal he made with Ryuuen was a fair one, and in some ways it was even a deal that made more money for him.

He just threatened the other party with the photos taken by Kamuro.

Therefore, it was impossible for him to accept Shiina's thanks at the moment, and he just felt guilty.

However, Shiina didn't seem to want to take back her words. She shook her head silently and said slowly: "I'm not talking about the points. So even if we can't get a few points, it won't have any impact on Class C."

"Oh? What do you mean?"

Hikigaya looked surprised.

Shiina said calmly with a smile: "It's Ryuuen-kun. Hikigaya, your actions made Ryuuen-kun realize his mistakes. Although it's only a little, I think Ryuuen-kun will change in the future and become willing to rely on the help of others."

"This……"

Hikigaya understood what Shiina Hiyori said, and also realized why Shiina did not come forward to help Class C this time on the uninhabited island.

He had been curious before. If Shiina came, she should be able to figure out how to change the leader's identity more quickly, or even predict the real leader of Class D directly.

The other party must have such ability...

But in the end, Shiina did not have any impact on the uninhabited island exam.

Whether Shiina did it on purpose or Ryuen Sho himself did not trust Shiina, it made the exam much more difficult for Class C, and in the end they were cheated by Hikigaya again.

And if we say that all of this was planned by Shiina himself, and the other party wanted Ryuen Sho to fail and learn the lesson of defeat, then it all makes sense.

After all, Class C, like Class D, has many flaws, but the biggest flaw is the flaw of the leader.

Unlike Class D, which lacks a leader with a strong hand, the problem with Class C is that the current leader of Class C is too tough and does not accept anyone's opinions.

Shiina must have seen through this, so she chose to let Ryuuen suffer, using today's failure in exchange for the future of Class C.

It seems that Shiina has indeed made up her mind to participate in the class struggle.

Is all this my fault?

Uh, probably not. I am just too conceited...

When Hikigaya was lost in complicated thoughts, he suddenly found that Shiina Hiyori was staring at him silently.

Realizing that he had left the other person aside, Hikigaya was so scared that he quickly opened his mouth to find a topic to talk about: "Well, you are alone today, aren't Ryuuen and the others with you?"

"Ryuen-kun caught a cold after being caught in the rain, and it seems he also slipped down the hillside and broke some bones. He is now recovering."

"That guy is really cruel."

Realizing that all of this was done by Ryuen Sho to deceive the school and legitimately change the leader, Hikigaya once again lamented the coldness and cruelty of the dictator king.

His reaction caused some dissatisfaction in Shiina. The silver-haired girl suddenly pouted and murmured, "Does Hikigaya-san care more about Ryuen-kun than I do?"

"what?"

Hikigaya didn't expect Shiina to say such a thing. His expression froze suddenly, and for a moment he didn't even know what to say.

But after Shiina Hiyori finished speaking, she laughed and shook her head and said, "Don't worry, I won't say that kind of thing anymore. I won't let Hikigaya-kun think of me as some heavy woman."

"This……"

"So let's temporarily withdraw what we said about being friends." Shiina suddenly spoke up with a dejected expression, "Right now, I may not be qualified to be Hikigaya-san's friend."

Chapter 328: The Lone Ranger Does Not Expect Tenderness

Shiina Hiyori is a very smart girl.

Although she was assigned to Class C, it does not mean that she only has the level of Class C. In fact, in terms of academic ability alone, Shiina is even at the top level comparable to Class A.

Moreover, compared to a pure academic master like Yukimura Teruhiko, Shiina Hiyori's learning ability is not her strongest point.

What really makes the girl outstanding and different from ordinary people is her ability to observe the details of things and figure out the logic behind them.

This is why, even though Shiina Hiyori has never participated in class struggles and spends all day in the library, he can clearly understand the confrontation situation between the classes. He can also analyze the truth of many things and make some accurate decisions just by reading on paper.

This might be difficult for ordinary people to understand, but when Hikigaya had conversations with Shiina in the library in the past, he could often feel the other person's extraordinary judgment.

Most people might think that it is something like intuition, no different from metaphysics, and is unreliable.

But in fact, if the accuracy of intuition exceeds 50%, it cannot be summarized by simple metaphysics, but is a manifestation of a more abstract comprehensive inductive ability.

Only those who have reached a terrifying level of grasp of details can understand the whole picture and even directly infer the truth of the matter based on partial observations alone.

This may also be the reason why Shiina loved mystery novels in the past.

And it is precisely because Shiina Hiyori's insight is far beyond that of ordinary people that she can easily see through what is hidden behind things through the appearance of some things.

Including the changes in the relationship between her and Hikigaya.

Before, even though Hikigaya seemed to have reconciled with her and the two of them seemed to be able to become friends, Shiina could never regard all this as a normal development.

It was at that moment that she suddenly realized what she had done wrong.

Since Shiina Hiwa herself lacks social skills and has almost never made friends with anyone, she has forgotten a very important concept in interpersonal communication, called sense of distance.

The sense of distance is a barrier-like existence that everyone encounters when they come into contact with others.

If a person forcibly contacts others without paying attention to the sense of distance, he will inevitably arouse the other party's disgust.

Only by gradually accumulating daily interactions and eliminating the sense of distance bit by bit can people truly enhance their friendship and achieve a deeper relationship.

Shiina Hiyori once pursued a deeper relationship with Hikigaya on her own, but she forgot that the distance between them was not built to the degree it should have been.

This led to things going wrong again and again, and almost led to a breakdown in the relationship.

Of course, due to Shiina's lack of dating experience, she actually did not see through another reason why problems arose in the development of their relationship, which was the peculiarity of Hikigaya himself.

Unlike ordinary people, Hikigaya's personality is really too weird.

If an ordinary person sees a cute girl like Shiina Hiwa approaching him, he will naturally lower the requirement for distance. Even some worse people, such as three idiots like Ike and Yamauchi, may become arrogant and have no idea of ​​the situation before approaching her.

In this case, even if the sense of distance is still maintained at a relatively long distance, it is possible to directly skip the accumulation steps and enter into a deeper relationship.

But unfortunately, the person Shiina Hiyori is facing is not an idiot like Ike and Yamauchi, but Hikigaya Hachiman, who is equally sensitive about interpersonal relationships.

People like Hikigaya are not only not at the average level when it comes to interpersonal relationships, they are even more nervous and cautious than average people.

For someone like him, only when the sense of distance is eliminated to a point where it almost disappears completely can he or she establish a deeper connection with complete confidence.

Otherwise, if you ignore the sense of distance and forcefully establish contact, he will certainly feel repulsed and instinctively develop all kinds of suspicion and confrontation.

Because of this, the only person Hikigaya is truly willing to open his heart to so far is his younger sister, Komachi.

That was an indestructible connection that the two siblings had established after more than a decade of interaction and connection. He was also the only person that Hikigaya was willing to let down all his defenses and show his true self.

Apart from that, no one he knew in this school was strong enough to make him let down his guard.

Shiina's failure can be said to be inevitable.

But no matter what the reason was, Shiina's extraordinary intuition made her realize that her past tough approach was wrong.