Hikigaya doesn't want to be a force of strength

The two of them then quietly left the room and came to the deck.

"As for what we discussed before, I think I still want to establish cooperation with Hikigaya-san."

"cooperate?"

"Well, now that Class A is keeping a distance from other classes, although this makes it impossible to conduct the exam, it is also a good opportunity. I wonder if it is necessary to lay everything out for this matter."

Ichinose seemed to have thought about this for a long time, and now he spoke without hesitation, "The ultimate goal of this exam is to find the favored ones. In this case, I think it is normal to increase the number of people who are not favored as much as possible and improve the accuracy rate, so I have to tell you... I am not a favored one, and then, I plan to find the favored one and bring victory to the team."

Ichinose said something that was in a sense too naive, and it even made people feel that he was stupid to a certain extent.

What can be achieved by simply stating that each is not a favored party to the other without establishing deeper cooperation?

However, this seems to be a very important matter to Ichinose.

Hikigaya could sense this.

“…Is this really weird?”

When Ichinose saw Hikigaya was silent, he immediately looked uneasy.

"Rather than being weird, why did you look for me?" Hikigaya looked embarrassed. "If I am the one who is being treated preferentially, have you ever thought of this possibility?"

"In that case, I can only consider myself unlucky." Ichinose shook his head and smiled, "Besides, letting Hikigaya-san win is not something that is unacceptable to me."

This guy's personality is really as good as an angel.

Hikigaya once again became convinced of Ichinose's personality.

However, it was precisely because of this that he was even more convinced that Ichinose would never be a match for Ryuen Sho.

If things continue to develop in this way, Class B might suffer a huge blow from Class C, and even Ichinose's own authority might be jeopardized.

If something like that were to happen, should I do something for Ichinose?

Hikigaya instinctively had this thought in his mind.

Although he hates gentle girls, he doesn't want gentle people to be treated badly. On the contrary, he hopes their gentleness will be reciprocated with kindness.

After all, even though the world itself is full of mistakes, Hikigaya still hopes that everything can have a good ending!

Chapter 368: I love you so much, Ibuki!

"I'm not a preferential treatment, Ichinose."

Faced with Ichinose Honami who frankly expressed her opinion on cooperation, Hikigaya finally silently expressed the fact that he was not a favored person.

"I see." Ichinose believed Hikigaya's words without hesitation. "If Hikigaya-san is not a favored person, then the identities of the Dragon Team's favored people can be further narrowed down."

"This..." Hearing Ichinose's words, Hikigaya curiously expressed his confusion, "Speaking of which, if you find the one who treated you well, Ichinose, what will you do? Are you going to become a traitor and report the identity of the one who treated you well to gain extra points for Class D?"

"That sounds like a very tempting idea." Ichinose shook his head silently. "Unfortunately, I don't plan to do that. Not to mention that the identity of the preferential treatment may be false, if I guess wrong, I will fall into the bad situation of result four. I personally prefer to pursue a result that makes no one lose money."

"In other words, what you want to pursue is result one?"

"Yes." Ichinose nodded calmly, acknowledging Hikigaya's guess. "I hope that both myself and the class can win fairly. Instead of becoming a traitor and doing something that makes everyone uncomfortable, it is better to pursue result one and find a result where no one loses."

"Even if this means that Class B cannot increase its class points and will have difficulty making further progress in this school that values ​​strength above all else?"

"I believe that even if we don't take any bad actions, we can still reach Class A with the unity of Class B!"

Ichinose uttered some very idealistic words.

If you hear ordinary people say such things, no one would agree with it and would not condone such fragile and foolish naivety.

However, when the person who said this was Ichinose Honami, the situation was unexpectedly different.

Even Hikigaya, when hearing Ichinose say such naive words, couldn't completely deny the other party's idea, and even couldn't help but have a little expectation for the innocent future proposed by Ichinose.

This is undoubtedly a reflection of Ichinose Honami's personal charm and leadership qualities, and is also the reason why she is able to lead Class B to its current point.

Of course, Hikigaya is not a naive person. In many cases, he is even more rational and cold-blooded than one can imagine.

So, when he learned about Ichinose's thoughts, he couldn't help but feel sorry for the girl's naivety.

If the other party continues to hold such hypocritical thoughts, sooner or later he will face huge difficulties, or even collapse in extreme cases.

Then, Hikigaya spoke in an almost cold voice:

"Ichinose, I have no intention of accompanying you to find the favored one, nor do I think it is possible for the Dragon Group to achieve Result 1."

"It's okay, it's okay. I never intended to force Hikigaya-san to take action. I just wanted to express my personal willingness to cooperate."

Ichinose seemed to not want Hikigaya to misunderstand him, so he immediately lowered his head and apologized.

The other party looked so serious that Hikigaya even felt unnecessary guilt and couldn't help wanting to tell him that Kushida was the one who favored him.

"Then I will go check if there are any preferential treatment in Class B." Ichinose heaved a sigh of relief after saying everything. "If I find any clues about the preferential treatment, I will tell you, Hikigaya, as soon as possible."

"This... it's okay if you don't tell me." Hikigaya said helplessly, "By the way, you haven't confirmed your status as a preferential treatment recipient with the people in Class B yet?"

"Whether to disclose the identity of the preferential treatment recipients should be left to the individual to choose, right?" Ichinose said calmly, "Even in Class B, there should be people in the class who want points. I can't arbitrarily affect their right to be selected as preferential treatment recipients."

"You are such a nice guy."

Hikigaya is often told that he is a good guy, but he is now firmly convinced that he is not a good guy. People like Ichinose are good guys.

The other person almost always thinks about others and thinks about problems from other people's perspectives.

If there is one imperfection about Ichinose, it is that she is too perfect.

It's so perfect that it almost seems unreal...

After hearing Hikigaya's comments, Ichinose had a strange expression on his face: "I'm not a good person, never have been..."

"??"

Hikigaya looked at Ichinose's face which seemed to be shaken, and vaguely felt something hidden beneath the other person's perfect personality.

However, since Ichinose would never voluntarily tell about her past, Hikigaya would never be able to figure out the truth about Ichinose as an individual.

……

After the discussion ended at 8 o'clock in the evening, Hikigaya did not return to the dormitory, but walked around and came to the end of the cruise ship deck.

He waited here for a while, and soon saw a girl with short blue hair and wearing a school uniform walking towards him from a distance.

"Hey, you're finally here, Ibuki."

"I never thought that there would be a day when you would order me around."

Ibuki Mio came to the deck with a helpless look on her face. The sea breeze blew her bangs, revealing the girl's face clearly.

Seeing Ibuki's obvious dissatisfaction and even frowning expression, Hikigaya didn't pay much attention and said calmly: "If you want to blame someone, blame it on your bad luck. You just happened to be assigned to the Rabbit Team, which just meets my requirements."

There are two reasons why Hikigaya borrowed Ibuki Mio from Class C.

One of them is undoubtedly the other party's excellent ability. His previous performance on the uninhabited island has proved that Ibuki has extraordinary judgment and execution ability, which is enough to carry out the covert work required by Hikigaya.

If an ordinary person were to investigate Ayanokouji, let alone find any clues, he would probably be discovered on the spot by the other party, and the identity of Hikigaya himself would be exposed.

That would be too bad.

Another reason why Ibuki Mio met Hikigaya's request, and the most important reason, was because the other party was assigned to the Rabbit Group.

As a member of the same group as Ayanokouji, Karuizawa and others, Ibuki Mio can observe the situation of the Rabbit Group under normal circumstances, and will not be like Hikigaya, who caused Ayanokouji to become suspicious of him because of his behavior of conducting reconnaissance beyond the group.

Therefore, Hikigaya borrowed Ibuki from Ryuuen and gave her the task of scouting the Rabbit Group's situation, especially asking her to keep an eye on the situation in Karuizawa.

Yes, Hikigaya didn't intend for Ibuki Mio to scout Ayanokouji.

Not to mention that this matter was too difficult and basically had no possibility of realization, it was difficult for him to come up with a suitable reason for the other party to investigate Ayanokouji.

Ayanokouji has been hiding too perfectly so far. Apart from Hikigaya's extraordinary observation ability, who can discover some clues, it is difficult for ordinary people to see through the other party's disguised appearance and see through Ayanokouji's true personality.

Therefore, he finally chose to let Ibuki observe Karuizawa, and by observing the situation in Karuizawa, he could indirectly judge the actions taken by Ayanokouji.

"Hmph, fine. It's better to be ordered around by you than by Ryuuen." Ibuki didn't seem to be too dissatisfied with the fact that he was ordered around by Hikigaya, and he quickly reported the results of his investigation.

"The girl named Karuizawa that you asked me to investigate, she did almost nothing useful during the exam. Not only did she keep looking at her phone, but she also didn't seem to have any intention of looking for the person who treated her the best. In addition, she seemed to be quite afraid of Manabe and the others. During the process, she would occasionally look for that Machida Koji from Class A, as if she wanted to seek his protection."

Ibuki Mio's observation ability is indeed not inferior at all. She was able to judge all the clues about Karuizawa Megumi based on the observation of just one exam.

The only pity is that Ibuki is not from Class D, so she doesn't know what Karuizawa usually looks like.

If she knew, she would find that the way Karuizawa behaved during the exam was not only different from her usual behavior in Class D, but at least it was very different, like two different personalities.

Karuizawa is not a girl with a strong personality like she usually shows in Class D. In essence, she is a more fragile and more inferior individual.

Of course, Hikigaya didn't care what Karuizawa's purpose was in disguising himself. The only thing he was worried about was that Karuizawa's inner vulnerability might be exploited.

That was definitely something he didn't want to see...

"Did the student named Manabe in your class ever look for Karuizawa again?" Hikigaya asked tentatively.

"Manabe?" Ibuki Mio recalled, "That girl wasn't actually sure if it was Karuizawa who hit someone. After being stopped by Machida, she gave up the idea of ​​continuing to investigate. In the final analysis, Manabe wasn't someone who would worry about her classmates. She probably just felt annoyed by Karuizawa's look, and she just found a chance to vent, so she ran over to cause trouble."

"So Manabe Shiho has given up on causing trouble for Karuizawa?"

"This..." Hearing what Hikigaya said, Ibuki shook his head hesitantly, "No, that guy doesn't seem to have given up on attacking Karuizawa from your class. Just when the exam was over today, she was stopped by a boy named Ayanokouji from your class and said something. After the exam, Manabe showed strange excitement and even took the initiative to talk to Rika. It seems that he may continue to attack Karuizawa."

"Ayanokouji..."

Hearing this familiar name, Hikigaya almost instantly figured out what was going on.

"What happened to that guy?"

Ibuki asked in confusion when he saw Hikigaya fall silent.

Hikigaya couldn't explain anything to him, so he just smiled and said, "Nothing, anyway, I'll leave it to you to investigate the Rabbit Group."

"Hmph, since it's your request, I'll do my best."

"Well, thank you!" Hikigaya nodded and looked at Ibuki's tsundere look. As he turned and left, he said half-jokingly, "It turned out that it was the right choice to find you! I love you so much, Ibuki!"

"you……"

Hearing Hikigaya's excited words, Ibuki was stunned at first, then his face suddenly turned red and he turned his head away.

Chapter 369: Is Hikigaya Boy going out on a date?

As expected, Ayanokouji attacked Karuizawa Megumi.

After confirming Ayanokouji's action pattern of trying to get Class D promoted, Hikigaya has been speculating that the other party will take the same approach as on the uninhabited island and achieve his goal by influencing other members of Class D.

Now it seems that Ayanokouji has chosen Karuizawa Megumi as his pawn in this cruise ship exam, and plans to use Manabe and others from Class C to control her.

Although Hikigaya couldn't guess what specific actions Ayanokouji would take, he basically anticipated the possible developments.

If I don't take care of it, Karuizawa will probably suffer a lot.

So, do you need to do something about it?

Hikigaya couldn't find a specific answer in his mind, but he knew that he had to continue paying attention, otherwise, he might regret it later.

……

11pm.

After finishing his conversation with Ibuki, Hikigaya returned to the dormitory and found that he was the last person to return to the dormitory.

Ayanokouji and the others were already resting in the room, doing their own things.

Hirata Yosuke saw Hikigaya coming back and showed a worried expression: "Hikigaya-san, you came back really late, did you run into any trouble?"

"This kind of test that forces people to talk is the biggest trouble for me..."

Hikigaya wasn't lying.

The cruise ship exam was indeed a torture for him, especially since he was assigned to the Dragon Team where all the members were extremely powerful.

Just thinking about the next two or three days when he would have to go to that conference room for conversation, he felt exhausted from the bottom of his heart.

"I see..." Hirata seemed to understand Hikigaya's discomfort, "But even though you look tired, I still have something I want to talk to you about. Is that okay?"

"some things?"

Hikigaya looked at Hirata in confusion.