Hikigaya doesn't want to be a force of strength

The reason for this is that she has a strong obsession with her brother, Horikita Manabu.

Horikita Suzune desperately wants to prove to Horikita Manabu that she is not just a loser from Class D, but that she is capable of being called his sister, or at least qualified to be his sister.

To this end, she is eager to make Class D, which currently has a huge gap with other classes, improve beyond imagination at all costs.

However, Horikita Suzune misjudged one thing when she did all this - that is, her own ability was indeed only at the level of Class D.

Yes, there is a reason why this school assigns students.

The fact that Horikita Suzune was assigned to Class D proves that she has some huge flaws as an individual, so that even though her overall abilities are not weak, she still cannot get a rating above D.

If Horikita could recognize this, knowing her own weakness, but still summing up her experience, learning from the lessons of failure, and continuing to grow, then she, who has a not-so-bad foundation, might really be able to achieve her desired goal one day, or at least greatly narrow the gap with that goal.

But Horikita Suzune obviously didn't realize this at the moment. After experiencing so many failures, she still failed to realize her own weakness and admit her own shortcomings.

The other party attributed all previous failures to Hikigaya's peculiarity, putting all the responsibility on Hikigaya rather than her own incompetence.

This may indeed be true to a certain extent, but this kind of shirking-responsibility thinking cannot bring about real growth for him. It will only make him fall into the madness of another extreme path under the influence of obsession.

"Horikita... do you remember what I told you before?" Seeing Horikita Suzune losing control of herself due to her obsession with victory, Hikigaya sighed helplessly, "I told you on the cruise ship that I never regarded you as a sister who needs my protection, nor as a substitute for your brother."

"This……"

After hearing what Hikigaya said, Horikita seemed to recall what had happened, and her originally anxious face gradually regained its rationality.

"If you think I have any special reason to help Kushida, it's only because I see her as someone who needs help and protection. Because Kushida does have huge flaws, and if I leave it alone, it will have a huge impact on this class and myself." Hikigaya silently expressed his thoughts, "And you, Horikita Suzune, do you also want to be a coward who is helped unilaterally by me, unable to make your own judgment and can only escape blindly?"

"..."

After hearing Hikigaya's almost indifferent words, Horikita completely recovered from her anxious and lost state.

The urgency and lack of confidence brought about by her failure in the cruise ship exam caused her to lose her rationality, make wrong judgments, and even start to rely too much on Hikigaya.

But now, she finally reacted and realized the mistake of her dependence.

"I see. I'm sorry. Forget what I just said."

"Well, that's good."

Hikigaya nodded in approval. He knew very well that one of the strengths of Horikita Suzune was that she always maintained a minimum level of rationality.

The other party is almost never led by emotions, so just a little guidance can help the other party come out of confusion.

Of course, this also brings up another problem, which is that the other party falls into confusion too frequently and is easily led by excessive self-esteem.

"Hikigaya, I know I can't rely on you too much." After regaining her composure, Horikita Suzune spoke slowly, "But I still want to ask you, how should I do in this exam?"

"What do you mean by what should be done?"

"This..." Hearing Hikigaya's question, Horikita Suzune bit her lip, seeming very unwilling, but finally sighed, "I admit it, the reason why I was so confused just now was that on the one hand, I failed the cruise ship exam, which made me a little anxious, and on the other hand, I couldn't think of a way to help this exam."

"It's different from previous exams. Whether it's the uninhabited island exam or the cruise ship exam, they all have a direction. As long as the whole class agrees on a strategy, they can gain an advantage and achieve victory. But this sports festival is completely different. This is an exam that purely tests physical fitness."

"This means that from the beginning, we can only trust the students with better physical fitness in the class and hope that they can beat students from other classes in the competition. Other than that, there is nothing we can do and we have no way to turn the situation around. This situation makes me feel helpless."

"..."

Horikita Suzune spoke out her confusion in one go, and this was obviously the reason why the other party was so anxious and even began to rely too much on Hikigaya.

Hikigaya also understood the other party's feelings.

After all, it was completely different from the previous exams. This time, the sports festival completely eliminated the possibility of using tricks. Although some means could still be used, just like the gap between the classes in the written exam, simple means could hardly make up for the real strength gap.

What's even worse than the written test is that there is no possibility of cheating in the sports festival competition, and a slow runner cannot run faster than a good runner even if he takes stimulants.

The result is that no one is able to change the overall situation of the exam.

"Since you can understand these things yourself, why do you still need my help?" Hikigaya looked at Horikita Suzune calmly, "Do you think I can tell you the answer to something you can't think of a solution for?"

“That’s… not the case.”

Horikita Suzune herself didn't understand why she came to seek Hikigaya's help. She also knew in her heart that it was impossible for anyone to come up with a way to turn the situation around in such an exam.

But she still did it, for reasons she herself couldn't understand.

"Don't you really have any other ideas? At least I think you will have a different way of thinking... Just like the previous exams, I want Class D to win for sure."

"Horikita, you think too highly of me." Hikigaya shook his head. "In terms of intelligence, I've never been better than you. I'm just an average person."

Hikigaya was telling the truth. So far, he had not shown any particularly outstanding thinking, nor had he come up with any eye-opening ideas.

After all, he has a clear understanding of himself. He is just a loner with an active mind but too eccentric.

In comparison, the person who truly possesses extraordinary thinking is still Ayanokouji.

If Horikita really wants a great plan to reverse the situation, it would be the right thing to do to find Ayanokouji.

However, Horikita Suzune obviously didn't admit it. She thought Hikigaya was rejecting her request, and said anxiously, "I don't want to rely on you, nor do I want to leave everything to you. I just want to get some hints. After all, I can't see clearly what I should do now."

Horikita's thoughts were understandable. Due to her successive failures and the influence of the sports festival rules, she had no idea what she should do.

If you can't even see the road under your feet, how can you move forward, let alone take a step forward? You will only fall into the abyss in despair.

Seeing Horikita looking so lost, Hikigaya sighed helplessly.

To be honest, he is not good at being a counselor because he is the one who needs counseling the most.

But now, seeing the confused Horikita Suzune, he finally spoke silently: "Horikita Suzune, just as you said, I am a special individual who is good at using all kinds of conspiracies and tricks. If I am such a person, how far do you think I can do in this exam?"

"This……"

"Or to be more specific, the person who is at the top of the school in terms of conspiracy and intrigue, in your opinion, should be Ryuen Sho. What do you think is the chance that Class B led by Ryuen Sho will defeat Class A in the sports festival?"

"..."

Although Hikigaya really wanted to use Ayanokouji as an example, the other party would definitely not understand this example. He could only use Ryuen Sho as an example to try to make Horikita Suzune see the reality.

And Horikita was indeed shocked by Hikigaya's words and fell into a long period of thought.

"I think it's difficult. Even for Ryuen, it would be difficult to win in such an exam..."

"exactly."

Seeing Horikita sort out the current situation, Hikigaya continued:

“If we categorize the leaders of each first-year class, we can come up with two types of people.”

"One type is leaders like Ichinose. They do things in an upright manner and rarely use any schemes or tricks. They just lead their teams to do better and go further. The other type is leaders like Ryuen Sho. They use all kinds of schemes and tricks to gain partial victories and influence the situation."

"There is no difference between these two methods, they are just different in style. The proof of this is the extremely small gap between Class A and Class B. After they have exerted their respective styles to the extreme, they have both won the victory they needed and achieved the corresponding results."

"As a negative example, Katsuragi Kōhei and Hirata Yosuke both took a middle value. Their leadership style was neither obvious nor their methods were extreme, which led to the class falling to its current level."

Silently describing the results of his long-term observations, Hikigaya slowly looked at Horikita's face: "Horikita Suzune, the answer you want to get from me now is actually the answer that someone like Ryuen Sho would have. If you want the answer to this question, why not go and ask Ryuen Sho himself? If you kneel down and kowtow to that guy, maybe he will give you the answer."

Chapter 427: Ms. Ichinose, can you please stop staring at me!

Hikigaya mocked Horikita Suzune without any scruples. It was not because he was not afraid of retaliation from the other party, but because he knew very well that he had to say it to this extent in order to make the other party face the reality.

Horikita Suzune is a lone ranger like herself.

However, unlike most people who become Lone Rangers due to inferiority complex, Horikita became a Lone Ranger for the opposite reason: she was too conceited.

Yes, Horikita's biggest flaw as an individual is nothing else but his arrogance.

She doesn't think she has any flaws and looks down on everyone except herself.

Although she herself did not realize this, it can be seen from the fact that Horikita has always looked down on the students in Class D and does not think that the other students in Class D have any qualifications to refute her.

From the beginning to the end, Horikita Suzune believed that she could do everything by her own strength, but she could not see the gap between herself and others, which ultimately led to many wrong results and even went against her wishes.

In the end, her arrogance even began to evolve into inferiority complex because her self-esteem was destroyed after failing several exams in a row.

She began to realize that she was not as good as Ichinose, Ryuen Sho, Hikigaya, and might even be not as good as Kushida Kikyo, but her self-esteem was still unwilling to admit this and she refused to face up to the gap between herself and others.

Therefore, everything has become so awkward now.

"W-What do you mean..."

Hearing the hidden meaning in Hikigaya's words, Horikita Suzune showed her rare vulnerable side. She realized that Hikigaya was criticizing something fundamental about her, but her overly stubborn attitude still made her afraid to face everything.

Hikigaya had no choice but to further stimulate her fragile spirit:

"I mean you shouldn't be fooled by appearances. Ryuen Sho's inferior approach certainly helped him win the previous exam, but there is always more than one way to win. Didn't you see Ichinose who won the same victory, and even did better than Ryuen Sho? Why are you so obsessed with finding a winning strategy, but ignore the more important thing of class victory?"

Just as Hikigaya said earlier, Ichinose and Ryuen Sho are two of the better leaders among the first-year students today.

But the two people's styles are completely different, or in other words, each has its own merits.

However, compared to the scene where Ichinose led Class B steadily and steadily to Class A, the scene where Ryuuen won by using underhanded tricks was more exciting and could easily mislead people into thinking that this was the truth about the supremacy of strength on campus.

Although in fact Long Yuan's approach does have its merits, if he completely walks into the realm of evil and forgets what true strength is, the result will inevitably be "those who learn from me will live, and those who imitate me will die."

"..."

After hearing Hikigaya's straightforward words, Horikita finally understood the real mistake she had made, but she still held on to the last bit of stubbornness and refused to give up easily: "But there is indeed a gap between the classes. Ichinose leads Class B, so they were able to be promoted to Class A. With Class D's situation, if they don't use dirty tricks like Class C..."

"Really? Do you think the students in Class D are completely inferior to those in Class B?" Hikigaya stared at Horikita silently and sighed, "Should I say that you are too conceited or too self-deprecating? If it is a normal exam, the gap between students may indeed be very obvious, but the exams in this school have almost no content related to the brain, especially the sports festival, which is a project that relies purely on physical fitness. It can be said that it is the only chance for Class D to be better than other classes, isn't it?"

"This, I..."

Horikita was finally convinced by Hikigaya, but she still had a strange sense of disharmony and could not easily accept such a result.

Seeing her like this, Hikigaya couldn't help but laugh: "You are still worried about Class D. You think Class D has no chance of winning. Do you know why?"

"I have no idea……"

After unraveling the conversation again and again, Horikita Suzune was completely confused. She almost mechanically tried to understand Hikigaya's words, but forgot to use her brain to think about the content contained in the conversation.

Seeing Horikita Suzune almost giving up on treatment, Hikigaya simply took drastic measures and spoke directly:

"Because you know very well in your heart that the gap is not between the students in Class D, but the gap between the leaders of Class D and the leaders of other classes. The students in Class D are no different in physical fitness from the students in other classes, but whether it's you or Hirata Yosuke, there's a world of difference between you and Ichinose and Ryuen Sho!"

"Horikita Suzune, you actually know very well where the real problem lies, and you know what the real weakness of Class D is right now. But you deliberately ignored this real weakness and instead pushed the responsibility onto others who are not the weakness, in order to evade reality!"

"…I, I didn't, it's not like that."

Horikita put up a very weak resistance. It was obvious that she had been completely convinced by Hikigaya and realized the real problem.

But she couldn't admit it easily, and was unwilling to admit her own weakness and cowardice.

But therein lies the problem. If Horikita does not face up to her own fragility and incompetence, she will never be able to achieve real growth, let alone break through her existing territory and reach higher places.

Hikigaya's behavior is to force her to face her own shortcomings and make her realize where she really needs to change and grow.

If Horikita Suzune could face up to her own weakness and spend enough time to grow up little by little, she might be able to reach the level of Ryuuen and Ichinose.

Although Hikigaya himself didn't care about the life and death of Class D, he still gave some hints considering the request from a certain student council president.

"Horikita, let me ask you the same question as before. If you were asked to lead Class D, what kind of leader do you think you would be and what path would you take? Whether you follow Ichinose's path or Ryuen Sho's path, shouldn't you carefully think about your own strengths and weaknesses, think about the enemy's weaknesses, and calculate the equation for victory based on everything?"

After answering this last question, which was hardly a question but an explicit one, Hikigaya lost interest in staying in the classroom any longer.

Regardless of whether Horikita could understand what he meant, he had no interest in being her babysitter anymore, and he didn't want to care what happened to Class D.

After all, he himself is facing a lot of trouble now.

……

After the class meeting, the entire D class went to the gymnasium to gather all the students in the grade.

When Hikigaya arrived at the scene, he found that it was almost as spectacular as the opening ceremony. More than 400 teachers and students in the school were gathered in the gymnasium and divided into the red group and the white group.

Horikita Suzune didn't say a word to him the whole time. It was obvious that she was still thinking about what Hikigaya had just said and trying to understand what she should do.

Of course, in addition to this, there is another reason why she is so quiet, that is, her brother Horikita Manabu may appear from the senior class.

She seemed to feel that she would cause trouble to her brother, so she tried to keep a reserved look and restrain her behavior, which ultimately led to a very narrow field of vision.

She has such a brother complex that even Hikigaya couldn't help but admire her.

"I'm Fujimaki from Class 3-A, and I'm the commander-in-chief of the Red Team this time."

However, to Horikita's surprise, the person who showed up at the venue was not the student council president Horikita Manabu, but a strange senior student.

The other person seemed to be the person in charge of sports, and spoke loudly:

"I want to give a piece of advice to the first-year students. Some people may say that I am nosy, but the experience gained in the sports festival will definitely be applied to other exams. In the future exams, there will be many that look like games at first glance, but no matter which one, it will be an important battle to gamble your survival in school."

"You may not feel realistic or motivated right now, but reality will sooner or later tell you what you need to survive in this school!"

"Finally, the only exam in this sports festival that requires the participation of the entire grade is the final 1,200-meter relay race. Other than that, all other events are internal competitions. All grades should gather now and discuss the policy at will."

After Senior Fujimaki finished speaking, students from all grades began to communicate.