Hikigaya doesn't want to be a force of strength

"It's not that I wanted to be one, but by chance, I ended up like this." Shiina shook her head helplessly, "Hikigaya-san, you know I'm not the type to be competitive. I just wanted to assist Ryuuen-kun and make this class better, but once the girls' fight started, it couldn't be stopped. They instinctively banded together to seek a leader, and I was just nominated by the others."

"Really? Does that mean you have become the female leader of Class B?"

Hikigaya was not surprised by this. After all, he admired Shiina's ability very much and felt that if it was her, it would not be difficult to control a group of girls in a class.

"It's not that easy." However, after hearing what Hikigaya said, Shiina shook her head. "Girls' groups are more scattered than boys' groups, and it's even harder to reach a consensus. It takes a long time to communicate before everyone is convinced. And I didn't participate much in the class environment in the previous semester, and I didn't even have a close friend. Even though I was recognized by many people, I couldn't do more because I joined too late."

"indeed."

Although Hikigaya is not a girl, she more or less understands how complicated and fierce the struggles within girls' groups are.

It is very normal for five people to have a group chat in a dormitory with four people.

Often they are on good terms one moment and call each other sisters, but the next moment they are quarreling and becoming enemies.

If you want to manage a large group of girls, you need more than just ability and skills, you also need more things that cannot be reflected in ability.

This is also the case with Class D next door. Even strong students like Kushida Kikyo and Horikita Suzune cannot gain popularity in the girls' group. Instead, Karuizawa Megumi takes advantage of her status as Hirata Yosuke's girlfriend and successfully seizes the opportunity.

"But if you, Shiina, can't control the girls' group in Class B, is there anyone else who can convince the others? Probably no one, right?"

Hikigaya put forward his own thoughts. He didn't think there was anything else worth noting about the girls in Class B except Shiina.

Seeing this, Shiina said with a complicated expression: "There is another person, Manabe Shiho from our class. She is the one who is most likely to become the girl leader besides me."

Chapter 447: You and Ibuki have such a good relationship! I'm jealous!

"Manabe Shiho?"

Hearing this familiar name, Hikigaya immediately recalled what happened during the cruise ship exam.

At that time, Karuizawa Megumi had a conflict with a girl from the original Class C, so Manabe Shiho stepped forward decisively to stand up for the girls in the class and even suggested bullying Karuizawa.

This incident made Karuizawa very uneasy, and he once sought help from Hirata and himself.

Hikigaya subsequently made a lot of arrangements, even calling in Ryuen Sho, in an attempt to resolve the matter.

However, everything came to an end suddenly.

Whether it was Karuizawa Megumi or Manabe Shiho, when the cruise ship exam was over, they suddenly lost their hostility towards each other, and on the surface, there was no hatred or connection between them at all.

Of course, there must be something fishy behind this sudden occurrence, and Hikigaya suspects that it is 100% related to Ayanokouji.

Because of this, Hikigaya later asked Ibuki to investigate the truth related to this matter, but so far, there has been no obvious progress.

Now, after hearing the name Manabe Shiho, Hikigaya recalled everything related to that incident again, and suddenly realized that as a third party involved in the incident at that time, Manabe himself might be the key breakthrough in finding out what Ayanokouji had done!

When Hikigaya suddenly fell into deep thought, Shiina Hiyori mistakenly thought he was confused, so he slowly explained: "Manabe Shiho is a girl in our class, and she is also a person with a rather explosive and impulsive personality. After the start of the school year, she used her abilities to win over many girls in the class. Later, with her tough personality, she further won over the more neutral and introverted girls in the class and became the spokesperson for the girl group."

"Normally, it's almost a no-brainer for someone like her to become the leader of a girls' group."

Hikigaya nodded silently, agreeing with Shiina's words.

After all, so far, Hikigaya has seen many cases where girls like this have absolute say in the class.

For girls and boys alike, a strong personality is indispensable if they want to lead others.

When she was in junior high school, the girls' group in Hikigaya's class was controlled by a hot-tempered hot girl. Even if the other girls wanted to oppose her, they did not have the courage to do so, which led to the group gradually becoming a one-man show.

Although Karuizawa from Class D was just pretending, he tried his best to appear tough and not to back down easily.

These are vivid examples.

In contrast, girls with gentle personalities can only attract others without relying on a strong personality, unless their abilities and appearance are outstanding to a certain extent, like Shiina.

Of course, if Manabe Shiho had already completely controlled the girls' group of the original Class C, no matter how capable Shiina was, it would be impossible for her to take the leadership position later.

Something must have happened in the meantime, which resulted in Manabe not having an absolute leadership position in the original Class C.

"However, Manabe Shiho has not yet become the female leader." Shiina Hiyori shook her head and followed Hikigaya's thoughts. "The reason is because of Ryuuen-kun's actions. He used violence to control the entire former C class in just one month. This incident has left all the former C class students with a shadow of violent behavior. Manabe's methods are similar to Ryuuen-kun's, so naturally, the students instinctively resist them."

"I see."

Hikigaya could almost imagine that scene.

If he had seen Long Yuanxiang's hysterical behavior, he would have been wary of violent behavior and would have rejected people who used violence.

Of course, an important reason why Manabe failed to become the leader was that she was not violent enough.

If she could also show absolute suppression power like Ryuen Sho, she would still be able to control the girls' group.

However, Manabe himself is not as powerful as Ryuen, and is even far inferior to Ryuen Sho in all aspects. Naturally, it is impossible for him to control the girls' group purely by violence.

Generally speaking, if the other party is given enough time to take his time, it is not impossible for Manabe to gradually control the girls in Class B.

Unfortunately, now Hiyori Shiina is involved in the class struggle.

In terms of ability alone, Shiina can be described as a ruthless person who can kill Manabe with a comprehensive six-dimensional attack. Whether in terms of ability or appearance, he is an opponent that Manabe can never deal with.

This is also the case even though Shiina did not participate in any class affairs for a whole year, but she gained a large number of followers just by showing her willingness to participate in class affairs, and was even able to compete with Manabe Shiho who had been managing the class for a whole year.

"Manabe's abilities are average, and her methods aren't great either, but she managed to pretend to care about her classmates in the first semester." Ibuki Mio seemed to be dissatisfied with Manabe, and spoke without disguising, "She gained a lot of supporters by defending her classmates, and many girls chose to stand on her side. And that guy's methods are low-level enough, not only does he throw dirty water on Shiina and say bad things about her all day long, but he also occasionally comes out to oppose her in public, which is really disgusting."

"Well, I can imagine..."

Although Hikigaya has never liked to have contact with people like Manabe, he has seen many similar despicable things in his previous school, so he naturally doesn't take it seriously.

He then looked at Ibuki curiously and spoke slowly: "Then why are you acting with Shiina? Don't you dislike contact with other people?"

"This……"

After hearing what Hikigaya said, Ibuki Mio suddenly looked embarrassed. She wanted to say something but didn't know how to start.

Shiina Hiyori smiled and said, "I asked Ibuki-san to work with me. Although I am not worried that Manabe-san will do something to me in private, there are some things that we should be prepared for. After all, we cannot pin our hopes on the kindness of others."

As expected of Shiina.

Hikigaya used to think that Shiina was a very kind and gentle person, but this was a wrong perception.

Shiina's kindness and gentleness are only because she is a smart person.

In the past, Shiina didn't like to interact with others, so he acted gentle and kind, keeping a distance from everyone around him.

This is because Shiina needs this disguise to avoid socializing, it does not mean that Shiina is such a person.

In fact, if Shiina really wants to be ruthless, his methods are no worse than Ryuuen's. He knew there was a trap in the uninhabited island exam, but still made Ryuuen pay the price, which is enough to prove his cold-bloodedness.

Therefore, with Shiina's intelligence, she must have anticipated that her appearance would cause serious dissatisfaction among the Manabe faction and Manabe himself.

Considering the various evil methods and personality traits that Manabe often uses, it is only natural that she would seek out Ibuki to protect herself.

"But the conflict among the girls in Class B has become so serious."

"Girls' struggles are not weaker than boys'. In fact, girls' struggles are often more intense and terrifying." Shiina Hiyori shook her head, with a look of helplessness and disgust. "Although I don't like to participate in this kind of struggle, since I have decided to participate in the affairs of this class, there are some things that I cannot escape. I must face the sharp conflicts between different girls' factions."

"Don't worry." Ibuki Mio immediately said, "I will protect you at any time. If Manabe really dares to find someone to deal with you, I will let her know what regret is."

"Thank you, Ibuki-san."

Shiina smiled brightly upon seeing this.

"No, it's okay."

Seeing the other person's happy look, Ibuki Mio, who has always been arrogant and tough on the outside but soft on the inside, was at a loss and turned her head away with a slightly red face.

On the side, while Hikigaya was enjoying the visual beauty brought by the girls' sticking to each other, he was also thinking about everything related to Manabe Shiho.

Finally, he slowly said: "It seems that in a sense, we are now on the same side."

"Oh? What do you mean, Hikigaya-san?"

Shiina looked over curiously, her big eyes under her silver bangs were bright and beautiful.

Ibuki Mio also turned her head with a hint of confusion, wondering what this dead-eyed guy from Class D was going to do next.

"There's one thing I've always found strange about this Manabe Shiho." Hikigaya said, glancing at Ibuki. "Ibuki, do you remember the thing I asked you to investigate about Karuizawa Megumi in our class?"

"Of course I remember. I followed her for several weeks but didn't get any useful information."

Ibuki seemed very dissatisfied with the fact that he had worked for several weeks for nothing, and he glared at Hikigaya.

"Yes, I realized before that Karuizawa himself didn't seem to be a good breakthrough point."

Although Karuizawa's other abilities are average, this child's alertness and ability to adapt to changing circumstances are top-notch.

Unless Hikigaya personally follows the opponent, it will not be an easy task to find the opponent's weakness.

Hikigaya himself was worried that Ayanokouji would discover him, so naturally he would not take the initiative to contact Karuizawa, which is why the operation had not made any progress for such a long time.

He then looked at Ibuki and said, "I just realized that compared to Karuizawa, Manabe Shiho is the one we should really keep an eye on. After all, after the cruise ship exam was over, Manabe suddenly stopped paying any attention to Karuizawa and his attitude became very strange. If she wasn't coerced, she must have accepted some kind of deal. She is the one we should investigate the most!"

"That's right! Manabe will definitely reveal his flaws!"

After hearing what Hikigaya said, Ibuki Mio suddenly reacted and her expression immediately became excited.

However, Shiina Hiyori, looking at Hikigaya and Ibuki who were getting excited on their own, felt a sense of emptiness as if she was a third party and couldn't get involved.

She pouted and looked at Hikigaya, saying in a dissatisfied tone: "You and Ibuki-san have a really good relationship, Hikigaya-san, I am jealous of you."

Chapter 448: Let Ayanokouji and I face off on the chessboard!

"what?"

Hikigaya's expression froze when he didn't expect Shiina to say such a thing.

He didn't know how to react for a moment and could only show an embarrassed expression.

However, Ibuki Mio decisively denied it upon seeing this: "Are you kidding me? I don't have a good relationship with this guy with dead eyes! He just orders me around all day long. I wish I could just kick him!"

After saying that, Ibuki actually kicked towards Hikigaya with a big kick.

Hikigaya was so frightened that he quickly stepped back and finally dodged it with difficulty.

"What are you doing?!"

"Humph!"

Hikigaya had mixed feelings as he couldn't understand Ibuki's tsundere look.

Shiina, however, saw all this and couldn't help but smile, then slowly said, "It was just a joke, Ibuki and Hikigaya-san, don't take it seriously."

"Your joke is horrible."

Hikigaya felt more and more that Shiina's abilities were not simple, and he didn't dare to provoke him again.

Since she decided to participate in class decision-making, Shiina's attitude has become much more relaxed than before. She calmly explained what had just happened and looked at Hikigaya:

"Anyway, Hikigaya-san, you now suspect that Manabe Shiho has connections with people in your class, and may even have betrayed Class B, right?"

"There is no evidence to say that she is a traitor." Hikigaya would not suspect others without reason. At present, he just made a judgment based on the previous clues. "What is certain is that something special must have happened between Manabe Shiho and Karuizawa Megumi. This was caused by a third party who got involved and got hold of Manabe's handle, which led to Manabe not targeting Karuizawa later. And according to this inference, since the third party hiding in the dark has got hold of Manabe's handle, it is very likely that he will use Manabe's handle to do something else."

"It is indeed possible." Shiina Hiyori agreed with Hikigaya's words and felt that this was very likely to happen, so she spoke decisively, "Since it involves Class B, and it is Manabe-san, I can also collect some relevant clues. After all, if Manabe Shiho is caught, the girls' group in Class B will be leaderless and will no longer trip me up like before."

"Oh? Really?!"

To be honest, Hikigaya was a little worried that Ibuki would be able to find Manabe Shiho's weakness if he was relying on only Ibuki.

After all, although Ibuki has good fighting skills, his intelligence is indeed a bit lacking.

It is safe to ask the other party to do something within their ability, but if it is an operation that requires nitpicking about details to find clues, the other party will obviously be unable to do it.

In contrast, Shiina's ability to find clues is very outstanding. If he lets the other party test Manabe Shiho and find out the connection between her and Ayanokouji, he will probably get good results soon.

"Haha, this matter is not only a request from Hikigaya-san, but also concerns my own situation in Class B. You can rest assured that I will do my best."

A bright smile appeared on Shiina Hiyori's face.

Although it is not yet confirmed whether Manabe Shiho really has contact with other classes, looking at her appearance, it seems that she is 100% sure.

All we can say is that the best individual in the original Class C is actually Shiina Hiyori, and this judgment is more certain than Kigaya.

"Well, Ibuki-san, do you have any objection to my joining you in the future?"

Shiina looked calmly at Ibuki Mio beside him, and the latter nodded without hesitation.

Ibuki himself was a little worried about being asked to investigate Manabe Shiho.

Not only was she not good at this kind of follow-up investigation work, but the most important thing was that she and Manabe had never gotten along with each other in the class.

Manabe dislikes Ibuki who always keeps to himself, and Ibuki dislikes Manabe who is cruel and behaves badly.