There is something wrong with Hikigaya's classroom of supreme ability

"Both Katsuragi and Kosakayanagi are excellent students, but it's precisely because of their confidence and pride in their own excellence that neither of them wants to be inferior to the other." Haruno explained in a nonchalant tone, "Of course I'm neutral, a complete spectator, hey!"

"I see."

Although Hikigaya is a loner, it does not mean that he is completely isolated from the news. During this period, he has more or less heard news and rumors about other classes. For example, Ichinose from Class B is very popular on the school forum and is the most popular girl among all the first-year students. It is said that some senior students have inquired about Ichinose's information. It can be said that she is one of the most popular students in this freshman class, and is even more popular and dazzling than Kushida.

Or maybe it's like Class C, where the boys in the class fight with each other all day long, making it seem like some "Hot-Blooded High School" where they have to choose the strongest fighting student. From time to time, you can hear the sounds of fighting and students' wailing coming from the toilet at the end of the corridor. Whenever you see a boy with bruises on his face on the campus, he is definitely a student from Class C!

As for Class A, whether due to intentional control or other reasons, very little relevant information and rumors have been leaked, so Hikigaya knows the least about Class A. However, he did not expect that similar problems also exist within Class A, and that they are divided into two factions competing with each other.

"Is it really okay to leak information about your own class?" Hikigaya looked at Haruno in confusion.

"Hehe, this is not a secret." Yang Nai waved his hand nonchalantly, then chuckled as if he had thought of something: "Originally, the two of them were in a state of equilibrium, but that may not be the case next month."

Hikigaya naturally understood what Haruno meant. Once the school announced the truth, the originally relatively mild conflicts between classes and within classes would instantly become fierce.

Yang No looked completely unconcerned and said excitedly, "When Kosakayanagi and Katsuragi start fighting, who will win? A fierce battle between a little white-haired girl and a bald hunk. Tsk tsk, just thinking about that scene makes me excited!"

Chapter 40 Who is the Fisherman?

"Two dogs fight, play off."

This is Hikigaya's view on the internal competition within Class A. Competition between different factions within the class is not a bad thing. On the contrary, it is a way to enhance internal unity and promote overall progress.

Contradictions are the driving force behind social progress.

Where there is contradiction there is struggle, but struggle itself is not the goal.

It can be said that as long as you are in society, struggle is everywhere.

Struggle is also an art.

But for high school students, it is very difficult to control the timing, degree and effectiveness of the struggle.

If the competition between Sakayanagi and Katsuragi could be controlled and ended within three months, there would not be any big problem. However, once the timeline is extended, this internal competition will turn into serious internal friction, which will not only seriously drag down Class A as a whole, but also give the external classes a chance to breathe and even the risk of being preyed upon.

To resist foreign aggression, one must first stabilize the country. The decline of a dynasty often does not come from external pressure, but more from internal collapse.

"Yes, sometimes fighting is a good thing."

Haruno also agrees very much with Hikigaya's ideas, and her ideas are almost exactly the same as Hikigaya's. Of course, she also understands her weight in the class, and no matter which side she leans towards, it will cause an imbalance, so Haruno has maintained a neutral attitude since the beginning of the school year, and has not favored any side at all.

"Is it my illusion? Why do I always feel that there seems to be something else behind what Hikigaya-kun said just now?" Yang No stretched out her finger and poked the right side of Hikigaya's abdomen, saying doubtfully.

"Ken, it must be an illusion!"

Hikigaya's body suddenly straightened, and Haruno couldn't help but giggle at the sight.

"So in your opinion, which side do you think has the greater advantage? Give me some advice."

Haruno seems to be very curious about Hikigaya's choice, or rather, she is curious about Hikigaya's evaluation of Sakayanagi and Katsuragi. No matter how Hikigaya refuses, Haruno still pesters him, looking like she is determined to get him.

To be honest, if it were an ordinary girl, she would have given up long ago due to concerns such as "girls should be reserved", "maintaining social distance from others", and "not causing trouble for others".

But Yang Nai seems to have no common sense or concerns at all, and does not care about other people's eyes. He behaves in a carefree and generous manner like a man, and often appears to be very lively, cheerful and friendly.

These behaviors, which are considered "shortcomings" by many people, especially girls, unexpectedly give people the first impression that "this girl is very sincere."

It is precisely this style of behavior of Haruno that can resolve many unnecessary embarrassments, or make it easier to gain the trust of others. Simply put, she is a complete social terrorist. This is Yukinoshita Haruno.

Finally, Hikigaya could only helplessly say, "I'm not very familiar with either of them, but if I were to judge based on first impressions, I'd lean more towards Katsuragi."

"Eh? I thought Hikigaya-kun would choose Sakayanagi! After all, don't guys like petite, cute, and protective little princess-like girls?"

What Yang No said is a very common social reality. Compared with other types of girls, it seems that [cute] girls are more popular and liked by the general public.

Rather than complimenting someone on their good looks, it’s better to compliment them on their cuteness, which will make them happier. This has gradually become a habit, and whenever you encounter something, it’s always right to say “kawaii”.

This seemed to Hikigaya like a very strange 'collective consciousness'.

"This may sound a bit anachronistic, but when it comes to choosing important positions, most people still trust men over women," Hikigaya sighed. "And when it comes to class leadership, Katsuragi's serious and composed first impression is more convincing than Sakayanagi's. His image also perfectly aligns with everyone's image of what a class leader should be."

"So... in the final analysis, what's being competed for is the 'image' of both parties rather than their abilities?" Yang No said in surprise.

"After all, image can be seen with the naked eye! Image is important, but not absolutely crucial. If it weren't for the choice of leader, I believe Sakayanagi would absolutely crush Katsuragi."

Hikigaya said, throwing up his hands helplessly. "That's why I said 'judging by first impression'. It's obvious that Katsuragi is more in line with 'everyone's' subconscious expectations. Of course, I know this is a biased judgment, but the reality is that ability or not, on the contrary, seems to be not that important. This is probably a 'common problem' for everyone in this society."

"The fact is just as you predicted. In Class A now, Katsuragi has more supporters. If he can successfully enter the student council this time, his prestige in the class will be further enhanced."

At this point, Haruno suddenly sighed, her tone filled with regret: "Sure enough, it's a pity that Hikigaya-kun is in Class D.

......

After parting with Haruno in the cafe, Hikigaya couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. He was indeed the big devil. His seemingly simple words always concealed subtle temptations and traps.

Regarding the situation of Class A, it is now a competition between Sakayanagi and Katsuragi, which is also known as the Chu-Han contention.

If both of them think they are extraordinary and have the confidence and pride of genius, so they are unwilling to be inferior to others, then isn't someone the same?

Based on Hikigaya's understanding of someone, it might develop into a three-way confrontation, which would be like the snipe and the clam fighting each other, and the mantis stalking the cicada.

It's unclear whether Sakayanagi and Katsuragi realize that there's a third player outside the chessboard, watching closely. It's truly unpredictable.

"It seems like the situation in Class A is really bad!"

Hikigaya couldn't help but complain, but then he thought that his class D seemed to be even worse, and suddenly Hikigaya felt depressed and wanted to vomit.

Regarding the problem children in Class D, Hikigaya has gone from being initially resentful to being numb now. Instead of thinking about these bad things, he might as well enjoy this weekend.

When talking about weekends, Hikigaya always thinks of tokusatsu, and when talking about tokusatsu, he thinks of Toei's Big Three. However, recent tokusatsu have become more and more "commercialized and plastic", and Hikigaya has a very bad impression of this.

Among them, Q-Waha every weekend was once Komachi's favorite TV animation. However, as Komachi grew older, especially after entering junior high school, she gradually watched less of it for the reason that "it would be embarrassing to be discovered by classmates." This is similar to the mentality of many adolescent boys who "don't want to be discovered by classmates while still watching Ultraman."

At first, Hikigaya just watched it with Komachi out of boredom, but gradually, Hikigaya unexpectedly fell in love with this IP of melee-based transformation into beautiful girls. So, let’s all go watch the melee of beautiful girls together!

Chapter 41 The End of Daily Life

Three weeks have passed since school started. Today is Monday of the fourth week, and there is only one week left until next month.

The daily life of Class D is still as bad as ever. Being late for school, leaving early, sleeping in class, truanting, and playing with mobile phones have become the norm. Of course, there are also various small groups, such as the girls' group headed by the blonde hottie Karuizawa. They either discuss beauty celebrities or gossip all day long. On the other hand, the idiot duo still contributes various stupid remarks to everyone every day, and then gets looked down upon and glared at by the girls.

Everyone in Class D seemed completely unaware of the subtle change in the atmosphere within the grade.

At the same time, there is another bad news, that is, the handsome boy Hirata in the class is actually dating Karuizawa!

This undoubtedly encouraged the arrogance of the gyaru group, but Hikigaya didn't seem to have the right to blame them, after all, they were free to fall in love.

"Hey, Ayanokouji, let's go to the cafeteria for lunch!"

Yamauchi shouted at Ayanokouji, then left the classroom with Ike, Sudo and the others, laughing and joking. Ayanokouji, who was called, quickly stood up and trotted after them as if he was being called "little brother" by his elder brother.

Looking at the scene before him, Hikigaya always felt an indescribable sense of incongruity.

If there is one person in this class that Hikigaya is most afraid of or cannot understand, it is probably this expressionless man Ayanokouji.

Ayanokouji, a person with almost no sense of existence in Class D, is taciturn, with an expression like a paralyzed face that shows almost no emotion, and he has no friends around him. He is a student who surprisingly obeys the rules in class, the kind of "transparent student" who neither makes mistakes nor contributes. Isn't this definitely a class outlier and an oddball, just like Hikigaya, Horikita and others?

But he is different from Hikigaya and Horikita in that he will take the initiative to "make" friends.

The so-called friends, of course, refer to the two idiots, Ike and Yamauchi. At the same time, rather than saying they were "making friends", it would be more appropriate to say that they were just trying to please someone else. Ayanokouji seemed to really want to be a member of the small group of boys headed by the idiot duo.

So not only were the idiot duo smug, they also acted as if they were giving alms, as if they were saying, "There's nothing we can do to Ayanokouji, so we have to let you join us." But Ayanokouji not only didn't get angry, but instead seemed to accept it with great satisfaction?

Then...become the 'errand boy' of the stupid duo, or be used as a happy material to liven up the atmosphere.

Isn't this too strange?

This wasn't just a grievance, it was self-deprecation, wasn't it? And not only did Ayanokouji not complain at all, he was actually quite satisfied with the outcome?

Not only Hikigaya, but also his deskmate Horikita was very confused about this. A big reason why he became an outlier in the class was not only due to his own personality, but more importantly, he was unwilling to compromise himself to please others like Hikigaya and Horikita.

Of course, it is not ruled out that Ayanokouji himself wants to make changes, does not want to be excluded and become an outcast in the class, so he chooses to compromise and cater to others to join a small group. There are many such people.

But for some reason, Hikigaya just felt an inexplicable sense of disharmony. Ayanokouji clearly had the ability to be a 'predator', but chose to be a low-level producer, an alien?

Very contradictory.

Had he misjudged Ayanokouji? Or was he playing dumb? Or was there something else going on?

This is also what confuses Hikigaya.

After school in the afternoon, Hikigaya received an email from the student union on his mobile phone. The content of the email was very simple, which was to congratulate Hikigaya on officially becoming a member of the student union.

For some reason, Hikigaya's face showed neither the excitement and happiness after being accepted, nor the frustration after being eliminated. In short, Hikigaya seemed very calm, as if he was reading an email message that could not be more ordinary.

Hikigaya felt that the fact that he had joined the student council was as normal as drinking water.

This wasn't Hikigaya pretending, but his most genuine feeling at the moment. Even he was surprised at how calm he was.

Is it because you are confident about the interview results?

Hikigaya felt otherwise, because he himself was actually unsure. Hikigaya felt that it was more of a change and sublimation of mentality.

In the great wave of vertical waves, neither joy nor fear.

Do what you have to do and don't worry about it.

This is probably what Hikigaya is feeling right now.

Unfortunately, Hikigaya did not maintain this indifferent and detached mentality for long. It was like a flash of inspiration or enlightenment during meditation, which came and went in a hurry.

For Hikigaya, who has become a member of the student union, his daily life has hardly changed except that he needs to go to the student union office to be on duty and work after school in the afternoon.

Even the fact that Hikigaya joined the student council was unknown to the class, or even if they knew, they would just say something like, "Tsk, it turns out the student council is so easy to join. I would have tried it too if I had known."

Until...Friday of last week.

The third period on Friday was social studies, and the teacher was none other than Chabashira Sae, the homeroom teacher of Class D. However, even so, the students in Class D still didn't behave themselves. According to past experience, Chabashira would have ignored everyone, started lecturing on his own, and left on time.

But today is a little different.

"There's something in this class that requires your attention, so shut up and be quiet right now!"

Anyone could hear the seriousness and warning in Chabare-sensei's words, but many of the guys in Class D didn't seem to notice anything unusual about Chabare-sensei today, and some even teased him by calling him "Sae-chan".

"Because it's the last weekend of the month, we need to do a small test."

As he spoke, Chabashira-sensei had already distributed the test papers. Ignoring the wails of the two idiots and fools below, he continued, "This month-end test is just for reference, so it won't be reflected on your report cards. Although it's just a reference, any cheating is strictly prohibited!"

Hikigaya quickly glanced over the test paper and found that the questions were surprisingly simple. Most of them had little to do with high school courses. As long as one had the lowest junior high school level, one could easily get a passing score.

But Hikigaya soon discovered something was wrong. It was true that most of the questions on the test were very simple, but the last three questions were unexpectedly beyond the syllabus, and their difficulty was completely different from the previous ones!

Especially the last math problem. I could understand every word, but once they were connected together it was like a mystery.

"This is so difficult, Sae-chan, can you please open the book?"

"Yeah, it's just a reference anyway, so you can just fill in any answer."

Some students, like the idiot duo, are still complaining, thinking that the teacher will turn a blind eye just like before and they can get away with it.

"Shut up! The test will begin immediately!"

Chabashira-sensei frowned and scolded sternly.

Chapter 42 The Last Supper

Students like the Idiot Duo had already forgotten about the small test at the end of the month and were already looking forward to the next month after this weekend.

"Ah, how come there are only two days left and I only have 2000 points left? How can this little bit of points be enough?"

Yamauchi complained to Ike and the others beside him, while they were also discussing what games to buy next month and where to have fun after school. Ayanokouji beside him was like a loyal little brother, silently listening to what the 'big brother' in the small group said, and then occasionally echoing a few words to show his weak presence.

The situation of the Idiot Duo is not an isolated case, but a microcosm of Class D today. At the same time, many students have the mentality of "since there are still 10 personal points to be distributed next month, then we must spend as many points as possible this month." Everyone agreed to have a good time this weekend and then welcome the arrival of the beautiful May.

Everyone in Class D looked relaxed and happy, discussing the happy times of the weekend, and complaining about the happy troubles of having too many points... Hikigaya saw all of this.

"Yes, it is the last meal before the execution after all."

It was clearly a happy scene, but Hikigaya felt extremely ironic and sad.

Hikigaya turned his head to look at his deskmate, the iceberg girl Horikita. Hikigaya admitted that he had some misunderstandings about her at first. Because she was assigned to Class D, he originally thought that Horikita was a student who 'had poor grades but had to pretend to study hard'.

But after almost a month of observation, Hikigaya discovered that Horikita was not only a serious student, but also one of the few students in the class who insisted on abiding by classroom discipline. He had no friends, no social life, and no entertainment. He was often alone, and his campus life was basically a straight line between home and abroad. He was rarely seen in entertainment venues. He was a person who could endure boredom, loneliness, and was immersed in his own world.

What Hikigaya saw in her was a full sense of déjà vu!

It was already time to go home from school in the afternoon, but Horikita still hadn't left. She was immersed in her thoughts, constantly trying to answer the last difficult question of this morning's end-of-the-month test.

"You really refuse to admit defeat!"

Horikita's unyielding stubbornness was so strong that even Hikigaya himself couldn't help but feel inferior to her.