Crossover anime, Hachiman's childhood friend's growth diary

The golden ahoge (cowlick) swayed back and forth, attracting Hachiman's attention.

What's going on? I really want to cut it off.

"Hachiman, are you free now? If not, I'll come back later."

Hachiman glanced at the math textbook in the other person's hand, then shook his head:

"It's okay, I'm free right now."

"Could you teach me a problem?"

The midterm exams are this Friday. Hongxia is the kind of student who follows the rules and does things step by step, so she has also focused her attention a little on her studies.

"Oh, that's certainly possible. Speaking of which, is it alright if we go outside?"

"Oh, why?"

Hongxia blinked, her face full of confusion.

"Um, I feel like this would be too conspicuous..."

Hikigaya looked up and saw the eager looks in the classroom, and a chill suddenly ran down his spine.

No, why are you all looking at me like that? This Dihua class is absolutely unbearable...

Although puzzled, Nijika complied with Hikigaya's request, and the two left the classroom and went into the corridor.

After teaching the questions, the two returned to the classroom at the same time.

At noon, because he had things to do, Hikigaya declined Nishimiya Shoko and Nijika's invitation to have lunch together.

After arriving at the cafeteria, Hachiman waited for a while before seeing a familiar figure approaching.

"Good afternoon, Hachiman Hikigaya."

"good afternoon."

"This is today's bento box."

Looking at the simple bento box in front of him, Hachiman hesitated for a moment, but finally accepted it after some hesitation.

Although the feeding incidents did decrease significantly after his persistent persuasion, they still occurred once a week.

At this rate, Hachiman estimates that the bento tasting event will not be completely over until the end of this semester.

Hachiman wanted to slap himself whenever he thought about his thoughtless suggestion.

How shameless is Ma De!

"Hachiman, Dad has been getting home before I get out of school every day for the past few days. It's so good that his work is a little easier."

Upon hearing these words, Hachiman's hands, which were holding the bento box, froze in mid-air.

Doesn't this child know that his father has lost his job?

The ever-attentive Ichinose Motoyo was so immersed in the happiness of "family harmony" that she was completely unaware of Hikigaya's restless state.

The girl looked relaxed, laughing as she opened the bento box. Hachiman paused, then replied with mixed feelings:

"Yes, that's great, Ichinose. When did your father usually come home?"

“In the past, it would have been at least past nine o’clock.”

Ichinose Motoyo rested her chin on her hand, reminiscing.

She was usually ready to go to sleep around 9 p.m., but she would force herself to stay awake to welcome her father home after work, and only go to her room to rest after he returned.

"what about now?"

"Right now... around five o'clock, because Dad will be back before dinner!" Su Shi said cheerfully. "Hachigaya-kun, what's wrong?"

"No, it's okay."

Hachiman kept this important date in mind and shook his head, pretending nothing was wrong.

087 The Classroom of the Meritocracy of Hachiman?

Just when he thought the conversation was over, Su Shi, who was next to him, suddenly put down her spoon:

"However, Mom has been working very hard these past few days and hasn't had a proper rest. I wish I could do something to ease her burden."

After glancing at the girl who was lost in dejection, Hachiman remained silent for a moment before speaking:

"Ichinose, the midterm exams are coming up soon, right?"

"Well, yes."

Seemingly puzzled as to why Hikigaya would bring up the topic of midterm exams, Motoyo made a puzzled expression.

"Well... when I got home last night, I told my mom that if I did well on the exam, I'd ask her to buy me the gift I wanted, and she readily agreed."

Sigh, why did we bring up Hachiman's family situation?

Suze stared blankly at Hikigaya, then gave a puzzled smile.

"...Really? It seems Auntie has high expectations for Hikigaya-kun."

"No, that's not true at all."

Hachiman gave a wry smile and shook his head in denial:

"Well, these past few years, because of work, my parents haven't had time to take care of my studies, so they've only set the bare minimum for us in terms of academic performance."

"That's it..."

"Ichinose, your mother is always very busy, so she probably hasn't had many expectations for your grades, right?"

"Well, no."

“That’s the problem. Even though we don’t act like we expect anything, as parents, we still hope our children will do well in their studies, right?” Hachiman looked at the bento box in front of him. “Ichinose, what I mean is, since we have this opportunity, why don’t we study hard?”

"Oh, I see. I never thought of that before."

When she was in school, Su Shi did not force herself to study hard, and her requirement for grades was just to keep up with the pace of most people.

So, Mom also expects me to do well?

"As children, this is all we can do: eat well and grow up well. This is what most parents expect from their children."

At this point, Hachiman involuntarily frowned.

Mostly, but there are exceptions.

"Really?... Yes, I'll remember that, thank you, Hachiman!"

The words of encouragement seemed to have an effect. Seeing the determined look on Ichinose Motoyo's face, Hachiman responded calmly:

"You're welcome."

Su Shi happily ate her lunch in small bites, and after a while, she asked again:

"Speaking of which, Hachiman, the new club funding will be allocated after the midterm exams. Could you please come with me then?"

Ah, last time, because of that gambling dad's interference, I didn't get to buy several prizes.

"Just call me when you have time, I'm pretty free right now anyway."

"Okay, it's a deal then!"

After finishing their bento boxes, the two returned to their respective classrooms, with Hachiman taking a slightly longer route before heading back.

"excuse me."

He entered the student council office with ease; he was the only person in the space at the moment.

As for why he, a non-student council member, had a key to the office, that's a long story. In short, Hibari Torahara gave him the right to freely enter the office.

In return, Hachiman will step in to assist the student council's work when necessary.

Hikigaya turned on his computer in the office and quickly accessed his email. Ever since he got Ichinose Honami's email address, the two... to be precise, Komachi and Ichinose Honami had been in contact.

Hachiman acts as the middleman, relaying messages between the two sides.

I opened my email and quickly spotted an extra email in my inbox.

Honami Ichinose seems to have started preparing for high school entrance exams. Among the many high schools available, she has chosen three public schools. The reason for choosing public high schools is quite simple.

The tuition is cheap, which can ease the financial burden on the family.

While browsing the emails, one school in particular caught Hachiman's attention.

"Tuition is free, the school uses the most advanced teaching equipment, there are no restrictions on hairstyles or uniforms, and the most terrifying thing is that the college entrance rate is 100%!"

When Hikigaya saw these recruitment information, he was stunned. He even suspected that Ichinose Honami had been deceived by some bad guy.

So he searched online for the name of the university and found that such a school really existed and was very famous in China.

This is the dream school for many people, because according to online claims, as long as you can get into this institution, you are guaranteed a bright future and a fast track to success.

The only drawback of this school is that it is located in a separate area, and students who are enrolled cannot leave within three years unless there is a special reason.

Assuming this college admission rate is accurate, wouldn't it be even harder to get in than to get into the University of Tokyo?

Hachiman thought to himself as he looked at the recruitment information online.

Moreover, he didn't believe that a school with such a high college entrance rate could actually exist, unless it was doing something shady, like kicking out all the bad students.

That's way too much of an exaggeration...

Regardless, this school is highly suspicious, and he will definitely not consider it in the future.

While pondering these thoughts, Hikigaya subtly expressed his concerns about the school when relaying Komachi's message to Honami Ichinose. Whether Honami Ichinose accepted it or not was none of his business.

After finishing these tasks, Hachiman shut down his computer and returned to his classroom.

As always, no one felt nervous about the midterm exams. After all, they were only in third grade, and it was practically impossible for them to concentrate on studying.

Even Nijika and Nishimiya Shoko were only slightly more diligent than the other students.

And soon, the day of the midterm exam arrived.

Elementary school courses are relatively few, so all the tests were completed in one day. In the afternoon class meeting, Ms. Xiao Ba announced that individual parent-teacher meetings would be held after the exams.

The individual parent-teacher meetings are scheduled for tomorrow. Each person will have ten minutes, and both sets of parents must be present. The homeroom teacher will briefly learn about each person's family situation.

Faced with such strange conditions, Hikigaya had reason to suspect that this was an operation specially devised by Koba-sensei and Kanatsu-sensei for Ichinose Motoyo.

But thinking about it carefully, where did these two young teachers get such great power? So Hachiman is probably just finishing up the last bullying incident.

088 Hachiman hates parent-teacher conferences

Using the parent-teacher meeting as a pretext, the school conveys its firm commitment to safeguarding student safety to its students and parents, and thereby salvages the school's reputation.

To some extent, Hachiman can understand this approach.

but.

Even if it's mandatory, many parents will probably find various excuses to be absent.

As for Ichinose Motoyo's parents, they probably won't come, right?

Hachiman thought to himself.

however.

To his surprise, the next afternoon, at the parent-teacher meeting, Ichinose's parents appeared together in the school building corridor.

is that a lie?

Hachiman thought he must be hallucinating, but what he found even more unbelievable was yet to come.

It seemed they had just finished greeting the homeroom teacher when the family of three walked out of the meeting room with heavy steps. The next moment, Ichinose's father actually lowered his head and began to apologize.

Hidden in the corner of the corridor, Hachiman was so shocked by what he saw that his eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

This development is perhaps too hard to imagine, but not incomprehensible.

Hachiman quickly calmed down and came up with several plausible guesses:

The first scenario involves Ichinose's father, who, after gaining enlightenment at the casino, realizes the importance of family and decides to quit gambling altogether.

The second scenario is that the other person has just lost all their money and, lacking stable employment, is short of gambling funds. Therefore, they feign remorse and try to gain the sympathy of their family...

Hachiman's intuition told him that the latter possibility was far more likely than the first.