Hachiman Hikigaya, who returned from his studies after completing his training.

Hime's idea was wonderful, but the reality was that when the four students from Class D came in, the otaku named Tomomura ignored her warning look and sat down next to her, and even started talking to her with great interest.

They said your appearance is very similar to a female supporting character in a certain comic, especially your earrings and your blue-gray twin ponytails.

If it weren't for her classmates Kanzaki and Hamaguchi being there, she would have given Sotomura a thorough dressing-down.

Misfortunes never come singly.

Since Class C was the last to arrive, the only seats left were next to Class D. Understanding this, Karuizawa sat between Yukimura and Sotomura, but somehow got into an argument with Yukimura after introducing himself.

After being instigated by Class C, Shin-mura separated from his own students and switched places with Yabuna from Class C.

After the seats were changed, Class C did not cause any trouble.

After anxiously watching Karuizawa's movements for over ten minutes, Himeno couldn't help but think that everything should be alright.

"Get out of my way and stop bothering me, okay?"

The incessant chatter of the outer village made it impossible for Hime to maintain her image as a kind and good student despite her dyed hair and earrings.

“That’s right, sitting between two girls makes you feel pretty good, doesn’t it?” Manabe walked straight up to Tomorrow and even grabbed him by the collar. “Get down between the boys.”

"Where am I smug?" Tomoura's eyes darted around; Manabe reminded her of the girl who bullied him in middle school. (The rest of the text appears to be unrelated and possibly machine-generated gibberish.)

"Is it because you are lustful that you crave this position where you are sandwiched between cute girls? Is it because no girl in your class talks to you?"

"I didn't, I'll change it, okay?"

Under the oppressive aura of Manabe, whose presence was fully unleashed, Tomomura, whose face turned ashen, sat between Yukimura and Tokito Yuya from Class C, while his seat was naturally taken by Manabe.

Karuizawa was sandwiched between Manabe and Yabu.

Just like after Shinmura switched places, Manabe and Yabuna simply played on their phones without talking to Karuizawa. They only occasionally made some light playful gestures between girls across Karuizawa, without actually touching her.

However, in Himeko's eyes, Karuizawa's expression became increasingly tense, so she was ready to step forward at any moment.

After Manabe suddenly whispered something in Karuizawa's ear, causing Karuizawa to turn deathly pale, Himeno immediately confronted Manabe and stood between the two.

"Manabe, what did you do to make Karuizawa look so upset? Did you threaten her? Threatening students during this exam will get you expelled."

By threatening to expel the student council, Himeno tries to get Manabe to behave and stop causing trouble.

If Karuizawa were to step forward and say a few words here, Manabe and the others wouldn't dare to continue.

For some reason, Karuizawa didn't say anything and just kept her head down in silence.

"What's it to you? We're Karuizawa's friends." Yabuna put her hand on Karuizawa's shoulder. "See, Karuizawa isn't arguing at all, is he?"

"Yes, yes, Yabu is right, we're friends from Karuizawa."

Following Yabu's example, Manabe also put his hand on Karuizawa's other shoulder and gave Himeno a mocking smile.

Seeing this, Ji Ye could only suppress his anger and sit back in his seat.

Chapter 110 Fighting Rumors with Rumors

"Karuizawa didn't say a word?" Hikigaya repeated Himeno's words.

"Yes, yes, doesn't that make me look like a fool?" Ji Ye's voice was a little impatient. "That's how things are now. I can't help you, and I don't need you to owe me any favors."

"I still owe you a favor, and I need your help with something else."

The Rabbit Team is currently in the exam period, and Hachiman is too far away to help.

Himeno described Manabe and the others' behavior as very strange. Given Manabe's not-so-bright mind, he couldn't possibly have made such a step-by-step move to slowly erode Karuizawa's mental defenses.

Although Yukimura and Sotomura both seem like good-for-nothings, they are students Karuizawa knew from his class.

Having these two around at least gives her a sense of security.

First, Xincun was lured away, and then the outer villages were driven away.

The seats next to her were changed to those of Manabe and Yabuna, who were clearly going to cause her trouble. Karuizawa was probably already feeling very uneasy at that time.

Faced with such an uneasy Karuizawa, Manabe and Yabuna patiently joked around in front of him before suddenly launching a sneak attack that caught him off guard.

"Please don't let Karuizawa be alone after the exam, Himeno."

Hikigaya earnestly instructed Himeno that there was likely someone plotting against Karuizawa behind Manabe and the others. He wouldn't have known this if he hadn't asked Himeno to keep an eye on Karuizawa beforehand.

"But Class B will have a class meeting after the exam, and if I leave without permission, Kanzaki will ask me where I'm going."

"You can just follow Karuizawa. I'll have Ichinose tell Kanzaki beforehand that you have something she asked you to do."

"So you're still secretly in contact with Ichinose, huh? You scumbag, Hikigaya." Himeno's voice was even lower.

In normal breakups, it's the norm for men and women to stop keeping in touch.

It's abnormal for someone like Hachiman to be able to help Ichinose make decisions.

"Sorry, please keep this a secret." Hikigaya smiled wryly; he hadn't expected Himeno to be so perceptive.

"I'll keep it a secret even if you don't tell me. I don't want the class to go back to the way it was before."

Compared to classmates like Amakura and Shiranami who were deeply concerned about Ichinose, Himeno didn't have much of an opinion about Ichinose dating Hikigaya, a guy with a bad reputation.

Not only did she dye her hair, but she also wore earrings. She had been slandered and her reputation was ruined. After getting to know Hachiman, she didn't think that Hachiman was the kind of selfish and malicious person.

"I'll help you, just make sure Karuizawa isn't alone."

"Yes, thank you, Himeno."

"It feels weird to hear you say thank you, so I'm hanging up now, you scumbag."

After Himeno hung up, Hikigaya didn't open the text message Shiina sent him, but instead called Karuizawa first.

As he expected, the call was not answered.

Is that you? Ayanokoji.

Hachiman looked at Ayanokouji, whose head was only visible from behind, and Ayanokouji, as if sensing something, turned his head and met Hachiman's gaze.

As always, Ayanokouji's pupils revealed no emotion.

It feels like it's been ages since we read together, Hachiman.

After staring at each other for more than ten seconds and realizing that he didn't intend to talk, Ayanokouji turned his head away, and he opened Shiina's text message.

Shiina's text message was very simple, so simple that Hikigaya couldn't figure it out.

Although she received the text message, Kushida's Great Adventure was an invitation to a date, but Shiina didn't write a time or even a location.

Therefore, it's unclear whether Kushida's premise of having a favorite student actually exists, or whether Shiina adhered to it.

Moreover, Shiina deliberately lost, and it's unclear whether she sent the text message just to spite Ichinose.

Ugh, I feel like my head is about to explode.

Hikigaya scratched the back of his head in annoyance and decided to ignore the problem for now. After replying to Shiina with "Me too," he put on a serious expression and walked back to the three people with different expressions.

"I asked Himeno to do me a favor after 2 o'clock today. Ichinose, could you please tell Kanzaki and the others in our group not to interfere?"

"Okay, I'll contact you right away."

"Hiyori, please chair the small meeting later. I might be a little late." After Ichinose agreed, Hikigaya looked at Shiina.

Unlike the class meeting of Class B, Class D held a short meeting after the exam.

Hirata contacts students from each group to obtain the names of students from each class in each group, then compiles and arranges them. If a student discovers a suspected candidate for preferential treatment, he will also judge whether the candidate is likely to receive preferential treatment based on the evidence.

"it is good."

Like Ichinose, Shiina didn't ask Hikigaya why he made this arrangement.

"Kushida, look at your phone."

Because there were other students in the room, Hikigaya couldn't very well call Kushida aside for a private chat, and he also couldn't let Ichinose and Shiina know about the favor he needed to ask Kushida.

Since it concerned Kushida's Achilles' heel, Hikigaya could only communicate through the awkward method of face-to-face mobile phone chat.

Hachiman: [Tell me some embarrassing stories about students who have many friends. I might need to embellish them and change the names of the main characters before spreading them.]

The fact that Karuizawa was bullied in the past should have been confirmed by Manabe and the others. Manabe can use the threat of spreading rumors to make Karuizawa obey.

What Hikigaya needs to do now is to reduce the impact of rumors on Karuizawa. Ideally, he should be able to prohibit the spread of rumors outside the school and expel anyone who does so.

To achieve this goal, most students need to complain to the school, and Kushida's knowledge of the dark history can accomplish this.

Kushida: [What are you trying to do? This could expose me too.]

Hachiman: [Don't worry, I'll filter out anything too private. While spreading rumors, I'll also spread a story about a student's file being accidentally left behind by a teacher and then found and read most of it by a student.]

麇榴艺意2吧逝IV紦栉田: 【What is your purpose? Let me see if I can find other ways to solve this.】

Hikigaya understands Kushida's caution, given that it concerns Kushida's own safety, but understanding is one thing, the course of action will not change.

Karuizawa's dark past cannot be told to Kushida, nor can Ichinose's.

If rumors of Karuizawa being bullied spread, he would add fuel to the fire and make it a big deal. Kushida providing the dark history of students with many friends is just the tip of the iceberg; the real show will be provided by Hikigaya himself.

Sakayanagi got into Class A through connections based on her family background.

Ichinose used to steal things.

Ryuen was tricked by Hashimoto on a deserted island, who cheated him out of eight million points.

Hikigaya often threatens girls to do things for him that can't be done in the light of day.

These were all rumors he intended to spread. Nagumo already knew about Ichinose's dark past, and there were also rumors in his past memories that Ichinose was a criminal.

Therefore, he plans to solve Ichinose's problem at the same time, and it will be easy to get Kushida to hand over the other students' embarrassing history.

Hachiman: [Listen to me, or you know what will happen.]

Several days later, Hikigaya once again threatened Kushida to do things for him.

Chapter 111 Coercion and Enticement

[There are five minutes left in the exam. Please leave the room in an orderly manner and do not gather together.]

At 1:55, the school's announcement came from the rooms where each examination group was located.

Although the daily discussion lasts for two hours, students are asked to leave the room five minutes before the end of each session. These five minutes are given them time to decide whether to send a text message to the school indicating who the beneficiary is.

Therefore, it is not allowed for all members to agree to supervise each other until the end of the exam to achieve a win-win result for everyone.

"I'm leaving first."

"Ah."

After greeting Shiina, Hikigaya quickly left the Dragon Group room. The second-floor corridor was already packed with students, and the elevator was overflowing with people. Many students also chose to take the stairs.

Excuse me, excuse me.

The Dragon Group's room was at the very back. By the time Hachiman reached the Rabbit Group's room, it was already empty, so he went straight into the stairwell and glanced at the text message from Himeno on his phone.

Have we reached the ninth floor by elevator? Those few bitches from Manabe are quite good at causing trouble for others.

With a complaint, Hachiman began to sprint up the stairs amidst the surprised looks of the other students in the stairwell, disappearing from their sight in a couple of seconds.

As he left the ninth-floor stairwell, before he could even take out his phone to check if he had received a text message, Himeko herself appeared before him, only with Yamashita from Class C by her side.

There was a cell phone on the ground between the two of them. Yamashita grabbed Hime's wrist, who was holding the phone, with an angry expression.

Well, what a wasted trip.

Needless to say, Hachiman knew that Karuizawa should have already gotten back on the elevator.

Because it involves Karuizawa's past that he doesn't want anyone to know, his attempt to find Karuizawa by sending the students of Class D to search for him was rejected. He then decided to find a breakthrough by focusing on Yamashita, who was left behind to hold off Himeno.

Hikigaya took out his phone and snapped a photo of Yamashita and Himeno together. The sound of the camera immediately attracted the attention of the two.

"Who gave you permission to take this picture? Delete it now."

Letting go of Himeno, Yamashita walked menacingly in front of Hikigaya, trying to grab his wrist holding the phone just like he had grabbed Himeno before. However, his outstretched hand was grabbed by Hikigaya and pulled into the stairwell.

"500,000 points, tell me the location of Karuizawa."

"Huh? I'm not going to tell you."

Yamashita's anger subsided considerably, but he wasn't very interested and rejected her quickly. Perhaps he was afraid of being seen as a traitor by Manabe and Yabuna.

"There will be a special exam in the second semester, which requires the whole class to vote to expel someone. If no one can be expelled, I will offer five million to Longyuan to expel you. Longyuan will do anything for profit."

Coercion and bribery come together. Of course, Hachiman prepared more than just bribery. Threats are not difficult either. It is not hard to make up some intimidating inside stories by relying on the student council secretary's influence.