Chapter 018: Shiina Hiyori, This Must Be the True Heroine of the Original Work
Time quickly reached noon.
The second period of the morning was Hoshinomiya's math class, but the teacher, who was usually all smiles, kept a stiff face throughout the entire lesson.
Hikigaya, however, knew that this was certainly because he had sent the photo of Horikita along with the photo of Chabashira.
On one hand, it showed that Chabashira Sae had found out about him looking for Horikita Suzune.
On the other hand, Chabashira had likely reacted and sought her out for a lecture.
This effectively put a temporary stop to Hoshinomiya's "fun" in trying to sabotage Chabashira's plans; it was no wonder she was in a bad mood.
However, the students of Class B were currently more focused on the special exam. They were busy completing the conduct assessment, so they were all studying seriously and had no spare time to worry about why Hoshinomiya-sensei looked so grim.
"Well, I'm heading out." As soon as the morning classes ended, Hikigaya quickly walked out of the classroom.
"Mm..."
Ichinose Honami nodded slightly, then let out a soft "Eh?"
After Hikigaya-kun spoke, she had only responded subconsciously.
Since Hikigaya was the current Class B representative and she was his assistant, it was natural for her to cooperate with his actions. But he hadn't actually told her where he was going.
She only recalled that this morning, she had noticed him writing down the projected evaluation scores for each class in his small notebook for the end of this normal exam, and he had crossed out the value for Class C.
So now, could it be that he was actually going to Class C?
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Hikigaya Hachiman indeed went directly to Class C. The morning dismissal times were the same for everyone, and if he were any later, he wouldn't be able to corner Class C's Ryuen Kakeru.
That's right.
Hikigaya-kun was now going to find Ryuen Kakeru of Class C.
In this month's special exam, there wasn't much Classes A and B could do after learning the truth of the school and the conduct assessment topics other than trying to be as well-behaved as possible to minimize their class's point deductions.
Hikigaya had already posted the deduction items he knew from the original story into the class group chat so everyone could avoid them.
However, there was still room for manipulation in this special exam.
The upper limit of the score was restricted because, as long as people are involved, in a collective of forty students, points will inevitably be deducted due to various oversights or violations. This cannot be avoided; one can only accept that there will be a small number of deductions.
However, the lower limit of this exam was an abyss. In the original story, First-year Class D had "made history" by becoming the first class in the school to squander their entire 1,000-point base in the very first month.
Therefore.
Class D's record proved that in this conduct assessment, as long as you are "trash" enough and lack self-discipline, you can drag your class down significantly. Thus, if one performs poorly enough in this exam, the evaluation score can be deducted by 1,000 points or even more.
So.
If the deduction situation in Class D were to happen to Class C as well, then Class C's score would also be cleared in the first month's conduct exam.
But making Class C follow in Class D's footsteps was no easy task.
In the original story, Class C did not know the inside story of the exam, yet their final score basically met the standard of a normal Class C and was not "off the charts" like this year's Class D.
According to the trajectory of the original work, Class C had 510 points deducted from their 1,000 points in one month.
That was an average of 17 points deducted per day.
Today being the eleventh day since enrollment, Class C should have lost about 187 points.
But that was still far from the zero-point range Hikigaya wanted for Class C.
Therefore, he had to find a way to make Class C experience a much more severe deduction phenomenon than in the original story.
Thus, he made the move to go straight to Class C to find Ryuen after the morning classes ended.
However.
When Hikigaya arrived at the door of the Class C classroom, he identified Ryuen Kakeru instantly.
In a seat in the back row of the classroom sat a boy with reddish hair parted down the middle. His uniform was worn haphazardly—a black athletic short-sleeve shirt paired with a red school uniform jacket—giving him the appearance of a delinquent leader.
That boy was clearly the tyrant of Class C from the original story, Ryuen Kakeru.
Looking from Hikigaya's angle, Ryuen had both feet propped up on the desk, looking extremely arrogant.
It seemed that even without his special arrangements, the current Class C was already in the middle of a "superb" point deduction streak.
But this level of deduction was still far from enough for Class C. It wasn't enough yet, Ryuen-kun.
"Um, you aren't a student of Class C, are you? May I ask if something is wrong?"
Just then, a rather pleasant voice sounded from behind Hikigaya.
The girl's voice was somewhat sweet yet quite rational.
This kind of girl.
Even without seeing her face, she gave off the distinct impression of being a "literary girl."
Hikigaya turned around and found a cute girl with silver hair and purple eyes. She radiated a light, soft atmosphere, looking like a quiet and polite young lady.
This was Class C's Shiina Hiyori.
"I'm looking for Ryuen Kakeru," Hikigaya said.
'This girl's beauty isn't inferior to Ichinose Honami in my class. I see, this must be the "class flower" of Class C, Shiina Hiyori.
Come to think of it, Shiina looks quiet and beautiful, a typical literary girl. But she's different from average literary girls; Ryuen appreciates her quite a bit because she isn't afraid of him like the other students are due to his violent behavior. At the same time, her academic ability and IQ are both very high.
I wonder if she knows the truth about this school yet. Even if she knows something, she probably wouldn't take the initiative to step forward. After all, in the original story, she belongs
to the chaotic neutral camp; she would allow Ryuen to use underhanded methods to deal with classes because she knows it's necessary to control Class C.
She has no concept of absolute good or evil, but rather considers whether a method is appropriate for survival in this school. She's a girl with a very healthy initial mindset.'
"Eh?" Shiina Hiyori was stunned for a moment.
Her clear and vivid eyes blinked, followed by a look of sudden realization.
Because Shiina Hiyori was not just a simple literary girl; she also longed for and looked forward to various stories in books.
So, at that moment, she confirmed: she saw this boy stop talking after simply saying he was looking for Ryuen, yet she felt as if she had heard his inner thoughts.
If she wasn't having a hallucination, then... had she finally become a heroine in a novel?
Otherwise, how could such a supernatural phenomenon occur?
It was just that the other party's evaluation of her seemed a bit high. She felt she might not be able to live up to such an appraisal.
"Oh?"
Hikigaya was speaking to Shiina, but Ryuen inside the classroom heard someone call his name and looked over immediately.
"Kid, you lookin' for me?"
"Ryuen-kun, you're planning on heading to the cafeteria soon, right?" Hikigaya said.
"I haven't tried the restaurant on the third floor yet. I've only heard it's very expensive. But if you help me pay for my meal at the third-floor restaurant in a moment, then I might consider selling you a piece of information."
"??"
You want to eat an expensive meal on the third floor and make him pay for it?
Ryuen almost laughed out of anger.
Even he knew that the third floor of the cafeteria was definitely where the faculty and staff ate, so both the food and the environment would be better—and naturally, the price would be much higher.
"You're Hikigaya Hachiman from First-year Class B, right? You certainly look like a delinquent, and you've got a lot of nerve, kid!" Ryuen said.
"You brat, you've got the guts to try and extort me."
"Is that so?" Hikigaya-kun showed a perfectly measured amount of composure.
Actually, he felt Ryuen's judgment wasn't very good, as he didn't look like a delinquent or a hoodlum at all.
How could the word "extortion" be used on him?
However.
He already had experience dealing with people who were full of confidence and arrogance.
"I thought Ryuen-kun was also someone curious about this school with a sense of the bigger picture, and that you'd soon become the Class C representative. It's been ten days since enrollment, so logically, you should have noticed something by now. But looking at you now, you still know nothing. You're still handling things so carelessly," Hikigaya said.
Then, as if adding an afterthought, he evaluated, "Just like a pig."
Ryuen: "..."