Social Anxiety and the Rock of Loneliness

"School topics~ Shortened, 'Scho-Topics'."

She said it all in one breath, then looked around at everyone, wondering who should start.

Ryo wouldn't work; she'd go on forever once she got talking about something she was interested in.

Kita... Nijika was still a bit timid, afraid she'd say something world-shattering again.

Bocchi, she felt like it would just end up in a dead end.

Hayato...

Help me...

Nijika wailed internally. Finally, after a silent plea for him to be normal, she forced a smile and asked Ishikawa Hayato, "Hayato-kun, what's school like for you?"

"I check on my classmates' bodies and minds every day." Ishikawa Hayato's smile was bright and handsome.

He wasn't lying; he really did pay attention to students who might get hurt, checking if they had suffered any verbal or physical harm.

However, after getting used to his perverted self-introduction, everyone couldn't help but think of something else.

"Ahahaha, you're joking, right?" Nijika nervously wiped away a bead of sweat and laughed.

Ishikawa Hayato's bright smile didn't change.

"You're joking, right!"

Nijika dropped her smile, asking him with tears almost falling.

Ishikawa Hayato gave a thumbs-up, with a shining smile of unknown meaning, and said nothing.

Bang.

Nijika collapsed.

After she fell, Ishikawa Hayato took control of the situation.

"What about Kita?"

Ishikawa Hayato asked Kita Ikuyo.

Kita was hesitating whether to explain Hayato's previous answer, but upon seeing Hayato's expression, she abandoned the idea.

She immediately said, "My... my school life is very boring. Classes, hanging out with friends, and after school, I don't know what to do. I just wander around with friends, eat sweets, and play games."

Ishikawa Hayato looked to the side. When he heard Kita Ikuyo call her own life boring, Bocchi's eyes lit up, and she leaned forward expectantly.

It was as if she had found a kindred spirit who experienced everything just like her, and she was overjoyed.

But then, when she heard Kita Ikuyo say she hung out with friends, Bocchi was struck by a flying Spear of Longinus, crashing onto her chair, losing all motivation. Then she was whipped by constantly flying spears.

Even the soul that escaped her lips was pierced by a spear.

Her HP dropped in visible chunks.

"Kita-chan, stop! Bocchi-chan is going to die!"

Before Ishikawa Hayato could speak, Nijika, who had recovered, noticed Bocchi's distress and urgently called out to Kita Ikuyo to stop.

After Bocchi recovered from her near-death state and took a shaky sip of her drink.

Nijika rested her chin on her hands, looking at her softly, and asked, "Bocchi-chan, what's your school life like?"

Bocchi froze. She couldn't continue talking about her life after Kita had spoken.

She felt like if she opened her mouth, she would fall into an irretrievable, tragic situation.

After hesitating, unsure of what to say, she cautiously turned to Nijika and asked, "Ah, speaking of which, aren't you and Ryo in the same school?"

"Yes, Shoka, Kita-chan, Hayato-kun, and Bocchi-chan all go to Shuhua High School," Nijika said, nodding slightly.

Ryo added, "We all chose it because it's close to home."

Kita nodded in agreement.

Bocchi said with sudden realization, "Ah, so you all live in Shimokitazawa."

Nijika heard the strangeness in Bocchi's words and asked in surprise, "Bocchi, you don't live around here?"

Bocchi lowered her head, her voice filled with melancholy, "Ah, no, my home is outside the prefecture. It takes two hours to commute to school."

Nijika was shocked, unable to understand why she would choose to go to school so far away.

Kita asked, dumbfounded, "Why?"

"I want to go to a high school where no one knows me..."

Bocchi's heavy, regretful voice, like a descending sky, filled the room with despair.

"Stop! That's enough about school!"

30. Quest

"I... I'm sorry, I basically spent my time alone at school too..."

"It's hard to find happy topics when chatting."

Bocchi lowered her head and hunched her body, apologizing for ruining the mood.

Nijika frantically comforted her.

"It's okay, it's okay, Ryo doesn't have many friends either."

Ryo nodded.

"Yeah, only Nijika."

After that cruel incident, Bocchi no longer dared to look at others with the expectation of finding a kindred spirit.

But she still looked at Ryo with a small glimmer of hope.

At the same time, she heard Nijika explain.

"Ryo goes exploring abandoned places alone on her days off, or goes to thrift stores."

So she's not like me after all!!

Ryo just likes being alone; she definitely doesn't have social anxiety. Only people with social anxiety would be afraid to go to thrift stores!

She almost fell into the trap again.

Bocchi lowered her head even more gloomily.

Kita Ikuyo, who had almost become a murderer just now, still dared not speak.

Seeing the atmosphere gradually become heavy, Ishikawa Hayato stood up.

"Nijika, can I roll for the next topic?"

"Huh? Sure."

Nijika looked at Ishikawa Hayato in confusion, then handed him the dice.

Ishikawa Hayato walked to the seat opposite Nijika with a serious expression. Amidst the gradually uneasy expressions of the four girls, he calmly said:

"Does everyone know about Chekhov's Gun, the theatrical theory?"

He held the dice and spun them with one hand. The dice spun rapidly on his fingertips, and he pushed them a few more times. The dice spun like a sphere.

The six-sided dice, with their low-saturation colors, spun into a comfortable, light orange.

"It says that a gun appears in the first act."

This is bad, bad, bad!

Bocchi's sense of crisis was issuing piercing warnings.

But no one could stop him. The girls were all staring blankly at the stern and serious Ishikawa Hayato.

"In the third act."

Ishikawa Hayato turned around, his back facing the four of them. Though the boy's back wasn't broad, it felt inexplicably reliable.

He then flicked the dice with his finger.

The dice flew up and landed steadily on the table, still spinning.

"It will be used."

The four girls' gazes shifted from the show-off Ishikawa Hayato to the dice.

As if he had calculated everything, he stopped speaking just as the dice slowed down.

Like the most obedient little baby.

The dice spun, slowed, and stopped, all settling on that one spot.

As the cardboard collided with the tabletop, a soft 'thump' echoed from within the dice.

The four girls looked at the face pointing up and swallowed in unison.

The word written there was:

Bungee Jumping.

Ryo glanced at Ishikawa Hayato, who still had his back to them. Just as she cautiously reached out to change the result, Ishikawa Hayato, still facing away from everyone, said:

"Ryo, you moved."

"I didn't."

Ryo's tone was flat as she stared at Ishikawa Hayato's back. She sped up her hand and quickly nudged the dice.

But Ishikawa Hayato flashed over like a ghost, grabbed Ryo's outstretched hand, and then said to the four with a smile.

"How about we all go bungee jumping together?"

In the eyes of the four, that smile was like a demon's grin, and they hurriedly spoke.

Kita: "Absolutely not!"

Bocchi: "N-no… I can't."

Ryo: "I'm not going."

Nijika: "Let's just forget it."

Seeing the four sitting at a table, each saying their own thing even in this situation, Ishikawa Hayato froze for a moment, then laughed.

Nijika also reacted a moment later, giving an awkward smile.

"You guys aren't united at all."

"That's true…"

Kita also smiled wryly.

Ryo looked at them and said quietly.

"After all, we're Kessoku Band."

Ishikawa Hayato walked back to Bocchi's side, sat back down in his chair, and said with a happy and somewhat smug smile.

"Ryo means we're moving towards that goal, right?"

"No."

Whether it was tsundere behavior or because she genuinely didn't mean it, Ryo's answer was very quick.