You wanted to keep everyone by your side no matter what, even forcing everyone to get along by suppressing conflicts. You were simply—
Dreaming!
Hirata Yosuke! You needed to wake up!
Your ideas could not be realized in this class. In the end, they might even come to hate you for being someone who always covered for "sinners."
You might as well drop out with me, transfer to another school, and join another class...
"Holy shit!"
Before Bai Lan could finish speaking, he suddenly saw a fist appear in front of him.
47. Business Only, No Feelings? Hirata Was About to Blow Himself Up
Bai Lan's speech made Hirata completely lose it.
Hirata realized he could not stop Bai Lan with words, and he could not endure the mental assault either. Unable to hold himself back, he swung his fist, choosing a physical method to "interrupt" Bai Lan's speech.
Looking at the fist that had suddenly appeared in front of him, Bai Lan cursed inwardly. "Holy shit."
What a fast punch!
Faced with the sudden attack, the instinct for self-preservation he had honed in the wilderness instantly raised Bai Lan's vigilance to its highest level.
As a result, he subconsciously activated Overlord Body.
Immediately afterward, Bai Lan pulled his lower body half a step back and slightly crouched, while reaching out with his upper body to grab the incoming fist.
With the explosive strength provided by Overlord Body, Bai Lan moved after the punch yet arrived first. He seized the fist in front of him, turned, twisted his waist, and swung his arm.
Take this!
Hirata instantly left the ground and flew toward the lake.
A moment later, he hit the water with a splash.
Hirata fell into the lake, sending water spraying several meters into the air.
A few drops of the splashed water landed on Bai Lan's face.
The icy sensation stimulated Bai Lan's senses, bringing him out of his defensive state.
Coming back to his senses, Bai Lan looked at Hirata thrashing around in the lake. He cupped his hands around his mouth and softly "shouted" toward him, "Hey~~ Swimming is a compulsory course for Japanese high school students, so you should be able to swim back by yourself, right? I don't want to get my clothes wet."
Bai Lan had already decided to repay the favor Hirata owed him by helping him defuse the "bomb" hidden in this deception and giving him some "prophecies."
Their accounts were already "settled."
If they came to blows, that would mean opening an entirely new account.
Since the other party had struck first, Bai Lan's retaliation was only natural.
Therefore, as long as he ensured Hirata did not drown, Bai Lan would have nothing to feel guilty about.
After thrashing around several times in the lake, Hirata finally calmed down under the stimulation of the cold water.
Hearing Bai Lan's question, he subconsciously replied, "Oh, I'm fine. I can swim back by myself."
After saying that, Hirata did not immediately swim toward the shore. Instead, he lay flat on the surface of the water and stared blankly at the sky.
Bai Lan said impatiently, "Hey, can you come up first? If you want to swim, do it after I leave. I'm the one who threw you in. If you accidentally get a cramp and drown in there, I'll be held responsible."
"That would be fine too. If I don't come up, you can't leave either. Bai, could you keep me company and chat for a while?"
"Chat about what? Forget heart-to-heart talks. That's something friends do. I told you, I'm dropping out, so I don't want to leave any emotional ties here," Bai Lan said coldly.
"Actually, you don't have to be friends to have a heart-to-heart talk. You could just treat it as paid companionship. Consider this a transaction. I'll pay you." Hirata suddenly spoke while lying on the water.
"A transaction? Just money, no feelings? That works too."
Bai Lan seemed convinced by that reason. "What do you want to talk about? Make it quick. I charge a lot. I'm someone who earns hundreds of thousands an hour."
"I have a little over ninety thousand left. Is that enough? If it isn't, next month..."
"I probably won't last until next month. A little over ninety thousand? With that amount, I can accompany you for half an hour at most."
"That's expensive..." Hirata smiled and continued, "Actually, what I just intended to do to you was the 'last resort' I could think of for the sake of my wish.
"I had thought that if the class truly reached its worst point, I would use force to maintain the most basic stability.
"But the truth was that even you alone were beyond my ability to handle with my last resort.
"I could not even guarantee the most basic things.
"That meant, as you said, my ideas really were nothing more than unrealistic fantasies."
"Wait!" Bai Lan said in surprise. "You mean your fist was also one of the methods you had prepared to protect that fantasy? You originally planned to keep everyone in the class together, even if it meant resorting to violence?
"You actually intended to go that far? Your 'I'm doing this for your own good' is a little too heavy. Sure enough, I'd better drop out early and stay away from you."
"Actually, it wasn't to that extent. I only thought about it. I knew it wouldn't work, so I never intended to use it."
"Then what about just now?"
"I mainly acted on impulse. Under normal circumstances, when I can think rationally, I generally won't use this method. After all, this method cannot actually achieve my goal. It can only keep them there physically, not win their hearts. I've already tried it once..."
Hirata said somewhat sheepishly, "After I calmed down and thought about it, I realized that your words had shattered my fantasy. They made me realize that I was about to face a 'failed ending' that could not be avoided no matter what I did. I couldn't accept that truth for a moment, so I subconsciously wanted to show you my 'trump card that guaranteed absolute victory.'
"In the end, even my 'safety net' failed to preserve the 'lower limit' I had expected..."
Hearing this, Bai Lan's eyes lit up, though most of his attention was focused on the first half of what Hirata had said.
Bai Lan asked curiously, "You've already tried it? Going by what you said, you once used your fists to 'keep' the entire class's 'people'?"
"More precisely, I 'kept' the entire grade. Do you want to hear my story?" Hirata asked.
Bai Lan said, "Why does everyone like telling stories so much? Fine, go ahead. You're paying anyway, and it sounds like it might be interesting."
Before long, Hirata began telling his story while lying on the surface of the water.
Hirata's story went roughly like this:
He had a friend.
A real friend—not himself.
He had a friend he had known since kindergarten.
In middle school, his friend became the target of bullying.
Hirata wanted to help his friend, but the atmosphere among the group made it seem as if this sort of thing was perfectly normal, and that he was the strange one for making a fuss over it.
After hesitating for a while, he unconsciously followed the crowd and chose to turn a blind eye.
Until his friend, unable to endure the pain of being bullied, chose to commit suicide... Although the attempt failed, it still left Hirata burdened with a heavy sense of guilt.
He felt that if he had not turned a blind eye back then, but had reached out to help his friend in time, perhaps all of this could have been avoided.
Before he could figure it out, Hirata discovered that the bullies who had driven his friend to suicide soon found a new target!
They had not restrained themselves in the slightest just because someone had attempted suicide. Worse, even more "newcomers" joined the ranks of the bullies!
Hirata did not understand.
He, someone who had done nothing, already felt so guilty.
Yet the people who had truly done wrong felt no guilt at all!
This made Hirata extremely angry—furious to the point of losing all reason!
Hirata charged forward without a care and beat up every bully who was tormenting others.
Then, under the bullied person's moved yet frightened gaze, he beat up the bullied person as well.
48. Hirata: If It Were You, What Would You Do?
(The system formatting broke again, but it's fixed now.)
At the time, Hirata believed that the reason his friend had chosen suicide was because—
Whether they were the bullies, the bullied, or even those who merely stood by and watched, just like he had back then, everyone was at fault!
Why did the bullies have to torment others?
They were at fault!
So Hirata beat them up!
After beating them, Hirata discovered that the bullies were actually nothing special.
After realizing this, Hirata became puzzled. "I had never been in a fight before. I merely used the anger I had gained from others to vent my hatred, yet I could easily defeat so many bullies.
"If that was the case, the people who were bullied had clearly endured pain far greater than mine. They should have hated the bullies even more than I did. So why didn't they dare to rise up in resistance like I did, using their hatred?
"If they dared to fight back, they would discover that the bullies were nothing special either.
"You dared to commit suicide, so why didn't you dare to hit the people who bullied you, like I did?
"So..."
The bullied people were at fault too!
With this belief, Hirata beat up the bullied people as well.
He pitied their misfortune, but hated them even more for failing to fight back!
And those who stood by and watched—you were all accomplices to the bullies, as well as future victims!
From then on, whenever Hirata learned that bullying had occurred somewhere in the grade, he would go over and beat up everyone involved. Whether they were the bullies, the bullied, or even those who stood around watching the spectacle, he would beat up anyone he caught.
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Before long, Hirata used violence alone to suppress the entire grade. He bullied the entire grade by himself, becoming the only person in the entire grade with the "right to bully."
The only bully in the entire grade—the only T0!
No one dared to "exceed their authority" and bully others anymore.
The students did not even dare to joke and play around normally, afraid that they might be misunderstood.
After all, many cases of bullying began with "I was only joking," gradually lowering the limits of the "joke," and eventually becoming bullying disguised as a "joke."
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