Karuizawa's Request

Back in his dorm room, Hachiman Hikigaya ate a simple dinner before browsing the news on his computer.

At this school, all online games were prohibited. Apparently, to prevent students from potentially leaking information about the school to the outside world, only console games and the like were allowed.

Hachiman sighed. Campus life without games was really hard to endure. He would have to work harder from now on—once he found a sweet romance, his days probably would not be so dull anymore.

Hehehe...

Ding-dong!

Just as boredom was setting in, the doorbell suddenly rang, echoing through the quiet room.

Hachiman looked toward the door in confusion. He had interacted with very few classmates over the past two days, and practically no boys. Who could it be at this hour?

Closing his laptop, he called, "Please wait a moment," then got up and headed for the door.

When he opened it, the person standing outside was someone Hachiman had not expected.

She was a girl with honey-colored hair tied high into a ponytail. Wearing knee-high socks and a short skirt that exposed her jade-white thighs, she looked brimming with youthful energy.

Kei Karuizawa had given Hachiman an impression similar to Kushida's over the past two days. The difference was that, unlike Kushida, she did not aim to be friends with everyone.

She had only become friends with a few girls, forming something like a small clique among the girls.

"Hello, Hikigaya. I'm Karuizawa, your classmate."

Karuizawa greeted him first and introduced herself.

Hachiman nodded lightly. "I know. Is there something you need?"

Karuizawa raised her head and met Hachiman's gaze, then lowered it again awkwardly.

"If it's alright, could I come inside to talk?"

"Yeah, sure."

Hachiman did not refuse. In fact, he was faintly looking forward to her doing something like confessing to him.

Love at first sight was common enough. It would not be too much to ask for it to happen to him once, right?

He invited Karuizawa into his room and poured her a glass of water.

"What is it you need? A girl coming to a boy's dorm room isn't against the school rules, but if other boys see us, they might get the wrong idea."

As he spoke, Hachiman took in Karuizawa's attributes. There were three in total. Two were utterly ordinary, but the third one looked somewhat different.

[Psychological Trauma]

Was this left behind because she had been bullied in middle school?

Hachiman had never closely studied his ability to see attributes. He did not understand what use there was in an ability that gave him ordinary attributes when he already knew every character's plot and past.

Still, Hachiman noticed something unusual about this attribute.

[Psychological Trauma]: Kei Karuizawa suffered severe bullying in middle school, leaving her with psychological trauma. If the host can resolve Kei Karuizawa's psychological trauma, the host may choose one attribute to replace.

"Oh? Replace an attribute?"

This was the first time Hachiman had learned the rules of attributes. If that was the case, did that not mean he could turn Karuizawa into an Artificial Genius like Ayanokoji?

Ripples spread through his normally calm heart. If this was possible, then the same should apply to other people as well.

For the first time, the unmotivated Hachiman felt excited.

He looked at Karuizawa as though he were looking at a lab mouse.

"I... I have something I want to ask of you, Hikigaya," Karuizawa stammered.

Hachiman nodded. "Alright, let's hear it."

"Before that, whether you agree or refuse, please promise to keep it a secret, okay?" Karuizawa looked at him pleadingly.

Hachiman did not refuse and motioned for her to continue.

Karuizawa nervously took a sip of water, trying hard to calm herself, before slowly recounting what she had experienced.

"You mean you want me to pretend to be your boyfriend?"

"Yes. If I have that status, other people won't do the same thing to me."

By using a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship, she could attach herself to Hachiman and stop other girls from even considering bullying her.

It really was a pretty good method.

Knowing she had a boyfriend protecting her, no matter how much those girls disliked Karuizawa, they probably would not dare act rashly.

"Why did you choose me? Wouldn't Hirata from our class be more suitable than I am?" Hachiman asked curiously.

Compared to Hachiman, who had not done anything particularly remarkable, the handsome Hirata had become one of the most prominent figures in class in just two days. He was undoubtedly more suited to the role.

In the original story, Karuizawa had also asked Hirata to pretend to be her boyfriend.

Karuizawa blushed and said quietly, "Because if I'm going to find someone to pretend with, I should find the best one. I think you're a little more handsome than Hirata."

That was some high praise! It had to be said that Karuizawa had great taste. I thought so too.

Hachiman secretly reveled in it, but his expression did not change.

"Thank you for the compliment, but may I refuse?"

Hachiman did not want to agree. Judging from Karuizawa's personality and objective, the moment he agreed, every first-year student would know they were dating by tomorrow.

For someone determined to become a scumbag, that was not good news.

"Huh? Wh-why? I worked up so much courage just to..."

There was a faint sob in Karuizawa's voice. She had thought that with her cute appearance and pitiful past, most people would not refuse her.

She had never expected Hachiman to reject her without even thinking about it. She had even told him about the past she did not want anyone to know. She had truly brought a rock down on her own foot.

"Because I'm not good at pretending to be a couple. But it's fine—I'll help you keep it secret. I won't tell anyone about you, so please don't worry."

Karuizawa immediately panicked. Having never considered this sort of answer, she was utterly flustered.

"Of course, if you run into any trouble in the future, I'll help you too."

"Huh? Really?" Karuizawa looked up in disbelief.

It felt like he had slapped her, then handed her a piece of candy.

"Yeah. No matter what it is, as long as I can help, I will."

"Then can you lend me a thousand points?"

Hachiman: ...

The two exchanged contact information. Karuizawa left Hachiman's room in disappointment, preparing to carry out Plan B.

Looking at the contact information on his phone, Hachiman pondered how to resolve Karuizawa's Psychological Trauma.

He knew nothing about this sort of thing. Did he have to do as Ayanokoji did—destroy her first, then slowly heal her?

But doing that would take far too much time.

Actually, he could follow her plan and become her fake boyfriend. Then he could use certain people to draw out her fear, swoop in to save the damsel in distress, and say, "It's okay. I'm here."

That method should be able to heal her Psychological Trauma, but it ran completely counter to his grand scumbag ambitions. He could only reluctantly abandon it.

One Kei Karuizawa was not worth giving up an entire forest for.