"They weren't targeting your dead-fish eyes..." As though he knew what Hachiman Hikigaya was thinking, Sogo Doma raised his index finger again. "The reason they targeted you was entirely due to humanity's self-righteous arrogance."
"???" He hadn't said anything, had he? This guy... Still, what Hachiman Hikigaya cared about more was, "Self-righteous arrogance?"
"For example, Yuigahama's first reaction upon seeing that little girl was to help her..." Yui Yuigahama: "???" Was there something wrong with that?
"Come to think of it, I was just bringing this up with Yukinoshita and the others..." Seeming to notice their confusion, Sogo Doma explained, "Why force your own ideas onto others? Everyone has their own way of living. Is acting alone—or rather, having no friends—necessarily wrong?" Hachiman Hikigaya fell silent in thought. "..." He seemed to understand what Sogo meant.
"But..." Yui Yuigahama didn't quite get it. Or rather, she had far too many questions.
"Yuigahama, why do you think that little girl needs help? Couldn't it be that she likes living this way? Having no friends means not having to maintain complicated interpersonal relationships. Acting alone may look lonely, but it also gives you more freedom. So perhaps what you saw was the way she preferred to live..."
"How could anyone like being all alone!?" Before he could finish, Yuigahama protested.
"That's exactly what arrogance is. As they say, the world is full of all sorts of people..." Sogo Doma said. "Putting everything else aside, let's take Hikigaya as an example. Ask him whether he likes moving forward alone, or whether he wants to be surrounded by friends like some popular kid."
"Hikki..." Yui Yuigahama looked like she wanted to say something but stopped. In her eyes, Hachiman Hikigaya was probably the kind of person who preferred to walk alone.
If that weren't