No matter what, Hachiman Hikigaya was an obstacle Hayato and the others could not get around, unless...
"Um..." Dead Fish Eyes spoke up. "Acting alone is my personal choice. It's not about being isolated or anything..."
"Hiki-penguin-gaya?" Hayato Hayama, who had been about to refute Sogo Doma, froze upon hearing that.
...Don't think he hadn't heard Hayama call him Hiki-penguin! The dead-fish-eyed boy fumed inwardly.
"Then that's even more unacceptable..." Sogo Doma said. "Don't forget, that little girl named Rumi Tsurumi used to have friends too. Emmm, matte a second—sure enough, the blonde miss is still more suitable, huh?"
"Eh?" Hayato's group froze again. Why could he still shift the topic back to that little girl at a time like this?
"Doma, what exactly are you trying to do!?" This was the nth time they had asked.
"Hayato the Little Sun, didn't I tell you when I arrived? I'm here to have you finish the work you left undone—to help that little girl, Rumi Tsurumi, fit into the group..." Sogo Doma once again raised his index finger with an utterly harmless expression.
Hayato's group: "???"
"Wait a second, then what was that just now..." Before he could finish, Sogo Doma looked at Hayato Hayama and said, "I told you already. It was so you could understand why isolation exists—like Hikigaya's dead fish eyes, or the blonde miss's rebellion against her superiors, and so on..."
"Come to think of it, that little girl's situation is closer to the blonde miss's..." Blonde Miura: "..."
"What about Tobe and the others?"
"I was just asking..." Sogo Doma shrugged. "Do you all care that much?" Hayato's group: "..." How could they not care!?
?
"Come to think of it, if the blonde girl hadn't butted in and asked what about Hikigaya was worth learning