However.
"Then do you think Sakayanagi is setting a trap for me?" Ryuen said.
Yeah.
Ryuen was still quite perceptive.
Based on Hachiman's understanding of Classmate Sakayanagi, there were no more than two reasons she might give up the group leader position.
The first was that Ryuen was too strong, so she chose to avoid his edge.
The second was that Classmate Sakayanagi had lost interest.
So she relinquished it.
If they were Class A students, they would probably interpret it as the second reason.
However.
For someone who wanted to regard Sakayanagi as an opponent and defeat her, rather than leave her to be ignored, there was a third interpretation.
"Two voices have appeared within one group," Hachiman said. "Hasn't this situation happened before?"
It had happened before?
Like Ryuen's class now, Ryuen felt that some of his ideas differed somewhat from Hikigaya's.
But he probably wasn't referring to internal conflict within his own class.
Then—
"You mean Sakayanagi sees me as Katsuragi?" Ryuen realized.
"Heh—"
"It really is an interesting challenge." Ryuen smiled.
In the past, Sakayanagi's Class A had been divided into the Sakayanagi Faction and the Katsuragi Faction. Back then, Sakayanagi's arrangement for Katsuragi had been to push him to the top, then watch him fall.
Was it the same now?
Did she consider him to be on Katsuragi's level?
That was why Ryuen laughed. He believed his own abilities definitely surpassed Katsuragi's.
"I accept this challenge," Ryuen said. "I'll defeat Sakayanagi."
Was that so?
Hikigaya went back to reading.
It was a good thing for a classmate to be motivated, and what Sakayanagi had arranged for Ryuen was essentially an open scheme.
Hachiman and Ryuen had once set a trap for Sakayanagi, and now she was beginning to strike back.
She gave Ryuen an opportunity