Hikigaya Hachiman Is Made of Iron (Continued)

Forehead.

What a coincidence!

I used to think it would be awkward to be paired with Sato, but now we're not in the same group anymore, and we've even been assigned to the same study group.

This is quite unexpected.

I'll give it a little thought.

Agree.

Hachiman clicked "add friend" to grant permission.

Yukimura then pulled all six members into a newly formed small group, because some things don't necessarily need to be said in class; it's okay to notify others in the group.

The first thing Yukimura said after forming the group was, "[Which subjects are you not very good at? Prepare yourselves, and we'll have a study session tomorrow. Then I can provide tutoring on your weak areas.]"

It can only be said that top students are meticulous. And when he finally arrived at his area of expertise, Yukimura seemed to be full of energy.

The next day, there was a class meeting.

Hirata announced the group assignments again.

The students in the class were divided into 7 groups.

Almost no one disagreed, but there were exceptions.

"Koenji, what do you mean by this?!"

Rokusuke Koenji was surrounded by Hirata and Sudō.

Koenji, Yamauchi, Sudō, and Onodera are members of the same group.

Koenji's partner is Sotomura.

Sudō, on the other hand, partners with Onodera.

Generally speaking, considering that the final exam results are determined by the partners, the study groups for regular preparation usually consist of partners working together in one group.

However, we must also consider the reality that there aren't that many top students in Class A.

Uneven distribution of Academic Ability.

Therefore, some partnerships may be broken up.

Hirata also wanted to try his best to recruit some top students.

For example, Kōenji.

Considering that Koenji usually keeps to himself, their group only has four people.

However, all four of them encountered problems.

Koenji refused to become the group leader to assist the other students with their studies, and he also refused to participate in study sessions.

"Oh no, I have something more important to do—"

"What could be more important than an exam?!" Sudō retorted angrily. "At the last Sports Festival, you were so strong, but you didn't get a single point!"

Koenji is a loner, but he is also very Academic Ability. He ranks at the top of the list of results posted during the entrance exam, and he also came in first place in the quiz given to them by Chabashira-sensei. He then partnered with Yamauchi, who came in last.

However, in the last Sports Festival, the bottom 10 students would have 10 points deducted from each subject, and Koenji withdrew from the Sports Festival, so he was one of the bottom 10 students, meaning he would have points deducted. Therefore, even though Yamauchi thought Koenji was a top student, he still felt unsafe.

"But the class ultimately got first place, didn't it?" Koenji said, combing her hair while looking in the mirror. "So the result is good."

"You have absolutely no regard for the class!" Sudō said.

"Hehe—no, I really love this class." After saying that Koenji turned to leave.

"Koenji, I've put up with you for too long!" Sudō couldn't take it anymore.

"Want to settle things with your fists?" Koenji glanced at him and said, "I don't care, but you'll be the one who gets hurt in the end."

These were truly arrogant words, yet he uttered them in a calm tone, indicating that he was confident of defeating Sudō.

"Alright, alright," the easygoing Hirata quickly stepped in to mediate. "Anyway, Koenji, are you really not going to join the study group?"

"I will make sure you pass," Koenji said. "So, Yamauchi, you don't need to worry. You just need to get 10 points in each subject."

"Oh, oh, is that alright?" Yamauchi asked in surprise.

If he takes the test seriously, he can still get around 20 points, and getting 10 points is not something that can be done easily.

But Koenji smiled at him.

That's outrageous!

But he's a super high achiever.

There are those who can get 98 points on every test paper, or even 100 points if they're in a good mood.

"Alright." Hirata ultimately chose to prioritize harmony and allowed Koenji not to join the study group, but now only Onodera, Yamauchi, and Sudō remained, and a new arrangement had to be made.

"Yukimura, can your group add more people?"

"I'm sorry, but after looking at the exercises this group did, I feel a headache coming on," Yukimura said. "If I add any more, I won't be able to teach them."

"You're saying such harsh things, as if we're all academic failures."

Sitting at the front, Harube Horikita, the group leader of Yukimura, suddenly spoke up.

Harube Horikita, both her first and last name sound beautiful.

She was a beautiful girl with blue hair, delicate features, and a super figure. She had a beauty mark under the corner of her left eye, making her a very eye-catching girl.

She was nominated by Yamauchi in the beauty ranking list that Yamauchi and his classmates conducted at the beginning of the school year, seemingly because of her relatively large breasts.

But Hachiman and she had never spoken directly, so it was somewhat unexpected that she was the type who liked to strike up conversations.

Unlike Sakura, who is also very big but introverted.

"Isn't that right? Your grades are giving me a real headache," Yukimura complained. "And you're one of the last place finishers in the Sports Festival, so if you don't work hard, the chances of failing are too high."

"What can I do? Everyone has things they're not good at." Horikita seemed unhappy about being criticized.

"Alright, alright." Seemingly realizing that continuing to talk Student Council a commotion, Hirata took over the mess left by Koenji's escape and added Sudō and the others to his group. He would then mentor them.

Yukimura's partner was Kanji Ike.

Knowing that Yukimura was a good student, he was the type to be carried along, so he kept quiet and didn't say anything, lest something go wrong and they didn't end up pairing up according to the list.

Hachiman's group consisted of six people: Yukimura, Kanji Ike, Hasebe, and Miyake. Only he and Sato remained silent.

However, Sato didn't say anything on the surface.

Why hasn't Hachiman been wearing his glasses these past few days?

You look more handsome with glasses on.

Hachiman was initially worried that his decision to refuse to partner with her in class yesterday and instead partner with Kiyotaka Ayanokoji might have left her with a grudge, but now it seems there's no need to worry.

[I've noticed, you're wearing non-prescription glasses, right? Sakura seems to be wearing them too. Does that mean Sakura also wears glasses... oh no, she already is, so she's the type whose looks improve when she takes them off? I'm a little curious to see what Sakura looks like without glasses.]

The other party was quite noisy.

I never noticed how talkative she was around Karuizawa.

After school, the class was divided into several groups because they were going to have a study session.

As top students, Horikita, Kushida, Hirata, Meiyu Wang, and Yukimura were all team leaders.

Horikita chose the library, but Yukimura and the others chose an open-air café. This was Hasebe's request; she thought that having something to refresh themselves might help them concentrate.

No one objected to this, because academic underachievers share a common trait: an instinctive resistance to studying diligently.

"Huh? Where's Hasebe?"

But just as the last class ended, Hasebe disappeared from the classroom for some unknown reason.

"Did she run away?" Yukimura, the Yukimura student who was guiding her, was very angry.

"Hasebe isn't that kind of person. She probably left first, right?" Akito Miyake.

Why is it necessary to leave first?

"There must be various things going on."

Miyake seems to know Hasebe well and isn't particularly worried.

So everyone went together to the book club's designated location—a coffee shop.

Then, they actually saw Hasebe outside the coffee shop.

Why did you leave first?

Yukimura saw Hasebe, he pressed him for an answer.

"What do you mean, 'why'? Should I say it's because I don't want to attract attention? It's a bit inconvenient in class—"

Hasebe answered in an ambiguous tone.

"Does that mean you hate being seen talking to us?" Yukimura seemed to interpret that as feeling embarrassed, so his face turned red immediately.

"That's not how it is. I have my own reasons."

Well, Hachiman has a basic understanding of what kind of person Hasebe is.

The long-dormant talent of human observers has been activated once again.

Then everyone chose an empty table, but when it came time to arrange the seating, to Hachiman's surprise, Sato sat down next to him after he did.

Since it was a formal study session, everyone sat down without much chatting.

"Did you all bring the test papers for this quiz as I instructed?"

As the only top student, Yukimura was under a lot of pressure. After quickly collecting the papers from his group members, he fell into a state of blankness.

Perhaps he was troubled by the fact that there are students in the world who are bad at studying.

He first named Hasebe and Miyake.

He has to mentor five students, and it's very difficult to guide each one individually.

"I thought you two were very close, but it turns out that your strengths and weaknesses overlap so much," Yukimura said.

"I was reading in the library when Hasebe. It was something like that." Miyake explained his relationship with Hasebe.

This shows that Hasebe is an extrovert, and it's easy to identify introverts.

"Both Xiaosan and I are the kind of people who tend to be loners, and we can't fully integrate into the class," Hasebe said. "Hachiman, what do you think we should do to better integrate into the class?"

"..." Should I ask him?

Hearing her approach, Hachiman felt resistant and thought it best not to get involved with her, since she seemed to have just called Akito Miyake a mistress.

Mistress.

"..."

In other words, she probably enjoys giving people nicknames.

Hachiman doesn't appreciate her ability to give people nicknames.

He has a ton of nicknames.

Things Hachiman Hikigaya mushrooms, Hachiman Hikigaya frogs, and penguins...

"Because my head is so big." Yukimura looked at everyone's grades and felt a headache coming on. "So I need to think about how to study. I'm sorry, but I need some time."

"Understood. Then we can just have a cup of tea and wait for you, okay?" The others had no objections.

Hasebe, as if without delay, took out his phone to relax. Indeed, in this day and age, as long as you have a mobile phone, it's easy to kill time.

On ships, most people just deal with the conversation sessions like this, and very few actually read books or anything like that.

However, not all girls did this, because Hachiman noticed that Sato, who was sitting next to him, did not make any move to take out her phone. She just put her hands on the table and looked at him slightly to the side.

Hey, hey.

It was the first time Hachiman had been stared at with such intense gaze from a girl, and even he felt pressured.

"Speaking of which," Hasebe suddenly pressed down on his phone, seemingly noticing his predicament, "Speaking of Hachiman."

She called out Hachiman's name directly, "Aren't you going to do anything for this Special Exam?"

Huh?

"Like when we had the old test questions before, you even invited students from Class B to give us extra lessons, right?" Hasebe said.