Chapter 349

The staff were very considerate and delivered tableware for two people.

"Hachiman— " Ichinose had a guess at this moment.

But Hachiman actually cut both the roti and the sandwich into two equally sized portions with a knife.

He handed one of the portions to Ichinose.

"I feel like I've ordered too much, so could you help me finish half of it?" Hachiman asked.

"Um... well, then I'll accept it without hesitation."

Having fully realized that this was the other party's good intention Ichinose had no choice but to nod and agree.

Yes.

She was torn about which set meal to order. If she ordered two, she wouldn't be unable to finish them, but her calorie intake would exceed the limit, and she didn't want to gain weight.

So I restrained myself.

If you divide it in half, your calorie intake will not exceed the limit.

So, only children make choices. Ichinose, you're an adult now, you should learn to have it all.

This was the fifth time he had encountered Ichinose and done this.

In this way.

The recollection ends.

Ichinose so cute, but there are still some people who want to harm her.

Don't you think that's going too far?

Nagumo.

"I think we need to deal with the Ichinose incident this time."

"Our goal is no longer to Class Advancement, so attacking Ichinose or watching Ichinose get attacked is not a good thing," Hachiman said.

"So you're planning to make a move?" Horikita, looking over.

She neither dislikes nor likes Ichinose, but she thinks the three rumors about Ichinose are really too much.

Although Suzune Horikita often has a stern and aloof expression, she also has a strong sense of justice.

"More or less, but I'll need your help," Hachiman said.

"My help?"

"Yes," Hachiman said. "Actually, your rumor was caused by Kushida, and then Ichinose helped. Now that Ichinose is in trouble, you can ask Kushida for help as well."

"Go... ask Kushida?" Horikita's hand, which was gripping the kettle, suddenly stopped.

Because she had strong objections to the suggestion made by Hachiman.

Go ask Kushida.

Go ask Kushida.

In the rumor incident Kushida was portrayed by Hachiman as the ultimate mastermind, yet he still goes to see her now—isn't that toxic?

This is just too strange.

Because.

Suzune can no longer trust Kushida.

Or rather, Kushida's credibility is very low. And now we need to help Ichinose, so how can we ask Kikyo Kushida credibility is already quite low, for help?

In other words, although Horikita's little sister honestly kept her bet, her opinion of Kushida dropped significantly.

"This time we can trust her. Besides Ichinose, she has the most connections among people," Hachiman said. "At the same time, you underestimate her too much. Kushida treats all her friends fairly and equally. So she considers Ichinose friend, and she will do her best to help her friends. Right, Kushida?"

As Hachiman spoke, he suddenly turned around.

Suzune Horikita noticed his expression and words and looked back.

They saw a girl with short blonde hair standing behind them, looking at them with a "smile".

"I just heard someone talking about my name, so I came over here out of embarrassment," she said with a "smile."

She had already returned from the cafeteria when she suddenly sneezed. She felt that someone might be cursing at her, and the only people she could deduce were the two people in front of her.

"Horikita and Hachiman have a really good relationship," Kushida said kindly.

!!

But Suzune Horikita was startled.

She is a fairly calm person, but now she also has a kind of panic as if she had said something bad about someone and was immediately caught.

"..." She didn't know how to respond for a moment.

"Well then, can you help?" Hachiman stood up and offered his chair to Kikyo Kushida. "Right now, the very popular Ichinose is being attacked, and we can't be sure if the culprit is planning to attack the next popular person."

Who will be the next popular person?

Isn't that Kikyo Kushida?

Although she wasn't very intelligent, Kushida felt that Hachiman Hikigaya was deliberately exaggerating and even trying to get her help for free.

But.

Kushida maintained his smile, neither sitting down nor continuing to speak.

Instead, his gaze fell upon Suzune Horikita.

"... Horikita." Hachiman could only pat Horikita on the shoulder.

"... Kushida." Horikita had no choice but to say, "This time, I hope you can help me."

"So... how about Horikita owes me a favor this time?" Kushida's voice suddenly became adorable. "And then, can it offset what happened before and improve my evaluation?"

Kushida interlaced his fingers, looking quite pleased with himself.

The "previous incident" she was referring to was her assistance in spreading rumors about Horikita.

Then accepting it also offended Horikita.

"..." Horikita finally responded after a long pause, "Yes."

She was unaware that Kushida was only an accomplice, not the principal offender, so her answer here was equivalent to forgiving Kushida's understanding that he was the principal offender.

It's clear that Horikita genuinely wanted to help Ichinose this time, which is why she made such a big sacrifice.

"Mmm." Kushida was in a good mood after receiving this reply.

They even felt that they didn't care if Hachiman Hikigaya them for free.

Because of Suzune Horikita's personality, if someone says something like that, the other person will actually improve their opinion of her.

And she went on to say that.

"Okay, after all, Ichinose is also my friend, so how can I sit idly by and do nothing when my good friend is being spread such rumors?"

"And this is the information I obtained." Kushida then began to share the information he had easily acquired, including the source of the information and the truth hidden within it.

Rumors can only spread if they don't just make up stories; they must conceal some truth to prevent them from being easily exposed or denied.

Just like the previous rumors about Horikita, which ranged from her being the Student Council President's sister to the Student Council President's alleged favoritism, etc. The truth is that Horikita is indeed the Student Council President's sister. Therefore, when the rumors started, she couldn't immediately respond correctly or deny them.

This caused the rumors to spread further and further.

Kikyo Kushida is most skilled at this kind of thing. Therefore, her counter-surveillance skills are also quite advanced.

Only from her can I get effective help.

Having Kushida assist her seems to be a way of leveraging her power, and Kushida has also achieved her goal of eliminating Horikita's dissatisfaction with her, which seems to be a win-win situation for both parties.

But that's not the case.

In the Horikita rumor incident, influential people like Kushida could incite others to gain great power, so it's hard to guarantee that she won't cause trouble this time.

Therefore, by using her power, the possibility of her causing trouble was cut off.

In other words...

Kikyo Kushida was sealed away.

So this is Hachiman's real purpose: to appease the troublesome fellow.

Then comes the opportunity to resolve the issue.

Looking at Horikita face and Kushida, Hachiman could only shake his head; these two were still not smart enough.

It's unimaginable how badly those two would have been manipulated by people like Sakayanagi if he weren't in class.

Kikyo Kushida is a very skilled communicator, and her ability to gather and control information is formidable.

Although Hachiman could seek help from Hirata and Karuizawa, they could only contact students in their own class at most, and did not have information sources from other classes, so the information they could collect was very incomplete.

"The person who started the fire can be confirmed to be from the Ryuen's class."

"But before everyone found the rumors about Ichinose in their shoe lockers, people had already started spreading them," Kushida said. "Moreover, no one witnessed anyone from Ryuen's class putting down the letters spreading these rumors."

These words caught the attention of both Horikita and Hachiman.

"The source of the information is a girl from Class D, which is also known as Ryuen Class. But considering that girl's romantic relationships, I suspect she wasn't the first to spread the rumor. It's possible that her crush, Hashimoto, asked her to do it," Kushida said. He also added his own information to the summary.

Then he pointed out a character Hashimoto.

Hashimoto's full name is Masayoshi Hashimoto.

In other words, he was tricked out of 1 million points by Hachiman during the Forestry Exam, and in order to repay this debt, he recorded his classmate farting.

At that time, Hashimoto was a spy for his class, and he also wanted to latch onto Ryuen's coattails, acting as if he didn't care who his boss was, as long as they could get him into Class A.

In other words, he's a fence-sitter.

So.

It is impossible to determine whether his actions were instigated by Sakayanagi or by Ryuen himself.

If it is Ryuen, then Ryuen must have been bribed and hired by Nagumo.

If it was Sakayanagi who instructed him to do it, then... Classmate Sakayanagi is indeed an obstacle on the road to Class Advancement, a big boss.

Because.

Hachiman analyzed it.

Nagumo wanted to become the chairman, even though he was no longer qualified, he still had his subordinate Kiriyama.

Kiriyama- senpai is also qualified to be a candidate for Student Council President.

So what he wanted to do was to put Kiriyama in power.

By bringing Kiriyama to power, they could use tactics to attack their competitors.

Just like the previous rumor, there was the report of Ichinose's huge points, and then Sakayanagi Arisu reported it.

First, ruin Sakayanagi's reputation.

In this election, Sakayanagi will certainly not be supported by Ichinose's supporters.

However, Nagumo did not give up attacking Sakayanagi, but instead chose to attack Ichinose.

This is strange.

Although they didn't attack Sakayanagi directly arranged for people to stake out the place, and then reported the person to the Student Council after they caught them.

This idea seems like a tough one.

However, it would be strange if they continued to attack Ichinose.

Since Ichinose is the current Class representative of Class A, if you attack the Class representative, do you think you can still get the 40 votes from Class A?

So that's how it is.

Ichinose may indeed have a disturbing side or a dark past.

But perhaps she herself hasn't gotten over it.

If she fails to be attacked and is rescued by someone, she might be subdued.