"Is that so?" Karuizawa's attitude seemed to have grown a little colder.
Just as Hachiman thought the topic was about to end, Karuizawa sent another message.
"But she seems to be under constant watch. In other words, she's being followed."
"Although that person's presence was very faint, I saw her take out her phone and photograph your younger sister." —Karuizawa.
??
Komachi Hikigaya was being followed?
Hachiman frowned slightly, then contacted someone skilled at tailing others—Masumi Kamuro.
Kamuro's reply was very straightforward.
"Sakayanagi did it."
"Sakayanagi thinks that girl is your sister, so she arranged for some students to keep an eye on her."
That was why Hachiman had gotten around to replying to Yukino about the dog he was raising.
Students from Classmate Sakayanagi's class often kept an eye on him.
Hachiman could disregard people constantly watching him, but his younger sister Komachi was not a student at this school.
Naturally, there was no need for her to endure this school's baptism.
So Hachiman gave Karuizawa an order.
Help her.
After receiving the message, Karuizawa did indeed begin helping.
She had actually gone near the school gate shortly after eight.
After all.
The visitors entering the school were selected at random, so someone she knew might randomly end up coming here.
Her image at school was fake, while outside, in the past... she had been a pitiful victim of bullying.
So.
She was worried, yet not worried, that someone she knew from the past might enter the school.
She worried about meeting someone from the past because it might awaken those pitiful memories, yet she was not worried because she now had someone to rely on and no longer needed to be afraid.
Thus, with such hesitation in her heart, Karuizawa lay in wait near the school gate.