Hachiman’s Classroom of Strength’s Supremacy

Chapter 007: Kushida Kikyo: I Want to Be Friends with Everyone

Kushida was cute, and her voice was sweet.

“Can you take me along?” she asked.

She looked at him with a pitiful expression. If you looked closely, you could see that her pupils were reflecting his figure.

Then, when she probably noticed he wasn’t moving, the hand that had originally just grabbed his sleeve transformed into both of her hands gently holding his left hand.

She gently lifted his hand after wrapping her hands around it.

This was a surprising move.

It was the first time he had been so closely touched by a girl. Even his sister, Komachi, had never done something like that.

Is this the warmth of a girl?

But…

Hachiman nodded.

“If you want to come,” Hachiman said.

He didn’t think Kushida had feelings for him beyond friendship. In fact, the two of them weren’t even friends yet, so he didn’t believe Kushida had this kind of intimate affection for him.

So, the reason she made this gesture might have been related to what he had said earlier about investigating the school and the teachers being silenced.

In other words…

She probably wanted to get information through him.

Kushida… you’re a little too utilitarian, huh?

Though he thought that, he said nothing.

“Um, could you put my hand down?” Hachiman asked.

“…” Kushida.

“Mm.”

Kushida seemed to freeze for a moment before gently touching the tips of her not-so-long hair.

She seemed a bit embarrassed, but as soon as Hachiman started to move, she quickly followed him.

Maybe she was surprised by his straightforwardness.

After all, she was so cute, but he acted like a stone-hearted person.

And that was certainly the case.

After all, Hachiman didn’t believe in absolute kindness, nor in affection from the opposite sex.

Girls were creatures who were easy to misunderstand. When they showed tenderness, it was easy to think that tenderness was directed specifically at him.

And once someone got carried away and began to feel pleased with themselves, it would quickly lead to an unpleasant situation where both parties ended up hurt.

And he despised this type of situation.

Because… the material for that realization… came from his own experience.

So, the two walked together toward the academic building.

Kushida walked quite close to him, their shoulders about 20 centimeters apart.

“Has a girl ever hurt you before, Hachiman?” Kushida suddenly asked.

“Eh?” This question had a huge impact on him.

Hachiman stopped walking.

“I get the feeling that you don’t really want anyone to enter your heart,” Kushida said.

But… did she want to enter his heart?

“I’ve had a bit of a dark past,” Hachiman said. “It was probably in middle school. One of the girls in class exchanged phone numbers with the students, and when she exchanged numbers with me, I misunderstood.”

He had misunderstood.

In other words, he had some history of liking someone, and that past with the opposite sex had led to a distrust of any further contact with girls.

“I see.”

Kushida seemed to accept his response, gently nodding. “But I think your way of thinking is a bit different from other students.”

“And this way of thinking seems more mature.”

“I think girls like it a lot. At least, I like it.”

Really?

Hachiman had just gotten used to being alone, immersing himself in the world, and occasionally venting his frustrations.

He didn’t think of it as anything mature.

Wait a second.

Hachiman realized something.

Because…

Could this person be trying to win him over?

Hachiman noticed that the 20 cm distance between his and Kushida’s shoulders had shrunk to about 10 cm when she spoke to him earlier.

A faint fragrance, typical of girls, drifted toward him.

And when he turned to look at her, she gently lifted her head and showed him a cute expression.

“…” Hachiman.

Don’t waver, Hachiman. Kushida definitely doesn’t have feelings for you beyond being a classmate.

She’s just aiming to make friends with everyone, that’s all.

And she probably just wants to understand this strange school, using you as a means to help her.

So… don’t, don’t waver.

“The teaching building is just ahead,” Kushida said.

Hm.

Hachiman quickly calmed himself.

Now, they were on the first floor of the first-year teaching building.

The morning had been busy with enrollment, attending the graduation ceremony, and then everyone focusing on their classrooms, leaving little room for observation.

But now, as they stood on the first floor, they noticed that the building had a notice board. Much like the school’s promotional brochure they received before enrollment, the school’s facilities seemed very advanced; even the notice board was an LCD screen.

Next to the notice board hung a small chalkboard.

But the chalkboard was blank.

On the notice board, there was only a message from the student council welcoming the new students, telling them to attend the opening ceremony in the gym at 10 AM.

Hachiman didn’t linger and walked on.

He arrived at the third-year teaching building.

Today was a weekend, so it seemed like the upperclassmen weren’t attending classes.

On the first floor here, Hachiman also saw the same type of notice board and chalkboard.

The notice board contained the same message, welcoming new students.

However, Hachiman noticed that the chalkboard in the third-year building had some information written on it. It showed a few numbers that caught his attention:

A 2530
B 1300
C 300
D 20

Hachiman took a photo of it with his phone.

Kushida didn’t think there was anything strange about the chalkboard. Instead, she continued, “Do you want to go upstairs?”

“No, not really. It’s the weekend, so I’m not sure if the upperclassmen’s classrooms are locked,” Hachiman replied.

“And if no one’s in there, it would be troublesome if something got lost,” he added.

“Mm-mm,” Kushida nodded.

So, the two of them headed toward the second-year teaching building.

Just like at the third-year building, Hachiman looked around the second-year teaching building, searching for differences in its layout compared to the first-year building.

The notice boards were the same, but there was also a small chalkboard in the second-year building.

This chalkboard had numbers as well:

Class A 2000
Class B 600
Class C 400
Class D 200

Compared to the numbers on the third-year building’s chalkboard, these numbers seemed more polished, almost as if they had been organized.

Hachiman took out his phone to take a picture.

“Are you first-year students? What are you doing in the upperclassmen’s area?” A voice suddenly called out.

The voice had a somewhat authoritative tone, and it sounded familiar.

Hachiman and Kushida quickly looked over and saw the student council president and a girl with a bun hairstyle.

The student council president stood still, while the girl with the purple bun jogged over to them.

“The girl with the bun is probably named Tachibana Akane. She introduced herself during the opening ceremony,” Hachiman said. “She’s the secretary of the student council.”

“Your memory is really good, Hachiman,” Kushida said, looking at him with a slightly admiring expression.

“…”

Hachiman.

Please, Kushida, don’t look at me like that.

Hachiman was already feeling like he might just give in.

But facing the approaching upperclasswoman, he said, “We just got here and are familiarizing ourselves with the environment. We’ve already passed through the first-year and third-year areas, and now we’re in the second-year area, but we didn’t go upstairs.”

“I see,” the girl with the bun said.

It seemed like the act of wandering around the school as a new student wasn’t anything unusual, so the upperclasswoman didn’t make things difficult for them. She returned to the student council president.

The she reported to the student council president, “Looks like they’re just ordinary new students exploring the school.”

“This is pretty normal for someone of the outside world—when people come to a new place, they try to familiarize themselves with their surroundings,”

“Not necessarily,” the student council president said, pushing up their glasses. “Did you not notice? The guy took a photo just now. His target was the chalkboard.”

“That means he noticed something about the school,” the student council president continued. “And those two students, the boy and the girl, they’re from the first-year D class.”

“Eh?”

“Alright, it’s time for us to intervene at the chess club,” the student council president said.

Yes.

They had noticed a freshman from first-year A class who had been widely challenging people to chess matches on the Western chess Club. She was being very arrogant.

However, her chess skills were impressive. Through chess, she had already accumulated nearly a million points.

Furthermore, upon investigation, it turned out she wasn’t alone but had gathered nearly half the students in her class.

In other words, after receiving special treatment at the school, instead of going shopping or exploring the campus, they had come to extract points from the upperclassmen.

They understood the principle of [using points to buy anything], so they aimed to collect as many points as possible to buy the information they needed.

That meant, this year’s first-year A class was quite formidable.

As they watched the student council president leave, the secretary upperclasswoman quickly followed after him.

However, she looked back at Hachiman and Kushida with a somewhat surprised expression.

Because…

The students in this year’s first-year A class were really causing a stir.

But at least they were from class A.

But now, were the students in first-year D class this outrageous too? They immediately spotted the class evaluation score, something incredibly important to all students.

.

.

.

On Hachiman’s side.

Because of the interference from the student council’s officers, their investigation had come to a pause.

Hachiman felt like he had gathered some information.

But…

“Beep beep!”

At that moment, he received an email.

However, the sender was from an unfamiliar number.

There was only one line of text in the email.

[Congratulations, Hikigaya Hachiman. Your application to convert your points into cash in advance has been approved. The board of directors has voted and granted you this privilege.

You can visit the headmaster’s office anytime to apply for the points-to-cash service.

The conversion rate is 1,000 private points for 800 yen. We are also responsible for depositing the cash or sending it to your specified address.

However, please note that the minimum amount for conversion is 1 million points. Therefore, you need to accumulate 1 million points before you can officially convert them.

Additionally, you are not allowed to collect points through crowdfunding to help others convert points, nor can you act as an intermediary for profit.

That’s all. We look forward to your development.

The Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School Board of Directors.]

Although the number wasn’t familiar, it gave off the feeling of being from the school administration.

Immediately after, Hachiman noticed that his homeroom teacher, Chabashira, had called him.