Hachiman’s Classroom of Strength’s Supremacy

Chapter 131: Kushida – I’m About to Explode! Go!

Although Hikigaya was quite straightforward, Ichinose was easy to talk to.

“Ehh, let me think.”

Ichinose lightly bit her finger and thought for a moment before answering, “We bought things like hammocks, small tents, fishing rods, cooking utensils, and an outdoor shower. Including the food we consumed, we spent a total of 80 points.”

Completely different from the reckless spending of Class C.

Both classes had to spend points, but Class B always opted for the cheaper alternatives.

For instance, regarding the shower, Hikigaya’s class had chosen a 20-point large shower room that resembled a big refrigerator.

But Class B went for a 10-point outdoor shower instead, pairing it with a free small tent provided by the school, which was originally meant to be used as a portable toilet cover.

Since the outdoor shower, as its name suggested, had no enclosure, they used the tent as a makeshift shower room.

As for accommodations, Hikigaya’s class didn’t hesitate to buy two 10-point eight-person tents.

They even spent 20 points on soft mats for comfort.

But Class B? They went with 1-point hammocks, two per tree pair, which saved them a lot of points.

Even for tent padding, instead of buying mats, they repurposed the free disposable toilet bags given by the school, likely taking a large number of them to use as makeshift cushions.

They were really good at budgeting.

Hikigaya thought Ichinose might be someone worth learning from.

Since his goal was to become a househusband, learning how to manage a household budget was essential. He should find time to get some tips from her.

“Well, there wasn’t really a choice.”

Ichinose sighed and continued, “Although drinking water isn’t a problem—there’s a well in this vegetable garden that seems to be for watering crops—one of our classmates volunteered to drink it, and after half a day, nothing happened. So, we can boil it for drinking, and that solves our water issue.

But food… relying solely on this half-acre of vegetables isn’t enough. Our diet would be too limited, and we have to stay here for a week. Everyone’s health could deteriorate. So we had to use some points to exchange for food as a supplement.”

Being in a vegetable garden with both water and fresh greens was a great advantage.

However, living off just vegetables wasn’t feasible.

So spending points on food was necessary.

Even if they ate only two meals a day, they’d still need at least 10 points per day.

Adding that to the 80 points already spent, by the end of the week, Class B’s total expenses would exceed 150 points.

As she spoke, Ichinose couldn’t help but give Hikigaya and his classmates a slightly resentful look.

If Class C hadn’t occupied all the visible strongholds on the island, then Class B wouldn’t have been stuck with limited options. They weren’t allowed to use other class’s strongholds without permission, nor could they take resources from them.

If not for these restrictions, Class B could have saved a lot of points.

Sure, they were allies, but giving away everything for free would be ridiculous. An alliance didn’t mean that Hikigaya had to hand over a bunch of their valuable points.

So Hikigaya pretended not to notice her gaze and quickly changed the subject.

“That hammock… can I try it?”

He didn’t have much experience with camping, and he had zero experience with hammocks.

Now that he saw Class B had exchanged for a bunch of them, he suddenly felt that, despite all the resources his class had, they had overlooked this particular luxury. A bit of a shame.

“Eh?”

Ichinose blinked in surprise, then looked in the direction Hikigaya was pointing at. She chuckled and nodded.

“Of course, go ahead.”

“Thanks.”

Hikigaya nodded and walked straight over to the hammock, sitting down.

“Wow, you’re really not shy about it, huh?”

Ichinose puffed up her cheeks slightly, as if she hadn’t expected him to actually do it.

But she wasn’t mad.

Instead, she casually sat down on the hammock as well, right beside Hikigaya.

Since hammocks weren’t very spacious, they ended up sitting quite close together.

A faint fragrance wafted from Ichinose’s body.

The school allowed students to bring personal belongings, but perfume wasn’t one of them.

Which meant this was Ichinose’s natural scent.

That realization could easily make someone’s heart race. But Hikigaya knew that if Ichinose was comfortable enough to sit beside him like this, it just meant she saw him as nothing more than a friend.

And that… was reassuring.

Even though their close seating looked intimate, it was completely innocent.

Still, others watching from the sidelines were left speechless.

Kushida maintained her cute smile, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that Ichinose and Hikigaya were quite close.

Maybe there was something between them that she didn’t know about? Maybe they had a deep connection?

That thought made her feel… uncomfortable.

She wasn’t sure what had happened between them in private.

“This is really…”

Meanwhile, Horikita slightly parted her lips, looking rather surprised and unsure of what to say.

Of course, with Horikita’s current emotional intelligence, she wasn’t necessarily thinking about whether Hikigaya and Ichinose were romantically involved.

She was probably more dumbfounded that Hikigaya actually just went ahead and sat on the hammock.

It was like when someone says, “Oh, we should grab a meal sometime,” and you actually take them up on it.

“By the way, Ichinose.”

After adjusting himself on the hammock, Hikigaya turned to look at the girl sitting so close to him.

He met her bright eyes and said seriously,

“Let’s work together.”

Collaboration, huh?

The two classes had already signed an alliance agreement.

So discussing cooperation wasn’t surprising.

In fact, after Class B secured the vegetable garden stronghold, they had considered approaching Class C, which controlled most of the strongholds, to see if they could trade their harvested vegetables for other food supplies.

However, since Class C had originally occupied the vegetable garden stronghold, it felt shameless to take resources from them and then try to trade those same resources back for something else. Because of that, Ichinose and Kanzaki hadn’t made a decision yet.

But now…

Was Hikigaya bringing up this topic?

If they were to cooperate, the vegetables from the garden alone wouldn’t be enough to sustain them.

Which meant…

Ichinose had already thought of a solution.

That was to pay Class C a portion of their points as compensation, allowing them to conserve as much of their initial points as possible.

In this exam, they wouldn’t be able to earn many points from controlling strongholds. That meant their best option was to preserve their starting points as much as possible.

So… was Hikigaya here to offer them relief and negotiate a deal?

“How do you propose we cooperate?”

Ichinose thought for a moment, then spoke, feeling both relieved and intrigued.

Since Hikigaya was here to collaborate, they might be able to save around 20–40 points.

Then she heard Hikigaya say:

“To put it bluntly, almost all of the strongholds on this island are under our Class C’s control.”

“Before we landed, when the school broadcast told us to go check the deck, we used a camera to record the layout of the island.”

“So we were able to locate the strongholds quickly and precisely,” Hikigaya explained.

“Oh, I see—”

Ichinose seemed a little dazed as she listened.

Back then, her class had only just started realizing that this might be an exam. However, since they had no prior preparations, even when they were called to the deck to observe the ‘important scenery,’ they had been completely clueless and lost the opportunity.

Kanzaki, standing beside her, also understood now why Hikigaya’s class had managed to claim so many strongholds.

It turned out they had been well-prepared—exceptionally well-prepared.

Compared to them, his own class was far behind.

Kanzaki instantly felt the pressure.

Then Hikigaya continued, “Our class has already spent all of our starting points.”

“So, in this exam, our main goal is to earn points through securing strongholds.”

“But, I also want to take a shot at the ‘guess the leader’ segment.”

Oh.

Since Hikigaya wasn’t offering to sell them surplus supplies, but instead wanted to discuss the ‘guess the leader’ aspect, Ichinose and her classmates’ interest seemed to wane slightly.

“Well, even if we want to guess the leaders, we don’t have anyone monitoring the other classes’ leaders at the strongholds,” Ichinose pointed out.

“Also,” she continued, “as for Class D, when our class went to the beach checkpoint yesterday, we discovered that they had forfeited.”

“Some of their students had already returned to the cruise ship, while others were still waiting on the beach. But in the end, they all forfeited.”

“Although it feels a bit bad to say this… when we found out they had forfeited, we wanted to check if they had left any supplies behind. But they took everything with them,” Ichinose admitted, a little embarrassed.

“We already knew about that,” Hikigaya said, rubbing his chin. “Ryuen’s class had Komiya and Ishizaki Daichi come over to mock Ibuki, whom we had taken in. So I sent Sudo to follow them. They really did forfeit.”

“So it seems like Ryuen’s class has given up on this exam,” Ichinose said. “I can kind of understand their reasoning.”

Yes.

It was understandable.

The scoring in this deserted island exam was divided into three parts: guessing the leader, securing strongholds, and preserving initial points.

When they first arrived on the island, they discovered that most of the strongholds had already been occupied.

Without a stronghold, they had no place to camp, which meant they had to carry their luggage and wander around. That was extremely exhausting.

Ichinose’s class had endured this situation for eight hours before finally managing to take over a vegetable garden stronghold that originally belonged to Hikigaya’s class. Only then did they have a place to settle down.

Meanwhile, Ryuen’s class seemed to have stayed on the beach the entire time, unable to find a stronghold.

In other words, they likely realized that all the strongholds had already been taken, meaning they wouldn’t earn many points from them.

And as long as they stayed on the island, they would be consuming resources. That meant their initial points would continue to deplete, and it was uncertain how much they could save.

So instead of suffering on the island with little to gain, they chose to forfeit and return to the cruise ship to enjoy themselves.

Ryuen’s decision was understandable.

Ah, so that’s how you all saw it.

Hikigaya maintained an innocent expression.

At that moment, he was about to continue speaking when he suddenly stopped—he had noticed a new face approaching.

“Ichinose-san.”

A blond-haired boy wearing glasses suddenly walked over.

“Do you need any help?”

“Ah, that…”

Ichinose replied softly, “Could you go over there and assist Chihiro and the others?”

“I understand. Thank you.”

The boy bowed slightly to Ichinose before walking away.

“He’s a student from Ryuen’s class, isn’t he?” Horikita Suzune commented.

Although this was Class B’s campsite, let’s not forget—Horikita had been tricked by Hachiman into memorizing the entire grade’s student roster.

So, she was able to recognize that this boy wasn’t a student from Class B.

He was actually a student from Ryuen’s class—someone named Kaneda.

“Mm-hmm, Kaneda is a student from Class D,” Ichinose explained with a smile. “Apparently, he had a conflict with Ryuen and was kicked out. And since Ryuen’s group has already forfeited, he’s the only one left, all alone. How should I put it…? Since we ran into him, we couldn’t just leave him be, right?”

Ichinose’s actions and words made her seem like a saint.

However, her response reassured Hachiman, Horikita, and Kushida.

Because even though Ryuen’s class had forfeited, Hachiman had been certain that Ryuen was still somewhere on the island.

He had also pointed out that Ibuki was a spy.

The communication device hidden in the small cloth pouch Ibuki had buried confirmed that.

And now…

Class B also had someone from Ryuen’s class in their camp.

This was solid proof that Ryuen had deliberately planted spies in other classes to gather information on their leaders.

If he obtained information on Hachiman’s class leader, their stronghold points would be nullified.

But since Class B didn’t have many stronghold points to begin with, the real goal was to guess their leader correctly—deducting 50 points from Class B while earning himself 50 points.

Ryuen was certainly ambitious. Selling off all his initial points wasn’t enough—he was still aiming to score more. That whole “zero-point strategy” was a lie.

“So, he’s a student from Class D, huh?”

Hachiman put on a look of understanding and smiled. “What a coincidence—our class also took in a student from Class D. Her name is Ibuki. Just like Kaneda, she was kicked out for rebelling against Ryuen. But Ibuki had it worse—she was apparently assaulted by Ryuen.”

“I see… That’s really pitiful,” Ichinose murmured, pressing her lips together sympathetically. “To run into someone like Ryuen… Class D really has bad luck.”

“……”

Hachiman.

He had deliberately pointed out that his class had also taken in a student from Ryuen’s group to make them more cautious.

Yet, instead of being wary of these spies, they were sympathizing with them.

Earlier, he had been thinking about not helping Class B too much, keeping their score from rising too quickly so he could ensure they’d be beaten later.

But now, Hachiman felt that even if he dumped a bunch of points on Class B, they’d probably squander it all with their saintly tendencies.

At first, he had chosen this class as an alliance partner because they seemed like a good option. But now, he was starting to feel that Class B might actually be a liability.

Still…

Right now, cooperation was the priority. First, they needed to screw over Class A and mess with Ryuen.

So—

Hachiman scanned the group and, as if casually, asked, “Who’s your class leader?”

“……” ×4

In an instant, Ichinose, Kanzaki, and the two who had come with Hachiman—Horikita and Kushida—were all stunned.

Because… was that really a question you could just ask outright?!