Chapter 5

'It seems that today's the first day of swimming classes…'

Hikigaya thought, as he took his bag and made his way to the locker rooms.

While Hikigaya understood that because they were going to an island and a cruise ship, it would be more beneficial to take swimming classes, Hikigaya inherently hated going into the water unless it was a bath.

Hikigaya was fit. He couldn't deny it. He remembered back in middle school, during swimming classes, he had no friends to enjoy it with so he swam more than 2 kilometers for fun.

But the feeling of one's skin pruning, the smell of chlorine stuck to your hair even after a quick rinse in the shower in the lockers.

Hikigaya disliked such an experience.

He liked the water, but not the processes before and after being in said water.

It was why he avoided going to the beach on multiple occasions, except when Komachi had earnestly asked it of him.

The only saving grace was that it was Thursday, near the end of the week.

Hikigaya planned on getting assulted by Sudo Ken after his basketball practice, and similarly to the C Class student, Ishizaki Daichi.

From his minor investigations, Sudo Ken was just naturally volitile and any insult could lead to him getting assaulted.

Ishizaki was a little different. It was apparent that he was jealous of Sudo for being on the team, while he himself was an alternative.

Hikigaya had one opportunity. Ishizaki normally followed Sudo's route a few minutes later than he did near the convenience store.

But he had to do a preformance that prevented his own face from being injured, and had to hide his face while provoking them from the camera.

The former to prevent Ichinose from worrying about him, and the latter to prevent any chance of a counter argument saying that I had provoked them first.

Hikigaya had some experience in talking without moving his mouth, so he was confident that even if him provoking the two was on camera, he could weasel out of it.

Hikigaya sighed, entering the locker room, changing as fast as possible.

While he himself didn't mind if his physique was revealed, there was something uncomfortable with the action of undressing himself in front of people.

"Hikigaya-san, do you work out?"

A voice came to his left.

As Hikigaya put his clothes into his locker, he turned his head to be face to face with someone he recognized.

Shibata So.

From what he remembered, Shibata joined the soccer club and was seen as one of the more fitter members of the class. In addition, he was one of the more popular people in the class.

"I workout occasionally, it's not that special,"

Not admitting to working out immediately put Hikigaya as a liar. While Hikigaya himself didn't care about his reputation, not having good relationships with the rest of his classmates other didn't benefit him.

If he just said "No," it would imply that he didn't want to talk to Shibata, and as they were in a public locker room, there was no need to get their animosity.

"That's pretty cool! Completely unexpected!"

'Do you want me to punch you?'

Hikigaya inwardly got annoyed, but he understood Shibata's sentiments.

While obviously outwardly frowned upon, stereotyping someone based on their general looks was more common than one would expect.

It was similar to how someone would expect a quiet girl with glasses would be proficient academically, or how one would expect an otaku to not be physically fit.

Thankfully, it seemed that Shibata had only wanted small talk, as he had started talking to his own group of friends.

Making his way to the swimming pool, Hikigaya found himself the first one to arrive.

Giving a quick bow to the physical education teacher, he went off to the side to sit down as he waited for everyone to arrive.

Hikigaya, like most men, liked a woman's body. But Hikigaya wasn't the type of person who would purposefully only look at a woman's physique. It was a sense of pride for Hikigaya.

It was for this reason that instead of looking at the entrance to the swimming pool from the girl's locker room, he preferred to look at the ripples in the water, blue due to the tile's color.

The view calmed him in a sense, similar to how one would look at a campfire, it's bright wisps enticing people to look at them.

"Now that everyone's here, let's start our swimming lessons. First, who here can't swim?"

A loud voice got his attention, causing Hikigaya to look up at the gym teacher.

Unsurprisingly, no one rose their hands. Hikigaya understood the reason. Who would readily admit that they couldn't swim when they were high school students?

"No need to be shy! No matter what, you guys will learn how to swim before summer vacation!"

Hikigaya thought that the gym teacher couldn't be any more obvious regarding the implications of such a statement.

But slowly, a few students rose their own hands.

"But before we start, let's have a small swimming competition, to motivate you all, how about the winner gets 3000 points?"

There were small cheers, especially from the athletic group.

'3000 points…'

Hikigaya had to admit that he was tempted.

Even with his unnatural amount of points, free money was still free money.

He sized up his classmates, quickly giving them a glance over.

He accidentally made eye contact with Ichinose, but just gave a small smile and a nod.

But an unexpected reaction happened, as she did the same and quickly looked away, a small blush sported on her face.

'What?'

Hikigaya immediately assumed the worst.

'Maybe she's not used to looking at shirtless people? Or maybe my physique isn't up to par?'

Hikigaya removed the latter, as while not particularly narcissistic, Hikigaya firmly believed that he had a good physique, rivaling or possibly even surpassing Shibata, someone from the Soccer Club.

It made sense. Hikigaya worked out to have good porportions and general health, but he assumed that Shibata worked out to be better at soccer.

It was a matter of goals, he assumed.

—+—

It seemed that prioritizing his entire body had benefitted him, because somehow, he had won the men's competition by a split second, Shibata right behind him.

"You're really fast, Hikigaya-san!"

After giving a quick thank you, Hikigaya took the prize money and sat near the pool, resuming his ripple watching.

He consciously activated one of his 108 Skills: Stealth Hikki and prayed that no one would bother talking to him.

Athletic people are naturally sought out by people, and normally, the more physically fit you were, the higher the chances were that your popularity would increase.

Hikigaya would rather not do anything troublesome.

Especially gain attention today, of all things.

—+—

After school had ended, he made his way to the hunting grounds.

When he meant hunting grounds, he was talking about the location where he would be assaulted.

He arrived at the bench in between the convenience store and the basketball courts, he gave a glance at the cameras, took out his phone to see the time and waited.

After 2 hours, Sudo had arrived, and he looked pissed.

'This is even more optimal.'

Hikigaya thought, waiting until Sudo had walked in front of him, before setting his plan in action.

Hikigaya scoffed, before whispering.

"Class D Scum—"

Sudo quickly reached out and grabbed his collar, before lifting him into the air.

"The fuck did you just say!? You wanna die?"

Hikigaya glared back at Sudo, before opening his mouth for another taunt.

"No balls, you dickless—"

Sudo punched his abdomen in response, and Hikigaya gave the illusion that the air had gotten knocked out of him, before falling down and clenching his stomach to sell the illusion.

"P-Please stop…"

Hikigaya said, hiding his head, faced down.

"Ha? What a spineless bastard, don't fuck with me again!"

"Y-yes, I-I'm s-sorry!"

Hikigaya listened as the footsteps became more faint, before hearing a "tsk."

He stayed in that position for a while, selling the illusion to the camera once more. After a minute or two had passed, he got up like nothing had happened, while giving a few rubs to his stomach.

'That was more painful than I thought, it'll probably bruise,'

Hikigaya thought. He looked at his phone to see the time, before getting back into position.

—+—

'Yeesh, getting hit at the same place twice was not a good experience.'

Hikigaya thought once more, before placing a pityful look on his face and entering the convenience store and immediately went to the store clerk.

He clenched his stomach in pain.

"I got assaulted earlier… so could I get the camera details?"

The store clerk gave him a pitying look, before nodding and telling him to wait.

After a few minutes, the clerk came out with a usb, before handing it to him.

"T-Thank you…"

—+—

In court, just giving small clips and not giving the entire context can change the punishment.

Hikigaya arrived at his dorms before reheating one of his meals that he had meal prepped just 2 days earlier.

All he had to do was only take out the clips that positioned the two idiots into the worst possible position.

While he had thought to put on a disguise, Horikita would probably discover it, and if he knew Hikigaya purposely antagonized the two, it probably wouldn't work.

After editing the videos, he decided that today was a good day, reading before going to bed early. As Ichinose had gotten into the Student Council, it would be better for her to not know about his event.

—+—

"So what is this, Hikigaya?"

Horikita looked at Hikigaya in confusion.

"I got assaulted from Sudo Ken from Class D, and soon after I got assaulted from Ishizaki Daichi. I would like to report two separate cases."

Hikigaya looked at Horikita, serious expression on his face.

"Evidence?"

Hikigaya pulled out a usb, before handing it to Horikita, who plugged it into his laptop, and soon enough, a frown appeared on his face.

"So what do you really want?"

It seemed as if Horikita had already understood Hikigaya's intent.

"I want them to give me money if they don't want to get expelled."

"I have even more evidence if you ask,"

Hikigaya pulled up his uniform, showing a disturbing purple bruise on his abdomen, causing Tachibana and Horikita to both wince.

'This guy is serious…'

They both thought, seeing Hikigaya put so much effort into this.

"Is this why you came here early in the morning instead of the afternoon?"

Hikigaya didn't really want to explain, but it seemed that Horikita was serious. Nothing wrong with trying to get more money from this.

"100,000 Points for an explanation."

Silence. It looked like Horikita was contemplating, while Tachibana once again looked a little annoyed at Hikigaya's constant attempts at getting more money.

"Sure."

Instead of the surprised expression Tachibana had yesterday, her expression was more resigned, Hikigaya noted.

"There's two reasons why I did it today. One, I had a decent understanding of their schedules to plan it out, and two, I want to leave both Class D and Class C even more in the dust, even if Class D's class point's will probably be zero anyways."

"So you're trying to get the most amount of it when they have both confidence in their monthly allowance and most money?"

"Precisely. Reporting to you today I also had two reasons."

Horikita looked impressed with Hikigaya's explanation and reasoning.

"Continue."

"If Ichinose saw this, it'll become more troublesome, and I wanted to finish this before the weekend."

Horikita gave a scoff before smiling.

"I see. Do you want to do at anonymously?"

Hikigaya also similed, as Hikigaya and Horikita seemed to be on the same wavelength.

"Yep. Im asking for 1,000,000 points from Class C and 500,000 from class D."

This time Horikita seemed a bit confused. Hikigaya, noticing this, started another explanation.

"Here's the thing. If someone gets expelled from Class C it's better because it lowers their Class Points, and if they do accept, I get a lot of money. Class D on the other hand, it's more of a reasonable price because it's only a little from their 100,000 every month. I debated it last night, but it's better to keep Sudo in Class D because it'll keep them down, cause they'll probably start next month with 0 Class Points."

He finished his explanation, and Tachibana looked gobsmacked, with Horikita having an impressed expression.

"That makes sense. Although, what do you think of the other classes?"

While Hikigaya didn't particularly mind his question, nothing wrong with more money.

"50,000–"

"Sure."

Nice.

"Can I sit down first? I'm getting tired from standing."

Horikita's eyebrows rose. From Hikigaya's physique, it shouldn't be particularly difficult, but it wasn't an issue. Hikigaya on the other hand, was just too lazy to keep standing.

"Sure."

After sitting down and putting his bag down, Hikigaya gave his thoughts.

"Class D's kind of hopeless right now."

"How so?"

"I'm going to explain this in trending terms, by the way,"

"I don't mind."

"So basically, Class D has more 5 characters than the other classes, but they also have a ton of 1 star characters."

Horikita nodded, from acknowledgement or agreement, Hikigaya didn't know.

"And since because of this false sense of security, the 5 stars aren't doing anything, so the 1 stars are wasting all of their materials."

"I see,"

"Yeah, but Class C's different, but it isn't optimal."

"?"

"They have a king, I forgot his name, but they have a dictator of the class, and they use physical might to keep the other people in line."

"What's wrong with that? Isn't it similar to the situation in Class B?"

"No. If the dictator uses negative means to keep people in line, and he makes multiple mistakes on behalf of the class…"

"A rebellion."

"Exactly."

"The dynamics aren't set in stone in our class yet, but I think it'll be more centered around Ichinose."

"What makes you think that?"

"Ichinose's natural charisma brings the class together, but that means that while we are less prone to betrayal, Ichinose can't fall."

"Are you going to allow that?"

"Of course not."

"Why not? From how greedy for points you are, you could probably switch classes soon enough."

This was originally Hikigaya's thoughts, but after consideration along with his future prospects, he didn't put much priority in reaching Class A.

"Nah, they're more of a back up plan."

"Don't you want to climb to Class A?"

"I'm trying to be a househusband to a rich wife, why would I need that?"

Horikita looked confused, before laughing.

"For someone so capable aiming from such a mundane job like a househusband, how ironic."

"Not really."

'Hey, why are you making fun of my dreams?'

Hikigaya thought.

"Then, what about Class A?"

"Can I leave after I answer?"

"Sure."

"It'll probably be vulnerable until the baldie loses."

That piqued Horikita's interest.

"Why don't you think Katsuragi will win?"

Hikigaya looked confused. Why was Horikita asking something so obvious?

"The lilac-haired girl will probably do anything to lower the baldie's influence, probably even at the expense of Class A to remove any chance of a conflicting faction."

Horikita smiled at Hikigaya's response.

"So I can leave now, right?"

"Yes."

"Before I leave, don't forget to make it anonymous, saying something like protecting the victim or something like that and send me over the money when you get it."

"Sure."

"Thanks in advance."

Hikigaya rose from his chair, making his way out of the room with a wave.

He had gotten more than he expected. Maybe he should go out of his way to do schemes then tell Horikita about it in exchange for some money.

He looked at his point count.

2123823 points.

It was relatively solid, seeing as he spent a decent amount on some clothing and food.

Now all he had to do was wait until the end of the day and see money enter his phone.

—+—

He glanced over at Ichinose, seeing that she was also looking back.

Hikigaya thought that he was meeting eye contact with Ichinose a little too much, it was like she was ready anytime he bothered to look over.

After the same old smile and a small wave, he made his way to the Library.

The three books that he had checked out on Tuesday weren't that good. He probably wouldn't be rereading them.

*Brrr*

[Whatcha doing after school?]

It was Ichinose. But to be honest, the 3 people he had the contacts of were Ichinose, Hoshinomiya, and Horikita.

3 Heavy hitters.

[Im going to the Library. Why?]

Hikigaya wondered how their friendship hadn't been revealed. I mean she gets mobbed as soon as class ends and shes still texting him.

[I see, have a good weekend, Hikigaya-kun!]

[You too.]

[Waving sticker.]

'Ichinose, I know you're a nice girl, but you're acting way too casual through texts,'

Hikigaya thought, looking at the sticker that Ichinose had sent him.

Hikigaya personally didn't like nice girls.

But that didn't mean that they were necessarily bad. All he had to do was not fall in love and it was actually a comfortable relationship.

He originally planned to do the same as before, checking out three books before leaving, but because it was the weekend, there probably wouldn't be posers in the library.

By posers, he meant the people who only went to the library to hope to see someone, or catch a glimpse of their crush.

While he did have noise cancelling headphones, there were times where the library's muted feeling made it relaxing to read in.

He already had dinner waiting for him at home, so he didn't have to go early either.

Walking in the library, he returned the three books, before making his way to the mystery section once more, before picking out a random book.

While once upon a time, Hikigaya judged books by their cover or synopsis, he had run out of interesting summaries so this method was more interesting.

It gave him a feeling of gambling to see if he got a 5 star novel.

Reading the title, he took out his phone to write it down, before walking over to a random beanbag and sitting down.

'Maybe I should invest in a beanbag at home…'

Hikigaya thought, appreciating the comfortability of the beanbag before getting into a comfortable position.

After doing so, he started reading the novel.

'This is not that interesting…'

After around 2 hours, Hikigaya had already finished around half of the book, so he assumed that he would finish the book before the Library closed at 9 and then check out some books.

But alas, nature's call led him to the bathroom.

Returning, he saw something unique.

While his original seat was a lone beanbag, with nothing around, next to it suddenly was another beanbag, and atop it was the girl he had seen last time he was at the Library.

That was… pretty interesting.

That meant that in the few minutes he had left to use the restroom, she had dragged over a beanbag and even sat on it like nothing had happened.

'I strive to be as unfazed as this person,'

Hikigaya offhandedly thought, before deciding against it and sitting down, getting comfortable once more.

"Do you like mystery novels?"

A soft voice called.

At first Hikigaya had thought he must have been too tired, but when he turned to his left, the girl was looking straight at him.

She looked to be the type who valued honesty, so he responded in kind. He'd rather not start off a possible relationship with lies.

"It's a hit or miss for me. If the clues are too obvious, it ruins the rest of the novel."

He honestly responded, and to him it was true. Either a mystery novel was boring, or entertaining. No inbetween.

It seemed that the girl had the same opinion, her eyes lighting up.

"I agree completely! Whenever they give out freebies expecting the reader to be dumb, I feel like it hampers the general feeling of the story!"

Hikigaya blinked in confusion.

'What in the world happened to the shyness?'

Looking at Hikigaya's reaction, the girl realized her situation, before calming down.

"S-sorry… It's been so long that I could speak to anyone about novels…"

She looked so sad that the protective instincts of Hikigaya couldn't help but rise!

"No, that's not the issue, I was just surprised for a second. I like novels too,"

Hikigaya quickly responded to bring up the girl's mood, unconsicously having the tone an older brother would have to a younger sibling.

"R-really?"

He gave a small nod with a small smile to loosen the tension.

"Yep."

After fixing the mood, they started talking about their shared hobbies of reading.

"Oh! I almost forgot to introduce myself, I was enjoying the conversation too much, I'm Shiina Hiyori, from Class 1-C."

'Damn, I just robbed your class,'

Hikigaya winced. He hadn't expected Shiina to be in Class C with her soft spoken nature, but since it was anonymous, he just had to be silent about it.

"I'm also guilty for enjoying the conversation too much. Hikigaya Hachiman from Class 1-B."

Recognition bloomed in Shiina's eyes.

"Like the god of war?"

"Yeah, it's kind of embarassing,"

Hikigaya said, scratching his cheek in embarassment.

From life experience, no one he knew ever called him by his first name, and some people didn't even know it, so hearing Shiina say it was relatively embarassing.

"No, I think it fits you,"

Shiina similed.

'This person is a natural AIRHEAD!'

Alarms were ringing in Hikigaya's head. There was no way that someone compliments someone on the first meeting unless she was a spy!

"T-Thanks."

His face heated up a little. He had scaned Shiina's expression for any hint of deceit. But she was either an airhead or an oscar level actor, and Hikigaya leaned toward the former.

He had to focus up. While interacting with a natural airhead was volitile, it was better not to overreact for the sake of the both of them.

While thinking about what to say in response, his phone had a unusual ring that wasn't his normal notification sound.

He took out his phone from his backpack to unexpectedly see his point count.

3623823 Points.

HIs eyes widened before looking to see if Shiina had seen his screen.

What welcomed him was Shiina's expression of surprise.

"What—"

"Wait. Let me explain."

Before Shiina could make too much commotion, it was paramount to explain this situation.

"But you need to keep this a secret."

Shiina nodded softly, before raising a book to hide her face.

"B-But can I get your contacts in e-exchange? I-I'd like to talk to you more about novels."

That was unfair. Hikigaya looked at Shiina's innocent expression, imagining her blush behind the book, he could feel heat creep up his neck.

"S-sure…"

After a quick impromptu contact exchange, Hikigaya continued his explanation.

"I was betting with some seniors in the Chess Club, and they had a lot of money saved up,"

Thankfully, it seemed like Shiina took his explanantion.

Techinically it wasn't a lie, more like omitting the full truth.

[The Library will close in 15 minutes. People still in the Library, please leave before the Library closes]

'I spent 3 hours talking to Shiina?!'

Hikigaya looked down at his phone to see that it was pretty late.

He looked out of the windows to see that it was dark outside.

"I have to check out some books before I go, I'll see you—"

"Can I recommend some books?"

Shiina interrupted. She didn't want her time with her first friend to pass so abruptly.

"Sure, let's go."

—+—

In the end, Hikigaya walked with her all the way to the dormitories.

Arriving at his dorm, his stomach rumbled with hunger.

*Brrr*

He looked down at his phone. It was from Shiina.

[I had fun, Hikigaya-san]

[Yeah same. whenever I go down to the Library, we can talk again,]

[I'll look forward to it!]

[Yep]

After tossing his phone on the bed, he heard his phone vibrate again.

'Bruh.'

He walked up to the bed to get his phone, to see a different person had texted him.

It was Ichinose.

[Are you free, Hikigaya-kun?]

[Yeah, why?]

[I heard that there was a good ramen place at the mall.]

'How did she know I love ramen?'

[Would you like to get lunch together? I haven't been able to talk to you for a while]

[Sniffling Sticker]

'There's really no way out unless I want to hurt our current relationship, is there?'

Hikigaya thought, but ramen didn't really sound so bad. He was even craving it a little.

[Sure, what time?]

[How about 1?]

[Yeah that works for me, at the front of the mall?]

[Yep!]

[Then I'll see you tomorrow.]

[See you tomorrow, Hikigaya-kun!]

[Smiling Sticker]

'Nice girls sure are scary…'

While he had planned on sleeping in tomorrow, he just decided to sleep early. Talking for so long drained him anyways.

A/N: Personally, I thought that it was in character that hikigaya would anonymously report it instead of creating unncesssary conflict, espcially with class C.

Another explanation: The reason that Ryuen had even bothered saving Ishizaki was that he was one of the few people that followed ryuen semi-willingly this means that he's relatively valuable to ryuen

Also, I know it's kind of weird that hikigaya's kind of fit, but when i saw the wiki it said that when he was in middle school and he was in swimming class he swam 2 kilometers because he had nothing to do. A athletic adult males does 2 kilometers in around 40-30 minutes. And beginner adult males do it in an 60-70 minutes. If middle school hikigaya could do that in around an hour, similar to a newbie adult male, and an top of that, this hikigaya did some working out when he was getting bullied, I thought that he'd be surprsingly fit.

He could also keep up with Hayama Hayato during the marathon, despite Hayama being a high spec'd character that id say is on par with hirata yosuke

Personally I myself am looking forward to writing the next chapter, like i had a plan when I was writing shiina's introduction scene.

On an unrelated note, I feel like Shiina's the type of person who's like a clingy yandere or it might be that she's like that in basically every fanfic that has her.

Personally, Ichinose is my favorite female character in cote, with sakayanagi following.

But whenever i see the word shiina i automatically think of shiina mahiru from the angel next door spoils me rotten, so I might subconsciously put similar traits accientally.

Like you have no how many times I accidentally wrote shiina mahiru when i was looking for shiina hiyori when I did my minimal amount of research.

Thanks for reading.