COTE: A Man On A Mission II Love is War?

"So, is this why you kept staring at each other during physical education class?"

The next day, Hachiman and the others were in a P.E. class

After chatting with Hirata yesterday, Hachiman began to observe the target person.
　　
But it seems that Horikita misunderstood me.
　　
Although I want to complain about her shitty performance in the study meeting yesterday.

But let's get some information from her instead, because there's no need to poke a sleeping lioness. Her chest fight with Kushida, which had become quite a famous topic inside our class had left a strong impression on me.
　　
Besides, she was responsible for tutoring Karuizawa and Sato during the study meeting.

"What do you think of Karuizawa?" Hachiman asked, moving his gaze towards the black haired girl.

"Oh? Did you finally decide to stop staring at other people's swimsuits all the time?" Instead of answering his question, Suzune called out on his perverted behaviour.

"..." Hachiman. It was really too much. His eyes were just forced to drift away.

Because it is a physical education class now and everyone is playing with water.
　　
For example, Koenji showed off his skills and swam directly in front of Sudo with a score that he could only achieve in his dreams, so he was now angry and autistic.

Don't have much hope, and a pitiful self-esteem. Probably because, not even Sudo wants to be embarrassed by a person like Koenji all the time.
　　
Hachiman's attention, on the other hand, was more ordinary. He was focused on girls.

Karuizawa is playing ball with Sato and the others.
　　
Sakura, whom Hachiman knew, didn't go to play. She didn't even change into the school's tacky swimsuit, and stayed on the chair as a leave of absence.

And Hachiman understands. Maybe it's because she has such a lustful figure that people will stare at her if she puts on a swimsuit.

Besides her, he discovered that Hasebe was also there. Probably for the same reason.
　　
However, Hachiman noticed that she seemed to be trying to talk to Sakura.
　　
And many friendships start from cherishing each other in the same situation.

Come on, Sakura! Hachiman hopes that she can gain some friends or something.

But let's focus on Hirata's girlfriend for now.
　　
It's just Horikita didn't know that Hachiman was thinking about other people, but she contributed what she knew.

Well, Hachiman was slightly hopeful.

But "Her academic performance is terrible," Horikita Suzune just started complaining again, it's really a pain in the butt.

As expected of her. So, I still have to go to Kushida for information?
　　
And thinking about it.

"But there is something strange about Karuizawa," Suzune finally decided to tell him other things when she noticed his eyes looking towards Kushida-san, who was shining in the war with some boys, "Before the swimming class, she always put on her swimsuit first."

Oh. Is that so? But there may be people like this. Because they like to play in the water and are a little excited, they put on their swimsuit first like a child.
　
"There's nothing strange about this," Hachiman shook his head, not even trying to listen to this so-called 'information sharing' any longer.

"B-but she continued to wear a swimsuit even after the lessons!" Suzune wasn't impressed, when Hachiman stopped paying attention but eventually her voice started to become meek, "...It's like not changing clothes with everyone else."
　　
Really? If this is the case, then you do need to pay attention. Is there any reason why you can't expose your body in front of others?

They're all obviously the same sex.

"Huh!" At this time. A splash of water appeared in the pool in front of Hachiman.
　　
This is Kushida, who was having a war with others just now. "I didn't know how to swim when I was in junior high school, but then I studied hard and finally learned it!" her excited voice reached Hachiman's ears.

What a lovely girl!
　　
From Hachiman's point of view, his heart would probably be racing faster.

Only. Kushida-san, we are not saying bad things about you, so you don't have to come over and interfere every time, okay?

Because this was not the first time that he was chatted up by Kushida after talking to Horikita in a physical education class.

And to this day, this cute little angel has not conquered Horikita Suzune. Rather, it has been more than a month.

She is still insisting on going to the door of Horikita Suzune's dormitory every day to wait for her to go to school together.

Now even more so, than previously. Ever since she was assaulted by Horikita, Kushida has been pestering her non-stop, wanting to become good friends after such a 'friendly fight'.

Only. This kind of behavior just makes people feel annoyed. It may even cause trouble.
　　
Therefore, it is somewhat unclear whether she wants to have a good relationship with Horikita Suzune or not.

So, this way the time came to noon.

And because he received the message that someone was packing lunch, Hachiman gave up eating in class with his neighbour and chose to eat a free meal instead.

This girl has no intention of sharing her sandwich with him, so there's obviously no need to stare at Horikita's pink bento any longer.

________________

Hachiman chose to eat the free meal.
　　
As Class C, well, it is Class C for now, but after all, they are members of the original Class D, so they will probably fall off after the porcelain of Class A is completed, and then the living expenses will not be much.

In this way. Isn't it a nice thing to have someone treat you to dinner?
　　
The location is the same old place.
　　
While waiting for the staff to bring the meal, Hachiman's eyes shifted slightly.

Because. Sitting next to him was a petite and exquisite girl with silver-white hair, fair and clear skin, and beautiful facial features, which could even be said to be overly cute.

This was a girl named Sakayanagi Arisu who seemed to come from another dimension.

There is also a black cane placed on the edge of the table. She seems to be in poor health, causing people's natural desire to protect this small child.

Of course, Hachiman knows that this is just an appearance.
　　
Although she looks weak and has a weak body that is easy to push away, this Sakayanagi is a genuine lolita.
　　
The attack power is also super strong, but Hachiman wants to touch Class A.

Once he fights against this opponent, he has little chance of winning, so he is looking forward to Sakayanagi not taking control of Class A.
　　
Obviously. This kind of thing can't be done easily.
　　
"You seem to be in a good mood today," Sakayanagi's pleasant voice came over.
　　
"After all, someone is inviting me to free lunch," Hachiman just shrugged her statement.

"Then there are no special requirements for food?" She continued to pester him, not liking this annoying attitude.

Even his face looked obvious on how much he wanted to be supported by her money!

'Why does she always like to come to her own conclusions?' He didn't understand this kind of thing. 'Do you not value other people's opinions?'

"Mom said not to be picky about food," Hachiman tutted at her instead,
when he heard Sakayanagi's voice with slight disdain.

'In other words, it means eating everything.' "Then it's really easy to make a living these days," Sakayanagi said as if she had enough, and made a decision.
　　
"..." Kamuro-san.
　　
But don't forget that although this is Sakayanagi Arisu's private room, there are always three people here.
　　
As a bystander, she didn't think Hikigaya was an easy person to support. Because he wants expensive ones.
　　
And Sakayanagi also hates simple food, so she always ends up paying for both of them.

However, Kamuro-san also knew that she didn't treat him for free.
　　
That is to say. "Then since you ate my food, I have gained the right to ask some questions," Sakayanagi did this thing again, without a second thought.

It will make people very suspicious if she offered some candies to their children in the future. Hachiman thought rudely, "What are your thoughts about this special exam?"

Any thoughts? He thought for a moment.
　　
Sakayanagi said that she wanted to experience a different campus life in this school. In other words, it is actually quite boring and wants something interesting.
　　
And for her, this special exam... well, it was really a hassle for Class A.
　　
Because it was just a written test, even with their eyes closed, they could get the first place.

That is to say, their life is very easy, if no one fails the exam and the average score of each subject is above 80, they can receive a reward of a full 100-point class evaluation score.

Students in Class A are sure to get this thing for free.
　　
So for Sakayanagi, she probably knew the results of the exam, so naturally... it became quite boring for her.
　　
'So, in this way, she invited me over as eye candy? Did you actually want to have fun?' Hachiman again realised that this leader of Class A, is still a high school teenager who's curious about almost everything.

But. For Class C, there are so many bad students, and this exam will be a disaster for them.

For this kind of move, they made a plan, such as inviting top students from Class B to come and help.

But Hachiman felt that Sakayanagi definitely didn't care about such normal methods.
　　
"For Class C, there is a plan that can definitely help the idiots in our class," So, Hachiman started throwing his ideas at her face, "It's about controlling points."

"Controlling points?" Kamuro's eyes gained interest in a second. Really? Is there such a good thing? Can she also do it?

"Yes." Because he seemed to have discovered that Kamuro was obsessed with things like grade tests, when Hachiman glanced at her.

So, he started talking about the point-control method introduced by Hirata.

"Then you Class C probably can't do it," But Sakayanagi immediately refuted this plan outright, "Because of the mutual distrust between each other, if someone writes more and gets a higher score, it may increase the average score, and then many students will be expelled!"

'This plan is full of holes, so I'm sure Hikigaya-kun just wanted to see something interesting from the other party'  She thought so in her mind, slightly feeling pity for that person.

In other words, she also sees it this way.

Class C is like a scattered sand on a beach, it would definitely start leaking from unexpected holes, the moment you start gathering it.

Not only is there disunity, even Hirata's mother is also needed as the glue to hold it together.
　　
"But there is actually another way for Class C to complete this plan." Hachiman actually wanted to fight, for his classmates when he saw this little girl insulting them, "And I call it a 0-point battle."

"A 0-point battle?"
　　
"Yeah." Hachiman nodded his head, and he looked at Kamuro-san, "After the papers are handed out, everyone will just write their names and put down their pens.
　　
This way, who is answering will be visible, so the surrounding students can supervise each other.

In other words, everyone will get a score of 0, which means that the average is a passing or failing grade.

And do you think, the school will allow so many students in a class to drop out?" Hachiman asked, with his eyes very bright. He really wanted to know the result of this action.

What'll school do in that situation?

"It is indeed an interesting proposal." Sakayanagi agreed with him, her eyes narrowed slightly as if thinking, about this plan for a moment, "And if I were the school administrator, then I might give you a chance this time, but I won't agree to this plan again." That's what she said, there's no way Sakayanagi would allow this kind of sexy operation to go wild.

What'll the students learn in these three years? Scoring 0 points with proud faces?

Grass!

The admission rate will decline! Who would send their children to a school like this?
　　
"....But you are the school administrator," Hachiman revealed some shocking truth, with his eyes looking straight into Sakayanagi's pupils.

"..." Sakayanagi Arisu used all her strength to not show any kind of weird reaction to this statement, "I mean I am a fun-loving person."
　　
"Really?" Hachiman didn't pay much attention to this sentence. That short pause revealed everything he wanted to know.

She was probably the daughter of a wealthy family.

'What I like is this kind of thing, that is different from ordinary people?!'

Being a rich woman from the start, Hachiman realised that this person Sakayanagi is his ideal choice for the mate selection. So, his mood became quite complicated.

"Didi!" At this time, he noticed a message on his phone.
　　
[Stay with me again during lunch break tomorrow. I have information about Karuizawa that I want to tell you alone. ] by Hirata.

Yeah. Lunch break tomorrow.
　　
So, Hachiman continued to eat the expensive meal served by Sakayanagi Arisu, and then replied to the boy's message.

_________
　　
The self-study is over after school.

"So.... Karuizawa-san?" Walking with Sakura on the shopping street, listening to Hikigaya's description, she tilted her head cutely.
　　
Although Sakura is introverted and shy of strangers, to Hachiman, she is a very good girl.

Not to mention, the other party is a super beautiful girl.
　　
Um. As an adolescent boy, Hachiman feels that he is not exempt from the mundane.

If a boy or girl invites him, then he will definitely choose Sakayanagi Arisu or Horikita Suzune or even go out with Kushida-san.

And now, I discovered that Sakura was also going to the shopping street.
　　
So, I obviously invited her. Well, actually wanting to get some information about Karuizawa from her.

As for the exam, today's self-study has ended. After Hirata's comfort yesterday, the students in the class probably accepted the top student from Class B coming to help.

When he told them, if they continue doing this annoying attitude, Class B's students will probably start charging points per hour. They instantly squatted down after hearing this rumour, especially when the source of information is Hirata.
　　
But, they didn't know that the students in Class B are the kind of people who are willing to help others, but that prickly Sudo is more difficult to deal with.
　　
Rather, I saw a huge frown on Kanzaki's face again. It looks very painful, Hachiman felt bad for the other party.
　　
Because Sudo and his team's foundation is garbage. And it's not that the content to be taught is difficult, but very simple. (Elementary school level)

The problem is they still don't know how to do it, even more they can't even understand it.

It's really despairing.
　　
But learning does not happen overnight, and Hachiman does not need his classmates to rely on their own strength to pass this exam.

Otherwise, there would be no need to ask Kushida to contact the upperclassmen and obtain information from them.

After all. There is no need to give up the reward of a 100-point class evaluation score.

But if you can improve your overall academic ability even a little, then this study session will be useful.
　　
In other words, it has nothing to do with Hachiman, so he started to gather data about Karuizawa.
　　
"Karuizawa-san....how should I put it, I'm actually a little afraid of her." Sakura said with a bitter face, she still remembers the other person asking her to share her eraser, "She's very domineering."

Yeah. Hachiman also knew this. He happened to witness the incident when she scolded Ike in front of everyone.

In addition, she is a hot girl, so in the eyes of other girls, she is indeed difficult to get along with.

And Hachiman also knows that Sakura has super powers, a rare gift from Author-san, very accurate.

And he used it to arrive at the scene of Sudo's fight, then photographed the evidence, and finally pulled down Ryuen's class.

"But." Sakura paused for a moment and looked up towards Hachiman, as if she couldn't understand something, "I always feel... Karuizawa-san seems a little strange."
　　
"Is she strange?"
　　
"Yeah." Airi nodded her head vigorously, hoping he would be able to understand her, "Karuizawa-san doesn't seem to be changing clothes with everyone else."

Is that so? When Hachiman looked over curiously, she became even more bold.

"A-and I thought there might be some scars on her body, or something!” Airi said quickly, when she saw him paying attention to her words, she didn't want to be called crazy, "Because...because, girls care about this very much!"

"And if your legs are thick, you don't want to show them in front of others." Airi's chatter didn't stop, and she continued giving Hachiman some extra knowledge.

'Maybe I'll get some praise' "The same goes for gaining weight too!"

Really? Hachiman recorded the information about these girls that he had no chance of knowing in the past.
　　
But in other words, there is something wrong with Karuizawa, right?
　　
The information obtained from his neighbour Horikita indicates that his target's academic ability is also quite hand shaking.

Um. So, the reason why the other party was assigned to Class D was simply because of the poor foundation in all aspects, or because she had a dark history similar to Hirata's.

Because according to these two girls, Karuizawa seems to have something she wants to hide.

And thinking about it.
　　
"W-what the, Karuizawa-san, I swear, we are not talking bad about you!" Airi suddenly panicked, and started talking nonsense to herself, “Isn't that right, Hikigaya-kun?!

Huh? Now, Hachiman looked over.
They are already here in the shopping district now.

And Sakura looked to one side, there was a blond dog... No, she saw Karuizawa-san with a blond ponytail standing in the shop next to her, seemingly queuing up to order.

But the other hot girls around her were not there. She was alone.
　　
But Karuizawa probably didn't notice this. There was a loud noise in the queue at the ordering position.

"Um, you jumped in line!" Although the voice was a little soft, you could still hear it. She seemed to be a first-year girl with mushroom hair, a pretty average cute appearance, and a strange face.

She was a student from another class.
　　
Hachiman then took out his phone and took a photo in that direction.
　　
Soon. After sending it to Horikita Suzune, the other party's information was obtained.
　　
It's a girl from Class D named Morofuji Rika. That is, people from Ryuen's class.

Suzune thought he was testing her memory, so she immediately gave the answer.
　　
From this perspective, the year-wide rosters available from the Students council are very useful.

"I'm telling you, I just went out for a while!" But the person who was arguing with Rika was an acquaintance.

It was none other than Karuizawa, the same person who was being given very rude descriptions by Airi, just moments ago.

Karuizawa Kei. She has a bad tone towards other boys, not lovable at all.

With blond hair, a single ponytail, a headband on her wrists, and bubble socks on her knees. She is clearly dressed like a hot girl.

Hot girls dye their hair. They also put on eye shadow and so on, but the hot girls in Hachiman's class are pretty simple, they just wear cool dresses.

She doesn't even have to wear terrible smoky makeup to look good, and can even be said to be quite cute.
　　
Many boys who don't like her, have a common consciousness. They look down on her, and accused Karuizawa of being a slut, who's chasing after pretty boys all the time and is definitely not a virgin.

Moreover, she may bring trouble to the class. These are Ike's original words, but that's because he was blocking her way, and responded with very nice words to Karuizawa's scolding.

So what now? It looks like she's causing trouble.
　　
However, this hot girl's leader of Class C reacted a bit strangely while facing  the delinquent girl from Class D.
　　
Make people care. Because.
　　
Logically speaking, Kei Karuizawa can be said to be dominating her group, so she is relatively a strong type.

The current situation is probably that when she came to line up, she was told by girls from other classes that she was jumping in line.

And Karuizawa's initial answer was not a strong one like, "I said, this is the line I queued first!"

Instead. "I'm sorry." This was a little weak.
　　
But what's more worrying is that when Karuizawa just said "I'm sorry", she suddenly changed her words in the middle of the sentence.

It turned into "I'm telling you, I just went out for a while!” She said this, her attitude hardened instantly.
　　
Among them, saying sorry is a basic courtesy, and it can also be summarized as not wanting to cause trouble.

Just like Sudo, in order to protect the class score, he worked hard to restrain himself. But the code of conduct exam is over.
　　
A the same time.
　　
It's as if Karuizawa's tone changed in an instant, which is noteworthy. And what happened at this time? In fact, it was nothing much.

Hachiman discovered, it was just a few other girls from her own group, surrounding her.

Maya Sato, who is also a hot girl, and Satsuki Shinohara, a girl with short hair parted in the middle, who is the second member of the Karuizawa group.

She looks quiet on the outside, but has a very offending mouth just like Horikita.

Hachiman has seen her scolding a boy to tears, and in response she was called an 'ugly pig' by Ike and the others.

Then, there are two more random girls whose name Hachiman didn't know. But their looks can't even compare to Sato, even worse than Shinohara, can be easily mistaken for pumpkin.

So many pimples. But Karuizawa changed hed tune almost as soon as she discovered they were coming.
　　
"I said, this is the place I queued first!"
She instantly became confident and aggressive.

The previous girl from another class had a cowardly aura similar to Airi's, like a little squirrel, but with the addition of more supporters, Rika's face suddenly turned red, "Yeah, I'm sorry!"

She actually blushed and just ran back out of the store.
　　
"Hey, com-" Karuizawa seemed to want to call her, but she ran very fast, as if she would be bullied if she stayed any longer.

"It seems like I bullied her,” She finished with words like that, slightly looking at the girl's direction with her eyes slightly narrowed.

Then she turned to chat with her friends, but it seemed more like Karuizawa was changing the subject, "Speaking of which, the fried shrimp we had today was really delicious."

“Yeah, I heard that the chef's cooking skills over there on the third floor are much better.”

“Karuizawa-san saw Hirata-kun and Hikigaya-kun eating there before, right?" Sato asked with a curious look on her face, wanting to know more information.

"Two boys..."
　　
"Eh, Hikigaya-kun!" However, the girls seemed to want to stop the topic.

I'm really sorry to let your topic go cold. Hachiman thought to himself.
　　
"Wow, Hikigaya-kun is going on a date with Sakura-san this time," Karuizawa looked over at both of them, and passed a comment like that. She really couldn't believe this boy any more, he's always fooling around with different girls, every time she saw him.

At this time, her friends also looked over and found Hachiman with their classmate Sakura, at the entrance of the store. This girl's famous among them for having those 'fake things' on her chest.

Then, probably because they felt embarrassed, the girl's conversation came to an abrupt end.

"..." Hachiman. Because Karuizawa and the others didn't take the initiative to greet him, then naturally he didn't need to do it either.

It's just that he cares a little. Because
she noticed him and Sakura hanging out together.

Or, in fact, Hachiman noticed that she seemed to be looking in the direction of the door several times, that's why she saw them.

It's not that she was intentionally looking out for him. Hachiman at least has this much awareness, especially about the disdain from the other party.

So, what exactly is she focusing on?
　　
Combined with the initial contact with the girl from another class, Karuizawa couldn't be worried that the other girl might bring someone here to retaliate, right?

Is her courage... so small?
　　
"Later I want to go to that ready-to-wear store that I visited before. The knitted sweaters there are very good..." Sato, the smartest among them, had already begun to try to change the subject and decided to pretend that nothing had happened.
　　
And Shinohara Satsuki also quickly echoed her.
　　
So a few people walked out of the store, no longer planning to buy anything, but continued walking towards the shopping street.

_________

Author's Note

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