Chapter 72: The Pitiful Have Their Own Faults!
The group hug ultimately never happened.
Both Yukino and Yui rejected Saku without the slightest hesitation.
Saku was mildly wounded, but he still couldn't help asking what had happened. The two girls couldn't have suddenly started hugging for no reason, especially when Yukino was the one who had initiated it.
That was far too unusual.
"Nothing happened. Yui just remembered something upsetting."
Yui hurriedly nodded along with Yukino's explanation, clearly having no intention of letting Saku dig any deeper.
「These two are acting suspicious as hell. They're definitely hiding something from me.」
「Whatever. It might be personal, and it'd be rude to keep asking.」
After muttering to himself internally, Saku dropped the subject and turned toward Hikigaya Hachiman instead.
「Hikigaya always looks half-dead, but today he looks like he swallowed a mouthful of crap. Could it be...」
「Looks like Ebina already talked to him.」
"Come on. Let's go join them!"
Without waiting for Yukino or Yui to agree, Saku waved a hand and headed straight toward Hikigaya.
The two girls stared after him in surprise, exchanged a helpless glance, then followed.
"Hikigaya, what are you spacing out for?"
"Hm?"
Hikigaya froze for half a second before shaking his head.
"Nothing unusual. This is how I normally look."
"You'd better hope so. Your face looks awful."
Saku probed indirectly while wondering whether Hikigaya would mention his conversation with Ebina.
Unfortunately, the result was exactly what he'd expected.
Hikigaya didn't explain.
What Saku didn't know, however, was that Hikigaya had already formed a plan of his own.
Ebina's request had made one thing completely clear to him: there was absolutely no chance that Tobe's confession would succeed.
So Hikigaya had decided to persuade Tobe to give up on confessing altogether.
If he could accomplish that, both requests would theoretically be satisfied at once.
Naturally, Hikigaya had no intention of explaining any of that to Saku.
"Hikki..."
Yui arrived just behind them and sighed when she heard him stubbornly deny anything was wrong.
"Did something happen? You can tell us, you know. Aren't we all members of the same club?"
Yukino hadn't planned to interfere anymore.
But seeing Yui look so worried, she eventually added a question of her own.
"Hikigaya."
Her eyes narrowed.
"You haven't secretly accepted someone's request without telling us, have you?"
Hikigaya stiffened.
He'd almost forgotten.
Yukino had explicitly established a rule that any future request had to be discussed before anyone accepted it.
But he'd already accepted Ebina's request.
Which meant he'd broken the Service Club's rules.
Cold sweat immediately formed along his back.
「There it is. That unavoidable kind-hearted core every school-romance protagonist seems to have. I guess that's what happens when Hikigaya is the male lead.」
「His personality might be twisted, but underneath it all, he really is gentle. He hates watching people suffer, so he always feels compelled to do something for them.」
「I'm not criticizing kindness. Treating people gently isn't a sin. If anything, it's admirable.」
「But kindness shouldn't become a weapon that others can use against you, or one you keep turning on yourself, Hikigaya.」
「Ebina isn't a bad person, but she absolutely took advantage of your kindness. And she won't be the last person to do it.」
「The result isn't entirely their fault either. You're the one who keeps swinging the blade at yourself over and over again.」
「If you don't even value yourself, how can you expect other people to value you?」
「Shizuka-sensei, Yui, and Yukino pitying you again and again might ultimately create the worst possible outcome.」
[Precise roast detected. Roast Points +200. Current total: 5,120.]
Saku shook his head.
Aside from silently criticizing Hikigaya, he had no intention of actually saying any of this aloud.
He couldn't know what Hikigaya truly thought.
Still, Saku couldn't shake the feeling that there might be some unconscious hope buried beneath Hikigaya's behavior.
Every time he tore himself apart, someone cared for him afterward.
Shizuka-sensei worried about him.
Yui comforted him.
Yukino softened toward him.
For someone starved of affection and concern from others, that could become a dangerously sweet poison.
After repeating the same pattern enough times, it was difficult to say whether Hikigaya hadn't developed some kind of conditioned reflex.
'If I get hurt, someone will comfort me.'
Perhaps that unconscious association was part of why he kept choosing similar methods.
Saku couldn't prove such a thing existed.
The only thing he could say with certainty was that Hikigaya hadn't behaved this way during middle school, before he began repeatedly self-destructing, nor later in the original story after entering a relationship with Yukino.
As for the truth?
That depended entirely on how one chose to interpret it.
Saku's merciless inner commentary left both Yukino and Yui stunned.
Neither had time to decide whether every part of his analysis was fair.
But there was one point neither could deny.
If someone didn't value themselves, how could they expect others to keep valuing them?
Yui had originally felt nothing but sympathy.
Hikigaya was gentle in his own awkward way, and she didn't think someone like that deserved such an ending.
That was why, even after learning from Saku's inner voice that the situation was difficult to change, she'd still wanted to interfere somehow.
But the pitiful often had their own faults.
Hikigaya himself was choosing this path.
So what exactly was she supposed to do?
Compared with Yui's hesitation, Yukino became much more resolute.
Her earlier decision had been correct.
Rather than stopping Hikigaya now, perhaps it would be better to tear into him afterward and force him to wake up.
Did he think self-destruction would make people pity and cherish him?
No.
Yukino intended to do the exact opposite.
She would make Hikigaya understand just how ridiculous his behavior looked.
Nobody was obligated to pity him when this was the path he'd chosen himself.
If he wanted to turn himself into everyone's target and play the clown, then fine.
Let him experience exactly what that meant.
Only after he clearly understood the consequences might Hikigaya finally stop repeating the same behavior.
Perhaps that would be the best way to save him.
All of those thoughts passed through their minds in only a few seconds.
Hikigaya had no idea that the three people standing in front of him had already gone through several rounds of internal debate.
Faced with Yukino's question, he hurriedly denied everything.
"Of course not."
"Don't worry. I haven't forgotten the rule you made."
Yui let out a disappointed sigh.
Without realizing it, her fingers reached for the nearest thing she could grab: the sleeve of Saku's uniform.
She hadn't done it consciously.
At that moment, she simply wanted to hold onto something to steady herself.
Saku noticed immediately.
But when he saw the expression on Yui's face, like she was barely holding back tears, he abandoned any thought of pulling away.
「As expected of socially perceptive Yui. Has she already noticed something is wrong?」
「She's probably upset because Hikigaya refuses to trust her. Poor thing.」
Considering Yui was Mai's close friend, Saku casually raised a hand and patted her head.
"Uwah!"
Yui hadn't expected that at all.
She jumped away from him in shock.
The sudden movement immediately earned Saku a furious glare from Yukino and a look of pure disbelief from Hikigaya.
Hikigaya leaned backward as if he'd just witnessed something tactically insane.
His expression practically screamed:
'Bro... are you always this fearless?'
'You just casually put your hand on a girl's head like that?'
"Jinnai Saku."
Yukino's voice grew dangerously cold.
"Touching a girl's head without permission can count as harassment."
'Seriously!'
'I haven't even had him pat my head...'
Yukino froze internally.
'Wait.'
'Why am I thinking that?!'
Her teeth clenched as she suddenly remembered Saku holding her on the train earlier.
Apparently, she'd been far too lenient with him back then.
That must've been why he'd become this shameless.
…