However, aside from the form of address becoming slightly more intimate, there weren't really any major changes in other aspects.
Although Hiyori Shiina was initially a bit unaccustomed and shy when she first changed how she addressed him, she managed to quickly adjust her state before the afternoon ended.
Reading books could always allow Hiyori to quickly calm down and focus.
Subaru didn't do much else. Apart from sighing slightly in his heart that the days of the future being somewhat peaceful wouldn't last too long, there was nothing else.
With the passage of time, Hiyori would sooner or later see the true Subaru.
And that day would not come too late.
Thinking of this, looking at Hiyori who had refocused on reading her novel, a look of expectation subconsciously flashed through Subaru's eyes. Subaru expected that Hiyori would still be able to maintain her original intent after seeing the real him.
...
Time passed quickly, and it was soon the time agreed upon with Suzune Horikita.
After finishing dinner, Subaru went directly to the door of Ayanokoji's dorm room. Subaru and Ayanokoji's dorms were on the same floor, so there was nothing inconvenient about it.
At this moment, Horikita, Kikyo Kushida, Ayanokoji, and Kei Karuizawa—the four of them—were already inside the dorm.
Excluding the decadent Yosuke Hirata, the core members of Year 1, Class D were basically all present here.
"Good evening, Natsuki-kun."
Seeing Subaru enter from the dorm door, Kei, who was closest to the entrance, greeted Subaru with a hint of cautiousness.
No matter what, Subaru was currently Kei's biggest financial backer. It was only right to be polite to one's patron.
Not to mention that she had already told Subaru the secret hidden in the deepest part of her heart.
"Good evening, Karuizawa-san."
"It seems that in this operation, Karuizawa-san counts as a true main force."
Looking at Kei appearing in Ayanokoji's room, Subaru was slightly surprised.
Based on Subaru's observations, it should be unlikely for Kei to appear here at this time.
Although since the last time she borrowed money from him, Kei's changes had been quite significant. Even if Subaru almost never paid attention to Kei, merely glancing at her occasionally, he could still feel it.
Kei had become more grounded, more simple.
The gal was, of course, still that gal. It was just that Kei was gradually turning that layer of the mask named 'gal' worn on her face into her true self... Simply put, the fake was slowly becoming real.
Even if the upper limit of that reality wasn't high.
"Natsuki, you arrived a bit later than I imagined."
Checking the time, Horikita looked at Subaru, who entered the dorm exactly on the dot, and frowned slightly.
Because it was simply too precise. Entering exactly at seven-thirty made it hard not to suspect the possibility of it being intentional.
However, it was good enough that Subaru came. Horikita thought about it and didn't want to say anything more.
"Karuizawa counts as one of our main forces for executing the self-destruct plan this time."
Facing the question Subaru just raised, without waiting for Kei to say anything, Horikita explained directly, "After all, Karuizawa also possesses a certain degree of influence in the class, and she is Hirata's girlfriend."
"Hirata is somewhat resistant to participating in the class's actions, so Karuizawa is temporarily replacing Hirata in the meeting."
Hirata's ability and influence were still there.
Very impressive.
In May, his strong and powerful attitude and execution ability made Horikita look upon Hirata with much higher regard.
It could be determined with great certainty that even without the matter of the past exam papers in May, relying directly on strength, Year 1, Class D under Hirata's leadership would have had a high probability of passing smoothly.
It would be nothing more than the average score being quite a bit lower.
But, by the same token, if the average score was lower, the passing line would also be lower. In this way, the few people with the worst grades in the class would also be much safer. It could be said to be very good.
Unfortunately, Hirata had been refusing communication and contact all this time.
After seeing the strength Hirata displayed in May, during the days she didn't bother Subaru, Horikita had been constantly bothering Hirata.
Attempting to make Hirata pull himself together again.
As for the final result, well, it wasn't very ideal.
"I see."
"Is it because of the issue of identity between men and women?"
After hearing Horikita's words, Subaru nodded in understanding.
"Yes."
"Because the identity of men and women is relatively sensitive, if we want to carry out the self-destruct plan in a true sense, it is impossible not to involve girls. But if boys were to take action against girls, it would be very easy to cross the line, or even break the law."
As one of the countries with the most intense gender opposition, the fierceness of the gender opposition here in Japan could no longer be described simply in a few words.
Once a boy really staged a self-destruct incident against a girl from another class, that would absolutely be a heaven-shaking explosion.
It would directly tear the boys of Year 1, Class D to shreds.
Therefore, cooperation from Kei, the head gal of Year 1, Class D, was required.
Girls dealing with girls, and boys dealing with boys—only then could the self-destruct plan be executed in a true sense.
"So, what is the reason Horikita-san wanted me to come to the meeting no matter what?"
Subaru glanced at the not-so-spacious room, casually sat down between Kikyo and Kei, and said, "I assume Horikita-san didn't really want me to come over just to act as a spectator."
"It's like this, Subaru-kun."
"Didn't Subaru-kun get Yamauchi-kun expelled before?"
Seeing Subaru sit down beside her, Kikyo gently held Subaru's hand and said, "Hirata-kun has become a bit off since Yamauchi-kun was expelled."
"Whether it's me, Karuizawa-san, or even Horikita-san, none of us have a way to communicate with Hirata-kun."
"Hirata-kun himself also refuses communication, so... would Subaru-kun happen to have any method?"
As she spoke, Kikyo revealed a look of expectation.
Although Kikyo also knew that whatever expression she showed wouldn't have much meaning—this guy Subaru was a complete block of wood and didn't care about these things at all.
But Horikita and the others were right next to them. Even if it was useless, Kikyo could only continue her performance.
"So it's a meeting targeting Hirata-kun?"
"However, is it really necessary to waste so much energy on Hirata-kun?"
Allowing Kikyo to hold his hand, the smile on Subaru's face didn't change as he said, "I don't think the self-destruct plan requires Hirata-kun's cooperation at all."
"The self-destruct plan indeed can continue without Hirata's participation."
"However, I consider Hirata's ability to be very outstanding."
Horikita nodded noncommittally upon hearing Subaru's words and said, "If our Year 1, Class D really wants to continue climbing up in the future, having Hirata's cooperation will save a lot of trouble."
"As for the self-destruct plan itself, it is merely an expedient measure that our Year 1, Class D is currently forced to take."
As she spoke, a trace of helplessness appeared in Horikita's eyes.
Today, almost the majority of people in Year 1, Class D had no objections to executing the self-destruct plan, but their fundamental purpose ran completely counter to what Horikita imagined.
Many people were merely thinking of scooping up a profit from the other three classes, not increasing class points.
At the same time, because the class points were currently zero, once the class points increased again, there would be another batch of people who wouldn't want the class points to return to zero.
The self-destruct plan was difficult to execute in the long term from the very beginning.
Being able to bite a large chunk of meat off the other three classes so that Year 1, Class D would still possess the foundation to compete for Class A was already a super big victory.
Therefore, she wanted Hirata to pull himself together again.
In the future, after Year 1, Class D caught its breath a little, they would still need Hirata to do things.
"But, talking to me won't have any effect, right?"
Looking at Horikita, whose gaze had been fixed on him, Subaru smiled somewhat helplessly, "I've already had Yamauchi-kun expelled. I can't possibly call Yamauchi-kun back, can I?"
"Moreover, my patience with Yamauchi-kun is quite insufficient."
"Even if Yamauchi-kun could come back, I don't think it would be a fortunate thing for him."
Because, if Haruki Yamauchi really came back, Subaru would truly have to consider making Haruki Yamauchi disappear forever, never to appear within his line of sight again.
Subaru hadn't encountered a person who made him want to kill them for a long time.
The last time was a long time ago.
Hmm, a clown named Roswaal.
Ever since Subaru learned that many of the things that happened to him had significant connections to Roswaal, Subaru had very much wanted to kill Roswaal.
It was just that Roswaal's strength was indeed quite good, so he managed to live a few years longer.
"Subaru-kun, this has nothing to do with Haruki Yamauchi-kun."
Ayanokoji, who had been acting as a transparent person, interrupted the words Horikita hadn't yet spoken.
"Because we aren't very clear on what the true reason for Hirata-kun's decadence is, it has been difficult to have substantive communication with Hirata-kun recently."
"Perhaps Subaru-kun knows the reason behind this and can give us a direction."
Ayanokoji felt a slight sense of creepiness just a moment ago.
Although he didn't know where this feeling came from, there was a high probability it came from Subaru.
In this school, Subaru was the only one Ayanokoji couldn't see through so far.
It wasn't exactly that he couldn't see through him—Subaru's behavioral logic wasn't hidden—but Ayanokoji could clearly feel that Subaru was a very dangerous character.
And continuing to entangle on the topic of Haruki Yamauchi would not be a good thing.
"There is no reason behind it."
"Hirata-kun is just somewhat decadent because of Yamauchi-kun's expulsion."
Hearing Ayanokoji's explanation, Subaru shook his head slightly.
Horikita always liked to think of things too complacently. Clearly, the answer was already laid out, yet she still felt there was a deeper reason. In reality, the answer always stayed on the very surface.
Hirata simply didn't wish for Yamauchi to be expelled. Now that Yamauchi was expelled, he was decadent.
"I see."
"In that case, Hirata-kun's side isn't difficult to handle."
Ayanokoji nodded.
Actually, Ayanokoji had seen the problem with Hirata very clearly long ago; it was because of Haruki Yamauchi's expulsion. But Ayanokoji didn't want to be too conspicuous, so he had always been guiding Horikita slowly from the side.
Now, standing out was entirely due to helplessness.
Haruki Yamauchi counted as the first person to enrage Subaru. Ayanokoji had no way to guarantee whether Haruki Yamauchi was a sensitive word like he was for Hirata.
Ayanokoji was very afraid of trouble, and once a conflict occurred with Subaru, it would absolutely be the biggest trouble.
He didn't know how much time and energy it would take to deal with Subaru, which ran completely counter to his original intention. So Ayanokoji decided to step out, quickly end this topic, and proceed to a new one.
Wanting to settle Hirata's problem actually wasn't very hard. In the final analysis, it was completely because Horikita didn't know how to talk.
"?"
Horikita looked at Ayanokoji with a face full of questions.
It had been almost two weeks since Yamauchi was expelled. She didn't know how many times she had sought out Hirata. How did it suddenly become a difficult matter to handle as they chatted?
If it really wasn't hard to handle, why had she made no progress until now?
There must be some deeper reason behind Hirata's decadence.
"Hirata-kun's problem is very simple. You just need to put yourself in Hirata-kun's perspective."
Seeing that Horikita wanted to say something again, Ayanokoji explained calmly.
"He probably feels that it's because he couldn't even protect Haruki Yamauchi."
"Anyway, the class is already missing a person. The class has become no longer perfect. Then, whether it's missing one person or two people, or even more people, it doesn't have any meaning anymore."
"For Hirata-kun, only a complete class has a meaning for existence. If it's incomplete, then everything is unimportant, and he no longer has any subjective drive for action."
____
New Story: Starting from Their Seventeen Years Old
🔥We're handing out that '30% bonus' that makes your wallet smile. 😄
✅ Get immediate access to 40 early chapters for all stories.
✅ Enjoy exclusive material and special announcements!
Help us unlock these community rewards:
🎯 200 Powerstones = +1 Bonus Chapter for everyone
🚀 140 MEMBERS = +5 extra chapters across ALL STORIES!
👻 P - Walnutchan