From the perspective of the 2D World, this father whose personality has drastically changed is highly likely experiencing a change related to the 2D World. Like that father in the original story of Shion who used his own daughter as a money-making tool, or like Horigome Chinna's stepfather who wanted to carry on the family line.
"...Then I'll participate in this training! I hope Manager Hikigaya can guide me to successfully participate in the national competition!"
Sakurai Rihoko bit her thin lips, her hopeful eyes fixed intently on Hachiman.
She didn't know that Hachiman had nearly figured out her background, and even knew quite a bit of what she herself was unaware of. Seeing Uenohara Ayano and the others not refuting Hachiman's words, she could only believe in him, hoping to receive his guidance and successfully participate in the national competition.
She wanted to enter the national competition and win a good ranking not for herself, but mainly to cheer up her father, who had become depressed after her mother's death.
Although she wasn't sure whether this would work, she had tried all kinds of comforting words, and her father had shown no reaction.
Now the only thing she could think of was this swimming hobby that both her parents once supported, hoping that by achieving good results in swimming, she could make her father's face show that familiar smile once again.
"Sakurai? You really think doing this will improve your performance?"
Nanasaki Ai, who thought Sakurai Rihoko would leave with her, stared dumbfounded at her in disbelief that she would agree to such a ridiculous and absurd thing.
"It does sound unbelievable, but Vice President Hayase and the others all accepted it, and their results improved...", Looking at Nanasaki Ai's surprised and questioning gaze beside her, Sakurai Rihoko subconsciously bit her white teeth against her thin lips, softly stating her reason.
What else could she do? If Uenohara Ayano and the others all joined Manager Hikigaya's special training, if she didn't join, even if Manager Hikigaya really had a method to quickly improve performance, he wouldn't tell her.
"...", Nanasaki Ai wanted to persuade Sakurai Rihoko not to be so foolish, but seeing the usually gentle and weak Sakurai so determined this time, she instantly realized that Sakurai also had her own convictions.
If it was before coming in here, she might have still believed Manager Hikigaya had some special training method.
But now, having seen with her own eyes the so-called training guidance, how could she still believe this Manager Hikigaya?
Though she couldn't figure out how Manager Hikigaya had greatly improved the strength of Hayase and the others in such a short time, what puzzled her even more was what such things had to do with improving performance.
Because it was also an extremely physically exhausting high-intensity activity?
To achieve that kind of training effect, how high and how strong must the frequency be?
Normally, their swimming training was already very physically demanding and great for body training, and daily progress was small, sometimes even declining due to poor condition.
"Ahem, Nanasaki-san's doubts are valid, but you can observe my training and see whether it has any effect," Seeing the two fall into silence, Hachiman lightly coughed and kindly reminded.
"...You want me to stay here and observe?", Nanasaki Ai's eyes widened. What was he saying? Not only letting Sakurai Rihoko accept training guidance here, but seeing she was unwilling, he still wanted her to stay and watch?
"Isn't this to prove I'm not lying to you? After the training ends, you can immediately take Sakurai to test her results," Hachiman explained. If it had been before, this method wouldn't work well. They didn't have his steadily improving ability, and the performance gains after each training were small. Big improvement wasn't a one-day feat and needed accumulated time to show noticeable change.
But now with the Servant Halo, even if Sakurai Rihoko's devotion wasn't as high as Hayase Saki and the others, with the current bonus from the number of people, the effect after the first training would also be obvious.
Speaking of which, Sakurai Rihoko was actually the first female member of the competitive swimming club who voluntarily asked for training guidance after knowing the content.
Hayase Saki, being his good friend in the Service Club, initially had close contact with him not for training, just to vent her frustration.
Tachibana Mikari tried to seduce him due to past minor conflicts with Minami and the others, wanting to steal him away from them, but instead of succeeding in seduction, she was conquered.
Uenohara Ayano was half-pushed and half-joined under Ursula's assist, not exactly voluntarily seeking his training guidance.
"..."
Nanasaki Ai looked at Sakurai Rihoko, who seemed moved but said nothing, then looked at Hayase Saki, Tachibana Mikari, and Uenohara Ayano as they slowly got up from the bench. She couldn't help but swallow and fall into a difficult decision.
She finally understood the subtle expression Manager Nagatsuka Saki had when sending them into the locker room and understood why she repeatedly emphasized that this training was a bit special, even if not accepted, it couldn't be leaked out.
But how did it turn into her needing to observe Sakurai Rihoko's training here?
Was this something she could observe?
———
For Nanasaki Ai, this was the first time she faced something like this. Not only had she never dated, no one usually talked to her about such things, and she never imagined her first time witnessing it would be as an observer of Sakurai Rihoko from the girls' competitive swimming club.
However, for Hachiman, he was already quite used to it, accustomed to being watched.
Almost every girl who observed would end up becoming a participant.
Although those girls were mostly heroines of the 2D World, a heroine of the surface world like Nanasaki Ai wasn't so easy to capture. But compared to Gabriel and the others, she should still be relatively less difficult.
Gabriel would immediately use teleportation and flee if anything went wrong, impossible to catch. Raphiel, upon knowing that Gabriel and Vignette wanted to cause her trouble, directly hid herself.
Probably only Vignette, that demon, was a bit easier to deal with, but he didn't want to force things.
"Don't worry, Nanasaki-san. Manager Hachiman didn't lie to you. We all improved our results thanks to his training."
Tachibana Mikari, who had just left the bench to make space, walked to Nanasaki Ai's side, gently patted her shoulder, and whispered with a smile.
Actually, she wasn't too willing to give up the spot to Sakurai Rihoko. She still wanted to receive more of Hachiman's guidance. But with tennis class, club activities, and just showing off in the pool about her training success, Tachibana Mikari, who had barely rested, was already reaching her limit. So she didn't plan to bicker too much with the first-year junior Sakurai Rihoko.
Compared to Sakurai Rihoko, who just wanted to improve her grades and participate in the national competition, Hayase Saki, who had a close relationship with Hachiman and didn't know how many times she had received personal training, and Uenohara Ayano, who also seemed to have a strong liking for him, were more worth paying attention to and being cautious about.
So troublesome. She had even wanted to rally the competitive swimming club members to snatch Hachiman away from Minami and those gyaru, but now it turned out their own swimming club couldn't even sort themselves out, everyone wanted to cling to Hachiman.
Although in another sense, it could be said they were united.
"Is this really effective? You all asked Manager Hikigaya to train you because you wanted to improve your results?", Nanasaki Ai pursed her lips, still a bit skeptical.
Not to mention how this kind of thing could improve results. Even if Hachiman really had such magical power, why would they agree to it?
Usually everyone didn't seem so competitive, not the type who'd care that much about the national competition. How come they'd all be willing to offer themselves just to improve results?
"Umm... that... there are many reasons...", Facing Nanasaki Ai's doubt, Uenohara Ayano blushed and turned her gaze away, muttering softly.
She hadn't thought that deeply. She just felt that Manager Hikigaya really cared for them, and she also wanted to receive guidance like Vice President Hayase Saki.
Especially knowing that Hayase Saki had also not become Manager Hikigaya's lover but still received such intimate training, she wanted to be treated equally.
After being gently rejected and told to think carefully by Manager Hikigaya, she was forcibly dragged into training by Ursula.
Hayase Saki didn't feel anything from Nanasaki Ai's gaze. She was an elf princess who had joined in early, a major senior compared to the others.
As for the training guidance, she didn't approach the President because of such shallow reasons.
However, recently she hadn't found a good opportunity to let the President enjoy her and Miki's maid service, which troubled her.
The President was so popular, and she didn't have many areas where she could outshine those noble young ladies and princesses. If she didn't work harder, she'd be left behind with Vice President Yukinoshita in the Service Club.
"Sigh...", Nanasaki Ai saw the three who had just finished training each with their own thoughts, sighed slightly, and no longer tried to extract the training details from them. Instead, she secretly peeked at Sakurai Rihoko receiving one-on-one training on the bench.
Compared to asking Mikari and the others, seeing it with her own eyes might help her discover the truth of how Manager Hikigaya helped Uenohara Ayano and the others improve their results.
Though... it really was embarrassing.
As Nanasaki Ai covered her face studying the secret to the training guidance, Tachibana Mikari, who wanted to coax her into joining, suddenly turned her head to look at the locker in the dressing room, full of doubt.
Strange. Didn't she just hear a sound coming from inside the locker?
Wasn't it Momoka's locker? Did she forget to silence her phone?
Tachibana Mikari narrowed her eyes, locking her gaze on Vice President Orizuka Momoka's locker.
The locker sat there quietly, as if the sound she heard earlier was just her imagination.
After a moment, Tachibana Mikari reached out and pulled over Uenohara Ayano, who was still staring blankly at Hachiman, and whispered in her ear.
"Huh? Huh huh huh!"
Uenohara Ayano froze. As Tachibana Mikari whispered, her bright eyes widened, staring incredulously at her.
'T-That's way too bold?'
"Hurry up. You don't want our secret to get exposed, do you?"
Seeing Uenohara Ayano hesitating, Tachibana Mikari rolled her eyes at the passive one and pushed her toward the locker room door while she slowly walked toward Orizuka Momoka's locker.
Seeing Tachibana Mikari take action, Uenohara Ayano didn't have time to think further and could only follow her instructions, quickly stepping to the locker room door and poking her head out to look around.
"Uenohara-san? You all finished train—"
Bang!
Before Nagatsuka Saki, who was standing guard outside, could finish her sentence upon seeing Uenohara Ayano poke her head out, she saw the door quickly slammed shut.
"It's over..."
Watching the door close and even hearing the sound of it locking, Nagatsuka Saki's warm smile instantly froze on her face.
Who had she been standing here guarding for?
Why was she being treated like this, she couldn't even get a full sentence out?
Or... was it too busy in there, they couldn't risk anyone discovering what was going on inside, so they had to lock the door?
Nagatsuka Saki stared at the tightly closed locker room door, constantly comforting herself.
Just then, the sound of bare feet stepping on the smooth floor echoed from nearby. Nagatsuka Saki immediately perked up, turned around with a smile, and looked at the busty girl with short brown hair at the front.
"Kushida-san, sorry...", Though she felt a bit awkward about her position, it was too late to back down now.
Next time, she had to ask President Hibiki to assign someone else to assist Manager Hikigaya.
She didn't want to be the lookout anymore.
———
Inside the locker room, in front of Orizuka Momoka's locker.
"Momoka, do you still want to keep hiding in there? If I have to drag you out myself, I'll go beg Manager Hikigaya to give you a harsh lesson."
Tachibana Mikari stood with her hands on her hips in front of the locker, speaking out a threat without hesitation.
As everyone knows, the most classic scene in a locker room is hiding inside a locker and peeking through the small crack to watch the girls inside change clothes.
Although with Orizuka Momoka's personality that hates boys, she didn't seem like that kind of pervert, the facts were right in front of her.
Every person's locker had a lock, but now the lock on Orizuka Momoka's locker was gone. Coupled with the sounds she just heard, just a bit of connecting the dots revealed that Orizuka Momoka was hiding inside the locker.
Originally, she had been thinking that with Nanasaki Ai and Sakurai Rihoko joining Manager Hikigaya's training, if their good friend Orizuka Momoka didn't join, it would be too much of a pity. She was just a bit troubled about Momoka's hatred of boys, which made tricking her into joining the training quite troublesome.
Now this Orizuka Momoka was actually cold on the outside but perverted inside, hiding in the locker peeping on them being trained by Manager Hikigaya. If she could let Orizuka Momoka off now, then she might as well give up trying to steal people and just surrender to Takasaka Minami and the others.
"You really don't want to come out? Uenohara, let's pull the Vice President out together and let her properly receive Manager Hikigaya's special training," Tachibana Mikari waited a few seconds, and seeing there was no movement in the locker, immediately called out to Uenohara Ayano, who had locked the door and run over,
"Mm…"
Uenohara Ayano's legs were a little weak, and her hands were trembling a bit, but she still kept her eyes tightly fixed on the locker door, afraid that Orizuka Momoka would suddenly burst out from inside and flee the locker room.
If they couldn't drag President Orizuka Momoka in, with how extremely she hated boys, she would most likely tell the Disciplinary Committee about their situation. Then they'd all be punished, and the whole school would be notified of their violation of the rules.
For her own sake, for the girls' competitive swimming club, she and Mikari had to pull Orizuka Momoka in. Let Vice President Orizuka Momoka experience how amazing Manager Hikigaya's training was, and give up on the idea of reporting them.
Although as a first-year going to block a second-year senior's way, especially the club's vice President, it did feel a bit inappropriate.
However, Mikari was also a second-year, and Hayase was a vice President too. They would all be on her side helping out.
Uenohara Ayano kept encouraging herself as she followed behind Tachibana Mikari. One opened the door and the other blocked the way. The two moved together to hold down Orizuka Momoka in the locker.
However, when Tachibana Mikari opened the locker door, two figures stumbled and fell out of the locker.
"President, you're in here too?"
Tachibana Mikari, who was just about to hold down Orizuka Momoka and make her receive Manager Hikigaya's stick training, suddenly froze in place, her eyes staring straight at the figure next to Orizuka Momoka, speaking in shock.
Nanasaki Ai and Hayase Saki also noticed the commotion and looked in surprise and shock toward the two who suddenly appeared in the locker room, their whole bodies wet, hair soaked with sweat.
Why were Vice President Orizuka Momoka and President Tsukahara Hibiki both in there?
"Ahaha… sorry, Momoka and I were discussing something. Didn't expect you all to suddenly come in."
Seeing everyone's eyes focus on her, only Sakurai Rihoko still had no extra attention to spare for this side, Tsukahara Hibiki touched her tall ponytail and laughed heartily, shifting the topic.
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