If he hadn't run into him, fine. But if he ran into him and then realized the other person existed, was he still going to help Sakashita Yoshiyuki?
Wouldn't that just cause him trouble? There were plenty of beautiful girls at school, but he had a lot of people too. Who knew whether Sakashita Yoshiyuki would start targeting his people later.
'You haven't even decided whether to help or not, yet you told Hanamori to come find me?'
'And if I help Hanamori-sensei later, will you still think I shouldn't have helped?'
Yukinoshita Yukino couldn't figure out Hachiman's attitude, so she could only grumble inwardly, ignore what he'd said earlier, and slowly voice her own thoughts.
"Logically speaking, even if an incident like this happened off-campus, the student council should know the specifics and be responsible for handling it. Doesn't your childhood friend, the student council president, have a reasonable solution? Why did it end up like this?"
"Kaede didn't tell me about this. Either the previous student council president handled it, or the school bypassed the student council and dealt with outside parties directly," Hikigaya shook his head. Kaede wouldn't keep something like this entirely to herself if it involved making an innocent student take the fall; Kaede wasn't the type to hide things.
And the previous student council president, Meguri Shiromeguri... he didn't have a lot of dealings with her, just met her a few times with Kaede, but he knew Meguri fairly well.
Although Meguri's administrative ability and leadership weren't especially strong, her personal charm wasn't low; she wouldn't do something like frame someone and pass the blame.
"The previous student council president... Normally, student council elections happen at midterms or finals, but Sobu High just started its new term not long ago. The previous student council president quitting in second year to have a first-year serve as president—", Yukinoshita Yukino, seeing that Hikigaya didn't think this had anything to do with the current student council president, pondered for a moment and then slowly voiced her guess.
"Could it be because of that convenience store issue?", Either they were forced to resign because of pressure from the school, or they saw the darkness of society and refused to go along with it and resigned voluntarily.
Whether active or passive, it meant that to solve this matter they'd first have to deal with the forces behind Sobu High, not merely clear the facts and remove the punishment to restore the delinquent's reputation.
"Can you get Sobu High to handle this impartially? If you can't, I can take it over, but this time you'll have to call me 'nyan,' right? From now on you must add 'nyan' after 'President,' just calling me 'President' won't satisfy me anymore," Hikigaya looked at Yukinoshita's profile and smiled slowly.
Yukinoshita alone certainly couldn't handle it, but calling her family to help... it was better to just call him in directly.
"Impossible. Forget that. I already talked to my sister. There should be an investigation result by tomorrow," Yukinoshita turned her head, glanced at Hikigaya, being alternately fed bites by Tsukishiro Sayo and Narahashi Miki, not even needing to lift a hand, clearly enjoying himself, and said expressionlessly.
She had known Hikigaya wouldn't be acting in her best interest when he volunteered to take the request; of course he was waiting for this.
Still, this matter involved the school's shady operations, so it really wasn't easy to handle.
Sobu High was a municipal school in Chiba. Normally, if the Yukinoshita family asked Sobu High to deal with a couple of delinquent students and be gracious in handling things, that wouldn't be a problem.
But she, who usually didn't meddle in family affairs, wasn't sure what extent the Yukinoshita family could manage now.
After all, once this was exposed it would be an absolute scandal. With attention on Sobu High now because of the elf princess, mermaid songstresses, and other demi-humans enrolling, there were many people and forces watching the school.
If there was no way to sweep things under the rug and quietly erase traces, Sobu High might well be unwilling to dig up old scandals and slap its own face for the sake of one delinquent's grievance.
Given the public attention around the elf princess and mermaids, if some other school used the opportunity to blow this scandal up, Sobu High could end up dissolved like an advanced training school, with students transferred out in batches, it wasn't impossible.
Though she thought that with someone like Hikigaya around, the elf princess and the others wouldn't leave Sobu High lightly; even if they did transfer, they would drag Hikigaya along with them.
"Investigation result... I hope you can be that confident tomorrow. But if you want me to help after tomorrow, I'll add conditions. If you want me to help, during club activities you must wear cat-ear maid outfit in the Service Club, hiss!"
Hikigaya detected the lack of confidence in Yukinoshita's words; an investigation result didn't prove anything, processing results weren't out yet.
A councilor was indeed powerful for ordinary people; those who became councilors had real strength and, once managed well, could become local bigwigs.
But strength is relative. If you don't have solid power, the favor a councilor gives you can be revoked. There are so many councilors in Chiba, the Yukinoshita family was only one of them. They weren't even the governor, let alone a conglomerate; they obviously weren't at the point where others would sacrifice their interests just to give them face.
The elf princess, the mermaid songstresses, and the surrounding forces vying for advantage were far more intimidating than the Yukinoshita family.
"You want a cat-ear maid outfit? You, what's wrong with you?"
Yukinoshita, hearing Hikigaya mention cat-ear maid outfits, was about to snap at him, but seeing his expression change slightly, the words she was going to spit out got stuck.
"Nothing. I changed my mind. Yukino, you don't have to wear a cat-ear maid outfit and I'll still help. I'll go talk to your sister, she and Touka-nee would be more than willing to wear it for me."
Hikigaya coughed lightly, casually glanced at Hanamori Kotomi, who was taking Hayase Saki's practiced guidance in gulps, and gently freed Hanamori's high crimson single ponytail.
Forget it, forget it. After all, he preferred softness to force.
First, help Hanamori Kotomi remove Sakashita Yoshiyuki's punishment.
Do good deeds thoroughly; later he'd arrange people to send Sakashita away.
That way Hanamori wouldn't have to worry about helping the wrong person.
"???"
Yukinoshita stared at Hikigaya's sudden change of tone, seriously suspecting he was teasing her on purpose.
He wasn't after her, he was after her sister and Touka-nee?
Was this a ploy to force her to accept the cat-ear maid outfit condition?
Her sister might or might not agree, but with Sakura being so close to this guy, Touka-nee would definitely agree to his shameless condition.
Knock! Knock! Knock!
Yukinoshita had just stood up and started toward Hikigaya, but after a few steps she heard an ill-timed knock at the door. She held back and, keeping a cold face, walked to the door and opened it.
"Excuse me, uh, is the Service Club president here... I heard from Yumiko and Chika that the Service Club president is really good at training, very skilled, so uh."
Outside the clubroom were a few girls in tennis uniforms holding rackets.
At the front stood a black-haired girl with resolute eyes and an athletic figure, but when she saw Yukinoshita open the door expressionlessly, her prepared self-introduction stuck in her throat.
["Ding~!"]
["Detected character card—Saeki Ai."] [T/N: 'Fault!!' anime]
["Detected character card—Sugiyama Mio."] [T/N: Same]
["Detected character card—Kitamura Kaori."] [T/N: Miderauchi]
["Detected character card—Sairenji Haruna."] [T/N: To-Love Ru]
A string of system prompts rang in his ears as Hikigaya looked at the girls in tennis skirts outside, their white, tender thighs under the skirts brimming with youthful vigor, feeling somewhat mixed.
He remembered that in the original the Service Club had a request involving the tennis club once.
And now the tennis club request had turned into this?
Sairenji Haruna was fine, like Kotegawa and Lala, a relatively proper pretty girl.
'But Kitamura Kaori, Saeki Ai, and Sugiyama Mio...'
Either a netorare heroine or an 2D-world harem heroine.
'Hmm... I should develop a club branch.'
"...", Yukinoshita Yukino felt similarly complicated looking at the tennis club beauties at the door.
Although this request, which seemed introduced by others, clearly wasn't a setup by Hikigaya, it was obvious the girls had come for Hikigaya.
And she herself barely ever got requests come to her, recently the only one was Hanamori Kotomi, and that was a request Hikigaya had pulled in for them.
"Um...", Kitamura Kaori, watching Yukinoshita turn and walk away, hesitated and stood at the doorway not knowing what to do.
Behind her, Sairenji Haruna, Saeki Ai and Sugiyama Mio exchanged glances, unsure.
They knew Yukinoshita was the club's vice president and that she was the aloof heiress who rarely dealt with ordinary students, but they hadn't expected her to be so cold, opening the Service Club door then turning and leaving without a word.
"Sorry, our vice president Yukinoshita hasn't been in a good mood these past two days. Please don't mind her."
Hikigaya glanced at Yukinoshita, expressionless as she returned to her seat and continued eating, smiled, and invited Kitamura and the others inside.
"You can come in first. You said Yumiko and Chika introduced you?"
"Yes... Hello, President Hikigaya. I'm Kitamura Kaori, Chika's cousin, and also the tennis club's vice president. Chika said President Hikigaya is very good at coaching, and Yumiko said you're reliable, so we took the liberty of coming to ask for your help training. Sorry to bother you while you're eating, I thought you might have finished lunch already."
After Hikigaya invited them in, Kitamura led Sugiyama Mio, Saeki Ai, and Sairenji Haruna inside.
Seeing the Service Club clearly divided between Hikigaya and Yukinoshita, Kitamura hesitated and stood before the table with the tablecloth where Hikigaya was sitting, explaining in a small, embarrassed voice.
She had deliberately come late so they could finish eating and then make the request, since their request was about tennis training. She only planned to briefly explain the reason and ask whether the Service Club president would help.
But who could have expected the club members to have only just started eating?
"No problem. If you don't mind us discussing it while we eat, that's fine. Since you came on Yumiko's recommendation, I'll do my best to help. What exactly is your request? What do you need me to do?"
Looking at the four tennis girls who'd come forward, Hikigaya gently reassured the suddenly tense Hanamori Kotomi and smiled naturally.
Yumiko's recommendation went without saying, her brash, bossy type personality would naturally praise someone she knew.
Only in front of him would Yumiko not flatter him.
But Kitamura Chika was a bit of a problem.
Kitamura Chika, like the lecherous disciplinary committee member Asai Saki, was a second-year disciplinary committee member. Last time, during PE, Chika and Asai had dragged him to the sports storeroom intending to punish him together.
At that time, the swim club's golden-haired energetic girl Tachibana had also interfered and inadvertently revealed he was the swim club's temporary manager, who'd helped them greatly improve their training results.
With a Service Club halo, and with his own strength improved, Chika would believe without seeing for herself that he could raise the tennis club's training results.
But how much about his coaching Chika had told Kitamura Kaori, he couldn't be sure.
Had she only said he could improve performance?
Or had she mentioned special training methods?
From the looks of it, it seemed to be the former.
That made things difficult. The swim club's captain Tsukahara Hibiki had originally asked him to relieve the seed players' mental pressure, with a very clear purpose and great autonomy, she'd even proactively put people in his way.
Kitamura Kaori didn't know that. She was only the tennis club's vice president, so it wouldn't be easy for him to suggest helping them improve, unless he was willing to court them one by one.
But he didn't like being proactive, so this request would be thankless and laborious.
Or... let the capable, approachable vice president Yukinoshita do it.
If it went badly, it would be Yukinoshita's fault; if it went well, it would be his leadership.
"Thank you very much. Chika said you're also helping the swim club as a manager and coach, so I'd like to ask President Hikigaya to also help train our tennis members."
Seeing that Hikigaya was approachable and unlike the cold Yukinoshita, Kitamura relaxed, but still hesitated a little as she thought he might be busy.
"Of course. We only have a few members; we won't overwork you. If you're available, come coach us. If not, we'll train as usual."
Kitamura still didn't fully believe Chika's words.
Maybe Hikigaya had some unique training method, but how could the swim club's seed ace players' results leap forward so dramatically after just a few days of his high-intensity training?
She didn't understand the swim club's usual regimen, but their strength was strong, students who became seed aces didn't have poor training records, and couldn't improve that easily.
Like in tennis, no quick training would bring sudden breakthroughs, only persistent, long-term, high-intensity work could.
Sudden leaps might soon fall back to normal levels.
Still, Chika's recent performance had indeed improved a lot.
If Chika praised him to that extent and recommended him, then Hikigaya must have some real skill.
Her not needing it didn't mean the others in the tennis club didn't.
Her skill had reached a bottleneck, and she couldn't break through in the short term; the tennis club's other newcomers needed help.
Plus, with Chika constantly urging and Yumiko's praise revealing some recognition of Hikigaya, she'd mustered the courage to bring people and ask for help without even knowing him.
"Kitamura, are the members who need training the girls behind you?"
Hikigaya nodded slightly, reading Kitamura's expression, and focused his gaze on the three tennis girls behind her.
"Hello, President Hikigaya. I'm a first-year, Sairenji Haruna, a new member of the tennis club. If you're not busy, I hope you can spare some time to guide our tennis skills and help improve our training results."