Chapter 10: That Man's Eyes Are Only on Getting Stronger
"I'm Hachiman Hikigaya from Class 2-F. As sudden as this may sound, I absolutely have no intention of joining your club… Ow!"
Before Hachiman could finish, he was knocked down by a devastating elbow strike.
"Your punishment is to join this club, and I won't accept any arguments, resistance, complaints, dissatisfaction, or backtalk. You stay here and cool off. Reflect on yourself properly!"
So, is our Service Club some kind of prison? Both Yukino and Hayashida felt a few black lines form on their foreheads upon hearing Shizuka's description.
"Tyranny! This is tyranny!"
Whoa, even after getting elbowed like that, he's still resisting? Hikigaya, you…
"One more word, and I won't be so polite next time," Shizuka mercilessly suppressed him, then turned to the two sitting in the classroom.
"Anyway, as you can see, he's got a really twisted personality, so he's always alone and pitiful. If he learns how to interact with people, things should get better. So, can I leave him here? I want you to help fix his antisocial, withdrawn nature."
Yukino didn't have much fondness for Hachiman, especially after learning he was connected to the car accident. She really didn't want to get involved with him.
Hayashida was already more than enough for her to handle. If she had to deal with another weirdo like this on top of that, Yukino felt her future club life was looking pretty bleak.
Thus, she said coldly, "If that's the case, Sensei, you might as just beat him up with punches and kicks."
What heartless words!
Even Hachiman, who had already prepared himself for death, couldn't help but look shocked upon hearing Yukino's remark.
"I'd like to if I could, but things have been strict lately. Teachers aren't allowed to use physical violence on students."
What brutal, bloody words!
Are all women in the world violent bloodthirsty maniacs? Otherwise, how could every woman he encountered want to throw punches at him?
Wait, Komachi wouldn't. Sob... It seems no girl in the world matters except for my little sister, after all!
"Allow me to refu—"
"Yukino-san, please wait a moment." As a subordinate, Hayashida very boldly interrupted his superior Yukino's negotiation.
Yukino glanced at her club member with a puzzled expression, as if asking what the problem was.
Hayashida signaled for Yukino to hold on, then turned to Shizuka and said, "Sensei, are you sure you want to entrust us with the task of correcting this, uh... 'Cookie Gu' student's difficult personality?"
"That's right," Shizuka confirmed.
"Um..." The "Cookie Gu" student wanted to point out that his name was Hachiman.
Not that Hachiman thought his personality needed correcting—if anything, it was the world that needed fixing!
However, none of the three people present paid him any attention, so Hachiman gave up.
Originally, Hayashida hadn't intended to interfere with Yukino's decision. Whether this Hachiman joined or not didn't really matter to him—even though, in a way, he had essentially taken Hachiman's place in getting hit by that truck.
But then again, if he hadn't been hit, he might never have awakened his system. A blessing in disguise, as they say.
All in all, aside from disagreeing with Hachiman's act of risking his life to save a dog, Hayashida didn't particularly dislike him—though he didn't like him either.
The real reason he went against his initial intention and intervened in Yukino's decision was the blue exclamation mark floating above Shizuka's head.
This was the third color of wish-force request Hayashida had encountered—a third-tier mission, two levels higher than the gray-tier wish-force request he had first come across.
Incidentally, the wish-force tiers were gray, green, blue, purple, and gold. The designer of this system must have played a lot of online games.
Hayashida figured that while he probably couldn't handle a gold-tier wish-force request yet, a blue one should be manageable, right?
When a request comes knocking, there's no reason to turn it away!
The young Hayashida longed to grow stronger.
"Since Hiratsuka-sensei has said so, Yukino-san, perhaps you should reconsider. After all, wasn't the Service Club founded precisely to extend a helping hand to the weak?"
So the club's founding principle was to aid the weak? And is it really okay to arbitrarily label someone as weak? Don't judge me by my appearance—I ranked third in the humanities division this year. Even if I can't compare to that freak who got first place standing next to you, in terms of academic ability, I'd still qualify as strong, right? Also, why are you staring at Hiratsuka-sensei the whole time you're saying this? At least look at me when you're defining me as weak! Hachiman's mind was filled with grumbling.
Though it seemed like Hayashida was staring at Shizuka, he was actually focused on the wish-force request!
Ever since that blue exclamation mark appeared above Hiratsuka-sensei's head, nothing else existed in Hayashida's eyes—unless Yukino decided to reveal a gold exclamation mark, he wouldn't pay attention to anything else.
Loyalty!
Yukino didn't understand why Hayashida would suddenly say such things, but she had grasped the underlying message he wanted to convey. Hayashida wanted that cookie monster to join the club—otherwise, he would never have bothered making such remarks.
Although Yukino wanted to refuse Hikigaya's club membership, she couldn't ignore Hayashida's opinion either...
"Are you sure?" This was Yukino speaking to Hayashida.
"It mainly depends on President Yukino's decision." While Hayashida didn't verbally confirm it, his words clearly implied exactly that.
You know what I mean, right?
Yukino understood Hayashida's meaning, yet she didn't understand why he meant it that way.
Whatever—since Hayashida didn't care, why should she bother?
Hmph, don't regret it later!
Under Hayashida's intervention, the scales in Yukino's heart tipped to the other side.
"Fine, since both the teacher and Hayashida-kun have said so, I can't just stand by and do nothing... I'll accept this commission."
"So in the end, nobody's going to ask for my opinion?" Hachiman felt he shouldn't be in this classroom—whether he was here or not made no difference anyway!
"Good, I'll leave the rest to you then." Shizuka showed a satisfied smile.
After these words were spoken, Hayashida received feedback as well. Just a preliminary agreement already gave him some Wish Power Points?
This made Hayashida feel somewhat incredulous. If blue Wish Commissions were like this, wouldn't the golden ones be absolutely insane?
He decided—he would quickly handle Shizuka's commission, then focus entirely on conquering Yukino.
Thinking this, Hayashida slowly turned his gaze toward Hachiman Hikigaya, whom Shizuka had left behind in the classroom, revealing a nuclear-friendly smile on his face.
Correcting a twisted personality, is it?