As soon as Mashima-sensei heard Hikigaya's demand, he knew this troublesome kid was deliberately stirring things up.
Asking for an apology was one thing, but demanding a public self-reflection session in front of the entire school?
Forget Nagumo—no high school student with a shred of self-respect would agree to that.
"Hikigaya, don't you think you're taking this too far?" Mashima-sensei spoke in a calm, reasonable tone. "Besides, this time... you've already caused enough chaos in the school. A lot of people have been caught up in the mess. Don't you think that's enough?"
If both sides had ended up beating each other to a pulp, then serious disciplinary action would be necessary.
But right now, it was just a minor scrape on the forehead. Even the strictest of teachers wouldn't want to go through all the hassle over something so trivial.
However, Hikigaya ignored those words and instead asked a question of his own:
"Mashima-sensei, right now, isn't it a fact that Nagumo hit me?"
"...At the moment, that does appear to be the case."
Mashima-sensei was briefly taken aback before nodding.
Hikigaya continued, "Then is it reasonable for me to demand an apology?"
"It is." Mashima-sensei nodded again before adding, "That is your right. However, let me remind you that even as the victim, you can't just demand whatever you want—"
"Yeah, yeah, I know."
Before he could finish, Hikigaya rudely cut him off and turned his gaze toward Nagumo.
"I'm just wondering—Nagumo, you've said before that from now on, the student council would take a more lenient stance on violent incidents… But what if the one resorting to violence is the student council president himself? Are you going to be lenient on yourself?"
"This..."
Mashima-sensei found himself at a loss for words.
The student council at ANHS held significant power. Most conflicts between students—so long as they weren't too severe—were handled internally by the student council, with the school administration opting not to interfere.
An incident like today's, for example, wouldn't even be worth mentioning.
But if the one throwing the punch was the student council president, that was an entirely different matter.
No matter what policies Nagumo implemented, the school would never condone violence. The only difference would be the severity of the punishment.
Even regular students had to write reflection letters after getting into fights. If the student council president himself broke the rules, the matter had to be taken seriously.
With that in mind... Hikigaya's request didn't seem entirely unreasonable.
"Nagumo, what do you think?"
Mashima-sensei turned the question back to him. The other boy widened his eyes in disbelief.
"Sensei, please wait a moment." Nagumo was so frustrated he nearly laughed. "You're not seriously considering Hikigaya's nonsense, are you? He's just making trouble!"
To be fair, he wasn't entirely wrong.
Morally speaking, one could certainly criticize Nagumo.
But if the person involved didn't care, then it wasn't a big deal.
Even if the school decided to step in, at most, they'd give some half-hearted lecture to this "exemplary student." There wasn't much else they could do.
After all, while Nagumo's actions toward Ichinose seemed vile, he hadn't coerced her. It was difficult to hold him accountable in a meaningful way.
Not to mention, social ruin was unlikely for someone like him. To put it bluntly, a wealthy, powerful, and good-looking guy like Nagumo had no shortage of girls willing to climb into his bed, nor a lack of boys eager to curry favor with him.
Some might even mock Ichinose for not knowing how to take advantage of the situation.
On the other hand, Nagumo punching Hikigaya—though it seemed minor—could cause him problems.
Because that was, without a doubt, a clear violation of school rules.
That was why Hikigaya never mentioned Ichinose. He was solely focused on the fact that he got punched.
"No matter what, the fact remains that you hit someone… You two should settle this yourselves."
Under normal circumstances, Mashima-sensei might have stepped in to de-escalate the situation.
But frankly, he didn't like Nagumo either.
So as long as it was within his duties, he was more than happy to see Nagumo forced into apologizing.
It was likely that Hikigaya felt the same way.
Of course, Nagumo wouldn't agree. He shook his head. "I admit I lost my temper, but this was just a minor dispute. I refuse to let Hikigaya use this as an excuse to humiliate me, and I will not compromise."
"Same here," Hikigaya countered sharply. "I won't accept anything except a public apology."
"Hmph, then go ahead and report me to the school."
"I will."
Seeing that neither was willing to back down, Mashima-sensei was getting a headache.
If this had been a fight over a girl, that would've been one thing. After all, teenagers were full of passion, and even he had experienced that phase. He could understand.
But based on what was said in the broadcast, these two got into a fight over wanting the former student council president's recognition—or something along those lines.
…Seriously, what's wrong with kids these days? (scratches head)
"Since that's the case, the school will intervene. You'll both be notified by your homeroom teachers."
At this point, Mashima-sensei couldn't be bothered anymore.
Let their homeroom teachers deal with this headache…
Wait a minute.
Why was he the one getting involved in the first place?
It was only now that Mashima-sensei realized—he wasn't Class D's homeroom teacher, and Hikigaya wasn't in Class B either!
He had simply received a message from Hikigaya saying he'd been hit, and without thinking, he rushed over.
…Oh well. It didn't matter.
A teacher's job is to support students within their responsibilities.
But while Mashima-sensei thought that way, someone else certainly didn't.
"It seems things have settled down."
For some reason, Chabashira-sensei stood at the entrance of the student council office.
Huh? Why was she here?
Before Hikigaya could figure it out, she continued, "Mashima, what's the result?"
"Unfortunately, neither side is willing to budge."
"I see. Then we'll have to hold a hearing… By the way, you arrived pretty quickly. Were you nearby?"
Though she kept her usual tone, Hikigaya felt there was something behind her words.
Mashima-sensei, however, didn't notice. He answered honestly, "No, I just rushed over when I got Hikigaya's message."
"Oh—so that's how it is."
Chabashira-sensei deliberately dragged out her words before giving Hikigaya a strange look.
"Well, well, Hikigaya. Instead of going to your homeroom teacher, you asked another teacher for help?"
"Uh, I just didn't want to trouble you…"
Hikigaya laughed nervously, suddenly feeling uneasy.
This petty, unmarried woman wasn't feeling slighted, was she…?
As if to confirm his suspicions, Chabashira-sensei's expression remained blank as she said, "Alright, let's put that aside. You're coming with me to the guidance office. We need to talk."
"Wait, this isn't right!" Hikigaya quickly protested. "What kind of guidance am I supposed to give? It's not like I blackmailed Ichinose into being my girlfriend because she rejected my confession. There's clearly someone else here who needs guidance way more than I do."
Nagumo's face immediately darkened.
Even though it was true, having it pointed out so bluntly—especially in front of a teacher—was beyond embarrassing, even for someone as shameless as Nagumo.
If it had been anyone else, they'd probably want to crawl into a hole and disappear.
Even though Hikigaya hadn't called him out by name, it was obvious who he was talking about...
"Enough nonsense. Nagumo isn't one of my students, so I have no reason to waste my time on him."
Alright, Chabashira-sensei had just shattered any pretense.
"You caused a huge commotion in school this time. Don't even think about leaving until you've had at least two hours of lecturing."
"W-Wait… I-I have a headache! I need to go to the infirmary!" Hikigaya finally came up with an excuse.
Unfortunately, it didn't work.
"I'll personally escort you there after I'm done lecturing you. Now, come with me."
With that, Chabashira-sensei grabbed his arm and dragged him out of the student council office.
Hikigaya had no choice but to slump his shoulders and follow obediently.
Damn it… Why is this teacher even harder to deal with than Nagumo?!
The next morning, Hikigaya let out a long sigh as he stepped out of his room, and headed to school.
Just thinking about yesterday exhausted him.
That unmarried, middle-aged Chabashira was a woman of her word. Two hours meant two hours—she didn't cut a single minute.
By the time he finally walked out of the guidance counselor's office, the sky outside was already pitch black.
Seriously, wasn't he the victim here?! Why did he have to go through all that?!
Oh, and as a side note, he ran into Chabashira-sensei again at the cafeteria later. She even treated him to a meal.
But of course, it wasn't free. She subtly pried for information about the account suspension.
It wasn't surprising. After all, Tsukishiro, the newly appointed acting director, had immediately introduced a ridiculous special exam upon arriving and then suspended a student's account on a flimsy pretext.
And everything was targeted in the first years.
From what Hikigaya could tell, Chabashira-sensei had probably sensed something was off.
Not that any of it had anything to do with him—Tsukishiro wasn't his problem.
"Hikigaya, good morning."
"…Morning."
Look, the real problem just showed up.
I didn't expect to run into Ayanokouji as soon as I stepped out of the room… Looks like my luck today isn't great.
Wait a second—could this guy have been waiting for me on purpose?
Just as Hikigaya was feeling suspicious, Ayanokouji spoke again.
"How did things go yesterday? Was it smooth?"
"Smoother than expected."
Everything went as planned—except for one thing. Nagumo got so pissed that he threw a punch. That part caught Hikigaya completely off guard.
He had only intended to disgust Nagumo a little by bringing up the forest camp incident… but damn, that worked way too well.
"That's good." Ayanokouji nodded. "Looks like having Chabashira show up was somewhat useful."
"…Wait a second."
Hikigaya suddenly felt something was off and turned to glare at him, mouth agape.
"You were the one who called Chabashira-sensei?!"
He had been wondering why that homeroom teacher—who usually left school right after dismissal—suddenly showed up.
So it turns out someone was meddling in other people's business.
"Is there a problem?" Ayanokouji glanced at the band-aid on Hikigaya's forehead with mild curiosity. "Nagumo hit you, didn't he? If a teacher was present, then even without security cameras in the student council office, there's no way he could deny it."
This was a small issue—one that could be settled with just a band-aid.
But no matter how you look at it, hitting someone is still hitting someone.
Getting caught red-handed by a teacher meant it wouldn't be easy to brush this off.
"Alright, alright, thanks for your help."
Hikigaya couldn't be bothered to say more and sighed as he stepped into the slowly opening elevator.
Strictly speaking, the injury on his forehead wasn't even directly caused by Nagumo.
Even though the guy had lashed out in anger, he regretted it the moment he threw the punch and instinctively held back a little. Besides, he hadn't even aimed for Hikigaya's forehead.
It was Hikigaya himself who hit his head on the table corner when he fell.
Sigh… guess I still need to work on my falling skills.
Ayanokouji stepped into the elevator as well. Once the doors closed, he continued, "Even I didn't expect Nagumo to throw a punch… He cares about Horikita's brother, huh?"
"…Can we not talk about that?"
In truth, Hikigaya had been feeling more and more unsettled about this ever since he got back last night.
He could practically hear a certain "fufu" laughter echoing in his mind… But there's no way Ebina is in ANHS!
Ayanokouji, however, wasn't thinking in that direction at all. He genuinely believed Hikigaya had a talent for these things.
To put it nicely, he had a knack for understanding people's emotions and striking right where it hurt the most.
To put it bluntly, he was a genius at pissing people off.
If it had been anyone else, they probably would've taken the moral high ground and condemned Nagumo for violence—only to get mocked in return.
It was like calling someone a traitor for selling out their country, only for them to turn around and laugh at you for not even being important enough to be given that chance.
"So, what's your next move?" Ayanokouji asked, growing more curious about how this conflict would unfold. "Are you going to take this opportunity to impeach Nagumo and seize the position of student council president?"
"Haaah? Why the hell would I do something that troublesome?" Hikigaya looked at him like he was crazy.
Ayanokouji was momentarily stunned. "You've done all this… but you're not trying to make Nagumo step down?"
No way this was just about getting justice for Ichinose, right?
Although he didn't voice the question, Ayanokouji was pretty sure there was more to it than that.
"I do want Nagumo to step down, just not right now," Hikigaya said confidently. "And even if he does get kicked out, that doesn't mean I have to be the next student council president, does it? I've never even considered it."
There were still tons of anime to watch, novels to read, and games to play—who had the time to bother with the student council?
"…So you're just going to take him down and leave it at that?"
Ayanokouji paused for a moment before raising the question.
"There's still Ichinose and Katsuragi, isn't there? If they want the position, they can have it." Hikigaya couldn't care less.
"But do you think they'll be able to win everyone's approval and fulfill the student council's duties properly?" Ayanokouji pointed out sharply.
Hikigaya just rolled his eyes.
"How is that my problem? Worst case, they just become figureheads."
"…I see."
Ayanokouji was once again reminded of something he had realized a long time ago.
Hikigaya was, at his core, more willful than anyone else. He might even surpass Kouenji in that regard.
"Then what's your real goal this time? Just to weaken Nagumo's influence?"
"I want him to apologize."
Hikigaya's response was unexpected.
"An apology, huh…" Ayanokouji fell into thought.
It would definitely damage Nagumo's reputation, but it wouldn't be enough to completely crush his rule.
And more importantly, would Nagumo even agree to it?
At least from what Ayanokouji knew of his personality, he was absolutely not the type to bow his head.
But Hikigaya loved dealing with stubborn people like that.
Just thinking about what might happen next already had him in a good mood.
And when he was in a good mood, he tended to talk more.
"To be precise, I'm demanding that he hold a public reflection session and apologize to me in front of the entire school within three weeks."
"Three weeks… I see."
With that little hint, Ayanokouji quickly understood what he was planning.
He could only say—this was truly a masterpiece… And no, that wasn't an insult.
"Man, too bad Nagumo isn't you." Hikigaya sighed dramatically. "If he were, he'd know when to bend and when to stand firm. But he won't. He'll definitely hold out till the bitter end… and when that time comes, he might actually be done for."
Sometimes, a simple apology, a bow, or a sincere attitude could resolve a lot of problems.
Just look at the last guy who didn't believe in that—he almost got expelled.
Hopefully, Nagumo wouldn't make the same mistake.