"Looks like you get it now."
Hikigaya glanced at the girl across from him and spoke slowly. "Finding a witness can turn things around, but you should also realize—this witness can be anyone, except a student from D-Class."
If C-Class claimed that D-Class had found a "witness" just to protect Sudou, people would naturally doubt whether the testimony was real.
"If it had been on the first day..."
Horikita closed her eyes and sighed.
If Sakura had stepped forward when Chabashira-sensei first asked the class, her testimony would have carried much more weight. But now, with only three days left until the next hearing, suddenly bringing out a witness from D-Class would only give C-Class more reasons to question its credibility.
"So, this all goes back to the original problem. From the start, you guys were looking in the wrong direction. This case was always going to end in a stalemate where no one could convince the other. Even if you find a witness, the best you can do is reduce the severity of the punishment. Clearing Sudou's name completely? That's impossible."
Of course, if C-Class voluntarily withdrew the complaint, that would solve everything. But both Hikigaya and Horikita knew that was nothing more than a fantasy.
"So... the best outcome is getting the school to lessen Sudou's punishment and prevent him from being expelled?"
Horikita sighed, feeling a deep sense of powerlessness. "No wonder the school gave us a one-week buffer. They must have known that in the end, this would just come down to both sides making compromises."
"I get it now."
Horikita took a deep breath, then thanked Hikigaya.
"And also... about this morning, with Yamauchi and the others. I'm really sorry."
Thinking about what had happened earlier made Horikita furious. "I warned them already..."
The more she thought about it, the angrier she got. She couldn't believe how stupid Ike and Yamauchi were!
She had clearly told them that this was a trap set by C-Class, a scheme meant to divide D-Class. That's why she had warned them to forget about it. But those two idiots still fell for it—right in front of the whole class! At that moment, Horikita had almost wanted to run up and slap them both.
"Seriously, they're just two brainless monkeys!"
It was obvious that Horikita was genuinely mad. She and a few others had been working hard for the class, only for these two fools to mess everything up. Who wouldn't be angry?
Just then, Hikigaya's phone vibrated—it was a message from Kushida.
— ¶ —————————————————————
[Kushida: I found something important. Are you in your room?]
[Hikigaya: Sis-con!]
Message retracted!
[Hikigaya: No time!]
[Kushida: !!!]
"Is something wrong?"
Horikita noticed that Hikigaya had been staring at his phone for a while, so she got up, ready to leave so she wouldn't disturb him.
Hikigaya quickly nodded, but just as Horikita reached the entryway, the doorbell suddenly rang. She stepped aside, expecting Hikigaya to open the door since he was the host.
But Hikigaya didn't move.
The doorbell stopped. Just as Hikigaya was about to breathe a sigh of relief, it started ringing frantically again, like the person outside was in some kind of danger and desperately calling for help.
Horikita frowned in confusion. Hikigaya had no choice but to brace himself and open the door. As soon as he did, he saw Kushida's face. In the next second, she slipped inside quickly, complaining, "Seriously, do you have any idea how dangerous it was out there? I almost got—"
She suddenly stopped mid-sentence. The shoes she had just taken off slipped from her hands and fell to the floor as she stared in shock at Horikita inside the room, as if to say, *Why are you here?!*
Horikita looked just as puzzled, her eyes moving back and forth between Kushida and Hikigaya.
"Kushida said she had something important to talk about."
Hikigaya's expression was blank. Then he turned to Kushida.
"So does Horikita."
Kushida quickly snapped out of her shock and said, "I was actually looking for Horikita too. I didn't expect to find her here, but that works out—it saves us a lot of time."
She pulled out a magazine, saying the clue was in it. When she saw Horikita's attention shift to the magazine, she secretly breathed a sigh of relief, then used Hikigaya's laptop to open a blog page. She pointed at an image on the screen.
"Take a look at this."
As Horikita studied the image, Kushida turned to glare at Hikigaya, her expression fierce, like she was ready to tear him apart. But Hikigaya ignored her and curiously examined the blog page instead.
"A blog, huh? That's a real blast from the past. Hardly anyone remembers these things anymore—nowadays, it's all Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook."
Seeing a blog in this day and age made Hikigaya feel a bit nostalgic.
There was a time when blogs were extremely popular, but with the rise of smartphones, social media gradually shifted from PCs to mobile platforms. After Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook took over, personal blogs became a thing of the past. Almost no one paid attention to them anymore.
But the real focus here wasn't the blog itself—it was the girl in the picture.
She had a curvy figure, an energetic and cute appearance, and looked like a student model or a gravure idol. After all, many fashion and clothing magazines liked using student models, and this industry had decent prospects in Japan.
Even someone like Hikigaya, who wasn't really into this stuff, knew about some of the popular student models these days—like Mai Sakurajima, Ami Kawashima, and Kirino Kousaka. Of course, he only knew about them because of his dumb little sister. It wasn't like he had spare change to buy fashion magazines and study outfit coordination or anything.
Unlike Horikita, who didn't seem to get it, Hikigaya felt that the girl in the picture looked oddly familiar. Especially her chest… wait a minute.
"Isn't this… Sakura?"
Hikigaya stared in disbelief.
一 一 一 一 一
You can read 30 advanced chapters on
pat reon.com/GMadman
一 一 一 一 一