COTE: A Man On A Mission || Love is War?

Kamuro-san informed him that Sakayanagi was waiting at old place. It is probably cafeteria on the third floor.

Although it was quite early, some food was already on the table.

Noticing this, Hachiman immediately understood.

That’s why Kamuro-san has such a bitter and resentful expression when he is brought here.

The table is set with a barbecue today.

A few skewers of pork, seafood and chicken in a small dish are all part of Japanese barbecue.

Hachiman is more interested in meat.

“Don’t you want to eat?” He noticed that Sakayanagi was looking at him too often.

“This is all I need,” Sakayanagi’s slender white fingers held a skewer of fragrant roasted food.

“…..” Although he felt inexplicably uneasy, Hachiman still picked up the chicken skewers.

He noticed that even after Sakayanagi took her own portion, she seemed to still be staring at him.

“…”

’Is it because of voting results?’ Thinking of this, Hachiman took another bite.

“...Hmm.” However, Sakayanagi suddenly said, “You ate my food, right? Then please answer me a question.”

“• •” Suzune, who was unaware of getting robbed. That’s what you get for insulting me for not being in the same room!

“Ahem—” Hikigaya-kun almost burst out laughing. ’Sakayanagi’s chicken is not something you can just eat casually.’

“Then ask,” He had to keep a straight face.

“Totsuka Yahiko received 36 votes of criticism. I can control 38 in class, but he cannot give himself votes of praise. I know that Katsuragi-kun gave him one vote of praise. So... is this result of you giving him one vote?”

It turned out that both were going to discuss this matter.

“Isn’t this a matter of course? Although you said that Class B was going to expel Katsuragi and eliminate him, your method is a bit strange.....”

“I’m weird. How so——” Sakayanagi crossed her arms, she wanted to know.

“Take the previous Ichinose incident for example. Kamuro-san was arranged to come here before, probably hoping that I would save Ichinose. And this time, you specifically want to attack Katsuragi, but I can’t imagine what benefit I would get from protecting Katsuragi, so it shouldn’t be that you want me to save Katsuragi. In this case, proposing to expel him would be a waste of time. So I guess this might be a feint, and the person you actually want to attack is Yahiko, Katsuragi’s follower. After all, for Class B, it is very meaningful to eliminate a useless person. At least it can make the lazy students in your class more cautious.”

“I see. As expected, I can’t hide it from you,” Sakayanagi got the answer she wanted.

When she was targeting Katsuragi, no one in class suspected who she was really targeting, until they received the message she sent 10 minutes before exam today, and then everyone looked strange.

This made her very disappointed.

“Second question,” Sakayanagi nodded to herself.

But Hachiman raised his hand and said, “I have just answered a question for you, so if you want to ask another, then tell me. You tampered with my 78 votes, right? Because I have never tried to canvass for votes!”

Just like an innocent expression on his face when he answered Suzune, really had not canvassed any votes for himself, and even told Yukimura’s tutoring group they could vote to criticize him at will.

“Indeed,” Sakayanagi smiled softly, ”Yes, of 78 votes you have, 38 are from my Class B.”

Then according to Hachiman’s calculation.

His 78 votes, 30 came from students in class, and Sakayanagi herself said that number of people she could control was 38, so she could indeed get 38 votes of appreciation for him.

There is still a gap in numbers.

“It’s impossible for Katsuragi or Yahiko to vote for me. The number 38 matches, but there is still a difference in amount. You bought it from Ryuen at a high price, right?” Hachiman tried to peep a little more, knowing Ryuen directly sold tickets on the forum for 150,000 yen each.

It seemed very expensive, Sakayanagi also said that she bought it.

In other words, Sakayanagi was the victim, bought remaining 11 tickets from Ryuen’s class, excluding the 28 tickets bought by Katsuragi.

“Yes, I gave you 38 from my class and 11 from Ryuen-kun’s. Are you surprised? Actually, this is probably a return of favor. Because out of my 104 votes, you also brought me 26, right?” She said this while looking at Hachiman gently, who didn’t avoid her eyes.

Because each of them knows other is telling the truth.

In this entrance exam, although Hachiman did not campaign for himself, he did campaign for Arisu Sakayanagi.

In other words, the purpose of forming that large group of class in the first place was to get their appreciation tickets for external classes for free.

He sent a group message to them before exam began.

Let them fill in all the votes of appreciation from other classes with Sakayanagi Arisu.

In this way, although number of votes pulled in was different, each party pulled votes for the other without any notice.

It’s more like mutual insurance than a tacit understanding.

“This exam is very unusual,” Hikigaya-kun gave a formal answer.

Sakayanagi didn’t deny it, “This exam is indeed very strange. You already know my father. He is the Chairman of board of directors of this school. But before the exam, he was taken away for investigation on charges of accepting and sending bribes. Of course, I will not defend my father, but I believe he would never do such a boring thing. So my father will definitely come back. I believe so.”

“And then,” She picked up her phone and pulled out a text message, “This is an anonymous message, asking me to expel a specific person from school.”

[Expel Kiyotaka Ayanokoji from school]

It’s just a few straightforward words, and there’s no useful information to be found.

However, two of them already knew the information about Ayanokoji.

Hachiman also used him during grade-wide sports festival.

At the same time, neither side believed that Ayanokoji’s father would leave such a talented son unused and place him in Advanced Nurturing High School.

So they will definitely try every possible way to get other party out.

Therefore, almost no doubt that Sakayanagi’s father was taken away by his own, “I don’t like being ordered around!” her voice got cold.

In other words, Sakayanagi resisted because her father was taken away for investigation, and was this strange exam, and then she received an order, so she will not take any action?

Indeed, no sign of intervention in Class C.

Take the time when she was taking an exam in forest, for example.

She was bumped into by Yamauchi, and out of pettiness, she directly made a note in her grudge notebook.

Prepare to let Yamauchi fall.

“So you completely ignored this order?” Hachiman asked what’s normal in this convo, but just for the sake of it.

“Not really. Don’t you know that? I voted for myself....fufu.” She did get herself some tickets, got all 40 appreciation from Ichinose’s class.

“Ichinose-san is such a nice person. I just lent them points without interest, and they gave me votes, which I didn’t even ask for....” Those people are indeed little angels.

Hachiman did not deny it, “But you must have put forward additional conditions.....”

”As expected of you.” Sakayanagi praised him, “Indeed, I made an additional request.”

”So, as for Ryuen’s class—” Hachiman began to understand why Sakayanagi went to his class to collect tickets.

It is understandable that she doesn’t care about Katsuragi’s self-rescue at all, so she went to Ryuen to buy a ticket not for the purpose of saving herself.

At the same time.

Sakayanagi also said that she would buy 11 tickets from Ryuen and then give to him.

“Of course I paid the points. The requirements I gave him were the same as those of Ichinose-san’s class. That is, when next special exam is held, if there is a competition between classes that can be selected from each other, let both give the opportunity to me....”

’I see, you helped Ichinose and gave money to Ryuen. Even pulled the ticket to me. There is only one purpose.

Um, In other words, Sakayanagi is here to challenge me. The reason why she canvassed for me was very direct. Give me a place for dropout protection.

The exemption of one dropout is worth 20 million. Four places is worth 80. There is no way school would allow or give four students the protection from expulsion for free.

Therefore, next special exam will definitely be more dangerous, or it will definitely require the removal of protected places.

If a dangerous exam occurs, only those who have obtained the protection quota can take over.

This is layout of Arisu Sakayanagi, I will have to take reigns back in next exam.’

“By the way, is there really no problem with your father’s matter?”

“So what does Hikigaya-kun think?”

“I haven’t seen Chairman Sakayanagi for two days before the class voted to withdraw from school. Then the exit exam was announced. I noticed that head teacher was not in a good state. Later, I learned there was something wrong with exam. So, I confirm that your father has been taken away......But....” Hachiman paused.

“I’m just a student. As long as the school’s general direction and rules don’t change overnight, I don’t care......So, no matter who becomes the Chairman, as long as it doesn’t affect me, I can accept it.”

We have no power.

“Oh!” Sakayanagi nodded, motioning for him to continue.

“But we still need to confirm the situation of this new person. So, a few days ago, I specifically asked Hirata to go to Chairman’s office to borrow money to leave school. And the result was that new Acting Director was very knowledgeable and agreed to Hirata’s request......”

“Oh,” Sakayanagi’s mouth was still in its previous state, just continued to signal.

“Of course, we can’t just rely on this to confirm that Acting Director is a good person. So, I did something.....”

“One thing?”

“You asked me to meet you in the classroom before the exam, didn’t you? You were looking at camera at that time. I just remembered there were cameras in my class, and since this Acting Director was sent by Ayanokoji’s father, the target must be his son....So, around 1st when the exam rules were read out, Acting Director was supervising my class.”

“Oh....” Sakayanagi still not gave a decent response.

“Before, Acting Director arrived, someone had secretly contacted me twice, trying to make a plan for Ayanokoji to drop out of school. But the money offered by other party was too little, and I caught him in the act.....So I’m wondering about one thing......”

Tap! Tap! Tap!

“What?”

“That is, does this Acting Director really want Ayanokoji Kiyotaka to drop out? Before he arrived, it was normal for a student in 3rd grade, Class C to have no money left. But, even after his entry, spy don’t have much money. But Acting Director can just ask and lend millions of points to Hirata at will....Obviously, he has not provided a large amount of financial support to spies in the school. This makes me suspect Director may be slacking off and does not want to expel Ayanokoji immediately......”

“• ? •” Sakayanagi.

“That’s why I asked people to canvass votes for Ayanokoji this morning. It seems that I hindered their plan to expel Ayanokoji, but in eyes of Acting Director, I am still not his enemy.”

Sakayanagi understood, ’Although Hikigaya-kun is taking an exam, he also takes various aspects into consideration....Of course, what he did most was whether his treatment in this school would change due to the change of Chairman.’

’He found that Acting Director Tsukishiro did not, this is so realistic of you, Hikigaya-kun....’ Sakayanagi curled her lips instantly.

“But I think Chairman Sakayanagi should be fine,” Hachiman added just to give her some tips, “When I met him before, he said he would have a plan to deal with it.”

’Oh, so you did remind my father, right?’

“Since you have analyzed this far, I will reveal some information to you,” Sakayanagi felt like she was just taking, and not giving, it looks very rude of a noble girl like her, “Ayanokoji-kun was born in the White Room, and he is the only qualified product of that organisation. And this project was originally intended to be one of Mr. Naoes’ trump cards in the election. As you can see, Advanced Nurturing High School is a product of the government. White Room was what he hoped to use against us.....”

“But....The leader of White Room at that time was my father, in addition to Professor Ayanokoji.”

’This means both fathers used to be partners. In addition to trust, people who can cooperate with each other also need to... have something on each other’s side....So even though Sakayanagi’s father was taken away, he should have a trump card that prevents Ayanokoji’s father from touching him.....’ Hachiman was good at reading other party’s real meaning of the words.

“Besides,” Sakayanagi added, just because she felt like doing it, no one can stop her right, “Ayanokoji-kun’s father was a subordinate of Mr. Naoe, who passed away a few years ago......”

’In other words, Professor Ayanokoji’s biggest backer has fallen. The Sakayanagi family is on side of the Prime Minister, who is not dead yet and is very safe.....’ Hachiman was also reading Volume 0 now.

“I suspect that my father might have wanted to be taken away directly....First of all, it is impossible for my family to embezzle or accept bribes.....”

’The Sakayanagi family is rich. Luxury cruise ship at the school belongs to her family,’ Hachiman has no doubt left that Arisu Sakayanagi is actually a very rich loli.

“But, my father was taken away so easily. I suspect that he might have reached some kind of agreement with Ayanokoji-kun’s father,” This Sakayanagi was not a fool and ignorant like canon Arisu when it comes to family and political matters.

’This is equivalent to directly giving up the position of Chairman and letting White Room’s people come over. So is Ayanokoji simply dropping out of school? It shouldn’t just be like this. At least he won’t drop out immediately...’ Hachiman’s suspicions were correct, “Well, it’s too late now. I’ll go back first.....”

The topic has been discussed here, but that is a game between adults and has nothing to do with Hachiman.

As long as, it can make sure that Acting Director’s efforts won’t affect their current lives, it’s fine.

It was only 10 o’clock now and he had already had breakfast at 7:30, so Hachiman had no desire to continue eating.

“Please....” Sakayanagi did not force it, and watched Hikigaya-kun leave in a daze, for a second, her gaze seemed to focus on his butt, and wants to grop--

“• ! •” Arisu.....’What on earth was I just thinking?! Bad Arisu! Bad Arisu!’

xxxxxxx

I am using what we know from past volumes to make Characters aware, and what I myself understood from Reading.

Story is going to be very different from canon, and I hope you enjoy what I have prepared.

xxxxxx

Author’s Note

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