Ichinose Honami, who had been instructed to please Hachiman as a way to indirectly win favor with the Elven Princess Iris, was even more helpless upon hearing this news.
Another Elven Princess had appeared. If this new Elven Princess became more popular than Iris, wouldn't all her previous efforts to please Iris be wasted?
However, in a way, since even such a secretive piece of news could be learned firsthand by Hikigaya from Elven Princess Iris, maybe Hikigaya could also gain the favor of the new Elven Princess.
The real method of indirectly pleasing the Elven Princess had truly been guessed correctly by Uncle Ichinose.
"Little Hiki, after we finish eating, do you want to go play a little game at Shion's place? If it's inconvenient because of Tenma-san being next door, we can go outside instead,"
Minami hurried over to whisper in Hachiman's ear upon seeing everyone digesting the news about the new Elven Princess.
"Why go outside? Won't Tenma-san go back after we eat? We can wait until everyone leaves and then come back," Rin rolled her eyes at the clueless Minami, then also leaned down to whisper in Hachiman's ear.
"Can we sleep at your place tonight, little Hiki? If it's okay, I'll tell my family I'm staying at Yuina's house now."
"Don't rush, you two. Everyone's still here. Little Hiki isn't someone who just chases new and forgets the old, what are you worried about? At worst, we'll pull Yumiko along to stay and play with us too."
Yuina looked helplessly at her two little friends. She knew why Minami and Rin were so anxious after hearing the news of a new Elven Princess.
Because they knew that Elven Princess Iris and little Hiki had an unusual relationship. A single Elven Princess already made little Hiki skip class every day. Now with another new Elven Princess, wouldn't that mean they wouldn't see him at all in class anymore?
Club time and after-school time were already busy for little Hiki. If they couldn't even see him during class, wouldn't their relationship become even more distant?
They had only just started showing off in the gyaru group for a few days and hadn't enjoyed it for long. How could they let the Elven Princesses snatch little Hiki away.
However, they were just ordinary people. Even though they had pretty faces and decent figures, they had no confidence to compete with the noble, elegant, and high-status Elven Princesses. They could only take a different path in terms of numbers, ways to play, or other tactics.
This way of thinking wasn't necessarily wrong, but Minami and Rin were probably misunderstanding something. Little Hiki wasn't someone who easily abandoned the old for the new.
Moreover, the one truly liked by little Hiki, Tenma Gabriel, was still here and living next door.
They could just often come to play with Tenma Gabriel. If they could turn her into one of them, would they still need to worry about little Hiki being tempted away by the Elven Princesses?
However, the current situation was a bit different from before. Their "Tenma Seduction Plan" needed to be slightly adjusted to fit the new situation.
"Uh… pulling Yumiko into this? Are you sure she doesn't know about the last time you tricked her? Ijichi and Kitagawa are also here today, don't mess around," Hachiman didn't know that Yuina and the others were boldly planning a "fallen angel plan" for Gabriel. Even he didn't dare mess around for fear of being found out by Gabriel's sister Gawain, and chose to slack off so Gabriel wouldn't be able to let go of him.
But upon hearing that they wanted to drag Miura Yumiko in, he wanted to refuse.
Just teasing was fine, but Miura Yumiko didn't understand this kind of interest. Even if she found out what was going on, she would probably just hit him harder to make him feel pain.
But if it really developed into something more intimate, then he couldn't continue deceiving her.
"Hehe, don't worry. Yumiko seems to have misunderstood something, thinking we're really bullying little Hiki and wants us to stop. I bet if we invited her to 'bully' little Hiki together, she wouldn't just ignore it."
Minami chuckled secretly. She knew Miura Yumiko misunderstood, but didn't plan on explaining to her.
She never got along well with Yumiko. If it weren't for Yuina easing things between them, she would've already clashed with Yumiko. Didn't Yumiko barely talk today, and it was mainly Ijichi Nijika and Kitagawa Marin speaking?
However, if Miura Yumiko was willing to help them resist the Elven Princesses and prevent little Hiki from being seduced, then Minami didn't mind making up with her.
"Our kind of bullying isn't even that bad. Maybe Yumiko would even bring Kitagawa and Ijichi along to join us, though with their personalities, they probably wouldn't get involved, maybe even stop us."
Rin smiled too. Doing this kind of "bullying" wasn't out of the question, as long as they all insisted they were "bullying" little Hiki, then it wasn't about deceiving Yumiko anymore.
In fact, if Miura Yumiko got very proactive and little Hiki acted like he liked it, maybe Ijichi Nijika and Kitagawa Marin wouldn't be able to resist the atmosphere and half-willingly join the bullying game too.
That probably wouldn't happen. If little Hiki looked like he was enjoying it, it'd conflict with how he acted when Yumiko "bullied" him before.
"...", Hachiman.
Hearing these gyarus' ideas, even he had to admit. They really knew how to play.
They had turned bullying into some kind of intricate play, with surface-level bullying as cover, and even dragging in kind-hearted people who didn't want to "bully" him to join the game.
But thinking back to how they had all been willing to help him get handsome in various ways, he came to terms with it.
Maybe it was because his name was "Hachiman" that he attracted these three "bodhisattvas."
"Yumiko? Are you talking about Yumiko?", Kitagawa Marin, sitting on the other side of Hachiman, vaguely heard their whispers. Her bright eyes blinked in confusion as she looked at them.
Why were they suddenly talking about Yumiko?
"You're talking about me?", Miura Yumiko saw Yuina and the others whispering around Hachiman, and Hikigaya's helpless expression. She thought they were trying to bully him while Komachi and Gabriel were busy in the kitchen.
Her expression changed. Miura Yumiko suddenly stood up and walked over to Hachiman.
"Hikipegu, come with me for a moment."
She didn't wait for a reply. After glancing at Minami and Rin, who were practically glued to Hachiman, she grabbed his hand and pulled him outside.
"???"
"???"
Ijichi Nijika and Kitagawa Marin, who only vaguely knew that Yumiko had been paying more attention to Hachiman recently, were confused seeing this scene.
What was going on? Was Yumiko jealous? Did she really like Hikigaya that much?
Yuina was also a little stunned. But the next second, she looked at Minami and Rin, and the three of them covered their mouths and smiled.
Looks like the next target would be Miura.
———
Miura Yumiko pulled Hachiman out of the living room, pushed him into the bathroom, pressed him down onto the toilet lid, shut the door with a bang, folded her arms across her chest, and stared down at him from above without saying a word.
"Miura Yumiko? What do you want to talk to me alone about?", Hachiman looked at Miura Yumiko strangely. When she pulled him away, he thought Miura Yumiko wanted to stop Minami and the others from 'bullying' him.
But looking at her now didn't seem like that.
Taking him alone into the bathroom in front of everyone, doing something so easily misunderstood, and yet just staring at him without speaking, what the heck was she trying to do?
"...Hi-Penguin," After a moment, Miura Yumiko, who was staring at Hachiman, finally took a breath, ready to properly educate this useless guy.
But just as she started to speak, she was interrupted by Hachiman.
"Wait, I'm not called Hi-Penguin. Miura, can't you even remember my name?", Hachiman seriously suspected Miura Yumiko was doing it on purpose.
He sat right next to Miura Yumiko; even if they didn't talk much usually, it wasn't to the point she'd forget his name, right?
"That doesn't matter, okay! Were you threatened again by Minami and the others just now? I'm here, along with Marin and the others, and your sisters too, yet you still didn't dare to refuse the bullying?"
Seeing Hachiman still caring about such a trivial thing, Miura Yumiko wanted to really lecture him, but thinking about how he was being bullied by Minami and the others, she held back. Instead, she stomped one foot on the toilet lid, glaring fiercely down at him with frustration.
"You're really worried about me? Actually, Miura, you misunderstood. Yuina and the others and I are just playing a bullying game, not actually being bullied by them."
Hearing Miura Yumiko's harsh but actually concerned words, Hachiman couldn't help it anymore and explained helplessly.
If he didn't explain now and Miura Yumiko really thought Yuina and the others were bullying him and reported it to Hiratsuka Shizuka or the disciplinary committee, things would be even harder to handle.
"Calling her Yuina so intimately, huh? Then explain why they would play with you in that way? Were you all that close before?"
Hachiman had told the truth, but Miura Yumiko didn't believe a word, immediately questioning him.
She hadn't paid much attention to Hi-Penguin before, but this guy sat right next to her and barely interacted with Yuina or Minami. Then suddenly they were so close they were playing some bullying game...
Who'd believe that?
What kind of game is played like that? And calling it a bullying game, bullying is bullying, how can that be tied to a game?
"How should I put it... we weren't really close before, but that day at lunch Yuina used a special filter app and saw a handsome side of me. That afternoon, they followed me to the Service Club."
Hachiman looked at Miura Yumiko, who was clearly hypnotizing herself, and could only keep explaining.
"They wanted me to get rid of my dead-fish eyes, get fit, and become handsome, like I am now."
"In order to make me seriously complete their training tasks, they promised me some rewards. Some of those rewards are the kind you saw that day."
"...."
"Even more intimate things aren't out of the question."
Hachiman briefly explained how his relationship with Yuina, Minami, and Rin gradually developed, but the more Miura Yumiko heard, the more she felt he had something wrong in the head.
"You think I'll believe that? They do all kinds of things to reward you just to make you handsome?"
"What are they getting out of it?"
Miura Yumiko was speechless after hearing Hachiman's words, staring at him like he was an idiot, rolling her eyes.
"I think you've been tricked by them, right? No such good thing exists, they're just convincing you to willingly accept their bullying."
'This guy's brain must've been kicked by a horse. Being bullied by three people in turn and still calling it a reward.'
He didn't normally seem that dumb. No, he really was that dumb, or else he wouldn't ignore her advice and willingly believe those gyaru like Minami while knowing he's being toyed with.
"...Didn't you also 'play' with me before? Are you saying you weren't rewarding me, you were bullying me?", Hachiman was speechless too. Seems like telling the truth couldn't make Miura Yumiko believe him. After all, Yuina, Minami, and the others were just too sci-fi.
Even though Miura Yumiko hadn't been dragged in by Minami and the others, in another way, she was still successfully misled.
He had already clearly explained how he met Yuina and the others, almost told her every single detail about the so-called bullying games, and Miura Yumiko still firmly believed they were bullying him, thought he was being bullied and tricked.
This girl... clearly she's the one who got tricked.
"Well... that day I was also in the wrong. I was in a bad mood and thought you were annoying, so I joined them and made a mistake. But still, you too, why are you so dumb?"
"I wasn't even planning to go that far, and you still stupidly gave me no face."
Miura Yumiko, embarrassed at the mention of how she had been dragged into it that day by Yuina and the others, blushed with her cheeks burning, bit her lower lip, looked down awkwardly, and muttered.
"Anyway, I apologize for bullying you before. We'll talk later about how to make it up to you."
"Speaking of which, I already admitted I was bullying you, so why won't you believe Minami and the others are bullying you too? Just because girls didn't approach you before, doesn't mean you have to accept being bullied by them."
Miura Yumiko, who had been sincerely apologizing, couldn't hold back anymore and stared at Hachiman, who wasn't reacting at all.
His little sister Komachi had revealed his dark past of being unpopular in middle school. Since then, Hikigaya had been a gloomy, dead-fish-eyed otaku.
But weren't there two childhood friends living next door? Though they were the student council president and secretary and didn't seem close to Hikigaya at school, probably had a bad relationship.
Still, even if they were just neighbors, they were a pair of beautiful twin girls. Hikigaya couldn't be that desperate, getting close to the girls who bullied him, right?
"Then let me apologize too. I knew they were fooling you, but I still joined in to trick you and stepped on you."
Seeing Miura Yumiko, who was half-apologizing and half-criticizing, Hachiman sighed helplessly and sincerely apologized to her.
"I'll make it up to you too, but I really wasn't tricked by them."
"Yuina and the other two might not be your type, but they're good people. They wouldn't bully me. What you think is bullying is just their way of rewarding me."
"If you don't believe me, go ask Ijichi and Kitagawa outside, especially Kitagawa. She definitely knows that stepping on me that day was actually a special form of intimacy under special circumstances."
"Asking Marin? Isn't she just a foot-fetishist? It's not like I don't know. You think I'm as dumb as you?", Hearing Hachiman suggest asking Nijika and Marin about the bullying, Miura Yumiko glared at him again, folded her arms and puffed out her chest proudly, with a hint of disdain.
"You knew?"
Now it was Hachiman's turn to be stunned.
Could it be he wasn't tricked by Yuina and the others, but rather he was being played by Miura Yumiko and them all along?
"Of course. I looked it up when I got home. Though I don't know why you have such a perverted fetish, this is still bullying, okay? Three people bullying you, and you think it's a reward? If you don't listen, when they're done with you and leave, you'll be crying and I'll just laugh at you."
Miura Yumiko glanced at Hachiman, snorted coldly, turned her face away, and her flawless white cheeks flushed a deep red.
Although she really didn't understand at first, after knowing that Minami and Rin were bullying Hikigaya, and she'd gotten caught up in it herself, of course she went home and looked into how harmful this kind of thing could be for Hikigaya.
Even though she found out that among otakus this kind of fetish did exist, she still believed it was bullying.
After all, stepping on someone was inherently a humiliating act, especially when done by three people. Maybe Yuina was slightly gentler and wouldn't go too hard, but Minami and Rin would definitely stomp with force.
Even if Hikigaya liked this kind of so-called reward that was actually bullying now, once he was broken and those girls got bored and left, he wouldn't even be able to cry.
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