"Eh? I want to kiss too I want to kiss too! Mua~", Lala saw Iris, Lumilia and the others take turns kissing Hachiman, while she had just been kissed by Hachiman on the forehead. She immediately broke free from Iris' hand, hurriedly ran back, jumped onto Hachiman, and hugged him tightly. After kissing him several times forcefully, she jumped down from Hachiman, ran back to Iris' side in satisfaction, and waved at Hachiman.
"Hachiman, we're leaving~ Remember to think of us~"
"Geez… when class is over, remember to come find me. I'll introduce you, Lala, and the others to some of my classmates," Hachiman looked at the scheming Iris, the lively Lala, and the two sisters Aegis, Lumilia, who had succumbed to Iris' tyrannical charm, and waved his hand with a bit of amusement.
He didn't know if it was because Iris had realized how formidable Lala was. Now that Lala was backing her up, she actually had the guts to kiss him in public.
At this time, most of the disciplinary committee members were on duty at the school gate, but this wasn't exactly a secluded or uninhabited corner. Students occasionally passed by, and even now, he could see a few Sobu High girls not far away looking on with stunned and shocked expressions.
Although he didn't really care about his reputation at school, this kind of openly displaying impure heterosexual interactions was still a bit over the top. He figured Kaede would come looking to settle the score with him again once she heard about it.
Hmm... now under the benefits pressure from Iris, Kaede couldn't even tsundere properly anymore. Even when she saw him take advantage of Suzu to her face, she couldn't say anything, she could only silently endure it.
So now, if Kaede came to settle the score with him, would it be in Kaede's room, or Suzu's room? Or maybe the student council office? Tsubaki's house?
Although Rurikawa Tsubaki, as a noble, had fallen from grace, her family conditions were still pretty good. There was a mansion and maids. Now, thanks to the help from him and Iris, she'd managed to extract a large sum from the Poiman family, so her household must be quite a bit wealthier now.
Perhaps, he could find an opportunity to go to Rurikawa Tsubaki's house to do some student council or service club activities, and have the host Tsubaki play a one-day maid game with him.
Hachiman, after calming his somewhat restless thoughts from being kissed one by one by the four princesses, slowly walked toward Class 1-F's classroom.
He was a little curious whether Gabriel had really been peeking all night last night and saw something she shouldn't have, hence needing to wash her eyes or something. Otherwise, why would both she and Vignette be nowhere to be seen?
Under normal circumstances, even if Gabriel had fallen, Vignette wouldn't have, she should have gone to school with him.
"Yo!", As Hachiman was contemplating major matters between angels and demons, a voice suddenly rang out from his right side, and at the same time, a hand aimed to pat his left shoulder.
However, before the hand could land, Hachiman acted first and grabbed the sneak-attacking hand, then turned to strike at the opponent's weak point.
Moreover, after turning around and realizing that the voice and the hand had come from two different people, he moved to continue attacking the weak point of one, while switching his hold from one person's hand to grabbing the other's.
That's how powerful the passive skill "Ultra Instinct" was, his brain hadn't even thought, but his body had automatically launched offense and defense.
'Uh, wait, these two people...'
Seeing clearly the faces of the two behind him, Hachiman instinctively held back his strength, but the soft groans that followed in the next second left Hachiman speechless.
"Hikigaya-kun?", Ijichi Nijika and Kitagawa Marin were also stunned at this moment, staring blankly at the quick-reacting Hachiman and his hand.
They had seen that the Hachiman was walking alone ahead, so they just wanted to play a little prank from behind. One would speak, the other would tap his shoulder to see which side Hachiman would look toward.
But they never expected that before their hands could even land, Hachiman had already reacted warily.
They hadn't even had time to explain before Hachiman reversed and grabbed... them.
'Nijika little angel… seems not that little after all…'
'But compared to Marin, still a bit lacking…'
"Hikigaya-kun, you're not thinking something rude, are you?", As if hearing Hachiman's inner voice, Ijichi Nijika stared straight at him as he withdrew his hands from her and Kitagawa Marin, trying to spot any strange expression on his face.
"Of course not, I was just thinking. Aren't your homes not in the same direction? Why did you come to school together? What about Yumiko?",Hachiman casually lowered his hands and shook his head.
This self-indulgent passive mode that doesn't need brain thinking seems to have a bit of a problem, so the auto-counterattacking system targets people's weak points like this?
Normally it should be eye poking or throat slashing or something.
Although Ijichi Nijika and the others don't have any actual combat power, this auto-counterattack really did nullify their threat.
"…Just happened to meet. Yumiko usually comes late in the morning, only occasionally early. So Marin comes to school on her own in the morning, and wouldn't wait for Yumiko on purpose," Seeing Hachiman shift the topic, Ijichi Nijika had no choice but to pretend nothing had happened, her face flushing as she talked about Miura Yumiko.
She didn't suspect Hachiman of being deliberately mean, since their earlier prank idea was spontaneous. It could only be said that they were too careless, never expecting Hachiman to be so alert and react so quickly.
Hikigaya actually managed to react instantly during their feint, and grabbed the both of them at once.
'Ahhh!', The more she thought about it, the more embarrassing it became.
So embarrassing they didn't even dare tell Yumiko.
"Right, just now I saw Hikigaya-kun greeting Princess Iris. But didn't you say yesterday that there was only one new elf princess? Why does it look like there were two unfamiliar girls beside Princess Iris?"
Seeing both parties tacitly avoiding the earlier incident, Kitagawa Marin quickly shifted the topic, pulling the two of them along as they walked to the classroom, asking as they went.
They didn't see Hachiman getting kissed alternately by Iris and Lala, but they did see him waving at the elf princess from a distance.
As Yumiko's good friends, of course they couldn't sit idly by. They immediately went up to greet Hachiman, intending to ask about Iris and the others.
Although the way they greeted him this time was a bit awkward.
"You mean Lala and Lumilia? Actually, there was originally only one elf princess, but due to a small accident, now there's also an alien princess."
Hachiman thought for a moment, then didn't hide Lala's identity. Anyway, Lala never tried to keep it secret, and would probably blurt it out herself.
Honestly, being exposed wasn't a big deal. Lala was the number one princess of the galaxy, coming to Earth, she didn't need to hide her identity at all.
The school nurse Mikado Ryoko is also actually an alien. There should be quite a few aliens secretly hiding on Earth. According to Lala, though Earth is remote, it's known for its rich entertainment culture. It's listed as a protected entertainment planet by the Planetary Protection Agency, and is not allowed to be affected by interstellar wars. A lot of aliens have smuggled themselves here to live.
"Alien princess?"
"You really think we'd believe that?"
Ijichi Nijika and Kitagawa Marin looked at each other. They never expected Hachiman to give that kind of answer.
Suddenly talking about aliens… even if they accepted the appearance of Iris, a fantasy-world elf princess, in reality, they wouldn't just see aliens as normal.
Hikigaya actually joking about that, was that new girl a chunibyo girl? Very alien?
"If you don't believe it, just treat it as a joke," Seeing their expressions, Hachiman understood what they were probably thinking. He smiled, indicating he didn't mind.
Whether or not Lala's identity was told didn't matter. Either way, Ijichi Nijika and Kitagawa Marin couldn't blame him.
He just didn't want to make up lies for such a trivial matter. He simply told the truth. Whether they believed it or not, after they spent more time with Lala and got scared by her various absurd inventions, they'd realize how truly alien Lala was.
"Mm, anyway, Hikigaya-kun… you better not hurt Yumiko," Ijichi Nijika saw that Hachiman didn't care whether they believed him or not, so she also didn't dwell on the alien part, instead looking at him seriously.
The main point wasn't some elf princess or alien princess, it was their good friend Yumiko.
"Yeah yeah yeah, they might all be pretty, but our Yumiko isn't bad either. You better not be a two-timer."
Kitagawa Marin nodded vigorously, also putting on a stern face as she looked at Hachiman.
Though she was still thinking about learning more about the otherworldly culture from the elf princess and whether she could cosplay a real elf, compared to satisfying her cosplaying needs, of course her friend Yumiko's relationship mattered more.
"Uh… actually, Yumiko and I don't have that kind of relationship you're imagining. It's similar to my relationship with you two," Hachiman was a bit surprised seeing Ijichi Nijika and Kitagawa Marin still thought he had an improper relationship with Miura Yumiko.
Didn't Miura Yumiko explain things to them properly last night? According to his guess, Miura Yumiko shouldn't have kept secrets from these two good friends.
After all, yesterday Yumiko was misunderstood as liking him, and he didn't listen to advice and kept interacting with Yuina and the others. From Yumiko's perspective, being honest and explaining clearly to Nijika and Marin, then discussing things together, would've been the simplest and most direct approach.
"No way, Yumiko's way of talking to you is clearly different."
Kitagawa Marin didn't believe it at all. Yumiko blushing while chatting with Hikigaya looked exactly like a girl falling in love in a manga, how could that be just a normal relationship?
Even if they accidentally had a bit of an ambiguous moment with Hikigaya earlier, they knew it was just an unexpected accident, not like Yumiko's shy blushing.
"Right, I haven't seen any guy so close to Yumiko before."
Ijichi Nijika didn't believe it either. Although she didn't smell anything suspicious when she went to the bathroom at Hikigaya's house, the fact that Yumiko dragged Hikigaya into the bathroom was already suspicious.
If Yumiko had no feelings for Hikigaya, how could she be so close to him?
She even asked him to walk her home last night.
After she got home and escaped her sister's interrogation, she had shared in their group chat with Yumiko and Marin how Hikigaya beat up a molester on the train.
Fortunately, Yumiko had Hikigaya walk her home, otherwise, she couldn't guarantee she wouldn't have been the one targeted by the molester, or that she would've been safe.
With the way Hikigaya and Yumiko were, even if they weren't officially dating, they were basically already like a couple.
"Alright, alright. Since you both think so, then help me win over Yumiko. If Yumiko really falls for me, I'll treat you to a big feast."
Seeing the two of them with expressions of "Yumiko definitely likes you, and your relationship is totally deep," Hachiman shook his head helplessly, then smiled teasingly.
He wondered what Miura Yumiko's face would look like if she found out her two teammates had defected to help him capture her?
She'd probably be furious.
Hachiman, Ijichi Nijika, and Kitagawa Marin chatted and laughed as they walked into Class 1-F's classroom.
"Hikigaya-kun, good morning~ Nijika-san, good morning, and Marin too~", Ichinose Honami, who was sitting in the seat closest to the door at the back of the class, raised her hand with a smile when she saw the three walk in.
Even though she got tricked by Ijichi Nijika and the others yesterday and ended up being a traitor, Yuina and the others didn't mind too much. Just this morning, they happily made up with her and said they'd take her along next time to hang out at Hikigaya's house.
Whether or not they went to Hikigaya's house wasn't that important to her, she could get closer to him even just at school. But since Yuina and the others didn't mind about yesterday anymore, she also chose not to dwell on the minor betrayal by Nijika and Marin.
"Good morning, Honami~"
"You're early today too, Honami."
"Yeah, because Ayano's family has a car, I didn't have to wait for the train so I came a bit early. But Ayano seems a little unwell."
"Huh… that explains why she's laying on her desk so early. Do you want to take her to the nurse's office?"
"Thanks for the concern, Yuina, but I asked her and she said no, she just needs some rest."
"I see. By the way, did anything happen when little Hikigaya walked you all home last night?"
"Oh right, listen to this, we ran into Sugisaki on the train last night…"
Ijichi Nijika and Kitagawa Marin greeted Ichinose Honami, and Yuina, who had already arrived, took the chance before class started to bring Minami and Rin over to chat, also scouting the situation, trying to find out if anything special happened between little Hikigaya and Nijika, Marin before they came to her party yesterday, and whether they could be pulled into their small group.
Although Iris, Lala, and the other princesses were all friendly to them and invited them to parties, they had enough self-awareness to know they were no match for those all-rounder princess-class girls.
But they weren't without advantages, they were physically closer to little Hikigaya, and Iris and Lala weren't even in the same class as him.
If they could gather enough power within this class and make the classroom feel like home, they could definitely make little Hikigaya like them more.
Clearly, Miura Yumiko, Ijichi Nijika, and Kitagawa Marin, this normie group with both close physical proximity and a growing emotional bond with little Hikigaya, were the perfect primary targets.
If they could help Miura Yumiko and Gabriel get along, and also rope in the newly transferred Ichinose Honami, then the entire back of the classroom would be their territory.
———
Hachiman didn't participate in the girls' conversation. After saying his greetings, he went straight to his seat, put down his bag, and stared thoughtfully at the empty seat to his right.
Why hadn't Gabriel come to school?
He thought Gabriel was too shy to leave with them after accidentally witnessing something she shouldn't have seen last night. But now that Yuina and the other three had arrived, and Gabriel, who left earlier than him, still hadn't shown up.
Was she skipping school today? Or was she planning to use some divine technique like the Heaven's Step to teleport straight into class? Last night's bunny girl night must've been a bit too shocking for the little angel.
Hachiman pondered while checking the time on his phone and glanced at the classroom door.
It was still relatively early. If Gabriel was already on the train, she could still make it in time. But since she didn't leave with him, maybe she really planned to skip class.
Heaven's top little angel skipping class. Does that mean Gabriel has fallen? Why hasn't he heard the system say the mission is complete? Or does she need to fall more completely?
He remembered the mission about the angel's fall, and the reward was the Fallen Angel's Halo, a rare mission where the reward is stated before completion.
He hadn't pursued it before because he didn't want the little angel to become a slothful angel. But now, knowing that she might fall in this special way, he had to seriously consider what exactly counted as "falling." Would different types of fall affect the reward, the Fallen Angel's Halo?
After all, there are many ways to fall.
The reward, the Fallen Angel's Halo, should change depending on what kind of corrupted angel Gabriel becomes.
"Um, Hikigaya-kun, Yumiko's here."
"Hm?"
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