"Horikita-san, your angle of understanding is quite peculiar."
"I had no so-called plan for expelling Haruki Yamauchi. I wanted to expel him, so I expelled him."
Looking at Suzune Horikita's gaze, which carried a hint of scrutiny, Subaru smiled faintly and said, "However, you can interpret my motives however you like. As long as you don't end up like Haruki Yamauchi, nothing will happen to you."
As long as they didn't disturb him, Subaru didn't care who was behind him or how many people spoke ill of him. Or even how dissatisfied they were with him.
From the very beginning, if they didn't appear in his line of sight or catch his attention, he naturally wouldn't be affected by them.
"Is that so?"
Horikita nodded, showing no expression of surprise.
It wasn't her first day chatting with Subaru; she understood his usual behavior all too well. Only in a place like this, where attending class was mandatory, would Subaru pay any attention to you. At any other time or place, Subaru wouldn't waste a second more on you.
"Although you keep saying 'whatever,' I believe all your actions contain a strong sense of purpose, Natsuki."
"In the two incidents involving Haruki Yamauchi and Airi Sakura, you had your own intense objectives."
Horikita pursed her lips.
She did not agree with Subaru's explanation, nor would she change her mind just because of a few words from him. Five million—perhaps even more now—personal points. The events involving Sakura and Yamauchi had proven one thing: her elder brother, Manabu Horikita, had an accurate eye.
Subaru was a person possessing abilities far beyond the ordinary.
Since asking directly wouldn't yield the answer she wanted, Horikita decided to approach from the side. Although she hadn't had much interaction with Subaru recently, and even their occasional exchanges lacked information density, she still had some takeaways.
"Natsuki, you who feel that everything is somewhat meaningless and boring, conversely display a level of action higher than normal people when it comes to things that are genuinely interesting and amusing."
"Haruki Yamauchi, Airi Sakura... as well as Kikyo Kushida, Hiyori Shiina, and even myself."
Last week, Horikita had gone to see Airi Sakura.
From Sakura, she learned the general course of events. Combining that with the fragmented details Subaru had displayed previously, and finally adding the insignificant hints from Kiyotaka Ayanokoji, Horikita had roughly constructed the framework of Subaru's behavioral logic.
"At the start of school, you, Natsuki, who were uninterested in everything, were willing to spend a considerable amount of personal time setting up a scheme with Kikyo Kushida."
"Just to make Kikyo Kushida engage in the act of so-called 'making friends' with me."
"Every day, when there was nothing else to do, you would go to the library to read with that girl named Hiyori Shiina, and eventually, you even went on a date with her."
"Myself, Kikyo Kushida, Hiyori Shiina—none of us made you feel bored, right?"
Horikita's meaning was expressed very clearly.
In fact, Subaru's logic of action over these past two months was quite obvious. Inherently, Subaru had never thought of hiding these things, so with Ayanokoji's assistance, it took Horikita nearly a month to finally make a rough observation.
What was the source of Subaru's capacity for action?
Watching Horikita analyze everything so logically, Subaru glanced at Ayanokoji, who was sitting in front of him.
Based on Subaru's understanding of Horikita, if not for some external interference and assistance, she likely wouldn't have discovered these things, even if he had never concealed them. Horikita was extremely stubborn and paranoid; normally, it was very difficult for her to change her views.
"Hmm..."
"Although there is a slight deviation... overall, there isn't much of a problem."
Subaru's interest in Horikita wasn't high. Otherwise, he wouldn't ignore her most of the time. It was mainly because Horikita always liked to ask nonsense.
If not for that, Subaru wouldn't mind chatting with Horikita, at least during lunch. for instance, he didn't resist Arisu Sakayanagi sitting in front of him during meals.
"Me, Kikyo Kushida, Hiyori Shiina—each of our personalities and hobbies are not connected."
"Therefore, the points that interest you are also different, right, Natsuki?"
Seeing that Subaru did not deny her analysis, a trace of joy flashed through Horikita's eyes.
After such a long time, she had finally made some progress with Subaru. Since she now understood that herself, Kikyo Kushida, and that girl from Year 1, Class C named Hiyori Shiina all had aspects that attracted Subaru, the remaining matters would surely be simple.
Hiyori Shiina was not familiar to her and wasn't easy to contact, but Kikyo Kushida was different.
Whenever there was an opportunity, Kushida would come over to Horikita's side to strike up a conversation. Horikita had been annoyed by Kushida for a long time. But now...
Horikita looked at the front of the classroom, at Kushida who was negotiating with Sae Chabashira, and seemed deep in thought.
Thinking about it this way, it wasn't impossible to deepen her communication with Kushida. She just needed to figure out why Kushida wanted to 'make friends' with her so badly and what her true purpose was. Then, Subaru's logic of action could be straightened out.
Of course, she could also consider making contact with Hiyori Shiina. The person who truly spent the most time with Subaru was Hiyori.
" broadly speaking, there are no issues."
"So, Horikita-san, analyzing the motive and being able to influence or utilize that motive are completely different things."
Subaru didn't mind Horikita's behavior, nor did he dislike it.
Just like Kakeru Ryuen from Year 1, Class C before, who basically stated outright that he was targeting him—Subaru himself didn't care. It didn't matter.
Now, Horikita's behavior wasn't much different from Ryuen's. Both made no secret of their goals, operating directly in front of Subaru's face.
For such people, Subaru's patience was significantly higher. To draw a comparison, take Arisu Sakayanagi and Haruki Yamauchi, both of whom had been taken down by Subaru.
After taking down Sakayanagi, the matter passed and was done with. With Yamauchi, it was harder to let pass.
It was only the legal society that saved Yamauchi, and even the highly monitored environment of this school. In the end, Yamauchi only ended up expelled. If this were society outside...
If someone went missing or died due to an accident, it would be impossible to trace it back to Subaru. Relying on the ability to 'rollback,' as long as he wasn't in a school like this that restricted his range of activity to death, Subaru could achieve a true perfect crime.
Therefore, Subaru didn't dislike Horikita's straightforward nature. Even if she accidentally disturbed him, he would just flip a coin; he wouldn't chase her down to kill her.
"I will be able to analyze the motive very soon."
Looking at Subaru, whose expression hadn't changed much from beginning to end, Horikita took a slight deep breath and said, "And after analyzing the motive, wanting to utilize it won't be a difficult task."
Horikita made up her mind in her heart. Soon, she would know why her brother, Manabu Horikita, thought so highly of Subaru. Even though Subaru had already displayed many quite astonishing things.
"Hehe, you've made me look forward to it a little."
"If you can truly understand what I want, Horikita-san."
Subaru chuckled softly.
The morning classes ended quickly.
The students of Year 1, Class D had to accept a despairing fact: despite a month of painstaking effort, and even obtaining the exam answers leading to very high average scores, they ultimately had zero point income because of Haruki Yamauchi's expulsion.
However, due to the Yamauchi incident, while Subaru was still in the classroom, no one said anything superfluous, aside from casting slightly strange glances at him. Let alone leading a charge against Subaru like Yamauchi had done before.
It was only after Subaru left the classroom that Year 1, Class D began to discuss in hushed tones. They expressed dissatisfaction with Subaru's behavior one after another, feeling that he was too heartless and didn't consider the class.
Since he was the reason the whole class had no personal point income, he should at least take out some personal points to compensate them... Of course, this was only discussed quietly behind his back.
Even without personal point income, this was much better than outside schools, and no one wanted to drop out of this academy.
After Subaru left, Horikita also began her own move.
"Ayanokoji, do you know anything about Kikyo Kushida?"
"At the start of the school year, you cooperated with Kushida to specifically invite me to meet at the cafe."
Horikita placed her gaze on Kiyotaka Ayanokoji and said, "It's impossible that you know nothing, right?"
"I don't really know much about Kushida-san."
Looking at Horikita, who almost carried an interrogating attitude, Ayanokoji spoke faintly, "It was just that Kushida-san specifically requested it of me at the time, saying she wanted to be friends with you very much, Horikita-san, and begged me to invite you out no matter what."
"As for what Kushida-san herself is actually thinking, I'm not clear either."
"Moreover, ever since I started acting together with you, Horikita-san, I seem to have been labeled as untrustworthy by Kushida-san. She rarely contacts me anymore."
Ayanokoji wasn't completely unaware of Kushida's goal. He couldn't say he understood it extremely well, but he had some ideas about why Kushida wanted to make friends with Horikita.
However, Horikita herself completely failed to realize this, so Ayanokoji felt no necessity to explain. He just wanted to appear a bit more ordinary. If he did too many things, his performance wouldn't be so ordinary.
"If that's the case, then there's no helping it."
Horikita nodded, said nothing more, and stood up directly.
Under Ayanokoji's somewhat speechless gaze, Horikita walked straight up to Kikyo Kushida. Looking at the somewhat surprised Kushida, she said, "Kushida, let's exchange contact information."
"Eh?"
"Horikita-san?"
Kikyo Kushida was still comforting the classmates around her and hadn't noticed Horikita's series of movements at all. Seeing Horikita suddenly appear in front of her wanting to exchange contacts, she was somewhat surprised and wary.
Horikita's personality was quite easy to understand. Kushida could guarantee almost one hundred percent that Horikita being so proactive with her right now meant she definitely had a use for her later.
"Kushida, didn't you want to make friends with me?"
"Since we are to be friends, exchanging contact information should be very normal, right?"
Horikita looked at Kushida, who seemed not to have reacted for a moment, and said somewhat seriously, "Or is it that you no longer want to be friends with me, Kushida?"
"Eh?!"
"Of course I want to become friends with you, Horikita-san."
'What the hell is this bitch Horikita up to?'
'Forget it, she just wants to ask me for some information. Just as well...'
Kushida maintained an angel-like smile on her face and said, "Here, this is my number."
'Horikita... compared to searching for Subaru's motives, what you need more right now is knowing how to negotiate and make friends with people normally.'
Ayanokoji could deeply appreciate why Horikita's brother treated her that way.
There were simply many things where Horikita wouldn't listen. If nothing unexpected happened, after adding Kushida's contact, Horikita would soon tell Kushida her thoughts directly and then ask Kushida to cooperate with her.
She never considered other possibilities.
'Ah... it feels like being ordinary isn't as comfortable as I imagined either...'
Ayanokoji looked at the scenery outside the window and sighed in his heart.
Meanwhile, Subaru had already arrived at the cafeteria.
As usual, he found an empty seat with his tray and sat down, preparing to quickly enjoy lunch and then go to the library to read with Hiyori Shiina.
Then, several male students who seemed to have clear intentions sat down beside Subaru.
'Hmm?'
Subaru raised his head slightly and looked at the surrounding seats; there were plenty of empty spots.
Normally, it would be impossible to specifically sit at a table like his that was already occupied, yet these guys deliberately sat next to him...
The situation was very obvious.
"Year 1, Class C?"
Looking at the three people before him, Subaru smiled gently.
___
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