("I don't know."
Ayano shook her head, her face filled with genuine helplessness and panic. Fearing that Kuchiba Hiro might think she was lying, she hurriedly explained, "The ark's location is top secret. Until it's fully built and activated, no one knows its exact location except for a handful of core personnel. My husband... he was only responsible for surface-level work and isn't aware of its precise location."
Kuchiba Hiro listened quietly; his special ability allowed him to clearly sense that Ayano wasn't lying at this moment.
He stopped questioning her, as if he wasn't surprised by the answer. He straightened up, no longer looking at the kneeling Ayano, but walked over to a nearby sofa and sat down quietly. Like a predator lying in wait, he began to patiently await the arrival of the final target of his trip: Yota Yukinoshita.
A "fair" plan for revenge had already quietly taken shape in his mind.
A suffocating silence fell over the living room. Ayano remained in her kneeling position, head bowed, not daring to make any extra movements, as if any motion would shatter this fragile balance and invite destruction.
Time passed, minute by minute.
Finally, deep in the hallway, a door was cautiously pushed open a crack. Two heads peeked out timidly—it was the sisters, Yukinoshita Haruno and Yukinoshita Yukino. They were clearly terrified by the commotion and the loud noise from earlier; their small faces were pale and their eyes were filled with fear, but their deep concern ultimately outweighed their terror, prompting them to step out.
When they saw the clear handprint on their mother's cheek, her disheveled hair, and her submissive kneeling posture, shock and heartache were instantly written across their small faces.
"Mama!" Yukino couldn't help but cry out in a low voice.
"Go back! Who told you to come out!" Ayano suddenly looked up, her voice urgent and stern, her eyes filled with panic. Her greatest fear was involving her daughters in this dangerous vortex.
"But... Mama, your face..." Haruno was slightly older; she tightly gripped her younger sister's hand. Although she was also trembling with fear, seeing her mother's injury, she stood her ground stubbornly, refusing to retreat to the room.
"I'm fine! Be good, go back now!" Ayano's voice carried a plea.
"No! We're not going back!" Yukino looked at the injury on her mother's face, tears welling in her eyes, but she stood tall, showing her persistence.
This brief and oppressive dispute between the sisters and their mother was filled with fear, yet it faintly revealed the bond of mutual care between family members.
All of this was coldly observed by Kuchiba Hiro sitting on the sofa. He was like a detached spectator, his face devoid of any expression, as if the scene unfolding before him was merely a silent play that had nothing to do with him.
Yukino took a deep breath, forcing down the fear in her heart. She knew that her own and her sister's strength was negligible, but she couldn't stand by and watch her mother suffer alone. Her mind raced, thinking of any possible way to defuse the crisis.
She looked at Kuchiba Hiro, this unfamiliar classmate, naively thinking that perhaps... perhaps she could use this weak "classmate" connection? Although she knew the idea was far-fetched, it was the only point of contact she could think of with this terrifying being.
She summoned the greatest courage of her life, broke free from her sister's hand, and walked step by step toward Kuchiba Hiro, who sat there like an iceberg. With every step, her heart hammered like a drum.
She stopped a few steps away from Kuchiba Hiro. Looking at the quietly seated boy, her voice carried a trace of trembling that was hard to detect, yet she tried her best to maintain her composure: "You... you killed Hachiman Hikigaya."
In her heart, there was anger over Hachiman Hikigaya's death, fear of her own situation, and an uncontrollable resentment toward the murderer before her. But at this moment, these emotions were suppressed by the instinct for survival and concern for her mother; she did not let these intense feelings show.
Kuchiba Hiro didn't even lift an eyelid, maintaining his previous posture as if she were just a puff of air.
Seeing that he ignored her, Yukino grew anxious. She tried to bring up the "logic" she had learned from books and school: "Hatred... hatred solves nothing! It only brings more pain! Let go of your hatred, and maybe... maybe we can find a better solution?"
She even tried to build rapport by mentioning a past event: "Before... Ms. Hiratsuka Shizuka once brought you to the Service Club. She hoped you could make friends... We were..." She wanted to say "We welcomed you then," but the words felt hollow as they reached her lips.
This event also brought up a long-standing doubt, and she asked it, revealing a subconscious desire to understand him: "Back then... why did you just leave after taking one look at us?"
Kuchiba Hiro, who had been silent all along, finally reacted.
He slowly turned his head, those cold eyes landing officially on Yukino for the first time. There was no warmth in them, only a scrutiny that bordered on cruel.
"Because the moment I laid eyes on you," he said, his voice flat but carrying a bone-chilling coldness, "I knew you were all psychos."
Yukino was stunned; this answer was far too unexpected.
Ignoring her reaction, Kuchiba Hiro continued in his monotone, spitting out words as sharp as knives:
"Living in fantasies woven by education, living in perfect frameworks built by books, almost completely isolated from the real world, like flowers in a greenhouse that have never experienced wind or rain." A faint trace of mockery curled at the corner of his mouth. "You actually dared to use the slogan 'Better to teach a man to fish than to give him a fish'? So arrogant that it looks fake at a glance—not even as good as a third-rate con artist. At least con artists know to stick to reality."
His words, like venom, began to spread, mercilessly splashing onto the people and things Yukino held dear:
"And that boyfriend of yours, Hachiman Hikigaya?" He sneered. "Just an egocentric fool whose head is filled with nothing but self-pitying delusions. He treats loneliness as depth and escapism as wisdom—he's just a spineless coward."
"You people..." His gaze swept over the pale Yukino and Haruno, who was watching tensely from not far away. "You actually listened to Hiratsuka Shizuka and played a game of house centered on 'helping others' and 'mutual understanding' in that tiny clubroom? Her? Hiratsuka Shizuka..."
The disdain in his tone grew stronger. "A teacher who hasn't even changed jobs, whose life trajectory is almost entirely predictable at a glance—how could she possibly teach you what the real world is like? The 'world' she knows is nothing more than a beautified, simplified bonsai within the high walls of a campus."
Finally, he fixed his gaze back on the slightly trembling Yukino. The contempt in his eyes almost solidified as he spoke maliciously, looking at her like she was trash:
"And you, Yukinoshita Yukino."
"Just how thirsty, how devoid of self-respect, and how lacking in taste are you," he said each word slowly, as if to carve them into her heart, "to have fallen for someone like Hachiman Hikigaya?"
"Unnoticed at home and lacking a sense of presence, so you wanted to find a man far inferior to yourself out there? To find that pathetic sense of superiority from him, just to show off your insignificant 'talent' and 'value'?"
"Pitiful. Miserable. Ridiculous."
Yukino felt as if she had been struck by lightning, frozen in place. Every word from Kuchiba Hiro was like a precise scalpel, peeling away the shell of pride she worked so hard to maintain, stabbing directly into her deepest, most secret thoughts and vulnerabilities that she herself was unwilling to face.
She wanted to retort, to loudly denounce his slander, but her lips trembled, and she found herself unable to find any forceful words to fight back. Because of the recent string of events, she finally understood some things... certain parts of his words had shamefully struck a chord with the hidden doubts and anxieties she was unwilling to admit about herself, Hachiman Hikigaya, and even the activities of the Service Club.
Humiliation, anger, grievance, and a hint of panic at being seen through intertwined, turning her face deathly pale and making her body sway. The logic and relationships she had originally intended to use to "persuade" him appeared so pale and weak, so... naive.)
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