Author's Note: This is NOT a happy story like my other ones. It's also somewhat low on humor (unless you like it dark).

Prologue

Spring. The season of hope and opportunity. A lone high school girl heads towards her new school, wondering if she will do well, wondering if she will make friends. Then, by a twist of fate, she accidentally bumps into a boy, and thus their destinies entwine...

That was the setting of the high school romance novel I had started reading recently. The story did not really appeal to me, with its stereotypical setting and unrealistically happy characters. Nevertheless, since I too was about to begin my high school life, I figured it could at least somewhat serve as a reference. Of course, I did not actually believe that the cliche opening events of the novel would actually occur in real life. Thus I was completely unprepared when they happened almost exactly according to the script.

Almost. Unfortunately, there was a difference in one crucial detail that changed everything. While the novel protagonist was a stereotypical everyday girl from a middle-class family, I was the daughter of a wealthy politician. So unlike the novel protagonist who cheerfully jogged towards her high school while eating the bread in her mouth, I was seated in the back of a black limousine while reading the book in my hand. Thus the cliche "accidental bump of fate" in my case could be more accurately described as a terrible car accident.

Everything was covered up.

"Yukinoshita Family involved in Car Crash Incident". Perhaps to avoid such scandalous headlines, everyone involved silenced by a mixture of bribes and intimidation. I was no exception.

I was given strict orders to avoid and feign ignorance of the entire situation. The story would be that I was never in the back of that limousine, merely resting at home because I was feeling unwell. Naturally, that meant I was also forbidden to perform any investigation of the incident, so I knew almost nothing about the victim. The only clue I had was the shout of "Somebody save him!" that entered the limousine at the time of the incident, proving that it was an actual person that got hit, not the barking dog, and that the person was male.

While I was not the driver of the limousine, I couldn't deny that if I had just insisted on walking to school, this accident would not have occurred. Or better yet, chosen to study abroad instead. There was no real reason for me to attend high school anyway. All of the academic knowledge I could possibly gain from Sobu High had already been forcefully crammed into my head since I was a child. My enrollment there was nothing more than a political move to suggest that my father strongly cared for the education system. Thus I spent the rest of the school year in a daze, plagued by thoughts that I might have robbed some innocent student of his future.

In my second year of high school, my behavior caught the attention of the school's guidance counselor Hiratsuka-sensei. Following her suggestion, the service club was established. If I had harmed a high school student, then I should make up for it by helping other high school students resolve their problems. The logic was shaky at best, but since I had no better alternative, I accepted.

The first request of the service club was about a second-year male student with dead fish eyes. Apparently, his corrupted personality was causing problems, so Hiratsuka-sensei dragged him to the service club with a request to reform him. After introducing himself as Hikigaya Hachiman, he proceeded to deny having any problems, despite the large amounts of cynicism and pessimism oozing out from his very being.

The first step to solving a problem is acknowledging its existence. Thus what I had to do seemed simple enough: honestly point out his flaws until he admits them. Considering how much trouble he was getting into because of his personality problems, I figured it would be impossible for him to continue to stay in denial for long. Thus I focused more on the second request.

Unlike Hikigaya, the second request was about a student who was dangerously incompetent in just about everything. Yuigahama Yui was on academic probation, and appeared to have difficulty following even simple instructions. To make matters worse, she had low self-confidence and motivation. After failing just once at a simple task, she had already convinced herself that she had no talent and gave up.

In this case, Hikigaya existence turned out to be somewhat helpful. By revealing how pathetic he was, he convinced Yuigahama that plenty of people were even worse than she was, thus boosting her self-confidence. However, this was not a long-term solution, since her skills did not actually improve. Since she was unlikely to even graduate at this rate, I resolved myself to helping and encouraging her to study, and pushed Hikigaya's issue to the back of my mind.

Since then, from time to time, I could hear Hikigaya muttering strange things under his breath such as "there are three people here, but I am still alone". Nevertheless, I ignored them since Yuigahama seemed to be in much more desperate need of help.

Then it happened.

On an otherwise normal day, when I headed to the service club room with Yuigahama, we found that a suspicious individual was already inside the room. He was facing out the open window, with his back towards the door where we were standing. While quietly muttering to himself, he waved his arms about dramatically as if he was performing an amateurish imitation of a conductor in front of an orchestra.

Since this unknown intruder who was now emitting a disgustingly creepy laugh could be dangerous, we decided to observe a little longer instead of entering the room. However, it seemed he had noticed us. Without any warning, the air around him suddenly changed to something more familiar, and he immediately ran up to us and asked "What are you doing?"

In shock, Yuigahama screamed, but I had figured out the identity of the intruder. "Hikigaya-kun... you surprised me. Could you not suddenly call out to us like that?"

In response, he gave a short apology and repeated his question.

"There was someone suspicious in the club room," Yuigahama said while staring at Hikigaya with blaming eyes.

"You two are the suspicious ones here."

We were only acting suspiciously because he was acting suspiciously in the service club room! Instead of his normal attire, he was now wearing a long brown coat, fake glasses, and finger-less gloves. While Hikigaya normally performed all actions lethargically according to his "to work is to lose!" motto, earlier he was prancing about energetically as if he was a completely different person. Was he deliberately trying to provoke us by calling us the suspicious ones instead?

"Enough. Just go in and explain this new persona."