A/N: Lots of people wanted Iroha, someone asked for Komachi/Iroha, and some brave soul remembered Kawasomething-san. Alright, I'll incorporate them somehow... in my next arc. For now, I'm starting a little arc which will span two-three chapters, featuring one of my favorite side-characters. Can you guess who it is?

Story 2.1: Today, Yuigahama Yui will do her best as well

-0-

When confronted with an insurmountable problem, what is the proper response?

If you were to ask a normal person, he would, without fail, reply, "I will do my best!"

This is because the ethos of the modern man is rooted in the belief, echoed many years ago by the suffragettes: "We can do this!"

The belief that fuels this absurd statement, of course, is simple: with hard work and determination, humanity is capable of achieving any feat. Inevitably, this will be followed up with a list of achievements mankind has achieved, such as the airplane or the first man on the moon. (On a related note, why do we love to quote these achievements as mankind's finest? Is it because for one shining moment we delude ourselves into thinking we have touched the heavens?)

In any case, I find these thoughts laughable. While it is true that humanity as a whole has achieved many impressive feats, the sordid truth beneath the glamour and success are the corpses of failures, humans who dreamed to reach the skies or the stars, all of whom died or failed in the quest. If, in fact, hard work and determination were the key to success, why is the path to the moon littered with the corpses of astronauts? Did they just not work hard enough?

If we think about it this way, then Neil Armstrong's success is built on top of innumerable corpses, whose names have been lost to time. If we were to imagine the goal as the top of a mountain, Neil Armstrong only made it through the top thanks to the many people who have died on the way to show him the correct path.

Are we to laugh at their 'hard work' and 'determination'? Surely, these people also gave their best effort, considering many of them were willing to die for the sake of their goal. But doesn't that contradict the idea that doing your best will inevitably lead to success?

If you ask me, blind optimism in the idea of hard work is dangerously naive. To work hard does not guarantee success; if anything, 90% of the time you are simply the stepping stone for some other creature's success. If that is the case, is it not true that failing is actually a desirable action? If you fail, you are helping someone who will come after you succeed. Is there anything as noble as using your own body as a bridge so that someone else may use it to cross that insurmountable chasm?

Therefore, I conclude: to work is to lose, and to work hard is to lose hard. Probability suggests that your hard work will never amount to anything. In that sense, isn't it more prudent to save your energy and lose gracefully, so that some other person may pick up your slack? After all, for 90% of the populace, to try hard is simply to uselessly struggle against reality.

If so, when faced with an insurmountable problem, my reply would be: I'd rather go to sleep.

Still... doesn't it make you feel bad when hard work doesn't pay off?

-0-

When I arrived at the club room, I was greeted by the sight of Yuigahama Yui, alone.

She had her elbows on top of the table, her hands supporting her chin as she slightly leaned forward. Her, err, chest was squished on top of the table, and try as I might I could not help but notice the top button of her blouse unbuttoned, inviting me to look at what lay beneath them. One of these days, I have to warn Yuigahama not to do this in front of me, I thought.

Her eyes were half-closed, as if she were asleep, but on further inspection, I could see she was wearing incredibly pink earphones connected to that giant brick of a phone that she used, which was lying in front of her on the table. She was quietly humming along, her body swaying to and fro to the rhythm of music I didn't know; she was also tapping her foot, like she was playing the drums. Since I wasn't up to date on my popular music, I had no idea what song she was listening to, and honestly, I probably wouldn't have liked it.

Yeah, that's right, Yuigahama's a normal girl, huh? She listens to music too. Of course she was, why am I thinking these things?

Come to think of it, I had never asked her what she listens to, hadn't I?

I grabbed a seat and dragged it to my end of the table, wondering if Yuigahama would notice, but she was still engrossed in her music. I could hear faint sounds coming from her earphones, and it sounded like a female's voice. Hey, could you at least invest in earphones that don't leak out sound? You don't want to bother people nearby, after all.

For example, I always made sure my own earphones were soundproof.

When it became clear that Yuigahama wouldn't notice my presence (a fact that Yukinoshita would have gladly made use of to make fun of me), I cleared my throat, as if to cough. This wasn't a thing that I used often, since most of the time I didn't want to engage in conversation in the first place, but I didn't want Yuigahama and I to just ignore each other.

At first, Yuigahama seemed not to notice my noise, but she slowly opened her eyes and looked at my direction. She was still humming and swaying to some imaginary beat as she craned her neck and looked at me, slightly in a daze. I could almost hear the gears in her brain rumbling, trying to recall where she was and who she was looking at.

"Ah...oh! Hikki! Yahallo!"

Yuigahama had removed her earphones and greeted me, waving her arms in an exaggerated fashion.

"Yo, Yuigahama. You're alone today?"

Yuigahama nodded. "Yeah, when I got here, Yukinon wasn't here, so I borrowed the key from Hiratsuka-sensei. Did you just get here?"

"Sort of," I replied. I didn't want to tell her I had been staring at her for a full five minutes now. "Class duty took a bit of time to finish, considering who I was paired with."

"That's right, you were with Sagami-chan, right?" Yui asked, tilting her head to the left. "Um, how was she?"

"Same old, same old. She was pretty much ignoring me the whole time, so it felt like I was working alone. Well, not that I'm unused to it, but it felt weird this time since I could feel her staring daggers at my back."

Due to a variety of factors, Minami Sagami hated me. A big part of this was the events of the Cultural Festival a few months back, and it seems like she still hasn't forgiven me for that. After all, you don't just verbally insult a fellow student and call her out on her bullshit minutes before she's set to deliver a big speech in front of the largest crowd she'd probably ever face.

Since that day our relationship was, well, icy, to put it mildly.

"Still, I'm used to being shunned by my classmates, so this is fine." I let out a derisive laugh.

Yuigahama's shoulders slumped. "Oh... I thought Sagami-chan had forgotten all about you... sorry 'bout that, Hikki."

Now, why are you apologizing for her? It's not like you did anything wrong in the first place, right? Everything there was my call.

"Well, what's done is done. Putting that aside, Yuigahama, what were you listening to? You were really into it."

"Huh? Oh, this? I was listening to this cute artist..."

Yuigahama began talking about some up and coming female singer. Honestly, I hadn't heard of her, but it turns out she was becoming more popular with female high schoolers. Miura, who was Yuigahama's friend from our class, had recommended she listen to them, so that was what she was doing now.

"Truth be told, I'm not all that interested in the first place, but is this the kind of music you're into, Yuigahama?" I asked.

"Well, I'm not exactly big on any kind of music." Yuigahama replied. "I'm willing to try out any artist once, and I, like, don't have any preferences, y'know?" She said all this while scanning something in her phone - probably mails from her friends - before turning to me. "How 'bout you, Hikki? Whatcha listening to?"

Setting aside how she was starting to use more contractions, Yuigahama certainly knew how to keep a conversation flowing. I had asked her what kind of music she listened to purely to satisfy my own curiosity, and despite not actually having any intense interest in music she was able to field the question in a way that allowed her to reply and return the question to me. Maybe I'm just overthinking it, though...

"W-well... I have interests, sure, but knowing you, you've probably never heard of them before...?" I looked away, scratching my nose and chuckling nervously. Obviously, I couldn't tell her most of the playlist in my smartphone were anime songs and the occasional band. In terms of musical taste, I was hopelessly outdated.

Yuigahama pouted. "Geez, Hikki, that's a really vague answer. Just what kind of things do you listen to...?" She went "Hm..." for a second before a light bulb seemingly flashed in her head. "Don't tell me you listen to... that?"

What the hell is that? And why does it sound like you're so grossed out, Yuigahama?

"Y-you know! Those weird things where the people talking go nyaaa and make weird sounds with their throats and squeal like little girls..."

"Um, that sounds weird, definitely. Where the hell did you hear about that stuff, and why the hell are you assuming I'd listen to that?"

"Doesn't Chuuni give you that kind of stuff regularly?"

"Chuuni," by the way, was an acquaintance of mine, Yoshiteru Zaimokuza.

"I-I overheard some otaku in class talk about it!" Yuigahama defensively waved her hands in front of me, liking trying to wipe a whiteboard clean with a rag.

"Are you trying to say I'm into the kind of gross things they're into?"

"No, no, not at all! I just, ah, said the first thing that came to my mind!" Yuigahama's voiced lowered near the end. "I have no idea what you listen to, after all..."

While I should have been more offended that Yuigahama immediately associated me with the kind of gross things Zaimokuza would listen to, what she said was fundamentally true. We did have no idea what the other person listened to. And while I had a vague idea, I didn't know what Yuigahama did in her free time. After all, I wasn't the kind of person who normally talked about these things.

And yet, when I saw Yuigahama upon entering the club room, my first thought was that I wanted to know what she was listening to.

"I guess you're right. You do have no idea what I normally listen to, or my hobbies, or whatever. And the same is true for me." I placed my left elbow on the table and leaned forward. For the most part, whenever Yuigahama starts talking, I usually just brushed her off.

"That's because you keep ignoring me, Hikki! I always ask you these kinds of stuff!" Yuigahama energetically replied. "But you always brush me off, 'cause you're reading your novels or eating a cookie or something!"

"Well, you're always so busy chatting up Yukinoshita, you know." I replied, a little embarrassed at my behavior. "It always feels wrong butting in the conversation, like I shouldn't be there."

It was like entering the classroom in the middle of a teacher's lecture. You were hopelessly out of touch with what he was saying, and everyone's eyes were on you. Because of that, I had mastered the power of not being noticed whenever I left or entered the classroom. It felt wrong to enter in the middle of a conversation, you know?

Yuigahama looked me with those troubled, puppy-dog eyes. "That's not it, you know...? I want to talk to Yukinon and you..."

"Well... the fault is on my side, I guess... for not playing along... maybe?" I lamely offered.

The fact of the matter is, there was no way I could interrupt a conversation between those two girls, as awkward and halting as their conversation can be at times. After all, what could I talk about when they talked about typically girly stuff? That was why I always had my smartphone or a book in hand, so I could at least pretend I was doing something else. That's another one of the loner skills I had acquired, by the way.

"Hikki..." Yuigahama began to say, but her voice quivered for a moment. She wanted to say something, but stopped herself. Her hands curled up in a ball and went up to her chest, as if trying to contain something that wanted to explode from beneath her chest. "You know you could always join in, right?"

I... didn't think I could.

I looked away from Yuigahama, whose face was looking more and more troubled by the second. I couldn't bear looking at her, with her small lips trembling slightly, seemingly preventing emotion from escaping.

In that moment I was forced to realize that she looked so vulnerable, like a lost dog. I felt something cold creep into my chest, wrapping around my heart, as I looked at her forlorn, sorrowful face.

I mentally cursed myself for making her feel this way. Yuigahama shouldn't be the type of person who was troubled, or overcome with negative emotions; it didn't suit her. If anything, a smiling face suited her better. She was the kind of person who should be laughing without a care in the world.

She...

...looks more beautiful when she smiles.

Trying to pass it off as nonchalantly as possible, I said to nobody in particular, "Well... honestly, most of what I listen to are audiobooks."

"Audio...books?" Yuigahama asked. I dared not look at her yet; I didn't know if I could take it.

"They're, ah, recordings of people reading books." I explained. "Sometimes, the author reads it, or sometimes, a famous actor or whatever." I took out my smartphone and turned towards Yuigahama to show my collection. Thankfully, Yuigahama's face had eased up. "Here, check it out."

I handed her my smartphone, and Yuigahama quickly started scanning through my files. I realized she probably could have looked at my songs, but at this point I couldn't care less anymore.

"I see... Hikki, are these kind of like those CDs that have recordings of textbooks?"

"Oh, you mean like those recordings that teach you lessons while you sleep? Stuff like foreign languages? Yeah, I guess there's a similarity."

Yuigahama nodded, satisfied by my lackadaisical explanation. "I get it! This is pretty interesting, Hikki!" She was beaming at me now, erasing the chilling sensation in my chest. "I kind of want to try these out now! They might make reading novels waaaaaay more easier, don't you think?"

I chuckled at her suggestion. "Yuigahama, in the first place, you'd need to improve your literacy rate to be able to follow these audiobooks. Otherwise you'd just doze off in the middle of it and wake up realizing you're halfway through the novel already."

"W-what?! Don't you trust me, Hikki?!"

I laughed again as Yuigahama fumed at me, indignant at my remarks about her literacy (or lack thereof), before realizing I actually had something to give to Yuigahama. I grabbed my bag and rummaged through its contents until I found the book I was looking for.

"Yuigahama. Here." I handed the slightly used book to Yuigahama, who looked at me, bewildered.

"Eh? What's this, Hikki?"

"Well... you wanted to borrow this, right?" The book I handed to her was The Catcher in the Rye.

For a brief moment I felt that she had no idea what I was talking about, and I had a sinking feeling that she had forgotten all about our mail exchange last night. Thankfully, she seemed to have recalled it, as her face lit up in a radiant smile as she hugged the book close to her chest. Hey, that was in the posession of a boy, you know? Have a little more self-awareness, Gahama-chan!

"Hikki... thanks! Thanks so much!" Her giddiness was infectious, as I smiled at the sight of her acting all excited over the ratty old book. There weren't a lot of a high school girls who would enjoy being gifted an old Western novel, right? And yet Yuigahama was acting like she received the Gift of the Magi, or something grandiose like that.

"Ahahahaha... thanks, Hikki. This is something you read and enjoyed, so I'm sure I'll appreciate it." Yuigahama said, still hugging the book tightly against her chest. Seriously, be more self-conscious...

"Well, I don't know if you'll enjoy it, though," I replied, rubbing my hair as I looked away. "That's not normally something you'd read, right?"

"That's true, but this is something you think is worth reading, so I'll definitely enjoy it! Besides," she looked at me sheepishly, her cheeks faintly red, "I feel like I'll understand you better if I try to read the things you read all the time."

Her words sent a jolt throughout my body - my blood felt heavy, as some force seemed to circulate through my blood cells and permeated my entirety.

Yuigahama Yui, all this time, had been desperately trying to understand Yukinoshita Yukino and Hikigaya Hachiman. Even if it was out of her comfort zone, she pushed herself to try and keep up with what we were interested in. In terms of dedication, Yuigahama Yui definitely surpassed either Yukinoshita Yukino or Hikigaya Hachiman.

Yuigahama wasn't a model student; in fact, she, by her own admission, hovered dangerously close to the lower rung of our class, not to mention the entire year. She always had a hard time studying and grasping things, and just muddled through exams and class. This isn't to say I condemn her for not being smart or not doing her best - after all, some people were skilled at schoolwork, while others weren't. If we were to look at the way school rankings worked, people at the bottom were doomed to the fate of making those at the top look good. After all, saying you were #1 meant little if you were the only competitor, right?

Yuigahama simply wasn't someone like Yukinoshita, who was both blessed with incredibly intelligence, studied hard and was rewarded accordingly. Unfortunately, all she could boast of was an incredible amount of energy, like her runaway dog Sable. And even then, that energy was not infinite, and no matter how hard she would try to study, she simply would not be able to compete with Yukinoshita.

In short, I wouldn't have faulted her if she just chose to give up and accept that the wall known as Yukinoshita Yukino was insurmountable. To put it harshly, Yuigahama was simply a sacrifice on the path to the top of the mountain that Yukinoshita pursued.

Nevertheless, here she was, stumbling onwards, in her own, clumsy manner.

I didn't know if it was ignorance or bullheadedness that spurred her on.

But I knew that I couldn't deny her pure, simple wish.

And so, I had to respond accordingly.

"You know, Yuigahama..." I began haltingly, taking into account Yuigahama's expression. "It would be nice if I could listen to the stuff you listen to." Yuigahama looked at me, somewhat confused at what I was saying. "Do you think you could... lend me a CD or something? So I'm not hopelessly out of date when it comes to popular music."

Yuigahama's smile blinded me in its brilliance; her mouth slowly opened wide as she began to talk excitedly. "O-o-of course! You can borrow my stuff anytime, Hikki! Um, but I'll, like, have to look for them, my room's kind of a mess and cleaning up is such a pain, you know? Anyway, sure, definitely, I'll give you some of my stuff! Oh, maybe I should get you this... but, you might like that better..."

She was talking extremely fast, and I had to pay close attention to what she was saying if I wanted to keep up. In a way, I think I could feel a bit of what Yuigahama has to go through when she has to listen to my conversations with Yukinoshita.

"...this feels good, Hikki." Yuigahama blurted out something incomprehensible, in the middle of her ramblings. She was looking down at her feet, but she raised her eyes to meet mine. I felt my face blush in embarrassment as Yuigahama looked at me, twiddling her fingers.

"...huh?"

"It feels like a long time since we've been able to talk like this." Yuigahama said.

"I...guess so." I replied, a little embarrassed at what she said.

"It's pretty rare for us to get to talk like this... usually something weird happens."

There was a scene - a few months ago - that I had hoped to forget; Yuigahama in her splendid clothes, walking besides me as we made our way to the fireworks festival - the feeling of having to stand aside as Yuigahama conversed with Sagami and her friends, of having to excuse myself when they realized my presence, of having to deal with Yukinoshita Haruno's meddling...

At that time, I was sure Yuigahama had plenty of things she wanted to say, but every time, something interfered. Even worse was, when Haruno-san's car arrived, things between Yuigahama and I became tense.

"Yeah... things kept coming up, huh?"

When was the last time we got to talk like this, just the two of us? The Cultural Festival? Flashes of an irresponsible promise came to my mind, and I realized once again that I had many things I had to make up for to Yuigahama. Or maybe after the Student Elections? Once again, numerous mistakes, innumerable failures haunted us every time we talked.

"It would be nice if... if we could talk like this more often." I said, to nobody in particular. "To clear the air, I guess." I searched her face for anything resembling resentment at my previous mistakes, and found nothing. I looked her in the eye, wondering if she would betray any emotion resembling anger at me.

"I... agree." Yuigahama's smile was gentle and full of understanding. She didn't have to say anything; one look told me all I needed to know: it's okay.

I felt something painful shoot through my chest - why are you doing this for me - and swallowed it down.

I had once argued that Yuigahama Yui was a nice girl.

I told myself that her kindness to me was misguided, borne out of pity for the kind of person that I was.

There goes that scene again: the car screeching to a halt, my body reeling in as I shielded the dog, her screams reverberating (it hurts) in my skull like an echo chamber forever (it hurts) haunting my conscious (it hurts)ness the blinding pain a crack my consciousness fading (it hurts) im sorry someone please save (it hurt) him please he doesnt deserve to be (hurt)

I swallowed it all down.

I looked at Yuigahama again.

One day, I think, I'll be able to accept her smile wholeheartedly.

"Well... that's that. Can you lend me a CD tomorrow?" I asked.

"Of course!" Yuigahama replied.

At that moment, we heard a knock on the door, followed by the sound of it gently opening.

I felt a cool gust of wind permeate the room, the sensation of cold winter entering our warm, cozy haven. Yukinoshita Yukino, the ice queen, the cold, mysterious beauty, whose appearance entranced me, entered the room.

Behind her, a completely different person entered, and brought with her a different kind of sensation: warmth, softness, comfort.

Shiromeguri Meguri-senpai appeared before us, her appearance one that made me feel fluffy inside.

-0-

One day… in the Hikigaya household

"Onii-chan… where did you go the other weekend?"

"Uh, out exploring. What is it, Komachi?"

"Liar."

"Wha?! What's with this Higurashi-like atmosphere?!"

"I looked for you via GPS, you know. It's really easy to track down your phone. You were at that newly opened mall, right?"

"Y-yeah…"

"So, who were you with?"

"A-A friend…"

"Onii-chan, you and I both know you don't have friends. So, who was it? Yukinoshita-san? Yuigahama-san?"

"A-actually… it was an underclassman. It was a favor for her, I swear!"

"An… an underclassman? Her? Onii-chan, who the hell is thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis?"

"Wait, Komachi! I can explain!"

-0-

A/N: So yeah, this little arc will focus on Meguri~. Don't worry, it's nothing dramatic. Meguri-senpai isn't the kind of person that brings serious, dramatic issues, you know? Next chapter, hopefully, is the conclusion of this arc, and it should be more lighthearted and fluffy. Like Meguri~