A/N: I'm not own anything.
Chapter 1: Fate turning encounter
"What's your problem Hayama? You're not going along with the program at all." I called out to his back.
Hayama turned to me
"Oh, you think so?"
"I do, and I'd even go so far as to say you're being an obstructionist. Why don't you support Tobe in what he really wants, what kind of 'friend' are you?"
Hayama looked ashamed of himself and said.
"Hikigaya, my present friendships are extremely important to me, and I've found that...once something precious is lost, it will never ever come back."
Said that once you're ever be mindful about protecting it, you moron. On top of that,...
"It's messed up to try and make such shallow relationships work." I said.
"Is that so? Well, I, for one, don't think they're shallow. For me, my surroundings mean everything to me. So I don't want things to change." said Hayama.
"I, for one, thinking that you should've rephrased the 'don't think' part to 'don't want to think' instead. Blindly believe on that all you want but what are you going to do with Tobe?" I retorted.
Seriously, who would care about his lavender garden philosophy bulls?
But I have to confront him about it. After all, this guy and his girl repellent as well as the fujoshi herself can keep fooling around on their own accord but I'm not gonna beating this dead horse any longer.
"I have told him to give up on that multiple times. It was clear that Hina won't open her heart no matter what. So I don't want Tobe to rush things." replied Hayama.
"You better phrase that he should never tried instead judging that you know there's no right timing for Tobe to begin with." I retorted.
Hayama strengthened his fist for a moment but then dropped the action.
"Then what will you do if it was you?" asked Hayama.
"Do the opinions coming from me of all people sound relevant to you?" I retorted.
Hayama looked at me seriously for a moment and suddenly grabbed the back of his own neck confusingly.
After that, his gaze turned into that of a drowsy one and then he hurriedly excused himself.
Before I'm about to leave the spot as well, two people appeared in front of me.
They wearing the cap, glasses, and have mask covered their mouth. Other than that, they're no different from any Sobu High students.
However, the atmosphere I felt from them has a hint of nostalgia to me. Who are they? Have I ever met them before?
"Of course you did." said the left guy.
"It's been a long time indeed Hachiman." said the right guy.
Hey, how did you read my mind?
Huh? Read my mind? And on top of that, they know my first name.
"No way. Don't tell me that you're..." I said.
"Don't let others judge or influenced who you should be and what you should do. You have to be the one who taken care of those roles." said the left guy.
"Whenever you don't know what to do, you should start from the easiest thing; be yourself." said the right guy.
There's no mistake. The ones who can see through me, calling me by my first name and even say those nostalgic mottos.
As if to increase the mood, both of them took off their caps and masks, revealing their true identities to me.
In front of me, two teenage boys that look identical to each other of average height with medium-short length black hair. Their most prominent features are their set of menacing eyes and a short strand of hair that sticks upwards.
If you examine them more closely, the right one is slightly more muscular than the left one.
"Hachiju. Hassen." I said.
I don't care if there's a fujoshi nearby I approached them like a lost child who saw his parents that he once thought he wouldn't see them again.
If you're not get what happened then allowed me to explain it.
They're my twin cousins and we're used to be inseparable during our childhood
Their names are Sanshokuin Hachiju and Sanshokuin Hassen respectively.
Their family name is the same as my mother's surname before getting married with my father so it's obvious why these two are my cousins.
To me, their importance is only second to Komachi.
So in other words, I'm just simply act like this because I miss them.
Really. If I knew that they're attended the same school as mine my school life would be a lot more preferable.
Okay, I'm going to stop it right now. At this rate I might be viewed as a homosexual or cousin complex at this point. Just the thought alone really send a chill down my spine.
Anyway, please keep it in your mind that I'm absolutely a straight person despite the fact that I'm currently hugging them right now.
"Alright, alright. Relax. You're scaring Kazumi and Futami there." said Hachiju.
When I'm coming back to my sense, I saw two birds, parrots to be exact, flying out of the caps they wore earlier.
And now those parrots hide themselves behind my cousins' shoulder.
"They're a pair of female eclectus parrots. On my shoulder is Kazumi (一美) and on Hassen's shoulder is Futami (二美). They're cute, don't you think?" said Hachiju.
"Even if I'm not a fan of birds I still find them cute. However, why did you need to communicate with me through your bird?" I said.
Don't tell me that they're still…
"Right. We still couldn't get rid of our ventriloquism habits and now we even involve our pets in as well. And it seems they're not against the idea, especially when we spoil them and feed them afterward, not to mention that they love to orbit around us too." said Hassen (through Futami)
I believe that isn't something you should admit it with such cocky tones, y'know?
But I guess I should let it slide because I'm not really better than them myself sometime either.
"Kazumi loves to orbit around me while Futami loves to orbit around Hassen. This fact should be served as the different between us even though we're twin so why do people still can't tell us apart, I wonder?" said Hachiju (through Kazumi)
Are you guys insane?! Are neither of you noticed that Kazumi and Futami are also looks identical to each other as well! The difficulty of differentiation isn't drop much. Really, what's your glasses for if you're unable to notice that.
There's not many people besides me who were close with you guys long enough to tell you guys apart, y'know?
Dang it. Look like their teasing personalities still hold as well.
Then suddenly the two cousins of mine compose themselves and put up serious looks on their faces.
"Well, that's enough for our reunion. Hachiman, there's no need for you to do the scapegoating just to save that good-for-nothing peacemaker's group." said Hachiju.
"You even know that? You guys' ESPer ability really know no bound." I said.
"Believe me that there's still someone better than us in reading people, not to mention that your conversation with that assclown Hayama earlier already give us enough clues to figure it out." said Hassen.
That's you guys alright. Always one step ahead of me. But wait, doesn't that mean you guys were stalking me around?
"Correct." answered Hachiju.
Hey, you ESPer four-eyes twin stalkers. That's creepy even in my standards.
"Relax. We're only stalking you during the trip." said Hassen.
That's not making feel any less creeped out, y'know?
"It's obviously out of character for the like of you to play cupid. So we're simply giving in to our curiosity and ended up stalking you." said Hachiju.
It would be much easier if you just revealed yourself and ask me like what you've done a few minutes ago.
Seriously, not even you guys want to give me a break from being a target of teasing?
"Anyway, Hachiman. If you're gonna play fake confession card to solve things then stop it. I know we have no right to demand you but please reconsider your decision." said Hachiju, worriedly.
It is as Hachiju said. That's my intention. Because I don't think there will be anyone who care about me enough to stop me from doing so and it's fine by me that way.
But now, there's Hachiju and Hassen who care enough to come and stop me themselves so there's no way I will continue that plan.
"Even if both of us didn't appear before you to stop you, I still believe that there's at least one reason for you to reconsider your actions unless you're fine with lying about your own feelings and becoming a stepping stone for their endless 'fit in' bullcrap." sternly said Hassen.
Everything they said are all correct. After I confirmed what exactly is going on with Hayama's group, I have to pick one of the two choices; Either blindly help Tobe which he will be rejected in the end or help the whole group maintains the status quo through a fake confession.
I originally thought that I should let Tobe confesses to Ebina even if it's mean the result will be opposite to his expectation. However, if I allowed that to happen then the whole group would be damaged so I picked another decision which conflicted them less damage.
But picking up that decision also has its own set of problems.
A fake confession is nothing but a fallacious argument. Honestly speaking, I don't want to do it because that's the kind of deception I hated more than anything in this world.
But I decided to do anyway purely because my reason for rejecting that hateful option is personal and sounded selfish.
Everyone has something they hold dear, something they never want to lose. That's why they pretend. That's why they hide the truth and that's why they lie.
And what will I do if I happened to know how much they valued that vague friendship? That's right.
So it's just nothing more than me lying to my own feelings in order to help Hayama's group.
These two probably figured out that I've underestimated the amount of regrets I will receive after doing that and come to help me out of this.
Come to think of it, it's really nothing to be surprised that these can figured out that since they're the very first people who know how I handled things after all.
"Fine. I will stop that." I uttered.
"Glad to hear that." said Hachiju.
"That assclown Hayama should already fell asleep by now. All that left is the girl that you play cupid with that guy so you don't have to worry about his interference." said Hassen.
"That's makes se— wait. How can you be so sure that Hayama going to sleep at this timing?" I asked.
"You and your mouth, Hassen. (Sigh) Alright, no need to hide it from you right now." said Hachiju as he brought up a transparent tiny box contained some amount of extremely thin and small needles.
"These needles are coated by extremely high dose of anesthetic that can put an elephant to sleep within 15 minutes. I think you can guess the rest, right?" said Hachiju.
"That really explains why Hayama touch the back of his neck weirdly and excused himself earlier. That's scary as hell." I replied.
In other words, you guys shot that needle at Hayama that's why you two are nearby.
How scary can you two be? However,...
"But even if Hayama wouldn't be able to interfere, Miura might be able to." I said.
"That self-absorbed girl who orbit around that coward peacemaker, huh? That one wouldn't be much problem considering that she, by herself, just an all-talk in the end of the day. However, the less risk you have, the higher success rate you get." said Hachiju.
You still go with that?! These two have absolutely no intention of negotiating at all!
Well, I really don't have any argument with that myself either.
Although Miura isn't as much of a peacemaker as Hayama but she still a selfish queen bee that will never allow such things to happen either.
If not then there's no point for her to call out on me herself the day before.
Since Yukinoshita is probably there when Tobe will confess to Ebina, Miura might just pretend to pick a fight with her and make the confession being postponed even further.
And since Yuigahama, who is like some kind of people who wouldn't join a fight for peace's sake, is completely useless if that happened. This is made clear during the Chiba Village which her best achievement in the situation like that is waiting until their pointless fight to end and consoling the crying defeated Miura back then.
"He's right. Since assclown Hayama couldn't show up, that assclown Miura might show up on his behalf. It would be problematic if that happened. We have to act quickly, not to mention that it's about time for Hachiman to show up at the bamboo forest." said Hassen.
I don't know about Hayama but Miura will definitely kill you on your sleep if she heard all of those 'assclown' parts.
"Oh, that's right. We've been chatting too long! At this rate I will be late." I said.
"No need to panic. We can solve this problem with Paper Shuffle, can't we?" said Hachiju.
The moment I heard 'Paper Shuffle' I understand what they're trying to do immediately.
How could I not? It's something that three of us come up with during our childhood personally after all.
If you're thinking that it's something related to the actual Paper Shuffle game then congratulation for being fooled completely.
"Well, that's enough for internal narration Hachiman. We're better hurry up or else you'll be bothered by that piece of trash request longer and longer. On top of that…" said Hachiju.
"I'm hungry~" said Kazumi, mimicking human voice.
"You've heard her, let's go." said Hachiju while patting Kazumi's head lightly to calm her down.
Yep. This school trip is full of weird stuffs that beyond any of my expectations, especially my reunion with Hachiju and Hassen.
However, even though it's no mistake that they're the real ones I still can't help but feel that something is out of place.
Those two that I know are used to be way more emotional, mentally weaker, more polite and more gentle than I was during our childhood, not to mention that they're usually smiling, at least up until the last time I met them (ten years ago). But now they're not only perfected their indifferent stoic faces to a higher quality than Yukinoshita but also more rude and savage.
I know that I myself, of all people, shouldn't be the one to even doubt this but I actually do have a doubt about it.
Hachiju. Hassen. What happened to you guys during these past ten years?
OC Info (Incomplete)
Sanshokuin Hachiju (三色院八樹)
Occupation: Sobu High School Student
Affiliation: Library Aide, Class 2-J
Age: 17
Gender: Male
Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Grey
Blood Type: A
Alias: Miki (三樹), Eighty (the meaning of a pun of his first name Hachiju 「八十」)
Ability: Calligraphing, Ventriloquism, Healing (especially acupunctures).
Relatives: Sanshokuin Hassen (twin little brother), Hikigaya Hachiman (cousin), Hikigaya Komachi (cousin)
Personality: Quiet, Ventriloquism with his pet whenever he felt like it, Usually called people that are neither his family members nor his relatives by either their position or his own impression (usually rude) of them instead of their names (except those who gain his trust and when in public), Protective of his family and relatives etc.
Motto: Don't let others judge or influenced who you should be and what you should do. You have to be the one who taken care of those roles.
Sanshokuin Hassen (三色院八線)
Occupation: Sobu High School Student
Affiliation: Class 2-C
Age: 17
Gender: Male
Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Grey
Blood Type: A
Alias: Sanshin (三線), Eight-thousand (the meaning of a pun of his first name Hassen 「八千」)
Ability: Cleaning, Personal Revised Martial Art, Ventriloquism
Relatives: Sanshokuin Hassen (twin little brother), Hikigaya Hachiman (cousin), Hikigaya Komachi (cousin)
Personality: Clean freak, Ventriloquism with his pet whenever he felt like it, Usually added 'assclown' whenever he called people that are neither his family members nor his relatives by either their position or his own impression of them instead of just their names (except those who gain his trust and when in public), Protective of his family and relatives etc.
Motto: Whenever you don't know what to do, you should start from the easiest thing; be yourself.
A/N: Many ideas for Oregairu fiction that pique my interest keep running in my head lately but the problem is it's not related to my previous works (still in progress) at all so I venting them out in the form of this series. I hope you like it. See you next time.
