Chapter 25: Trillion Words Elder

(Hikigaya Hachiman POV)

"Furusato…?" said Yukinoshita as if to doubt if she heard right.

Yes, you heard it right.

"Furusato…?" said Yuigahama as if to doubt if she heard right.

You too?

"Furusato…?" said Isshiki as if to doubt if she heard right.

I heard that twice already!

"Furusato is his last name before he's married into the Hikigaya so that's that." I said.

"I guess we should hurry up before the number of question marks you have ballooned more than it already is." said Hassen.

After we walked for some time, we reached our destination; Furusato Family Book Rental Shop.

"Welcome. Oh, it's you guys." greeted the cashier.

The cashier recognized the pet parrots and seemed to figure out who their masters were.

"Long time no see, Rokuji-ossan." said Hassen.

Furusato Rokuji (故郷 六時), the cashier of this book rental shop and the little brother of the shop owner, Hikigaya Gocho.

Whenever I saw him I couldn't help but doubt that the customers here might be the fans of One Piece series or what since the cashier's appearance really resembles Kizaru in his Vice Admiral period the last time I met him and will eventually resemble his Admiral period at the present time if he wore glasses.

"It's rare that you guys come here, especially not only that you three are here together on Christmas Day of all days but also brought… non-family people here as well." said Rokuji-ossan.

"I felt like I got rejected for some reason." muttered Isshiki.

Hachiju and Hassen signaled Kasumi and Futami to wait outside while I handed one of the milks Hassen carried to him as a souvenir.

"We can save the talks for later, uncle. Can we visit father now?" I said.

Rokuji-ossan blinked for a moment.

"Big brother always welcomes you guys. He usually spent his time in the living room. However, that's rare for you to address him as your father and not grandfather like usual, especially when there's people other than your family members around." said Rokuji-ossan as he led the way.

"You used to address him as grandfather?" asked Yukinoshita.

"It can't be helped. We thought he's our real grandfather for a long time before the fact was revealed so we got used to it." I said.

"Oh, that makes sense." said Yuigahama.

"In addition, we have a bit of resentment toward him so we just do that out of that feeling sometimes in the past." said Hassen.

"That addition is definitely the real reason…" muttered Hiratsuka-sensei.

"There's no need to keep your voice down if you are this terrible at muttering, y'know?" said Hachiju.

"Pulling no punches even with a teacher, huh?" said Isshiki.

Listening to this exchange for a while, Rokuji-ossan chuckled.

"It may not look that way but they did pull back, otherwise you would be no better than the victims of the negative hollows by now." said Rokuji-ossan.

Oi! You damn geezer! There's a lot more suitable comparison than this yet you pick this?!

"The fact that they're capable of doing that much without eating Horo Horo no Mi truly freaked me out." said Hiratsuka-sensei.

Oh yeah, there's someone who could keep up with Rokuji-ossan's bizarre comparison.

Should I let them handle Zaimokuza's manuscripts from now on?

Yukinoshita, Yuigahama and Isshiki, confused and quietly whispered something among themselves which is inaudible to us.

Hmm… girl talk? At a time like this? Well, it can't be helped since I might've done the same if my surroundings only speak normies language.

"Here's the living room where big brother is supposed to be here. Now please excuse me." said Rokuji-ossan.

"W-Wait. Is it good to not tell him beforehand?" asked Hiratsuka-sensei.

"Just knocking on the door and waiting for the response is fine." replied Rokuji-ossan as he left us alone.

With that, I knocked on the door.

(Hikigaya Hachiman POV Ended)

(Girl talk, Isshiki Iroha POV)

Since it doesn't look like we can fit in the guys' conversation, we started our own while following them from behind.

"Yukinon, do you have any idea what they're talking about?" asked Yui-senpai.

"There's no way we could even comprehend it when they put it in the way only the likes of Hiratsuka-sensei or Zaisomething-kun would understand, Yuigahama-san." replied Yukinoshita-senpai.

"I guess we should just go with the fact that their communication happened to have various levels and be done with it." I said.

"You're surprisingly calm, Iroha-chan. You're not curious about it at all." said Yui-senpai.

It's not like I'm not curious, but I don't want to unnecessarily rack my brain about it, especially when I'm currently not taking an elite study session with my boyfriend who is genius enough to make me wonder why he's a high school student instead of a university professor.

Everything about them is bizarre beyond common sense, better have them explained it themselves instead of pointlessly guessing endlessly.

Not to mention that…

"I'm more curious about how to make him love me to be honest." I replied.

Seriously, I'm so curious about that!

Let me tell you what, whenever he said something that matched how a boy hit on a girl, I would get embarrassed and try to reject him to cover my embarrassment. Guess what happened next? The moment I bowed to him after teasingly rejecting him, he either took it as I wanted to break up or just disappeared without a trace!

Because of that I stopped playing such jokes since I doubted I could laugh if he took it seriously, not to mention that the idea he went both ways someday is enough to make me restless.

Up until now, my best achievement is that I could convince him that I love him.

"I'm really surprised you do like him, Isshiki-san. Are you sure you're not getting blackmailed by him?" asked Yukinoshita-senpai.

"Every time I think about him, there's a tightness in my chest, but I'm happy just getting to see him, I definitely fell in love with him. That feeling started from when I was saved from bullying by him, and it started to grow more when I got to spend my time alone with him despite most of the things he's done is helping me out with my studies." I said while fiddling my hair to regulate my embarrassment.

I couldn't even believe that I could convince that guy of all people with such simple reasons.

Well, it turned out that I convinced him solely because his little sister said the same thing to her crush when she's in love too.

'Those lines truly popular among maidens in love these days, huh?' he said.

Then he claimed that there's not any tightness in chest whenever he thinks about me and he's neutral whenever he sees me so he's not in love with me.

What a jerk, unkind and worst prince he is.

As I was about to expect Yukinoshita-senpai to say something like maybe I'm just suffering from some weird disease but she's only stutteringly muttering 'I-Is that so?' while Yui-senpai sadly mutters 'I know it.'

Before we knew it, all of us reached the destination.

(Girl talk, Isshiki Iroha POV Ended)

(Hiratsuka Shizuka POV)

After Hikigaya knocked on the door, the door slowly opened, revealing a person who told me where Gocho-sensei is.

A guy of my age with messy black hair, unkempt bangs that cover his purple eyes, wearing a striped dress shirt under a sweater vest. But the most important part is that his face is similar to mine.

"Hitsuji?!" I said, genuinely surprised.

He's my little twin brother, Hiratsuka Hitsuji (平塚 羊).

"Big sister?" said Hitsuji.

"Why are you here?" I asked.

"I worked here as the caretaker of this shop's owner, that's all." replied Hitsuji.

"Huh? What happened to your job as an editor? Wait, where is your ring that you usually wear?" I asked.

Since our parents already passed away, we both live separately in our own ways with the splitted heritage.

Unlike me, he's a successful editor for one of the most famous publishing companies and eventually got married to the chairwoman. He usually wore that ring on his finger to show off his married status much to my irritation.

"I was cheated on by my wife and fired by her so I sold it." replied Hitsuji.

Why didn't you tell me about it? I'm ready to make the bottom of the ocean her new house anytime, y'know?

Before I could say anything, he said.

"Well, that's enough about me. I don't want the owner to lecture me for keeping his guests too long anyway." said Hitsuji.

"And how did you know that we're your guests?" I asked.

"Rokuji-san won't let anyone other than the owner's relatives come all the way here unless you're one of his guests. However, please mind your manners and don't smoke." said Hitsuji as he took the souvenir the younger Sanshokuin handed to him and stepped aside.

As we entered the living room, we spotted one person reading a book in a sitting position on one of the two sofas which faced each other and separated by the long table.

He has long light grey hair and grey eyes which are usually gazing downward. He also wears a grey robe and a haori.

There's only one person I know who gives off such a monotone appearance, he couldn't be anyone other than my former teacher, the rumored Trillion Words Elder (which was called by Hitsuji), Furusato Gocho.

Perhaps Hikigaya and his brothers got the looks from their mother.

"If you're acquainted with the owner's sons then you might get a lot of surprise here, Big sister." said Hitsuji.

Before I could ask him, Gocho-sensei cut me off.

"Hitsuji, please brew some tea." said Gocho-sensei as he closed his book and put it on the table.

"As you wish, owner-sama." replied Hitsuji as he went off to brew some tea.

Seven of us took our seats on the sofa that faced Gocho-sensei.

Hmm… strange… Hitsuji I knew won't move on from heartbroken state this easily, in fact, the possibility of him commit suicide over that is way higher than moved on. It's either he lied to me or…

Gocho-sensei might be the one who saved him from his grieved state. If that's the case then it's look like he is truly a real deal.

And while I'm at it, I might ask him one or two advices about how to get married as well.

"Good evening, father. It's an honor to meet you today." greeted Hikigaya and his brothers as they maxed out their mannerism.

Eh? EHHHHH?!

So polite, not only Hikigaya but also his brothers, am I hallucinating?

Who are these prim and proper boys? I don't remember having such neat and polite gentlemen like them as my students.

Not only me, but Yukinoshita, Yuigahama and Isshiki had their jaws dropped on the floor immediately after they saw what I saw.

There's no trace of pretentious intention in their actions, it's genuine.

They have never been like this with me!

"There's no need to be surprised. It's just the owner's triplet sons respecting him as an adult despite them harboring some resentment toward him themselves, but please refrain from doing something rude to the owner in front of the owner's sons since two of them might rip off your neck before you knew it." said Hitsuji as he served everyone tea.

Scary even if it's a joke! Does that mean after all this time they're not seeing me as an adult or something?

"I'm Hikigaya Gocho but most people know me by my old name; Furusato Gocho (故郷 五丁). I'm the father of Hachiju, Hassen and Hachiman who currently sat beside you. Nice to meet you." greeted Gocho-sensei.

"M-My name is Yukinoshita Yukino, it's a pleasure to meet you." said Yukinoshita.

Even Yukinoshita is out of character today.

"M-My name is Y-Yuigahama Yui, it's a p-pleasure to meet you." said Yuigahama.

Is it just me or you just copied Yukinoshita?

"M-M-My name is I-I-Isshiki Iroha, it's a p-p-pleasure to meet you." said Isshiki.

I see… they are still not fully recomposed from witnessing the triplets' behavior.

Gocho-sensei paused for a moment.

"Nice to meet you too. So, let me hear what kind of business you all have with me." asked Gocho-sensei.

Direct to business, huh? Shouldn't father these days tease his own sons whether they brought their girlfriends home whenever they showed up together with pretty girls besides them?

"We came here to fulfill our promise and for your promise, father." said Hikigaya and his brothers.

"Senpai said that I will come to know who he is so I came here with him." said Isshiki as she looked at the older Sanshokuin.

I have a feeling that he told you on the way here already.

"My reason is similar to Isshiki-san's but it's Hikigaya-kun… I meant the youngest one who I wanted to know." said Yukinoshita as she looked at Hikigaya.

You too?

"Eto… Yukinon is my friend so I just kinda want to tag along with her." said Yuigahama as her eyes rolled back and forth until they landed on Yukinoshita.

Hitsuji was surprised for a moment as if he wasn't expecting that answer.

If it weren't because Yuigahama is so obvious with her hatred for Sanshokuin siblings even now, I would have expected her to say something like Isshiki and Yukinoshita but direct at the younger Sanshokuin instead.

I swear if it's Haruno, she would grin devilishly and start her teasing full course on them right away.

Gocho-sensei, on the contrary, he's indifferent toward her answer as if he already knew about that.

No, it's not like he knew it or not, he doesn't have expectations in the first place.

"There's some problematic students that I couldn't handle so I wanted some advice from Sensei." I said, purposely looking at the three boys on the sofa, especially the older twos.

"Big sis, I swear…" muttered Hitsuji.

Gocho-sensei sipped his tea and wiped his mouth.

"As for my promise, I have prepared that ever since the day I made it so don't worry about that, my sons. But now I'm going to do my part of fulfilling the promise you guys made with them despite the fact that I still doubt Yuigahama-san's reason for coming here to be not just that. As for you, Hiratsuka Shizuka, if you want to know how to handle my sons I recommend you listen to it as well." said Gocho-sensei.

Yuigahama was taken aback by Gocho-sensei's statement.

As I thought, he's the origin of these triplets' bullseye trait.

"It's not like you don't want to tell them everything about you but you yourself don't fully know about that either, considering that you've brought these girls a bit late of the day, I assumed you three are more or less telling them how much you know about yourself all the way here, right?" said Gocho-sensei which the triplets nodded.

Yukinoshita, Yuigahama, Isshiki and I couldn't hold back our surprise from displaying on our faces.

"I admit that it was my wife and I's idea to have your eldest brother adopt you three. But it's not entirely because it's for the future of the family, in fact, we did that for the sake of you four. However, I still need to apologize to you three for all the hardships our decision pushed you through." said Gocho-sensei in an apologetic tone.

The triplets looked away for a brief moment before directing their gaze back to their father.

"The reason is simple, despite my questionable method, I want my four sons to grow up and live as good people." said Gocho-sensei.

I'm so itching to tell him that they're not meeting your expectations at all! I'm about to say it!

Before any words were about to slip out of my mouth, Hitsuji stopped me.

"However, I'm well aware that most people would think otherwise especially when you three turned out this way but that's natural since people have different standards." said Gocho-sensei.

Hikigaya definitely learned lame excuses from him, didn't he?

Did I seek the wrong person to help?

"My wife and I have taught my eldest son to be like that ever since he was born. Many would think that it's a perfect way to raise our child but unfortunately it's not. That kid took it obediently at first but then he started to grow rebellious against his own parents. It shouldn't be the possible outcome but that's what the outcome is, for such a mistake to happen, what is it that you think went wrong?" asked Gocho-sensei.

As everyone seemed to rack their brains to think about it, Hitsuji answered.

"Timing." said Hitsuji.

"Correct. No matter how flawless the teaching is, no matter how good your intention is, no matter how gifted the learner is, it's not always produce a good result if the timing isn't right. That's the mistake I couldn't afford to repeat once more with my sons." said Gocho-sensei.

Timing? Did you teach him how to live like an adult when he's barely born or something?

"I see. So father means you and mother taught him too soon so you carefully choose the timing with our case?" asked the older Sanshokuin.

"At least that's about right on my part. Rei, in his childhood, just like you three during childhood, he's mentally insensitive, things seemingly good at first when he took whatever my wife and I taught obediently, but he eventually got labeled as a boring saint freak and being made fun of by his peers, day by day, his desire to fit in with others increases, at some point he's no longer listen to his parents and grow rebellious." said Gocho-sensei.

Now I know why Hitsuji called him Trillion Words Elder.

His speech contained too many details for others to remember, even his own sons have their eyelids slightly lowered while the girls and I almost leaked our yawning.

"Seeing that he wouldn't be able to get friends at that rate, he chose to do whatever it takes to fit in with others. He no longer minds what is right or wrong as long as he can get friends and escape from being called a freak. If it weren't for him having someone else that could stand by his side, I don't want to imagine how terrible he would become." said Gocho-sensei.

"Thank god that he was at least able to properly raise Komachi despite the fact that Hachiman probably did more than he did lately." said the younger Sanshokuin.

Someone needs to drill manners into this brat.

"Hassen, please tone down your urges of saying all those rude remarks and reflecting on it." said Gocho-sensei.

Upon hearing that, the younger Sanshokuin, got up from his seat, performed dogeza in front of Gocho-sensei, much to me and girls' awe.

"I'm deeply sorry, father. I will try my best to be more careful about that from now on." said the younger Sanshokuin as he got up and went back to his seat.

Not pretentious, not sarcastic, not pushing himself, he's done it wholeheartedly voluntarily.

Am I hallucinating? This rebellious ESPer gorilla brat is actually tamed, not to mention by nothing but kind words.

I definitely gotta learn how to do that from him and it looked like the girls here also thought the same thing as me.

"Rei probably thought he wanted friends and it couldn't be helped averting from what is wrong for the sake of it, but honestly speaking, he made friends just to show off how many friends he had. It wasn't like he wanted to get along with the person in front of him, he just wanted the status of having friends. He wanted to escape being labeled as a loner as well as the social caste itself so he ended up drawn in the sea of anything but something genuine." continued Gocho-sensei.

I can totally understand Rei's feelings to the point I want to cry.

Yuigahama casted her gaze downward, so is Isshiki, only Yukinoshita closed her eyes right away.

"Unlike your big brother, you three weren't the only child like him during childhood which forced you to prioritize your siblings over your surroundings so you aren't ignoring the awareness of what is right or wrong over trivial matters which is very much important despite the fact that you still committing so many mistakes in your life." said Gocho-sensei.

Agreeable, although Hikigaya is a petty criminal himself and has a twisted mindset, he might have lied or said nonsense to save himself but he refused to commit bad deeds just to fit in with others or gained allies.

However, there's something I'm curious about.

"Say, sensei. Why did you let your eldest son raise your other sons anyway? I really don't understand your reason at all." I asked.

Especially when you could tame that rebellious ESPer gorilla son of yours that easily.

"Even if I raise them myself, I could only raise them the same way as with Rei. In order to prevent them from turning out the same way as Rei, instead of keeping them from reaching out to the honey trap, I gave them full freedom to experience it under Rei's flawed upbringing so that they would figure out how bad it is and distance themselves from it themselves. Rei will definitely bring his brothers unhappiness and eventually get hated by them, although I felt sorry for him and my newborn sons at the time we came up with such decisions, but my wife and I still need to prove him wrong and not make the newborns repeat his mistakes." said Gocho-sensei as he apologetically bowed at his own sons which they hurriedly stopped him from doing so.

"I don't understand. I definitely can't understand. Not only that you didn't raise your sons yourself but also did so knowing they would suffer? What kind of father are you?" emotionally asked Yuigahama without any fear of what would happen to her.

"Given our father's situation after we were born on top of his wife's death, raising three children at once when he didn't live together with his married son would be too difficult for him and Rokuji-ossan alone. His method might be bizarre, but he actually does his best to be a good father despite not being excellent at it. The fact that he used to visit us from time to time during our childhood and treated us very well means he's not an entirely irresponsible dad. In fact, we won't mind that at all." said Hikigaya.

You mean only you don't mind that, right? When it comes to your family (minus your eldest brother Rei) you're too forgiving for your own good!

"Although we resented him for these hardships he put us through these years, he earned our respect for being the only adult who never deceived us even once." said the older Sanshokuin.

"Never deceived you? Didn't you say you found out he's not your grandfather?" asked Isshiki.

"He can't be blamed for that, after all, he's never said he's our grandfather even once so it's our fault for being oblivious to that all along." replied Hikigaya.

"Thank you for defending me, sons. But that's enough since I'm already well aware of what kind of impression people would give to me after listening to all of these after all, not to mention that it's still not change the fact that I did something that deserve to be called a cold-hearted parent to you three after all these years too so please stop it." said Gocho-sensei, to which triplets backed off obediently.

I have a feeling that either these triplets would obediently do everything he said or others just don't look like adult figures for them, or maybe both cases.

"Very well, since I believe I told enough of my sons' background that should be considered their promises with the girls fulfilled for the time being so I suppose it's time I moved to your issue, Hiratsuka Shizuka. In case if the problematic students you're talking about were my sons, you may let them tell you why you have troubles with them in front of me right here and now." said Gocho-sensei.

Sensei, I don't think they would give me the accurate answer given their personalities.

But given how much respect they have so much for him, maybe it's safe to have high hopes for it.

I looked at Hikigaya, gestured to him to speak.

Hikigaya looked at his brothers and they nodded at him.

"To sum it up, Sensei, this is us we're talking about, if you think you could avoid having troubles handling us through your brand of teachings then you underestimate how much of a pain we are way too much." said Hikigaya without any hesitation.

After hearing such an answer, Yukinoshita rubbed her temples as if she got a headache and so am I while the other girls were dumbfounded.

I'm such an idiot for putting high hopes on you, Hikigaya.

"Hachiju, I think we need to elaborate the details more clearly." said the younger Sanshokuin.

I have a bad feeling about that.

"Very well. Put us aside, I highly doubt how your short-tempered teaching style that ended up involving punching her own students could be considered a good fit for teaching students in the first place." said the older Sanshokuin.

Hitsuji put his right palm on his face in disappointment and sighed.

T-That cunning brat really has done it now!

I hurriedly turned my attention to Gocho-sensei in hope to give him one or two explanations.

But I'm mysteriously frozen and had my sweat rolled down from my forehead.

His neutral facial expression, his eyes, his auras, his breath, none of them changed from their regular display, and yet…

I felt like I was overwhelmed by unknown pressures from him.

Unlike Yukinoshita's cold gaze or any kind of intimidation I've faced so far, even though his eyes aren't lifeless, just looking at his eyes really makes me feel like a child who's about to get the biggest scolding from the adult in his life.

At least give me a cold gaze or get angry visibly so I can handle it!

"Hiratsuka Shizuka. Is it true that you involve punching your students in your teaching?" asked Gocho-sensei.

I'm screwed, aren't I?

As a result, I, who was supposed to come for advice on fixing my problematic students, got one hell of the biggest lecture in my life from their father instead.

(Hiratsuka Shizuka POV Ended)

A/N: Chapter 25 for you readers, please enjoy.