Chapter 8: The excessive abundance of mystery during election.

(Hikigaya Hachiman POV)

And now the end of day is coming, so is Komachi's promise to not treat Hachiju and Hassen badly.

To be honest I'm already on the verge of forgetting that but Komachi reminded me about it. Really, my little si—

Oh well, my little Komachi can be like this sometime so I need forgive her. I'm her br— family after all.

She's grown up really fast for a girl with bright future ahead of her. So I'm wonder if it's a right thing to keep that from her up until now.

This could be even more troublesome than a certain bug that getting close to her.

Well, Komachi aside, what will happen to Yukinoshita and Yuigahama tomorrow, I wonder?

(Classroom, Lunch break)

No matter how many times I looked at it. This is definitely class 2-F, my classroom, right?

So why the heck are my cousins here?

"It's not like this is a cousin prohibit zone, right?" said Hassen.

"Let's say that we're test whether our Stealth ability still good or not. Sadly enough, it's as incredible as ever." said Hachiju.

What a lame excuse, but as expected of my cousins.

However, even though the Stealth ability is one of our 108 skills, that doesn't mean have it improved is something to be proud of, especially if it worked on Komachi or Totsuka.

"Well, jokes aside. You're not just coming here test your skills, right?" I said.

"Of course. I'm not playing hide and seek here." said Hassen.

I highly doubt that.

"We came here to see how is your classmates doing. And if possible, I would like to greet someone you're familiar with personally." said Hachiju.

Can I actually believe it? You guys want to socialize? Do pigs start flying lately?

*Bonk*

That hurt!

"That's for thinking so rudely." said Hassen after hit my head with the back of his left hand.

"By greetings, I hope you didn't mean declarations of war or something like that." I said.

"You really need to be lectured by fa— grandfather about the definition of greeting sometime, Hachiman." said Hachiju.

"Anything but that." I replied.

It's no joke if I have to be lectured by my grandfather, Hikigaya Gocho (比企谷五丁).

Why? You can say that the logic master traits from three of us are not only coming from this person but also the amount of logics we have are probably just a fragment comparing to his.

Not to mention that he has a habit of giving people a goddamn long lecture to the point that people thought his given name is another Gocho (五兆) which translated as five trillion and ended up nickname him as 'Trillion Words Elder'.

I couldn't help but wonder why did grandmother take him as her spouse sometime?

"Okay. We can left that flashback there since I think no one will give a damn about it right now." said Hassen.

"Then don't remind me of him in the first place." I retorted.

"Even though he's not here, he can cause trouble to your monologue. How fearsome he is." said Hachiju.

Yep. Just leave it there.

"As for greeting, at least nearby you, there's someone that we can perhaps normally socialize with, don't you think?" said Hachiju as he turned his face away.

I followed his face's movement and then accidentally made eyes contact with my archangel.

"H-Hachiman. Ehehe…" said Totsuka with shyly smile.

This smile needs to be protected!

"Don't mind us. You can talk to him now, Totsuka Saika." said Hassen.

Normal socializing, my untainted ass.

"Don't worry, they're both my twin cousins, Sanshokuin Hachiju and Sanshokuin Hassen." I said.

Totsuka's eyes widened in surprise.

"For real?" asked Totsuka which I nodded back.

"I'm Sanshokuin Hachiju. Or you can call me Miki in short." said Hachiju.

"I'm Sanshokuin Hassen. Or you can call me Sanshin in short." said Hassen.

Just how much do you guys love your nicknames?

has stopped working.

"If you derived their full names, they're somehow pronounced as Miki and Sanshin respectively." I said.

"O-oh. Nice to meet you, Miki-kun, Sanshin-kun." hesitatingly greeted Totsuka which my cousins nodded.

Normal? No, this is freaking awkward.

"Um… Hachiman. Do you get yourself a girlfriend already?" said Totsuka.

What?

And then the sound of something hit the floor reached my ears.

I turned to the source of the sound and saw Yuigahama frozen on her seat and her phone is laid on the floor.

Woman. Keep it up and you will have to find a new phone soon.

But before that…

"No. I'm not."

I could already tell that my cousins would be like 'Is that the best answer you can come up with, Hachiman?' in their brains, followed by 'Correct' after knowing that I read their mind like a boss.

"Really? But I heard you contacted with someone named Sumireko alone yesterday. So I thought you're talking about your secret girlfriend." said Totsuka.

Don't tell me that…

"Indeed. It's a misunderstanding. Well, it definitely is since the girlfriend part." said Hachiju.

Oi!

"Hachiman left school together with Yukinoshita and Yuigahama yesterday, there's no way the one you see is him if he's alone. So it's misunderstanding." said Hassen.

"Eh?" said Totsuka, confused.

Yuigahama, on the other hand, freed from her petrified state and sighed in relief. However, she blushed and quickly left the classroom without any single thought the moment she noticed that my gaze landed on her.

After that, Hassen took off his glasses and put it on my face.

This is definitely a fake glasses.

Totsuka then has his eyes widened and jaw dropped upon seeing what's in front of him.

"I think this is the explanation you need, Totsuka Saika." said Hassen.

Definitely, with his hair being fixed (in a messy way) and not wearing any glasses, Hassen will look identical to me.

And now things become clearer.

"Since you've mentioned Sumireko's name then it was you, right? The one who eavesdropping on me yesterday." said Hassen.

Hey, hey. Could you not paint my archangel in that way?

Totsuka then apologetically laughed at that.

"If that's the case then I'm sorry Hachiman, Sanshin-kun." said Totsuka and then left.

No…! Come back my archangel.

"See? Even two of us can socializing." said Hachiju.

Besides self-introduction, what did you do?

"Never mind that. By the way, you're worried about how is Yukinoshita's doing, right?" asked Hassen.

Did you enjoy showing off your ESPer skill?

But honestly speaking, I couldn't keep my eyes on her so that's that.

"Normally you couldn't, but what about now?" said Hachiju.

Huh?

"Lunch break almost over, so prepare to go back to the classroom, Hachiman." said Hassen.

"But wait. Isn't this my c—" I said but being interrupted midway.

"Make sure you're not dropped your glasses until we meet again in the clubroom. Now go. The desk has a drop of black ink on it so be careful." said Hachiju as he left. Only Hassen stayed.

So that's how is it. But are you sure that this prank going to work well?

(Clubroom)

"Eh? Yukinon going to run the student council president?" loudly exclaimed Yuigahama.

I'm not surprised at all since I'm already know it along with the details when I'm in class 2-J (with Stealth Hikki as its finest, not even Yukinoshita doubt it).

Oh, did I mention that I'm already back to Hikigaya Hachiman again.

"Is there a need to be that loud over her announcement?" I said.

"I should have seen this one coming." muttered Yukinoshita.

It's just Yuigahama being Yuigahama. Even if you warned her beforehand she would still screw up.

But if not like this then she's definitely not the Yuigahama Yui I'm familiar with.

And then I caught Yukinoshita looking at my cousins until her gaze fell upon me and quickly diverted away.

"Does it is that much of a surprise to hear, I wonder?" said Hassen.

"Well then, try using this formula on the next equation, Hachiman." said Hachiju.

My cousins are as calm as ever, especially Hachiju, he's just continue teaching me math and totally doesn't give a damn about them at all.

Trying to check if my cousins have any reactions, huh? It's no use. They can figure out that little thoughts of yours beforehand, Yukinoshita.

It's not like they're not bothered by it, but not enough to wavering them even a little bit.

After I finished my homework that Hachiju taught, I made an announcement in front of everyone in the room.

"I've already said this to Yuigahama before but I will said it again right here and now." I said.

Breathe in. Breathe out. Here's go.

"The competition where you guys competing, once the result is announced, so are my answers." I said.

"Come again?" said Yukinoshita, confused.

It's a rare sight to see Yukinoshita in confusion at the same time as Yuigahama stay silent.

"I have my own reasons. If you're not understand now, then you don't need to force yourself to understand it immediately. That's all." I said, finished.

*Giggle giggle*

My cousins covered their mouths in attempt of hiding their little giggling.

Oi, you two!

"Good move." said Hassen.

"Good speech. Want to be your generation's valedictorian?" teased Hachiju.

"You guys…" I said, irritated.

Now even you guys teased me, huh?

No, I think the one being teased might be Yukinoshita.

Why? When I looked at her closely, after I ended my speech, she has a ' has stopped working' written all over her face.

This matter is concerned everyone here so I need to inform it again.

But then Yukinoshita recomposed herself and backup her .

"Alright. I have to go and see Hiratsuka-sensei so starting from tomorrow, until the end of the election, the club will be temporarily inactive. End of announcement." said Yukinoshita and left.

What's that? Royal decree?

"Don't you want to go too, Miss airhead? Or else that idiot will overwork like the last time." gloated Hachiju.

"Fine, I will go! But don't misunderstand. I'm left because I can't tolerate you, not obeying your order, Bleh!" said Yuigahama as she left.

After both the girls already left the room, my cousins break the silence.

"She's already has her plans on the election, huh?" said Hachiju.

"Why asking a question you already know the answer?" I replied.

Hachiju's eyes widened but then turned back to his usual deadpanned eyes.

"Rather than knowing the answer, I didn't expect it to be this fast." said Hachiju.

"Oh. It's rare that your expectation is exceeded." I said, surprised.

"It's natural, isn't it? I'm expecting nothing from her after all." replied Hachiju.

Keep it up and you will eventually become the ice king.

"It's not fair if we're the only one voice our opinion. How about you voice some? Especially when you already camouflaged yourself in her class today." asked Hassen.

When did you voice your opinion, Hassen?

Never mind it. He could probably go with not jabbed at Yukinoshita is his way of voicing opinion.

"Even under the new rules Hachiju suggested to Shiromeguri-senpai, Yukinoshita won't have any problems under the normal situation." I said.

"Which means she has problems, am I right?" said Hassen.

Some of you might think he's an idiot for saying that but no, especially when he took into the account that I did mention 'under the normal situation'.

"I'm not surprised that you guys already aware that this isn't a normal situation for Yukinoshita." I said.

"You're saying like I'm somewhat the cause." said Hachiju.

"You're not the cause, but you're well aware of it." I said.

"That's really makes me wonder why can't you adapt this ability to math and science much sooner." said Hassen.

"Don't change the subject midway." I said.

And I really don't want to hear that from you of all people, Hassen. Your biggest achievement in education is that you're only two ranks higher than Yuigahama, y'know?

"Tenma Ichi. It's her, right? The one Yukinoshita has to look out for." I said.

Hachiju smiled a little.

"Look like you're finally understand that." said Hachiju.

"Even though you're not saying that you would help her, you didn't reject her right away. You didn't oppress Shiromeguri-senpai to take your advices for solving the problems, helping Isshiki or doing club activity like you have claimed you were yesterday, but for Oichi-san. Am I right?" I said.

Then a can of MAX COFFEE is handed to me by Hassen.

I looked at him confusingly.

"A congratulation prize for coming up with the correct answer." said Hassen.

"O-oh." I took it.

"However, I can only give you 8 out of 10 for your analysis. You still have ways to go, Hachiman." said Hachiju.

I already knew that, smartass. Even if everything I said is true, it still doesn't make enough sense.

"This school is full of various idiots instead of elites like how majority of people believe. Being ruled by a first year student is undoubtedly fit the bill, don't you think?" said Hachiju.

"That could be a lie. If that the case then wouldn't it easier to convince or oppress Isshiki to run the student council president instead? How about you come clean about it already?" I said.

Hachiju sighed and made a 'Alright alright, I'm saying' face.

"You may not know but this school does have people who can outclass that president if they really want to. And among the student council president candidates out there, Tenma Ichi is probably the most veteran of all." said Hachiju.

"How so?" I asked.

"Ever since her big brother went overseas, handling stuff like how student council president supposed to do is her daily life. Not to mention that in my opinion, she's probably more reliable than that soon-to-be-a-former student council president too." said Hachiju.

I deadpanned at him.

"If she's really that amazing then there's no need for her to ask for your help yesterday, right?" I asked.

"And even without me helping her with the rules, gathering thirty or more supporters is just a half piece of cake for her too." said Hachiju.

Huh? What the heck?

"From the very beginning, she doesn't really have any problems at all. It's true that she said that she doesn't have enough supporters, but 'doesn't have enough supporters' and 'couldn't gather enough supporters' aren't the same things, right?" said Hachiju.

She really got me! No, it's more like I'm way too freaking naive!

"And that's minus one point out of ten for you." said Hachiju.

But still…

"I-If that so then why'd she do that for?" I asked.

"At first I don't know. But I eventually figured it out the moment that annoying underclassman came and made that request yesterday." said Hachiju.

Isshiki's, huh?

"If Oichi aware of what happened to that annoying underclassman, she'll definitely find a way to help her out. Even if I didn't accept Oichi's request, she would still continue to find the way herself anyway." said Hachiju.

Huh?

"If she's going to find a way to save Isshiki anyway, why is she even have to bother you with it, especially when there's no guarantee that you will help her or not?" I asked.

"That's a silly question. Can someone who can't be that serious about helping a single person out and only mind their personal business deserve to be a student council president?" said Hachiju.

After hearing that, I really do think that my recent question is indeed silly.

"And why did you help her? Didn't you say you don't give two shits about the student council president stuff? And I couldn't bring myself to believe that you're doing that for Isshiki or Oichi's sake." I asked.

"That could be another minus one point out of ten for your analysis." replied Hachiju.

Yeah. How about you tell me straight away for once, wise guy?

"The culprits who student counselor announced to punch them right away yesterday, does it ever cross your mind that they were all manipulated?" asked Hachiju.

My jaw dropped and my eyes widened.

"Even if those culprits themselves have enough reasons to commit such things but even able to hide themselves from student counselor and student council is way too ridiculous." said Hachiju.

"I have a feeling that it's all because Hiratsuka-sensei just too lazy to do and push all the works to Service Club instead." I said.

"If that's the case then it's mean the student council also agreed with her lazy idea so all the more reasons as to why this school is full of variety of idiots instead of elites." said Hachiju.

"We would be in trouble if headmaster is nearby, y'know?" I said.

"I think it's not really a bad thing if headmaster hears something like that once in a while instead of having all the teachers and staffs here kissing his untainted ass all the time." retorted Hachiju.

"Alright alright, I understand. What you're going to say is that giving the intelligence level of the culprits, the chance they can avoid both Hiratsuka-sensei and Shiromeguri-senpai on their own is close to zero, but if there's a mastermind behind them then it's a different story. Am I right?" I said which he nodded.

"It's because she has too many soft spots, otherwise no one would dare to pull off such prank like this." said Hachiju.

"Then you know the mastermind?" I asked.

Hachiju looked away, made a deadpanned face and sighed loudly.

Hassen also averted his face away as if to signal me not to ask him.

"Yeah. They're the most annoying wingmen ever." replied Hachiju with visibly annoyed tone.

Huh? Hah?

I couldn't help but seriously deadpanned at him this time.

"Wingmen?" I asked.

"Just like what you've said back then. If you're not understand now, then you don't need to force yourself to understand it immediately. I'm about to lose count on how many times they giving me headaches." said Hachiju.

Said someone who never bothered to count how many times he gives the same things to others lately.

"Okay. I won't prying on that." I said.

There's no point prying into it now, right?

But to think that even Hachiju didn't want to speak about them, then it's better if I just let it go for the time being.

"However, doesn't this mean you give a damn about student council?" I asked.

"That's going to be ridiculous enough to make pigs fly. If I do mind the student council then I would make it inactive myself instead." said Hachiju.

"Is that your definition of 'giving a damn'?" I muttered.

*Sigh*

The one who made that sighing is neither me nor Hachiju, it's Hassen.

"Took you guys long enough to finish the topic. I think it's about time we left as well." said Hassen.

"Well, you have a point." I said.

"True enough. Kazumi and Futami also need to be fed too. Alright, we leave." said Hachiju.

*You've got mail*

Hmm? Who's this?

From Totsuka? Woah woah! My cute archangel texted me!

Hachiman, are you free tomorrow? I would like to have you join me in tennis practicing.

Ah…

Normally I would be on cloud nine, but right now I'm—

"Worried about that Yukinoshita more, right?" said Hassen.

I couldn't say anything to object it.

"It can't be help. You've been in a role of big brother for more than a decade so it's natural for you to develop this worrywart character." said Hachiju.

Thanks, Captain Obvious.

"How about we play Paper Shuffle until the end of the election?" said Hassen.

"What?" I said.

"This way you can keep observing Yukinoshita without using the club attendance as an excuse to do so." said Hassen.

"Hassen. Is this okay with you?" I asked.

"I highly doubt anyone would find out when we have the same faces, same ages, same blood types, same birthdays and same figures. Furthermore, I can accompany Totsuka in tennis practice on your behalf." said Hassen.

Except the fact that you have shown that possibility to him today, also, how is having the same blood types and birthdays going to help the camouflaging?

"Just don't overdo it. And keep in mind that just no killing promise isn't enough to be considered acceptable." said Hachiju.

"Is he Beerus?" I muttered.

"Even if he can't use Hakai, he can still overthrow the like of student counselor as if she was a baby so it's necessary to warn him beforehand." said Hachiju.

Is it necessary to add worries here?

"Add more worries, you thought? You want to keep your eyes on her is already considered add more worries unnecessarily so just deal with it." said Hachiju.

Pulling no punches! But I can't argue with that.

"Yeah. Especially when I'm not supposed to help her regardless of the amount of my worries. After all, Yukinoshita should be the one who help herself, not me or any codependency." I said.

After that, I answered Totsuka that I would accept his request while ashamed of myself that my acceptance will turn into deception tomorrow.

After all, I can't say that Yukinoshita decides to become a student council president candidate is irrelevant to what I've said to her and Yuigahama yesterday.

After a few days since Isshiki's request being made, the student council president election comes to an end.

Now only Yuigahama and I stood in front of the door of the clubroom.

"Yukinon didn't show up." said Yuigahama.

"You need to give her some time." I said.

It can't be help. The election isn't something you're allowed to rematch whenever you want. Win is win, lose is lose.

"I can't believe that Yukinon lost." said Yuigahama.

"Good thing Yukinoshita isn't around or else she'll be saddened even more upon your words." I said.

"I'm not mean to add soap into injuries, you idiot!" said Yuigahama.

"It's salt, not soap, you idiot." I retorted.

The fact that Yukinoshita lose is truly something majority of the school never expected to happen, especially when she's up against a mere first year student of all people.

Yeah, that first year student is Tenma Ichi.

As expected of someone Hachiju acknowledged, I couldn't agree more.

Even though Yukinoshita came up with seemingly perfect speeches and campaigns, they're all giving off the impression of run-of-the-mil ideal performance, especially when compared to Tenma Ichi's.

Tenma Ichi, on the other hand, has not only came up with the speeches and campaigns that rivaled Yukinoshita's but also pointed out every shortcomings that happened in this school one after another including Shiromeguri-senpai's in front of people as well as how to solve them.

She brought up what happened during the cultural festival, she pointed out that even though the cultural festival committees from each class are uncooperative, Shiromeguri-senpai should, at least take the matter more seriously and discuss it with teachers to find the better way to choose the chairman instead of just desperately give the position to whoever that ask for it without making any evaluation at all.

Next, she brought up the fact that it's a right decision to ask for a veteran like Haruno-san to help out but it's definitely not proper and unbecoming of committees, chairwoman and even the student council president to just take whatever she said as absolute one truth and just follow her advices without any slightest piece of doubt in them.

Also, she pointed out that being kind is a good thing, but being too kind is improper, because of that, the majority of the committees and especially the chairwoman are all taking advantage of the misleading advices and shamelessly go slacking off during their works. If it weren't for someone who fed up with the nonsense progression playing a villain role back then the cultural festival event would eventually ended in undeniable failure.

"Although the cultural festival is still ended in success this way, please asking yourself whether this kind of succession is really something to be proud of, something that should be taken as a good example in the future, something that should be allowed to repeat in the future, something that truly worth to be Sobu High's achievement, something we can proudly show to outsiders. And just before some changes have been made into the election rules, some students abused the rules to bully the fellow student until the student council decided to alter the rules to stop it, although the incident is already solved I don't think we should allow such incidents like this go on. I can't say that I'm the most suitable person for the student council president, so whether I'm elected or not I will work with student council for every students and Sobu High School's sake anyway. This might be too much to ask but I want everyone to at least take what I've said today at heart. Thank you."

And that's the speech that unbelievably made her win the election.

There's about ten candidates that participate in the election but I heard that eight of them excluded Yukinoshita signed out from being the candidates and giving their full support and votes to Oichi and making her win the election.

Things that she said probably make Yukinoshita doubts me and my cousins which probably the reason why she's not here.

"Is that so? Can't be help, I guess. Bye bye Yukinon." said Yuigahama.

"What's the matter?" I asked.

"I called for Yukinon and she's said that after Haruno-san learned about the name of the one who defeated Yukinon in the election she arranged the sisters personal meeting today so Yukinon won't come today." said Yuigahama.

"Okay, let's leave." I said instantly.

Meddling with Haruno-san? No thank you.

By the way, where's my cousins today?

*You've got mail*

From: Totsuka

Hachiman, could you come to the tennis court this instant?

Don't tell me that…

(Hikigaya Hachiman POV Ended)

A/N: Chapter 8 for you readers. It's really a shame that I couldn't make it in time to celebrate Hachiman's birthday with this. Well, although it's late but happy birthday Hachiman (and Sanshokuin siblings) and hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. See you.