Chapter 17: Everyone has to do something about something.

(Hikigaya Komachi POV)

"Hikigaya-san. Um… are you alright?" asked Taishi-kun.

"Um… probably alright? Why?" asked Komachi.

"Well, you looked more absent-minded and lifeless than usual so…" said Taishi-kun.

"Komachi's alright. It's just that her brother stayed overnight somewhere else for the first time in a long while. That's all." replied Komachi.

As Komachi said those words, a sharp pain inflicted upon her heart.

Mom and dad's confession yesterday was really too shocking.

It's too surreal to be true but it's true.

Mom's blood type is O while dad's is B.

There's no way they can give birth to someone whose blood type is A.

Which means Onii-chan has never been Komachi's brother all along and so are those current twin cousins of hers.

However, that's not what makes Komachi this sad enough that even Taishi-kun noticed.

As if Komachi would mind such trivial details like that.

It's the fact that the one who is the reason why those two ex-brothers hurt Onii-chan's heart during that heartbreak departure day is none other than Komachi.

Onii-chan, who was the self-degrading type and gave a damn about Komachi's reputation, accepted mom and dad's decision so that he wouldn't disgrace Komachi with his existence, until the two ex-brothers which Komachi used to hate so much, went as far as to protest mom and dad who decided to hand over Onii-chan away, so they both left and make Onii-chan stayed for Komachi's sake.

Because of knowing that alone, Komachi started to lose track of what she has done since then, not to mention that she had a nightmare last night too.

'Do you have fun taking advantage of the kindness of three people who care for you as an important person to them?'

'And up until recently, you stirred up his surroundings like toys to forcefully shove the romance down his throat knowing that he would forgive you anyway. How cute.'

'Are you sure you think of him as Onii-chan and not Puppy-chan since the second one sounded more make sense, y'know?'

Those three lines from Komachi's alter ego in her nightmare haunted her up until now, so she did something like cancel the operation she did with Totsuka-san and avoid Onii-chan she wanted to see his face so much this morning.

"Komachi can't let things go on like this. She has to do something." muttered Komachi.

This upcoming emergency sibling meeting is probably the most awkward one ever.

(Hikigaya Komachi POV Ended)

(Hikigaya Hachiman POV)

"Aren't you always thinking of us as bad at making jokes yourself?" retorted Hachiju.

"Ugh…" I said.

"There's a lot of time before Christmas so do your best, Hachiman." said Hassen.

"Do my best, you say? Are you saying that I should get a girlfriend only to have her get roasted by you two brocons to crisp?" I said.

I could already imagine that even if she agreed to be my girlfriend, which I still think that chance only exists in my wildest dreams, Hachiju and Hassen would still drive her to the corner, stating that she's going out with me either for the sake of getting back at them, for pitying me, for a reference, or any other reasons they could use it to make it sound like she wasn't dating because she really likes me or be serious about it.

Even I myself couldn't imagine what kind of reason that could sound convincing.

However, …

"You can't be easygoing or take this matter easy either, especially when you've decided that this has to be the last one" said Hachiju.

I could never argue with that. And I'm not joking about my decision either.

"If not then you would reach the bad end, just like that fujoshi and her ex-clique which I had destroyed with my own hand." said Hassen.

Now that I think about it, I'm about to get used to it and I start overlooking the fact that it won't last forever.

Even if Hachiju and Hassen won't join the club, although the relationship I have with Yukinoshita and Yuigahama isn't something to sniff at, as long as I don't have a reason to keep it it's undeniable to say that it will cease someday, be it the graduation day or sooner or later.

And thus, I couldn't even guarantee that I wouldn't make the same mistake as Ebina-san in the future.

Before it's too late, I need to do something. Oh…

They asked me to bring my girlfriend with me so that I would have a reason to ask her out, huh?

"I hate to admit that it's all thanks to the Christmas dates that those nosy parents arranged, we wished we could come up with such ideas ourselves." said Hassen.

Romance has never been our forte to begin with so that's a tall order.

"I've thought for sure that you guys are against such things like this at heart, let alone go as far as to do this." I said.

"It's just us supporting you, not because we gave away our approval, since that's your life so all that's left is a proper reason to let us express our objection straightly or a proper reason to let us give up on it." said Hachiju.

Am I your son or something?

"Although one of the possible outcomes annoyed us to no end, we still looked forward to it." said Hassen.

If she knew that it's arranged by you guys then I can't be optimistic about it.

"Don't expect too much then since the chance where I would get rejected still as high as Frieza's power level after all." I said.

But before that I have to do something to reconcile with Komachi first.

And I bet this might become the first time I will face her not as a big brother but an uncle.

(Hikigaya Hachiman POV Ended)

(Yukinoshita Haruno POV)

Many companies went bankrupt and ruined these days, all because the workers suddenly had their relationship broken, some due to being incited, some due to having the secret leaked.

The enemies were incredible, even though all those ruined companies had super tough security yet the secret still leaked simultaneously.

So I thought that maybe it's the work of spies from overseas Nobu-chan were talking about it.

I don't know if I was blessed with luck or something that I found the suspicious guy by pure coincidence on my way back home.

He is a short boy with brown hair and monkey-like face. He wears a black shirt, a brown furry jacket, and green pants. He has a red double belt and wears a mask over his face.

He pretended to have a talk about the news on the phone and intentionally leaked the secret of workers nearby him, not just once but many times, to the point that there's no way his actions could be considered merely coincidences.

And now I've finally caught him in action after a long chasing.

"Now fessed up! Who are you? Where are you from? Why did you do this?" I asked.

The monkey-face boy just snickered at me and threw a stone at me which I successfully dodged.

What a childish resistance.

"You believe that I would answer?" replied monkey-face boy.

"No, I don't think so. However, with your smartphone in my hand, I'll definitely find out anyway, but that doesn't mean I will let you get away." I said.

As I sat on top of him to stop him from escaping, I looked up to his phone.

Judging from his accent, I couldn't believe that this guy is a foreigner.

So he's also both a victim and a pawn?

After I looked up the information into his phone, there's rumors of more than ten companies written in it.

Whether these rumors are true or false, if they were getting out to people's ears, more companies would be ruined for sure.

While I was lost in my thoughts, my mind suddenly got dizzy and lost my strength.

Then a light-blonde hair person with purple clothing approached me.

"Just how many times are you going to mess up, Toukichirou?" said the mysterious guy.

"Shut up, Ranmaru. How could a night shift worker like you understand how hard to act in day time?" retorted the boy I sat upon.

"For someone who got drugged by my sleeping scent along with that lady, you're so talkative." said the mysterious guy.

Drugs? Is this the end of me?

"At least he used the artificial stone for an emergency call to not mess up any further so there's no need to scold him too much, Ranmaru." said the new mysterious guy.

"Master!" said Toukichirou and Ranmaru.

So that stone throwing was for this purpose, to call his comrade here. I'm such a fool to let this happen.

And this 'master', he has spiked hair, which is multiple shades of red. He wears a silver, horned mask. He wears a long, primarily red outfit and black pants, which are covered by a red and yellow cape.

So you're the mastermind.

"Take Toukichirou and his smartphone back and we called it a day." said the mastermind.

"Eh? What about Yukinoshita Haruno?" asked Ranmaru.

"We can deal with her anytime after we dealt with the one who gave her the idea of investigating us, not to mention that some people already chase after you when you come to rescue Toukichirou, now leave." said the mastermind as three of them left.

I'm lucky that they haven't killed me or something.

Once I woke up, I needed to do something about it.

I'm not letting you guys hurt him and the country he loves!

I've finally got a chance to be with him after a long time since that very day, I'm not going to let anyone ruin it!

(Yukinoshita Haruno POV Ended)

(Narrator POV, Student council room)

After the other student council members left, a group of four people showed up.

It's Yuigahama Yui, Yukinoshita Yukino (invited by Yui), Isshiki Iroha and Hiratsuka Shizuka.

"Welcome everyone, let's start the private meeting." said Ichi with a bright smile.

"As you've requested, I've told Hikigaya like what you wanted. Seriously, I couldn't believe that such a half-baked excuse would be able to fool him." said Shizuka.

"Nope, he definitely saw through it and chose to play along to make things easier for us if it meant that his absence can help us even a bit so please apologize to him on our behalf, Hiratsuka-sensei." said Ichi.

After everyone was seated, the meeting began.

Ichi handed over the sheet to everyone in the meeting.

It's said that according to Ichi's brother's investigation, the whole reason why the engagement was held in the first place is because the parents just purely wanted their stubborn children to find themselves a lover. However, in their parents' opinion, by considering their good points alone would make them already a proper good couple if they gave it a shot.

But Hachiju looked too much into the details that made things look way too complicated and handled things way too over exaggerating.

"So you're telling us that if both of them find themselves a lover then they could be released from the engagement, Ichi-chan?" asked Yui.

"A real one to be more precisely, Yuigahama-senpai. But that condition itself is still reasonably tough." replied Ichi.

"Geez, Tenma-chan. And here I thought you would solve it right away." said Iroha.

"I'm the student council president, not a ruthless dictator, y'know? There's a line even a student council president shouldn't cross." said Ichi.

"Don't tell me that you arrange people here just to report this?" asked Yukino.

"I wonder~. However, even if we're talking about reporting, I'm still not done with it just yet." said Ichi.

"There's more?" asked Yukino.

"Of course. Please follow me." said Ichi as she and others left the student council room.

Everyone follows Ichi to the tennis court just to spot Meguri watching Saika practice tennis there.

"It looked like watching Totsuka-senpai practicing tennis become her only reliable oasis nowadays, not to mention that she's more relaxed than her usual self compared to how she mostly was in each of her school days." said Ichi.

"Did you stalk her, Ichi-chan?" asked Iroha.

"I believe there's one or two differences between your actions with Miki-senpai and mine. For example, I've never gone as far as to stuff some lewd and improper photographs into her beloved Miki-senpai's shoe locker like som-Mhmh?!" said Ichi but her mouth got blocked by Iroha's hands halfway.

"I'm so sorry so please don't bring that up ever again, great Ichi-sama" said Iroha, embarrassed.

It took a while for Ichi to get Iroha's hands off her mouth.

"This is scary. To think that there's a kid like this in this school. No, it's Sanshokuin Hachiju that is scary for turning the little kid into such a yandere." thought Shizuka as she shivered.

"It's a normal duty for the student council president to patrol around the school and check how everything goes on with students and teachers so we can take care of them before something bad happens, if not then student council is as good as not existing in the first place." said Ichi.

"Wow, now that sounds like what the real student council president would say." praised Shizuka.

"Not 'would say', but 'would do'. Isn't that right? Yukinoshita-sen…pai, what's wrong?" said Ichi with her tone changed from neutral to worry midway as she noticed Yukino and Yui watched the scene before them with gloomy eyes.

After Saika finished his practice with his tennis partner, Meguri offered him a drink and had a chat and teasing, then they bid farewell to each other.

But to Yui and Yukino, the scenery before them was overlapping with the memories of their moments with Hachiman in the Service Club before Shizuka brought in Hachiju and Hassen.

"Ey!" said Ichi.

"What are you doing, Ichi-chan?" said Iroha, confused.

*Bang* x2

"Ow! That hurts!" cried Yui.

"W-What was that for?" asked Yukino.

Ichi sneaked behind Yukino and Yui and slapped their backs quite hard.

"Pull yourselves together, please." said Ichi.

Meguri noticed that everyone was there from the sound of Ichi's slaps and approached them.

"What's wrong everyone? You guys are still not heading home?" asked Meguri.

"We're about to head home, Shiromeguri-senpai. By the way,…" said Ichi.

Ichi approached Meguri's ears and whispered.

"Are you and Totsuka-senpai dating?" whispered Ichi.

"Wha-?! What are y-you t-talking about, Tenma-san?" replied Meguri, embarrassed.

"Ahaha. Sorry for joking about that, senpai." said Ichi.

Ichi whispered to Meguri's ears for a second time.

"Then do you have a crush on Totsuka-senpai?" whispered Ichi.

"G-Geez, T-Tenma-san, please stop with the joking already!" said Meguri with a reddened face.

"Is that so? Then I should tell Totsuka-senpai in advance that he shouldn't put his hope too high on it. Is that alright with you?" asked Ichi.

"NO! PLEASE NO!" shouted Meguri.

"Shiromeguri?" asked Shizuka, worriedly.

"What did you say to her, Tenma-san/Ichi-chan?" asked Yukino and Yui.

"You're really a good person, Shiromeguri-senpai. However, if he happened to get any wrong idea about it, wouldn't it mean you're still going to hurt him in the end?" asked Ichi as she glanced at Saika while emphasizing 'he'.

"I-I…" stuttered Meguri.

"It's so unlike you to handle things all alone. Here, I brought Yuigahama-senpai and Yukinoshita-senpai to help you." said Ichi.

"Eh? No. I mean I shouldn't bother others too much." said Meguri.

"It's not a bother, in fact, you have done them a favor if you let them help you." said Ichi.

After that, Yukino and Yui explained to Meguri about the Service Club's latest request, to which Meguri apologized that Haruno bothered them because she previously asked Haruno for help herself and it ended up that Yui and Yukino (couldn't resist Yui's puppyish pleading) will become cupids for her and Saika.

"Hmm… come to think of it, Hikigaya-kun isn't going to participate?" asked Meguri.

After being asked, Yukino and Yui got depressed again, in which Meguri thought to herself that she had screwed up.

"Want another slap, Senpais?" said Ichi with a smile as she rubbed her hands in preparation.

"Give it a rest already, Ichi-chan. That last slap still hurt." said Yui.

"That's violence, y'know?" said Yukino.

"Sadist…" said Iroha.

"Senpais. If you want to get in touch with Hikigaya-senpai that much why don't you ask him out on a date or something?" boldly asked Ichi.

"W-What a-are y-you t-talking about?!" stuttered Yui.

"W-Why sh-should I d-do something like that?" said Yukino while averted her face away.

"You're not denying the fact that you wanted to get in touch with him at all, eh?" said Ichi, smirked.

"There it is. Karakai Jouzu no Tenma-san." Iroha and Shizuka internally described.

Before Yukino and Yui could retort, Ichi interrupted them.

"Be it Miki-senpai, Sanshin-senpai or Hikigaya-senpai. They're all monsters of logic who need any sort of reasons to act despite already having such heavy desires to do something themselves. Once they're out of reasons to be with someone, even if they still want to, they won't stay and might disappear before anyone know it. Has everyone understood what I mean?" said Ichi with a serious tone.

"She's upset or what?" thought Yukino, Yui, Meguri and Shizuka.

Everyone gulped upon hearing Ichi's serious quote, especially Meguri since her story with Hachiju is a living proof.

"And that's all my assistants as a student council president. Please be careful on your way to go home and avoid hitting the curfew while you're at it, okay?" said Ichi with a wink as she left as if nothing has happened.

Everyone was really dumbfounded at how amazing is Ichi's ability to shift the mood in such a little amount of time.

But at the same time, all of them thought in unison that Ichi finally gave them the useful information for the first time.

(Narrator POV Ended)

A/N: Chapter 17 for you readers, please enjoy.