I raised my hand and made confident eye contact with Hiratsuka. Her eyes widened a margin, but then her lips took on a satisfied smile, the kind you see on a person that's told work is unexpectedly canceled.

I probably would have found a way to dump the responsibility onto someone else if I wanted to. But right now any opportunity to keep me out of the house and away from the awkwardness that pervaded it was one that I would take.

At my behest, Komachi had finally joined an after-school activity, despite my recommendation to 'do something normal' she chose the calligraphy club. My little sister was many great qualities but patient, she was not. I had no idea why she chose calligraphy, but did have a sneaking suspicion that she would quit.

After she had stuck with it for the first two weeks, I had been very excited and had taken her out to eat. My parents had invited themselves along to which I (reluctantly) accepted.

I attempted not to embarrass her by making an anonymous donation to the school, designated for the calligraphy club. Though, since she was the only new member, go figure, calligraphy isn't bursting at the seams with recruits, her club mates believed it to be her.

She denied it though, and I had no idea how the story went after because she refused to tell me; lest I humiliate her further. That chain of events led me here, sitting in class 2-f raising my hand and offering to be the male representative of the cultural festival for the class.

I was the de facto shoo-in as no one else had volunteered. When it came time for the girls' representative, Yui was forcibly nominated, by some short-haired girl, Sagami, I cared little about the outcome so didn't try to step in.

I was surprised though that no one in her clique tried to offset the burden, they all kept their gazes forward, maybe something happened. In truth, I was being selfish too. I enjoyed having Yui around despite her airheadedness; she was fun company with a surprisingly deep perspective. So getting to avoid my parents without hurting Komachi and getting to spend time with a close friend, the wins just kept on coming and I was of no mind to stop them.

I offered her a consolatory nod to which she faked a tear, making me snort. I turned back to the front as Hiratsuka resumed the lesson.

In all honesty, I had never paid attention to a single lesson. I read the textbook beforehand and confidently answered whatever questions they asked incorrectly. So my turning forward was for the sake of appearances rather than my education.

I droned out, letting my teacher's voice wash over me and lull me into a meditative state. The seconds ticked by, hastened by my detached mentality. When the bell rang, I waited for Yui at my desk, watching as she rushed goodbyes to her clique and hurried over to me.

Miura glared at me, gaze as fiery as ever, but I met it with no hesitation. My expression was cold as can be as I stared down the dumb cu-

My monologue was cut off by Yui who had reached my desk and flicked me on the forehead to get my attention. "Hikki, don't glare at my … friends." Her tone was stern, but she hesitated on the last word. Nevertheless, I sighed and turned around, walking alongside her to the door.

She matched my stride as we traversed the busy corridors. "You should break the news to Yukinoshita." I encouraged her with a sly smirk.

"Hikki, don't be a baby. We'll both tell her, just because the conversation might be a little bit uncomfortable doesn't mean that it's not worth having. You need to be honest with people."

"Look if I wanted to be criticized I'd spend time with my mother. But, I don't and I didn't." I complained dully, not meaning anything by it.

Yui reacted dramatically, her eyes wide, tone soft. "Do they always criticize you Hikki?" She lay a hand on my arm.

I was frozen, unsure of how to respond when a saving grace appeared. Yukinoshita at the junction of the paths from our respective classrooms to the clubroom.

"Hello, Yui, Hikigaya." She greeted, a neutral expression playing on her features.

Despite her earlier assertion that we should both tell Yukinoshita. Yui jumped in and spoke for both of us. "Hey Yukinon, we have something to tell you, you might not like it. It's kinda big." Yukinoshita's eyes narrowed and her hands clenched.

"Well, Yui, I am listening."

"Well … we're going to … umm" Yui hesitated and stumbled over her words.

I decided to jump in and finish the sentence before Yukinoshita assumes that I got Yui pregnant or something. "We're both members of the festival committee so we will not be able to come to the service club for the next few weeks."

Her face twisted more, though the emotions that did shine through were odd. First, guilt, and then, amusement. She giggled, it sounded like the tinkling of bells. "Well, this works out because I'm also a member of the committee. The meeting shall start shortly, we should get a move on."

~/~

Due to my high-class upbringing, certain words were banned from my vocabulary. My parents tried to stop me from learning them all together but obviously couldn't succeed. I heard kids at school whisper them, and the large dictionary in my room provided the definitions.

Right now I wanted to break out every single one I'd ever heard and use the ones that I hadn't. I had signed up to be a part of the committee to get away from Hikigaya, every time that I saw him, I felt guilty.

In many ways he had saved my life, he had been the one to drink poison that probably would've killed me, even if it was unintentional. I didn't know how to be around a man to who I owed an incomprehensible debt to.

What could I repay him with? A treacherous part of my mind recalled videos that I'd watched late at night, of a hero being rewarded by a fair maiden. I let those lurid ideas fall back to the depths of my mind where they belonged.

How do you repay someone, for something that can't be calculated? I could show him that it wasn't a waste. I will do my best to succeed and demonstrate that my life was worth the risk.

I would be starting at the festival.

When we entered the room we sat together in a corner ignoring any curious gazes, at least Hikigaya and I did. Yui took the chance to wave and smile at those that she knew, forming connections and maintaining relationships.

The meeting quickly began after Hiratsuka and the student council president, Meguri Shiromeguri, entered the room. Hiratsuka nodded slightly as Shiromeguri gestured emphatically towards her, I couldn't make out what they were saying but it was clear that the president was quite passionate about their conversation.

Hiratsuka took the chance to agree and placate the shorter woman, then begin the meeting. "Alright, settle down everyone!" She waited until the room was silent.

Shiromeguri jumped in with great timing. "I'm very excited to open the first meeting of the 42nd cultural festival committee." Most of the room applauded themselves, feeling satisfied in the act of attendance. "But now we have an important task; as much as I would like to run the festival, student council, unfortunately, keeps me too busy. So," she clapped her hands together. "We need to pick a chairman, do we have any volunteers?"

This was my chance to show my worth to Hikigaya, I began to gather my breath and raise my hand, but was cut off by the last person that I expected, the man who'd saved me, himself. "I'll do it." Hikigaya declared, his hand shooting up into the air.

I was stunned into silence, since when had Hikigaya been the type to chase leadership? Maybe his brush with death had changed him, made him more confident. My heart sank, how much must you be suffering?

My resolve was steeled, I would be the best right hand that he could ever ask for.

~/~

All eyes were on me, so I used the skills cultivated by giving presentations in the firms to handle my impulsive decision. Shiromeguri looked around the room and saw no other hands raised and didn't quite sigh, but certainly didn't smile. "Well, Hikigaya," How did she know my name? "Would you like to say a few words and begin the meeting?"

I offered a politician's grin back. "Of course, thank you very much President Shiromeguri." I stood up and strolled to the front of the room, each step deliberate and controlled, all the better to make it seem like I wanted to do this.

The only reason that I volunteered for the job was so that it would give me even more of an excuse to avoid my parents, I could always say 'Sorry, festival duties' or something along those lines.

In the single-digit amount of seconds that it took to reach the front of the room, and face the audience, my mind whirled. I extrapolated and cross-referenced every great speech I'd heard, all the sophistry and rhetoric that I knew, and every way to capture and hold attention that I'd learned.

I coughed politely as a way to grab attention and then paused for a few seconds to build suspense. I subtly adjusted my posture, standing taller, more confidently, and more openly. Everything that people think they want in a leader. "Hello, for those who don't know me, my name is Hachiman Hikigaya, I transferred here this year and have loved my time here. I believe we owe it to the student body to put on the best possible festival and am excited to do just that. Let's make this festival the greatest one yet."

I stepped back and accepted the polite applause. Letting Shiromeguri step forward, "What a great entry, this has been a productive first meeting let's adjourn for the day-"

"Not so fast!" I announced stepping forward again. "The scheduling says that we have 90 minutes each day to use for the committee; we've barely used twenty percent of that time. Everyone stay, we have more to discuss."

Shiromeguri pursed her lips but nodded, reluctantly. She took a seat next to Hiratsuka and gestured for me to take the floor.

"I plan to organize us into the following subcommittees. Data entry and archiving, finance, public relations, student affairs, executive, safety and procedures, and external contracting. These seven branches will need people in the following distribution. Two in executive, the other chosen by me."

I looked around the room, counting 41 people if you included the minus two for Shiromeguri and Hiratsuka and the plus one for me.

"We'll need eight in data entry and archival. Ten in student affairs. Six in public relations. Six in finance. Five in safety and procedures, and five in external contracting. I'll give you five minutes to join a group to the numbers that I mentioned. Yukinoshita, I need you as my co-executive." I monotoned, Yukinoshita seemed almost ecstatic to be asked and smiled as she came up to stand behind me.

After a few adjustments, the sub-committees were organized despite some groups begging to have just one more member.

I spoke again, and already I could see that my subordinates were beginning to hate the sound of my voice. "For initial tasks, data entry and archival, I want you to find all the old records and digitize them, once they are entered clearly and obviously to an excel sheet, store them on three individual hard drives and we'll look into optimal physical storage methods."

They groaned but trudged out of the room to begin my task, once I made it clear that I expected them to start it now.

"Okay, next, student affairs, tell everyone that they have until the end of the week to submit their approval request for a class activity, however, only three classes may do any set activity such as a haunted house or maid cafe. This will incentivize them to submit earlier. It's up to your discretion to decide if ideas are too similar even if ultimate approval is mine."

I nodded to them and shooed them from the room, already moving on to the next group. "Finance, I would like a cost projection analysis of class ideas and the projected revenues from them back. Prepare to calculate those based on archival records. If they take too long to talk to me, I'll make sure that they get a move on. For the time being, I want you to prepare to calculate those by doing research. Also by the end of the festival, I would like to have general balance sheets and ledgers for each year."

They looked at me with wide eyes and I almost kicked myself. "Don't worry, I'll make sure that you have licenses to use bookkeeping software by the end of the week. That's my bad." I chuckled, how stupid could I be? They were still resembling statues my mistake had shaken their confidence in me.

"Safety and Procedures, you might have the most important job. I want you to analyze things like ventilation in hallways and bathrooms, along with sanitation assessments. Don't worry about major changes, just focus on the things that you can control. To change ventilation patterns look into opening windows and/or using fans. Run excessive costs past finance if you expect to need more fans. Also, look into how many people a bathroom can handle and how often it'll need to be cleaned, we can look into having janitors on standby."

I fidgeted, feeling like a cheap imitation of the best CEOs that I knew. The way they commanded the room was real while mine was just a facade. The room could probably tell, they were all looking at me like I was painted green.

"Okay public relations, start by looking at the expected range of outreach per demographic per medium, at a factor of cost, and get that back to Yukinoshita or me by the start of next week. Look at how efficiently we can target using these mediums and what the most efficient blend of advertising is. I expect full reports on all subjects by the end of next week." They didn't smile, but when your boss gives you an easy deadline it's better to not tip him off.

Hiratsuka was now watching, and Shiromeguri was also intently observing, if I'd messed up so badly before, I would've been called out; so I was probably doing something right.

"And then, there was one. Finally, regarding external contracting, I would like to be net profitable at the end of the festival but understand if that is not possible. More likely we mitigate the cost to a relatively negligible level. Look into local and regional businesses and see if they're interested in providing advertising or setting up stalls here. Emphasize how wide the demographic is and the rare chance to target so many impressionable youths while making a good impression on the community."

I coughed, once again embarrassed. "I apologize, I shouldn't be telling you how to do your job, you all seem very capable." I smiled trying to show that there was no ill will intended on my part." They just nodded fully and left.

With forty-five minutes to spare, I had assigned tasks. I sat down with a sigh and nodded respectfully to Hiratsuka and Shiromeguri. "I hope that I didn't screw that up too much."

They looked away awkwardly and I cringed, not even a chuckle meant that things were bad. Very bad.

"You were excellent, Hikigaya," Shiromeguri said, and I thanked her for the false compliment. She left soon after, and Hiratsuka followed suit, leaving me and Yukinoshita alone.

She looked like she had something to say but couldn't, or maybe wouldn't. She did however accept my offer of a drink from the vending machine.

"Hopefully there won't be any roofies in it this time." I laughed. Though it died when she flinched and looked away uncomfortably.

I am such a moron, of course, she wouldn't want to hear jokes about that. She was almost drugged and if she had been alone, would've probably had unspeakable things done to her. That was extremely insensitive but Yukinoshita isn't someone who likes to have attention called to her weaknesses. Maybe an apology is a bad idea.

I elected to do nothing and let the awkwardness dispel on its own, it wasn't eloquent or impressive. But any other course of action risked much more. So there we sat in an empty classroom sipping on tea for her and overly sweet coffee for me.

The gap between was uncomfortable and the coffee felt more bitter than usual.

(A/N): for those asking about the BNHA x Oregairu story would feature a quirkless Hikigaya making it through UA on a mix of wit, cunning, and cheap tricks. The title that I envision is "My fall from grace is more heroic than I expected."

Please review! It helps me improve as an author.