AN: Welcome to your yearly chapter. After a lot of mishaps and procrastination, our assembly of co writers is down to just me… with an advisor on hand. He's someone I took under my wing. Lance went off into the great beyond, expanding his influence again while Red took off with his Charizard. Unfortunate, unfortunate, but somehow, we'll make it through. Please review to fuel this solo writer now.

Intern Akahito: Hello. I am here to assist DarkDrawerJ with this fic as a fan. I can only hope to capture the magic of what LanceSennin and RedGlitchFox was capable of doing. I sincerely hope you understand the clunky transition as well as tolerate any discrepancies due to my overall greenness as I have rather big shoes to be trained to fill.


The clock was ticking rather loudly today as I did my best to at least pretend to listen to Chabashira's lecture over lessons I had already previously learned before I was thrown into this world against my will.

My focus had never been great when it came to class, as it was simply just so boring to have to hear something you already know about, like a cutscene for a game you were replaying that you couldn't skip.

Today, however, was different as the tension in the air was a lot different than what it usually was.

Generally, in this class full of misfit toys, everyone would be stiff as they did their best to not fall asleep or zone off, knowing that their monthly allowance for the next 3 years would be affected as well as their reputation in the class, as everyone (except Koenji) would much rather avoid trouble wherever they could.

"What happened to Horikita?" was the question on everyone's mind after having seen her come into class with a bruise on her face, so surely I couldn't be blamed that I was doing my best to temper myself.

It wasn't too hard for me to figure out what had happened after some process of elimination.

It couldn't have been Ryuuen. Horikita is rarely in an isolated area, so there's no way for him to find some key moment of time to attack her, not to mention there'd be no reason to go through so much trouble when our class hasn't even been established yet and even further than that, this provided nothing.

Say what you will about Hirata's love rival for Kiyotaka, but this wasn't Ryuuens style to just beat someone up and then nothing else as far as I can tell. He was the type to do something for a reason and I can't see what he could try to gain from this.

It definitely wasn't some random upperclassmen bully. They'd be taking too much of a risk to simply bully a 1st year especially one that they should hardly know with such little time. There were too many variables and nothing like this had even been mentioned in the original light novels either. Horikita is also smart enough to avoid trouble like that.

There's no reason anyone from Class A would even glance in our direction yet, aside from one certain girl, but even she would have no reason to just target someone this early. There should be no info on Horikita to the other classes yet after all and we've quite literally done nothing to draw her attention aside from raise from Class D to C. I suppose we have a certain White Room resident here, but she didn't do anything about him until near the end of the 1st year.

I gave a quick glance to said main character of the series, remembering how all of the biggest threats of the school were mainly due to his presence. Now he's dormant with no reason to do anything until his kouhais start showing up… Whether that was a blessing or a curse for me with how much I've mucked things up is anyone's guess.

That left Kushida amongst those of our age with a motive, but even she seemed rather unnerved ever since Horikita appeared. I suppose even she has standards, huh? She also definitely wouldn't have enough control yet to just have someone hurt Horikita without her going to a teacher about it.

There were countless other potential students and even some faculty that could fit the bill, but none of them made sense this early on, leaving one event that I had thought wouldn't happen due to how things were going or rather: one event that I had hoped wouldn't have happened.

Manabu Horikita.

That realization was a hard pill to swallow. I had thought that I was on top of things dealing with the troublesome students first before tackling the main plot, but it was the protagonist who had stuck by Horikita a lot early on in the year. I, on the other hand, was involved with her much less because I am not as desperate for friends as he was. I especially wasn't going to stalk around her late at night at an unconfirmed date to waltz into a sibling dispute! Not to mention if I mess up, it'll be me coming in late to class the next day holding my left side like I was Prince Vegeta after an earned humbling session. Manabu was a black belt in Karate and Aikido if I recall correctly because of course he was.

Nevertheless, this couldn't stand. Looking over to my side, my eyes only saw brokenness in place of someone who was so usually prideful. Horikita had an attitude worse than both Yukinoshita sisters but to see her so down on herself would only end up hurting the entire class and herself in the long run. Class D needed an ice queen like her to stand as a leader to the class.

So what was I to do? Barking up the wrong tree with Manabu would only spell disaster and yet… would I really be okay to leave this the way it was?

Could I live with myself if I were to just ignore this because I wanted to try to stay in the background?

Was my own desire to stay out of other people's issues so great as to just ignore someone hurt like this?

(-)

It was unsurprising that Horikita immediately disappeared the moment Chabashira dismissed class. Gossip circulated quickly around class upon her departure. I could feel a few gazes turn to me since the perception of the class was that I was the closest to her so they all probably had expectations for me to go and find out what happened.

Well, they were right. Leaving the classroom, I made my way to catch up with the retreating Horikita.

There was only one real place Horikita would retreat to and that'd be her room, so I had to catch her before she made it there. I wouldn't be able to do anything otherwise.

Upon exiting the building's doors, I caught the sight of the girl in question. Even her walk is unlike the confident haughty stride one would normally see from her and was more akin to a hurried hobble. It wasn't hard to tell why when given context. I had to give props to how quickly she acclimated to her injuries, cause she was decently fast.

Either way, it doesn't matter right now. I needed to see if there was anything I could do to help her even if I was to be the target of some built up frustration. As long as she felt better, right?

As I approached from behind with a quick pace in my step, Horikita stopped walking. I don't know what expression she had, but I could make a pretty educated guess as to what she'd say. Stay away, I don't want to talk to anyone, especially you, stop following me you creep, i'm calling the police… any of those remarks I expect to be met with considering I wasn't exactly trying to SEAL Team 6 stealth follow her.

"Hey, are you okay?" I almost kicked myself at asking this. How tactful Hachiman, obviously she was not ok, but how does one really approach such a delicate subject? The real question was what happened, but I doubt I'd get more of an answer asking that.

There were two types of people when it came to dealing with something like this. They either let their feelings spill out just to find respite in anyone to alleviate them of the pain or they shut down and distance themselves from everyone in hopes that they could kill the feelings away themselves.

Horikita, however, didn't respond. She didn't even turn her head to look at me, making me believe that she was debating on just booking it to avoid me even if she was currently on one leg.

Looking around, while the immediate space outside the dorms wasn't crowded by any means, students were going to be here pretty soon and causing a scene is not something either I or Horikita would want.

"Follow me," I said, leading her by the arm, making sure she'd follow. There was no weight behind her steps. She wasn't stepping with any purpose right now. This needed to be corrected, fast. There were too many events riding on her involvement. I didn't want to either take on those roles myself or give them to someone else.

Not to mention seeing her like this was heart wrenching.

Horikita tensed up. We had arrived at the place she'd least like to be right now, the vending machines by the dorm.

Yeah, I sure was smooth, wasn't I? Bring the victim to the place where their trauma happened. Luckily there was no one to judge me as even Horikita wouldn't know how much I knew. I was even surprised myself as I had not expected the exact same scene to play out as it did in canon. It also made me realize we were going with the Light Novels narrative, since if my memory was right, the anime only had him seemingly try to slap her.

Come on though, couldn't you two mix it up this time? Same exact place with what I can only assume had the same dialogue. I suppose this is where Miguel would show up to tell me how this was a canon event.

I released her and almost immediately her legs gave in, making her sit down in front of the tree planters. Her head hung down the entire time. She was running on autopilot right now. I doubt she was even processing that I was here too. It must've taken everything for her just to show up to class.

"Hey, is there anything I can do to help…?" It was a genuine question given the situation. Instead of directly prying into things, it'd be easier to ease her into telling me by first seeing what she'd need to be comfortable.

It was really interesting how human nature was. For the past month if you were to actually pay attention to the relationship between Horikita and I, you would likely range it from tenuous all the way to abusive and yet all of that didn't mean much when one were to face someone at their lowest. It's amazing how much empathy one can feel even towards someone they would rather avoid.

Horikita's head was lowered even further, hiding herself from the world yet her emotions betrayed her as proof of her pain showed in the form of droplets cascading from her eyes. Her skirt dribbled down with numerous tears as she desperately tried to wipe what seemed like an endless downpour in a futile attempt to at least pretend that she wasn't crying, showing that right now I wasn't standing in front of a student or a victim.

In front of me was a young girl who had truly loved her older brother, wishing to be just like him from a young age only to have such idolization shattered without a single idea as to what she did wrong and if she was to blame for what had happened.

I underestimated the weight of Manabus' actions on Horikita. I knew she adored her brother and how she wanted to be like him, but to just shut down like this… what kind of mental stress has she been putting on herself all this time?

There was no snarky remark nor an angry expression. There was just a broken heart before me and I had no idea how to fix it with my social skills as Horikita did all she could to prevent her sorrow from showing in what she was probably believing was an undignified way.

With a cautious hand, I reached out to Horikita's shoulder, sitting myself down beside her. There were no words for what seemed like eternity and all I could do was sit beside her, lending a shoulder for her to cry on, holding her to me as she let her emotions spill.

I wish there was more I could say, but there were no magic words to just snap away such deeply rooted turmoil. Even now she looked like a mess with her fatigued face showing a lack of sleep on top of her red eyes. She was doing her best to try and steady her breathing, but with her current state, it just caused her breath to hitch more often as she sniffled and whimpered.

All the while I could only think about the source of her current woes with some resentment.

"Horikita," My voice was steady and calm as she was slowly regaining herself. Despite this, she didn't look up at me or say anything to confirm that she had heard me, before I hugged her gently as if she was my own little sister. "Take care of yourself," I said and not waiting for her response I released her.

Without seeing what her expression was like, I had made my decision. This wasn't something I was going to just let slide, so I made my way towards where the Student Council was ready to wage war.

If I wasn't so caught up in things, I'd have noticed that the unusual pair of Chabashira and Hirata had been nearby, likely having witnessed the scene.

(-)

The Student Council hall wasn't too far off with the only issue I had was people giving me looks as I stormed directly to where I assumed would be where the Student Council President would be residing in.

"Excuse me, did you have an appointment as well?" An older student with lilac hair asked the moment I had walked in.

I recognized her immediately as Akane Tachibana who was the secretary of The Student Council President.

She didn't seem too bothered by my sudden appearance and if anything, she seemed like she had been expecting me somewhat.

I obviously didn't have an appointment, but I didn't really care. I just needed the smoothest move from where I was now to the abusive older brother that had gone too far.

"Yes, I do, I'd like to know where President Horikita is, please." I lied immediately, hoping I could avoid any unnecessary conflict, doing my best to be polite in spite of how I was feeling.

"I'm really sorry, but President Horikita is not in today. He called out so all meetings will have to be postponed. We're really sorry." Tachibana bowed politely with a sincere apology, which caught me off guard.

"He's not in today? Is he sick?" The flames behind my anger admittedly dissipated just a bit from being told that I came all the way here for nothing as well as it being told to me in such an apologetic way, but that didn't dissuade me from stopping my pursuit of the elder Horikita.

"I'm not sure. You're a first year student, right? I can assure you that this is very rare for him, but generally there's a good reason as to why he would be absent, so please don't think of this as representative of the Student Council." She had a worried smile on her face, seemingly trying to make do with this unforeseen event and mitigating any potentiality that their image would be smudged.

I had to admit that she played the role of a secretary perfectly and I can only assume Manabu did a good job in having her for the job, but that wasn't something to focus on right now as I immediately turned around to seek him out.

"I appreciate it, I'll just stop by again some other time." I quickly said, not wanting to be rude to someone who wasn't involved in this sibling drama.

Then again, I shouldn't be either, but I couldn't help but feel responsible as my very presence had indirectly caused Horikita to suffer not only physically, but emotionally.

What I hadn't (and should've) expected was running into the Vice President of the Student Council, Nagumo.

"Hey now. President Horikita may be absent today, but I can step in as a Vice President to help you with whatever you need." Miyabi Nagumo walked in with a smile that would make Hayama insecure with how perfect it seemed to be.

"There's really no need. I'll just find him myself since this is rather private." I tried to slide by him, but he seemed peculiarly reluctant to just let me off as he seemed to block my path.

"Are you sure? It won't be long until I take over the role of Student Council President, so you could surely put your trust in me to assist in any way I can." He was hinting at something in his voice and I couldn't understand why.

I hadn't exactly done anything too big as a freshman to cause him to be this forward.

Unless he saw me as an easy recruit into his group of followers and this was his method, but even then, he was beginning to delve into the realms of being annoyingly persistent and kind of desperate if he was hoping to have someone like me hop aboard.

"I'm sorry, but this is in regards to his little sister specifically. I don't believe family matters should involve anyone other than those they themselves bring in." I carefully worded my words as I made eye contact with him, his blue eyes scanning over me as if to try and see if there were any falsities in my statement. It was ironic coming from me since it was exactly what I was doing myself, but I wanted nothing to do with him as is.

Eventually he seemed to let it go, stepping aside with a much more seemingly laxed smile, but that didn't prevent me from being guarded, knowing how this guy operated.

"Is that so? Well I apologize for holding you up, but I just couldn't stand by when someone seems to be troubled when I can help. Especially if that person is a friend who helped Ichinose with her idea to start a club." His words were cordial, but there was a layer of malice beneath it. A level of thinly veiled contempt was being directed towards me, raising some alarm bells in my head.

Was Ichinose attributing the GIVE club idea to me and telling other people? That is not good, but I couldn't dwell on that right now as I walked past the Vice President of The Student Council. Even if he seemed to be feeling some negativity towards me for what he probably perceived as an easy catch.

There were no more words exchanged as I left, I had one goal right now and staying around some arrogant person in charge trying to get passive aggressive with me because I cockblocked him wasn't really going to help with that.

While there was a mild setback in the form of him not being where I thought he'd be as well as having to meet with the unpleasantness of the worst parts of Hayama solidified and amped up to 11, I found myself nowhere near having calmed down as I continued my hunt.

(-)

Or at least I TRIED to keep my anger burning, but after a while of aimlessly stamping my feet across the campus, I found that irritation and frustration was a great way to douse any raging flames from within.

There was only so much feelings of anger that I can focus on when I had almost nothing to direct it towards, so I could only sigh as I debated on doing this tomorrow as there was no feasible way I could just find a specific student who I wasn't even aware as to why he decided to call in a sick day.

"Hikigaya-kun? Is that you?" I heard a familiar voice that seemed to not only completely stifle all the negative emotions I was feeling, but also immediately replaced it with a nice comfortable blanket of warmth.

I turned to see the owner of the voice, only to be dismayed as I saw that Ichinose Honami was with a few of her friends.

Don't get me wrong. I had nothing against her friends, but I had grown accustomed to just randomly bumping into her and having nice leisurely 1 on 1 talks.

Who can blame me?

"Good afternoon, Ichinose and it's nice to meet…" I began as I turned towards who were essentially side characters in the overall arching plot of Classroom of the Elite.

That felt mean to say, but generally speaking, most of Class B were just faceless fodder meant to band together, really.

Ah, they all finished introducing themselves I think. I didn't really feel like draining my social battery right now while I was in the midst of my pursuit.

"What are you doing here, Hikigaya-kun? This is an upperclassman section. Would you happen to have business with a senior?" Ichinose's face was full of curiosity. Despite that, she wasn't trying to pry on the matter, but rather, to be helpful as one would expect from an angel.

"I'm looking for our Student Council President," I said, trying to keep my tone even, "Would you happen to know where he is? Secretary Tachibana said he wasn't in today."

"President Horikita? I just spoke to him a while ago. I was looking for him to ask questions about my club, but thankfully Vice President Nagumo knew where he was and told me where to go." She had a thoughtful look on her face as she held a finger to her lip, adopting a cute expression.

"Wait, what? That lying and conniving snake…!" I knew I shouldn't have been so peeved as his pettiness is exactly what I should be expecting, but I still found myself irritated.

"Yes. If anyone would know where the President would be, it'd be his secretary and the Vice President, no?" She tilted her head as she thought out loud.

"I asked Secretary Tachibana already, she said she had no idea where he'd be." I sighed, remembering the girl who seemed so diligent.

"Why would she not know? If Manabu was as professional as he was, he'd have told the people he worked with that he'd be absent and where they could expect to find him, right? Oh! Maybe they just didn't want to tell where he was, because then people would go find him. If he's not feeling well, I can't imagine he'd be happy to have to talk to people. OH! Oh no. I hope I didn't bother him again! I already feel like he doesn't like me…" Ichinose was rapidly going through a flurry of words that I'm sure Re:Zero's Emilia would tell her to slow down and take a deep breath.

"Hey, there's no way he doesn't like you. He doesn't seem like the type to get hateful over something as small as this." I was pretty annoyed at having to defend the Elder Horikita, but Ichinose seemed to have some special idolization towards him and I didn't really want to shatter it.

Same for Nagumo too, I suppose.

Actually, looking at the duo that was running the Student Council where one was a shameless sleaze who loved to manipulate others and the other was a strict robot who resorted to violence uncomfortably fast…

Well. If the predecessors were anything like them, then I can safely say that it's no wonder the school was as cruel as it was.

"Yeah, you might be right. Well, if you still want to see him, I saw him head towards the edge of the school grounds over there." Ichinose seemed somewhat unsure, but she decided to take my word for it for now.

I looked in the direction she was pointing and began to make my way after thanking her.

"Thank you, I really appreciate it." I sighed in relief at not having wasted my entire day.

"No problemo~ If you ever need help, I hope you can look towards me for it!" She placed her hands on her hips as she beamed at me.

"I hope you can look towards me for help!" She says without a single thought about how someone such as I can fantasize. No. Stop it Hachiman. We will never have another Orimoto incident for as long as I can breathe.

With those thoughts, I made my way towards my destination. Towards a person who I was likely about to make a huge mistake in interacting with, but my existence as a whole in this world already was ruining the natural progression of things.

(-)

There was a lot of commotion within Class C, formerly known as Class D, and it didn't really take a genius to figure out why.

"Did you see Horikita? She had a bruise on her face and she was putting pressure on her left leg like she was hurt!" Someone asked their friend discreetly.

"Yeah, she was also late. You don't think someone attacked her on the way to class, do you?" They nodded in confirmation before speculating.

"No way. Why would someone attack her? They'd have had to do it while she was on the way to class, so they'd have definitely gotten caught and with how the school is, what is worth the risk of getting expelled?" Was the reasoning to dash that idea.

They all had thought of asking the seemingly closest person to the generally abrasive girl, but when they had turned to where he normally sat during class the moment Horikita had dashed out, he had already vanished leaving only an outline of what was supposed to be 1 Hikigaya Hachiman.

"How does he do it?" Ike complained, grabbing his hair in irritation at how Hikigaya seemed to so easily vanish when he needed to, before he turned to the next best person to ask. "Hey, Ayanokoji, where did Hikigaya go? Wait, uh, are you somehow also friends with Horikita?"

"I'm not sure where Hikigaya went and no. I think Horikita would beat you up if you imply that anyone is her friend." The stoic boy answered, though his eyes did drift towards where his seat partner had been sitting.

He couldn't outright confirm it, but if he had to make a bet, he'd bet all his class points that Hikigaya went after Horikita to find out what had happened with her.

He'd have taken out a loan to bet more that Hikigaya was about to try and help her with whatever situation she had gotten herself into and that much was understandable.

Had he more context, it'd have been him trying to help, but all he had been able to do was bear witness to his fellow classmate painfully dragging herself back to her room last night without any real inkling on what could have happened.

For someone who seemed to avoid interaction with just about anyone though, Hikigaya seemed to be getting himself constantly embroiled within the issues of others. It was… interesting to say the least from someone with little experience with social skills.

"Aaaagh. You're useless! Sudou, how about you? The young man turned towards the tall redhead who seemed to be getting ready to leave himself.

"What about me?" Sudou glared dangerously towards the hounding classmate, his impatience showing that he was not too appreciative about being stopped for anything trivial.

"A-ah haha, n-nothing! I-I guess you're going to basketball practice?" Ike wisely backed up, all curiosity that could have gotten him killed evacuated his body almost instantly when met with the harsh stare of the towering and temperamental classmate of his.

"Hn… No. I… I need to study…" He murmured, looking uncomfortable to the side, getting a shocked expression from not only Ike, but his partner in delinquency, Yamauchi, too.

"What?! Didn't you say that you could just cram if you need to?!" Yamauchi yelled aloud, getting everyone's attention with how much he raised his voice.

"Is there a problem?" The fiery redhead's face darkened as he stood up, towering over the two. It really seemed like the two were trying to get the larger boy to beat them up today with how casual they were acting with him.

"No, sir! Sorry, sir!" The two boys bowed in front of him to beg for forgiveness as well as to be spared for inciting his wrath.

All while Ayanokoji merely watched, hoping he wouldn't be mistaken by an onlooker to be a part of all this. There was some self reflection that besides Kushida and Hikigaya, Yamauchi and Ike were the 2 people he's interacted with the most.

There was something really wrong about that.

Meanwhile Kei Karuizawa was doing what she did best in maintaining her popularity. While she felt uncomfortable in regards to whatever may have happened to Horikita, she couldn't just leave things as is as she tried to ease everyone's mind about whatever had happened.

"There's no way it could have been an accident. A bruise like that isn't earned from just falling down the stairs you know?" Matsushita crossed her arms with an indignant look as she tried guessing what had happened to her fellow female student.

"I hope that isn't something you know from experience, anyways, you don't think Horikita is being blackmailed, do you?" Sato asked worriedly, not just about potential danger that may reside in the school, but for Horikita herself as well.

"No, she doesn't seem like the type to be able to get blackmailed, but she also doesn't seem like the type to just get hurt by someone and leave it at that." Matsushita shook her head.

"Maybe she got into a fight with someone? Then they'd both stay quiet, cause if they told everyone what happened, they'd have had to admit that they got into a fight." Kei gave her own theory, which got everyone to look surprised.

"That… That makes sense…" Matsushita held her hand to her chin, looking uncomfortable about the whole situation as a whole. "At least in that case it isn't anything too damaging if it was just a short fight…"

"Eto… The expression she had though…" Sato was reminded of how Horikita looked when she entered the classroom earlier. "There's more to it than just getting into a fight. She seemed… emotionally hurt too."

The girls looked at her with a perplexed expression, unsure how to respond to such a take as well as the implications, but Kushida started to bring the topic to a close.

"We can only really speak about what we know and since none of us are that good of friends with Horikita-chan, I'd say we better hang off from this topic for the time being. If Horikita-chan wants to talk to anyone about it though, as a class, we'll do our best to help." She clasped her hands together and flashed a brilliant bright smile.

"Kushida-chan, you're right!" The boys yelled in unison, getting annoyed looks from the other girls. They didn't like how gung ho they got over the prettier girls of the class, but they did agree that in the end, it wasn't really their business unless Horikita wished to get involved.

One person had his dull eyes on the situation, analyzing the possibilities and the outcomes. 'I wonder just how interesting this will get," Ayanokoji thought to himself. The class wasn't really full of people. Less people and more of a loose collection of character defects.

Hasebe shook her head from all of the commotion Kushida was stirring up.

She always hated the boys that were so easily swayed by their desires as opposed to doing anything for themselves, which only reminded her that one of the few boys she could probably trust had disappeared.

Most likely after Horikita too, who was the talk of the class right now.

"Haah, it looks like we got ditched by Hikigaya for another girl, Sakura-chi~ At least that means we can take a break from studying." Hasebe sighed dramatically towards her friend.

While she was also curious and wanted to talk about Horikita, she also didn't think there'd be much to talk about as speculating didn't do much to help.

"A-actually… Maybe we should try and review what Hikigaya-kun gave us… It's for our benefit…" Sakura suggested timidly, getting a shocked look from the bluenette.

"No! He's gotten to you! Even when he's gone I'm being tortured!" Hasebe whined. "He gets to go run off after his girlfriend and I'm stuck going over fractions!"

"G-girlfriend? I-I-I don't think the rumors are true about the two of them!" The pink haired disguised idol played with her hair as she stammered, catching the extroverts attention.

"Ara ara~ That's a cute expression you have, Sakura-chi~ Whatever is going on in your mind after I suggested that our dear tutor is perhaps taken?" There was a suggestive tone in her voice as she began to tease her closest friend.

Kushida meanwhile maintained a sweet and gentle smile despite her inner thoughts being darker than Magical Madoka.

She had been seething after getting blocked at every turn, but Horikita showing up hurt had served to be beneficial towards giving her a chance to try and outdo Kei Karuizawa in terms of a public image.

It also brought her great pleasure to see her seem so absolutely defeated. She couldn't fathom who would do such a thing to her nor why, but if she could, she'd give whoever it was that put her in her place a big kiss if she could! Heck, she'll start a fan club for them!

Her eyes glanced dangerously over towards where Kei Karuizawa seemed blissfully unaware of how much of a nuisance she had been, so much so that she couldn't even focus on trying to get rid of Horikita, but she had to be patient. Her eyes drifted from Kei to where Hachiman would normally sit, resulting in her eyes darkening.

After all, it seemed someone was playing the same game as her.

(-)

"Fuuwaa~! Onii-chan! Wake up already! Geez~" An annoyed voice called out towards me as I felt myself getting shook awake.

"Ngh… Komachi? It's a Saturday…" I murmured sleepily, feeling too comfortable in my warm bed without having to care about school.

"But… but… Pretty Cure is about to play…!"

That sounded like an even better reason to not get up if one were to actually care for my opinion.

However, Komachis voice began to tremble, a sign that she was going to burst into tears, which was the strongest shot of caffeine that anyone in the world could have shot through them, resulting in me sitting straight up to her delight.

It was Saturday morning and as typical with anime, every Saturday morning they play a new episode.

I'm sure that concept will never get old.

So Komachi usually woke me up so we could watch together as we enjoyed breakfast together.

"When you're sad, the happiness will disappear! Smile, smile!" Miyuki said on screen as I tried to lower my chances of diabetes by adding more salt to my eggs.

Pretty Cure was… not for my demographic. That was the best way I could put it. It had way too much pink and friendship for my general liking, but that didn't stop me from watching for some reason.

"Hey, do you really need me to be here with you to watch this?" I grumbled a bit as I caught what would have been a panty shot, but the animators knew better than to actually draw it in, lest they attract a much more different type of audience than they actually want.

Sailor Moon would be disappointed.

"Why not? It's just not the same watching it without you, onii-chan~" Komachi chirped.

"Eh, but at some point, things might change. What will you do when I'm too busy to spend time on a Saturday with you like this?" I asked, because I was genuinely concerned.

I was about to be going into High School and there might be way more work than I'm used to, so I might end up genuinely unable to just spend time so leisurely like this.

"Wouldn't that be an even better reason to do this now? Of course we can't spend time together like this for the rest of our lives, that's why we're doing it now so when you eventually have to live without me for a longer period of time for whatever reason you'll still have memories like this of your cute little sister to carry with you. Ohhhh~! That was definitely a lot of Komachi points!" Komachi smiled brightly, showing nothing but adorable pearly whites as she giggled.

(-)

As the nostalgic memory from what seemed so long ago yet somehow as if it could've happened just yesterday flashed through my mind had I not been in the situation I was currently in, I found myself angry again yet hurt.

I didn't ask to be here. I really didn't. I'm all alone in this world. Even when I became an outcast at school for many different reasons, I always took solace in the fact that I can come home to a little sister who loved me unconditionally despite my many flaws. Now I didn't even have that and I had no idea if I'd ever see her again.

That's probably why I felt so affected.

This wasn't some sort of action I was doing as a student of Class C, formerly Class D. I was here to help Horikita while laying into the failure of an older brother who didn't realize how lucky he was that at this school where anyone could be your enemy that he was blessed to have a little sister who adored him so much.

"What is wrong with you?"

Those were the words I decided to go with as I made my way to the older boy who had been contemplating alone on a bench of a forest path.

"Excuse me?" The bespectacled student responded at such a seemingly random line.

He looked at me with a momentary pause, confused before he probably guessed why I was here.

"You're one of Suzune's friends, aren't you?" He asked rhetorically, not moving an inch from where he had been sitting.

He had a tone of disappointment. Whether it was from the fact that of all people I was a friend she had made or that he had assumed she had told on him was anyone's guess, but I didn't care about that right now.

"No. I'm pretty sure she'd actually be capable of working up the anger to hit you if you were to suggest that to her." I sardonically answered, causing his eyebrows to furrow as his eyes narrowed.

"What do you mean by that?" He didn't know what I meant, but he can tell from how I was speaking that I was implying something rude.

Manabu didn't have any reason to care about what somebody like me said or did. With his position and how strong he was, I was just another number in the system to him.

But that didn't stop me from trying to get my point across.

Standing in front of him, I looked down towards the eldest brother, but he seemed unfazed despite me glaring down at him.

"How did it feel to hurt your little sister? Was it easy?" I asked in a sarcastic tone, my fingers digging into my palms as I wanted nothing more than to just sock him like I was Yusuke Urameshi.

"You talk about things as if you knew anything. This is a family manner. I can understand you're probably upset about Suzune, but it's not something you should be forcing your way into." He was talking rather confidently for someone within face punching range and that irritated me enough that had I been channeling the good spirit detective, I'd have had him lifted up by the collar of his shirt even if he was about an inch taller than me.

"No matter what you try to say or do, there is no world where "this is a family matter" justifies your little sister limping to class late with bruises on her face then having a breakdown after."

I wasn't going to let him forget that fact. If he tried to do anything but talk about the main point of Horikita walking like she was Maes Hughes, I would quickly remind him of what he should be focusing on.

Manabu to his credit didn't seem comfortable about how I explained the result of what he deemed to be a necessary ground slam into solid concrete (if things went by how they did in the original) to a girl.

"I…" He began, faltering a bit before he composed himself, returning to his usual stern face that I'm sure is the only face his entire grade has seen. "I did what was right for Suzune's growth. You might not be able to understand, but this was for her sake."

Really, I wonder if anyone would go along with this. I had the knowledge of why he did what he did, but that didn't make it better. In the original canon, Manabu was thankfully stopped by Kiyotaka so by the end of his last year of high school before he graduated, Manabu managed to have a rather touching moment with his little sister before they had to split once more.

Call me a cynic, but I'm almost certain that that was only possible because he didn't get a chance to nearly Rock Lee her.

"Even if hypothetically, I was delusional enough to think like you, was it worth it?" I asked.

There was a momentary silence and I can tell he wasn't sure what I meant by that so I clarified.

"As an older brother, you likely wish for your younger sister to be better than you, right?" Every mother or father that loves their children wishes for them to improve upon their groundwork, siblings are the same way. "You know what I think? I think that Horikita looked up to you, idolized you even and you tossed that away out of some weird perverted thought that breaking her would make her stronger. Well, am I right?"

Manabu flinched as if I hit the nail on the head which I knew I did.

"Say you were hitting her to get her to break away from that idolization? She's now surpassed you. Do you think she would see things the way you did? Do you think she'll look back to whatever happened last night and be appreciative? "Thanks for the fractured bones, I really learned from that, tee hee~!"

"I'm sure she would understand. Suzune will be smart enough to understand why I di-" The so-called genius tried to argue, but I cut him off.

"The ends don't justify the means, President." I spat out venomously. "What you just told me is that you are willing to sacrifice the relationship you two have had and for what? Some made up dilemma you created in your head because your little sister looked up to her older brother too much?!"

There was some realization appearing on his face. Maybe he did just think this was the way to go about things, but he tunnel visioned this one plan and didn't allow for any other ideas to form.

As I watched the senior begin to see some of the issues in his skewed logic, I asked the last question that he should have asked before he decided on what he would do.

"Did you ever think for even once if your sister even wanted to surpass you?" I asked.

There was no answer.

He didn't need to answer.

He knew it and I knew it as well.

I couldn't help but pity him as he stared hard at the ground in front of him.

In the end, Suzune Horikita was never at fault for how she behaved. She was a young middle school girl who loved and looked up to her eldest brother like any child would. Kids were impressionable after all.

Had Suzune Horikita not looked up to Manabu so much, she might have taken after her parents, a teacher or even a character from some anime she watched (Can't imagine that though.)

It was Manabu who had decided for himself what his little sister should be and chose the route he did to separate himself from her as much as possible. Justifying his actions as trying to make her better than him, but failing to realize that the more he placed the idea of what his little sister could be above him, the more he looked down on himself. Such self loathing added to his growing sense of guilt, but he self justified it by telling himself that anything he did, would make his little sister better for it in a vicious ouroboros cycle.

"You failed as an older brother. You might've made the right decision from the view of someone like a manager at Amazon, but you absolutely failed in what you should have done as a brother."

There was nothing more to that. I wasn't going to try to fight someone like him when he could probably isekai me back into my original world, otherwise it'd be me coming in late tomorrow with a limp looking sad, so I simply turned around and walked away, leaving him to his own thoughts.

(-)

Suzune stood in front of the door of her brother's room with a worried look on her face.

She held some papers behind her as she seemed to build up the courage to go and talk to her brother.

It wasn't like she was afraid of him, but she was worried she'd be bothering him. One thing she was always worried about was what her brother thought of her.

It wasn't hard to see why as with all his achievements, he had been praised thoroughly by their parents as well as everyone else around them, making her want nothing more than to be just like her cool older brother who she idolized so much.

She was thankful that she was a girl, otherwise she'd have been compared constantly to Manabu Horikita, but as a young girl, no one was trying to place expectations on her. If anything, they commented how lucky her eldest brother was to have such a cute little sister.

This always made her blush and giggle as she never thought of her brother being lucky to have her, but for her to be so lucky to have such an accomplished older sibling, which was who she strived to be like.

She sighed softly, taking a deep breath with her eyes closed before she readied herself, knocking on the door of her older brother's room.

"Come in." The stoic voice sounded from the wooden frame, inviting her in.

Slowly, she opened the door to step into the room of her older brothers.

It was clean and efficient as always without a single thing out of place. If there was any fault to be had with his room, it'd be that there was not much in the way of personality to be seen within it.

Manabu was never really the type to put up posters or have some sort of collection laying about. There wasn't even a book laying around or something to suggest he even had a favorite color.

"Suzune. Is there something wrong?" The first son of the Horikita family asked with a raised eyebrow.

"U-um. I just came back from school… The teachers said we had to write about who our hero was and I thought of you, nii-san…!" The elementary schooler held her papers behind her back as she swayed from side to side looking bashful.

Manabu was somewhat stunned that his little sister looked up to him so much, but eventually he smiled a bit and held out his hand towards the younger sibling.

"Is that so? I'm happy that you think of me like that. Is that what you wrote right there?" He asked with a small and calm smile.

"Y-yes! H-here! I-I-I-I want you to know that you're the best, N-N-Nii-san! I want to be just as cool as you one day!" She stammered before giving her older brother a big hug.

The middle schooler gave her a pat on the back as he reciprocated the feeling of sibling affection before she giggled and ran out of the room.

The elder brother sighed as he took a momentary break from his homework to read what his little sister had written about him.

"My brother is my hero because he's the smartest and most caring person ever. If I ever got hurt, he would be there to help me, because my brother will always be there to make sure I'm safe."

(-)

Slam

The night was young when one could hear the sound of someone hitting the floor as well as a whimper of pain being casted into the night.

Horikita stared wide eyed up at the starry night sky as an unfamiliar feeling of pain coursed through her body. Shock went through her mind as she tried to process what had just happened while she felt the cold concrete beneath her.

Her brother had approached her that night with a cold expression on his face. After being lightly shrugged off during middle school, she tried to do little things to become more capable and to maybe get praised by her brother, but…

"Nii-san… hurt me?" Were the only words that went through her mind. "Th-there's no way, right…?"

Manabu Horikita was expressionless as he stared coldly down at the helpless young girl, his hands still raised from throwing her. "Either leave this school or we wait until someone in this school gives you a reason to be expelled. Goodbye, Suzune. You should have never come here." With those parting words, he left her. His footsteps, louder than what Horikita could possibly perceive before, were echoing in her head as she tried to understand his last words.

Why?

That was the sole word that continued to be asked repetitively in her mind as she struggled to get up.

What had she done wrong? Did he despise her? Perhaps it was the fact that she had been placed in Class D at all?

She just wanted to be acknowledged by the person she thought was the best in the world. The one who she thought could never do any wrong or fail at anything. The one she thought would care for her the same way she did for him.

Even if she had done something wrong, was it enough to warrant the treatment she had just received? All she had done was follow him to this school. She thought he'd have been happy to see his little sister after so long, especially since she had done her best to be the best since then.

He didn't even seem to care about what he had done to her as she laid there, tears trickling down her face as all she could do was think about everything she could have done to make her brother hate her like this.

Even as she got up, wincing in pain as she felt her left leg throbbing in pain in a way she had never felt before, she did not think for once that it wasn't her own fault somehow.

That it was something she had done or it was something about her that her brother couldn't stand.

That the school had been right to place her in Class D because her brother seemed to think the placement was completely within reason if his actions were anything to go by.

Rising to her feet slowly, Suzune walked, no, trudged slowly back to where her room was. She needed to get back home as fast as she could. If anyone saw her right now, she wouldn't know how to react or how she'd feel, but she needed to just get away from here.

Her struggle back home with her emotions high and body bruised didn't help her ability to properly cope with the abuse she had just received, merely lamenting in self pity as her older brother's words continuously followed her like a curse.

A lone observer watched silently, having coincidentally decided to exit his room and had noticed her walking strangely, but given his apathy to everything and wish to not get involved, he wouldn't interfere with Suzune's path, merely being a spectator as he stayed quiet, curiously keeping his eyes on his neighbor.

Suzune eventually reached her room and by that time it was very late at night. As if it would have mattered. The emptiness of the room felt even more suffocating. She had come all this way from the comfort of her own home as well, hoping to spend time with her brother. Yet things never play out the way a planner wishes for events to unfurl.

With the pale moonlight being the only source of light illuminating the bareness of where she would be living for the next 3 years, she closed the door behind her, engulfing the room in darkness with only her and her own thoughts.


Alt Story: The REAL Hachiman Method

I decided the very moment that I realized I was pulled from my life just to be a part of the sociopathic narrative of Classroom of the Elite that I wasn't going to do anything.

There was absolutely no reason for me to do anything as it wasn't my style. It'd be OoC for me to just get involved after all and I just really didn't want to deal with people.

Thus began my bare minimum to coast through the next 3 years of this hellish educational program to the extent that had Ayanokoji known, he'd have been impressed and asked for tips on how to be as in the backgrounds and irrelevant as I had been.

The keyword there being had. Past tense.

Unfortunately, my plan of having no plan at all to let everyone else carry the story was ruined since the moment I existed as just the single fact that I had ruined two moments the main character and Horikita could have and should have met meant that the butterfly effect was going to be creating hurricanes that would have Katrina feeling insecure.

Where to begin with my absolute fuck up in realizing the ramifications of letting things play out in a story that had gotten derailed since the moment I was essentially kidnapped by god or something.

The first to go was Horikita. I should have recognized this as an immense red flag, but I was so adamant and stubborn to stay on the sidelines that I just let it happen.

She got hurt by her older brother without a main character to intervene and as a result, she was so emotionally scarred that a certain attention whore was able to convince her to leave the school.

Following soon after was Sudou, Ike and Yamauchi. Without a single person to even attempt to help them, they utterly failed the first exams and were promptly expelled.

Well, at least Ike and Yamauchi did. Sudou's expulsion was taken up by Hirata who offered himself to be expelled in his place instead due to his desire to always help others. Sudou was just somehow the highest scoring of the 3 this time so he was the one chosen to avoid expulsion.

What little that did. With Hirata's expulsion and his own ineptitude to even study, the class shunned him. Which coincided with his own guilt over the whole thing resulting in him being such an easy target for Ryuuen who got him to be expelled for attacking some students.

Actually harming other students. There was no fake out here. Sudou's stress and anger reached a breaking point and he lashed out, resulting in his removal.

Kei Karuizawa made the mistake of trusting Kushida, so she confided with her secret somewhere down the line and Kushida, not liking Kei being anywhere near her popularity, somehow got people to target Kei, resulting in her dropping out as well.

Poor Sakura. Now, I didn't just stand by as she got sexually assaulted by her stalker. I'm not so stupid to let that go with the knowledge I had.

However, I did so in the background, so her stalker getting apprehended was just a stroke of luck as far as she was concerned.

It was just unfortunate that due to her not telling anyone about it and her not feeling safe as being incapable of making friends will do that, the trauma ate away at her as she lived everyday with the mental scars from the experience til her attendance and test scores took such a hit that she too got expelled and without any professional help due to her reclusive nature.

Many more names fell off the list with Class D crumbling down to having less than half of the original member count it had started off with.

Still, despite the guilt of having been burdened with the knowledge to have been capable of preventing all of this from happening stemming from my own nature and anger towards being here in the first place, I was able to make it pass the first year without anyone so much as giving a strong impression on anyone.

At least, until Kushida somehow got hands on the profile I was given in this world.

"Siscon… Teacher fetish… Specifically 28 years old and 5'2." Kikyo Kushida read almost too gleefully from a stack of papers with my name on it. "Oh my. No wonder Sae-sensei avoided you so often. I didn't know you were such a deviant, Ha-Chi-Man~"

I gritted my teeth in frustration as I stared down at the floor.

As it turned out, the fact that I had not spoken up unless needed resulted in me being so unknown that I had become a blip on Kushidas radar.

After all, who wouldn't be interested in why out of every single student, one was barely known in any way?

This resulted in Kushida being curious and using her new resources accumulated over a year to somehow get my record.

Now she has legitimate blackmail that she can use at any time against me.

While it wasn't outright stated by her, I can tell she was expecting obedience from me from now on.

She still played the part of a perfect angel after all, but she was far from it.

After all, somehow she had teamed up with Ryuuen and needed someone capable of helping her to maintain the newly ranked Class B's protection.

After all, Class D was the smallest class now with 0 points still.

Even if the remaining potential in Koenji, Ayanokoji and Kushida were to work together at their max, there was no way to salvage our situation to try and even outplace Ichinose's class.

"Hey, Hachiman~ You wouldn't mind helping me with some things, right?" Her pink eyes seemed to glow with a demonic glow as she smiled sinisterly.

I knew there was nothing I could do to refuse. Even if I tried to argue that the papers she had were fake, her popularity and the fact that this came from the school itself would make anything I say fall on deaf ears.

Why?

I kept thinking to myself why I didn't try to stop her rise to power. Why didn't I try to save all those people instead of sitting on the sidelines like a spectator.

My whole life since getting here had already sucked with being able to get 0 class points and having no friends, but now?

"Of course…" I answered Kushida as my fingers dug into my palm.

Now my only options are to leave, be expelled or endure being a slave for the next 2 years.