pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq

Now that the committee was earnestly working, Haruno-san had some free time and was present since she was taking a break from practice. She especially made her way to me and patted me on the head.

"…As you can see." Haruno-san peeped at the screen of my PC from behind me. Um, you're kind of close.

What the, is this perfume? You smell really good, so please get away from me…

"Ahh… You're not working at all."

Why? I totally am… I looked at her with my reproachful, rotten eyes and Haruno-san feigned surprise.

"Oh, don't like it…? I mean, I don't see any of Hikigaya-kun's achievements on these minutes at all."

"…" I went silent. Haruno-san looked at me and made a snobbish smile. "Hikigaya-kun? Time for a quiz! What can effectively cause a group to unify the most~?"

"A cold-hearted leader?"

"Don't be coy. You totally know the answer. Well, I can't say I dislike that answer though," Her eyes grew colder, but she maintained her smile. "The right answer is… a defined enemy existence."

Her true intentions were evident from that frigid smile. Someone once said long ago: 'The ultimate leader that is able to unite the masses; that is, the enemy.' Well, just having someone there to be the target of all the hostility isn't going to change everyone's attitudes at the drop of a hat. That isn't possible. But increase the number of people by four, even five, and they start multiplying like rabbits. The bigger the number, the faster thoughts diffuse. They say humans are 'empathizing' creatures. It's similar to how you end up yawning when you watch someone else yawn.

Barbaric fervor, fanaticism, and hatred, in particular, propagate easily. Multi-level marketing programs and religion solicitations are on the same boat. Anyone would feel better when being with someone. Doctrines and sermons followed that same logic. As long they can make you think "desperately trying makes you look cool", they were done.

Situations lie in the numbers.

The masses lie in the numbers.

Wars lie in the numbers.

You get people to jump on the bandwagon after building on the numbers. That was essentially winning. And the world now runs on that scenario. The one moving the world isn't a leader with tremendous charisma. The one moving the world is the established outcome from the absolute majority, or from the promises born from that majority. The rest is simple then. If an absolute loser existence like [Hikitani don't work hard] exists, then public opinion—the general masses—will trend away from it instead. People who try are cool. People who didn't are Hikitani. As long as that label continues to exist, people will have to try, their opinion notwithstanding. Haruno-san chuckled and looked down at me.

"Well, I guess our enemy here is kind of small-time though."

Leave me alone.

"But now that everyone's getting festive and excited, I guess it's a good thing."

"I suppose it is," I agreed halfheartedly.

"Oh don't give me that Hikigaya. You totally see it."

I did see it. I glanced at her. I saw through her and clear out the other side. I decided to bring out my razor.

"So what if I do? Bit of a nightmare really. The logistics of this whole thing brings me to my knees. I don't care what motivates other people. I have my own abstractions."

"Oh? Like what?"

"If I told you you'd think I was crazy," I informed her.

"Is that so?"

"It is. So do you mind leaving me alone?" I demanded.

"Oh don't be like that. Yukinoshita-chan is doing a wonderful job. You should be proud of her."

"I am proud of her but that has nothing to do with you."

"But I'm her big sister."

"You don't know what kind of guy I am," I shot back. "You shouldn't entrust a girl like that to a guy like me."

"Why not? You take care of her."

"My idea of foreplay involves a switchblade."

"Does it really?"

"Not for the girl. For me." I informed her brutally.

She gave me a glance. "Every time I think I have you figured."

I shrugged. "I'm a creep. Now do you mind leaving me alone."

"But you're so interesting Hikigaya."

"I'm boring," I assured her. She snorted.

"Nobody who gets pleasure from pain is boring."

"They are neighbors in the brain. It's easy to compare."

"It isn't really. If pain doesn't scare you what does?"

"Light."

"Light?"

"Light is a man in the middle attack by god. What is it made of? I'm assaulted by the stuff all the time but I can't comprehend it. It remains a mystery to me. Pain isn't a mystery. Pain is familiar. Light might have a touch of rest mass and move just shy of what we call the speed of light. We call the speed of light that because light was the first thing we discovered which moves near that speed. The speed of light has nothing to do with light. Note instead that it is the speed of causality. You can't travel faster than light because then effects would start preceding their causes."

"What would happen if that did happen?"

"Time would be fucked. Note that time isn't just a stage the actors, things with mass play on, instead note that objects affect the stage. We call that space-time. That's relativity for you."

"You know the sciences?"

"Some of them."

"Well you're smarter than I thought. I doubt they taught you all that at your physics classes here."

I chuckled creepily and shook my head. She didn't look unnerved by my laugh. Instead she tilted her head and gave me this sickly fascinated look. I stared her down. She was unafraid of my razors. But would she be afraid of my basilisks? I considered it for a moment. I didn't care about keeping her safe.

"That's fine. If a scoundrel like you is actually being diligent, then that'll rile them up in one way or another. They won't grow if the enemy doesn't keep it together, after all. Strife is the key to the advancement of technology~." Haruno-san started on her explanation, her eyes closed while wagging her finger.

Wow, she's kind of annoying.

But with her humorous gesture, her opened eyes were looking over at Yukinoshita. That gaze caused a baseless thought to flash into my head.

"Um, could it be…" My moving lips were stopped in place by her soft fingers.

"I don't like perceptive kids, okay?"

Suppose that the existence of an enemy is the simplest way to spur human growth. Could it be that this person was acting so she could appear as the enemy?

I found myself thinking that despite having no proof at all. Haruno-san smiled with a "just kidding", still holding my lips in place. It was a seamless smile, perfect to the point it could've fooled me. I was frozen in place and unable to say anything.

Then, there was a sharp voice cutting in from the rear.

"Assistant, do your work." Pom pom pom. She piled a bundle of documents in front of me.

When I looked up, Yukinoshita was staring down at me with really crazy, cold eyes.

"Dispose of the documents for the slogan change. Also, the minutes… are what you're already doing now…" Yukinoshita moved her hand to her mouth and went 'ah' as she raised her face.

"…Then, send a notification to every group regarding the slogan change."

"Hey, you clearly made that up just now, didn't you?" She totally said 'then' just now, didn't she? Whenever that gets used, it only made you look like you didn't have anything else in mind.

"There are times when I get a flash of brilliance too. Wisdom is something that arises in conjunction with that, after all. Oh, also, while you're at it, gather the exhibition written applications and upload them to the server." She just mentioned something really incomprehensible just now. She's really bad at making excuses. Actually, did she just give me more work there? Weren't you supposed to use 'while you're at it' for more work when it correlates to what's being done at the moment? Was I wrong? I looked at her doubtfully, but was suppressed by Yukinoshita's glare.

"Anyway, get it done today."

"Impossible…" Since it was Yukinoshita, the labor environment actually appeared more lax. It was to the point where you'd skip out on work, cut your phone's battery, and yell to your mom, 'don't bother with picking up the house phone for a while!' But since I was at school, I couldn't really stop… As I was drowning in hopelessness, Haruno-san lifted her arm and waved it so Yukinoshita could catch sight of it. "Should I do it too?"

"Nee-san, you're a bother, so go home." Yukinoshita curtly said. Haruno-san's eyes then welled up with tears.

"So mean! Yukino-chan, you're so mean…! Well, I don't have anything better to do, so I'm going to help out anyway. Hikigaya-kun, give me half of that." When Haruno-san reached out to the pile of papers, Yukinoshita placed her hand to the side of her head.

"…Jeez. I'm going to review the budget, so if you're going to do something, then let's go and do that."

"Hm? Fufu… Okaaaay!" Haruno-san made a suspicious smile for a brief moment, but she quickly returned to her usual spunkiness.

She pushed Yukinoshita from behind and moved. It looked like they were going to discuss the budget. When all is said and done, Haruno-san was doing her work. I wasn't really convinced that someone busy like Haruno-san was able to show up so frequently just for her volunteer group. There was no way she was that free. Then for what reason is she coming here? But that probably wasn't something I needed to think about. It would be more productive to think about how to get the work in front of me out of the way instead. Fufu. Corporate slaves were exactly called as such because they couldn't do anything about it…

pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq

-WG