Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Chapter 8: The Daily Life of a Highschool Boy II

Golden Week had arrived in Japan and every single member of the student body in the nation rejoiced as they geared up for a week of enjoyment. Honestly, if I had a say in the matter, I would have preferred to stay at home and re-acquaint myself with all of the Light novels and manga that I had been following. After all, as good as my memory was, years of experience fighting and killing made it impossible for me to recall the plot of some of the novels in my shelf.

However, fate seemingly had other plans for me as my aunt, who had been running a drinks stall in a beach in Osaka, asked me to help her out during the week. Apparently, she was severely understaffed and the sudden influx of visitors due to the holidays put massive pressure on her existing staff.

If I was the Hachiman of the past, I would have undoubtedly refused. After all, my past self couldn't handle such large amounts of social exposure in such a short period of time without overheating. However, the Hikigaya couple wanted to make full use of their son's newfound confidence and was adamant that I helped my aunt out.

This led to the current situation.

"That will be 240 Yen, Sir." I said to a customer for what appeared to be the hundredth time today. Dealing with a large number of people was exhausting, to say the least. The only saving grace was that there weren't any parties that caused trouble up until now. I passed the glass of juice that I had prepared to the customer who took it and moved to one of the benches in the stall. This was the last customer for the moment which meant that I could finally take a break. Since I hadn't worked in a position of serving customers since the few weeks that I spent at the tavern in Murim, it was a novel experience for me.

"Good work, Hachiman." My aunt, Hikigaya Natsuki said, as she tossed a can of juice to me. Even if I called her Aunt, Natsuki or Natsuki-chan, as I liked to call her, was rather young. She had the Hikigaya family's black hair and a figure that seemed out of place in our family which consisted mainly of petite people. It wasn't an exaggeration to say that she could have been a model if she wanted to. She was almost 26 years old and was quite a successful businesswoman, having started a few businesses right after graduating from college. "You can take a break now. We'll handle any remaining customers."

"Thank you, Natsuki-chan." I said as I removed the apron that I had worn for sanitary purposes. Underneath, I was wearing a loose t-shirt and shorts that put quite a lot of emphasis on my toned legs.

"Don't address your own aunt as Chan!" Natsuki said as she tried, and failed to bonk me on the head. My reflex had unconsciously kicked in as I avoided the blow. I liked to call her Natsuki-chan mainly to annoy her but the fact that she was so young played a part in it.

"See ya, Natsuki-chan." I said cheekily before running towards the beach. Since I was already here, there was no point in not enjoying the beach.

Beaches and coasts in general were one of the most unsafe places to be around in Murim. After all, the fights between various factions to control one of the most important ways of transporting stuff around meant that bloodshed was extremely common in coastal areas. Therefore, walking around a beach without worrying about my wellbeing was a welcome change for me. The evening sun had given the entire coastline a red glow which added to its beauty. Several people could be seen taking photos on their phones while some were walking around. I spotted a lot of couples around as well, walking hand in hand.

As I was walking around, I came across a familiar face.

"Miura-san? Fancy seeing you here." I had not expected to meet the blonde here. After I had saved her last time, I admittedly did not have much contact with the social queen of my class. She had thanked me once and that was about it when it came to their interactions. Honestly, I was fine with that since the glasses girl that Miura was close to, Ebina Hina, if I recall correctly, kind of gave me a different kind of dangerous vibe. Speaking of Miura, she was wearing a white two-piece swimsuit that had frills with a jacket covering her upper body.

"Hikio?! What are you doing here?" judging by her expression, the girl was as surprised as I was.

"My aunt runs a drinks bar here. I was helping her out due to the current rush." I said honestly, choosing to ignore her little nickname for me, having gotten used to it by now. "What about you?"

"I am here with a few of my friends. We wanted to hang out during Golden Week and Hayama-kun suggested this place."

"I see. Have fun then." Having exchanged a few pleasantries with her, I was about to leave.

"Is that Hikitani-kun I, see?" As I was about to leave, I was halted by a voice that I wasn't very familiar with. Turning around, I saw Ebina Hina walking towards me followed by a group of girls that I wasn't familiar with. Ebina was wearing a light green bikini which looked more cute than sensual on her due to her figure.

"Hello, Ebina-san." As there was no reason for me to be rude, I exchanged some words with the girls. Dealing with high school girls was a lot more taxing than I expected and bid farewell to them after a while, emotionally drained. Ebina was giving me some seriously weird vibes that I chose to ignore.

"Oh, you're back, Hachiman? That was a lot earlier than expected." Aunt Natsuki was cleaning up the stall alongside the staff when I returned. Since the heat had died down, the demand in our stall had gone down with people preferring something alcoholic now. This meant that the stall was about to be closed for the day.

"Good work, Natsuki-chan. Do you need any help?" I asked.

"I'm alright. Say, Hachiman. There is a festival today in a nearby shrine. Do you want to go?" As she was cleaning, Natsuki asked. "Also, don't address your aunt as chan!"

"A festival? At this time?" My question was valid since most shrines across Japan usually held festivals during the summer. Also, I conveniently chose to ignore the latter half of her dialogue.

"It's a weird shrine, is all I can say. So, do you want to go?"

"Sure, why not?" Since I was here, might as well enjoy it.

After spending a long time having a battle of wits with my aunt, who had been adamant that I wore a yukata for the occasion, I finally reached my destination. I was wearing a dark blue yukata which, coupled with the fact that I had the aura of a veteran, gave me the air of a Yakuza boss. In a way, this was beneficial for me since even in the crowded festival, people were unconsciously giving me space as they moved away from me. I even saw a few mothers picking up their children from the ground as I passed by, which seemed a bit rude but I ignored it.

Festivals were something that happened a lot of the time in Murim. After all, big clans and influential people were more than willing to throw a festival every time something happened in their lives. The king had a child? Throw a festival. The Clan won a battle? Throw a festival. Someone was getting married? Throw a festival. This was the entire motto of Murim. In a way, I could understand their feelings. Since life was so short in Murim, everyone wanted to do everything they could do before passing. But, most of the time, these festivals ended up in fights and oftentimes massacres because someone was offended by something. Therefore, to go to a festival without worrying about offending someone was a luxury that I didn't have when I entered Murim. By the time I had gotten strong enough to not worry about it, things had long gone south and the war was imminent. Making a mental note to let Ruonxi experience such a festival in the future, I made my way to the stalls that had several games for visitors to try.

After absolutely demolishing all the minigames in the festival, (I had refused to take the prizes since I was basically a cheat but winning was still fun), I made my way to a bench where a few tired people were sitting. Although I wasn't physically tired, I still felt a bit of mental fatigue.

"Hikio?" As I sat on the bench, staring at the stars that were completely different from the ones that I was accustomed to from my long days in Murim, I was brought back to Earth by a familiar voice. As I looked toward the source of the voice, I laid my eyes on Miura and the rest of her gang, all clad in some fancy kimonos. All of them had done some make-up which gave them a completely different air than the time at the beach.

"We meet again, Miura-san. Did you just arrive?" I asked.

"Yes. What about you?"

"I am more or less done. I will be leaving after the fireworks."

"Is that so? Then I suppose we will leave you be. It was nice meeting you, Hikio."

The fireworks display was quite lively with a lot of people around and after it was done, I returned to my aunt's house. For the next few days, I worked at the stall until Golden Week was about to end which meant that I had to go back home. My aunt had given me a good amount of money as payment for the work I had done, so it wasn't as if I didn't receive any benefits from this trip.

Once Golden Week was over, school picked up pace as summer vacation was approaching. My daily life was rather uneventful with most of the time I spent in school divided between classes and spending time with my friends. Zaimokuza's Light Novel had been finished and I had spent a few days reviewing it before informing him that it wasn't good enough. The fat boy had skills when it came to writing but he was all over the place when it came to plot progression. My honest advice for him was to reduce the number of complex sentences and non-sensical phrases in the novel to avoid confusing the readers.

Yui was still around and was as cute as ever. I had visited her home on multiple occasions now, having become quite friendly with her parents. Masayoshi-san and I had become close friends by bonding over shogi and Yuri-san and I were now cooking buddies. The lady knew her stuff and that was something that I respected.

My excursions into the Kawasaki household too had increased. Kei-chan was an angel as always and my relationship with Saki was getting closer. She even confided in me, her plans to start working part-time to avoid depending on her parents for college fees. I promptly informed her that what she needed was a scholarship and not a job. Since Soubu had such an excellent reputation, she already had a higher chance of getting full scholarships. The only thing she needed to do was study and get great marks consistently.

As time passed, summer vacation was finally around the corner and that meant that it was time for high school students to face their worst enemy- tests.

"Are you ready to face our greatest enemy, my friend?" Zaimokuza was in full swing. Since we had conducted a few study sessions together with Yui and Saki, he didn't look like he was too worried.

"If it wasn't for you, I don't think I would have been so comfortable right now." Saki said.

"As long as you haven't forgotten what we reviewed, you will get good marks." I reassured them.

The tests went as easily as one would think. Since the topics involved were quite simple for someone like me, I was pretty sure that I would get a perfect score in every single subject. From what I heard from them, both Zaimokuza and Saki did well in it. Yui wasn't as confident but then again, she wasn't as academically inclined as the other two, so it wasn't a big deal.

With the tests done, it was time for school to be closed for summer vacation. After making plans to meet up during the break, we parted ways.

Yumiko P.O.V

Miura Yumiko considered herself a winner in life. She had parents who were wealthy enough to provide a comfortable life for her, great looks, and amazing social skills. In fact, her social skills were so good that she had been at the top of her class since she had been in kindergarten. It was quite easy for her to make others do her bidding by using her looks and this had earned her the nickname of 'Queen' on multiple different occasions. When she had managed to get into the single most prestigious school in the entire city (She wasn't even surprised a bit that she got in because she was that good), she didn't expect things to go any differently. Even among the elites of Soubu, she could stand her ground.

What she didn't expect was to fall in love with someone as soon as she entered high school. As cliché as it sounds, what she felt for Hayama Hayato was love at first sight. After all, the blonde boy was the best possible match for her in the entire school. Their looks weren't too far apart and even their financial and social standings seemed to match. Therefore, within a week of joining Soubu, she started chasing Hayato. The school's rumor mill made this knowledge public quite quickly but she didn't care.

Of course, even as she was chasing Hayato, she still managed to gain a position at the very top of her class's social hierarchy. Even if she wasn't the undisputed best-looking girl in school anymore (Yukinoshita Yukino took that title by a landslide), she was still a queen. However, for the first time in her life, Miura Yumiko ran into an anomaly.

Hikigaya Hachiman was a weird existence in Soubu. Although he was rumored to be a Yakuza member at the early stage of the semester (which was stupid in her opinion. Soubu had very strict requirements for students enrolling after all), he was still a popular guy. As much as she disliked saying this, Hikigaya was arguably more popular than Hayato was especially among the upperclassmen. Under normal circumstances, when such a popular guy shared a class with her, she would have to share her position at the top with him. However, for some reason, Hikigaya Hachiman did not seem to care much about it. This was something that Yumiko was completely unfamiliar with. After all, who wouldn't want to be popular if given the chance?

However, as time passed, she concluded that Hikigaya Hachiman, in fact, did not care about such things. He had two friends, three, if you count the pink-haired girl from Hayato's class, and did what he wanted to. Every once in a while, he would do things that would keep his legend in Soubu secure, be it his unfathomable physical prowess or knowledge that made him a good friend to the faculty.

Yumiko had, on multiple occasions, tried to get him to join her group but the guy refused without batting an eyelash. As someone who wasn't used to getting rejected, she did not know how to deal with him. Eventually, she just decided to give up and left the guy alone.

However, even as she wanted to leave him alone, fate had other plans for her.

In hindsight, it was stupid of her to go to such a desolate part of town to buy a few clothes. The fact that she ran into a group of delinquents, was bad luck on her part. With no escape in sight and no one around to help, she was truly scared. Then Hikigaya came from nowhere and saved her.

As someone who liked to read novels, Yumiko was knowledgeable about the trope of a hero saving the beauty that was seen in many novels. She just didn't expect that she would be on the receiving end of such a situation. In hindsight, there might have been some truth about Hikigaya being a Yakuza member. The ease with which he ripped apart older guys that were no slouch on the physical department, spoke volumes about actual fighting experience that a high school boy shouldn't have. Therefore, when she asked him whether he was afraid of retaliation and he said no, she was sure that he had some connections to the Yakuza. As a result, Yumiko did her best to stay away from Hachiman after thanking him for his help. After all, even if her parents were rich, they were still normal people, and mixing with the underworld was risky for them. After a few weeks passed and there wasn't any retaliation from the delinquents, Yumiko was finally relieved and went back to her normal life. She even gave Hachiman a nickname of her own. That said, she wasn't the type of girl to fall in love with someone because they helped her, and her heart remained fixed on Hayato, who had become a close friend to her even if they were in different classes.

So, when she met Hachiman during her vacation in Golden Week, she didn't think much about the encounter. That said, she still wanted to try and become his friend since the guy definitely had some stories to tell.

Hello there.

I don't even know if anyone remembers this story anymore but it's been a long ass time since my last update and I am sorry for that. Since then, I have gotten a job after passing a few exams and now work as a professional Chartered Accountant. Couple that with the ginormous writer's block that I experienced when it came to this story and you get the situation.

I have written a few stories afterwards and managed to find some form in writing which is why I am writing this. Anyway, feel free to let me know if something is amiss or if the quality of the story has gone down.

P.S. I completely forgot the plot of this story and had to re-read the entire thing so I wouldn't blame you if you ignore it now.