Chiba, 5:00 PM

Normies. The type of trainer Hachiman Hikigaya despised the most. They were the complete opposites of his personality and lifestyle—people who felt fulfilled by life, who celebrated youth with their Pokémon. In Hachiman's opinion, they looked down on the solitude that brought him so much comfort.

Even worse, to him, were people who claimed solitude as their way of life. To them, these people were nothing but pebbles in their path, and in the worst cases, obstacles. This view was entirely shaped by Hachiman's memories of the past.

To Hachiman, this kind of person couldn't possibly have problems that loners like him could solve. But the girl with the large chest standing in front of him was beginning to remember on her own—not because of anything the Ice Queen had said—just as a part of him felt hurt that Yukino didn't know anything about him.

It didn't help that when they asked him about the girl, he just glanced sideways and responded dryly, which made Yui scold him, calling him a friendless loner.

It also didn't help that now the girl was staring directly at him, waiting for him to say something. That kicked his brain into gear, and it worked.

"Oh, right, I remember now. This girl is part of the most popular group in the class, which makes her a friend of Hayama Hayato. That makes her my nemesis," Hachiman thought, picturing the girl alongside the six other members of the group unofficially considered the strongest trainers in their grade.

"Wait, did her group use 'Hikki' as an insulting nickname for me? I wouldn't expect any less from my nemesis. But I have a Rowlet, and I'm not afraid to use it." He glanced down at his bag, where his Moku was peacefully sleeping. "Okay, maybe I don't have a Rowlet, but I've got other strategies to deal with you."

"Bitch," Hachiman muttered after all the mental acrobatics he'd just performed.

"What? What do you mean by 'bitch'?" Yui snapped back, anger in her voice.

"Qui!" Yui's Quilava cried, flames flaring up, ready for battle.

"I'm really a virg— I mean, nothing! Hikki, you idiot!" Yui blurted out, flustered, leaving everyone, including her Quilava, surprised.

"Qui?" Quilava lowered its flames, looking up at its trainer, completely confused.

"That's not something you should be embarrassed about," Yukino chimed in, trying to help but instead making Yui even more mortified. "Though I agree, Hachiman is an idiot." The Quilava nodded in agreement at Yukino's last words.

"My nemesis's Pokémon are also my nemesis," Hachiman thought, glaring at the Quilava, which returned the challenging look.

After his brief staring contest with the Quilava, Hachiman turned his attention forward and saw a scene many would consider amusing between the two girls. But to Hachiman, it was just irritating, so he decided to speak up.

"Being embarrassed about that just shows how superficial you are. But I wouldn't expect anything less from a bitch," Hachiman said in his usual dry but clear tone. Yui heard him and quickly shot back.

"You said it again! You're such a pain in the ass! Why don't you just die already?" Yui shouted, as Quilava's flames reignited, ready to blast Hachiman with a Flamethrower.

"Don't use phrases like 'I'll kill you' or 'die' as casual insults... or I'll kill you, bitch!" Hachiman retorted, pulling a Pokéball from his jacket. It was none other than the Pokéball of his Drapion, Destroyah.

"Oh, sorry... Wait a minute! Didn't you just say the same thing and pull out a Pokéball? If you want a fight, you'll get one, friendless loner!" Yui responded, with Quilava ready for battle.

The Pokémon battle would've been inevitable if it weren't for Yukino, who, tired of the stupidity of the two standing in front of her, decided to step in and cool things down.

"Don't fight, idiots, or you'll destroy the clubroom. And no one wants to get scolded," Yukino said, her words making Hachiman, Yui, and Quilava calm down.

Meanwhile, Moku, Hachiman's Rowlet, continued sleeping in his bag, completely unaware of the world around him or what had just transpired.

.

.

.

Chiba, 5:30 PM

After everything settled down, Yukino explained the true purpose of the club, which was far from being a place where wishes were granted, as Yui had believed based on Hiratsuka-sensei's words. Instead, it was a place that motivated people to grow and help themselves in the future when faced with similar problems.

Hachiman still thought such an ideal was foolish, but Yui found it inspiring. Motivated by Yukino's words, she shared her request with the club. As a result, they were no longer in the clubroom but in the home economics classroom, where students learned how to manage a household—or, for trainers, how to prepare food for their Pokémon during their travels around the world.

It's no surprise that this was one of the few classes Hachiman actually enjoyed, thanks to the peaceful environment and the fact that he could isolate himself without anyone caring whether or not he had Pokémon helping him in the kitchen.

But now that relaxed atmosphere was turning into something far more intense. So intense, in fact, that Hachiman's Rowlet woke up, perched itself on his head, and from there, watched in horror at what the pink-haired girl was doing.

And Rowlet wasn't the only living creature affected. Yui's brave Quilava, who had shot challenging glares at Hachiman more than once, had retreated to a corner to hide. Hachiman couldn't blame him. What they were witnessing was something so shocking, it had even left the Ice Queen herself stunned.

The atrocity that managed to break Yukino's composed expression was none other than the sight of the busty girl cooking without a care in the world.

"They say girls with big chests are often… but it seems like Yuigahama isn't just dumb, she's also a terrible cook. I should've followed her Quilava's example and found a hiding spot," Hachiman thought as he watched the terrified Quilava in the corner. It was the second most disturbing sight he'd seen that day. The first? Watching instant coffee being added to the dough.

As he observed the terrifying spectacle unfolding before his eyes, which was horrifying both to humans and Pokémon alike, he started to remember what request had brought them to this culinary nightmare in the first place.

Flashback

"Homemade cookies?" Hachiman repeated, thinking he hadn't heard Yui correctly. "Why do we have to help you with that?" His words made Yui pout, and her Quilava shot him another challenging look.

"Yuigahama-san wants to bake homemade cookies not just for her Pokémon, but for someone special, and she's asking for our help since she doesn't know how to make them," Yukino explained. But as soon as she said the word cookies, Hachiman could've sworn Quilava's flames started to flicker uneasily.

Hachiman quickly dismissed it, though, uncomfortable with what might have been normie love in the making, so he used the first excuse that came to mind.

"Why us? Doesn't she have a bunch of friends to help with this?" Hachiman asked, awkwardly pointing out the massive group of friends people like Yui had.

"Uh… well, I… these kinds of things aren't really their style," Yui said, embarrassed, as her Quilava comforted her and gave Hachiman yet another challenging look. That Quilava clearly had something against him, and the feeling was mutual.

"So this is how popular friendships work. Damn, that's terrifying," Hachiman thought, not understanding any of it since he'd never had a friend.

"It must sound weird that someone as cute as me has trouble making cookies, hehehe," Yui said sheepishly, while Hachiman noticed Quilava trembling again when the word cookies was mentioned.

"I really don't care, but I'll agree on one thing—you are cute," Hachiman said bluntly.

"That's not the point, you idiot!" Yui replied, blushing furiously. "But maybe you're right, and my request is a little strange for the club," she added, her voice tinged with sadness. Before her Quilava could decide to unleash a Flamethrower at Hachiman's face, he quickly spoke up.

"Well, I can really only make curry, but I'll help you anyway. Let's head to the other room," Hachiman said, standing up.

"Wait, can you cook, Hikki?"

"Duh. Cooking is one of the 108 skills I've developed to achieve my ultimate goal: becoming an AC."

"I don't even want to know what an 'AC' is," Yukino said in her usual icy tone, though Hachiman didn't hear her.

"My goal is to marry a beautiful, talented girl and become a full-time stay-at-home husband," Hachiman said with a grin that Yui and Yukino both thought resembled a Dark-type Pokémon's unsettling ability to make others uncomfortable.

"I knew I didn't want to know. Please, Hikigaya-san, refrain from sharing your empty dreams with such creepy smiles," Yukino responded, while Yui and Quilava nodded in agreement.

With that, Yui, Yukino, Hachiman, and Quilava left the clubroom and headed to the home economics classroom.

Back to the Present

Back in the culinary hell, Hachiman watched as the two girls donned aprons, and less-than-wholesome thoughts invaded his mind.

"In my opinion, old men who say that the 'naked apron' is the best thing ever are wrong. Their views are based on the fact that they've never seen the pure beauty of an apron worn with a maid's outfit or by a woman who loves them. Not that I've ever been loved, but that's beside the point," Hachiman thought, feeling slightly depressed at his last reflection but determined to stay true to his ideals.

Before he could delve into another mental juggling act, a voice snapped him out of his thoughts. When he turned, he saw it was none other than Yui.

"Um, Hikki, what do you think of housewives?"

The question caught him off guard, and after thinking quickly, he responded, "I think it's fine. They might be my rivals in my ultimate goal, but I admire their tenacity since it matches my own."

Surprisingly, his quick answer made Yui smile, and she happily walked back to Yukino, leaving Hachiman bewildered.

What didn't help was when he glanced at Yui's Quilava, who, instead of cowering in fear, flashed him a smug grin before lying back down on the floor.

"I swear that Quilava's going to pay for this," Hachiman thought angrily, glaring at the Fire-type Pokémon.

But the peace didn't last long, as the moment of truth had arrived—time to take the cookies out of the oven, and with them, came the horror that everyone dreaded.

On one side, there were perfectly baked cookies, which even managed to wake up the Rowlet that had been dozing on Hachiman's head. On the other side, however, was a batch of cookies so questionable that Rowlet refused to approach the good ones.

"I get it, Moku. It's obvious those cookies are complete trash," Hachiman muttered, and his Rowlet nodded in agreement with his trainer's harsh judgment. Normally, such words would have prompted Quilava to react negatively toward Hachiman, but from its hiding spot, Quilava also nodded in agreement with the sentiment.

"You too, Arashi?!" Yui exclaimed, shocked as she noticed her Quilava still cowering in a corner, while Yukino watched the scene unfold with a serious expression.

"It seems the cookies hiding next to the trash are the ones you baked," Hachiman said, glancing at Yukino, who, like Yui, was wearing an apron.

"I needed an example to follow, but apparently it didn't work. Now we have to figure out how to get rid of these things," Yukino replied as she approached Hachiman and Yui.

"Don't call them 'things'! They might look bad, but they could still taste amazing," Yui added with a glimmer of hope. But when Hachiman turned to look at her Quilava, the Pokémon was shaking its head desperately, as if trying to warn them of the impending danger.

"We shouldn't rule out all possibilities. Luckily, we have the perfect candidate to try them," Yukino said, casting a knowing look at Hachiman.

"I may have Poison-type Pokémon, but I'm not a fan of introducing toxins into my sacred body," Hachiman responded, which made Yui react immediately.

"You're so mean, Hikki!"

"Don't worry. I didn't plan to let you suffer alone. I'll sacrifice myself too, so you can see that the elite still cares for the wretched masses," Yukino said as she reached out to take one of the cookies.

"You didn't need to emphasize the 'wretched' part," Hachiman muttered, grabbing one of the cookies himself.

"Don't treat my cookies like Muk's poison!" Yui exclaimed angrily, grabbing one to taste as well.

.

.

.

Hachiman found himself gulping down water to wash the taste of burnt charcoal from his mouth, while Yukino was coughing and trying to purge all traces of the cookie from her system. She quietly prepared two cups of tea while Yui sat crying, lamenting how terrible her cookies had turned out. Yukino, in her usual cool manner, handed Yui one of the cups of tea she'd just made.

"It's okay," Yukino said softly, trying to comfort her, though her usual stoicism remained intact.

Hachiman, meanwhile, just shook his head, thinking about how even Pokémon weren't safe from Yui's cooking disasters.

But not everything was bad news. Moku and Arashi, the respective Rowlet and Quilava, were happily munching on Yukino's cookies, and a third figure had joined them—Glacia, Yukino's Glaceon, who had been released from its Pokéball to enjoy the good cookies as well.

"Damn, I envy them," Hachiman thought after washing the taste of burnt cookie out of his mouth, opting for water instead of something sweet like the two girls had done.

However, his thoughts of jealousy towards the Pokémon quickly faded as he turned his attention back to Yui.

"I guess I'm just not cut out for this after all…" Yui said, catching both Hachiman's and Yukino's attention. "Is this what they call the talent barrier? I'm just not as skilled as Yukinoshita-san."

Yui's words sparked a sense of empathy in Hachiman. She was taking the logical route, accepting that when you can't achieve something, it's better to give up. He was just waiting for her to finish so he could add his opinion. What he didn't notice was that Yukino was starting to frown, her anger slowly building.

"And besides, everyone's saying nowadays that it's better to just buy stuff at the store. Same with Pokémon food—why bother when you can just save yourself the trouble?" Yui added, clearly disheartened.

Hachiman had been about to interject, but before he could, Yukino, who was now visibly furious, spoke up in a tone so sharp it made Hachiman retreat inwardly like a Golisopod.

"Could you stop trying to justify yourself by conforming to what everyone else says? That's incredibly unpleasant—more so than those cookies," Yukino snapped, her face stern. But she wasn't done yet. "Aren't you ashamed of looking to others as the source of your own incompetence?"

Those words left Hachiman stunned, and he half-expected Yui to get up and leave the classroom in tears, with her Quilava glaring daggers at them. But Yui's response shocked him even more.

"You're so cool," Yui said in an admiring tone, a passion in her voice that Hachiman thought was enough to start a yuri comedy.

"That kind of bravery… it's like you don't care about anything else as long as you're being honest. That's what's really amazing," Yui added, her newfound devotion to Yukinoshita shining through.

"What's wrong with this girl?" Yukino stammered, visibly flustered by Yui's kind words.

Hachiman wanted to make a quip about how this was how yuri stories started, but he was too busy keeping an eye on Moku, hoping for a moment of distraction to steal one of the cookies.

"I always just did what everyone else told me to do, and that made them nice to me—but never honest. You're the first person who's ever been that honest with me," Yui continued, while Hachiman kept plotting to swipe a cookie from his unsuspecting Rowlet.

"Please stop, I think you've said enough. Watch how I do it and try to imitate me. Maybe together we can fix these cookies," Yukino said nervously, as Yui's face lit up with hope and she nodded eagerly.

Hachiman, watching how the power of yuri had managed to melt the heart of the ice queen, and realizing that his green owl wasn't going to leave him any cookies, decided he needed something with actual flavor to wash away the taste of burnt charcoal.

"I'm going to get a Sportop," Hachiman declared, effectively ruining the yuri moment and drawing the attention of the two girls.

"I'd like a Strawberry Vegetable Life yogurt," Yukino requested, causing Hachiman to frown slightly.

"I'm not your errand boy," he thought, but what came out of his mouth was, "Okay," yet another example of the Golisopod that lived deep within Hachiman's soul.

And with that, he left the home economics room.

.

.

.

Buying the drinks didn't cost him anything except money from his already poor wallet, but the walk gave Hachiman time to think as he watched the people and their Pokémon interact, smiles on their faces. From groups of friends to clubs, he saw how naturally everyone fit together, and it made him realize something: Yui was much better at socializing than he would ever be.

Hachiman had taken a long time to learn the advantages of not bending over backward for others, but in his past, even the slightest attention from his surroundings had left him constantly kneeling—always broken.

But with Yui, that didn't happen. Even though she often found herself swept along by the people around her, they accepted her not just because she was pretty, but because she knew how to move within the crowd. That's what made her a popular girl—a genius in a field Hachiman could never master, even if he tried.

That's why he had expected her to run away after hearing the harsh words of a lone wolf like Yukino. Words hurt deeply enough that even a good face couldn't stop the pain they caused. But instead, Yui had reacted with awe, as if she had found a path she had always wanted to take but never could.

Do the popular kids have doubts too? The appearance of a girl who, by social standards, shouldn't have even talked to him left Hachiman's head spinning with thoughts that contradicted his personal creed.

"Yui's a kind girl… but strange," was the conclusion Hachiman reached, in an attempt to hold onto his worldview and opinion of the popular kids.

With that in mind, Hachiman returned to the home economics room and opened the door. What he saw was a tray of cookies that no longer looked like charcoal lumps, but judging by Yui's expression after tasting them, the flavor hadn't improved much. The tired look from Yukino didn't help either.

As soon as Yukino noticed the door open, she walked over to Hachiman and, without a word of thanks, took her strawberry yogurt from him.

"Hey," Hachiman said indignantly, but his protest fell on deaf ears.

"I told her over and over again, just follow the recipe," Yukino said, her voice tinged with exhaustion as she began sipping her yogurt. "How else am I supposed to teach her if not with the recipe?"

The last words were aimed at Hachiman, not because Yukino wanted to talk to him, but because she needed someone to witness and justify her failure as a teacher. Hachiman immediately recognized this and, not wanting to provoke her, let her vent.

He knew firsthand that being smart didn't always make someone a good teacher, just like being sociable didn't mean you could make someone else sociable. There were talents that seemed similar but didn't necessarily grow continuously, as most people believed.

It was like trying to teach math by saying, "just follow the formula." A hollow phrase, because it overlooked not only how easily the listener could grasp the formulas, but also the speaker's ignorance that not everyone would understand them the same way. That's why Hachiman concluded that the real culprit wasn't Yukino, but Yui.

After all, you couldn't blame a genius for not understanding the incompetence of an idiot.

"Here," Hachiman said, surprising Yui as he handed her a drink—a chocolate milk. "And before you say anything, no, you don't have to pay me. I couldn't just let the Ice Harpy and I be the only ones drinking something different."

At his confident tone, Yui blushed and quietly thanked him while taking the drink. Hachiman could've sworn he heard a faint sound of her smiling, but he ignored it, turning instead to give drinks to their Pokémon.

Moku might be a selfish little bird, but Hachiman wasn't, and he was going to prove it.

The Pokémon gratefully accepted their drinks and began sipping right away. Their simple joy brought a genuine smile to Hachiman's face, and he glanced back at the two girls.

"Unfortunately, humans aren't as simple as Pokémon, so it's time to use one of my 108 skills—acting, to speed up these annoying situations."

Hachiman thought to himself as he smiled—a smile that immediately frightened the three Pokémon, as it reminded them of the ability Intimidate.