Hikigaya's Route to Senior High Is Not Normal, As Expected

Sabatoge

Hikigaya's Route to Senior High Is Not Normal, As I Expected

"I always have strong urges to sabotage myself. Whenever someone says they like something about my music, I tend to not want to do that anymore. It's not even that I don't like it anymore: it's that I keep trying to find ways for people to dislike me." - Mitski

...

Hachiman's POV

...

Considering the reputation of Sudou, who was a short-tempered individual who was quick to solve problems with his fists. Yamauchi, a constant liar who always bolstered himself to what he was. Ike, who was a clear flirt whose priorities were not warranted towards the actual priorities needed.
Hachiman could see that these three had their own respective problems.

However, what made them tolerable, at least for Hachiman, was the fact that they were capable when they worked together without much in the way.

If Sudou was motivated to learn the work and material, then Ike and Yamauchi had actually been trying to catch up to Sudou.

Sure, there were times when they struggled, and that was when Hachiman came in. He would identify areas that they struggled with, gave them a small recap on what it was and how significant it was towards everything, and finally, let them cooperate and study all over.

Hachiman watched, somewhat surprised at how easy it was to get them working.

Perhaps it was because he didn't judge them. He didn't call them anything, he didn't say anything. He was just a ghost observing and making sure they were studying. The only times he was involved were speaking and briefly teaching them some stuff and even giving them some sample problems.

For mathematics, Hachiman didn't like the subject either, so all he did was just provide the three boys with a following operation they needed to memorize. Simply put, if there were this in the equation, then follow these steps and you should be fine.

Of course, you could deviate out after a bit, and the boys had managed to find that out. Sudou, being motivated just because he wanted Hachiman to pick up a sport, not wanting his potential to go to waste, saw this as an opportunity.

Ike and Yamauchi just followed because Sudou was so motivated.

It was also because Ike had previously told Suzune that he had planned to cram study with Sudou before, but since Sudou was studying now, he likely realized he wouldn't study with Sudou if he left.
Yamauchi was on the same page, and thus the three were studying.

This was also shown when Hachiman picked up some random questions from a book and made them solve it.

Ike had managed to solve them adequately, Sudou was acceptable, and Yamauchi, besides a struggle, was fine. With a bit more, Yamauchi could catch up and be proper in that.

But it showed Hachiman that perhaps with a little ahem, motivation, with a sprinkle of selfish manipulation, Hachiman would be fine.

In the end of the first day, Ike and Yamauchi hadn't realized it was 7:30pm until Hachiman mentioned the library was closing soon.

When that occurred, they rushed out the door, clearly about to sleep or do anything else they do. Hachiman was completely fine with this. As stupid as they were, he was able to get them to perform fine on the small sample tests he would give.

Sudou had remained behind, and gave a small smile, "You know what, you being the leader is a lot more tolerable than that Horikita-girl."

Hachiman waved his hand, "Don't sweat it, I'm just helping you and the others with not failing and being expelled, okay?"