Chapter 240 066: Shiina Hiyori: Why did I have such a dream?

Hachiman did not continue to dream. But someone else had a miserable time.

When Shiina Hiyori woke up startled from her dream, it was not yet dawn. A sliver of moonlight filtered through the gap in the curtains, casting a thin white line on the ceiling. She lay in bed, her heart beating fast—so fast she could hear the sound of blood flowing in her ears. A thin layer of cold sweat covered her back, and her pajamas clung to her skin. She stared at the ceiling for several seconds before slowly sitting up and leaning against the headboard.

A dream. She had dreamed of Hikigaya Hachiman.

It wasn't an ordinary dream. It was the kind where every detail was as clear as if she were awake. His dorm room, his desk, his diary, the way he looked leaning against the headboard watching her.

He called her "Shiina" and asked her where she came from. She said "five years later." He asked if she was married. She said "yes."

Hiyori buried her face in her knees.

She had originally intended to say that she hadn't been thinking about Hikigaya-kun lately. The Sports Festival had ended, and the matter of giving him flowers was over. Even that poppy had been turned into a bookmark, tucked inside the copy of The Old Man and the Sea that she had bought at the bookstore. She thought the matter had passed. Yet, she had suddenly dreamed of him and said so many strange things.

Hiyori lifted her head, looking at the pitch-black night sky outside the window. In the dream, the older version of her told him—that Sakayanagi-san and the Koenji Zaibatsu had injected capital to restart the White Room, studying his supernatural abilities and overlapping the two worlds. That was why he could stay in this world, and his sister Komachi could come over too.

For Hiyori, this was information beyond her scope. After all, although she knew she could hear Hikigaya-kun's inner voice, because everyone could hear it, she assumed it was just Hikigaya-kun's supernatural ability. But things like the "White Room" were slightly off the charts. And as for the world overlapping—she hadn't even heard of such a thing.

But why was the dream so detailed? It felt as if it had truly happened. Hiyori's fingers pinched the quilt lightly. And then there was the news about herself. She dreamed that she and Hikigaya-kun were married. Three months after graduating high school. Not dating, not flirting, but married.

Hiyori buried her face deeper.

This was so unreasonable. Even if her own class couldn't graduate as Class A, she would rely on her own academic ability to go to university. She had never thought about "skipping college to get married" like that. Her goal had always been to be a librarian at a national library, which

required a degree, a librarian certification, and passing the civil service examination. But marriage was never in her plan. Never.

Especially being so urgent, three months after graduation—a time when she should have been going to university. Why choose to get married? It was as if something forced them to hurry into marriage...

She felt it was irrational.

"..."

So, why did she dream about something like this?

Hiyori lifted her head, looking at the white wall opposite her. She stared at the wall for several seconds, and a thought suddenly popped into her brain. ...Could it be... that she...

Hiyori closed her eyes, then opened them. Falling into puberty... and then... getting "lovestruck"?

When this thought emerged, her whole body stiffened. She sat on the bed, motionless, like a sculpture. The roots of her ears began to turn red, spreading to the tips, vaguely visible in the moonlight. She opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but found her words stuck in her throat. Because she never knew that she would have a day where she would be "love-brained."

After all, she had always thought of herself as a rational person who wouldn't be troubled by such things. Reading books, studying, taking exams, helping Ryuen analyze strategies, and occasionally talking to Hikigaya-kun—that was her daily life. She didn't need romance, didn't need her heart to race, didn't need to wake up in the middle of the night thinking of someone.

She lowered her head and looked at her hands. But he had given her flowers. Poppies. Not roses, not a confession, just buying them because he thought they looked nice. But he did buy them. At the florist's entrance, under the setting sun, at the corner of the shopping street. She had said, "I prefer the flower language over the flowers themselves." He probably hadn't heard her, or heard it and didn't care. He chose poppies. The flower language is "gratitude." She thought at the time that he didn't know the flower language and just picked them randomly. Now, she was suddenly unsure.

Hiyori took a deep breath, pulled the quilt up to her chin, and lay down. A dream is just a dream. Not a prophecy, not the future, not anything meaningful. She didn't need to care, didn't need to overthink, and didn't need to doubt if she was "love-brained" just because of a dream.

Perhaps she was just too tired lately. The Sports Festival had ended, new exams were approaching, the class matchups were set, and they had to face Class D. The pressure was too great. That was why she had such a strange dream.

Thinking this, Hiyori closed her eyes. "Married three months after high school graduation." This thought circled in her mind, again and again, and then she pushed it down.

'Don't think about it. Sleep. Class tomorrow.'

She buried her face in the pillow, forcing herself not to think about that person. Not to think about his dead fish eyes, not to think about that cowlick on his forehead, not to think about the way he looked leaning against the headboard watching her. Not to think about his voice when he called her "Shiina."

The moonlight outside the window gradually dimmed. Dawn was coming. Hiyori closed her eyes. This time, she didn't dream of him again.

.

.

.

The next morning, when Hiyori walked into the classroom, more than half of the students were already seated. Sunlight poured in through the windows, making the desktops look bleached white. Some people were eating breakfast, some were looking down at their phones, and some were lying on their desks catching up on sleep. The atmosphere was very relaxed, so relaxed that it didn't look like a class about to face an important exam. Hiyori walked to her seat and put her bag on the edge of the desk.

"Shiina, morning." Ishizaki Daichi turned his head from the front row and grinned at her. "Morning." Hiyori nodded. Ishizaki turned back and continued discussing a game he played yesterday with the boy next to him. Albert sat in the corner, holding a manga book, reading intently. Ibuki Mio leaned against the window, arms folded across her chest, eyes closed, not knowing if she was sleeping or thinking.

Hiyori withdrew her gaze and took a book out of her bag. It was The Old Man and the Sea. She didn't open it; she just placed the book on the table, her fingers tapping lightly on the cover. She was thinking about things in the dream. Not about the marriage, but other things—about the White Room, about supernatural abilities, about the overlapping worlds. Those things were too absurd; so absurd that she felt it was impossible for her to have imagined them out of thin air. She had never heard of the White Room; even the word itself was heard from Hachiman's inner voice. But in the dream, like an expert, she explained the purpose of the White Room, Sakayanagi's role, and the Koenji Zaibatsu's funding clearly and logically.

Hiyori's fingers paused. She suddenly felt a bit uneasy. It wasn't fear that the dream was real, but fear that the dream was not just a dream. If she really could dream of the future, then the matter of her marrying Hikigaya-kun...

"Shiina." A voice came from beside her. Hiyori came back to her senses and found Ryuen standing on the podium, holding a stack of papers. His expression was more serious than usual, his brow slightly furrowed. His gaze swept around the classroom and then landed on her.

"What are you daydreaming about?" Ryuen asked.

"Nothing." Hiyori shook her head. "Thinking about the exams."

Ryuen stared at her for two seconds, then withdrew his gaze. "Good. Everyone, put down what you're holding."

The classroom went quiet for a moment. Several students who were eating breakfast hurriedly stuffed their bread into their mouths and wiped their lips. Those looking at their phones also lifted their heads to look at the podium. Ryuen divided the stack of paper into several piles and passed them to the students in the front row to pass back. "This is an English vocabulary list. Write the English for the Japanese words. If you know it, write it; if you don't, you can leave it blank."

Ishizaki took one, looked down at it, and his face instantly fell. "Ryuen, this... there are so many words I don't know."

"That's why we're testing." Ryuen glanced at him. "Hurry up and write. Ten minutes."

The rustling of pen tips moving across paper sounded in the classroom. Some wrote quickly, some chewed on their pen caps blankly, and some secretly glanced at the answers of the person next to them. Hiyori lowered her head and looked at the word list in her hand. They were all basic vocabulary for first-year high school students, not difficult. She picked up her pen and filled them in one by one. After finishing, she lifted her head and found Ryuen standing by the podium, arms crossed, his gaze scanning the classroom.

Ten minutes later, Ryuen collected all the word lists and had Kaneda Satoru grade them. Kaneda pushed up his glasses, his pen moving quickly over the paper, occasionally stopping to draw a circle around a number. Ryuen stood next to him, his expression unchanged.

The classroom was quiet again. No one spoke; everyone watched Ryuen and Kaneda. Kaneda finished grading the last sheet and handed the summary of results to Ryuen. Ryuen took it, looked at it, then turned to write on the blackboard. His writing was large, every stroke forceful.

[Academic Assessment (English)] A (80-100 points): 4 students B (60-80 points): 8 students C (40-60 points): 12 students D (30-40 points): 6 students E (Below 30 points): 10 students

The classroom was quiet for a moment, and then someone gasped.

"Only four A's?" Ishizaki's voice sounded strained. "Didn't our class move up from Class C to Class B? Why is our academic ability still so poor?"

"Moving up was based on Sports Festival scores, not academic ability." Kaneda pushed up his glasses. "Our academic foundation is still the original Class C. This result is quite normal."

Ishizaki opened his mouth, but didn't say anything more.

"That's not the worst part." Ryuen's voice came from the podium. "Regarding the penalty for the bottom ten in the Sports Festival, our class occupies three spots. Ten points will be

deducted from all subjects. In other words, those three people's actual scores will be deducted by another ten." He paused. "Now, do you still think you can easily beat Class D?"

The classroom was quiet again. Some lowered their heads, some looked away, some just sat there, not knowing what to say.

"Then, Ryuen!" A boy raised his hand—it was Oda from the back row, E-rated in academics, and also in the bottom ten during the Sports Festival. "Shouldn't we start a tutoring group? To catch up on lessons or something?"

Ryuen looked at him. "If I start one, will you understand it?" Oda opened his mouth, but didn't answer.

"Starting one would be a waste of time." Ryuen's voice wasn't loud, but it was clear enough. "At your current level, you can't make up for it by cramming at the last minute."

Ibuki Mio stood by the window, her brow furrowed. "Then why did you make us take a quiz? If it's not to get everyone to study, what's the point of this?" Ryuen looked at her. Then he chuckled and said coldly, "Just to make you realize the fact that you are losers."

With that, the classroom became completely silent.

However, no one spoke, no one refuted, because what Ryuen said was the truth. Their academic ability was indeed lacking; they couldn't compare to Class A or Class C, and they had no absolute advantage over Class D. Because although Class D had many academic underperformers, one couldn't deny that Class D also seemed to have many academic elites.

From Koenji, Horikita Suzune, Yukimura Teruhiko, Kushida Kikyo, to Wang Mei-yu, Hirata Yosuke, Ayanokouji Kiyotaka, and so on. It could be said that Class D's background was also a bit monstrous; the ones dragging them down were absurd, but the top-tier ones were equally absurd. Therefore, if they didn't realize this, they wouldn't even know how they lost.

Kaneda Satoru pushed up his glasses, his gaze sweeping the classroom, and then explained, "What Ryuen-kun means is that before the exam starts, we need to be united. It's not about cramming, but ensuring everyone is in the right position." He paused and continued, "Class D's situation is more complex than ours. I think you should have seen it too; a portion of them listens to Hikigaya, a portion was bought off by Class C, and there's the variable of Ayanokouji. If we have internal problems, this exam will be truly dangerous."

Ishizaki Daichi scratched his head. "Then what should we do? We can't just do nothing, right?" Ryuen didn't answer. He picked up a piece of chalk from the podium and wrote a few names on the blackboard.

Class D: Hirata Yosuke Horikita Suzune Karuizawa Kei Kushida Kikyo Ayanokouji Kiyotaka

"These people are the keys to Class D." Ryuen turned around, looking at everyone in the classroom. "Hirata is the nominal class representative, but he can't control everyone. Horikita

is Hikigaya's person; Karuizawa and Kushida are too. Ayanokouji—he isn't anyone's person; he only works for himself."

The classroom was quiet. Everyone was looking at those names on the blackboard.

"For this exam, we are facing off against Class D. The rule is to create exams for each other and exchange them to answer." Ryuen's voice slowed down a bit. "The ideal scenario is for us to reach a deal with Class D. We give them easy questions, and they give us easy questions. Then, both sides get the answers, both sides pass, and no one has to drop out."

"But will Class D agree?" Ibuki asked. "After all, they have the most students in the bottom ranks from the Sports Festival."

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