บท 18: Special Chapter
Hikigaya Hachiman POV
It was currently July 18th, and Hikigaya had a problem.
Ichinose's birthday was quickly approaching, and he has no idea what to gift her at all.
Since the birthday was on a weekend, Hikigaya had told Ichinose that he would celebrate it with her at her dorm.
This was weird.
Hikigaya while having minimal experience with women or rather people in general, only knew friendships from books and novels as reference.
As such, he had no idea whether if their current sense of distance was common or not.
This was because the possible gifts that he could give Ichinose increased the shorter their distance was.
From what manga from his middle school days told him, it classified his and Ichinose's relationship as "Why the hell aren't you dating already?"
But Hikigaya knew better than to reference romance manga when going to relationship advice.
He looked down at his phone.
He had 4 contacts in his phone.
Horikita Manabu
Hoshinomiya Chie
Shiina Hiyori
Ichinose Honami
Originally, Hikigaya found this number satisfying, as it was 1 more contact from when the only contact information on his phone back home was his parents' and Komachi's.
But his contact was Horikita was so little it didn't even matter, and he only texted Hoshinomiya to ask questions.
Shiina had a similar experience of having no friends for a majority of her life.
She couldn't possibly know much more, other than what she read from books.
He was wondering the mall, looking for areas for gifts that Ichinose would appreciate.
Personally, Hikigaya would like to gift her something convenient, but with Komachi as reference, she would probably also appreciated something cute as well.
Hikigaya had a large sum of money, stockpiled up from betting and winning the majority of games between 3 whole clubs.
The money he was earning had dwindled, but it was still enough to last him a long amount of time.
For the first two months, he would earn an average of 2-3 million, then it dwindled down to 1-2 million.
This wasn't a small number by any means, but seeing Hikigaya's profits dwindle, he couldn't help but sigh
11,291,012 Points.
But on the bright side, that meant he had a large budget for buying Ichinose's gift.
Hikigaya put his hands on his chin in thought.
'Yet, Ichinose doesn't seem like the type of person who'd appreciate expensive gifts.'
Hikigaya thought, imagining such an outcome where she felt guilty that he had spent so much money on her, so it would be better to go down the route of thoughtful and useful while also being relatively cheap.
It was July, and since people on average would have 250,000 Points, he would budget himself to under 50 bucks.
There was obviously a little leeway.
If Ichinose was indeed a student council member, then she probably had to deal with more paperwork than the average student.
Maybe a more comfortable pen?
Since Hikigaya planned on giving 2 gifts that fulfilled the requirements of thoughtful and useful, it would mean that one was the thoughtful gift and the other was a useful gift.
But if he just gifted Ichinose with a ballpoint pen that had a 1 month life usage, she'd probably dislike it.
So that meant there needed to be a bit of asthetic value as well.
So, a pen that was asthetically pleasing and implyed careful thought. Hikigaya only thought of one thing.
A fountain pen.
While being a pen, it also sometimes had extremely large ink cartridges, resulting in minimal refill, and if the pen was buly enough then it wouldn't hurt the hand even after long usage times.
This was perfect!
Hikigaya immediately went to the store where he assumed they would sell the pen, bought a relatively cheap one that was still high quality, had it wrapped, and it came to a total of 4,000 Points.
It was pretty cheap.
Ichinose would be proud.
Despite having such money every month, Hikigaya had once seen Ichinose's frugal nature when she was buying cheap ingredients for her own dinner when they had ran into each other at the grocery store.
With only 1,000 Points, Hikigaya would need to buy a "Thoughtful" gift.
He had already thought of one.
Hikigaya remembered that occasionally when it was too hot, Ichinose had taken out a handkerchief with panda designs on it.
He didn't know if it was gifted or not, but Hikigaya forgot to even ask if she liked the animal. But he was going off a gut feeling.
After all, most girls like cute things, and what was a panda if not one of the cutest animals?
Hikigaya could personally relate with the panda's laziness, a sense of kinship between them.
So, now he just had to buy a panda plush and he was done.
—+—
This was quite the experience.
Hikigaya thought, making his way to the higher floors of the dormitory.
The first time he would enter a girl's room.
That was pretty nerve wracking.
He got off the elevator, looking around to if anyone had caught him.
He walked to Ichinose's room which she had texted him, then lightly knocked on the door, and the instantly opened.
"Hikigaya-kun, you came!"
Ichinose whisper yelled.
She quickly ushered him in, and Hikigaya took the opportunity to look around the room.
Expected of Ichinose, the room was clean, bed made, no dishes in the sink, and the ground seemed to be vacuumed.
Yet despite the pristine look of her room, it admittedly looked lived in, resuling in a comfortable vibe from the room.
All in all, it was way better than Hikigaya's room was all that he needed to say.
He didn't buy a single piece of furniture and it looked like one of those "minimalist" rooms he would find on social media.
"I made the cake yesterday, let me take it out. You can take a seat at the table, Hikigaya-kun."
Ichinose said, and Hikigaya listened, sitting down on the floor next to the floor table, setting down his paper bag next to him.
Hikigaya had also planned to bring his own cake, but Ichinose had already told him that she was going to make it herself.
But who makes their own birthday cake…?
Placing down the cake, Ichinose also took out some candles, before stabbing them into the cake. Which, Hikigaya had to admit, looked professional.
"The cake looks pretty good, do you do this often?"
Hikigaya asked in curiousity.
Ichinose smiled brightly.
"Yep! One of my hobbies is making sweets!"
"Oooh… That's pretty cool,"
Hikigaya noted.
"So you want your gift before or after we sing you happy birthday?"
Ichinose looked excited.
"Let's do it after!"
The two had quickly sang the song, Ichinose in anticipation of her gifts, and Hikigaya because he found singing corny. What could he say? He sucked at singing.
"Happy Birthday."
Hikigaya and Ichinose clapped.
"So, here's my gift to you."
Hikigaya handed over the bag to Ichinose.
Ichinose looked in the bag to see a panda plushie.
She looked up at Hikigaya in surprise.
"H-how'd you know I like pandas?"
Hikigaya had his eyebrows raised in confusion.
"Your handherchief."
Ichinose turned a little red at the overreaction having completely forgotten about her handkerchief.
"O-oh. I love this gift, thanks!"
Ichinose hugged the plush, smiling and thanking Hikigaya.
It was almost too blinding for him to bear.
"T-there's still one more."
Damn you pretty woman!
Hikigaya thought, annoyed at his stutter in reaction to Ichinose's brightness.
Ichinose looked inside the bag before taking out the fountain pen.
She opened it to admire it for a few seconds, which felt like an eternity to Hikigaya, so he swiftly explained his reasoning.
"I got you a pen cause you're a part of the student council, and they probably have like paperwork?"
Hikigaya flimsily explained.
Ichinose smiled after observing it enough.
"Thanks Hikigaya-kun."
Damn you pretty woman!
If the previous reaction was pretty because she was cute, now it was because she was too sincere!
"N…No problem. It's your birthday anyways."
After giving Ichinose her gift, they had each taken a slice of cake, and Hikigaya had to say, it was really good.
Has an advent follower of MAX Coffee, Hikigaya naturally perferred sweet things. Yet this cake wasn't as sweet, but it still tasted extremely good.
"This cake's pretty good!"
Hikigaya complimented.
Ichinose went a little red at the compliment, a tad bit bashful.
"T-thanks. You can have the rest, I'm going to eat out with the rest of Class A later,"
"Really? Thanks, you're an angel."
Free food?
And it was this fire cake on top of that?
'Ichinose Maji Tenshi.'
"Say, Hikigaya-kun?"
"Hmm?"
"When's your birthday?"
"Ah… August 8th."
Acknowledgement appeared on Ichinose's face.
"Isn't that during summer vacation?"
Hikigaya nodded. He didn't really mind.
He never really celebrated his birthday, other than the sudden cake and present from Komachi.
"Yeah. But I don't really celebrate—"
"No."
Hikigaya looked at Ichinose in confusion.
While having the best little sister in existence, having no friends to celebrate it with did make it feel a bit lonely. So he had slowly stopped caring.
"?"
"I will celebrate your birthday Hikigaya-kun! Mark my words!"
Ichinose stood up and pointed at him in determination.
"O-okay?"
—+—
A/N: And so this was how Hikigaya spent Ichinose's birthday.
This chapter's obviously shorter than other chapters for the sole reason that there was literally only one event to even write.
So I'll add an explanation on Hikigaya's characterization and Ichinose's differences in this book to make up for the word count.
I'm pretty sure I made a disclaimer somewhere that this Hikigaya is before he met the service club. Right after junior high, where he was bullied and ostracized from being rejected by Orimoto.
Also, I don't know if I explained this or not, but Hikigaya's self sacifricing thing def still exists.
He just makes excuses, saying that it was all for the money.
But remember this.
This is Hikigaya before the service club even existed. Like right after getting bullied constantly after being rejected by Kaori Orimoto.
This Hikigaya is the man before he realizes the impact that his self sacrificing thing has on the people around it.
Some 8man fanfics have the sobu high thing happen in junior high, but my story is 8man right after getting ostracized and bullied.
This means that he had 0 friends.
No Totsuka. No Zaimokuza.
But here's the thing.
8man's like a hypocritical existence. It's why some actions that seem OOC technically isn't.
He's vain and greedy despite being humble to compliments.
He's cynical and negative despite being self sacrificing for other people.
He's extremely prideful despite hating himself and seeing himself as lesser.
He says he doesn't care about other people's opinions despite caring.
Like 8man is the definition of a result oriented man.
And to be honest, even him joining the service club and helping people didn't even help him that much. It just gives him opportunites to self sacrifice even more, rather than having no social interactions. I admit he kinda healed with the assistance of the girls.
But for 8man, who came into ANHS for the free tuition and benefits, he came in fully expecting to once again have no friends. Planning on having the perfect peaceful life. 8man demonstrates this by immediately gunning for money and power, as the more you have of each, the more "relaxing" it would be.
That's Hikigaya's view of money and power, which I believe influenced his goal of a househusband to a rich wife. He had money and power as a result of their marriage, but much less responsibilities would be added.
So when he somewhat unintentionally made Ichinose a friend, when he originally thought her a proxy candidate, similar to how he would see his possible future wife, his gears changed because of said sudden friendship. This is because if Ichinose becomes his proxy, he would have money and power, while having a reduced number of responsibilities.
Ichinose asking to be his friend was completely unexpected.
This was why he immediately went to comparing Ichinose with Orimoto, seeing the similarities between nice girls, weariness increased consciously due to his previous trauma.
Ichinose isn't stupid. Her emphathic abilities are through the roof compared to other students at ANHS. She's observant and can read the mood exceedingly well, despite her trusting people too easily.
So Ichinose believes Hikigaya is telling the truth when he was talking about his bullying because he really was telling the truth, and I thought that getting framed for stealing is something that might have happened, from the basis that sometimes bullying in anime and manga escalates to that point.
But here's the kicker. Ichinose and Hikigaya are extremely similar whilst also being the complete opposite in other cases.
Here's the larger opposites.
Ichinose's upbringing was of one of a popular kid while Hikigaya's was one of someone who was constantly ostracized.
Ichinose actually stealed for the sake of her younger sister, while Hikigaya's bullying resulted in him getting framed for stealing.
Ichinose enjoys the process while Hikigaya's only sees the result to be important.
Ichinose was popular because all of her good aspects, and Hikigaya was bullied and ostracized because all of his bad traits.
But despite such different upbringings and beliefs, their personalities are extremely similar to the point it's kind of weird.
They are both self sacrificing, but while Ichinose's self sacrificing is to the keep the entire class together in the LN, Hikigaya is pointed only toward his friends, which in this case would be Ichinose and Shiina.
They are both extremely weak to compliments despite giving them out on a dime.
Ichinose hates herself due to her guilt from stealing, while 8man sees himself as lesser from his ostracized upbringing.
Like they had opposite upbringings, but their beliefs are so similar that its uncanny.
Yet while in the LN Ichinose is self sacrificing towards her class, her target changed from the class to Hikigaya when she saw the parallels between the two soon after she came to ANHS to start anew from her guilt. Yet she still cares for the class, but now it's mainly because Hikigaya is in the same class.
Hikigaya, on the other hand, while subconsciously also seeing the parallels between Ichinose and him, is still a little weary of her consciously due to his experience with Orimoto. This is why even though he does self-sacrifice for Ichinose due to their friendship, he covers it with the reasonable excuse of money and power.
But him trying not to worry Ichinose when he was running and going with Ichinose's flow when she decided to help Class D due to her convictions despite not having an alliance shows that he does care about Ichinose more than he thinks.
So on a personal note, I think this 8man is pretty on character.
An outwardly greedy and underhanded person who likes being alone on top of not caring about other people, but inwardly self consicous and lonely while being self sacrificing as a way to display that he does care. In it's own twisted way.
He's lonely, but since he values "being genuine" so much it's why he can have trust in Ichinose and Shiina. Ichinose because he read her general personality and beliefs from her actions, and Shiina's general deposition. But 8man values something genuine despite being extremely paranoid, another contradiction.
Ichinose I think is also relatively accurate. Her lack of experience in romance leads her to not know the specific feelings she does have for Hikigaya, caused from their parallels and his own actions. She knows that she favors Hikigaya, but whether it's love or something else, she doesn't know.
This relationship between the two was made solely because Ichinose met 8man early. I said this earlier, but Ichinose just decided to start anew after 6 months of being a shut in still stuck with the guilt caused by her action, and the first person she has a one to one conversation with, is her parallel. It's solely because she met him so early that their relationship evolved in this direction.
It's also why she has semi-yandere tendencies. Her inexperience with love on top of her attraction to 8man bc of said parallel results in a self-sacrificing attitude toward 8man added with her obsessive tendencies revealed later in the LN results in the closet yandere we see right now.
If you want to know his self sacrificing actions, I'll list them, his actual reason and his made up excuse for why.
1.) Ruined his "peaceful life" by getting the attention of the student council president to protect Ichinose from Nagumo, his excuse being that it would be bad if the leader fell from her throne.
2.) Ruined his "peaceful life" and wasted his time tutoring the other students to help Class B (and by extension Ichinose), his excuse being that there was nothing wrong with more money and power.
3.) Spent money and more money to help Class B (and by extension Ichinose), his excuse being money and power
(You'll see what I meant by hikigaya using money and power as his general excuse to anything)
4.) Ruined his "peaceful life" and got the attention of other classes by helping Sudo, mainly because Ichinose asked, his excuse being that if Sudo stayed in Class D, it would be more beneficial because he brings them down.
5.) Ruined his "peaceful life" and got more attention from his own class by proposing a plan to help Class A(by extension Ichinose), again, money and power.
6.) Ruined his legs to help Class A gain a bigger gap between the other classes to help Class A(and by extension Ichinose), once again, money and power.
Self sacrifice is definitely in a different direction compared to Oregairu's social suicides, but I can argue that attention in ANHS is arguably worse outcome, solely because it paints a target on your back.
The social suicides in Oregairu is him using himself as a tool to complete a goal where everyone won but himself. But I think that the social suicides in Oregairu impacted him so much was because he didn't even have much of a reputation in the first place, whereas back in junior high it was in the negatives. On top of that, he had to assist people that he basically had nothing to do with prior to the request.
This fic is different, because he's more or less using himself for Ichinose, which by extension would help his own class, so in this fic he actually gains something for being being reckless.
Thanks for reading my analysis and application of 8man's personality and beliefs in this novel.
Bro I was writing this and it's kind of uncanny how decent i did seeing as this is my first time writing something more than 6 fucking chapters.
This lowkey makes it harder to add more girls, cause Ichinose's the GOAT. Despite all that! I shall try my best!
Thanks for reading the quick(not that quick) analysis and the special chapter.
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