Crossover anime, starting with Hachiman Hikigaya replacing Subaru Natsuki!

After talking to that father, I'll come back and submit my withdrawal application. While I'm at it, I'll also give these clowns a good talking-to and teach them a lesson about the gap between reality and the world.

A momentary desire overshadowing fear—just a clown.

If one can consistently overcome fear with desire, then that's commendable. In this school, only a handful of people, like Long Yuan, can achieve that.

Those were the only few people who caught Ayanokouji Kiyotaka's eye. It was only because of those few people that Ayanokouji Kiyotaka had stayed here with interest to play around. After all, Ryuen was quite interesting.

But that was before.

Now, in his eyes, everyone in the entire Advanced Nurturing High School, except for himself, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, combined, is not as good as Hikigaya Hachiman.

His goal has been found.

"Heh, heh heh... Heh, heh heh ha ha ha ha ha!!"

422. Don't come any closer!

When Roswaal tore open his shirt, the other three people present understood what he meant.

Just like the contract signed after the Sanctuary's defeat, Roswaal will now pay with his own life to sign a contract that will absolutely not harm Hachiman Hikigaya and the others.

"For four hundred years, I have devoted myself to studying the resurrection of my teacher, because there was very little gospel in the Book of Wisdom before. Apart from possessing my own descendants, I have never intentionally harmed anyone."

"I know that my future self will be utterly wicked and unforgivable, but could you please give me a chance to reform, considering that nothing has happened yet?"

His humble and submissive attitude was surprising. According to calculations, Roswaal, whose situation was hopeless, should have either abandoned everything and fled or faced death calmly. He shouldn't be so afraid of death and have such a spineless personality.

But before resolving this mystery, Hachiman Hikigaya paused for a moment before asking another question: "Did you destroy Rem's ghost village?"

“No.” Roswaal shook his head and admitted, “It was the Witch Cult that carried out the massacre. I was just following the instructions of the Book of Wisdom to adopt the only two remaining orphaned sisters. I did not participate in any of the massacre.”

"I also saw the Witch Pandora there at the time. Perhaps she discovered that Ram had the power to be reborn as a demon, and that's why she planned this massacre, with the aim of cutting off Ram's horn."

In order to save his life, Roswaal added a further explanation. As for whether his deduction of Pandora's thoughts was correct or not, it didn't matter. In any case, whether it was right or wrong, it wouldn't affect Reinhard and Hachiman Hikigaya's determination to kill Pandora.

The two exchanged a glance.

Reinhard hesitated for a moment. His original intention was to arrest Roswaal and put him in prison, but the God of War had already told him that Roswaal's words were true. So far, apart from possessing his offspring, Roswaal had not had time to do anything heinous.

Even regarding the matter of taking over the body of a descendant, according to the noble laws of the Kingdom of Lugnica, Roswaal, who is a count, head of the family, and elder, does indeed have the right to decide the fate of his own descendants, and outsiders can hardly interfere.

While morally reprehensible, this is not a crime under the kingdom's laws.

"You decide, Hachiman." Reinhard whispered his dilemma to his best friend, choosing to follow the advice of Hachiman Hikigaya, a victim harmed by Roswaal.

"...Did you survive so that you could continue to shine and contribute to the resurrection of Echidna?"

“No, quite the opposite.” Roswaal’s expression and tone turned ferocious. “I want to live so that I can personally deal with that usurper Echidna! That imposter who pretended to be a teacher and manipulated me and Beatrice!”

His murderous aura was terrifying. It took him a while to vent his emotions before he could control himself. "And right now, I have absolutely no desire to die."

"After suddenly realizing the truth, I discovered how meaningless my life had been for the past four hundred years. For the rest of my time, I want to see Beatrice happy because of you, and I also want to try to win back Ram and Garfield's forgiveness."

"You treat Beatrice as your younger sister, but I treated her as my younger sister four hundred years ago... You can understand that feeling, right, Hachiman Hikigaya."

If the original future memories were the primary factor, Roswaal would have vanished without a trace long ago.

However, the future memories inserted into his mind are not as prominent or clear as the present memories. In other words, Hachiman Hikigaya is dominated by the present, rather than by the future after he has been harmed.

So he wanted to try his best to see if he could successfully beg for mercy.

Hachiman Hikigaya's hem was gently tugged at by Beatrice, who was looking up at him with a face that clearly showed she was pleading for Roswaal.

With Reinhard fully empowered, he not only saw through the presence of lies around Roswaal, but also saw through his thoughts, even his subconscious and other aspects.

This comprehensive and thorough evaluation proves that Roswaal is telling the truth, so there is nothing to doubt; he has indeed turned over a new leaf.

…Having received a nod of approval from Reinhard, Hachiman Hikigaya was also caught in a dilemma. After careful consideration, he decided to let Roswaal decide for himself whether or not he could seize this opportunity.

"The contract that you cannot harm Emilia and the others must be made, but two conditions must be added: you can no longer take over the bodies of your offspring, and you cannot disobey or misinterpret Emilia's orders; you must obey her 100%."

“Okay!” Roswaal was overjoyed. The first condition was something he hadn’t planned to do after he came to his senses. The second condition was even simpler, because Emilia was such a kind person that she would never give him orders to torture him. He didn’t have to worry about anything and could agree to it without even thinking about it.

Seeing Roswaal's hasty agreement, Hachiman Hikigaya continued, "Don't rush, it's not that simple."

“After you sign the contract, I will forgive you if you can obtain forgiveness from Emilia, Ram, Garfield, and the villagers. Even if you come here, you will still have to serve a few years in prison.”

"Can you accept this? Or would it be better to fight to the death here?"

Even though Roswaal's crimes have not yet been committed, he cannot escape any punishment, because in a sense, he has already done those things.

"Ha, hahahahahahaha—"

He laughed heartily, his clothes flapping loudly in the wind. He laughed heartily for a while, and no one but him knew what he was really thinking, but it was quite obvious.

The reformed Roswaal agreed to these conditions.

"Hmph!"

Beatrice, who had been keeping her mouth shut, breathed a sigh of relief and hummed, giving an expression that said, "I knew this would happen," a stark contrast to her tense demeanor just moments before, making her incredibly adorable.

She changed from being tense for Roswaal, then relaxed and became worried again, asking in a very intimate and natural tone, "Will this be very troublesome?"

Knowing what she was worried about, Hachiman Hikigaya shook his head and said, "No, Roswaal has harmed me and Emilia the most. Once we agree to give him a chance, no one can object. That's our qualification and position."

"Then let's ignore this guy!" Beatrice's eyes lit up. She stood on tiptoe, a smile of eager anticipation on her face, her heart pounding. "Hey, tell me about that? Tell me! I've been waiting for this for so long, Hachiman!"

"That? That's—!?"

After a brief moment of confusion, Hachiman Hikigaya suddenly realized that Beatrice wanted him to recount the heartfelt words he had uttered when he dragged her out of the forbidden library in the original future.

He quickly retreated several steps, turning his head away, his resistance evident in his expression.

How can you replicate something like that? Even if I remember the details, it seems Beatrice has already moved on. It would be too embarrassing to let him talk about it again.

“Lai—”

Just as he was about to call for help from his best friend, he turned around but found nothing. Reinhard had already lightly jumped off the roof with Roswaal, leaving him and Beatrice alone.

"Hmph~"

Beatrice lunged forward, desperate to hear him say those words to her.

"Don't come any closer!?"

-

-

423. Showdown

An hour later, Reinhard finally saw his best friend leading the Great Elf down from the rooftop.

He didn't pry into what happened during that time and therefore knew nothing about it, but he could see that Hachiman Hikigaya's face, ears, and even neck were flushed with shyness, and he had a particularly ashamed expression, as if he had been tormented.

But it's also clear that beneath the shame and exhaustion, he was actually somewhat pleased.

Beatrice, head held high and full of energy, finally agreed to a formality after tormenting her contractor for over half an hour. Although the content was slightly different and modified to suit the current situation, Beatrice was quite satisfied.

Only by completing this formality can she fully open up a brand new future, and completely eliminate the vague estrangement between her and Hachiman, so that they can become a truly soulmate.

Compared to Hachiman Kijima, this was initially an embarrassing and monotonous performance, thankfully no one else saw it.

However, after enduring the embarrassment and reading it dryly, seeing Beatrice's joyful expression, he actually changed his mindset... This was a crucial first step; only with him taking this step could Beatrice truly be free. Since that was the case, then let's do it.

Do it with relish.

"Then," Roswaal, who had already signed the contract and was just as impatient as Beatrice had been an hour earlier, said with a murderous glint in his eyes, "can the strongest swordsman of all time force his way into the witch's tea party?"

"Yes, as long as the seven blessings are combined and used in a suitable way, I can take you there together."

With Reinhard's unwavering resolve, the four individuals, sharing a common killing intent, headed to the Sanctuary together. Upon entering the Sanctuary, Garfiel, baring his shark teeth and waiting patiently, naturally joined the group.

"Ah, General, I especially loved the scene where you outmaneuvered the unscrupulous merchant and put him in a standoff!"

"Oh right, right, my memories of sparring with that purple-haired guy and the old man have become very clear thanks to my hard work in recalling them. So my skills have really improved. With me protecting you, General, you can rest assured!"

"And another thing, wow, you were so decisive and efficient when you rejected that arrogant Yukinoshita, that was really impressive! You truly deserve to be called a general, you're absolutely amazing!"

"Alright, it's decided. I, this great one, will also reject that Mimi decisively and cleanly. I'll learn from the General!"

"And another thing—Ouch, that hurts! What are you doing? Even if you're the general's contracted spirit, you can't just hit me like this without any reason! It would be more reasonable if it were the general or Granny Shima!"

Garfield, who kept talking, was beaten up by Beatrice, and he was really wronged.

Beatrice snorted and raised her head, not wanting to explain at all—she had already heard from Hachiman that because they had already kissed and made a promise, he would rather be a coward and cruelly abandon all the girls here who liked him.

To say that Hachiman was really good at rejecting Yukinoshita decisively in front of him when he made such a decision is like rubbing salt into a wound.

The single-minded Jiafeier is a fool, but precisely because he is a fool, he is even more loyal and single-minded, and he doesn't think much about philosophical thoughts like the present and the future.

He was convinced of one thing: a general is a general. Hachiman Hikigaya was his general, the closest person to whom he could speak freely and without reservation, just like Granny Shima to him.

Hachiman Hikigaya could tell he was that kind of person, so he didn't hold his unintentional mistake against him. He interrupted Beatrice and Garfield, who were staring at each other, with a single sentence: "Get ready, it's coming."

The next second, with Reinhard's ingenious use of the Seven Blessings, the tomb was forced open, and the five people invaded the tea party.

"Ah—welcome! It's been a long time, Beatrice, and my beloved student. And the two most famous figures of our time, one a scholar and the other a warrior—ah, what an honor!"

"You... Ugh!"

Ignored, Garfiel grinned, wanting to punch Echidna, but as Echidna said, normal people would feel disgusted and vomit at the sight of her, so Garfiel had to close his eyes and spit in frustration.

"Trying to provoke me with that disgustingly pretentious nickname, you really succeeded, you imposter." Roswaal glared at him with intense hatred. "Using the teacher's appearance and voice, you shameless imposter, have you thought about how you want to die?"

Echidna chuckled, "Oh dear, I shouldn't die, right? I can lead you to that bitch Pandora, you know?"

This was like a bucket of cold water being poured on her; with this leverage, she dared to provoke Roswaal without restraint.

If we were to ask who Hachiman Hikigaya and Reinhard fear most in this world, Pandora would undoubtedly be among them.

Everyone else has been killed, and Pandora has not revealed any information about herself even in the future. Apart from her appearance more than a hundred years ago, where is she now, what is she planning to do, what has she already done, and what are the specific effects of her powers?

Nobody knows.

however…

"After you've led the way, you'll die too."

Echidna is a 400-year-old monster, and you can't fool her with your cunning. Hachiman Hikigaya just lays his cards on the table.

"But I don't want to die!" Echidna smiled as expected. "A whole new world, new knowledge, a new future, so many new things, so many unknowns are waiting for me. I don't want to die. Sigh, can we make peace?"

“Before that,” Hachiman Hikigaya held up one finger, “you can try provoking Beatrice and Roswaal one more time.”