The azure sea, but a lonely, fulfilled life.

Iori was shocked by what he heard. He looked at Hachiman with resentment, and after the other nodded helplessly, he lowered his eyes, gritted his teeth, and pounded the table with tears in his eyes: "How is this possible!"

He had always fantasized that in the near future, he would hear strange noises coming from the drawer, and then enter the happy golden late-night time slot.

(In reality, prime time and late-night slots have absolutely nothing to do with each other. As for why Iori would mention prime time and late-night slots, you can ponder that (*?????*)?*.)

“Give up your beautiful fantasies, Kitahara Iori.” Kohei smiled with relief and stood up. “Then, it’s time to go find Aladdin’s lamp.”

"Wait a minute!" Iori grabbed his shoulders, her face contorted. "Aladdin's lamp doesn't exist either!"

"How could that be! That's a movie with real-life significance that has been adapted into countless live-action films! It must have actually existed in real life!"

"Doraemon has had a live-action version too, you bastard!"

"What did you say? I don't acknowledge that kind of vulgar production! Although the actors' acting skills were passable."

Drawn by the commotion, Futegawa Chisa looked at the two arguing and, as usual, sat down on the other side of the table next to Hachiman.

"What happened to them?"

"It's nothing, just the last-minute wailing of two guys about to fail," Hachiman said. Sure enough, if you don't study regularly, you don't even know how to cram now. He turned to Chisa and asked, "Are you confident you can pass the German exam?"

"As long as it's just above the passing grade, there shouldn't be any problem," Chisa replied. "What about you? I haven't seen you open a book since we came here. Are you confident?"

"It should be alright."

German is ultimately a humanities subject, so memorizing a few words is relatively easy.

Hey—you seem very confident.

"I was ranked third in Mandarin in high school."

Frankly speaking, if he hadn't been so eager to show off, he could have easily earned second place. After all, the gap between him and the first two wasn't that big. The main reason he ranked lower was that he lost almost all his points on his essays and reading comprehension every time.

Ah, the fish swimming in the water revealed an eerie light. Doesn't it imply that this fish has evolved and possesses emotions similar to those of humans? Sooner or later, it will gather its strength enough to break free of its cage and begin to evolve until it becomes a Gyarados, and then invade the mouths of humans!

"Really? What about science subjects?"

Ranked third in the humanities and able to get into a science-focused university, doesn't that mean this person excels in both subjects? Chisa looked Hachiman up and down, truly surprised that he was such a top student.

"Hehe." Hachiman chuckled and held up two fingers.

"second?"

That's amazing...

Second to last.

"...How did you get into Izu University?"

"A pen, a few nights, a miracle. Also, I'd like to ask if the German exam is open-book?"

"You should fail your course too."

Chapter Seventy-Two: A Ticket, A Bloodbath

"So? Do you have a solution?"

In the cafeteria, Yamamoto and Nojima sat on chairs. In ten minutes, it would be their German exam, a major event that would determine whether they would have to repeat the year. Those substantial credits were as important as the soul that the drunken bald man had talked about.

“Not at all.” Iori propped her head up with her hand, looking dejected. Whether it was Aladdin’s lamp, Doraemon, or Chisa, they had all tried their best, but the final result was still unsatisfactory.

"You guys are as useless as ever," Nojima said in a flat tone, without a doubt. They never disappoint when it comes to being disappointing.

"What good ideas do you have?"

"Consider it a backup plan."

Nojima Gen adjusted his glasses and took out a notebook. Although he wasn't very confident about the exam, he still took careful notes regularly.

He opened the notebook, and a bunch of shrunken notes fell out.

Iori picked up a card and said dismissively, "What? It's just cheating."

They had already thought of this, but they just hadn't found a light that could shrink the magnifying glass. Damn dorayaki, how naive!

“This is the best way to cram at the last minute,” Yamamoto said. “The question is, where should we hide it?”

As I was pondering this, Mitarai and Fujiwara approached: "Cheating? Kitahara, take me with you."

Fujiwara: "Count me in too."

"Birds of a feather flock together."

Seeing this, Hachiman, who had been sitting on the other side without saying a word, couldn't help but complain. However, his unintentional words startled Iori, who accidentally spilled water on the shrunken copy of the notebook and the original.

"..."

Everyone stared at Iori with murderous intent as they looked at the soaked and blurry notes and notebooks.

Knowing she was in the wrong, Iori gave an awkward smile and picked up the notebook: "It's covered by a book cover, so it should be fine. We can just make a copy later."

He opened the laptop, his pupils dilating rapidly. Why? Why was there nothing there?!

In his hand was a soaking wet, wordless book. Iori suddenly looked at Nojima, who exhaled lightly: "Since I already have copies, and there's only one German exam in the first half of the semester, why should I keep them?"

Nojima seemed to have aged more than ten years in an instant. He held up two fingers and waved them. Yamamoto understood immediately and turned to walk towards a certain place.

"Kitahara, do you prefer apples or pancakes?"

"Is it time to choose a sacrifice?"

Iori saw Yamamoto, who was expressionless, wearing white gloves and holding a shovel, walking slowly towards him. He immediately ran away, but just as he was about to get up, he was pressed down by Hachiman.

"What are you panicking about? Didn't you make a copy too?"

Oh yeah, he also printed a copy.

Under the probing gazes of everyone, Iori took out a perfectly preserved photocopy of a notebook from her bosom. When Yamamoto saw the tiny, ant-like characters on it, his neck twitched involuntarily.

"Are you expecting us to use a microscope to see such tiny print?"

"Trying anything as a last resort!"

"...There's nothing else we can do now."

……

In the classroom, the students taking the German exam were seated in different seats. Hachiman twirled his pen and looked at Iori and the others who had placed cheat sheets in various locations not far away. He still did not choose the path of cheating. After all, if he could pass with his own strength, wouldn't it be unfair to be caught because of the cheat sheets?

"The scope of the German exam planning is not very large."

He turned his head and saw Chisa sitting two seats to his right. There was only a pen and an eraser on her desk, and she looked confident.

"Relax, if you read the question carefully, it'll be easy to pass."

"Are you trying to comfort me?" Hachiman said.

"It's just a useless hint," Chisa muttered, propping her head up with her hand.

"Thank you."

Although he wasn't nervous to begin with, it was best not to argue at this moment.

The moment of waiting for death is always quiet yet oppressive. Hachiman took this time to chat with Chisa for a while, mainly discussing the matter of going into the water.

Chisa felt that it was too dangerous for him to go diving now. If something went wrong, she wouldn't be able to take any rescue measures on her own. Thinking of this, she sighed.

"what happened?"

Hachiman couldn't understand why the other person suddenly looked so sad when they had been discussing things so well.

Chisa slowly shook her head: "But I suddenly understand your fear of the sea."

When someone important to you is slowly passing away in front of you, and you are powerless to stop it, the feeling of helplessness and fear can really make your brain stop thinking for a moment and create psychological trauma.

"what?"

Hachiman was a little confused.

"nothing."

Chisa glanced at Hachiman but did not answer.

"Qian Sha..."

"what's up?"

Are you free on Saturday?

"Do you want to go back to the sea? I'm afraid that's not possible."

Going into the water is very expensive; the maintenance and repair of equipment all require a lot of money, and she doesn't have that much on her right now.

"No, do you like rock music? I have tickets."

Hachiman took out the tickets that Yamada Ryo had sold him. He planned to check if there were any part-time jobs nearby on Saturday, as the last social gathering had cost him most of his savings.

He knew that diving was an expensive sport, but he didn't want to borrow money from his parents, Komachi and the others. After all, he hadn't applied for an increase in allowance during his three years of high school, and he was running out of money in his second month of college. He might be considered extravagant.

His mother might even think he had a girlfriend, which would cause a lot of trouble. He didn't want to tell them about it until he completely overcame his fear.

"Rock and roll? Are you still interested in that?"

Chisa let out a curious "Eh," took the ticket from his hand, and looked at it. People with a reserved personality usually prefer to listen to light music.

"A little bit."

He quite liked that cheerful rhythm.

"how much is it?"

"No need." Hachiman waved his hand. "You've already helped me a lot by coming into the water with me. This little bit of money is nothing."

Qian Sha stared at him and smiled gently.

"Ok."

……

That Hachiman! He actually took advantage of his exam seat to be all lovey-dovey with Chisa! Iori felt the sweet scent behind her, like cherry blossoms blooming, and wanted to grind her teeth to dust.

"Hey, Kitahara, is Hikigaya dating Chisa?" Yamamoto twirled his fingers, his face full of jealousy.

"So they really did sneak away?" Nojima Gen chuckled, already planning a day trip to the mountains for tonight.

"Bury him." Iori nodded. This time, even he couldn't save him.

"Then let's go to your place tonight, it'll be easier to make our move."

"Okay, I'll lead the way."

Chapter Seventy-Three: The Exam Turmoil

Exams, also known as knowledge level assessments, are primarily tests to consolidate learning over a period of time. They are meant to be a useful means of assessing one's knowledge acquisition during that period. However, due to the negative consequences of the ugly calculation of scores, they are disliked by many students and working professionals.

Whenever interests are involved, trust between people vanishes! — Kitahara Iori

The proctor, carrying the exam papers, walked into the classroom and looked at the students who were standing guard. After two seconds, he sneered inwardly, thinking, "These students nowadays are so naive, even when they're cheating."

The guy at the front with squinty eyes brought a pencil case, even though no one else had one. While this alone doesn't prove he's a bad person—he might just be a diligent student—he gave himself away by revealing a major flaw: his pencil case was too clean on the outside, suggesting something was wrong inside.

And the boy next to him with the water bottle—normally, the plastic wrapping on water bottles is glued on very firmly after being produced by the manufacturer, but his water bottle had a slight gap at the glued area, indicating that he had peeled it off.

Since you've already torn it off, why stick it back on? This doesn't fit a carefree young man who seems easygoing just by looking at him, so out!

The most outrageous one was the guy wearing a thick towel in the middle of summer; he was definitely hiding something in that towel. The other guy with the round fan was fanning himself, but he put it down as soon as he came in; that was suspicious too.

As for the others, he hasn't figured them out yet.

Sigh, what a bunch of problem students who like to go astray.

The proctor sighed inwardly and distributed the exam papers.

"Now, I'll talk about the rules for the exam."

He looked at the squinty-eyed man: "First, put the pencil case away."

Mitarai, who was smiling and about to open the pencil case, turned into a plaster cast upon hearing this.

"Secondly, eating and drinking are not allowed during the exam."

Yamamoto, who was pretending to drink water, choked on the spot and spat out all the water in his mouth.

"Also, you are not allowed to touch folded items during the exam, and you are not allowed to fan yourself, as the noise may disturb other people."