COTE : There is Something Wrong With Hikigaya-Chapter 146: Backstabbing

Hikigaya's words hit Horikita like a bucket of cold water, shattering her last hopes. Her willingness to take all the blame meant nothing because the final decision rested with the student council. As long as they didn't accept her confession, the investigation would continue until they determined the 'truth' themselves.

In other words, her admission of guilt had been meaningless from the start.

Horikita stared at Hikigaya, unable to understand what he was trying to do.

Didn't he realize that if the student council kept digging, it would only bring more trouble and damage to Class D?

Wasn't taking all the blame exactly the 'right answer' that everyone wanted?

Hikigaya, what are you trying to do?

It wasn't just Horikita—Ichinose, Kushida, and even Ishizaki couldn't understand Hikigaya's actions.

Wasn't this just stabbing his own class in the back?

Only Ayanokouji seemed to have a guess, his expression darkening slightly.

Horikita's angry gaze was practically burning a hole through him, but Hikigaya ignored her. Instead, he turned his attention to Tachibana Akane, who was standing beside Horikita Manabu. Noticing his stare, Tachibana Akane suddenly took out a document and placed it in front of Horikita Manabu.

"President, this is a document Hikigaya submitted this morning."

Horikita Manabu glanced at Tachibana Akane, who gave him a small nod. Then, he opened the file. The moment his eyes scanned its contents, his pupils contracted slightly, and he lifted his head to look at Hikigaya with a sharp gaze.

"President, this is a request that Horikita and I asked Hikigaya to submit to the school last night,"

Hirata suddenly stepped forward and explained.

"The thing is, after the fight, Horikita and I realized that the root of the problem was the lack of security cameras.

Horikita later checked the area herself and found that the special teaching building had almost no surveillance. On top of that, the building contains staff offices and science labs with chemical storage, which is a huge security risk.

So, Horikita and I went to Hikigaya, who is in the student council, and asked him to submit a request to the school to install security cameras in the special teaching building. That's what this document is—a formal application we asked Hikigaya to pass on to the student council."

Tachibana Akane spoke at just the right moment, both explaining to Horikita Manabu and making sure everyone else in the room heard as well.

"President, Hikigaya submitted this request this morning. The current state of the special teaching building does pose some safety concerns, so I also believe it's necessary to install surveillance cameras. I already gave the request an initial review and planned to hand it over to you for final approval after today's meeting."

The document even had Tachibana Akane's personal seal, confirming that she had given it an initial approval.

The student council followed a tiered review system.

For minor tasks and less serious disciplinary cases, Hikigaya had the authority to handle them himself. For issues involving clubs, classes, or school-wide matters, the documents had to go through Tachibana Akane for preliminary review. She would sort out routine matters and leave the more important ones for the student council president, Horikita Manabu, to make the final decision.

This system was highly efficient, especially given the small number of student council members. It helped speed up decision-making and reduced the workload on any one person.

However, it also had a clear downside—it concentrated power in the hands of individuals, making it easy for authority to be abused.

At that moment, Hikigaya continued where Tachibana Akane had left off.

"After receiving Tachibana-senpai's initial approval, I informed Hirata about the progress. But due to a misunderstanding, Hirata thought the request had already been fully approved by the student council. In reality, it was only a preliminary review. I admit that I didn't explain it clearly enough, which led to this confusion."

Hirata spoke up with a guilty expression.

"It's not your fault. I was too impatient and didn't ask enough questions before telling Horikita about it. Because of that, Horikita assumed it was fully approved and went ahead with installing the security cameras."

Then, silence filled the room. Everyone looked shocked, and Ishizaki's mouth hung wide open as if thinking, "You can actually turn things around like that?"

"Wait a second! This doesn't make sense! Even if that's the case, installing surveillance cameras is the school's responsibility. It has nothing to do with Class D, and it's not something students should handle!"

Ishizaki shouted, voicing the confusion that many shared.

After all, setting up surveillance cameras was clearly not something Class D or any students should be doing. It was completely overstepping boundaries and made no sense at all.

"Yes, in this regard, Horikita did overstep and indeed made a mistake. She acted on her own by installing the cameras, which then led to all the following trouble."

Hikigaya didn't argue with Ishizaki. Instead, he went along with his point and even pointed out Horikita's mistake.

"Then that settles it! Horikita went ahead and set up surveillance cameras on her own, which is clearly against the rules!"

Ishizaki shouted.

"That's right. I'm not denying that it was against the rules."

Hikigaya nodded.

"Huh?"

Now it was Ishizaki's turn to be confused. So... what exactly was Hikigaya trying to do?

At that moment, someone finally caught the deeper meaning behind Hikigaya's words.

"From an objective standpoint, Class D installing surveillance cameras in the special teaching building was indeed against the rules. But from a subjective standpoint, Horikita acted because she 'mistakenly believed the application had already been approved by the school.' That's why she went ahead with the installation."

Haruno suddenly had a look of realization, then turned to Hikigaya, Hirata, and the others.

"Did I get that right?"

Hirata nodded and then took the initiative to apologize to Horikita Manabu and everyone present.

"Yes, Horikita made this decision out of concern that, if something similar happened in the future, there wouldn't be proper surveillance to review the situation. She also considered the safety risks in the special teaching building.

During the process, I failed to communicate the information properly, which led to the situation getting out of hand. Something that was originally meant to benefit both students and the school turned into a problem instead. I take a lot of responsibility for that."

Now, everyone finally understood what Hirata was trying to do.

Since the surveillance cameras had already been installed and couldn't be undone, the best approach was to shift the focus—to minimize the consequences for Horikita as much as possible.

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