Chapter 6: When I get calm, even I am afraid of myself
When Hikigaya walked into the classroom, he found that yesterday's guest was already sitting there nicely.
He had thought he would be the first one to arrive today, but the sight that greeted him as he entered wasn't bad.
If he were a bit more poetic, he could've said something like "the morning light shining through the window cast a magical glow on the girl's figure." But unfortunately, Hikigaya's artistic cells weren't that great.
So he couldn't come up with those elegant phrases to artistically describe this girl who had arrived very early.
Moreover, although she was a girl beautiful enough to be called stunning, Miura's personality was pretty awful, and her current expression didn't look like one that needed any praise from him.
She was staring at Hikigaya's desk with a look of fear — on top of the desk sat that ceramic pot, placed upright and neatly.
According to her, not only had she thrown the pot away before, she had even tried to smash it. She had used every possible method, yet the result was quite unsatisfactory. Before Hikigaya had taken it over, the pot had behaved like her most intimate underwear — appearing by her side again and again, seemingly determined to stay with her until the end of time.
But now, it seemed its target had shifted to Hikigaya.
The dramatic shift in tone was honestly something Hikigaya wasn't quite used to, but after experiencing the massive pitfall of transmigration, he felt like nothing else in this world could be more of a scam.
At the end of the day, it was just a ceramic pot. What could it really do to him?
Ever since he crossed over, Hikigaya had often wanted to raise his head to the sky and roar — "In this life, no one can outdo me in composure! Because even I am scared of how calm I've become!"
He was the legendary Sage of Composure!
"Yo!" His gaze rested on the pot for just over a second before Hikigaya greeted her with a cheerful smile. "You're here pretty early today. Sleep well last night?"
To be fair, such a greeting was rather inexplicable. He wasn't her boyfriend, and they weren't even close. Wasn't the content of the greeting a bit off?
Shouldn't he have asked if she had breakfast?
Unfortunately, Miura, whose mind was a mess, didn't seem to realize this and dumbly replied, "It was okay."
Of course, she quickly came to her senses.
And reacted a bit strongly.
"Aren't you scared?" she asked, eyes wide.
No doubt, this was the perfect time to show off a man's bravado—also known as pretending to be cool.
"It's just a ceramic pot." Hikigaya enjoyed seeing this usually fierce girl with such a rare silly expression. "Relax a bit. If that Hentai shows up, wouldn't this thing make a great weapon?"
The scary thing obviously wasn't the pot itself. Things you can see with your eyes aren't that frightening. What had Miura so agitated was the always-invisible "Hentai-san."
Miura stared blankly at Hikigaya. She suddenly felt that this guy was hiding something deep!
She had originally thought this pitifully low-profile classmate was just an unpopular weirdo pretending to be aloof and cold, but now she realized—this person was definitely a bona fide idiot far beyond the ordinary level. And to think his grades were better than hers. What kind of sins had she committed in her past life…
"Whatever, it's up to you. I just don't want to see that thing ever again…"
She mumbled as she sat down, no longer paying Hikigaya any attention.
But how could Hikigaya just end the conversation there? Although he wasn't scared, he was genuinely interested in this thing now.
"So, tell me, where did you get this thing? Didn't your friend tell you?"
He sat down casually in front of Miura.
"Where…" Miura looked at Hikigaya a bit unhappily, but after some thought, decided to tell him what she knew.
Tch, men really are like this. Give them a little attention and they latch on. But whatever, she was a generous woman. Since he'd taken on the burden, telling him wasn't a big deal.
Still, she didn't want to have any further involvement with this guy. Honestly, she didn't plan to have much to do with any boys other than Hayama. If this guy thought this would bring them closer, she wouldn't hesitate to shut him down.
"Mhm, go on," Hikigaya said with great interest. If he knew what this girl was thinking, he might've shoved the pot down her collar.
"Actually, my friend claims she's into archaeology. A while back, she went to Egypt and said this was payment for her work. Since she thought it was an interesting souvenir, she mailed it to me."
"Mhm." Hikigaya nodded, indicating that he wanted to hear more.
Whether or not it counted as a souvenir was debatable, but it was definitely interesting.
"She said she and her friends went to explore some ancient city near Alexandria. They found this there, and since it was broken, she just brought it back."
Alexandria? Oh, he seemed to recall a place named after the great Greek gentleman, Alexander the Great. Quite a famous place.
But ancient cities, pyramids, Valley of the Kings—those he knew. As for ancient Egyptian cities, he wasn't too familiar.
Come to think of it, the Egyptians had really done a number on their heritage. Their ancestors' stuff had been trashed to near oblivion—worse than even the Celestial Empire (China). He remembered seeing news before transmigrating about terrorists wrecking museums. He really couldn't understand those people.
"So, does that place have a name?" Seeing that Miura had stopped there, Hikigaya had to create more conversation.
"The name… I'm not sure how to pronounce it, but my friend wrote it in the letter." Miura thought for a bit, then wrote a name in her notebook — Taphosiris.
Hikigaya took a glance, then pulled out his own notebook and copied it down.
It looked like English, but it might not be. After all, all Latin-based languages used the alphabet—who knew which language this was.
"That's all I know," Miura said helplessly as she looked at Hikigaya, who now seemed like a diligent student. She realized this classmate wasn't trying to get close to her—he was just genuinely interested in the pot.
What a strange guy. Oh right, he was really good at history, but that was just in class. How could he not be afraid at all in the face of something like this?
Could it be that curiosity was a frightening thing too? Or was this boy just plain foolishly brave?
Either way, Miura felt that she had undoubtedly misunderstood Hikigaya before, and that made her feel a little guilty.
"Alright, don't worry. Like you said, it's bothering me now." Hikigaya closed his notebook and smiled at Miura. "Sorry to trouble you, but if your friend hears anything more, could you let me know?"
"Mm, actually, I already told my friend about this. She said she'll be coming over in a while. When she does, I'll introduce you two," Miura nodded, then said softly, "Um… thanks. I know you didn't have to help me."
"Don't mention it, we're classmates after all."
Hikigaya was quite satisfied with Miura's current attitude. Turns out her personality wasn't entirely unpleasant. She was actually pretty self-aware. In the end, she was just a girl who, due to her looks and popularity with boys, had become a little arrogant—not a bad person.
This is youth.