"Yukinoshita, that's enough already."

Seeing Iroha Isshiki, who was about to cry from Yukinoshita Yukino's icy stare, Hachiman Hikigaya sighed and spoke up to break Yukinoshita's intimidating aura.

"Phew..." The pressure lifted, and Iroha Isshiki immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

But in just a few seconds, she had broken out into a cold sweat from Yukinoshita's terrifying presence.

"Alright then, since Isshiki came looking for you, I'll leave it in your hands."

Hearing Hachiman's words clearing the way for Iroha, Yukinoshita showed a hint of dissatisfaction on her face.

However, she didn't say anything further and simply shot a warning glance at Iroha before returning to her seat to pick up her book and continue reading.

Yuigahama Yui, noticing this, glanced at Yukinoshita, then at Hachiman, and finally bit her lip before running over to Yukinoshita's side and sitting down.

"Let's go outside and talk," Hachiman said after checking the situation with Yukinoshita, then stood and led Iroha out of the Service Club classroom.

Once outside the classroom, they didn't go far.

After estimating that most people inside wouldn't hear their conversation, Hachiman turned to face the now more composed Iroha and asked, "So, you went through all this trouble just to thank me?"

"No..." Iroha shook her head, denying it.

Even though Yukinoshita was no longer visible, Iroha still felt like that frightening woman could appear behind her at any moment. So when Hachiman asked, she didn't add anything and obediently shook her head.

"Then you want me to help with something, right?" Hachiman crossed his arms and rested his chin on one hand, thinking. "So, have you run into some trouble again recently?"

"How did you know I've got trouble?" Caught off guard by his guess, Iroha looked at Hachiman's face curiously, watching for any change in expression.

"I saved you once on the train, right? You know who I am. And there aren't many students at Sobu High School. If you really wanted to find me, you could've done so in one day."

"So the real reason you came looking for me is that you ran into some problem you couldn't solve, and that reminded you of me?" "Ah... yeah..."

Iroha's thoughts were completely read.

After Hachiman finished speaking, she looked embarrassed and stared at her shoes, nervously fiddling with her hands.

Originally, after that night, she really planned to find Hachiman to thank him. But then many other things happened afterward...

"So what trouble did you run into?" Hachiman didn't intend to listen to Iroha explain why she only came to thank him now. When he chose to help her back then, he never expected any repayment.

"Well, lately I've felt like there's something else in my room at night. And when I sleep, I keep having nightmares. In the dream, there's a humanoid monster chasing me, and every time I wake up, it's closer than before... Senpai, do you think it's the same thing from the train again?" As she spoke, Iroha's face showed a mixture of anxiety, worry, and fear.

"Chasing you in your dreams?" Hachiman's expression was stunned by her description.

"Yes! At first when I woke up, it was about 50 meters away from me. But yesterday, the distance was only ten meters." "And at first, it was just a black shadow, but as it got closer to me, it started to look more like me." "Senpai, if it catches me, will it replace me?" By the end, Iroha's voice cracked with tears.

"Don't worry, nothing will happen to you..."

Looking at the suddenly vulnerable Iroha before him, Hachiman—who had no experience comforting girls—awkwardly tried to soothe her.

"But, it's just in my dreams..." Iroha sniffled helplessly.

She was quite good at reading people's expressions. When Hachiman's face showed confusion after hearing her, it confirmed that he didn't know what the thing in her dreams was either.

"Even if it's in your dreams, there must be a way to deal with it!" Hachiman answered confidently.

There's no problem in the world that's truly unsolvable—people just say that when existing knowledge isn't enough. So if what appeared in Iroha's dream is really an evil spirit, then there must be a way to counter it!

After calming Iroha down, Hachiman spent 100 spirit coins to consult the system about the problem.

[Unknown Evil Spirit] [Ability: Invades human dreams, chases the host, and the closer it gets, the more it resembles the victim. Suspected to eventually replace the victim completely. Other information unknown] [Danger Level: General Commander rank or higher] ...

Based on Hachiman's input, the system quickly listed several solutions to deal with the evil spirit. Hachiman quickly filtered through and picked out some practical options:

Option one: exchange for an item from the system shop called "Dream Guardian," which summons a guard of approximately General Commander rank in the user's dreams to expel all intruders. Price: 10,000 spirit coins.

Option two: exchange for a medicine that enhances mental strength, slowing down the evil spirit's replacement of Iroha. Price: 5,000 spirit coins.

Option three: exchange for a dream-entry spell that allows Hachiman to enter Iroha's dream in a spiritual form and personally eliminate the evil spirit. Price: 3,000 spirit coins.

Among the three, Hachiman immediately ruled out the second option.

After all, it's just a temporary fix; if too much time passes, Iroha would still be in danger. Besides, even though he cleared out the Yotsuya household again yesterday, he only had just over 10,000 spirit coins—enough to buy two doses of the medicine.

The first option, while expensive, was within his budget. However, Hachiman wasn't sure of the evil spirit's exact rank.

If it was General Commander level, the guardian could hold its own. But if it were above King rank...

Therefore, Hachiman's attention shifted to the third option—handling it personally.

As always read ahead (60 chapters) on my pa tre on!

There you can also read my other 9 Fanfiction