PE Class (2)
"Haa. Hold still."
In a shadowed corner of Saints Academy—the kind of spot delinquents favored for a smoke—Noah was backed against the wall, at Chise's mercy.
"S-stop it. What's gotten into you lately?"
Chise wasn't tall herself. She had maybe five centimeters on Noah—but it was more than enough to look down at her.
"Because I can't help it."
"Pervert."
Chise only beamed and finished what she was doing. Noah flinched, squeezing her eyes shut. She could feel Chise's hands on her.
A look of satisfaction crossed Chise's face.
"There. Done."
Noah's lush pink hair had been gathered into a ponytail. Chise stroked it, slow and fond. Noah kept her face buried, fidgeting, and Chise let out a quiet laugh.
"I'm not going to eat you, Noah. At school..."
She let the rest trail off and started walking toward the gymnasium.
Noah fussed with her hair, muttering under her breath.
"I am... a real man. I am... not some girl."
Her voice sounded half broken.
"A middle schooler?"
"Look at the badge. She's a first-year Public Morals Committee member."
"Ehh—so why's she even here?"
"Public Morals Committee privilege, I guess. They can sit in on classes at other schools too."
"Lucky. That means she can prepare in advance."
Yuria listened to the whispering and turned her head aside with a prim little hmph.
How dull. Is this all Saints amounts to?
When it came to pride, Yuria was first-class. She rather enjoyed overhearing people talk about her. She even took it a step further and looked down on them.
...Which was precisely why Yuria had no friends.
The upperclassmen are... oh.
She had been surveying the room with her arms folded in a haughty pose, but the moment she spotted Noah coming toward them, she stiffened slightly.
"A ponytail... I've never seen Minamoto-senpai like that."
Noah was always cute. Right now, she was fifty times cuter.
"The hell are you on about. Getting cocky for an Ichi."
The words came out sharp. Yuria still carried the PTSD of how badly Noah had wrecked her early on. On a normal day she would have thought, She was cute until she opened her mouth...!
Still cute, though!
Today, even the sniping sounded adorable.
Noah, who had never once imagined she was being treated as a weakling even by a first-year like Yuria, was busy dreaming of a grand future.
I show them something cool here. Then they'll know exactly who's on top.
Honestly? In a deeply unmanly way, she was a little scared of Chise's intensity. There was something about Chise that made it hard to push back, and lately Chise had been downright terrifying. If this kept up—she might actually end up as her bitch.
"Everybody quiet!"
A woman with a solid, athletic build strode into the gymnasium. PE teacher Sayuri.
"Today we test your abilities. This isn't the official exam, but take it seriously. It counts toward your grade."
Aaah.
A collective groan rolled through the students. Sayuri seemed to like that; one corner of her mouth curled up.
"No need to get so tense. Unless you're a complete idiot, I won't dock you. ...And who are you supposed to be?"
Every gaze swung toward Yuria. She planted a hand over her chest with great ceremony and announced herself.
"Asano Middle's top prospect—Ichinose Yuria. First-year Public Morals Committee. I'm here on patrol."
"Patrol?"
She had only tagged along after Noah and Chise because being alone was lonely. Inventing impressive-sounding reasons was Yuria's specialty.
"Yes. I may still be in middle school, but I'll be enrolling at Saints myself. My purpose is to reform, in advance, the shameless types who violate public morals. Is there a problem?"
Sayuri seemed to find the high-handed tone amusing; she gave a short laugh.
"Come here, middle schooler."
She crooked her fingers. Yuria tensed for a second, then stepped forward as if she hadn't.
Hmph. I came here for a perfectly legitimate reason. I've got nothing to feel guilty about.
She planted herself stiffly in front of Sayuri. Sayuri grinned and patted her head.
"I like that you've got guts for a middle schooler. Ichinose, was it?"
Yuria, who had fully expected a scolding, gave a little twitch of the shoulders.
"Th-that's right."
"You go stand at the very back. You'll be measured with the rest of them."
"...Excuse me?"
"You said you were coming to our school anyway, didn't you? Then this'll be a big help. And while we're at it, I think I'll have a look at Asano Middle's so-called strongest."
"Who's that?"
"She's cute."
"A middle schooler... I used to be that age too."
A few people snickered. Yuria nodded, still looking dazed.
"R-right. Understood."
She went and stood behind Noah. Chise leaned in and whispered, watching her.
"Lucky break, Ichinose."
"Ah... yes."
Yuria was a little embarrassed. And grateful to Sayuri. Just as the teacher had said, finding out where she actually stood at Saints would be a huge help.
"Good. Warm-ups look finished, so let's get to it. First up is the reaction-speed test. Line up and stand over there."
Sayuri pointed to a corner of the gymnasium—the door marked 4. Saints Academy had no shortage of buildings. There were four gymnasiums alone, and this one was known as the Test Room: a hall packed with cutting-edge equipment, the same place they ran the so-called level tests.
The students assembled in front of door 4. Sayuri crossed to it and unlocked it. They filed in, and a stark white training room opened up—about half the size of the space they had just left.
Sayuri headed for the judges' box, a glass-walled observation deck of about twenty square meters jutting from the second floor, built so the entire room lay in a single glance. An unusual setup, all windows.
A mic squealed once, and Sayuri's voice filled the room.
"Do the upperclassmen know what this actually is?"
Inside the room, a student stood gripping a pistol, face tight with nerves. Chise slipped an arm around Noah's waist as she answered.
"A red dot about five centimeters across will appear on one of the walls. You shoot it. How fast you hit it is the score."
"Hmph."
Yuria folded her arms, radiating confidence.
"A bit intense for a bunch of young ladies and young masters. Have they even held a gun before?"
Minamoto-senpai in first, obviously. I'll take second, more or less.
Except for Noah, Yuria was sure she could beat all of them.
Then the test began.
Beep—
Five mechanical tones, and the muffled crack of shots with them. It didn't take long. A score flashed up on the screen.
> BEST OF 5
> 3.21s
The fastest of the five attempts. Yuria snickered under her breath.
The tests kept coming. The quick ones landed in the low twos; the slow ones dragged into the high threes.
"Ah, I'm screwed."
"Isn't this way too hard?"
Yuria's ears pricked at every word. She was confident she could break one second. She spun a happy little fantasy of the upperclassmen's shocked faces when her turn came.
"Noah-chan."
"Hm?"
"Wanna make a bet?"
Chise hooked her arm through Noah's as she asked. There was something hungry in her eyes; Noah could practically see the gears turning.
"...What kind of bet?"
Noah asked it with a prickle of unease.
"Whoever posts the better time."
"The hell?"
Noah stared at her like she'd grown a second head. Chise's physical ability was average at best. And this wasn't even the kind of thing you could think your way through. The odds of Chise beating her were zero.
"You've gotta be kidding me, Chise. Don't get cocky."
"Hehe. Come on. One little bet."
What's she plotting?
Noah didn't dwell on it. Whatever it was, this was a bet she couldn't lose.
"Fine. Stakes?"
"A wish."
"..."
Chise licked her lips. Noah had a sinking feeling she already knew what kind of wish Chise would make. Turning it down, though, would have hurt her pride.
"Fine. No take-backs."
"...You neither, Noah."
Chise stroked Noah's cheek, slow and seductive.
She was already talking like she'd won. Noah twitched—and then her name was called.
"I'll be right back."
"Mhm!"
Noah shoved the uneasy feeling aside and stepped into the training room. She took the gas pistol in both hands, muzzle angled toward the floor, and waited for the sound, perfectly still.
Beep.
Bang!
Kid stuff, as far as Noah was concerned. She finished the test without breaking a sweat.
Sayuri's voice came down from the booth, openly impressed. Noah pulled off the headset, set the pistol on the table, and walked out.
Factor in the travel time of a gas-pistol pellet, plus the time to aim and pull the trigger, and her actual reaction sat around a tenth of a second. That was about as fast as a human brain could physically respond. And it wasn't a one-off—she'd posted nearly the same number five times running.
Noah didn't look particularly moved. This much was obvious. The only thing that bothered her... was Chise.
Whatever else you said about her, Chise was sharp. People like that didn't pick fights they were going to lose.
What's she after?
The question followed her out of the room. Next up was Yuria.
Yuria walked in looking like she owned the place. She settled into a stance not unlike Noah's and finished the test with clean, efficient hands.
Noah's eyes went wide. Pretty damn good for a weakling like Ichi.
"Heheh."
Yuria grinned at the shocked faces around her. Noah sounded genuinely impressed.
"Ichi, you a gifted freak or what?"
"I'm glad you've finally noticed."
"Don't let it go to your head."
"...Ahem. Yes, ma'am."
Yuria sat down meekly. Next was Chise.
"I'll be right back."
"Yeah."
Chise blinked, then picked up the gas pistol. The stance looked a little awkward. Unlike Noah, she'd never had a reason to hold a gun. Watching that clumsy grip, Noah let out a breath of relief. No way she posted a good score with that.
Beep!
Bang!
"Uh... Fujiwara-senpai, you're, uh, pretty slow."
Noah dropped all her tension at once and propped her chin in her hand, already considering what wish she was going to demand.
"Chise's only got her brains going for her."
"Right? So why would someone like that propose a bet... w-wait. Unless—"
Yuria's eyes flew wide, like she'd just figured it out.
"Maybe she wanted to know what kind of wish Minamoto-senpai would make...?"
Noah frowned, unconvinced. Yuria's guess sounded plausible enough, but it didn't add up. Did Chise really need a wish for that? Noah already did whatever she asked on a normal day.
Beats me.
Thinking it over wouldn't change anything, so Noah folded her arms and settled in to watch.
Chise stared ahead, her face unreadable.
If we start dating in first year... then second year, third year. That's two whole years we get to be sickeningly sweet.
Beep!
The alarm went off. Chise fired without much care.
But if we just stay friends, the time we actually get to enjoy shrinks.
Once a Fujiwara came of age, successor training began in earnest. A life lived by the second. Adulthood meant no freedom at all. That was how badly Chise wanted her high school years with Noah.
Beep!
Another alarm. This time she didn't shoot. She only rolled her eyes and marked the position—upper left.
The targets in this training room were generated by a random-number program. Computer-made randomness. And she knew it wasn't true random. It was pseudorandom.
Of course she knew. The Fujiwara had built this room.
A pseudorandom sequence could be calculated. It ran on a pattern.
Beep!
One left. Chise checked her watch and counted the timing. By her math, the next target would generate in about ten seconds. She raised the pistol toward the coordinates she'd calculated before the sound even came.
She didn't look at the destination. What mattered now was time.
Three, two, one—
Bang!
Beep!
The shot and the alarm landed as one. Chise's face broke into a brilliant smile.