The Jet-Black Step
The run through the mountainside, up and down its steep slopes, had been going on for more than thirty minutes.
Simon and the Class A students were sprinting helter-skelter after Hong Peng when, at some point, the trail simply ended.
In Simon's forward view, two cliff faces loomed into sight, and between them valley water roared through, churning up white foam as it rushed along.
"The valley up ahead has to be crossed using Jet-Black."
At Hong Peng's words, a few students visibly lost their nerve.
"Y-you want us to jump over that?"
"It's fine. All it takes is a little knack. Just like raising Jet-Black on the palm of your hand, this time you blast it out through the soles of your feet."
She leapt into the air as if to demonstrate. Beneath her feet, black smoke exploded with a bang!, and she pulled off double, even triple jumps in midair. Gasps of admiration burst out from all around.
"You won't even need the midair jumps."
She tumbled down to the ground and landed lightly.
"The instant your pushing foot strikes the ground, you blast out the Jet-Black you've gathered in it, like spraying it out. That's the feel of stomping on Jet-Black to launch yourself."
Hong Peng, at the head of the pack, pushed past the students, struck the ground, and leapt. With a WHUMP! she soared several meters into the air, cleared the valley effortlessly, and touched down on the far side.
"Easy as can be!"
She waved her arm with a broad grin.
The thoughts of the students trailing behind grew complicated. The valley wasn't all that deep, but anyone who fell in would become the laughingstock of the semester, with not a soul around to help. Students who needed a little more resolve quietly slowed their pace, while the confident ones shouted and charged forward.
"HYAAAAAAH!"
FWOOOONG!
They jumped. Beneath each of their feet, a faint wisp of black smoke could be seen swirling.
Three of the five landed cleanly on the ground, one tumbled into a heap, and the one lacking enough jumping power barely stretched out his arms and clung to the edge of the cliff.
"Nicely done!"
Hong Peng hurried over, grabbed his hand, and hauled him up. The boy gave an awkward smile as he climbed back onto the hillside.
"You released your Jet-Black a touch too late. Try to make it faster next time!"
"Thank you, Professor!"
One after another, the other students kicked off the ground and leapt. It turned out the class of 'Kizen admittee' counted for something — all twenty of them cleared the jump. Simon, watching from the back, grew a little anxious.
The feel of stomping on Jet-Black. The feel of stomping on Jet-Black...
"You look like you're overthinking it, Simon."
Dick wagged a finger with perfect composure.
"I'm going first!"
He turned his back and bolted. Then he kicked off the ground, knees tucked to his chest, and launched powerfully into the air.
"WAAAH!"
At the girls' cheers, the corners of Dick's mouth curled upward. But the cheers weren't for him. When he looked up, Hector was spinning through the air a good meter higher than he was.
SHWAAAAAH!
Then he planted both feet into the dirt and slid to a stop. His landing was flawless, too.
"Nicely done!"
Hong Peng beamed and stuck up her thumb. Hector returned the thumbs-up, then finished with a crisp, formal bow.
"Nice one, Hector!"
"Told you he's got it!"
He traded high-fives with the faction members who'd crossed ahead of him.
"...I swear, that guy is impossible to like."
Dick muttered it with his face planted in the dirt, having botched his landing.
"OHHHHH!"
Just then, the second-loudest cheer of the day erupted from behind. Dick and Hector whipped around, startled.
What the—!
He flew. Simon was airborne, both soles pointed at the sky. A moment later his waist bent, his legs swung down, and he came scraping down toward the ground in a backward-leaning posture.
SHWAAAAAAAAAAH!
His body shot past Dick and Hector, stopping dead right in front of a nearby boulder.
"Very nicely done!"
Hong Peng clapped her hands in delight.
Why, you little—
The muscles of Hector's face contorted in a most unflattering way. Simon bowed politely to Hong Peng and returned to the other students. Dick, who by then had leaned back against a tree striking a lazy pose, held up his palm. Simon grinned and met it with a sharp crack! of a high-five.
Now that's starting to look like Special Admission No. 1.
Wasn't he a Magic Combat major?
The students buzzed, talking about Simon, and Hector's expression hardened by the moment. It was plain to see his plans coming apart at the seams.
"Alright! The resht of you shtudents, jump!"
From there, things moved at a quick clip. Unlike their initial hesitation, most of the students succeeded, and only two in the class failed. Even they were caught by the TAs secretly waiting in the valley below, sparing them an actual dunking.
"Hmmmm."
Dick had his notebook open and was scribbling something down. Curious, Simon asked,
"What are you doing?"
"Recruitment list for group lessons. That starts next week, so I've got to get ready."
The notebook was packed tight with the names of noteworthy Class A students, their best subjects, their personalities, and more.
As far as Simon could tell, Dick was somehow different from the other students. Most people could barely keep their own heads above water just keeping up with classes, but Dick, whenever you looked, was utterly absorbed in observing everyone else.
"What's your read on everyone so far?"
"Our class is high-level across the board. Everyone's good at everything, basically."
Dick closed the notebook with a shrug.
"That one's lacking something, though. Might drop right out once the protection period ends."
Simon followed the direction Dick was looking. It was the same girl who, thanks to Simon earlier, had ended up riding on a hippo's back — now she was climbing up, cradled in a TA's arms.
"Everyone here? Then we move on to the next area!"
The moment all the students were back up, Hong Peng started running again without a second to catch their breath. The students, startled wide awake, raced after her.
Haha! What even is this class?
It was nothing like the lessons confined to a classroom. This, he thought, was a truly dynamic class.
After twenty more minutes of running, they left the forest behind and an open hillside spread out before them. A gentle slope made it easy to build up speed.
Everyone was following Hong Peng when—
DRUMDRUMDRUMDRUM!
The scene from mere hours earlier was repeating itself, exactly as before. The very herd of hippos that had ferried the students was now climbing the slope from the opposite side.
"Uh, uhh?"
"They're coming this way! P-Professor?!"
But by then, Hong Peng was nowhere to be seen. The other TAs were gone, too.
The students froze in panic, but the oncoming herd showed no intention whatsoever of slowing down.
Danger!
Simon halted and hardened his gaze. Dead ahead, a hippo was charging straight at him to bowl him over.
The feel of stomping on Jet-Black!
TA-DAANG!
Simon shot into the sky, and beneath him the hippo herd thundered past, kicking up clouds of dust. Several other students around him were hanging in the air just like Simon.
I'm going to fall!
Simon tilted his balance and landed on the side with the fewest hippos. The instant he hit the ground, he had to roll frantically across the dirt, weaving away from the charging beasts.
"Kgh!"
Two more, dead ahead. Simon, springing back to his feet, stomped hard into the ground and leapt with an instant to spare.
I nearly—I nearly died.
The terror of death stood every hair on his body on end and snapped his mind wide awake. Sweating cold, Simon looked back.
Don't tell me this is part of the class too? At this rate there'll be casualties—!
His eyes went wide. He'd been certain it was utter chaos back there, but what was actually happening was nothing like he'd imagined.
A girl who had cast an Exhaustion Curse to collapse the hippo herd in front of her, building a wall out of them. A boy who had burrowed into the ground with dark magic and lay there, snug and safe. Beyond them, students riding hippos and whooping it up at their leisure, and students who'd twisted Jet-Black into ropes and evacuated into the trees.
Everyone was escaping the crisis in their own way.
"GYAHAHAHAHA!"
Cindy Vivace floated in the sky on her spirit magic. Only now did Simon realize it.
I'm in no position to be worrying about anyone.
It had been a completely pointless worry. And Simon would have to compete against a thousand students just like these.
"You okay, Simon?"
Dick, who had climbed up on a pole made of Jet-Black, hopped down with a grunt.
"Don't worry so much. Every one of those hippos is under Professor Hong Peng's control. Some students got knocked down, but the hippos dodged around them all on their own."
"...Oh. So that's what it was?"
It was common knowledge among anyone who knew that Hong Peng could wield not just Magic Combat but the power of a druid bloodline as well.
Just then, the TAs descended from the sky, clapping their hands and shouting.
"Come on, come on, no time to be sprawled on the ground! Up, everyone!"
"The hippos will turn around and charge down again any moment now! Everybody up!"
At the word hippos, the students scrambled to their feet in horror. A TA gestured down the slope.
"The Professor is already waiting down below! We leave immediately!"
And so the full-tilt sprint began all over again.
Once they pushed through a densely wooded stretch, a picture-perfect hillside blooming with colorful flowers came into view, and there below it, on the flat ground, they could see Hong Peng waving.
"No more obstacles! Full speed, let's get to the Professor!"
"WAAAAH!"
The students roared and poured down the flower-covered slope. Simon and Dick, caught up in the excitement, tore down the incline as well.
The headwind rushing up from the other side swept the sweat off them deliciously. Dandelion seeds drifted across the field on the breeze, and leaves came fluttering down like dancers. Simon descended the hill with an inexplicable, curious sense of liberation.
"You worked hard! Now for resht!"
Hong Peng shouted. The students collapsed onto the ground as if they'd been waiting for exactly that, and the TAs — prepared since who knew when — began handing out drinks.
As the tension melted away, boisterous laughter broke out all around. The more excited students threw themselves into recounting their own heroic tales from moments ago.
"Huh? Look over there!"
"Food!"
During the break, Kizen's henchmen arrived pulling a meal cart. Every eye went round as saucers.
"Normally you'd eat after all your main lessons are done, but I figured you students would be burning through a lot of stamina, so I contacted Kizen ahead of time. Is that alright?"
"GYAAAA!"
"You're the best, Professor!"
Then came the meal. The menu was a high-protein spread built around meat.
Kizen's food was famous to begin with, and the portions were generous — down to soy-meat options for the vegetarians.
Everyone took their food and settled onto the scenic grass, enjoying their meal with a view of the mountains and the lake.
Simon and Dick found a spot in the shade of a tree. Maybe it was eating outdoors after all that exercise, but the food tasted like pure honey.
"Mmm. Honestly, there's just no professor like her."
At some point Dick, too, had apparently fallen for the charms of the Magic Combat class like everyone else, and was heaping on the praise.
"Spending her own class time to feed her students — at a place as strict as Kizen, that's unheard of."
Simon nodded along, smiling in agreement.
"Though that's a little different from what I heard."
"Different how?"
"I heard Professor Hong Peng is actually a very Kizen-like professor."
Dick pulled a what on earth does that mean face.
"Professor Hong Peng? That nature child, the very picture of pure mountain spring water? C'mon, I don't know where your info came from, but it's garbage. Total garbage."
Simon blinked. This was a story he'd heard directly from Lorraine.
Clap, clap.
Hong Peng clapped her hands, drawing every gaze.
"Shtudents! Wrap it up. We leave again in ten minutes."
At her words, the TAs sprang up and shouted,
"Departing in ten minutes!"
"Finish your meals and get ready!"
The TAs circulated, relaying Hong Peng's orders. The students, who had been lounging about at their ease, only now began clearing their trays and loosening up.
"We're doing more?"
"I thought we'd just rest here and ride the hippos back."
The students murmured as they gathered. Watching the TAs bustle about, Simon thought to himself:
I have a feeling the real thing starts now.