Chapter 7
I'd planned to become the class's hate sink. But Sonya, the instructor, asked the cadets gathered in the gym.
"Our academy teaches all sorts of things. But the most important by far is operating Qi. Why is Qi operation the core of the academy? Does anyone know?"
One of the eager cadets who loved jumping in shot up her hand and answered.
"Yes! Because you can only subjugate monsters by using Qi!"
"Nope, wrong. Start your studies over from scratch."
"Huh?? Isn't that right?"
"You can subjugate monsters without using Qi at all. If we're just talking raw destructive power, modern weaponry is actually stronger. For example... yeah."
Sonya pondered an example that would hit home for the cadets, then decided on an extreme one.
"One of humanity's greatest enemies, one of the Eight Kings, was already subjugated by human hands. Does anyone know how?"
"Yess~"
A girl raised her hand with a wobbly, gooey voice. It was Kiru, the petite girl with brown braided pigtails and oversized glasses that stood out.
"It got hit by a nuke!"
"Correct. More precisely, the top heroes of the time focused the energy of a nuclear explosion on that Eight King."
Humanity's greatest threat—the Eight Kings, source of all monsters.
Even those Eight Kings fell helplessly to nuclear weapons. Of course, it was the heroes' feat of concentrating the omnidirectional blast energy into a single point that truly shone, but humanity was greatly encouraged at the time. They believed that even without special superpowers or skills, human science alone could stand against disasters.
"About a year after subjugating that king, another Eight King opened a gate and descended into our world. Humanity tried the same method again. The enemy we had to hunt had come right to us, so we were grateful, really."
But humanity failed to subjugate the next Eight King. Sonya tossed her fountain pen into the air. Ignoring gravity, it floated lazily, then scribbled letters in midair as if written by an invisible hand.
Fools Repeating a Lucky Strike
"Everything in existence is born of Qi. Master Qi, and you can do things like this. Even humanity's top scientists can't match the Eight Kings in handling Qi."
The Eight King sensed the incoming nuclear missile and caught it mid-flight, just as casually as Sonya now toyed with her pen in the air. Not being so shameless as to claim ownership just because it dropped from its master's grasp, it politely returned the found object to its owner. The missile's handlers vanished without a trace from the world as a result, but anyway.
"Any material not under tech company control can be hijacked and turned against us by Qi-wielding monsters. Especially when gates open and Qi saturates the area—armies are far less effective than tech firms' power. That's why we must learn to handle Qi. Got it?"
"Yes!"
Sonya nodded in satisfaction at the cadets' spirited reply, then asked again.
"That's the intro. Now, among the three core Qi operation methods we'll learn, does anyone know the most important one?"
This time, Esmeralda shot up her hand and answered.
"Of course, it's Sense Qi! You can't do anything without first sensing the Qi!"
"Right answer. +10 points to Slytherin."
"Slytherin?! At least make it Ravenclaw!!"
Why, Slytherin suits you perfectly.
"As Esmeralda said, Qi operation starts with Sense Qi. Whether gathering or emitting, you have to sense it first, right? So today, we'll test that."
No sooner had she spoken than semitransparent volleyball-like orbs began floating behind Sonya. One... two... three... By the tenth, I stopped counting.
"Raise your hand if you can see the orbs behind me."
Including me, four hands went up. Kiru, Esmeralda, and... Sana, the glasses-wearing model student type. All girls. Typical for a taming eroge, I guess.
"Four, huh. A bountiful year. Now how about this?"
The orbs' presence grew stronger. What had shimmered like a mirage now became visibly solid. More cadets raised hands, claiming they could see now. When everyone had their hand up, Sonya nodded.
"Good. You're all at least averagely talented. Now for the real lesson. Spread out. Far enough that you won't bump even running full tilt."
The cadets looked puzzled but obeyed. The gym was huge, so twenty-ish cadets spreading out posed no issue.
"Training starts now. Simple: dodge the Qi orbs I send at you. You've all played dodgeball in elementary school, right?"
The Qi orbs doubled, tripled. That many? This ain't dodgeball anymore.
"Fifteen minutes. Just survive fifteen. Easy, right? Here we go. Three, two..."
Sonya counted down curtly, as if no further explanation was needed. Tension gripped me—and everyone else—sweat slicking my palms. Dodgeball, huh... I played tons in elementary school. No talent for throwing, so I focused on dodging. I'd last till the end, only to drop from exhaustion under everyone's eyes, dancing on the sand till elimination. That was twenty years ago, though. Could this body handle something several times tougher now?
My worries piled up like mountains... but.
Wait, this is surprisingly easy?
The Qi orbs flew at elementary school dodgeball speed. Aside from the numbers requiring fancy footwork, dodging wasn't hard. Plus, this young, healthy, trained body made it fun. Guess first classes are always light.
Placing a playful curriculum early to build confidence. Smart~
...Or so I thought, but apparently not.
"Kyaaah! It, it hurts! Way more than it looks!"
"It's not just fast—the numbers! Damn, my feet are tangling!"
"Focus on seeing, and you're too slow. Focus on moving, and you can't track 'em!"
...Huh? Everyone's struggling hard?
The other three who'd raised hands first performed well, but even they lacked my leisure to observe others while dodging casually. Am I the only one acing this? Nah, nah. It's not 'me'—it's this body's ingrained memories reacting automatically. Muscle memory! Thanks, muscle memory!
Empty my mind, let the body take over, and it handles incoming threats on autopilot. Like auto-farming. Gave me leisure to check on others. The protagonist... yeah, as expected.
Beat-up marks everywhere from poor reactions. Still gritting teeth, standing resiliently, giving his all—but without results, it just looked pitiful. Wanted to help, but no way how. At least he wasn't dead last.
After fifteen minutes, the dragonfly-like orbs popping through the air burst—poof!—and dissipated. Cadets collapsed everywhere, panting like overheated puppies. Don't think it was just fifteen minutes of movement. Tracking Qi drains mental stamina while moving taxes the body hard. Or so the setting goes. I felt fine, though.
Only four stood unscathed post-test: me and the initial hand-raisers.
"Oho-ho-ho-ho-ho! Th-this much... huff... is nothing at all! Y-you could crank it up and I'd be fiiiine! *cough cough*!"
Esmeralda, obviously exhausted yet bluffing. Her obvious bravado made her kinda cute. She snuck glances my way amid the haughty laughter—clearly hyper-aware of me. Decided I'm her rival on her own, huh. Plenty of other standees—pick one of them?
"Four standing. Impressive for a first go. ...Or not really firsts."
Sonya snapped her fingers in the air, and green-glowing marks appeared on the cadets' bodies.