Kane looks up at Inari, who had abruptly asked him to join her at a family restaurant after class today. It was pretty strange, considering the fact that they both weren't that close if you were to compare him to Satoshi in terms of friendship length.
With eyes twitching, Kane could only nod slowly as a half-smile began to tug at his mouth. "S-sure… I don't know what you're trying to get from me… but sure."
"Yatta~!" Inari playfully cheered with a smile before jumping and also raising her arms in the air — which she repeated a couple of times.
After her celebration, she cheerily looks back down at Kane, before saying with a reassuring tone, "Ah, Donmai[1]! This is all still part of my ten step apology plan!"
Kane raises an eyebrow at the word 'ten step apology plan'. He lowers his head as he rubs his chin. "Ten step plan? What is she planning to do with me…?" He thought, before looking up back at her.
"Inari-chan, what do you mean by—"
"Ah! The teacher is here!" Inari exclaimed as she had her back turned to Kane. She looks over her back, before speaking as if she was in a hurry. "I-I'll see you after class, okay?"
She then scurries off to her desk, leaving Kane with shadows over his eyes and his hand reaching out. "M-matte… kudasai[2]..." His attempt to voice his request was too late, as Inari was already a fair distance away from him.
He then balls a fist in his hand and clenches his teeth. Kane's gaze had pointed downward as he said through his teeth, "This girl…!"
⋆｡°✩
Exhaling deeply, Kane opened his eyes slowly as he stood in front of a locker. As he looked around, all he could see were boys changing into their gym uniform. Looking back at his locker, a single thought had come to his mind.
"WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE GYM CLASS!?!"
Gym class! Kane absolutely despised gym class since he knew deep down he was absolutely trash at all of the sports he tried to play. Volleyball? No? Soccer? Impossible! However, he thinks to himself that maybe his unlucky streak would end now that he was in his first year of high school.
"Oi, stop copying the narrator you saw while watching that anime… whatever it was called, I can't quite remember. Just… we might get called out, or even worse, copyright striked, you know."
You should stop breaking the fourth wall!!!
Despite this fourth wall break, Kane had his eyes glued to his locker. He hadn't changed out of his school uniform ever since he arrived in the locker room. Even the students who arrived late had already left the locker room to head to the auditorium.
"Maybe I can force myself to catch a cold, I just have to do some extreme stretches in my current uniform!" Kane planned, since he didn't want anything to do with gym class. He would rather choose to do a 500 word essay on Japanese History rather than this.
Cracking his knuckles, he begins to stretch his body in various ways in order to get himself to sweat — even the boys had begun to notice his strange attempt at making himself catch a cold.
"Oh! Koyasu-san has the right idea! We should join in on his stretching so we won't get any injuries while playing!" The entire locker room then erupted into cheering as if they had won the nationals.
"CHIGAU[3]!!!" Kane screamed in his head with a gaping mouth as one of his male classmates had taken his lame plan for feigning sickness for a warmup routine.
Before long, the entire locker room joined him in this sudden stretching class as they all followed each of his moves with accuracy.
"W-w-w-w-w-w-what the hell is going on? When did I become a gym teacher!?" Despite his attempt at feigning sickness. He instead had become the head representative of all the male students in class 1-B.
Kazuo then walks in with a sigh while pushing up his glasses, looking disappointed. "Are you guys gonna take any longer? There are still other students that need to—" He then immediately froze as he saw what was happening inside the locker room.
"Eh? When did Koyasu-kun get the backbone to lead a stretching session?" He wore a blank expression as he stared at his friend, frozen in a stretching position. Kane then rapidly crawls toward him with a traumatized expression.
He clings onto his blazer with a tight grip. With a stuffy nose and looking like he was about to cry, Kane looked up at him like some sort of deity as he spoke, "Sh-Shank you f-for shaving me, Kashuo-shan!"
"Ehhhh…?" Kazuo extended his interjection as he took his sweet time to look down at Kane with a distant and unimpressed glare.
⋆｡°✩
Even after trying his best to catch a cold, Kane still found himself in the gym uniform, which was still the same old white shirt with the school emblem on the right breast pocket, and dark-brown gym shorts.
His eyes looked lifeless as his head was tilted slightly to the side. Kazuo and Satoshi also stood to his side in different poses. One had one of their hands on their waist and the other was holding up their glasses.
"I guess gym class was gonna arrive eventually," Kazuo said while pushing up his glasses. The lens of his glasses turning opaque as a smirk forms on his face.
"Why are you acting so surprised? We've always had gym classes start at the second week of the new school year," Satoshi says while he glares at Kazuo with a challenging gaze.
"Hmm~? There's no need to look so standoffish, Ryūzaki," a wry smile then took over his past smirk, before continuing, "Why? Are you scared that Class 1-G will be considered weaker compared to my class?"
Satoshi then places his two hands behind his head as he closes his left eye, still looking toward Kazuo. "No, I'm just worried that Class 1-E might fall behind and be considered the worst class sports-wise."
Kane still looked dead inside as he cut into their argument. "Will you two just stop bickering already?"
Satoshi then shrugs while still maintaining that confident posture of his. With a chuckle, he steps forward and looks at Kazuo over his shoulder, "I suppose that's enough of that, Kazuo-chan…"
A devilish smile then forms on his face, "...We both know you and your class have already lost way before the competition started anyways."
He then walks off while cackling to himself like a generic bad guy. Kazuo stood there with gritted teeth as he clenched a fist in his hand, before snarling to himself, "Ryūzaki… I'll make you eat those words!"
With a deep sigh, Kane's eyes regain their color as he slouches his back. Now looking more like a shrimp, he remarks, "Do you guys always take gym class so seriously? We're not even at the sports festival arc yet…"
"Keep on talking about your otaku nonsense, Kane-san… This is real men business," Kazuo crosses his arms, trying his best to look tough and manly.
"Says the biggest otaku in the entire school," Kane remarks as he looks over his shoulder. A mocking grin had formed on his face as he creepily and slowly chuckles to himself.
"O-oi! You're treating me like my only trait as a person is being an otaku! How rude, I have depth, you know!" Kazuo furrows his eyebrows thanks to the lack of respect his friend held for him.
Now stretching upwards, Kane yawns as he grows completely disinterested with the conversation.
He then began walking ahead while waving his hand to the side of his head. "Hai hai~, I'll go to my class now… see you later during lunch, Kazuo-san."
Kazuo watched as his friend walked off into his group. With a quick defeated exhale, he straightens his back and places a hand on his waist.
"Really? Could you at least try to put in some effort with gym class, Kane-san?" He pondered, before walking over to his own class.
All the first years then begin their joint gym class, which only ever happens at the start of the second week. After this special class, their following gym classes would be held in groups of three, amounting to an estimated 120 students.
Thankfully, the auditorium was quite large. It had the capabilities of accommodating all the first years up to the third years — however, taking into account that some of the first years were fresh transferees, all the first years had the right to the auditorium so that they could experience the full capabilities of Goshogawara Academy.
It also came into account that the volleyball nets and the gym mats were set up — and it was as Kane feared. "Crap… it's a physical fitness test! I was hoping that we would be only playing volleyball, but this is even worse!"
He swallows some saliva as their assigned teacher groups them all into pairs. Despite the calm nature of the gym class in general. Deep down, almost all of the students that had come from the junior high school department held a deep hunger for competition.
Kane also felt this aura of competition, despite not wanting to perform in it himself. "Even after graduating from junior high school, everyone wants their own class to be on top in regards to these kinds of things…"
He then closes his eyes as he sits on his knees and holds down the feet of his classmate. "...Even though this doesn't affect their grade, it does affect the way other classes perceive them. Simply put, reputation is everything in high school."
"Let's say this… Did a majority of the students in Class 1-A underperform? Then they must be full of lazy and inept students that you can never rely on when it comes to sports…"
His gaze shifts over to his left, watching Kazuo in the distance performing some pushups — he was quick and precise.
"On the other hand… Did a majority of the students in Class 1-E do well during the physical fitness test? Then they must be the best-of-the-best that will stand undefeated for all of the competitions that will soon happen in the school festival in the following months…"
With a quick exhale through his nose, he looks back at his partner, who is doing adequately well with his push-ups. "The best chance of you living a normal school life is to just be average."
That was the way Kane thought. Like everyone else, he held a high degree of awareness for his reputation, since he had already felt the weight of how this affected you during junior high school.
Without any input, he feels his gaze shift over to Erisa out of curiosity. While the boys were doing sit ups, the girls were performing some simple stretches, like reaching for their toes while standing up.
For some men, this was the best view in the world — having all of the girls stretch in various ways, showing off their various curves. But for Kane, he only ever looked at Erisa.
"Is Erisa-san trying her best?" He questioned while sharpening his gaze. He attempted to discern her facial features, and it was safe to conclude from the serious expression on her face, and the precise movements with each stretch, that she was indeed…
"...Yep, she's trying her best," Kane thought, before sighing. Abruptly, he hears a strained grunt to his right, which he turns his head toward.
His classmate, who he had forgotten was paired with him, laid on the floor while breathing heavily. Looking tired, he scrambles to form a sentence, "K–Koyasu-san, I've already... enough… you... let go... now…"
"Have you just been doing sit ups without any breaks?" Kane said with a straight face.
"W-what was I supposed to do? You… you w-wouldn't let go when I already said I was done, and y-your grip tightened every time I tried stopped…" The boy remarks, sweat flowing down his forehead. "I-I took that as 'keep on going', so that's what I did... 75 times…"
Kane stared at him for a solid three seconds, before letting out a quick, raspy gasp.
With brown-eyes dilating due to his fight or flight kicking in, he thought, "Crap! I only tightened my grip because I was thinking too deeply!"
"Oh…" Kane looked at him with a worried expression, trying his best to play it cool.
He then claps his hands together while smiling, "P-please don't force me to do as many sit ups as you!"
He was then forced to do 75 sit ups straight without any pauses or breaks.
Somebody's soul left their body that day, but something even worse was about to happen...
[1] "Donmai" (ドンマイ) is a slang term that means "Don't worry about it," "It's alright," or "I'm sorry for that”.
[2] “Matte kudasai” (待ってください) translates to, and I quote directly from the sentence, “W-wait… please…”
[3] "Chigau" (違う) in this case, translates to "You’re wrong".