Practical Classroom: Kaoru Hanayama's Classroom of Merit

"Alright, now it's time for the finals between the group winners and the seeded players! Take your positions!"

There were four people standing side by side on the starting platform.

Although Sudo looked away from looking at Hanayama's massive body standing in the adjacent lane.

But he still muttered to himself, "I can't keep losing like this," his fighting spirit burning brightly.

Koenji gracefully tossed her water-dampened blonde hair, lost in her own aesthetic reverie.

On the other side, Ayanokouji was sighing to himself.

(...What a blunder. Because of Chi and the others' self-destruction, I've been dragged into the high-profile finals. It's best to just play casually here and finish last.)

Amidst their intertwined thoughts, only Kaoru Hanayama stood expressionless on the starting platform, like a statue.

That imposing presence exuded a sense of oppression that was enough to silence the girls watching from the poolside.

In their eyes, Huashan was an unfathomable underwater monster.

But they didn't know that.

Deep within the heart of Kaoru Hanayama, the man standing at the pinnacle of the yakuza, a tiny, almost imperceptible tension is stirring.

(Oh no... Come to think of it, I've only ever had one swimming lesson in my entire life, back in junior high.)

That's right, Kaoru Hanayama has absolutely no swimming skills; you could say she's only slightly better than a complete landlubber.

However, the swordsman's stance engraved on his back forbids him from saying "I can't swim" and thus withdrawing from the competition.

(...Oh well. It's just rotating my arms and kicking the water with my feet. That's all.)

Huashan made up his mind. Since he lacked the technology, he would simply use his body to forcefully subdue the water.

"On your marks—"

The coach put the whistle in his mouth.

The four people leaned forward.

"Beep!!"

A sharp voice rang out.

Sudo, Koenji, and Ayanokouji almost simultaneously kicked off the starting platform, tracing beautiful parabolic arcs in the air as they leaped into the water.

However, Huashan was the only one who was literally a step behind.

That was a delay in takeoff due to a lack of technology.

However, in the next instant, this delay was completely overwhelmed by the violent kinetic energy that was enough to warp the world.

Crackle, splatter!

An unusual sound erupted. Hua Shan's exceptionally well-developed quadriceps and calf muscles contracted in an instant, then released explosively.

The reinforced plastic starting platform, intended as a school supply, was simply unable to withstand the abnormal pressure of being stepped on, and it shattered along with the metal parts at its base.

"What!?"

The coach stared in shock.

Using the shattered starting platform as a springboard, Huashan was launched into the air.

That can hardly be called a smooth dive.

In the world of martial arts, it is often said that water resistance is hundreds of times greater than that of air resistance.

Therefore, swimming experts will do their best to reduce water resistance and become one with the water.

However, Kaoru Hanayama's method was completely different.

His body is not meant to assimilate with the water, but to destroy it!

It was as if trillions of tons of high-purity tungsten steel were thrown directly into a bathtub from 10,000 meters in the air.

Huashan made no effort to control his posture in the air, simply maintaining his original posture, and leaped a distance of nearly ten meters from the starting point.

Boom!

It's less like water touching the surface and more like a meteorite falling.

An incredible jet of water rose from the pool.

Sudo and the others, who were ahead, were suddenly swept up by a tremendous underwater shockwave that came from behind, instantly disrupting their swimming posture.

But this is just the beginning.

"Hmph! Hmph!"

Huashan, who had sunk into the water, forgot even the concept of breathing and wildly swung his arms, which were as thick as logs, like a waterwheel.

That wasn't swimming at all; it was just violently struggling in the water, but the propulsion it generated was greater than that of a motorboat's propeller.

Whoosh! Boom!

Every time Huashan swam, the water in the pool was violently stirred up, and the water that had lost its way turned into huge waves that poured into the lanes on both sides.

An artificial tsunami occurred in the middle of the swimming pool.

"Pewter!? What... what kind of wave is that!?"

Sudo, who was swimming in the outermost lane, was suddenly hit hard on the side by a nearly two-meter-high wall of water approaching from the right.

Before he could even make a sound, Sudo's body was literally thrown out of the pool by the force of the wave, crashing onto the wet tiles on the poolside.

He coughed violently, spitting out water, completely unable to comprehend what had happened.

Koenji, who was in the adjacent swimming lane, was also not spared.

"Hmph, no matter what kind of turbulence I face, my streamlined shape will always be—Nonsense!?"

An overwhelming vortex of water, as if mocking his elegant posture, swept him in, making him spin around like clothes in a washing machine.

Koenji shouted "Oh, my God!" as he was swept away by the waves, veering off course and crashing into the edge of the pool, where he was forced to scramble back up in a disheveled state.

Then, there's Kiyotaka Ayanokoji, who's in the swimming lane closest to Hanayama.

(...This is bad.)

The instant after Hanayama entered the water, Ayanokouji instantly calculated the current level of turbulence in the water flow and the energy of the waves in his mind.

He concluded that he would definitely drown if he continued swimming, and he chose the optimal solution without hesitation.

As the wave crashed in from the side, Ayanokouji abruptly stopped swimming and, like a victim, clung tightly to the red and white wave ropes that marked the lanes.

The devastation in the pool wasn't limited to the water itself.

"Aaaaaah!?"

"You must be kidding me, what is this?!"

The huge splashes of water overflowing from the track also mercilessly poured over the heads of the female students watching the game by the pool.

Kikyo Kushida, Megumi Karuizawa, and the others couldn't help but scream as they were drenched as if a bucket of water had been poured over their heads.

Horikita Suzune was no exception; her long, black hair was wet and clung to her face, water droplets dripped from her swimsuit, and she stared blankly at the center of the pool.

"...What exactly is that?"

Right after she finished muttering to herself in a daze.

Boom!

A heavy thud, like the crash of a tank, echoed from the opposite wall.

The waves in the pool overflowed into the drains on both sides, and the water surface finally began to calm down.

At the finish line, Kaoru Hanayama, dressed in a full black jumpsuit, slowly stood up, exuding an overwhelming sense of weight, as if Godzilla were emerging from the sea.

His breathing was surprisingly even.

"..."

Huashan casually wiped the water off his face and silently turned his gaze to the coach by the pool.

The coach looked at the stopwatch and the flower mountain with an expression of disbelief.

The digital display showed a time of 18.7 seconds, a crazy result that not only sets a high school student's racing record but could even shake the limits of human endurance.

"...Hmm? Ah—no. That's strange. Did this thing get wet and break?"

The coach slapped the stopwatch on his palm, muttering, "Tsk, cheap stuff just doesn't work," and gave up on the calculation.

"Ahem, ahem! Due to a stopwatch malfunction, the exact time is unknown... However, since Sudo and Koenji were eliminated from the competition, and Ayanokoji withdrew, the outcome of this match... is declared a victory for Hanayama!"

The coach's declaration echoed throughout the stadium, but no one cheered.

Bathed in awe, Huashan showed no sign of arrogance, simply climbing out of the pool silently.

(Great, I finished swimming smoothly.)

Only he secretly breathed a sigh of relief.