Practical Classroom: Kaoru Hanayama's Classroom of Merit

In late June, under a clear blue sky, the playground of Gaodu Yucheng High School was enveloped in the heat of midsummer.

Today's physical education class is a physical ability test for all students.

Grip strength, 50-meter sprint, standing long jump, and pull-ups.

This is a routine activity conducted by the school to input students' physical abilities into the system.

Kiyotaka Ayanokouji put his hands in the pockets of his leotard and quietly exhaled in a corner of the playground.

He has only one goal.

It performed a perfectly average performance across all projects, with neither outstanding achievements nor major mistakes.

After all, if you stand out too much, you'll be forced to take on troublesome responsibilities.

(Grip strength is around 42 kg. 7-meter sprint time is 3 seconds. Okay, that's good enough...)

The plan is perfect.

However, his wish to have a peaceful student life was shattered when the physical education teacher read out the group assignments.

"Then next. Ayanokouji and Hanayama, you two will go for the test as a pair."

“…………”

Beside Ayanokouji, Kaoru Hanayama stood expressionless.

(...It's all over.)

As the greatest masterpiece of the White House, Ayanokouji's mind immediately sounded the alarm for survival.

Kaoru Hanayama's destructive power has already been demonstrated in a previous swimming lesson in the form of an artificial tsunami.

Being assigned to the same group as him meant being in an area where you could get hurt at any moment.

Please take care of me.

Huashan said this in a rough voice, gently twisting his neck.

"...Same to you."

Ayanokouji held firm to his twitching facial muscles and replied in a flat voice.

At this point in time, Ayanokouji's goal for today has been revised from achieving an average score to avoiding being seriously injured by Hanayama.

......

The first item: Grip strength measurement.

"Then, let's start with Ayanokoji."

Ayanokouji took the digital grip strength meter and adjusted the force output.

With a gentle push, he displayed 42.5kg on the monitor.

"Okay, that's pretty ordinary. Next up, Hanayama."

The PE teacher handed another handgrip dynamometer to Huashan.

"...After all, it's a student's duty. Come on."

Huashan muttered to himself, covering the grip strength meter with his enormous hand.

For him, it was probably just a matter of gripping the lever with a slight pull.

Creak, splat!

The plastic casing shattered as if it had exploded from the inside.

Spiderweb-like cracks flashed across the LCD screen, and the spring snapped open with a "bang."

"Danger!"

"Whoa!"

The hard plastic fragments that were ejected flew out in all directions like shotgun pellets.

(Three pieces flew towards the right side of the head, and one piece flew towards the abdomen.)

Ayanokouji's brain was thinking at an alarming speed.

He let out a slightly off-the-beaten-path exclamation, like an ordinary high school student: "Whoa, that startled me!"

At the same time, pretend to trip and twist your upper body slightly.

With a whooshing sound, the plastic shards whizzed past Ayanokouji's ears, just centimeters away.

If there is even the slightest error in the calculation, a bloody incident could occur during this physical education class.

"Sorry, it seems this machine is a cheap one. It's completely unusable for testing."

Huashan threw the remnants of the hand grip meter still in his hand into the trash can and said to the PE teacher in a serious tone.

The PE teacher stared in astonishment, his mouth agape, and could only write down "Cannot be measured" with trembling hands.

(...How could it possibly be cheap? At this rate, the school's equipment budget won't be long before it runs out.)

Ayanokouji wiped away the barely perceptible layer of cold sweat that had seeped from her forehead with her sleeve, without letting anyone notice.

......

In the subsequent standing long jump, Huashan, standing in front of the sandpit, bent his knees and jumped.

A loud bang, like a cannon shot, echoed across the playground.

Huashan crashed into the center of the sandpit like a ballistic missile.

Rumble rumble rumble!

"Cough cough!? W-what's wrong!?"

"A sandstorm!?"

The sandpit was smashed into a huge crater, and a large amount of sand was swept up and mercilessly swept towards Ayanokoji.

(While preventing sand from getting into your eyes, use a natural movement to cover your face!)

Ayanokouji once again arrived at the optimal solution with lightning speed, deliberately saying, "Oops, my shoelace is untied," and squatted down.

He adopted a defensive posture, using his knees to cover his face.

Sand poured down my back, but thankfully I avoided injury.

After finishing several projects, Ayanokouji was not physically tired, but due to the mental strain, her back was completely soaked with sweat.

(…Let this end quickly. Give me back my peaceful daily life.)

But in this physical education class that had completely turned into Good Friday, Ayanokoji's prayers were in vain.

......

Set at the edge of the playground is a continuous horizontal bar made of long iron pipes connected together.

"Finally, pull-ups. The two of them go up at the same time. Ayanokouji is on the left, and Hanayama is on the right."

They were about three meters apart.

That way, he shouldn't suffer any direct harm, Ayanokouji felt a little relieved.

With a whistle, Ayanokouji grabbed the horizontal bar and began pull-ups with perfect form.

(If it's the class average, it's probably around six or seven. On the sixth one, deliberately make your arm tremble, and on the seventh one, pretend to be exhausted and fall.)

One, two, three.

He controlled his muscles according to the calculations, pretending that his breathing was slightly disordered.

Just then.

Hanayama, gripping the right side of the horizontal bar, began to exert force in order to lift his massive body.

Snap!

As a piece of equipment for high school physical education classes, this is a sturdy enough steel horizontal bar.

However, the horizontal bar deformed slightly in the face of Hanayama's terrifying grip strength.

"……Um?"

Huashan let out a faint, questioning sound, then unconsciously exerted a sudden burst of force.

The support broke completely at the base, and the right-side horizontal bar sank sharply towards the ground.

"Varied--!?"

Lever principle.

The simple and age-old principles of mechanics bared their fangs at Ayanokoji.

The conjoined monobar, transformed into a giant catapult, launched Ayanokouji high into the air with tremendous force.

"ah!?"

(...Are you kidding me? This was completely outside of my calculations.)

Even three meters in mid-air, he remained calm and composed, despite being the White House's greatest masterpiece.

(Disperse the impact by making large contact with the ground using the back, and then let out a painful groan upon landing.)

Ayanokouji twisted his body in mid-air and fell heavily into the sandpit on his back.

As calculated, the impact was distributed throughout the body, resulting in zero fatal injuries.

However, the sand that got into his mouth and the dull pain all over his body were definitely not acting.

"Aya, Ayanokouji!? Are you alright!?"

"Wow, that was amazing! You flew so high just now...!"

While acting as if she were naturally afraid of pain, Ayanokouji said, "O-Ouch, it hurts..." while looking up at the sky.

Deep in his heart, he let out a long sigh.

"...I'm sorry. The school's equipment seems to be quite outdated."

Huashan held the iron pipe bent into a "C" shape with one hand, showing no remorse whatsoever, and simply stated the facts as if they were facts.

(It's not aging! It's your superhuman physique! I absolutely, absolutely never want to be in the same group as this guy again!)

Ayanokouji spat out the sand in her mouth. Faced with the fact that her peaceful daily life had been destroyed by unreasonable violence, she could only grit her teeth and accept it in her heart.

For him, today is undoubtedly the worst Good Friday.