I'm in a real religion, why are all the people who confess to me girls?

Tianyin couldn't think of a good reason for the moment, so she simply gritted her teeth and used the excuse of having an upset stomach.

puff.

Hearing that Amane gave the same reason as him, Ibuki couldn't help but chuckle twice, but seeing the instructor's unfriendly gaze, he quickly regained his indifferent expression, though he secretly glanced in Amane's direction out of the corner of his eye.

"You mean you both had stomach upsets at the same time, and then you took care of it at the same time, right?"

"Uh... that's about it."

Tianyin sensed that the instructor's tone was off, but since things had come to this point, she could only stubbornly stick to her guns. She hoped that the instructor's punishment later wouldn't be something like forbidding her from eating lunch.

"I see, I understand now..."

The female instructor nodded thoughtfully, then reached out and brought over the male instructor in charge of the teaching.

"Li, I've noticed two students are late. Could you possibly take up a bit of your teaching time?"

As the female instructor spoke, she turned back and gave Tianyin and the other girl a gentle smile, but to Tianyin, the smile seemed a little creepy.

"It's not that it takes up time, since I have classes all morning. But Uesugi, are you planning to punish them? Remember they're just high school students; they can't take your abuse."

Instructor Li clearly understood Uesugi's style of doing things very well, and couldn't help but give him some advice, but the latter didn't seem to take the advice to heart at all.

"Don't worry, Li, I always know what I'm doing!"

"Is that right?"

Tianyin noticed that the male instructor named Li's expression had become very strange. This instructor named Shangshan was probably not a good person. How could she possibly be safe if she fell into her hands? Was it too late for her to run away now?

"Of course! Besides, I'm their self-defense instructor, so giving them some instruction beforehand... the head instructor won't say anything!"

Instructor Uesugi snapped his fingers and then beckoned to Tenon and the other person behind him, signaling them to follow.

After glancing at her indifferent, clueless teammate Ibuki, Amane sighed and followed Uesugi to the center of the playground.

"Sister Tianyin? Did you get caught cheating?"

Seeing Amane looking dejected as she and Ibuki followed the woman in the instructor's uniform into the training ground, Masahiko couldn't help but stand up and blurt out the question.

However, his question caused the noise that had filled the playground, which had been as chaotic as a market just a moment before, to vanish without a trace.

"Idiot! Jiang Yan, what nonsense are you talking about! There's no way I would get caught for something like that!"

Tianyin blushed and spoke loudly in her defense.

The first and second graders are all here now. If Jiang Yan ruins his reputation, how will he ever be able to... cough cough, chat about life and ideals with the first-grade girls again?

"That's true, I misspoke! Please forgive me, elder sister!"

Jiang Yan bowed sincerely to Tian Yin in apology. Seeing that Jiang Yan knew his mistake and was willing to correct it, Tian Yin's expression softened considerably, and a gentle smile appeared on her face. As long as the misunderstanding was cleared up, she could...

To Tianyin's surprise, her smile lasted for less than twenty seconds.

"I'm sure my elder sister wouldn't be interested in something like this. I made a mistake in judgment in my haste."

"Huh? You little brat, you dare to do it again..."

When Ibuki was told that by Masahiko, she was about to swear, but Amane reacted quickly and covered Ibuki's mouth.

In a way, Jiang Yan guessed correctly. If the two of them insisted on dwelling on this matter, it would probably end up back to explaining the fatal question of "you two had stomach aches at the same time and then recovered at the same time".

To avoid a repeat of this near-deadly problem, Amane decisively covered Ibuki's mouth, but Amane had no control over Ibuki's body.

Seeing Ibuki waving her arms, punching and kicking, and about to rush forward, Masahiko roughly guessed that Ibuki was dissatisfied with his words, but what could he do?

In Masahiko's eyes, Ibuki is not even one ten-thousandth as good as Sakayanagi. In other words, she is not even worthy of carrying Sakayanagi's shoes. He thinks that Amane would definitely not look down on such a person. Since she is an insignificant person, what can she do even if she is arrogant?

Jiang Yan snorted coldly in the direction of Ibuki and then sat down.

Ibuki was furious at Masahiko's arrogant attitude.

"Tianyin, let me go! I'll teach that bastard a lesson!"

"Oh."

Seeing that Ibuki was blushing and about to go and demand an explanation from Masahiko, Amane, fearing that Ibuki would be angered, immediately let go of her hand after hearing Ibuki's order.

Ibuki, who had been struggling, froze on the spot, staring intently at the hand that Amane had released.

Oh my god! You siblings didn't conspire to make me go up there and give myself away for free, did you?

"Tianyin, why didn't you stop me?"

Ibuki glared at Amane, who looked completely innocent beside her, with a look full of resentment.

"Didn't you, Mio, tell me to let you go?"

Tenon whispered a question in Ibuki's ear.

"You let go just because I told you to?! Why didn't you go easy on me when I told you to be gentle?"

"This isn't my fault."

Tianyin pouted, looking aggrieved.

It was clearly Ibuki who made her back then... Hmph, women, they're so fickle!

Seemingly sensing the slightly awkward atmosphere between the two, Instructor Uesugi coughed a few times to draw everyone's attention to her.

"Ahem, these two are students who were late for the assembly. According to the rules, they should be severely punished. Only in this way can we treat the students who are on time fairly. However, I don't think there's much point in just punishing them. Are you tired of playing with wood? Would you like to see something exciting and interesting?"

Instructor Uesugi's few words successfully impressed everyone.

Exciting! Fun!

These two words brought expectant expressions to the faces of the students who had been drilling into the wood for half an hour.

"miss you!"

"Speak louder! I can't hear your answers!"

"think!!!"

The unified shouts brought the atmosphere to a fever pitch. At that moment, both Amane and the slow-to-react Ibuki knew that something terrible was about to happen.

"Great spirits! Since everyone is so enthusiastic, I'll play a little game with you two."

Instructor Uesugi deliberately emphasized the word 'mini-game'.

Seeing Uesugi's expression, Ibuki quickly raised her hand.

"I'm not good at social games. If it's an adventure game, I'd rather accept physical punishment."

"Don't worry, although it's a game of punishment, as instructors our task is to help you grow, not to use the excuse of training your abilities to watch you make a fool of yourself for fun."

Uesugi realized another layer of meaning in Ibuki's words, which was that the game the instructor was talking about was just making them act as monkeys to bring joy to the audience by making a fool of themselves. So Instructor Uesugi seriously explained to Ibuki.

Seeing Instructor Uesugi's serious and solemn expression, Ibuki nodded and stopped talking.

"If there are no objections, then it's settled. First, let me introduce myself."

Instructor Uesugi cleared his throat before addressing the group.

"My name is Rie Uesugi. I am your self-defense instructor and will be in charge of your physical training for the next month. I hope we can get along well in the future, and I ask for your continued support."

"Regarding the game, I'll invite these two girls to take turns attacking me. If they manage to touch me, I'll reward them with a candy. If they cause me any kind of harm, including tripping or pushing me over, that counts too—I'll prepare a special lunch for them! If they can last three minutes against me, I can grant them a small wish that's within my power and doesn't violate the school rules, like wanting to skip training tomorrow! And finally, a special reward!! If they can defeat me, they can make any request of me! Any request is welcome!"

As soon as Instructor Uesugi finished speaking, excited shouts and whistles erupted from the students below.

But the cheers immediately subsided when they remembered that the challengers were two girls.

"Do these two students have any further questions about the game rules and rewards?"

Instructor Uesugi turned around with a hint of excitement and asked the two of them.

What are the penalties for failure?

"There is no punishment for failure. I will also correct your techniques and movements. If you have no self-defense foundation, I can also teach you some useful things for free."

It sounds fine; compared to the special exams we've encountered before, the instructor's games are quite generous.

"Does this lovely girl have any other questions?"

"Nothing."

After Tenon finished speaking, she gave Ibuki a wink.

Ibuki rolled her eyes at Amane helplessly and stepped forward first.

"Let's get started quickly. My name is Ibuki Mio, nice to meet you..."

Before Ibuki could finish speaking, she collapsed to the ground.

The audience fell completely silent.

After a while, Ibuki, who was sitting on the ground, realized what had happened and pointed at Instructor Uesugi, protesting loudly.

"That was a sneak attack! I wasn't even prepared. As an instructor, do you really think you can win with such low-level tricks?"

Ibuki's words were echoed by many students in Class 2-C.

"Yeah, isn't that cheating? Beating someone bigger and then sneaking up on them? Isn't that blatant bullying?"

Ishizaki began to complain with dissatisfaction.

Seemingly having heard Ishizaki's complaint, Uesugi reached out and pulled Ibuki up, then took a few steps back.

"Is this distance alright?"

Ibuki didn't answer Uesugi's question and rushed straight towards where Instructor Uesugi was. She launched a few simple and straightforward punches that looked like they wouldn't hurt, but unsurprisingly, Uesugi dodged them all.

It didn't seem particularly exciting at first glance, but it still drew gasps from many boys and girls in the audience. For most ordinary students, Ibuki's skills were already considered those of a 'master'. The fact that a 'master' could fight the instructor to a standstill, and even dominate him, forcing the instructor to dodge, was visually stunning.

Anyone with a little knowledge could see that the difference in strength between the two was too great. Ibuki's attack was not even as powerful as a few punches thrown casually by a street thug.

And that was indeed the case. Even Ibuki herself hadn't intended to suppress Instructor Uesugi with such attacks. Her real specialty was kicking techniques, and what she had just done was merely a test.

Ibuki's offensive suddenly stopped. Just as the audience was wondering why Ibuki stopped fighting, Ibuki's eyes narrowed and she quickly kicked a beautiful high roundhouse kick towards Instructor Uesugi's head.

"Ok?"

Instructor Uesugi exclaimed in surprise. When she saw Ibuki's few light punches, she thought that the other party was just a girl who didn't know how to fight, and she was thinking about how to win without hurting the other party too much.

The next second, something unexpected happened. Although this high kick seemed ordinary to Instructor Uesugi, it sent her a signal that this girl named Ibuki was a trained fighter.

Since he's a trained fighter... he must be pretty good at taking a beating, right?

Seeing that her attack missed, Ibuki was not in a hurry. Instead, she twisted her waist and then delivered a high roundhouse kick straight to the head of the instructor in the shirt.

Unfortunately, this move was also easily dodged by the opponent. Unwilling to give up, Ibuki kept one leg raised high and stomped on the ground. Using the impact from the ground, she twisted her waist again and used her other foot to complete a flying kick with a high degree of difficulty.

Faced with this fierce attack, Instructor Uesugi smiled, tilted his head, and easily dodged it.

"what?"

Ibuki frowned as her sure-kill attack missed. Just as she was about to try again, Instructor Uesugi suddenly lowered his body and swept his leg across Ibuki's only supporting leg. In pain and losing her balance, Ibuki fell to the ground again.

This time, Ibuki didn't make any excuses or reasons for the failure. She simply stood up calmly and dusted off her clothes.

"I lost."

The crowd erupted in uproar when Ibuki conceded defeat so quickly.

"Weren't they playing just fine? How come they gave up after being tripped up?"

"The difference in strength is too great. Didn't you see that Ibuki was sweating? Those kicks she just delivered were probably her special moves. It's normal to be forced to admit defeat when you're using your special moves."

"Instructor Uesugi is amazing. It feels like an adult is beating up a child... Although Instructor Uesugi is indeed older, the difference is just astonishing."

"I found it! Rie Uesugi, an 8th dan in Aikido, is the youngest 8th dan Aikido prodigy to date. At 26, she was hailed as a master and established her own dojo, which at its peak had three to four thousand students! At 28, she killed karate master Kazuhito Nagata, who had intervened without permission during a challenge, with a single blow. After being acquitted, Rie Uesugi closed her dojo and disappeared..."

The voice reciting the search page content grew softer and softer.

The surroundings became quiet.

Instructor Uesugi also heard someone reciting their 'glorious' past, but no matter what she did, she couldn't force a smile onto her face.

"My next comment might hurt your self-esteem. Do you want to hear it?"

Seeing the serious look on Instructor Uesugi's face, Ibuki hesitated for a moment before nodding.

After all, the difference between the two sides is obvious, and even if Uesugi calls her trash, she can't refute it.

"Thank you. In that case, please forgive my impertinence. Ibuki-kun, your fighting style is no different from street fighting. I can see that you have been instructed by a master of leg techniques, but the other party only taught you one move, that one whip kick. The rest of the moves must have been figured out by yourself, which are of no value. When you usually use moves, you basically rely on brute force to overwhelm your opponent. When you encounter a strong enemy, your moves will be so scarce that you can only force your opponent to expose their weaknesses by repeatedly using 'ultimate moves'. Am I right about that?"

Instructor Uesugi's evaluation made Ibuki's eyes widen. It was the first time she had heard someone give her such an accurate evaluation. She knew that she had defeated quite a few people, but none of them were as observant as this... Or rather, Instructor Uesugi's observation skills were almost on par with those of Amane, no, and perhaps even more terrifying than Amane's.

"That's right, I mainly fight with strength, but I'll first use some kicking techniques to confuse my opponents into thinking I'm a skilled one, and then suddenly unleash my power to catch them off guard."