The Day Normal Life Resumes
After using the Hero Skills I’d brought back from another world to utterly crush Imagawa-senpai—who had the audacity to hide behind his parents’ power and pull that arrogant stunt—I left both him and his father thoroughly defeated, not a shred of dignity remaining.
With a renewed spirit, I set out to restart my peaceful high school life.
“Good morning, Shuhei-kun.”
“Morning, Hasumin.”
“Hey hey, Shuhei-kun, were you able to solve Question 3 from yesterday’s Math I homework?”
As I walked to school feeling refreshed, Hasumin greeted me—barely—and jumped straight into that question.
“Yeah, I got it. That was the applied trigonometric ratios one, right?”
“I just couldn’t figure that part out, no matter what I tried. Do you think you could walk me through it?”
“Of course. I’d like to see where you got stuck—mind if I take a look at your notes?”
“Here you go. Umm, I think I managed up to this point, but then…”
Hasumin opened her notebook on my desk, leaned in close, and, while peering at the page beside me, pointed out where she’d stumbled.
A few strands of her hair brushed softly against my cheek, sending a ticklish shiver through me.
On top of that, a light, pleasant fragrance drifted toward me, and I became acutely aware of my heart beating faster in my chest.
(Lately, Hasumin’s been like this—close, almost too close. Is it just me reading too much into things? Or… is it really something more?)
“Mmm, I see. And here, too—look at this part…”
Naturally, I didn’t let any of those thoughts show on my face. I simply smiled and explained the problem to her like I always did.
Helping the girl next to me with her homework first thing in the morning—it’s the kind of scene that just screams youth, doesn’t it?
Compared to the dull, grey days of my socially invisible middle school years, this alone feels more than enough.
For now, this is plenty.
I’ll take my time getting closer to Hasumin. And when the moment feels right… I’ll tell her how I feel.
We’d talk about homework like this, go out for karaoke with the rest of the band—
I even bought her cake, like I promised, after losing our Mini 4WD race at the school festival. There hadn’t been any dramatic developments between us, but things were going well, in their own quiet way.
And before I knew it, the sports festival—one of the two major events of second semester alongside the school festival—was just around the corner.
“Alright, since no one else volunteered, I’ll take the 1500-meter run. That completes our lineup. If anyone has concerns, now’s the time to speak up. It’s still early enough to make changes.”
Acting as class rep, I looked around the room as I summarized our homeroom decisions.
“No objections here!”
“Same here!”
“Looks good to me!”
“Alright, since no one’s objecting, that settles it. All event entries are now finalized. That’s it for today—good work, everyone. Oh, and those running in the relays, make sure you practice your baton passes at least once, alright?”
Having done this once before for the school festival, I’d gotten used to managing event planning like this.
Unlike the school festival, which had our class scrambling from preparations to performance—
My job for the sports festival was basically done once the sign-ups were locked in during homeroom. From here on, I’d just participate like everyone else and enjoy the event.
For the record, I’m running the boys’ 1500-meter, the boys’ 100-meter, and the mixed-gender Swedish relay.
The last two are high-profile, high-point events. Since I’ve got decent athletic ability, I was picked to give our class a shot at winning.
As for the 1500-meter, it’s exhausting, unglamorous, and by far the least popular event—so with no other takers, I stepped up.
Our class doesn’t have any distance runners from the track team or soccer club, after all.
The 1500-meter is brutal, thankless, and spectacularly unpopular—something even the organizers fully understand.
That’s why they’ve assigned it point values nearly on par with the showcase events.
If we’re aiming for overall victory by grade, it’s one of those races where snagging first place really matters.
All the events I’m in carry a lot of weight, so I’ll aim for the top in each and do everything I can to help my class win.
Oh, and for context—the Swedish relay is a 1000-meter race with a twist:
The first runner goes 100 meters,
The second runs 200,
The third takes on 300,
And the final anchor finishes with 400. The distance increases by 100 meters per runner—a familiar quirk in sports festivals. It’s the last event of the day for every grade, and the highest scoring of all, so if you want to win, taking first place here is absolutely essential.