“Ah, yes.
But to be more precise, I guess I just hate my own body.
Not to the point of self harm, but looking at it makes me feel disgusted.” Shiki rubbed the fabric of his full body diving suit, vaguely feeling the uneven bumps of the suit clashing with his skin underneath.
“Oh, that’s pretty normal,” Ayanokoji replied without an ounce of surprise.
Or perhaps, to him, no matter what kind of bizarre psychology a fellow outlier like Shiki had, it was completely normal.
Beside them, Horikita’s brow twitched violently.
She felt like these two were completely insane.
One spouted absolute nonsense, and the other somehow agreed with it.
Were they even speaking a human language?
Why couldn’t she understand a single word?
Staring at the two of them, Horikita seemed to notice something and fell into thought.
“You guys must work out a lot, right?
Your muscles look very solid.
You must have undergone specialized training.”
Ayanokoji and Shiki had very similar body types.
They weren’t aesthetically beautiful like bodybuilders, but they were dense and packed with functional strength—completely different from Koenji’s perfectly sculpted physique.
Ayanokoji smoothly lied without blinking, “Not at all, you’re mistaken.
This is just a blessing from my parents.
Natural genetics.”
Horikita let out a cold sneer and shifted her gaze to the other guy.
Shiki looked completely helpless.
“Why are you looking at me?
I’ll report you for sexual harassment, you know.
I just wake up early every morning to jog, it’s not as exaggerated as you make it sound.”
Lately, he had been running into Kamuro on the track every morning.
That girl was stubborn, refused to be honest about her feelings, and absolutely hated losing.
She always tried to match his pace, which usually ended up completely exhausting her.
After spending some time together, they had basically become morning workout buddies.
Horikita gave him a highly disrespectful look.
“It’s very hard to imagine a guy who looks like he’s half asleep all day actually getting up to exercise.”
At that moment, perhaps sparked by Sudou and the other guys racing each other, the gym teacher’s long lost passion was ignited.
He excitedly announced that he was organizing a swimming race.
Anyone who fell behind would have to do extra training with him.
Shiki felt a headache coming on.
Why is this teacher so annoying?
Can’t we just have a quiet, peaceful class?
Horikita gloated, “It seems a certain someone’s swimming skills aren’t very good.”
“Mind your own business,” Shiki replied lazily, radiating an aura of zero motivation.
Ayanokoji stared at him.
“What are you going to do?”
He genuinely wanted to see what Shiki was capable of.
“I’ll just swim normally.
As long as I’m not in last place, it’s fine,” Shiki said.
Just as he finished his sentence, the gym teacher, wanting to push the students to do their absolute best, made an announcement.
“By the way, the student with the fastest time today will receive a personal reward of 5,000 points from me.
Whether you can grab it depends entirely on your performance!”
Points?!
Shiki’s eyes instantly sharpened.
Ayanokoji noticed it immediately.
The lazy, sluggish aura surrounding Shiki completely vanished in a split second.
His eyes burned with intense focus, making it look like his entire personality had been swapped out.
Horikita’s eyes widened.
“What is wrong with this guy?”
The races began.
Because there were fewer girls, they were split into two groups, while the boys were split into three.
Before Kushida’s group started, the boys sat by the pool, wildly cheering her name, completely proving her insane popularity in the class.
Quite a few guys had already fallen head over heels for her.
Horikita was in the same group as Kushida.
Her looks were undeniably top-tier, but because of her terrible personality, most of the boys completely ignored her.
The only ones who could even hold a conversation with her were fellow loners like Ayanokoji and Shiki.
The whistle blew, and the five girls dove into the water.
Horikita took the lead instantly, easily securing first place in her group with an impressive time of 28 seconds.
Kushida wasn’t weak either, clocking in at 31 seconds.
Unfortunately, the second group had a girl named Onodera who was in the swimming club.
Her skills were on a whole different level.
Her athletic figure sliced through the clear water, securing a flawless 26 seconds and claiming an overwhelming victory.
“What a shame.
Just a little bit faster and she would’ve gotten the points,” Shiki shook his head and sighed, acting as if he was the one who just missed out on the prize money.
“It doesn’t matter.
I don’t care about winning or losing.
More importantly, I’m very curious to see what your time will be.” Horikita stared intently at Shiki.
That shocking transformation he displayed earlier had left a deep impression on her.
“Who knows.
But I’ll definitely give it my all.” Shiki was a very realistic person; without a reward, he had zero motivation.
The class nice-guy, Hirata, was in the soccer club, so his physical fitness was among the best in the grade.
He was great at swimming too, scoring a solid 26 seconds.
This naturally earned him loud cheers from the girls.
This popular scene obviously made the other guys jealous, but their skills were completely average, nowhere near Hirata’s level.
Only Sudou showed strength surpassing Hirata, clocking in around 25 seconds.
However, the reaction he got was totally average, mostly just cheers from his close guy friends.
The massive difference in treatment perfectly highlighted just how important having a handsome face was.
Ayanokoji swam in one of the first two groups, placing somewhere in the lower-middle tier.
One look and Shiki knew the guy was completely slacking off.
After seeing Hirata and Sudou’s times, Shiki stopped paying attention.
He was placed in the third group, right next to the class weirdo, Koenji Rokusuke.
Even in a class completely overflowing with weirdos like Class D, that guy was in a league of his own.
“Oh, beautiful.
The clear water flowing over my noble, beautiful body…
I am truly magnificent.”
Koenji brushed his wet blonde hair out of his face, letting out a totally bizarre sigh of admiration.
In the lane right next to him, Shiki’s mouth twitched, and he tried his absolute best to erase his own presence.
But it was obviously useless.
Koenji’s gaze somehow shifted to Shiki, and he put on a highly amused expression.
“Hahaha, I didn’t expect my opponent to be Panda Boy!
Although your physique is quite good, you are still lacking compared to my sheer beauty.”
Listening to the guy next to him talking to himself like a lunatic, Shiki’s face looked as if he had just swallowed a live fly.
It was a terrible look.
He cursed in his head.
Why am I always running into these absolute weirdos?
And why do they all love bothering me?!
Is there a single normal human being left?!
Ignoring Shiki’s internal breakdown, quite a few people on the sidelines were watching with great interest.
Ayanokoji’s usually dead, emotionless eyes were locked onto the pool.
A rare look of absolute seriousness appeared on his blank face.
He was incredibly curious about Shiki’s true physical abilities.
Recently, Shiki had been learning chess from him, and his rate of improvement was so terrifyingly fast that it defied all logic.
Even Ayanokoji couldn’t help but be amazed.
For the first time in his life, the thought actually crossed his mind: Could this guy eventually defeat me?
Now, he wanted to see what Shiki’s physical limits were.
Although he looked sturdy, it was hard to judge true strength just by appearance.
This swimming race was the perfect chance to see exactly what he was capable of.
Beside him, Horikita suddenly felt a chill run down her spine.
Hugging her arms, she instinctively followed the source of the chill and saw Ayanokoji staring intensely at Shiki, his eyes practically glowing with interest.
She suddenly remembered all the weird things Ayanokoji had said and done regarding Shiki recently.
Some very inappropriate knowledge she had accidentally read once flashed through her mind.
Deeply disturbed, she immediately took a step back, looking at Ayanokoji with obvious disgust and repulsion.
Ayanokoji completely failed to notice her reaction.
Or rather, even if he did, he wouldn’t care.
“Whoa, Koenji is up next.
I wonder how fast he can swim…” Sudou crossed his arms.
Holding the best time so far, he put on the arrogant stance of a reigning champion.
“Why do you even care?
Ken is super strong, there’s no way he can beat you.”
“Yeah, exactly.
That guy always acts like he’s better than everyone else.
He’s a total freak.”
Even though Ike and Yamauchi were secretly annoyed that their buddy got a good score, they would much rather see Sudou in the spotlight than that arrogant jerk, Koenji.
Sudou, showing a rare moment of humility, shook his head.
“No, that guy is seriously strong.
Just looking at his body, you can tell he trains hard.
Plus, I watched him swim during the free time earlier.”
He felt that Koenji was probably the only person in the entire class who could match his physical abilities.
At the starting blocks, the muscular gym teacher stood by the pool and raised his arm.
“Ready…”
Tweeeet—!
At the sharp sound of the whistle, Shiki dove in flawlessly, plunging into his lane and kicking up a massive splash.
At the exact same time, a similar splash echoed from the lane right next to his.
Shiki knew it was Koenji, so he didn’t waste any time thinking about it.
He poured 100% of his energy and focus into the race.
No matter what, he was getting that prize money!
His arms swung powerfully, cutting through the water with perfect form.
With every stroke, water splashed wildly around him until his hand finally slapped the wall at the finish line.
The teacher in charge of the stopwatch clicked the button and stared at the screen in pure shock.
“It’s…
22.18 seconds…”
Shiki lifted his head out of the water, letting the droplets roll down his face.
Hearing the time, he let out a sigh of relief, quickly climbed out of the pool, and shook the water from his hair.
The muscular gym teacher hurried over.
“You there, do you want to join the school’s swim team?
I can tell your form still has a lot of room for improvement. The source of this chapter is g.com.
If you practice hard, you might even shine on the world stage one day…”
Shiki shook his head and immediately rejected the offer.
“Thanks for the invite, but I have absolutely zero interest in swimming.”
He had no desire to become some world-famous Olympic swimmer.
He just wanted to find an ordinary job, live a simple life, and quietly soak up the sun like a houseplant.
Seeing that Shiki couldn’t be persuaded, the gym teacher regretfully gave up.
Shiki watched the teacher’s retreating back, wanting to speak but hesitating.
Wait a minute, where are my points?!
“Not bad at all, Panda Boy.”
At that moment, Koenji walked over, shaking the water out of his golden hair with a completely relaxed expression.
“To be able to defeat me in this race proves that you are somewhat beautiful in this boring class.
Much better than the rest of these dull commoners…”
Thanks, but can you please use a normal nickname…
Shiki’s eye twitched.
Even though Koenji’s personality was completely unhinged, his physical abilities were undeniable.
His swimming form was textbook perfect.
In this race, he was only slightly behind Shiki, clocking in at 23.22 seconds.
He truly was a terrifying opponent.
Koenji seemed completely blind to Shiki’s speechlessness.
Or, if he noticed, he just ignored it entirely, letting out a wild laugh.
“Hahaha!
But if you think you can surpass me in beauty, that is absolutely impossible!”
What the hell is this guy even talking about?
Shiki gave him a look of absolute, soul crushing disgust.
“Hey…
was that panda eyed guy always that insane?” Ike was totally dumbfounded.
He thought Sudou might win, he thought Koenji might win, he even fantasized about unlocking his inner potential and taking first place himself.
But now you’re telling him some random guy with dark circles took first?!
“Who knows.
Do you guys even remember his name?” Sudou was also confused.
Who the hell is this guy, and how did he beat me so easily?
It was honestly a bit tragic.
On the day of self-introductions, Shiki had fallen asleep and missed his turn.
Combined with the fact that he was a total loner, barely anyone in the class actually knew his name.
They just knew him as the lazy weirdo with dark circles.
But after today, things would definitely change.
Judging by the shocked faces of his classmates, they would at least remember him as the weirdo with dark circles who was insanely athletic.
Ayanokoji stared at Shiki’s back, an indescribable sense of excitement in his chest.
(Tsugikuni…
is this your true strength?)
Horikita stared at Shiki’s usually lazy figure, her eyes wide.
She found it incredibly hard to believe that the guy who was always half-asleep was actually this capable.
He wasn’t the total loser she thought he was.
Shiki completely ignored the complicated thoughts of the weirdos around him.
Right now, his brain was focused on exactly one thing…
Where are my points?!
Eventually, Shiki successfully claimed his hard-earned points.
Five thousand points wasn’t a massive fortune, but if he was frugal, it was enough to eat out for three days.
If he cooked for himself, it could last even longer.
There was truly nothing more satisfying in life than getting paid for your hard work.
Shiki was in a fantastic mood, wondering if he could scam—ahem, earn—points from other teachers using the same method.
Completely lost in thought, he wasn’t paying attention and accidentally bumped into someone coming around the corner.
The moment their shoulders collided, Shiki knew he messed up.
He took one quick glance at the guy’s face, immediately spotted a security camera a short distance away, and made a split-second decision.
He threw his perfectly balanced body backward, hit the floor, closed his eyes, and let out a dramatic, agonizing wail.
It was a flawless performance, looking exactly like a defeated Kamen Rider taking critical damage.
“Huh?”
Ryuen Kakeru from Class C frowned as someone bumped into him.
He was just about to beat the guy up to set an example, but seeing Shiki acting like he was on the brink of death instantly killed his mood.
Wasting his time on a pathetic coward like this would only make the rest of Class C look down on him.
His main priority right now was completely conquering his own class.
Thinking this, he decided to just throw out a few insults before leaving.
He sneered, “Are you blind?
Or did your eyes grow on your ass?”
“Hahaha…”
His harsh mockery instantly made the Class C goons behind him burst out laughing.
Shiki didn’t say a word.
He just squeezed out a few fake tears and clutched his arm like he was in unbearable pain.
Paired with his dark panda eyes, he looked incredibly ridiculous.
The Class C students laughed even harder.
“Stop it right now.
Bullying classmates is not allowed on this campus.”
Suddenly, an incredibly unexpected voice rang out, putting a stop to the situation.
Shiki tilted his head slightly.
Standing a short distance away was the girl with pink hair and bright blue eyes, looking completely serious and radiating overwhelming, righteous energy.
Shiki: “…Dammit!”