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High School Hack and Slash Chapter 1 Part 4

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Pasifista

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　Our class is first year third group.

　It’s not Hei(soldier) group, but Hinoe(third).

　There are a whopping twenty-four classes for new students.

　If there are 40 students per class, the whole grade is numbered around a thousand, so I think it’s a very large school.

　However, it seems that the number of classes decreases as the school year progresses.

　I was worried that perhaps the dropout rate would be high in high school, but to begin with, Toyoashihara academy is not a high school, but a technical college.

　To be honest, I had never heard of the existence known as technical college until sensei explained it to me.

　The biggest difference between a technical college and a high school is that the basic period of enrollment is five years there.

　For that reason, on top of the general subjects studied in regular high schools, there are also specialized subjects.

　Robotics competitions seem to be famous, but they seem to have no entry in this academy.

　Incidentally, the academy has a stricter curriculum than regular high schools, so the dropout rate seems to be high.

　That said, they’d have no trouble finding employment, as most of them would be eligible for recommendations to major companies.

　The problems are those specialized subjects.

　Naturally, I asked my middle school homeroom teacher about it, but the answer I got was, 『Feel free to follow whatever aspiration you want.』

　As long as we manage to graduate, it seems that the academy will arrange the groundwork for the course we want to walk on.

　And the specialized subjects seem to be the trial for that.

　That’s why, do your best, he said.

　Realizing that he had sidestepped from answering my question, I did not ask any further than that.

　I had no outlook of what I wanted to do in the future, so in the end I simply followed his recommendation.

　I thought that perhaps he recommended this school because he wanted to leave a lot of possibilities for such me.

　However, now that I’m listening to the orientation guidance on the contents of this school year’s lessons, I’m filled with the feeling that perhaps I had done something that incurred sensei’s wrath.

　First of all, I do get the general subjects of Japanese, Geography and History, Mathematics, and Foreign Languages.

　These are organized on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

　But I don’t get the specialized subjects assigned to Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

　Physical strengthening training, basic survival, introduction to labyrinths, cartography, exploration technique, martial arts, and various weapon battle techniques.

　Sword arts, spear arts, club arts, shield arts and so on are listed as elective courses.

　The new students are told to go through the basic training first before then choosing the armament they have aptitude for (except for the experienced ones).

　I look up from the explanation material that has been handed out to my whole classmates and move my gaze alone through the classroom to take a look at the situation.

　No one is laughing.

　Is it not sensei’s best gag yet, I wonder?

　No, they must have arranged it only for my material and are waiting for my reaction.

　The homeroom teacher for the first year third group is a young female teacher who looks like she has just graduated from college.

　Sensei, who has her hair tied up in a bun and wears stylish glasses, is showing a serious face.

　Her appearance is more of cool than cute, but I get the feeling that she is getting impatient because she isn’t getting any reaction from me yet.

　I wonder if I should smile here.

　I feel as if my eyes meet sensei’s, but I decide to put it on hold for the time being and return my gaze to the pamphlet.

 

◇ ◇ ◇

 

　Chime, which announced time, echoed through the grounds.

　The sound of a real chime, not a playback recording, changed its tone depending on the weather that day.

「Phew….」

　Touma, unleashing an intimidating aura that seemed to freeze the air, heaved a short sigh while leaning back against the backrest.

　Seiichi felt sympathy not toward himself, but toward his classmates, who were seated around Touma and looking down in discomfort.

　He felt that it couldn’t be helped.

　For Touma, enrolling to this academy was probably no different than being sent to an enemy’s territory.

　He had also warned him that he’d swiftly be purged if he acted too blatantly, and even he himself would be unable to accomplish his duty, but it appeared that the effect was sparse.

　At the very least, he wished him not to make a scene until he managed to ascertain the organization behind him.

　Perhaps sensing his gaze, the expressionless Touma made a straight line toward Seiichi, who was conveniently seated in the back seat by the window.

　For a moment, his face stiffened in thought that perhaps he had telepathy-related superpower, but he rationalized that in that case, there should be some sort of reaction the moment both of their eyes met.

「Seiichi.」

「W, what is it?」

　Amidst the surrounding students who had decided to avert their gazes and pretend to see nothing, Seiichi, whose back was soaked with cold sweat, floated a stiff smile.

「Should I have smiled…?」

「Huh?」

「Was I supposed to show a smile? What do you say, Seiichi?」

　He’d only known Touma for a short time, but he’d gotten used to the lack of coherence in his remarks.

　And at the same time, he felt more and more that their conversation seemed to be not in sync.

「Well…. A smile is better than a scowl, right?」

「I knew it.」

　Seeing Touma that was looking down while showing a mortified face, the feeling of them being as expected not in sync was immense.

「I’ve done something bad to sensei.」

「Ah, Midori-chan-sensei, huh. She was slightly trembling, wasn’t she? I think it was perhaps because you were glaring at her with the gaze that seemed to imply I’ll kill you, though, Touma….」

　He felt that it was roughly 90% of the reason.

　The rest was probably nerves from greeting the new class for the first time.

　Even as he recalled the investigation handouts he had received beforehand, she was evaluated as a frank and friendly sensei who was very student-oriented.

　She was in charge of the specialized subject of Introduction to Labyrinths.

　She was a graduate of the academy, and had then stayed at the academy as she was and acted as a new teacher to continue her educational training, so there was no other side in her identity.

　The teachers in charge of general subjects could be replaced as many times as possible, and were kept by the academy.

　He’s going to lay his hand from there, huh, Seiichi felt as though he had seen through Touma’s assault plan.

　It was an illusion, though.

「I think I should go apologize….」

「No, wait. Today is the first day of school. So the teachers should be also busy with a lot of things.」

　He stopped Touma who was about to head out of the classroom at once.

　Making a swift decision and giving no time for preparation were Touma’s peculiar traits, which were troublesome in various ways.

「What did you mess up in the first place? It was the first time you’d met the homeroom teacher, right? Or could it be you had already known that Midori-chan was going to be our homeroom teacher?」

「No, there’s no way sensei could have known that it would land on me, right? It was tactless of me.」

　The scythe that lurked in Seiichi’s words was looming over from far above.

　In front of Seiichi, who was pressing his temple in slight headache, he abruptly held out the orientation materials that had been distributed to the whole class.

「Hmm? What’s wrong with it? I also got one, you know?」

「Take a look at this. I’ve trampled over sensei’s consideration.」

　Touma’s toned finger, which looked as though had repeatedly hit the straw post each day for two years, was pointed at the lesson schedule timetable.

　Without the need of exercising the speed reading ability that was taught as one of the essential skills, he could tell that it was the same printout, which had been copied in a large number, as the one he had received.

「Ah, the dungeon special training, huh. Our class is the earliest one, but it seems that the various programs have been set for the first training, after all. There’s no particular order for that part, so it can’t be helped, right? It’s only a matter of being earlier or later, after all.」

　As he suitably continued the conversation, Seiichi took out his own pamphlet and replaced the two while pretending to compare them.

　He felt the need to inspect it and see if there were any ciphers inserted into it that were invisible to the naked eye, such as one that could only be revealed by applying heat on it.

　It was pointless, though.

「But, you see. For us to suddenly dive into the dungeon tomorrow without preliminary training, isn’t that crazy?」

「That means we’ll be able to have a head start compared to the other classes, right? Isn’t that a good thing?」

「Ahaha, looks like you’re so confident there…, umm, Seiichi-kun?」

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