If things were to end here, it would be a perfect ending to the manga.

However, in reality, one couldn't use the convenient method of "three months have passed …" to skip the tedious time that people didn't want to face. No matter how much she regretted what she said on the spur of the moment, and no matter how awkward it would be if they met again, she still had to go to school the next day, and she still had to meet the people she was supposed to meet.

So just as she turned the corner of the stairs of the teaching building, Senzaki Setsuna bumped into Midaya Dehisa at the front door of the classroom.

— Ugh.

She forced a smile and greeted him, "Good morning, Midaya Kun."

"Morning …" In contrast, Green Valley had been out for a long time, but his face was extremely exhausted, as if he had experienced something terrible. His eyes unconsciously stared at a certain point in the air.

It wasn't until he responded subconsciously that he came back to his senses. Then, in the next second, he stood at attention. "Good morning, Chisaki!"

Such an overreaction made Cha Na feel uneasy. Driven by emotions and hormones, she had said something that was comparable to a confession, but when she came back to reality, the two of them were still classmates who did not know each other well. She nodded hurriedly and was about to step into the classroom, but she stopped a second before she pushed the door open. After half a second of silence, she turned back as if she had made up her mind.

"Me too. I've decided to apply for Sunyoung."

She smiled slightly, and there was a rare hint of determination in her usually soft eyes.

"Let's do our best together, Midaya Kun."

After that, she turned back, wanting to escape this inexplicably tense atmosphere as soon as possible. But when she was about to open the door, she heard a response from behind her.

"— Yeah!"

…

…

…

— Although they had formed an alliance for the exam.

But in terms of actual contact, it wasn't much more than before.

They were originally classmates who were not very familiar with each other. Their relationship, which had not been established even after three years in junior high, would probably not change in quality or quantity in the last few months. Cha Na tried to find some time to pay attention to Green Valley's activities in the midst of preparing for the exam. However, the only conclusion he got was that Green Valley was leaving early and returning late. The frequency of him falling asleep in class was increasing. He was probably doing some kind of physical training.

As for herself …

"About sixty meters …"

Looking at the deviation of the stone's landing point from the original target, she sighed and reluctantly accepted the result.

As everyone knew, Sunyoung High School's hero class exam was divided into a written test and a combat test, of which the combat test was the most important.

And as a standard middle school girl with a grip strength of only 28kg, the only thing she could rely on was her convenient personality.

After a few rounds of testing, she filled in two more lines on her personality record, but it wasn't much different from the previous record. The precise movement distance was within sixty meters, and the maximum movement weight was about 180kg, and the interval was one to two seconds. These two numbers hadn't changed much for nearly a year, and the entrance exam was less than three months away. Instead of looking forward to the growth of her personality, it was more reliable to think about how to use her current personality.

"The advantage of fixed-point movement is that it can't be defended against … After all, it directly appears at the designated coordinates, and there's no chance to block it."

She flipped through the combat ideas she had over the years. When she was in elementary school, she had a lot of seemingly whimsical ideas, but after careful consideration, it wasn't impossible. "As long as I don't directly move to the coordinates where it penetrates the body, it shouldn't cause any irreparable damage … In the end, if the opponent is a human, it's safer to use spatial movement to approach the opponent and move him out of the field after contact."

This idea didn't come from any kind of human brilliance, but purely from the physiological discomfort of hurting people as a girl who hadn't seen much bloodshed in her life.

Setsuna glanced at the neatly arranged small wooden sticks at the corner of the table. Both ends were sharpened with a pencil knife. This was a prop she had specially collected in elementary school to complement her attack ideas. If it was just a superficial wound, she could more or less convince herself that it was just an exam. But if she accidentally moved these things near the aorta …

She shuddered. It was better not to take this risk that could leave a psychological scar for the rest of her life.

"Then there's the weakness. If the opponent is very mobile, it's difficult to predict the coordinates to move to. If the opponent attacks range beyond the moving distance, it can only be dodged by luck … This hasn't changed since elementary school."

Thinking of this, she sighed heavily. It was up to fate how much she could improve after three months of practice. She could only hope that her luck wasn't too bad.

She rubbed her temples and closed the record in her hand with a snap.

"It's better than sitting here doing nothing. Let's start."

This sentence laid the foundation for her ascetic life for the next three months.

There was no other way to improve one's personality except for continuous use. After discussing with the head teacher, Setsuna applied for the right to use dozens of sandbags from the sports warehouse in the name of preparing for the exam, plus a sports field with a diameter of far more than 60 meters. Although Zhe Temple wasn't a gathering place for famous talents, it was more than enough for her to practice spatial movement.

The only thing that could be called a problem was that spatial movement required a lot of computing power. Even though Setsuna was born with an advantage in this aspect, she couldn't withstand the mental activity that pushed her to the limit every day. Therefore, the number of people who dozed off in class increased from one to two. When they met in the classroom from time to time, they could only smile bitterly at each other with dark circles under their eyes.

"You've already done very well. Hold on a little longer, Midaya Kun."

Once again, they bumped into each other in the corridor outside the classroom.

Setsuna resisted the urge to touch the tired head in front of her. If she still relied on her brain to calculate spatial coordinates to fight, Midaya Dehisa could only rely on his physical strength. But there was no other way. After all, they were asking for too much.

Admittedly, after that day, Midaya was no longer an "ordinary classmate" to her. However, it seemed that this person was born not very good at getting along with girls of the same age. After so many days, he still subconsciously tensed up when he talked to her.

"Yes, yes!"

After a nervous response that almost broke his voice, he carefully looked at her. "Chisaki also … recently, the preparation time for using your personality has decreased, right?"

"… Eh?" Setsuna was slightly surprised.

I didn't follow Chisaki!!!

Really, I just saw Chisaki's practice when I passed by the school for my morning jog this morning — "

"Pfft."

The unorganized defense was easily cut off by this chuckle. Setsuna couldn't help but smile. She gently cast her gaze on the blushing youth. "It's okay. Recently, I've been paying attention to the weight and distance. I didn't pay much attention to the calculation speed … I thought two times per second was the limit."

After confirming that she was really not angry, Midaya slowly relaxed and returned to his hero otaku character. His pair of green eyes, which were usually modest, were full of confidence at this moment. "There's no active hero like Chisaki who can move coordinates point to point, so it can't be used as a reference for the upper limit. However, based on my observation, Chisaki's calculation speed has indeed increased!

… Although it shouldn't be to the extent that there's an obvious difference in time … but if it accumulates …! "

“

"Clang!!"

The second half of the sentence was drowned out by the sudden sound of the door closing. Startled, Setsuna and Midaya turned their heads and saw the blond youth who had slammed the classroom door shut. He hadn't had time to retract his hand.

It was Takeshi.

"— —"

Even if they were classmates, the other party's excessively fierce daily behavior had caused most of the girls to keep a respectful distance from him. With the mentality of not wanting to cause trouble for themselves, they instantly fell silent. Green Valley, on the other hand, still had the courage to forcefully greet him. "Little, Little Sheng …"

The youth opposite her, who was always frowning, exuded an unpleasant aura, as if he had encountered something that made him anxious early in the morning. Of course, it wasn't that Setsuna didn't have this awareness. Although one's career path was nominally confidential, it wasn't impossible for her class teacher to sell her out if they really wanted to investigate.

Considering what happened to Midaya, she was prepared for trouble when she made the decision. However, she really didn't want to implicate Midaya, who was already in a difficult situation, in the first place.

(At this distance, if trouble really comes to him, I should be able to directly move him downstairs … But I don't know if there's anyone in the corridor on the first floor. It's a small matter if he's seen, but it'll be troublesome if he hits someone.)

She quietly pressed her palm on Midaya's back as she thought about this matter. Surprisingly, she didn't panic — but it was also interesting. Although she didn't dare to intervene when Midaya was in trouble, now that it was her turn to face this kind of pressure, she wasn't that afraid.

(Maybe the incident that day really affected me more than I thought.)

"… Chisaki classmate."

This kind of action behind his back might not be seen by the tycoon halfway down the corridor, but it was impossible for Midaya not to notice it. He glanced over from the corner of his eyes, and Setsuna gave him a reassuring smile.

(Although I know you also want to be a hero … but in this situation …)

She raised her head and faced the youth who was slowly walking over.

(Leave it to me.)

After all, she didn't want to retreat anymore.

As the distance between them gradually shortened, the expression on the other side became more gloomy. Compared to the usual explosive anger, the concentrated anger was more oppressive. The emotions that were on the verge of bursting out were getting closer and closer to her through the distance of less than ten meters, piercing her skin painfully. Then —

They brushed past each other.

"Two good-for-nothings … casually doing something that oppresses people's nerves again …"

She heard him say. She couldn't tell whether it was anger, mockery, or disgust in his lowered voice.