CH 7

It’s yet another day of learning stuff… Master Momochi ordered me to come every day, but sorry, coming over to learn Hundred Earth every day was too hard.

“Why can’t you come every day?”

“Uhm… currently, I am learning how to swim at the fitness club, and I will be going to cram school more from now on, so I cannot just come here every day.”

As I practised sitting, standing, and bowing, I answered the question he asked me. In the end, this still wasn’t something you could call ‘satisfactory’, so I was intently repeating it.

“Oh… you want to do swimming practice… Then, you should quit that ‘fitness club’ and come here! Hundred Earth has 18 different martial arts! From now on, we’ll do swimming practice as well!”

“No, it is alright. You do not need to worry about that.”

No way. If I let that crazy old man teach me swimming, who knew what he’d make me do? So, going to Mr. Kohori’s swimming classes would be safer.

“Okay! Then, start walking.”

“Zlp…”

Gqvla vbsaswtbzu alrlyvkdt pkvvkdt, pvydekdt, yde csokdt oyp oyzjkdt. Kwpv oyzjkdt. R fwpv jlrv alrlyvkdt obyv pllxle zkjl nsxrzlvlzu xlydkdtzlpp raynvknl…

“Zswa oykpv kp vss bktb! Psd’v pvyde zkjl y pvknj! Pasr uswa oykpv!”

“Xo!”

Yu qllv olal bkv okvb y qyd. Eypd’v vbkp nsarsayz rwdkpbxldv… Lsoyeyup, lhld vbl pzktbvlpv vswnb qasx y vlynbla oyp nsdpkelale nsarsayz rwdkpbxldv sa p*mwyz byayppxldv, cwv Yypvla Ysxsnbk pvkzz bkv xl wdnsdnladlezu. Yu xsx oypd’v blal vseyu, cwv pbl’e tlv xye kq pbl oyp, aktbv? Bdqsavwdyvlzu, lhld kq bl’e bkv xl zkjl vbkp kd qasdv sq xu xsx, pbl oswzed’v pyu yduvbkdt. Fbl’e fwpv ynnlrv kv yp y xyvvla sq nswapl.

Rq y vlynbla bkvp y nbkze, kv kxxlekyvlzu clnsxlp y psnkyz rasczlx, cwv kq y vlynbla sa xypvla kp pvaknv, vbld dsvbkdt’p pyke. Mbyv oyp fwpv bso vbl osaze oyp yqvla yzz. Zsw nswze nbydtl bso psxlvbkdt oyp kdvlaralvle yp xydu vkxlp yp usw oydvle vs vkzv kv kd uswa qyhsa. Rq y vlynbla bkv y pvweldv, kv oyp nsarsayz rwdkpbxldv. Jwv kq y vaykdla eke, kv oyp twkeydnl. Mbspl jkdep sq eswczl pvydeyaep olal shlazssjle.

“Psd’v prynl swv! Psd’v zkqv uswa qssv! Qzkel!”

“Xwnb!”

I was hit again. Master Momochi was quick to strike.

“Don’t get distracted! Always keep your nerves engaged, from the tips of your fingers to the bottom of your toes! Don’t forget to move your neck and hands!”

“Aah!”

I was just walking from one end of the dojo to the other. I kept my waist low and glid, paid attention to the movements of my neck, hands, and feet, and didn’t allow a single opening to show.

“Master… my mother is not here today, so about the ancient martial arts…”

“Don’t talk back! Do as you’re told: drop your waist, glide, mind your neck, hand, and feet movements, and don’t allow a single opening. Now!”

“Ow!”

In reality, my mom didn’t come with me often. She only accompanied me at first, but she left me alone from then on. Even so, I hadn’t had a single lesson about ancient martial arts. All I’d been doing was things like sitting, standing, walking, and minding the movements of my arms and neck…

I didn’t know if this was concert dance or normal dance, but when would he teach me martial arts… that was what I wanted to learn, but…

“Focus!”

“Ow, that hurts!”

In the end, today also ended with me just walking.

～～～～～～～

It looked like I was doing something different from the usual today. I was told to change my clothes, so I changed into what was given to me. The clothes were heavy and hard to move in; they felt something like a bathrobe or martial arts uniform.

“Um… Master Momochi? I’ve changed?”

“Okay! Go in there!”

“…huh?”

Master Momochi was pointing to… a pond behind the usual dojo. Get into there? What?

“Hurry and get in!”

“Aaaah!”

I was tossed into the pond. Cold! It’s freezing! It wasn’t the time of year to go swimming yet, you know?! I thought I’d die of a heart attack! This old man! Was way too crazy!

“Master! What were you going to do if I had a heart attack?! It’s cold! It is not the time of year appropriate for swimming!”

“What’re you saying? Do you think you can just say “It’s cold today, so I am not going into the water,” in a life-threatening battle!?”

Well, no… that might’ve been true, but… that was during a battle, right? I wasn’t fighting anyone, you know? I didn’t battle in my past life, and I didn’t plan to do so in this one either. 

“Raise your hands!”

“Huh?”

I raised my hands from conditioned reflex.

“Wait! It’s heavy! Really heavy! I’ll sink!”

“Keep that position for an hour, and don’t let those get wet.”

“…what?”

As I treaded water, weights were on top of my raised hands and I was using just my feet. Doing that for one hour? Was he an idiot? I would obviously sink, right?

But there was no way this master would stop or let up just because I said so. As he stared at me, I continued treading water using just my feet.

The weights were heavy, and the bathrobe-like clothes absorbed water and stuck to my body, making it heavy and hard to move. Why’d I have to wear this… if I could at least wear a swimsuit…

“If you can’t swim across a moat or river while wearing armor and keeping your blades and guns dry, there’s no point. Do you understand the meaning of this swimming style?”

Did I understand? Nope! I wasn’t planning on crossing moats while wearing armor and keeping my weapons dry!

“Master! My feet are tired! I cannot do this any longer!”

For starters, how many kilos were these weights? They probably weren’t the type children could handle!

“You’re tired? Then there’s a mistake in the way you’re swimming! Add another hour!”

“Whaaat?! I will drown! And it’s cold!”

Being tired after swimming was perfectly normal! And you said that I was swimming wrong, but you didn’t teach me how to swim at all! It’s cold, and I can’t even move my body! I’ll die! At this rate, I’ll definitely die!

“Don’t you do swimming practice in that fitness club of yours?”

“I swim in a warm, indoor pool in the fitness club! I do not enter ponds in cold weather!”

Did this old man ever go out into the world?! Where would you find an idiot that would get in a pond when it’s this cold? The pools everyone in the world uses during the cold season are heated indoor pools! 

“Then, that isn’t training. There’s one hour and fifty minutes left.”

“Aghhhh!”

Not even 10 minutes passed? He was lying, right? The hands on the clock I could see over there had moved further than that. Was this crazy old man secretly increasing the amount of time I had to spend here? If I stayed here, he was going to kill me!

～～～～～～～

Today was my first day at Raihoukai. Cram school progressed slightly faster than actual school. It also started earlier. That was probably for test preparation. In school, lessons started after the long vacation and continued until just before the tests. Then came the tests and the long vacation.

In comparison, cram schools focused more on test preparation rather than making progress in lessons. In other words, before a test, they have to cover everything that’ll be on it. Just because it was a long vacation didn’t mean that there was a break in cram school too. They still held courses nonstop: things like intensive studying or XX break training.

Of course, they didn’t just single-mindedly focus on progressing further. Before that, there’s review and intensively redoing areas you made mistakes in or you’re bad at. But, in the meantime, lessons continue. The cram schools advance further in lesson content than actual school, so, before another test comes, the students can prepare for it. Because of this cycle, the new school year starts early.

And, anyway, I’d be taking a course from today onwards, but…

“Ms. Takatsuji… maybe it’d be better for me to start learning from first-year middle school, you know? Okay?”

“Oh~? No, you can’t. You promised, right?”

My tutor was the lady who’d administered my ability test: Ms. Takatsuji Ayame.

Ms. Takatsuji had understood that it would be meaningless for me to take elementary lessons. But instead, she’d recommended the unreasonable option of taking the university entrance exam preparation courses, then taking the actual exam next year.

My goal was just to acquire the basic skills to keep up with the lessons in Touka Academy’s highschool division. For starters, I wouldn’t have trouble just entering a third-rate university. But my goal was to keep up with the standards at Touka Academy, not to skip grades.

“Ms. Takatsuji, there would not be any meaning in hurrying and attending a third-rate university, correct? My goal is to get six years of middle school and highschool education while I am in elementary, so that I can gain a proper foundation before attending university.”

“Hmm…”

It looked like Ms. Takatsuji was worrying a lot. But let me be clear, there wasn’t any need for her to worry. I said something like that, so it’d be great if she could give me a course that met my needs. Even so, why’d I have to struggle with this…

“Sakuya-chan, you attend Touka Academy, right?”

“Yes.”

My enrollment had already been decided. The interview was a fixed game in the first place, so there wasn’t much point in it, but since there was one month until the start of the new school year, the official enrolment notice had already arrived.

“From the top-ranked of Touka Academy, top acceptance to the best universities… yep! That’s not a bad idea either! Okay! Then, we might as well not aim for insignificant universities, but the best!”

“Yes.”

So, she’d more or less (?) been persuaded. I wasn’t really thinking about going to the best universities or anything like that, but I shouldn’t say unnecessary things here. Ms. Takatsuji had already gotten this interested, but if I said anything unnecessary and she changed her mind, that’d be a problem.

“Well then, we’ll be doing classes from an elite middle school’s year one curriculum starting today.”

“Understood.”

Well, I didn’t really get it, though? What even was an elite middle school’s year one? Well, this cram school could handle all exams from kindergarten to university, and there was a large range in students’ ability levels. It was basically a cram school for students attending famous private schools, but there were still differences in level, final goals, and the level of difficulty of the next exams.

“Then, today we’ll start with confirming your weak points, Sakuya-chan, so please solve this.”

“What?! All of it?!”

Saying that, Ms. Takatsuji brought out an unthinkably large amount of texts. I say ‘texts’, but maybe this was the question collection used for the ability tests? I was fine with anything, but no matter how you looked at this, wasn’t it too much?

“We’re timing you as well, so start here first, okay?”

Ms. Takatsuji took out her chosen text from the mountain placed in front of me. Couldn’t she just have taken out each piece of paper individually and brought them… or was she trying to break my spirit by putting that many in front of me?

“Well then, start.”

“—huh?!”

After the sudden start, I hurriedly began solving the text given to me.

～～～～～～～

So tired… I didn’t want to look at a single question collection or text right now. And also, middle school level tests weren’t to be underestimated, as expected. Adults might be able to get perfect scores on lower elementary tests, but even they wouldn’t be able to get perfect scores on questions for high schoolers and above. This was because of memory lapses, carelessness, misunderstandings, and many other things, but most of all, not having studied the material for a long time; no wonder I couldn’t solve questions as well as the current generation.

I also got the occasional wrong answer. I could get 80 over 100, or 90 over 100, but getting the full 100 points was hard. Making stupid mistakes like these on middle school questions made my self-confidence decrease a little. But, at the same time, it really made me feel that reviewing middle school questions was a good idea.

“Lady Sakuya, sorry for keeping you waiting. I have come to meet you.”

“Momiji.”

Momiji, who was standing like a concierge at a reception desk, had come to wait for me at the high-end entrance. But she had done nothing wrong. The class had ended faster than expected, not that she was late to meet me.

“I had ended early today, so there is no need for you to apologise, Momiji. Then, let’s head home.”

We got inside the car that came to pick me up and headed home. Touka Academy was almost about to start… I was still in elementary school, but from now on, it’d be a do-or-die situation. Well, only a little time had passed since I’d regained my memories, but…

In the game “Blooming Flowers in Love”, a lot of pretty important things had been decided in elementary. Konoe Ibuki and Kujou Sakuya’s relationship was one of them. Also, Sakuya’s followers were her friends from elementary school. Most of the other love interests appeared in elementary and middle school, and the other rivals were there too.

My behavior in the future would greatly affect how “Love Flowers” developed. At the very least, I couldn’t spend my time like Lady Sakuya. If I did that, this body would go to ruin, and in the worst case, it’d inconvenience even my family.

My mom was always nagging me. The version of Sakuya’s mom that’d appeared in “Love Flowers” was someone who said “Ohohoho!” with Sakuya while being sarcastic and slinging criticism. But this world’s version of Sakuya’s mom wasn’t the nasty character in the game, but someone very friendly.

Even though she was the wife of the owner of a corporation, she didn’t put on airs. She also raised her voice at me when she got mad, unfitting for someone of her position. But… she was a very good mom. I could tell that she was mad because she was thinking about me. If I were just a kid, I might’ve rebelled, but I had my memories and consciousness from my previous life, so I could understand.

My dad too… he was a no-good dad who spoiled his daughter, but still… he was a normal, compassionate dad. My brother also… well, I kinda didn’t know what he was thinking, and he seemed suspicious sometimes, but… even so, he’s been really good to me, convincing mom and picking things to learn for me.

I couldn’t bring a family like that to misery because of me. I’d definitely move well in the world of “Blooming Flowers in Love” and change the outcome!