Chapter 24 A Landslide Victory

Stationary High Jump (Vertical Jump)

With arms wrapped around his back, Knighthawk strolled in front of the neatly lined up students who were all facing the wall, located to the side of the track field in front of the school. There, they were each given a bag of chalk wherein they'd have to dip their hands in. Satoshi and the others clearly knew what the Stationary High Jump is so there was no need for Knighthawk to explain anything. After glancing at each other and wishing everyone good luck, all twelve of them faced the wall, preparing for the jump.

"Satoshi, don't expect us to go easy on you. You do now that you winning here would mark our loss, right? We won't purposefully make you win. Your challenge should hold true to your skills. Don't expect us to do anything." Hiroshi said. He has gotten a little bit chummy with Satoshi but Satoshi ignored him nevertheless. He never asked anything from his classmates, let alone make him purposefully win.

"So much for the first day of school," Satoshi mumbled after a chuckle escaped his mouth.

"Whenever you're ready." Knighthawk finally announced, raising his hand to mark the start of the fitness test. "And remember, you cannot use your superpower no matter what. We have watchers over there who could detect if anyone uses their superpower. Best be warned, the moment one of you uses his or her superpower, he or she would immediately receive a recommendation letter. A recommendation letter for what, you may ask? For expulsion."

The group didn't need any more specifics. Some of them, who were planning to use their superpower on the last second of the jump to gain more height, decided that it'd be best not to do so anymore.

One by one, each student squat down, strained their ankles, and tightened their abdomens and glutes. They then jumped as high as they could, trying to beat the last person who jumped. Some of them were successful, some of them weren't. As for Satoshi, he waited before everyone else was finish jumping before he did so.

'This kid's all talk. Look at him, nervously waiting for everyone to finish to ramp up the suspense. Now show me how being reliant on your superpower made you physically weak, and then I'll drill in that mind of yours why you're wrong.' A smug grin could be seen on Knighthawk's face as he awaited Satoshi's failure.

So far, the one who attained the highest record was none other than Hiroshi, who easily got 97 cm on his jump. In and of itself, it was already an extremely high record. Unfortunately for him, however, Satoshi was in the group, and he could easily beat his record.

"Right, here we go." Satoshi tried to encourage himself as he got down... held his breath...

And jumped.

Everybody watched as Satoshi went higher and higher... and higher until his jump was already twice his height. He smiled to himself. Deep inside, Satoshi knew that he could jump higher but he didn't want to exert too much effort. Otherwise, Knighthawk would start speculating in an overexaggerated way. He already attracted enough attention for himself. Now it's time to lay low and just barely pass the highest record.

"176 centimeters." Someone called out. It was one of the watchers, who was also tallying everyone's scores. No one knew his name but he seemed like an important person.

"176?!" Knighthawk was flabbergasted. Even he couldn't jump that high! Satoshi stared at him and smiled. In response, he averted his gaze and cleared his throat. 'A fluke, that's it. That's just a fluke. Or maybe the vertical jump is his only strong suit. That's it! There's no way he could get top scores on every fitness test there is! And come to think of it... I have full control of all the fitness tests, right? Why don't I add a few more tests so they'll tire themselves out? One of them's bound to snatch the top score if every one of them is exhausted. I have one hour, time to mix things up a little bit.' The lengthy thought somehow made Knighthawk feel at ease. There's no way a mere brat like him could win a bet when the odds are against him.

"And if he somehow managed to do so, I'll just increase the difficulty. I'm the teacher here, hehe."

.....

The next test was a 100-meter sprint and once again, Satoshi got the top record of 10.91 seconds. After that was the long jump, then the rope-climb, then the grip test. All of which was easily topped by Satoshi, who wasn't getting tired at all. In fact, out of the twelve students, he was the only one who didn't seem tired, much to Knighthawk's disappointment. His plan backfired, and now he realized that Satoshi wasn't what he seemed to be. There was no doubt about it, Satoshi had been working out, and Knighthawk was too blinded by his overpowerful superpower that he didn't even notice.

From one test to another, Satoshi didn't even break a sweat as he got the top record. If it weren't for Knighthawk's pride, he would've probably already regarded Satoshi as one of the most powerful superheroes there is. With his talent and his physical capabilities to back it up, he knew that Satoshi would make it far in the superhero industry. He badly didn't want to admit it, however, since doing so would just humiliate him even more.

"And for the final result... " Knighthawk choked as he stared at the tallied points. There was no point in denying it.

Satoshi won by a landslide.

"In third place, we have Midori. Second place, Hiroshi, and first place, Satoshi." Knighthawk sighed.

No one cheered at the result. They knew that once they started celebrating, they would incur upon themselves the wrath of a high-ranking superhero. They remained quiet, awaiting what would happen next.

"Looks like I won the bet, Knighthawk-sensei." Satoshi rubbed some salt in his wounds, making him grunt in anger.

"Do what you want, if you want to take a month off of school, then so be it. I lost the bet. I'll just have to explain it to the principal."

"Sensei,"

"What is it this time?"

"As for the bet, I'm just kidding. There's no way any of us would like a month-long vacation at the start of the school year. I just hope that you won't judge anyone by the cover from now on, sensei." At first, Knighthawk thought that Satoshi was about to say something meaningful, but as it turned out, he just wanted to tease him even more.

"But I like a month-long vacatio— " Midori groaned.

"Shut up," Hiroshi cut him off before he could finish his complaint.