About ten minutes later, on the second floor of the Japanese-style wooden house, in Chiba's room.
Thud!
The heavy sound of someone collapsing onto the floor suddenly rang out.
"N-No... This... this gear is too heavy! Are... are you a monster?"
Then came Asuma's somewhat breathless voice.
"Really? Is this your limit?"
At that moment, Chiba watched Asuma, who was sitting on the floor with his hands braced behind him to support his body, and slowly sat down as well, murmuring to himself.
"Is this the weight where you can't even stand up?"
Then he asked again.
"Yes. I can barely stand up with it on. How many kilograms does this thing weigh? Why does it feel like it should be measured in tons?"
Asuma struggled to raise a hand. He exerted all his strength, stopping every few moments, before barely lifting it to his chest and abdomen. Around his wrist was a bracer that clearly did not match his clothes.
"How could that be..."
Chiba shook his head, his gaze falling on the piles of Weighted Training Gear arranged between them by configuration.
At that moment, four piles of Weighted Training Gear lay lined up before them, with an empty space left in the middle.
The third specification...
Asuma had worked quite hard in private, too!
Chiba could not help feeling somewhat moved.
The four piles of Weighted Training Gear before him, along with the set Asuma was wearing, were the five sets Chiba had used and replaced since he first began wearing them. Naturally, they also represented five different weight specifications. Together with the set Chiba himself was wearing—the highest-specification Weighted Training Gear in the entire village—there were six sets in all, six different specifications.
From left to right, they went from light to heavy.
After trying them