Forest Path is not flat, with compacted soil mixed with fine gravel.
"Huh... huh... huh..."
The sound of heavy and chaotic breathing filled the eardrums, which was the unique chaos in the early stages of long-distance running.
For most students, long-distance running is an extremely boring and painful sport.
It doesn't have the instant burst of passion like sprinting, nor does it have the fun of confrontation like ball games.
It's just a simple, repetitive, squeezing of your body's limits.
At the beginning, everyone still maintained a relatively dense group.
Kazehara Tetsu did not choose to rush to the front immediately to compete for the so-called "leader" position.
He was in the back half of the team.
Beside him were a group of "literary" students who focused mainly on books.
Yukimura Teruhiko is among them.
This Top Student, who was able to stand out among the others on Academic Ability, now looked embarrassed.
After only running for five hundred meters, his face was already flushed red, and the sweat on his forehead was sliding down his cheeks.
The glasses continued to slide down the bridge of his nose with heavy steps, and he had to frequently raise his hands to push them up, which even disrupted his breathing rhythm.
"Huh... uh..."
This is the shortcoming of first-year students.
Compared with the senior students Senpai who have already struggled with this kind of Devilish Education, the first-year students are obviously much more immature in their experience of Physical Fitness and dealing with this kind of Extreme Training.
Kazehara Tetsu turned his head and glanced calmly at Yukimura's painful face.
"No problem?"
Yukimura Teruhiko turned his head with difficulty and glanced at Monster beside him through the fogged lenses, who didn't even break a sweat.
"Try... try to... persist..."
Yukimura squeezed these words out from between his teeth, and each syllable was accompanied by violent ups and downs in the chest.
"Pay more attention."
Kazehara Tetsu withdrew his gaze and looked straight ahead, without disrupting the rhythm of his feet.
"This is a long-term war of attrition, not a 100-meter sprint. Pay more attention to your physical condition. If you feel dizzy, stop immediately and take two steps. Don't injure yourself before the official exam begins. That would be the biggest irresponsibility for Small Group."
This is not to be nosy, but a necessary reminder as a responsible person.
If Yukimura falls down or gets injured here, it will be a big loss for Small Group.
"It will... it will..."
Yukimura nodded and tried to adjust his breathing according to Kazehara Tetsu's suggestion.
After taking a breath, he looked at Kazehara Tetsu who was strolling beside him, and the feeling of disobedience in his heart became stronger and stronger.
"But... huh...Kagihara..."
"Why... don't you run faster?"
"Sports Festival, I saw it... Phew... the abilities you showed... are not like normal humans..."
That is an image engraved in the minds of all first graders.
How could someone with that kind of ability have to live at a pace that's not even jogging?
For Yukimura, if you have the ability but don't use it, it is a waste of resources and a puzzling inefficiency.
"The exam didn't start again."
Kazehara Tetsu shrugged and answered naturally.
"The current task is 'physical strengthening', not 'racing competition'. As long as you complete the course, the effect is the same. Useless consumption has no meaning."
"And..."
Kazehara Tetsu glanced at Yukimura's breathing rate, which was obviously starting to become disordered again.
"It's better to talk less. Your breathing is getting worse."
"..."
Yukimura Teruhiko opened his mouth, as if he wanted to use some rationale to refute this "lazy" logic, but the burning sensation coming from his lungs forced him to close his mouth.
He nodded helplessly, no longer wasting energy, and focused all his attention on how to take this step.
Time passes in the dull footsteps.
As time goes by, the most cruel side of long-distance running begins to appear.
The large army that was originally huddled together like dough finally began to disintegrate under the ruthless filter of physical differences.
Students with good physical fitness are like wild horses, running away.
Students with poor physical fitness seemed to be stuck in a quagmire, running slower and slower, and even started to walk quickly.
What was originally a sturdy team has now turned into a long, sparse and long snake.
Kazehara Tetsu never accelerates.
He always maintained the same pace at the beginning.
But it is precisely because of this extremely terrible "constancy" that a strange relative displacement is produced.
People around me are slowing down and falling behind.
When the people around him were running slower and slower because of fatigue, he maintained the same speed, relatively speaking, it seemed like he was constantly accelerating.
He passed one panting student after another.
Unknowingly, the "fish hunter" who was originally at the end of the team has naturally moved to the front of the team.
In front of him, there were only a dozen or so sparse people left.
The most eye-catching among them are the two men who are extremely unique both in aura and back.
Horikita Manabu.
Miyabi Nagumo.
These two former and former presidents of Student Council maintained a subtle rivalry even in this boring training.
Their steps were uniform and their breathing was deep and powerful. Although they seemed to be chatting, their aura of no one willing to fall behind by half a body made everyone around them anxious.
"It seems that no matter where they are, these two people are the focus."
However, it didn't take long for that delicate balance to be broken.
Miyabi Nagumo, who had been beside Horikita Manabu, suddenly slowed down without warning.
It was not a deceleration due to exhaustion, but an active braking with obvious purpose.
He suddenly slowed down the pace and allowed Horikita Manabu's back to distance himself.
Miyabi Nagumo's figure quickly retreated, passing several second-year sports students, and passed Kanzaki Ryuji who was trying hard to follow.
Until... even with Kazehara Tetsu.
"Ta, ta, ta."
Until their footsteps almost overlapped.
Only then did Miyabi Nagumo readjust its pace, perform a precise acceleration, and perfectly synchronize its own frequency to the rhythm of Kazehara Tetsu.
The shoulders of the two people kept about half a meter apart as they swung their arms.
"What's wrong?"
Miyabi Nagumo turned his head sideways, with a layer of fine beads of sweat on his forehead.
"Aren't you going to run seriously? Kagihara."
"Looking at the group of idiots in front of you working hard, you are here as if you are shopping... This kind of calmness is really infuriating."
Kazehara Tetsu looked forward and did not show any surprise at the sudden "arrival" of Miyabi Nagumo.
"There is no such plan."
He answered calmly.
"I'm not naturally good at long-distance running. Explosive Power is okay, but endurance is my weakness. Being able to keep up with Senpai's pace is already my limit."
This is a clumsy lie.
Anyone with a little bit of sports knowledge can see through all of this just by looking at Kazehara Tetsu's face showing no signs of fatigue at this moment.
It is absolutely impossible for a person who is not good at long-distance running to run at this pace without even panting.
"Heh."
Miyabi Nagumo let out a sneer, and his expression clearly said "If you don't want to say it, forget it, don't treat me as a fool."
But he didn't dwell on this boring issue for too long.
"Speaking of which..."