Deep Blue: The Source of a Man's Confidence!

In the second week after enrollment, the new students had gone from feeling nervous and ill at ease when they first stepped onto campus to navigating the hallways between the school buildings with ease.

Perhaps sensing that they had settled in, the school had become a little bolder with its course arrangements.

Today, Class B had its long-awaited swimming lesson.

After changing into their swimsuits, the boys were both excited and bashful.

Even the boys who usually talked a lot fell quiet, unsure of what to say.

When the changing-room door opened again and the girls emerged in matching navy-blue swimsuits, the air by the pool seemed to freeze.

Makoto Nishikado took a couple of extra glances before turning around, only to find that every boy around him had lowered his head.

"You guys are seriously too well-behaved." Makoto couldn't help laughing as he reached out and patted Hayato Shibata on the shoulder.

The guy was usually full of energy during gym class, but now he looked like a child who'd done something wrong, his face bright red.

They'd been looking forward to this lesson for so long, only to end up like this?

"Makoto, you're the one who's too bold!"

Hayato walked beside Makoto, his voice tinged with awe.

He really couldn't understand how Makoto had the nerve to look up at a time like this.

"Everyone's wearing the school swimsuit. It's not like they're wearing bikinis or two-piece swimsuits. What are you afraid of?"

"The school swimsuit is still a swimsuit!"

"You're the ones wearing yellow-tinted glasses. That's why everything you see looks yellow. Look at them with an appreciative eye. Come on, follow me and look up!"

If the girls had been wearing something that revealing, Makoto wouldn't have dared to look either. He would have turned his eyes away.

He gazed at the girls without a hint of shame. The school swimsuits were conservatively designed, covering everything that needed to be covered.

Compared with their usual uniforms, they merely outlined the girls' slender waists and graceful figures more clearly.

If they couldn't even look up in a situation like this, they were doomed to remain small forever.

"No, no, I can't do it! So this is the kind of guy you are, Makoto? I really had you all wrong!"

As he spoke, Hayato suddenly sounded righteous.

Perhaps the reactions of the boys around him had given him courage, convincing him that not daring to look up was the normal thing to do.

Faced with the slander, Makoto merely shook his head, calm as ever, and said in a deliberately profound tone, "Lustful? I suppose I am. When the flowers are in full bloom, it would be unromantic of me not to admire them."

[Hayato Shibata's emotions stirred. Gained 3,670 emotion points.]

[Norihito Watanabe's emotions stirred. Gained 1,772 emotion points.]

[Ryota Beppu's emotions stirred. Gained 2,514 emotion points.]

Unable to refute him, the boys of Class B all contributed a batch of emotion points to Makoto.

Some of them thought he had a point. Hesitantly, they raised their heads and stole a quick glance at the girls.

Then, as if they had just completed some arduous task, they immediately lowered their heads again.

They understood the logic. Lacking the nerve to act on it was another matter entirely.

"I, Makoto Nishikado, have never led such a timid bunch of soldiers."

Makoto was at a loss for words.

They were only looking. It wasn't as if one glance would get someone pregnant. Did they really have to be so timid?

Makoto almost wanted to tell them some famous anecdotes about a master of classical studies who'd wanted to look at his female students' thighs.

If they couldn't handle something this minor, they'd definitely end up sexually repressed.

Just then, Hayato nudged him with an elbow and spoke in a voice barely louder than a mosquito's buzz. "Makoto, um... does Ichinose look good in her swimsuit?"

Makoto turned to look at him and saw that Hayato's eyes were fixed firmly on the ground.

"Why don't you look up and see for yourself?"

"But I'm scared."

"..."

Makoto started to say something, then stopped. He stopped, then started again.

In the end, he patted Hayato on the shoulder, his expression sympathetic.

"Hayato, if I remember right, your birthday is November 11. If you keep this attitude up, you might never find a girlfriend."

"What does finding a girlfriend have to do with my birthday?"

Hayato didn't want to believe Makoto, but he was also a little worried.

He still wanted to find a girlfriend. He wanted to have a beautiful relationship.

"Most birthdays don't mean anything, but yours is a big deal. Where I'm from, people born on your birthday usually become grand wizards by the time they turn thirty."

Makoto said it with absolute conviction.

That date was Singles' Day, after all.

He had no idea which unscrupulous corporation had started marketing it, turning what had been a perfectly good day for singles into a shopping festival.

"Really? But your birthday is only one day after mine, Makoto."

Hayato remembered that Makoto's birthday was November 12, though he was a year older.

Their birthdays were so close together that they had remembered each other's.

"My fate is called 'out of the depths comes good fortune.' Yours is called 'lonely to the end of your days.' Unless I'm mistaken, you like Ichinose, don't you?"

Makoto continued making things up and glanced at the system prompt.

[Hayato Shibata's emotions stirred. Gained 111,110 emotion points.]

Seeing that number, Makoto suspected the system was mocking Hayato.

"How do you kn—? I don't! I'm not! Don't make things up. I've only known Ichinose for a week. I don't like her. You got it wrong, Makoto."

Hayato hurriedly tried to explain.

Looking at him, Makoto was speechless.

Was it possible that he hadn't divined it at all? Maybe Hayato was just making it way too obvious.

Seeing how worked up Hayato was, Makoto felt like teasing him some more.

"So what if you've only known her a short time? That's called love at first sight."

"Hayato has high standards, huh?"

[Hayato Shibata's emotions stirred. Gained 111,111 emotion points.]

Makoto was certain now. The system was mocking Hayato, and he had proof.

"L-love at first..."

Hayato didn't try to argue anymore. He could barely get the words out, and his face had turned bright red.

"You can't win over someone of Ichinose's caliber. Find someone else to like."

Makoto really did feel sorry for Hayato.

Honami Ichinose was the heart of Class B: smart, cheerful, capable, and never short of admirers.

With Hayato being such a coward, he probably didn't even have the courage to confess.

Even without Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, he wouldn't stand a chance.

To be fair, Chihiro Shiranami might have better odds than him.

"Are you two finished talking? The teacher wants us to go take the swimming test."

Ryuji Kanzaki had come over to call them.

Advanced Nurturing didn't give students swimming lessons just to let the boys feast their eyes.

After walking over to Makoto, Ryuji gave him a couple of extra looks.

"Do you work out a lot to get muscles like those?"

"Something like that."

Makoto gave a vague reply.

The real reason was that he'd used the system.

Deep Blue, the source of a man's confidence!

"Teacher, I can't swim. Can I skip the lessons?"

"Me too. I'm a little afraid of the water."

A boy raised his hand awkwardly.

Even in Sakurajima, not every school had a swimming pool, and not every student knew how to swim.

"If I teach you myself, I'll have you swimming by summer."

"Trust me, learning to swim will definitely come in handy someday. Definitely."

The teacher in charge of swimming lessons made that firm prediction.

Hearing this, the boys, who had been feeling bashful, grew serious as well.

With Makoto leading the way, they had learned quite a bit about this school.

If a teacher said something like that, it was definitely worth taking seriously.

Water splashed across the fifty-meter pool.

The boys gave it everything they had, swimming forward with all their might.

Makoto moved through the water like a nimble fish, leaving everyone else behind.

The moment he touched the pool wall, the timer showed 24.5 seconds.

Hayato was right behind him. Though he was timid around girls, he had a real talent for sports and ultimately took second place among the boys with a time of 25.2 seconds.

For coming in first, Makoto received 5,000 personal points from the teacher.

After the swimming test, Makoto went to speak with Honami Ichinose alone.

"Ichinose, after class today, could you gather everyone together? I have something to discuss."