After several days of classes, the rhythm of the ninja academy had finally begun to take shape in Che's mind.
It was not the straightforward, step-by-step "path to getting stronger" he had imagined, but something finer, slower, and more wearing. Literacy, rules, pauses, white lines, hand signs, distance from fire. Many things did not look impressive, yet they repeatedly forced people to rein in their impatience and break apart what they thought they already knew.
After school that day, it was still light outside, but the children had already begun to leave one after another. Kiyo had asked Morita Yu to compare whose shoe soles had more mud on them, Rina had been picked up by her mother, Saori stood at the door quietly telling Yamashiro Takuma that the string on one of the bells had come loose, while Keisuke, as usual, left quickly, as though even being a moment late would be a waste.
Che should have left too.
But he stood by the back door of the classroom for a while, his gaze falling on the stack of wooden placards and practice sheets beside the lectern that had yet to be put away. His feet did not turn toward the exit right away.
Yamashiro Takuma bent down to organize the materials without looking up. "Want to help?"
Che paused. "...Can I?"
"You can. Don't drop the placards. If the corners crack, they'll have to be sanded down again."
So he walked over and stacked the placards labeled "Stop," "Look," "Back," and "Wait," one by one. Their edges had been handled by so many children that their surfaces had been rubbed smooth and shiny. One of the placards bearing the word "Wait" even had a bit of mud stuck to its corner, as if someone had forgotten to wipe