Near the end of the second period, Yamashiro Takuma placed an old paper bag beside the podium.
The bag was empty, with only a small wooden chip weighing down its opening. A bucket sat beside it, half full of water, its surface gently rippling in the breeze from the window. The moment Kiyo saw the bucket, his entire body went on alert.
"Is it joining the training again today?" he asked.
Morita Yu said, "The bucket doesn't get days off."
Yamashiro Takuma ignored them and wrote two words on the blackboard: Repeat Exactly.
"No answering first today," he said. "Whatever the person before you says, the next person may only pass it on exactly as spoken. Even if you think it isn't clear, you are not allowed to fill in the gaps yourself."
Kiyo let out a breath. "That sounds easy."
Che glanced at him. "Whenever you say that, training usually gets harder."
Kiyo refused to accept that, but before he could retort, Yamashiro Takuma had already begun assigning positions. The children formed a line from the front row to the back. Che was placed in the middle, with Rina ahead of him and Keisuke behind him. It was a delicate position—not the person receiving the first sentence, nor the one dealing with the final result, but right where it was easiest to "help" fix a sentence.
When Keisuke took his place behind him, he murmured, "Don't add half a sentence on your own."
Che turned back. "Don't predict what I'll do for me either."
Yamashiro Takuma tapped the tabletop.
The first sentence began at the podium. Pointing at the paper bag and the bucket, the teacher said, "The paper bag is to the left of the bucket, its opening faces the door, and the wooden chip weighs down the