The morning wind was lighter than it had been the past few days, and the window paper only stirred gently at the corners. There were no particular signs in the classroom. Even Kiyo had unusually lined up his pencils properly. But as soon as Yamashiro Takuma entered, he shifted the desks slightly apart and placed a small basket of crumpled paper balls on the podium.
Kiyo stared at the basket twice, and his eyes immediately lit up. "Do we finally get to throw things at people today?"
"If that's all you see, you'll probably lose today," Yamashiro Takuma said.
Morita Yu added from beside him, "And you'll lose very reasonably."
The whole class laughed. Che, however, stared at the basket of paper balls and made an initial judgment. The balls were light and harmless, suitable for practicing positioning in a classroom. But since the teacher had moved the desks and had not sent them outside to the field, this was probably not just a throwing exercise. In a confined space, they would be training who could see everyone else, and who could fit their own movements into the rhythm of the group.
Sure enough, Yamashiro Takuma wrote the instructions on the blackboard in blunt, straight lettering.
No standing up.
No grabbing.
Call out your position first.
"Today, you'll be in groups of four." The teacher turned around. "Each group will have one paper ball on the desk. After you hear the command, you must move the paper ball from one side to the designated desk corner without leaving your seats, then have another person pin it down. Whoever knocks it off, reaches out recklessly and disrupts someone else, or breaks the group's rhythm for the sake of speed will be marked wrong."
It did not sound like much, but the