The second day of preparation began beside the stands, with the wind stronger than yesterday.
Hirata pressed the sign-in sheet beneath a wooden board. "Today, we'll only conduct tests that have already been confirmed."
He looked at the form. "No last-minute additions, and don't write the results down as official groupings."
Sudo was already standing beside the track. "Three stamina categories. Start with me."
Horikita approached with yesterday's sheet. "Ask Gu Heng first."
Sudo frowned. "We need to ask him before running?"
"Do you want to test who's fastest, or whether it can be done again?"
Gu Heng placed the stopwatch beside Hirata's hand.
"Obviously the fastest," Sudo said.
"Then today, we can only record one result."
"Isn't one result enough?"
"Not enough to decide who enters the first-round window."
Sudo scuffed his foot against the ground and did not argue back at once.
Gu Heng divided the track into three sections: start, sustain, and recovery. They would only record whether each section was completed.
"We're not recording rankings?" Hirata asked.
"Not overall rankings yet." Gu Heng pointed to the corner of the form.
"Rankings make people focus only on protecting their first attempt. What the first round needs is repeatable completion."
Horikita copied those words into Class D's internal sheet.
Only training time slots remained on Class D's homemade public sheet.
The first applicant stepped up to the starting line.
The whistle did not blow. Hirata raised his hand and waited for her confirmation that she was ready.
Once she nodded, he began timing. She was fast through the first half, but after passing the marker, her stride faltered.
She did not fall, but she stood still at the finish line for a long time. Hirata separately recorded the time it took her to stop.
"I can go again,"