'Say more... how could those mediocre guys compare to my efforts?'
As early as the previous week, Kushida had used her carefully woven social network to inquire about other classes' swimming schedules.
When she learned that the physical education teacher would organize a freestyle competition during class, she immediately realized—this was an excellent opportunity.
So, throughout the weekend, while other students might have been leisurely enjoying their holiday, she was alone in the pool, repeatedly practicing every detail of her strokes, breathing, and turns.
Her arms ached from the continuous training, but she merely flicked away the water droplets and submerged herself again.
'I must do it perfectly...'
And now, with this secret effort brought to light, a strange sense of satisfaction welled up in her heart.
It was like a meticulously arranged stage finally had an audience who saw through the efforts behind the scenes. The shame of being seen through and a secret pleasure intertwined, making her heart beat a little faster.
Those dark thoughts from before quietly faded, replaced by a subtle feeling of exhilaration.
'Heh... He is quite articulate today, so I'll scold him less tonight. As for that bitch... she won't be so lucky.'
The physical education teacher's booming voice suddenly rang out by the pool. "Girls' group, get ready! The 50-meter freestyle competition is about to begin—first place wins five thousand private points!"
A few minutes later.
Kushida stood at the edge of the swimming pool, her gaze subtly sweeping over the lane lines.
'Although swimming isn't really my strong suit... these days of practice weren't for nothing.'
'Originally, I just wanted to get some information about Horikita from Shimizu-kun... I didn't expect to chat for so long. I actually felt quite relaxed talking to him.'
'But... since Shimizu-kun is so naive.'
She narrowed her eyes slightly, a faint smile appearing at the corner of her lips.
'These things... I'll save them for next time.'
'Kushida is truly naive.'
Just a few well-placed compliments made Kushida visibly drop her guard—she even unconsciously entered a state of self-admiration.
Although he wasn't sure what she originally intended to get from him, the rhythm had clearly been disrupted.
'Complimenting people also requires skill...'
The key is to find the point the other person cares about most.
For someone like Kushida, the word "effort" seemed to carry magic.
Especially when Akira accurately pointed out her secret weekend practice, that complex pleasure of being seen through and acknowledged was more effective than any flattery.
As for the remark, "You're the only one in the class who practiced swimming beforehand," it was a complete lie.
After all, he wasn't a human skin tone expert, nor did he have special abilities. How could he tell the change in everyone's skin tone at a glance? The truth was simple—he merely knew beforehand that Kushida had gone to the swimming pool over the weekend—this was information that had been refreshed last Saturday.
But then again, such a white lie was harmless.
Just like the "handsome guy" a waiter casually calls out in a restaurant. Even though you know it's just politeness, it still makes you feel good.
Ultimately, Horikita and Onodera tied for first place with an excellent time of 26 seconds.
Kushida took third place with a time of 31 seconds.
As swimming class neared its end, Akira noticed Kushida frequently casting meaningful glances at Horikita.
Those eyes, usually curved like crescent moons, were now dim and unreadable, and although her lips were upturned, there was an inexplicable sense of discord.
'Is she so concerned about her ranking?'
Akira mused to himself.
'It seems the door will suffer again tonight.'
Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High School was no different from the vast majority of ordinary high schools in Japan.
The curriculum followed tradition, including core subjects such as Japanese Language, Mathematics, English, Social Studies, and Natural Sciences, with each subject graded on a 100-point scale.
After a week of adjustment, Akira had completely mastered the pace of the Mathematics and English courses. One might even say with ease.
He hardly needed to listen attentively to keep up with the teaching rhythm.
On one hand, this benefited from the solid foundation he built during his education in his previous life. On the other hand, there was indeed a significant gap between the teaching pace of Japanese high schools and his previous world.
If compared in terms of educational progress, the Mathematics curriculum in his previous world was like a speeding bullet train, while the teaching rhythm of Japanese high schools was more like a leisurely sightseeing train. In terms of the difficulty of the university entrance exam, his previous world's was still greater.
After all, Japan's education system had been implementing its "relaxed education" policy for a considerable number of years.
As for the current state of education in his previous world, Akira was not entirely clear—at least in the era he remembered, students lived a life that could be described as a "hellish schedule": groggily rushing to morning self-study at six in the morning, and not leaving the evening self-study classroom until nine at night, dragging their tired bodies.
In contrast, the schedule of Japanese high schools was practically "easy mode": classes began leisurely at 8:30 AM, and students could leave class with their backpacks before 4 PM.
Akira was not criticizing this difference—after all, in Japan, the real competition often began after school.
Those brightly lit cram schools were packed with students striving to enter prestigious universities. This "outwardly relaxed, inwardly high-pressure" educational ecosystem might be even more suffocating than the open approach of his previous world.
However, in a fully enclosed campus like Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High School, students didn't even have the opportunity to find cram schools—after all, it was isolated from the outside world, and even the most basic extracurricular tutoring channels were cut off.
But Akira knew a universally applicable truth: whether in his previous world or Japan, as long as one could solidly master the three core subjects of Japanese Language, Mathematics, and English, it was enough to maintain an above-average performance in class.
These three subjects were like the "golden triangle" of education, jointly testing a student's most fundamental and important abilities—Mathematics honed logical thinking, English tested memory and linguistic talent, and Japanese Language simultaneously cultivated perceptual cognition and writing skills.
For Akira, however, only the Japanese Language class remained a hurdle he couldn't overcome.
Even after a week, those obscure and difficult classical grammar forms—"perfective form" and "imperfective form"—still entangled his thoughts like a tangled mess.
He had to admit, he was probably disgracing transmigrators everywhere.
After all, in his previous life, he had never even touched the edge of Japanese Language grammar. Now, trying to tackle this knowledge was like asking a modern person to suddenly decipher ancient script—no matter how hard he tried, he was bound to be confused.