The Man Called Demon Lord in Another World Has Returned! - chapter 21

Chapter 21: 100-Meter Dash

While chatting idly with Murata over lunch in the cafeteria, I overheard some female students sitting nearby.

“Akiyama-kun from Class 2 is so cool, isn’t he?”

“I don’t know, I think the guy in our class…”

As expected of U-15 Akiyama, he seems to have many fans in other classes too.

…

Changed into gym clothes, we Class 2 students gathered on the field. A teacher wearing a cap and holding an attendance book began the initial greeting.

“I’ll be teaching your PE class. Let’s start with warm-ups. Boys and girls, separate and line up in two rows by height order. Keep enough distance between you. Alright. 

Now, follow my movements. One, two, three, four, two, two, three, four…”

“Today we’ll be measuring your 100-meter dash times. Before that, everyone will jog lightly around the field. Stay in four lines and follow me.”

The high school field is much larger than middle school. In middle school, we could only draw the 100-meter line diagonally across the field, but here it’s parallel to the long side. The track is longer too.

We followed Mr. Kambayashi around the track twice, but Murata seemed exhausted just from that. Feeling sorry for him, I lightly cast “Stamina” on him. He seemed to calm down, and surprised by his sudden recovery from fatigue, he started looking around. When our eyes met, I gave him a thumbs up, and Murata’s eyes widened.

“Alright. When I signal, start two at a time in student number order. I’ll time you at the finish line. Boys first.”

…

“On your marks, get set!”

Instead of a starting gun, Mr. Kambayashi at the finish line 100m away lowers a white flag.

As expected of U-15 Akiyama, he’s naturally fast.

He finishes more than 20 meters ahead of his classmate.

“11.8, 14.1”

Seeing this result, some female students get excited.

I’m up next after Akiyama.

“On your marks, get set!”

“12.1, 15.0”

To avoid causing a major shock in the track and field world, I deliberately held back, mentally timing myself as I ran. Even so, it was quite a good time, but no one made a fuss over my run.

…

Next is Murata’s turn.

“Murata! Do your best!”

While cheering, I lightly cast “Haste” on Murata as he takes his position.

“On your marks, get set!”

The flag drops. It’s a good start.

Murata quickly pulls away from the student next to him. Not bad. However, Murata’s running form is unique. His arm movements are in two beats, but his leg movements are in three? No, maybe 2.5 beats? It’s amazing he doesn’t trip. Sometimes his arms and legs on the same side move together. Not falling with this form might be a talent in itself.

I was briefly mesmerized by Murata’s unique, or rather peculiar, running style, but the commotion from our classmates brought me back. Oh no, this could be bad. At this rate, he’ll break 10 seconds.

“Slow”

Murata loses speed just before the finish line. That was close.

“11.3, 14.5”

The teacher looks at the stopwatch twice in surprise. Murata’s dumbfounded expression is memorable. Other students are shocked too. After all, Murata doesn’t look fast from any angle.

“That guy’s amazing. Way faster than Akiyama.”

“But isn’t he an otaku?”

“How does that body shape work? Is that running form the secret to his speed?”

No way, anything but that. You’ll trip if you try to imitate it.

“If he hadn’t slowed down at the end, wouldn’t he have broken 10 seconds?”

I hear such comments too. Sharp observation.

“Miyagawa, what was your 100-meter time in middle school?” Mr. Kambayashi asks Miyagawa, who ran with Murata.

“Huff… huff… It was 14.8 seconds.”

“There was about a 3-second difference, so he really might have broken 11 seconds.

Murata, you weren’t doing track and field, were you? How about giving it a try? If you can achieve that time with your build and strange running form, with some serious training and learning proper form, you could slim down and maybe run in the low 10-second range.”

After everyone finished the 100-meter dash, including the girls, classmates surround Murata, chattering excitedly. This should make Murata popular in class.

Murata looks at me with pleading eyes, but I put my index finger to my lips and winked at him. He seems to have received my wink, which probably appealed to no one. His pleading look changed to one of resignation. Good, very good.

“With Haste cast, even a nag becomes a steed”

(Hei su to wo ka ke re ba da ba mo shun me na ri)

Oh, I came up with a good haiku.

Here, I had an idea. Wouldn’t this work for “horse racing”?

Only Akiyama, standing apart, seems to be glaring at Murata. Is it male jealousy? Do as you like.