Saitama Dungeon - Chapter 4

Episode 4: At School

The Next Morning

Morning arrived, returning home during the night.

It’s confirmed that I’m alone now.

A sigh of relief.

After finishing my morning preparations and sitting down at the table, my mother looked surprised as she gazed intently at my face.

“It’s rare for Ichiro to wake up so early, but it’s a good thing.”

Certainly, up until ten years ago, I used to sleep until the last minute every morning and barely make it to school on time.

After breakfast, I remembered that there might be homework, but I couldn’t recall if there was any.

Since I couldn’t remember, there was nothing I could do about it. So, I put the textbooks and notebooks for Monday’s schedule into my bag and stuffed my gym clothes into the school-designated sports bag for the fifth period PE class, then left the house.

As I stepped out of the entrance, I encountered my classmate from next door, Yuna Nakamura.

Yuna’s face, after ten years, looked terribly young.

“Ichiro, good morning. You’re up unusually early today.”

“Good morning. I just woke up early.”

Yuna is technically my childhood friend. Although it sounds nice to say childhood friend, there are no special feelings, and I haven’t remembered Yuna once in these ten years.

If I recall correctly, Yuna was in the tennis club or something, so she had to come to school pretty early for morning practice. Yuna had short hair and looked boyish. She had a good appearance, so she was popular not only among boys but also among girls.

During the early grades of elementary school, Yuna and I were close and did various things together, but since I became a commuter, our school hours didn’t overlap even once after entering junior high.

While thinking about such things, I ended up walking to school side by side with Yuna.

Many commuters were walking, but strangely, none of my junior high classmates were walking on the road.

It was just right, so I decided to ask Yuna about the homework.

“Hey, Yuna.”

“What’s up?”

“Did we have homework today?”

Yuna’s face seemed to smirk.

“Ichiro, you haven’t been paying attention at all, huh? Well, it’s fine. I’ll tell you when we get to school. I’ll lend you my notes too.”

“I don’t need your notes. I have time to do it myself.”

Yuna stopped and looked at my face intently.

“Ichiro, what’s wrong? Huh? You seem different somehow.”

“I don’t think so.”

Although I had some idea, I pretended not to notice.

“Well, whatever.”

The two of us entered the classroom together, and nobody else had arrived yet.

As I sat down and put textbooks and notebooks into my desk from my bag, Yuna brought a math textbook and told me the scope of the homework.

“The homework is from here to here. I have to go to club activities now.”

“Thanks.”

Yuna put away the textbook and left the classroom with her belongings.

I opened the math textbook and notebook, marked the range Yuna showed me, and started solving the problems.

There were about ten problems. Although it had been ten years since I last did math problems, the first one wasn’t that difficult, and I solved it smoothly.

I was somewhat surprised, but could it be because I was a hero? Since my physical abilities had improved significantly, maybe my intelligence had too?

If so, it would be worth the ten years of hardship.

Although this world is slightly different from the Japan I remember, I’ll let it slide.

I had solved about half of the homework problems when classmates started arriving intermittently.

“Hey.”

“Good morning.”

“……”

The greetings from the classmates entering the classroom varied. Without looking back at them, I casually said, “Good morning”.

“Hasegawa, are you doing your homework now? Show it to me when you’re done.”

Without being particularly close, Kaneda came over to see me doing my homework.

Homework is a kind of training. Even if you cheat, it’s not beneficial for the person themselves, but I don’t really care about Kaneda’s future, so I replied, “I’ll be done soon, I’ll lend it to you.”

“Thanks. I owe you one.”

Kaneda was superficially frivolous. Even if he said he owed me, there would be no repayment.

After about five minutes, I finished the homework, so I called Kaneda over and lent him my notebook.

The opening bell rang, and after a while, Maekawa-sensei, our homeroom teacher, entered the classroom. Of course, Yuna was already seated in her uniform. Maekawa-sensei just took attendance and then left the classroom, switching with the teacher for the first period.

The first period was Japanese class. During the lesson, the teacher read aloud and explained tanka poems from the Hyakunin Isshu anthology in our textbooks. In the past, I couldn’t understand the meaning of these tanka poems with just one hearing, but now I could grasp the superficial meaning even without the teacher’s explanation. I must be getting smarter after all. I was smiling to myself, and the teacher pointed at me.

“Hasegawa, I don’t know what you find amusing, but do you understand what ‘hana no iro’ represents in this poem?”

“Yes. The phrase ‘hana no iro’ firstly represents the beauty of flowers. Secondly, I think it also refers to one’s own complexion.”

“I see. That’s correct.”

It’s obvious that anyone would understand such a thing. Right?

The Japanese class proceeded smoothly, and the first period came to an end.

After a short break, it was the second period. It was a math class for which homework had been assigned. During the break, I got my notebook back from Kaneda.

“Alright, let’s have those who had homework present their solutions. Kaneda, Nakamura, Hasegawa, Yamada, and Kodama will solve problems 1 to 5.”

Once again, I got called. It’s not a big deal since all I had to do was copy the answers from my notebook to the blackboard.

The five of us, who were called by the teacher, went to the front of the blackboard with our notebooks and started writing the answers with chalk. The only sound in the classroom was the chalk scraping against the blackboard.

I wasn’t watching behind me, but I could sense how the teacher was reacting. He should be walking around the classroom, peering into students’ notebooks as usual. Anyway, everyone seems focused and quiet.

After about three minutes, I finished writing the answers on the blackboard and returned to my seat. Then, within three minutes, everyone else finished writing the answers and returned to their seats.

Then the teacher began explaining the solutions while looking at the blackboard.

“Question 1 is Kaneda’s. Oh, you came up with this transformation. Did you learn this at cram school?”

“Oh, no. Um…”

“I see. You came up with it yourself. Good job.”

Kaneda received praise from the teacher.

Then, someone in the class said, “Teacher, Kaneda just copied from Hasegawa’s notebook!”

“I’m not impressed, but having friends who can lend you homework isn’t a bad thing. Make sure to solve it yourself next time.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Next is Nakamura. …You stumbled a bit on question 2, but it’s fine. Well done.”

“Question 3 is Hasegawa’s. Let’s see. Hmm, you solved it neatly. It’s not the method I taught in class, so I can’t recommend it to students, but of course, it’s correct. Hasegawa, you didn’t go to cram school, right?”

“No, I didn’t go anywhere.”

After that, the teacher wrote the conventional method of solving on the blackboard.

Then, from question 3 to question 5, it was the end, and five new students were called to the front of the blackboard for questions 6 to 10.

As the math class ended, Yuna came up to my desk. By the way, my seat is the special spot, right by the window at the back. Conversely, Yuna’s seat is at the back by the exit.

“Ichiro, what happened to you?”

“What do you mean?”

“You used to say you weren’t good at math, right?”

“Did I?”

“Weren’t you hovering around the average score?”

“Oh, now that you mention it…”

Huh? Wasn’t I not good at math? I had always thought it was my strong subject. Whatever it was, I currently had no aversion to math. That much was certain. Actually, I’ve only had two class sessions so far, and as of now, I can’t think of any subject I’m not confident in.