“I’m running!”

I raised a hand lightly and called out to the PE teacher holding a stopwatch near the finish line.

Perhaps because it was a boy running, the teacher showed a briefly listless expression, but it seemed she’d still time it, and she readied the stopwatch with her thumb.

“Ready—beep!!”

The high-pitched whistle sliced through the air.

At that instant, I kicked off the dirt track with all my strength and sprinted toward the goal a hundred meters ahead.

It had already been a fair while since I’d quit the soccer club.

Still, whenever I found myself with too much time on my hands, I’d borrow the school’s soccer goal and kick a ball around with a friend—who has since vanished—or sometimes jump into a futsal game.

So it wasn’t like I’d gone completely rusty—or so I told myself, as I kept driving my feet into the ground.

Beep. A short electronic tone sounded. I ran straight through the finish line and past the teacher’s side.

“11.82…?”

The teacher’s voice, filled with astonishment, reached my ears. 

Apparently, that was my time. I’d barely managed to break twelve seconds. Considering it had been a while since I’d retired from club activities, it wasn’t a bad result.

“Um… Fukase Kazuto.”

When I gave my name so it could be written down on the record sheet, the teacher froze, still staring at the stopwatch. The pen in her hand didn’t budge an inch.

“…Fukase-kun, right? You… why are you so fast?”

A look of suspicion pierced right through me.

“Huh? I used to play soccer, so I’m used to running. I mean, I might be on the faster side, but is it really that surprising?”

“Soccer? A boy…?”

The teacher’s tone, that subtle shift in her expression—it was something I’d already suspected, but in this world, maybe a sport like men’s soccer simply didn’t exist at all.

“Can you show me your legs for a moment?”

“Hah!? W–What!?”

Suddenly, the PE teacher crouched down and began to intently examine my legs from the knees down, where they were exposed by my shorts.

“S-Sensei! That tickles!” 

“Just stay still!” 

She began patting my legs, giving my calves a pinch and a squeeze here and there. As if she were handling a research specimen, she used her fingertips to check the firmness of my muscles.

“So much muscle just in the legs alone…? They’re too hard… that’s impossible. But then again, if I look closely, even his features are different from other boys… but still…”

She continued her inspection, muttering to herself all the while.

“S-Sensei. We’ve still got the long jump, so can I go now?” 

“……Ah, yeah. You can go.”

Reluctantly, she finally pulled her hands away. Letting out a quiet sigh of relief, I headed toward the next event.

…She’s not going to mess with my numbers or anything, right? If my evaluation dropped over something like that, I’m going to lose it.

And after I’d moved some distance away, the PE teacher muttered something under her breath.

“—Boys aren’t supposed to have such developed muscles.”

◇◇◇ 

The next event was the long jump. As expected, I ended up going last again.

“Uuu… ahhh!” 

Aoi gave it his all, but landed in the sand with a feeble shout.

His result was about two meters. Shorter than the average for the girls.

“Fukase Kazuto, going now.”

The one in charge of measuring was a female student teacher.

Taking a run-up, I kicked off with everything I had. I soared through the air and landed in the sandpit.

How long had it been since I’d last done the long jump? My sense for it had dulled, but it didn’t feel bad.

“Four meters eighty-five! …W–Wait, four meters!?”

Her voice cracked with surprise as it echoed across the field.

I’d never been confident in jumping, but it seemed my leg strength alone had carried me a fair distance.

“Eh, what just happened…?”

“Four meters… for a boy?”

“Wait a second, that bulge in his calves… that’s muscle, isn’t it?”

The girls who had already finished their jumps began murmuring among themselves.

…So they still use words like “bulge” in this world too, huh.
(TN: もっこり or “mokkori” is a Japanese onomatopoeia for a “bulge.” While it can describe muscles, it is also a slang term for an erection or a bulge in the pants.)

When I glanced around, I noticed several girls staring at me in silence.

Appraising, scrutinizing… unaware of those gazes, I prepared for my second jump.

My second jump also cleared the four-meter mark, though the distance dropped slightly.

Still, it seemed like more than enough to wrap up today’s PE class.

◇◇◇ 

“Sensei, got a sec?”

“Um… Yuuki-san, right? Of course, what is it?” 

After class ended, the ponytailed PE teacher was approached by a gyaru with light-blue hair, her sun-kissed skin giving off a healthy impression—Yuuki Sena.

While she had put on a casual air during introductions, in reality, she was a seasoned sprinter who had devoted herself to track and field since middle school, and had joined the high school’s track and field club.

“Thanks. Uh, that boy earlier… I kinda forgot his name, but could I take a look at his record?”

“Oh, you mean Fukase-kun. Sure, I don’t mind, but…”

Prompted by Sena, the PE teacher handed the clipboard with the record sheet clipped to it.

“…This is his record?”

“Yes. There’s no mistake. The stopwatch was working perfectly, and there were no issues with the measurement. It’s just that—”

“—It’s way too fast for a boy… I mean, he’s more than a full second faster than me… I can’t believe that…”

As someone with a background in track and field, Sena simply couldn’t accept it.

Up until now, she had never seen a single boy who was faster than her.

In the first place, this world didn’t even have the concept of boys who could excel at sports—so of course it felt natural, and she’d never had reason to compare herself to one.

“Yuuki-san, do you specialize in sprints?”

“I do… but even for me, hitting the eleven-second range is impossible right now… and yet—”

“…It’s abnormal. I agree. But even so, there’s no place in this world where he could make use of his ability. So there’s no reason to dwell on it.”

“Yeah… you’re right.”

After returning the clipboard to the teacher, Sena gave a small bow and started walking toward the school building.

Still, her troubled expression didn’t fade. She let out a heavy breath and muttered to herself, the words barely more than a whisper.

“…There’s no way a boy who can beat me in speed exists…”

◇◇◇ 

“K-Kazuto-kun!”

“What? I’m right here.”

While we were changing back into our uniforms in the multipurpose restroom, Aoi had approached with sparkling eyes. 

“The hundred-meter sprint and the long jump—what was that!? You never told me you could pull off records like those!”

“Is it really that surprising? I just did it normally…”

“Of course it’s surprising! You saw how the girls were all making a fuss, right?! You’re amazing for a boy! I really respect you!”

“Haha, that’s a bit much. You might not be great at sports, Aoi, but you’ve got your own strengths. Mine just happened to be running.”

As his pretty, almost girlish face drew closer, I took a small step back.

Aoi definitely had a frail build—not the kind that would produce any decent results in track and field.

But even so, he had to have something that was his own.

“Anyway, let’s talk about it after school.”

“Yeah! I’m really curious about how you grew up, Kazuto-kun!”

…Honestly, so am I.

There should be a middle school version of me that I don’t remember.

What kind of person had I been during the middle school years I was supposed to have shared with Asuka?