Walpurgis Night [ An Assassination Classroom fanfiction ]

Transfer Student Time

" 3 minutes and 22 seconds without assistance, 2 minutes and 45 seconds with rope assistance. "

Muttering under my breath, I took down my new timings I had recorded on my phone, comparing them against the timings from previous attempts as well as those of the rest of the class. 

( Shiro )With rope assistance : 
First attempt : 3.00

Second attempt : 2.54
Third attempt : 2.50
Fourth attempt : 2.45

( Shiro ) Without rope assistance :
First attempt : 3.45 
Second attempt : 3.39
Third attempt : 3.31
Fourth attempt : 3.22

Speed climbing was a portion of Karasuma-sensei's physical fitness training which helped in training our stamina and agility, and we had started out by scaling a 20 feet rope which gradually increased in length. Soon after, tree and mountain climbing, both assisted and unassisted, had become part and parcel of our daily training as well, though a fair portion of the class still had to be properly geared up and supervised by Karasuma-sensei before they could take part in these.

Although there was some improvement, however little, being made on my end, it didn't change the fact that even my fastest timings were far behind the record of 1 minute and 50 seconds currently being held by Hinata, who placed 1st among the girls as well as 1st overall. With how I was currently, I placed 5th among the girls and 11th overall out of the class of 28, a little above  the average but still insufficient, especially when my clearly lacking stamina was taken into account. If my ability at its peak couldn't even rank within the top few positions of our class, then I'd surely become nothing more than a burden when I got tired out. 

" Haah ... Somewhere along the way, being able to climb 50 feet so naturally became a common thing for all of us, didn't it ? " I sighed as I took a quick glance at the view below my feet. There was nothing but 50 feet of empty space below the branch I was perched upon, and the thick length of rope I had left behind at the starting point now seemed like nothing more than a single piece of string from where I was standing. 

A quick check of my pulse told me that it was becoming irregular, so I decided to take a quick break before I resumed any further training since if I went beyond this point, there was a possibility that my body would act up again and I'd collapse alone in the woods, which wasn't exactly a great idea for more than a few reasons. 

The sun was already beginning to set in the distant horizon, and the painted hues of orange and pink once again floated the image of the flower corsage I had received a few weeks back when the entire class decided to embark on our petty tale of revenge, incited by none other than our form teacher. Besides, the Chairman had thrown it out the moment he laid eyes on it, which was really just the moment I stepped into the house. 

Even then, I had slipped out of the house during the weekends and returned to the area where we had last met that strange florist guy in order to satisfy that uneasiness that continued to gnaw at me every other moment. That time when we had met, for just a moment, I had a feeling that he was almost ... familiar, the kind of feeling when you meet a friend you made in preschool ten years later, familiar but somewhat distant at the same time. Either way, something else which differentiated this meeting was the fact that instead of that warm fuzzy feeling that followed when you met someone you haven't in a long time, when that man had stood in our way at time time, all I had felt was the pounding of my heart in my ears, telling me to run.  

Anyway, housewives, as she had found, were especially talkative and willing to open up about almost anything and everything, and she had succeeded in gathering up a large portion of information barely an hour after she had started.