Reenrollment

That one line remained as still as a rock amid a waterfall of comments.

【Shishiōmaru—Official】'Old man, it's me. I want to become your student again.'

A few days after the exam festival, first-time viewers had increased by the tens of thousands. So this week, I was redoing the dull episodes in suitably dull fashion under the banner of "Week of Reviewing Everything from Lesson One." Rope-Tying, Review Edition. This was the opening installment.

【It's the third one! The third one's here!】

【Humanity's hardest shield is hereeeee!】

【First Rei, then Mio, and now finally Shishiōmaru!】

【He calls him "Old man"...?】

"Um... Maru-kun, it's been a while. I'm glad to see you're doing well, but we're in the middle of a lesson—"

【Shishiōmaru—Official】'I'm fine.'

【Shishiōmaru—Official】'I'm standing in front of the door.'

"...Huh?"

The doorbell rang.

【He's at the door lmaoooo】

【That was fast】

【I get it now. He didn't come after commenting. He commented after coming.】

With the stream still running, I opened the front door.

The light in the outdoor hallway was half blocked. A huge man stood in the dimness, so tall I had to look up at him. His shoulders were almost as wide as the doorframe. On his back was not a greatshield, but something the size of one, carefully wrapped in a furoshiki. The hardest man in the world bent deeply from the waist in the entryway of a thirty-two-year-old apartment building.

"Old man. I'm home."

"Welcome home feels a little off, but come on in. Mind your head."

"Yeah. Rei gave me the address."

◇

This time, a mass roughly twice as large sat in seiza on that same cheap cushion in the six-tatami room. The tatami creaked. His shoulders and everything above them didn't even fit in the camera frame.

【He doesn't fit on the screen】

【Humanity's hardest shield is in the six-tatami room again】

【That cushion is becoming humanity's strongest cushion】

"I'm Shishiōmaru. I work as a shield. —Starting today, I'm back to being a student here."

His greeting was already complete. He had always been this sort of man.

"Maru-kun. This is a beginner's course."

"Yeah. That's why I came."

Maru nodded, his thick neck bobbing.

"I don't understand complicated things. So I'll relearn everything from the basics. That's what beginners do, right?"

"You're S-rank, though—"

"Old man."

Even the way he interrupted was straightforward.

"I've gotten stronger over the past two years. I made my shield thicker, too. But the other day, for the first time, I didn't understand something."

"...What didn't you understand?"

"A new kid joined our clan. A sixteen-year-old kid who's big and nothing else. He's like I used to be. So I taught him. I told him, 'Bite into the ground.' ...He didn't understand. 'Carry the stone in your belly' didn't get through either. We did it for three days, and he didn't understand a thing."

Maru looked down at the fists resting on his knees.

"And then I finally understood. Those weren't words shared by all humanity. They were words my old man had made just for me."

The comment stream slowed to the pace of a classroom settling in to listen. I checked one thing, just to be sure.

"Maru-kun. This is going out live."

"I don't mind. In fact, that's why I came."

Maru looked straight at the camera. He had the same eyes he used when raising his shield.

"I grew up in an orphanage. Until I was fifteen, I could barely read."

【...】

【Almost nothing about the hardest shield's background had ever been made public】

"The first dojo gave me a textbook. I couldn't read it. I slept through the classroom lessons. They ended it at 'You're stupid.' The next dojo was the same. Everywhere I went, they said I was big but useless. It was the same at Genbu's training facility, at first. ...And then my old man showed up."

Maru's voice was flat as a report, which only made it resonate all the more.

"My old man threw out the textbook. Instead, he drew pictures on a sheet of paper as big as a tatami mat. They were drawings of the soles of my feet. He drew arrows showing where my weight had to go to make me hardest. He didn't use a single technical term. Not 'weight distribution,' but 'bite into the ground.' Not 'shifting my center of gravity,' but 'carry the stone in your belly.' He used only words I knew."

"He taught me how to read afterward. ...Because I wanted to read my old man's notebook. Once I could read, the first book I ever finished was a notebook with 'Shishiōmaru—Load' written on the cover."

【Hey】

【Wait a second】

【Was this the one who taught humanity's hardest shield to read and write, too?】

【So this is what it means to "change the teaching method itself"...?】

"My old man changed the way he taught me to suit me. I only realized how incredible that was after I became a teacher myself and went independent. —I read Rei's message after returning from a long-term dungeon run. I'd been deep underground where no signal reached for about two months. Then I watched the entire archive over three days and three nights. I watched Hina's exam, too. And then I decided."

Maru placed both hands on the tatami. The hardest head in the world bowed deeply.

"Teach me from the beginning one more time. This time I can read, and I can take notes. —I'll pay tuition."

"...This course is free."

"Rei said you told her the same thing."

【This again, for the second time lmaoooo】

【All the students want to pay tuition】

【Rei silently sent a Super Chat. Maru asked to pay tuition outright. You can really see their personalities.】

◇

I suppose this is what the face one makes when embarrassed looks like. After hiding the lower half of my face with my teacup, I gave in and opened the cardboard box by the wall. Beneath two years of dust, I pulled out that notebook. 'Shishiōmaru—Load.'

"All right. Since this is your reenrollment... Maru-kun, stand up for a moment."

"Yeah."

He stood. His hair brushed the ceiling. That was the limit of the six-tatami room.

"Stay in your usual stance. You can leave the shield wrapped up."

I watched him silently for thirty seconds. It was the oldest routine in my twenty years on the job: observe, break things down, and put them into words.

"...Maru-kun. You injured your right shoulder about a year ago, didn't you?"

Maru's eyebrow twitched.

"I never made that public."

"You didn't need to. Your right heel told me. The habit of favoring it has traveled all the way down to the soles of your feet. Your right side is three centimeters thinner than it used to be."

【Scary】

【He identified an undisclosed injury after making him stand for thirty seconds】

【So this is "observation and putting it into words"...?】

"Your shoulder has healed, so we only need to get rid of the habit. All right—"

I opened a fresh page in my notebook. My mouth moved as I wrote. Coaching is a strange profession; when a student stands in front of me, my mind starts running on its own.

"A reenrollment curriculum just for Maru-kun. Week One: taking inventory of the soles of your feet. We'll start by redrawing a diagram of your feet together on a sheet of paper the size of one tatami mat. Week Two: regain those three centimeters on the right. Week Three—let's make this homework. Go back and rephrase 'bite into the ground' for that sixteen-year-old kid in terms he understands, not yours. This time, you'll learn and teach at the same time. You're already on the teaching side, too."

Maru's eyes went wide, and then he laughed. It was the kind of laugh that sounded like a rock splitting.

"...You're a monster, just like I thought, Old man."

"I'm a coach for a beginner's course."

【Wait, did Teacher just make an entire curriculum on the spot?】

【He put it together in seconds】

"And for everyone watching, I haven't done anything special. There is only one set of fundamentals. There are as many entry points as there are bodies. Some people start with words, some with notebooks, and some with pictures. As long as you choose the right entry point, the fundamentals can reach anyone. —'Individual optimization' sounds impressive, but all it really means is making a key after examining the keyhole."

【The world's dojos aren't even doing that "just" thing】

【That's why kids get dismissed as "stupid," like Maru-san when he was fifteen】

【This is not something we should be allowed to hear for free (saying this every week)】

Amid the torrent of comments, a familiar bubbly line came tumbling in.

【T-Teacher! Um, does that mean Shishiōmaru-san and I will be in the same class...?】

Maru nodded toward the camera.

"So you're Hina. I watched your exam. —That was a good half-step."

【Y-yes! Thank you very much...!】

"And we're not in the same class. You're my senior. Whoever entered a classroom first is the senior, right?"

The comment section boiled over.

【A B-rank senior and an S-rank junior】

【The epitome of athletic-club etiquette】

【Hina-senpai is born】

【Hina-senpai is probably standing bolt upright in front of the screen】

At the end of the stream, Maru registered himself on the spot in the "student roster." It was just a free registration feature made for submitting assignments. His student number was a little over eighty thousand. The world's hardest new student read the number aloud twice, then nodded with satisfaction.

"Old man. The homework's due next week, right?"

"Yes. Make sure the paper is big."

"Yeah. —See you, senpai."

The last words were directed at the other side of the screen. Humanity's hardest shield bowed deeply and squarely, just as he had when he arrived, then left the six-tatami classroom.

◇

By the next morning, the whole world knew.

Humanity's hardest shield sitting in seiza on a cheap cushion. A sheet of paper the size of one tatami mat. A diagnosis after thirty seconds of standing. "You're the senior." Clips were subtitled in languages around the world and raced around as memes under the title "The World's Hardest New Student." An S-rank explorer taking a beginner's course—the image needed no further explanation.

As for me, I cooked rice, leafed through my notebook, and bought the two largest sheets of paper at the art-supply store. I wrote only two lines on the new page.

【Shishiōmaru—Reenrollment. Reclaim the three centimeters on the right. Learning while moving into the role of teacher】

【And—time to start thinking about making the classroom bigger】

The student roster passed ninety thousand before the weekend.

Then, on the morning the new week began, the counter quietly rolled over into six digits.

――100,000 students.

The classroom would grow a little bigger again.