Three days have passed since then.
I wake up before sunrise and finish cleaning before roll call.
After breakfast, I do "physical training" until past noon, and then "qi control training" or "endurance training" until evening.
By the way, "endurance training" involves endless running. At first, we ran in the same plaza where we had practiced swinging, but gradually obstacles were added.
"Endurance training" will likely end up having us run through forests and such.
Meanwhile, "physical training" has also shifted from simple swinging to sparring with controlled strikes, suggesting a focus on practical application.
Apparently, I'm good at mimicking forms, and I've received the excellence coin twice so far in "physical training."
However, "qi control training" has been terrible.
I thought I could do it once I got the hang of it, but there's not even a hint of it in my depths.
The number of children who have awakened to qi has gradually increased, now about one-third.
Among them, elves form the largest proportion. They must be a race skilled in manipulating spiritual powers.
Conversely, beast-people have the lowest proportion. They're suited for physical labor but struggle with the complex manipulation of qi.
I'm classified as a beast-person, but my physical abilities are slightly above average. It's rather unfortunate, but in exchange, I have a third eye—the pit organ.
Those who are average in both physical ability and qi manipulation are plain humans, the human-race.
This alignment was as I initially expected. By the way, elves are called forest-people, and they belong to a larger classification called fairy-kind.
Just as I'm classified as a snake-person of the beast-kind, the elf boy is classified as a forest-person of the fairy-kind.
And among those I call elves, some aren't strictly forest-people.
Some have dark skin, and some even have green skin, so they're definitely different races.
So it's best to think of those with long ears as fairy-kind.
And those who don't fit into any of these categories are classified as demon-kind. The oni-person boy in my room is one of them.
However, this classification is used merely as an "other" category, and it's complicated because the races within demon-kind, such as vampires and oni-people, aren't necessarily related.
And the girl before me also falls into this category.
"GAAAA'A'A'A'A'A'!!!"
"...You wild beast."
The physical training instructor drags in a dragon-girl.
For the other me, me, she was a tyrant.
She would rampage as she pleased, sleep when tired, quickly recover, and rampage again. And for some reason, I was always in the line of fire.
She resists by planting her feet on the ground, but the man has incredible strength and drags her at the same pace as walking, cracking the ground.
"Today, like yesterday, we'll do knife sparring."
He tosses her in front of us and tries to start training as usual.
However, someone interferes.
"...NAAA'A'!!!"
It's the girl who thought she was being ignored. This attitude triggered her temper, as she has high pride.
A force disproportionate to her physique weighs on the ground, cracking it.
Despite not having received "qi control training," she was boiling with qi throughout her body. Even I, unable to sense qi yet, could tell from her aura.
And converting that excess into her own strength, she lunges at the man.
"...Hmm."
Simultaneously with the instructor exhaling, claws and fists cross between them in an instant.
"Ga, ah..."
Only the instructor's elbow hits her solar plexus, and though her face contorts in pain, she lands on the wall and disappears.
Seeing this, the instructor swings his fist, and her face appears at its end.
"Ugh..."
"A beast relying only on strength is nothing to fear."
This time, as if determined not to let her escape, the instructor grabs her wrist and instantly delivers various strikes—a knife hand, elbow, knee—to her small body.
"Ah!"
"Tired? It's too early to sleep."
When the instructor provokes in a monotone voice, the girl, eyes wide open, fills her lungs with air.
With a bad feeling, I cover my ears just as she releases a roar.
"#A'A#AA'A'!!!!!!"
Several children who received it collapse. Some are bleeding from their ears—their eardrums must have ruptured.
Children of races with good hearing, even if not directly hit, feel unwell and sit down.
However, the instructor, who took it from point-blank range, merely furrows his brow slightly.
"...Tch."
"U'!"
With her throat struck, her roar is forcibly interrupted.
The instructor knocks her to the ground, pins her down with both knees, and takes a mount position.
"~~~~~'!!"
She writhes to throw off the instructor, but is suppressed by the difference in weight and technique.
She tries to knock him off with her powerful dragon tail, but the instructor, anticipating this, avoids it smoothly and retaliates with a downward punch.
"U'GA...A'!"
If she resists, he mercilessly rains down fists.
Even as her face swells and bleeds, there's no sign of stopping.
"U...A..."
"Wake up."
If she loses consciousness, he slaps her cheek to bring her back.
From there, it became a procedure.
A procedure aimed at breaking her will.
A procedure to turn her into a tool convenient for them.
She probably didn't give in even when put in the self-reflection room. Her intense sense of self couldn't be broken by drugs or darkness.
And so, the adults must have decided to dominate her through violence greater than her own.
—It's terribly comical...
I laughed quietly.
It was comical—my own mind inferior to that of a five-year-old girl, the adults desperately trying to break her, and the girl having her violence crushed by violence.
And most comical was that the other me thought she wouldn't break.
She might endure today, but what about tomorrow? A month later?
She can't maintain that intense emotion forever. Someday she'll break.
She might as well break.
If she doesn't break, it's troublesome for me.
Otherwise, wouldn't I look like a weak person?
***
In the end, she continued to resist to the brink of death, and after being reduced to a tattered rag, she was taken away from the plaza.
We ended up sparring while giving a wide berth to the blood she had spilled.
While the other children seemed frightened by the overwhelming violence displayed by the instructor, the other me felt relieved that the tyrant had been punished. Apparently, he had pent-up frustration towards the dragon-girl.
That day's excellence award went to a tiger-person boy with an outstanding physique.
I sparred with him once and was convinced that at this age, weight equals strength.
Indeed, power beyond the physical—qi—is the key.
The afternoon was "endurance training," so after dinner, my two roommates fell face-down on their futons and immediately fell asleep.
I was so sleepy I felt like I would collapse until I wiped my body, but strangely, I became wide awake.
In the middle of the night, with the sound of breathing from both sides, I spent time quietly meditating.