Iku invites Mei to join her at an ascetic training regiment run by the Serious Group, which is describes as so hellish that only one person was ever able to complete it. The first exercise is 100 laps cleaning the temple floor. Most of the participants succumb to exhaustion before they can finish, but Iku and Mei both successfully complete the 100 laps, with the former asking for another 100 laps and the latter polishing the temple statue.
The next exercise is meditation training. The participants wear helmets that monitor their brain activity while a contraption behind them smacks them if they start to lose their focus. Mei gets herself in the proper mindset by imagining Hahari ordering her to concentrate while Iku ends up deliberately throwing off her concentration to get the machine to keep smacking her. By the time the instructor returns, Iku's Readings Are Off the Scale.
For the next exercise, the participants must chant prayers to Buddha at the top of their lungs. Mei, however, insists on praising Hahari over Buddha. Afterward, the participants are given simple meals that are difficult to eat.
The final exercise is Meditating Under a Waterfall that's only just warm enough to avoid causing hypothermia. Several hours later, Iku and Mei are the only ones still standing, but only just in the latter's case. After the first round, Iku starts to wonder if Mei is angry.
After a rerun of each exercise, Iku encourages Mei through the waterfall exercise, to the point of defying the instructor's warnings. In the end, however, he agrees to pass the two of them together, their spirit reminding him of the only person who completed the entire regiment by himself, who turns out to have been Rentarou.
Tropes:
- Blasphemous Praise: Even after being reprimanded for praising Hahari over Buddha, Mei insists on chanting "Great Buddha is infinitesimally close to the greatest!".
- Brick Joke: At the start of the chapter, the instructor mentions that only one person ever completed the entire training regiment. The end of the chapter reveals that the person in question was Rentarou.
- A Day in the Limelight: For Mei and Iku.
- Denied Food as Punishment: A discussed implication. Mei mentions that the food being served would've been a veritable feast for her before she met Hahari.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: The instructor overseeing the ascetic training is a monk with No Indoor Voice despite constantly sporting a serene smile.
- Meditating Under a Waterfall: The final exercise of the ascetic training regiment.
- Readings Are Off the Scale: Iku maxes out the smack counter during the meditation exercise.
