@Mangareader @Lithe Because the father storyline has been set up as the endgame for the series (similar to Naruto becoming Hokage or Luffy becoming the Pirate King). Instead of rushing through MC's development by skipping the entirety of his school life just to get to the part where he finds his sister and fights his father, the author has decided to go for a realistic approach and is showing us the entire journey without relying on time skips or cheap "powerups". In the meantime, he's making sure to explore that "relatively normal (fight) school life story" by portraying the typical stuff that plays out in high school and using the fights to develop the cast and their relationships.
For those readers only following this for the promise of "revenge" and who want the plot to go from point A to point Z as soon as possible, I can totally understand why this "lack of progress" would put them off. But if you're aware that a newbie like the MC won't become strong out of the sudden, I think the series has done a good job in telling the readers that it's gonna take a while for him to catch up and compete against martial artists with far more experience than him by having him lose constantly despite all his improvements. For example:
- He did quite well in the entrance exam but he ended up getting disqualified = L
- Also did quite well in his first official match but ended up losing to a better and more experienced opponent = L
- Got rid of his reluctance of hurting others and stood up for his friends but still lost due to being outnumbered and hurting his wrist during the fight = L
I think this a very different approach than the usual "MC gets OP and starts beating everybody" so I'm not annoyed by his "lack of progress". In fact, I like it. Yes, it's undeniable that he's been away from the spotlight during the current arc, but I rather wait until it's finished before deciding if this was a good or a bad choice on the author's part. He's clearly chosen to focus on two of the biggest mysteries of the series, which are Maria's (The other protagonist of the series) secret past and the school's secrets regarding Fight Class 3, so I'm really curious to see where all that leads up to. Also, the fights in the middle are really cool and the SOL side of the series is pretty good IMO, so I'm still having a nice time following the story. But that's just me.