Ayanokoji Kiyotaka

Once an atmosphere is established, it becomes difficult to resist.

After Hirata and Hoshino took the lead, the self-introductions proceeded in a logical flow. During this time, there were even moments filled with the cloying scent of youth, such as when everyone encouraged a shy girl to speak up.

However, two students remained exceptions.

One of them was the red-haired boy, who seemed impatient with the entire affair. Midway through the self-introduction of a girl named Shinohara, he stood up with an exaggerated motion and began walking toward the classroom exit.

Every one of his actions signaled that he had no intention of cooperating.

"Excuse me, classmate, please wait a moment..."

"What?"

Hirata had addressed him, and the boy stopped at the door, glaring at Hirata with a fierce gaze.

"I think it's a good thing for us to get to know each other and build bonds..."

"How annoying. I'm not interested in your childish friendship games."

He said this with disdain, pulled the classroom door open forcefully, and walked out.

Just then, a girl stood up in silence and headed toward the exit as well.

Judging by her face alone, she was a beauty who surpassed even Kushida. Her features were delicate, her temperament composed, and a cascade of jet-black, lustrous hair fell like a waterfall down her slender back. It was smooth and supple, with a single, meticulously braided three-strand plait hanging behind her left ear, swaying rhythmically with her movements. Her skin, white as jade, looked as if it would break at a touch. Her slightly upturned, thin eyebrows resembled carefully drawn ink lines, and the eyes beneath them were as deep and cold as a frozen pool, her expression calm and indifferent. Her cherry-like lips were pressed tightly together, adding to the sense that she kept others at a distance. She was slim with a graceful posture, and as she walked out, Ike and several other boys who had just finished their introductions stared unabashedly at her shapely legs wrapped in black stockings.

"Um..."

This time, Hirata couldn't even manage to open his mouth to stop her. The girl left the classroom without saying a word.

Hirata looked at the doorway with a sense of desolation. For someone who genuinely wanted to get along with everyone, this must have been quite a blow.

His appearance stirred the sympathy of some girls, who couldn't help but begin to criticize the two who had left.

"What's with them? Acting so stuck-up."

"Hirata-kun was only trying to be nice... How awful."

Such voices rose one after another; if left unchecked, they would gradually coalesce into a "correct" atmosphere.

"Please, don't say that. Self-introductions should be voluntary. It's because my explanation failed to gain their approval."

Hirata must have realized this as well, so he decisively spoke up to interrupt.

Kushida also took action: "I think they left because they had things they wanted to do. Besides that, shall we continue?"

The moment she spoke, the atmosphere softened—that, too, was a talent.

The self-introductions continued. Hoshino sat in his seat, listening silently, committing names and corresponding information to memory one by one.

The girl in the seat to his front-left was named Karuizawa Kei; her hair was dyed blonde and tied in a ponytail, giving her a strong, assertive impression.

The girl in the seat in front was named Onodera Kayano, a short-haired girl who looked like she had great athletic ability.

In the seat to his front-right was Kushida, with whom he had had a brief exchange earlier.

The girl in the seat to his left was named Matsushita Chiaki; she had shoulder-length brown hair and appeared to be an intellectual type.

The girl in the seat to his right was named Hasebe Haruka; she had striking light-blue hair, but her self-introduction was very short, feeling somewhat perfunctory.

The girl in the seat to his back-left was an international student from China named Wang Meiyu.

The girl in the seat to his back-right was named Sato Maya, a girl with a gyaru style.

This was a good opportunity to gather information. Although they were only brief self-introductions, they were enough to catch a glimpse of a person's facade. Even if it was just the side they wanted to present, it could be used as material for future planning.

Just like that, the self-introductions continued until it was finally the turn of the boy sitting in the corner by the window. Under Hoshino's gaze, he slowly stood up.

"Uh... um... my name is Ayanokoji Kiyotaka. Um... I don't have anything I'm particularly good at, but I will try my best to get along with everyone. That's all, uh... please treat me well."

He spoke with a nervousness that didn't lose to the girls, and his speech faltered several times. Hoshino almost felt as if the scene from earlier, where the whole class cheered someone on, was about to happen again.

If the subject were a shy girl, it would be fine, but if it were a boy, that scene would be truly eyesore-inducing. Hoshino was absolutely not interested in that.

If one were to judge this Ayanokoji Kiyotaka solely by his performance during the self-introduction, there was undoubtedly nothing noteworthy about him.

Such a nervous and stumbling self-introduction showed that he was truly lacking in social skills; even if one considered it the result of a disguise, it would only prove that his acting was poor.

But regardless of the truth, it no longer mattered to Hoshino at this moment.

Upon hearing his name—hearing the words "Ayanokoji Kiyotaka"—Hoshino could no longer concern himself with anything else.

That was something he had heard years ago, during a meeting with Arisu.

Arisu had followed her father, Mr. Naruse, to a place called the "White Room." It was a classified facility located deep within an inaccessible, desolate mountain range, an educational institution aimed at cultivating perfect human beings.

To be more precise, the institution was exploring the possibility of ignoring innate human talent and, through purely rigorous postnatal education, growing individuals into outstanding talents.

In that institution, children were taken in when they were only a few months old, having no contact with the outside world, spending all their time within those walls.

By receiving education that exceeded the limits of severity, those children mastered a massive amount of knowledge and skills, but at the same time, they lost their normal human emotions.

To say "lost" might not be entirely accurate; it would be more correct to say they "never acquired" them.

They lacked general common sense, and everything in their minds came from the institution's curriculum.

And among all the children in that White Room, the one who completed all the tasks and whose results were far ahead of the others was him: Ayanokoji Kiyotaka.

He was known as the greatest masterpiece of the White Room.

"To think I would end up in the same class as you, what an unexpectedly stroke of good luck."

Hoshino stared at the boy's expressionless face.

"If Arisu knew, she would surely be jealous of me. That girl has been aiming for you, too. Though, her objective differs slightly from mine."

To Hoshino, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka currently seemed like nothing more than an unpolished gem.

Although he had already been instilled with knowledge and skills far beyond his peers, as a human being, his growth had arguably only just begun.

"Just how far you can grow—let me watch over it from the sidelines."