Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Starting in the third semester, I will no longer be cooperating with the class. Take that as you will.” Ayanokoji made no move to get up from the place where they had been sitting while discussing the future of Class B.

“What?” Horikita didn’t really understand his words, it’s not as if he had been cooperating very well in the past but he had still shown significantly more of his ability as time went on. It even seemed that soon he may reveal sufficient information to her that would satisfy her desire to learn more about him. “Right when Class A is within reach? Really?”

She already knew that he had no interest in that fight from the beginning. “You are all capable enough to reach it without me. However, I can guarantee that things will be more difficult than you expect and you will fall once again.”

“Then why are you leaving the front stage now of all times?”

“Oh, I’m not leaving, far from it actually. I anticipate that my next move will cause the eyes of everyone in our year to focus on me.”

She was baffled by his wording. He was being vague as always, but this time there was a lingering feeling that this was different from his usual vagueness. This was a threat. “I don’t understand. Just what do you intend to do?” 

He quietly got up from his chair and began to walk away with his hands in his pockets. He turned his head to take one last glimpse at Horikita, “Be patient, you’ll see soon enough.”

“How can you expect me to be patient when you’re saying such worrying things?” He ignored her rhetorical question.

His vague statements were the first sign that his goals were dangerous for the future of the class. Of course, she usually respected his opinions and plans since they were always successful in the past, but he had outright stated that he would not be cooperating with the class anymore. Was it a threat, or was it misdirection for something bigger?

—

“Excuse me, if you would all refrain from leaving class immediately, I have something important to announce.” Horikita had watched Ayanokoji take the teacher’s podium with an apprehensive feeling in her chest. His unnatural behavior was a sign that he was being entirely serious. Chabashira had also been somewhat interested to watch the interaction, but unfortunately had a meeting directly after that she needed to be at. Horikita had noticed the sight of Karuizawa being distraught that morning, which caught her very off guard. She had specifically asked him to fix things so that the stability of the class wouldn’t fall apart, but it seemed that he had done the exact opposite of what she wished. Judging by the way that she looked like she was about to start crying at any moment when she looked at him, it was easy to assume that he had been the one to break things off. His face still remained unchanging as always.

Hirata understood that what Ayanokoji had to say was important since he never took a leadership position. If it was something that could have come from the mouths of anyone else then he would have used Horikita or himself. “I think we should all stay seated and listen. As he said, it’s probably important.” Hirata had also noticed Karuizawa’s demeanor that morning and planned to ask her what happened after school, but he felt that this discussion held priority over it. Something just felt off in Hirata’s mind.

Horikita had her eyes fixed to the front of class where Ayanokoji stood with an apathetic expression. Even Koenji stayed seated, as did Karuizawa while trying to regain her composure.

“I will no longer be cooperating with the class,” he stated without a hint of unease or anxiety present in his voice. He stated exactly what Horikita had heard him say days prior.

“What the hell?” Ike said while whispers around the class flourished. “Wait, you haven’t even really done much over the past year and a half, why are you announcing this?”

“You may think I’ve done nothing significant, just acting as a pawn on Horikita’s behalf and occasionally taking key positions at her command. That’s quite far from the truth. In fact, this class would have remained at Class D for the entirety of your time here without me.”

“Huh?! What the hell are you talking about?” Ike was still in confusion, unaware of who lurked in the shadows behind Horikita.

“I’m not trying to overshadow Horikita’s actual achievements, but I am simply stating that some of them were things that I personally asked her to cover up. I’ll take an simple example. Ryuuen’s search for the mastermind. He initially became suspicious because he didn’t believe that Horikita could have come up with the plan for Class D’s success on the island, and he was correct. I was the one who had figured out the leaders of both A and C, as well as prevented our own leader from being guessed by changing it to myself at the last minute which caused those classes to lose points.”

Sudo was quick to anger at Ayanokoji taking credit for what he thought to be Horikita’s plans. “Bullshit! You may be smart but Horikita for sure thought up all those plans!”

Horikita stopped him, “No, it’s the truth. I don’t know why Ryuuen stopped searching for him, but the plan on the island was not my own, I was used by him instead of the other way around, and this wasn’t the first time that it happened either.”

“The explanation for Ryuuen stopping the search is also a simple one. I crushed his spirit and he felt no purpose in remaining the dictator of his class.”

“Crushed his spirit…?” Akito whispered under his breath.

“That’s another way to say that I beat him in a fight. The story that Ishizaki and the others beat him and took control was an absurd scenario considering their loyalty and strength, but it worked for my benefit despite it being slightly unbelievable.”

Ike began to panic, “There’s no way you’re that strong!” He turned to Sudo, “C’mon man, you could definitely win against him, right? Right?!”

Sudo sighed even despite his anger, “No, I’ve seen his strength with my own eyes. I would definitely lose in a fight against him.”

“Huh!?”

Horikita stood up suddenly and put her hand down on her desk. “You’ve barely been cooperative when you could have done much more over the past year and a half. Why are you suddenly declaring something obvious in front of the class and revealing yourself?”

Ayanokoji spared no moment to respond, “I’m not just going to be uncooperative, I will be actively fighting against Class B’s advancement in the class ranks. I will destroy this class if you don’t fight back.”

The class descended into chaos. Koenji let out a hearty chuckle, “So this was your plan all along, Ayanokoji-boy. I look forward to seeing how you try to destroy us.”

“Koenji! You know this means that your private points are going to go down, right?!” Sudo yelled.

“I’m sure he anticipated that I may exert some effort to retain my private points, perhaps he wishes to see how I face off against him.”

“Kiyotaka… What the hell?” Hirata said in disbelief. He believed that Ayanokoji had been fully working for the good of the class this entire time, and although he doubted his statements about plans being Horikita’s ideas all of the time, he still couldn’t believe he was now turning his back on them. The one who had helped him for the future of the class now suddenly became the enemy of it.

Shinohara joined the conversation, “I don’t believe that he’s so powerful that he can defeat all of us. He’s only one person!” Many of the girls began to agree with her, but Karuizawa never took a step forward to sway the discussion in any direction as she would have in the past at the command of Kiyotaka.

Kushida stood up, knowing that she didn’t need to keep her persona up in front of the class anymore, “I know you may be good at fighting and smart, but do you actually think you can destroy our entire class? You don’t have the tools you need available anymore.” She had recognized that he had cut contact with Karuizawa as well.

“Perhaps I have thrown away every ally I have, I wonder. Anyways, I didn’t expect most of you to believe me in the first place, so I’ll make a proposal. During the next special exam I’ll put my abilities on full display, but after that I will begin fighting against you all. And to make things fair, I’ll get perfect scores on every written exam we have that is not involved with a special exam.”

Horikita tried to glare at him but was now met with a piercing gaze that easily obliterated her confidence, rendering her unable to speak. Much of the class felt the same way. His previously gloomy and barely noticeable presence had abruptly turned into an imposing threat to the unshakable will of the class.

Matsushita decided she needed to speak out if no one else could combat his aura, “You aren’t afraid of the possibility of an expulsion in the upcoming exam?”

“I’ve predicted that the next one will not be similar to that of the Class Poll we had last year, and the chances of there being another exam where we vote out one student to be expelled are slim. In the case of tests based on ability, I have never once feared that I will be the one who is up for expulsion.”

“You arrogant bastard!” Sudo shouted.

Horikita needed to regain her composure or else her dreams of Class A would be wiped away in an instant. She mustered up her courage and once again faced the cold and calculating gaze at the front of the class. “Fine, I get that there is nothing we can do to change your mind, so we'll just have to fight as hard as possible to win against you.”

“I will stop attacking if you defeat me. The classification of defeat depends a lot based on the special exam, but overall I will count defeat as you all graduating in Class A unless you find alternate means such as expelling me.”

“That’s the entire 3rd year!” Ike mentioned again.

“The majority of you have mended the defects that placed you in Class D in the first place. For me, I believe that fixing what makes me defective is near impossible. I have stopped trying, and so I came up with an alternate solution. All I wish for is to be defeated by the hands of those who I have built from the ground up. I want to feel what the weak feel.” He left it at that and walked out of the deafening silence held in the classroom.

—

It had been around a week since the end of that discussion, and everyone was now anticipating a new special exam. Tensions were especially high, with Chabashira as well who had overheard the students talking about the new internal threat that had been lurking within the shadows. She knew she shouldn’t attempt to sway Ayanokoji away from this path since it went past her responsibilities as a teacher, but the real reason why she didn’t approach him was because she knew that when he made a decision the words of others did not sway him.

She entered the classroom and sighed with the announcement of a new special exam. She was both anxious and curious to see the results knowing the content of it. This truly was a special exam that would allow Ayanokoji to show all of his ability. She would be watching over him in this exam with extreme caution.

“Good morning class, I’m sure you noticed the extended homeroom period. You’re all aware of what that means at this point.” The class anxiously waited for the announcement of the details. Horikita was especially tense in the front of the class, finding it irritating that Ayanokoji didn’t even bat an eye. Chabashira turned on the board which showed the title of the next exam. 

'Talent Special Exam'

"You will all be competing in the talent special exam. This is another exam that will be held across all school years, so watch out for powerful opponents in other classes." She then switched to the next screen. "There will be four talent categories: Martial ability, academic ability, performance arts, and miscellaneous talents. If you are only able in one of these four categories, don't worry." The board showed the way that groups were formed. "You will be allowed to make groups of up to ten people, but if desired it can go as low as a single person, although not recommended. However, scores will be averaged out based on the scores of all group members in individual events. This is to prevent a group with 10 highly talented individuals from sweeping the competition entirely." This was quite possibly the perfect special exam for Ayanokoji to demonstrate his abilities as he was competent in every single one of these fields. "Everyone has to compete in at least one event, but there is no limit to the number of events you can compete in. There is a minimum requirement of one participant per group for each event, but it's up to you to decide how many people you want to participate in each event. Groups may also be spread out through school years, but you cannot choose members of your group from outside of your class within your year. This rule does not apply when choosing students from other years. Groups must be decided by the day before the exam which is on January 25th."

People in the class were beginning to get worried, but in Horikita's eyes this was finally the time that would allow her to witness his full strength in action. Additionally, it would give their class a headstart from his destruction if he was to get first place and earn them points. To those in the class, it seemed unlikely that he would get first place if he was to go solo in a test that relied on group talent, especially since the performance arts and miscellaneous talent categories were outside of what most students may learn. He had in the past mentioned that he did piano, calligraphy, and tea ceremony, but it was easy to assume that these three talents could have been excuses so that Horikita wouldn't learn that he was proficient in martial arts. He had even mixed them up at the time, so it was unknown if he actually possessed such skills. In terms of martial ability from what Ibuki had mentioned to her in the past, Ayanokoji was sure to dominate the competition in the martial ability event. Even so, she continued to take notes of every factor.

"I'll now explain the individual events. A tournament will be held for martial ability and will most likely be the longest event of the four. You do not need to practice a specific martial art, even basic fighting skills will be considered valid for this event. How the victor is decided is based on a time limit of five minutes. The match will continue until the opponent yields or is incapacitated, meaning that they are unable to fight back from being put into a hold they cannot break free from or from being knocked unconscious. Please take into account that excess violence will result in the match being suspended and the instigator being expelled. In order to prevent ties from happening, a score will be counted depending on individual hits and holds. The way that this is scored will remain unknown to you all. This event should end up taking up most of the day, but even so the miscellaneous talent event will take place on the same day. If you're competing in both you will be given a designated time frame that will not conflict with your schedule." The screen switched to the details of the misc. talent event. "As there are no clear guidelines for this category, things become tricky. We assure you that the school does have a way of judging everything fairly, but the details of that cannot be revealed at the moment. You need to submit your event a week in advance to the exam, but some may be rejected if they are seen as not enough of a talent to warrant a use of resources. Some more obscure talents may require you to order your own materials, so keep that in mind. Sports will also fall into this category, but it needs to be something that can be performed as an individual person and not as a team. You will be performing solely on your ability and not in a competitive setting. Additionally, only one talent per group can be chosen. As mentioned earlier you will be assigned a time frame during the day."

The class began whispering, but whether or not it was related to Ayanokoji or not was irrelevant to him. Kei had managed to recover somewhat. It seems that she finally thought about the words he told her when he broke up with her, starting to understand what he meant. She could finally break away from her old habits of being a parasite and be strong on her own. Still, the lingering cruelty of it all haunted her mind and cast a shadow over her previously carefree school life.

"For the second day there will be the academic ability event. It's essentially normal written exams and will be graded as such. You may divide the exams between members who are better at certain things than others, it won’t affect your score since things are averaged out regardless. For the record, exams will be based on grade level. After that there will be the performance arts event which will carry on into the evening. In order to prevent the event from carrying on too long we’ll have an upper time limit of 20 minutes for each performance. You will need to submit your piece for review before you can be approved for the event. Additionally if we find that we are running out of time we will be cutting down the time for entrants who apply later and students who are part of a group with multiple members participating. The scoring will work similarly to the miscellaneous talent event, so similarly I cannot tell you. For the martial ability and performance arts events you will be allowed to spectate the contents of matches and performances.”

Ike raised his hand anxiously. “Uh, sensei, what if we don’t have an ability that fits into any of those categories?”

“Well, you can always join a group that will allow for sacrifices to be made. But in realistic terms, we cannot have every single student be able to shine in every exam. You could try to sway your team to choose a miscellaneous talent that favors yourself, but it’d probably be better to just take the loss if you have people who are very skilled in very specific fields.”

“Oh… I see.” He didn’t try to complain as usual, just silently gave up. He was slowly beginning to mature and add to the class in a constructive way.

“Now for the point distribution.”

Point Distribution

*Points will be divided and given to multiple classes if a group is formed of more than one class.

Top Placements

First Place- 300 Class Points and 2,000,000 Private Points

Second Place- 200 Class Points and 1,000,000 Private Points

Third Place- 100 Class Points and 750,000 Private Points

Fourth Place- 50 Class Points and 500,000 Private Points

Fifth Place- 25 Class Points and 250,000 Private Points

Bottom Placements

Last Place- Expulsion of all group members

2nd to Last- Minus 200 Class Points

3rd to Last- Minus 100 Class Points

4th to Last- Minus 75 Class Points

5th to last- Minus 50 Class Points

The consequences for the bottom places were scary as always, but this had become normal. Chattering began to ring out within the classroom as students started to get excited about the exam. They had almost forgotten the lingering threat in their midst. “Feel free to approach me at any time to apply for the formation of your group. Afterwards, there will be a new tab on the OAA app that allows you to submit applications for events and performances in the case of performance arts. Don’t worry if you want to keep things secret, it can only be viewed by staff. I’ll leave you all to discuss until the end of the homeroom.” She stepped out of the room, probably planning to go towards the rooftop.

“I hope you don’t expect any help. Go cry to the first years if you want to create a strong team, I doubt Nagumo will let any of the third years assist you,” Horikita said as she approached Ayanokoji’s desk that was still placed by the door.

“Help? I intend to face this exam entirely on my own.”

“You’re going to take the penalties in the categories you’re not adept in?”

“Who said anything about penalties?” He got up from his desk and began to walk towards the door. Horikita was left in a state of confusion, realizing that he was indeed proficient in what he had mentioned to her almost two years ago.

“Could I have a minute?” Ayanokoji asked as he entered the door to the rooftop and found Chabashira smoking.

She sighed heavily while blowing out smoke, facing him with a distraught expression. “What do you want?”

“That’s awfully harsh, what did I do?”

“I know what you plan to do, but I’m legally not allowed to step in.” She could never combat him as a student, she would have to rely on Horikita and the class to beat him.

“I just came to submit my group application.”

“You don’t mean…”

“I will be participating as an individual in this special exam.”

She turned her body towards him and scoffed, “You’re really that confident in yourself? Are you sure it isn’t arrogance?”

“I think that no one in the class can fully comprehend my strength, but maybe a few within the school could.”

She let out a bitter laugh, “That’s an oddly high number, I thought it would be less. Fine, I’ll enter your name immediately.”

She took out her phone and entered something before a small notification sound rang out from his phone. He took it out and looked to see that his name had been submitted as an individual group, the first group to be created so far. “Thank you. I’ll be returning to class now.” On his way back down the stairs he continued to fill out the other information. Ayanokoji still had to manually apply for each event due to an individual participant being unexpected, but he thought he might as well get things out of the way sooner rather than later. For the martial ability segment it had an optional field of what you practiced. He practiced far more things than what would be able to fit into the text box, but decided to leave it as aikido and judo for simplicity. The written exams didn’t have anything specific to enter, he was already assigned to do all of them. For performance arts he quickly chose one of the preset options that were listed, but there was always the choice to add something else. He pressed ‘musical instrument’ and when another box popped up he chose ‘piano’ out of the options that were there by default. He assumed this meant that these were the instruments the school would provide for them if needed.

At this point he had returned to the classroom and many were already looking at him with strange expressions. Those who had merely wanted to look at the new tab of the OAA app saw that Ayanokoji had entered as a single participant and hadn’t even tried to look for other group members. He ignored them and sat back down, disregarding Horikita’s gaze that tried to pierce him from across the room. Once he had confirmed his instrument, there was a text box to submit a request to perform a certain piece during the event. He already had in mind what he wanted to play, and so quickly wrote it down and pressed the submit button. There wasn’t really much use in stalling, and especially since it was going to end up being long he wanted the best chance of not having his time cut down. Moving onto miscellaneous talent, he planned to use calligraphy as his skill. It was easily graded and his skills from the past would still be exceptional even if they had deteriorated slightly in his time without practice. Additionally, he wouldn’t have to buy extra materials since there was already a calligraphy club at the school. 

Although he was sure to attract far more attention than he wanted, he knew this was an inevitability. It would also work in his favor by directing even more attention towards their class and create an increase in higher level opponents who would want to take them down. Students outside of Class B would not be aware that he had betrayed them and would consider him as just another functioning piece of the class.

He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. It would be interesting to see how things would play out from now on.

—

A knock rang out throughout Ayanokoji’s room. It was extremely aggressive, so it could really be any number of people. 

Every day that week he had headed directly back to the dorms and ignored any requests to speak with others within his class. Hirata had been particularly insistent, but through use of harsh words he was able to get him to leave him alone. Sakayanagi had also messaged him, looking forward to his performance in the upcoming test, but that was all. Surprisingly, he still hadn’t been kicked out of the class group chats and it was still active. Sometimes people forgot that he was in the group chat because he barely ever talked, and they would start messaging about him in there. It was slightly humorous, but it also gave him insight on the conditions of the class. The stability was already falling and tensions were rising. People were beginning to see Horikita as an inept class leader, and although Ayanokoji had predicted this as a possibility, it was the opposite of what he wanted. The formerly named Ayanokoji group also continued to bother him with vague messages that seemed intended to anger him, but they weren’t doing much other than being useless notifications.

As he collected his thoughts, the knock continued to interrupt.

“I know you’re in here. Stop hiding away like that can allow you to avoid the consequences.” That stern voice was always recognizable. He opened the door and saw a girl with medium length black hair staring intimidatingly back at him.

He opened the door to let her in, since he had expected to hold a discussion with her sooner rather than later. Horikita was slightly confused by the way he let her in so easily, but attempting to analyze every single one of his actions at this point would be futile considering the current situation. She did not understand him in the slightest. He headed over the kitchen and began to boil water, “Do you want anything? I have black tea, coffee, and hot cocoa.”

“Tea is fine.” She was trying to not let the anger get in the way of her thinking rationally, but when it came to him her thoughts ended up being irrational regardless.

The water finished boiling and he put a teabag in each cup before pouring the water in. He waited for it to steep, while also waiting for Horikita to talk. It seemed that she wanted him to begin the discussion first, or just felt that it would be impolite to have this conversation while he was preparing their drinks. The tea finished brewing and he handed the cup over to Horikita before sitting down. In the past she had talked to him about important things while not facing him since she knew that he was adept in using psychological warfare through emotions that were portrayed on her face, but this time it would have to be face to face.

“So?” he asked, waiting for her to begin talking.

“What do you mean ‘so?’ You know exactly what I’m here to talk about.”

“I have no clue.”

She sighed and gathered her courage. “Why?”

“Why what?”

“Do I seriously have to spell out every single little thing for you in intense detail?” Her annoyance was attempting to override the enormous amount of anxiety that was still present within her voice, but he managed to pick up on this easily.

“Well I’m only asking because a one word question which could be referring to basically anything is very vague. Please state your question clearer.”

“Why are you turning against the class?”

“I thought I spelled that out pretty clearly in my explanation. I want to feel what the weak feel, I want you all to defeat me.” He showed no remorse or arrogance in his voice. Just a flat tone that spit out facts.

“Just who are you? You believe you’re so much better than every single one of us, even going as far to say that you don’t believe there’s anyone in the school that has equal strength to you. It’s hard to believe, but I’ve seen many extraordinary things while being in your presence.”

He took a moment to respond. Perhaps this was his way of making her more tense, but it felt like an eternity. “Who do you think I am?” He was slightly curious to hear her response to his question, it would tell him a lot about her perception of him.

“I think that you are different from others. So far, from all I’ve seen from your ‘emotions’ I believe that you are a fundamentally flawed person. I don’t know why I’m making this assumption, but I’ve spent a lot of time with you over almost two years. It’s hard to call you a person that is able to care or empathize with others in the class, but you have remarkable emotional intelligence. You’ve been cruel and honest to me this entire time, and it worked in your favor to manipulate me in the ways you wanted.” She had much time over the past week to think about his actions even despite the difficulties in creating groups and devising the best divisions of students into each event.

“Hm, I’ll keep that in mind.” He never intended to answer her question. Explaining what kind of person he was is something that could not be done in words.

She took another sip of her tea and avoided his gaze by focusing her eyes on the cup in front of her. “I suppose I’m just confused, though no explanation you give me will be able to satisfy me. Until I learn about your past, this will all be shrouded in mystery. I’m going to do my best to find out what I can, I know there has to be someone here who knows.”

“I will have to ask you to refrain from doing so,” he stated with a more harsh voice than before.

“Is it really that secret?”

“Kushida went out of her way to prevent her past from being revealed too. Is it really so different from that? I assure you that if you do go looking I will be forced to eliminate you.”

“You’re going to expel me for just that? You really are acting just like Kushida.” She mocked him slightly, but she also understood the gravity of his words.

He placed his tea down after taking a sip. “Being expelled will be the least of your concerns if you try to share any findings. Personally I would prefer if nothing happened to you, but it’s not really my choice here.” It was a threat that could imply anything. Her life being ruined? Jail time? Death?

“I get it, I get it. I won’t do any searching.”

“Thank you.”

Horikita got up from her seat and began to leave the room. “I look forward to seeing your performance in the special exam. I may be dreading your turn on the class afterwards, but I have appreciated your help over the past one and a half years.” She walked out the door and shut it forcefully behind herself.

“How oddly sentimental,” he muttered to himself.

Chapter Text

At last, the day of the first two events arrived. It wasn’t as if Ayanokoji hadn’t practiced at all, he had been regularly going to the gym ever since winter break. Even so, he knew that his memory of what he had learned in the White Room had not deteriorated one bit. He was actually looking forward to seeing the hidden talents in the competition. The bracket had been released that morning on the OAA app with around a hundred participants, just around one fourth of the total student body. There were some interesting pairings listed, but overall it seemed that he was most likely to sweep his side aside from one difficult battle. It was also apparent that the brackets had been shuffled and weren’t based on when each person had applied, and there was also the chance of facing off against someone in your own class. This was clear from his own first match being against who he once considered a friend, Miyake Akito. His calligraphy slot was listed rather early, as was his first match, but it was easy to assume this was just because he had been the first group to form.

If he was to make a guess on who he would be facing off in the final round, it would most likely be Amasawa if she were to take things seriously. She was on the other side of the bracket, so it seemed likely that if there weren’t any unknown factors she would come out on top. He made the rest of his predictions while he ate and got ready. It was already 7 AM and his first match was at 8:10 AM. It was required for all students to arrive at the gym at 8 AM for some opening messages, but after that they were free to disperse.

Ayanokoji put on his athletic clothes and headed to the gym along with a bag that had water, some snacks, and his school clothes in it. All students in the competition were allowed to use their lockers to store things in while they participated or waited for their next match. It would be pretty annoying to keep heading back to the dorms later on, so bringing all of his stuff now was much easier.

When he arrived, he signed in to use a locker and put his things inside. While there he ran into Sudo who looked over at him awkwardly.

“We’re not on the same side of the bracket, are we?” he mentioned, still trying to be slightly friendly. Ayanokoji had indeed turned on the class, but Horikita had personally talked to him about not acting overly harsh. He didn’t plan to originally, but it was still pretty irritating to know that he had done things he once considered to be Horikita’s accomplishments.

“So it seems…”

He laughed awkwardly, “Well I’m sure as hell glad about that. You kinda scare me to be honest. I’m not gonna’ forgive you if you hurt Horikita though!” The second the brackets were released, he checked to see Horikita’s placement. He was around seventy percent sure that he wouldn’t end up fighting her, but it was a possibility regardless.

“Well if she gets that far I’m going to have to win somehow. But don’t worry, I won’t exert much strength when fighting her if that’s what you care about.”

They finished putting their stuff away and silently walked towards the gym together. Since Ayanokoji had merely announced that he would be betraying the class and hadn’t yet taken any action to do so, there weren't really many feelings of malice towards him yet. Many thought that he could still be swayed if Horikita simply talked to him. Some were angered only because he had been hiding his true strength this whole time. He took his place within the congregation of Class B, only half paying attention to the words being spoken in announcement of the special exam. He was more focused on the atmosphere of everyone around him and inside of the gym. It was all filled with much tension and unease.

After the proceedings were over, many of the students dispersed, but around half remained. This was either because they had upcoming matches or because they wanted to see the outcomes of the battles. Most of Class B remained, which was to be expected. They were all awaiting his match which they knew would be conducted soon after. He returned to the main floor of the gym which had the lines of a basketball court and a variety of other sports as always. In the center there was a large rectangular mat. The teacher on hand was Mashima-sensei, a good choice based on both his morals and physique. There were also several other school officials in the area to regulate the event since the event could easily become dangerous and get out of hand. 

Akito looked apprehensively over at Ayanokoji from across the mat while they were both taking off their shoes. He could guess that both Haruka and him didn’t expect him to actually be good at fighting, so the reveal of him defeating Ryuuen must have been shocking news.

“Please step onto the mat,” Mashima ordered. They both did so at the command, now barefoot in order to have better grip on the mat. They stood a few feet apart in the center of the mat, the correct starting distance. Mashima-sensei was somewhat aware of Ayanokoji’s martial arts proficiency ever since he had witnessed a part of his battle with Tsukishiro and Shiba. At the time it was difficult to tell just how much potential he had, but fighting against two adults even with the help of an upperclassman was not an easy feat.

“If you step off of the mat you will be disqualified. Additionally, pushing others off of the mat is prohibited. If you are seen to be engaging in this type of behavior you will be disqualified instead. Excess violence will also be prohibited and will lead to expulsion. You have five minutes.” There was a large timer that had been set up in order to have a better view of the time limit. Akito got into a fighting stance. He didn’t have any martial arts proficiency but he did know how to fight from his time of delinquency in the past. “Ready.” Ayanokoji lightly took his stance while those who remained in the audience watched with anticipation. “Begin!”

Ayanokoji didn’t care much about dragging out this conflict. Akito tried to take the offensive first by stepping forward and jabbing towards Kiyotaka’s chest. This was easily dodged, Ayanokoji instead grabbing his right arm with a strong grip after moving out of the way. He took Akito’s arm over his shoulder with his back turned away and leaned forward in order to use gravity to slam him onto the ground. This was quite an easy technique, but it had all been done in just a few seconds. Akito barely had time to react when he felt his back hitting the ground forcefully.

“Agh-” All the air was knocked out of his lungs from the harsh fall. Akito got up, still having a decent amount of stamina remaining even despite falling immediately. He tried to aim a short kick at Ayanokoji’s shin as a distraction before taking a swing at his face again. His balance was still slightly off, but even so it didn’t matter when Kiyotaka effortlessly dodged the attack by sidestepping it. Akito witnessed him in his peripheral vision, but soon after his legs were swept from underneath him causing him to fall forward onto the ground. He tried to catch himself but found soon after that he was locked into a Nelson hold.

“What the hell…?” Akito uttered under his breath while struggling to break free. Ayanokoji’s grip was too strong and didn’t budge despite his attempts. His mind hadn’t had time to catch up to what was happening in such quick succession.

After 10 seconds of the hold, a whistle blew to signal the end of the match. The pressure on his shoulder suddenly released as Ayanokoji got up and walked away to put on his shoes. Akito was left on the ground, partially speechless. The match had ended in less than thirty seconds.

Even the audience seemed surprised by how one sided of a defeat it was, this wasn’t the category where groups would put people who didn’t have any fighting experience. Of course, to those who didn’t know Ayanokoji it was expected that some would have far superior skills than others, the first round was bound to have many unfair matchups. However, for those who did know Ayanokoji and were unaware of his abilities, this was surprising. Ayanokoji walked back to the locker room without turning back, needing to change back into his school clothes before he could enter the special wing to participate in the miscellaneous talent event at 8:30 AM.

When he exited while fully dressed in his school attire, Nagumo ended up being the one to approach him instead of the usual Class B culprits. “I knew ever since the island you had this talent hidden up your sleeve. I look forward to watching your fights. Whether I’ll get to battle you or not is a different story, depends on the first and second years on my side of the bracket.” He smiled teasingly back at Ayanokoji. He had become more depressed over the past year following Horikita Manabu’s graduation, but he still wished to battle someone who his senpai recognized at some point or another.

“If you did fight me, it would have to be in the finals. It’s unfortunate for you, but I do not believe you have the talent required to make it there.”

Nagumo’s teasing persona broke for a minute, “We’ll see. Although I can say that I wasn’t on the same level as Horikita-senpai, I can still hold my own in combat.”

“Well, if you do make it to the finals then I will beat you.”

“That’s more what I like to hear. I look forward to our battle.” Nagumo returned to the third years, probably awaiting his own match. They both rationally recognized that it was pretty unlikely that they would be able to fight in any special exam ever again. If Amasawa was being serious, he stood no chance.

Ayanokoji began to walk to the special wing, passing by many faces who seemed to take the day as an opportunity to have fun if they weren’t participating in today’s events. Even if they were, people who had miscellaneous talents usually wouldn’t have to take more than an hour out of their day. For people who were only assigned to that event it probably seemed like an easy special exam. He didn’t really envy those who weren’t doing anything even though he usually preferred to be as lazy as possible when it came to doing anything.

Arriving at the assigned special wing room, there was other equipment for other art practices inside. It seemed that this was the room dedicated to visual art. There were already a few people inside painting on canvases or sketching, but they probably needed a decent amount of time to finish their works so they got an early time slot. Most were also wearing headphones of some sort in order to have their full focus put onto the art. It wasn’t as if you could cheat while drawing, it was purely talent based. When Kiyotaka walked through the door he saw someone out of his peripheral vision and soon felt two small hands grasp onto his shoulder.

“Oh, Ayanokoji-kun! You know, I was really surprised when you ended up becoming the first group, and an individual participant too! I wonder how that happened, hm~?” It was Hoshinomiya-sensei, the teacher who he found to be the most irritating of them all. She was far too touchy for what he liked, so he gently moved her hands off of his shoulder.

“I’m just here for my 8:30 calligraphy slot, I’d like to get through this without anything unnecessary.”

She sighed, “You’re no fun. Why does Sae get you all to herself~” She said it in a way unbefitting of a teacher, but he knew that her internal thoughts on the matter ran deeper than simply thinking he was cute. Either way, it was still inappropriate for a teacher.

She led him over to a low table that had calligraphy materials set out along with the characters that he would be writing. He would need to make his own ink using the ink stick and water, but that was just common practice.

Ayanokoji kneeled down on the cushion in front of the table and laid out everything he needed in the order he wanted it in. At 8:30, one of the officials in the room ordered him to begin. He was given an hour for time, but that should be incredibly reasonable if he was even slightly proficient. He began to create ink using the ink stick and water, slowly grinding it on the small slab. The reason for doing it every time was to clear your mind in the process. He went along with everything he had learned about the art of shodo back in the White Room. Eventually, he had enough ink to work with and picked up his brush. The phrases he was given to copy all had some sort of deep meaning, perhaps so that he could ponder it during each brush strike.

His body was not tense while writing the characters, letting his hand flow with the brush as if it was just an extension of himself. Although he wasn’t usually an artistic person, calligraphy was something that Ayanokoji did enjoy to an extent.

Before he had realized it due to many deep thoughts, he had already completed it all in around thirty minutes. He didn’t rush, and because of that the characters came out beautifully. Even those who would be judging it were surprised by how smooth everything looked, almost so much that it looked inhuman. Did he even write this?

Hoshinomiya dropped her usual bubbliness for a minute and coldly stared down at the papers. He assumed that she was still bitter from his class’ victories. He didn’t care about assuring her, but soon enough Class D would rise again, and his own class would fall.

Ayanokoji had some time to kill before his next match which was assigned to 12:30. It was only 9:15, that was a lot of time to spare. The first round was bound to take a lot of time with over 50 matches needing to be held. He decided that he could just get something at the cafe briefly, and maybe return to the dorms despite already leaving his stuff in the gym. Watching the competition didn’t interest him much, he already assumed that the first round would be especially boring. Luckily, at 12 PM there would be food provided for all the competitors in the martial ability event, so he wouldn’t have to worry about whether to make food or buy it.

When he appeared at the cafe, it seemed that many of the other competitors who had early time slots also had a similar idea. He ignored all of them whether they were friend or foe, ordering his drink and sitting down. Surprisingly, the cafe didn’t have all that many normal students and the customers at the moment were mostly the competitors.

Kiyotaka scrolled on his phone for a little bit before a group of five approached his table.

“Looks like you’re going all out on this exam, huh?” The mocking voice came from none other than Ryuuen Kakeru, followed by three of the members of his gang. Hiyori was also tagging along, seemingly coming with them because she had noticed Ayanokoji sitting in the cafe. Ibuki looked very unhappy to be standing there with the four of them, but it was easy to assume that she had been sitting alone before the rest of them had joined her to her own dismay. If they were going to see anyone else about the martial ability event, she most likely wouldn’t have tagged along, but since it was him she couldn’t help but be curious.

“What are you talking about, Ryuuen?”

He grinned back at him, “We were all there to watch the first fight, you look like you’re ready to take things seriously. And you’re facing the entire exam as an individual participant. I don’t believe for one moment that you’re going to hold back this time.”

Ayanokoji took a sip of his coffee and hummed slightly, “Hm, I wonder. How were your matches by the way? I assume all but Hiyori participated.”

Ishizaki sighed dramatically, “I got knocked out in the first round! And by a freshman too. Man, I’m really disappointed.” He made an overly exaggerated body motion depicting disappointment.

Ibuki suddenly scoffed, “You didn’t stand a chance from the beginning. It was that bitch Amasawa who you were matched up against. Personally I would like to rematch her, and I might get my chance ‘cause I’m on the same side of the bracket as her. What pisses me off is that Horikita is on the opposite side and I’m not going to get to fight her! I only wanted to do this exam so that I could beat her in a fight!” Ibuki showed an intense anger through her raised voice, several people directed their attention towards the unusual crowd.

Ryuuen continued to smile, “Well, since I’ll probably be matched up against Amasawa too, I look forward to crushing her and taking my spot in the finals. There weren’t very many notable names on my side, just some random first and third years. It’s not like I envy your side of the bracket though, Hosen is over there.”

“Ah, I saw that. Albert will probably make it through to the next round, but then he’ll have to fight Hosen next. Seems unfortunate to me.”

Albert nodded, showing a slight expression of anxiety. They all knew just how strong Hosen was from that one day at the beginning of the year. Ryuuen sighed, “You better beat him for me, eh Ayanokoji?”

“Since when was I doing favors for you?”

He laughed. “It’s not a favor if you have the desire to win for yourself. It seems like you finally have that this time.”

The group of four walked away with Ishizaki waving goodbye happily as Ryuuen dragged him away. Hiyori was the only one to remain, waiting for her turn to speak.

“Sorry about that…” she said softly.

“You don’t need to apologize. Take a seat if you want, I have time to kill.” He gestured to the seat on the other side of the table as him that had been left empty. He was slightly observant of whether there were any of Kei’s friends within the area since word had already gotten out that they had broken up. It wouldn’t be a good look to be seen talking to another girl alone, but it should be common knowledge at this point that she was just a friend, even if Hiyori might have hoped it wouldn’t stay that way.

“You seem like you’ve been busy lately. I haven’t caught you at the library at all in the past month.”

“Ah, yeah. Circumstances I suppose.”

Hiyori looked down at the table in order to avoid his eyes. “I heard what happened with you and Karuizawa-san. I’m really sorry about that, it must be a difficult time of adjustment right now.” He actually didn’t find it difficult at all, it was what he had been planning for some time. He was well aware of the risks.

“It’s alright, things just happen.” He had learned that avoiding the topic was easier than he had originally thought, with people just chalking it up to lingering emotions he didn’t want to reveal to others.

She tried to move to a brighter note and looked back up, “Well, in the time that we haven’t met I’ve found some new books that I think you might be interested in. I don’t have them with me since I didn’t expect to see you here, but I can show them to you the next time we meet up.”

“That sounds good, I’ll try to plan something soon.” A moment of silence lingered between them. “What event are you participating in?”

“Oh, I’m doing the written exams and tea ceremony. I did it for a little bit in primary school and junior high, so it’s something that I’m decent at.”

“I didn’t know that, interesting. I actually did it too for a little bit, but not in junior high.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, what are you going to do for the miscellaneous talent event and the performance arts event? I don’t want to pry, I’m just interested.”

It wouldn’t hurt to tell her since she would probably end up being there for the performance arts event anyway. “I just got done with my slot for the miscellaneous event, I did calligraphy for that. For performance arts I’m going to play the piano.”

“Wow, you practice a lot of things…”

“Well, I’m not really good at any of them. I was still clubless in junior high, my parents just pushed me pretty hard in primary school.”

She paused before responding, still leaving her iced tea mostly untouched. “I don’t want to sound rude, I just can’t believe that to be true.”

“Hm?”

“Well, you’re participating as an individual in the exam. If you weren’t confident in your abilities in each category then you would have formed a group. Plus, I know from both what I learned in the past and your match just this morning that you practice martial arts. Your abilities would have deteriorated if you hadn’t been practicing in junior high.” His backstory of lies wouldn’t hold up forever.

He debated digging his grave even deeper, but his abilities were going to be on full display soon enough anyways. It wouldn’t be beneficial to lie to someone whose trust he wanted. “Yeah. Sorry about lying, I just don’t like telling people about my past.”

“I don’t mind. I don’t really have any interest in your past, I just like there to be some amount of trust between me and my book buddy.” Kiyotaka nodded in agreement. He did want to sustain his relationship with Hiyori as friends since he was basically shunned by his entire class now. He also enjoyed talking about books with her. It was odd to think that all of his current “friends” were now from the other classes. Hiyori, Ishizaki, Ichinose, and Sakayanagi.

They continued to chat for a bit before Hiyori left in order to get ready for her time slot for tea ceremony. Being left alone, he walked around the campus for a bit before returning back to his dorm room at around 11 AM. He didn’t do anything while there, just laid down on his bed and cleaned up the nothingness that was all over his room. He had considered once or twice getting more things in his room, but they were unnecessary. He didn’t like extra clutter and his room was already much more welcoming than it had previously been back at the White Room.

He didn’t really have anyone to talk to, but it wasn’t as if this was something he was unfamiliar with. Judging that he should probably get up from laying on his bed, he went over and sat down at his desk. Instead of going back on his phone, he opened his laptop. Once again there was really no motive for this other than boredom, but over the time he had access to the internet he had become particularly interested in video essays. They could be about extremely random things, but they were informational nonetheless. He checked the timestamp of one that he had saved to his watch later playlist. He wouldn’t have time to complete it, but he could at least get a decent chunk of the way through it.

The time was almost 12PM. Kiyotaka shut down his computer and walked back to the gym, passing by several others who had returned back to the dorms during their time off. The disappointed faces around him were most likely those that had lost, but the results for the first round were only being posted just around now. Even if you had lost, you would probably still be interested in seeing how your peers fared in combat. Some were also probably interested in the free food, much like he was.

Walking into the gym, he checked the bracket briefly. It looked like the majority of his predictions had come true, but some were bound to have difficult battles ahead of them in the next round.

Ayanokoji walked over to the table where they were passing out lunches. He grabbed whichever one was closest to him and returned outside to eat, noticing that the sun had come back out. It was partially cloudy that day, but overall warm for January. Hopefully no annoyances would come to bother his meal…

“Seems like you weren’t kidding.” He looked up and saw Haruka standing there along with Yukimura and Akito, who was still looking slightly defeated. “You know, Sakura mentioned several times that she thought you might have been the mastermind, but I always just thought it was because of how she felt about you. Guess she ended up being right, huh?”

“If you came here just to bother me, I don’t appreciate it.”

Akito sighed, “I suppose I should congratulate you on winning the match. I genuinely did not expect that kind of strength from you. I still kind of get the feeling that that was barely any of your ability just from how wide the gap between us seemed.”

Keisei stepped forward. “I simply cannot accept that our entire relationship was built upon lies. First the thing with your score in math, and now all of this? Just what haven’t you lied about?”

Ayanokoji thought for a moment. He had previously valued his friendship with them, but now they were simply being troublesome. “I didn’t lie about considering you my friends. To be honest, you were all my first real friends.”

Haruka scoffed, “Figures. And you threw that away in an instant. No wonder no one ever wanted to be your friend.”

“Have you ever considered that I grew up in a place where the concept of friendship was a foreign concept to me?” By giving her a scenario that seemed too absurd to be true, it would help to ease her anger if she kept it in the back of her mind while talking to him from now on.

“Wh- Huh? There’s no way. You’re just an awful person, that’s all there is.” Haruka was definitely the most cruel of them all, with Akito probably being the one who held the least malice.

Ayanokoji shrugged. He didn’t care that much about trying to sway her to his side. “If you’re done, please leave me alone.” He took another bite of food and directed his attention back to the scenery around him.

“Unbelievable,” Haruka muttered as she walked away with the others.

Chapter Text

It probably wasn’t best to eat before a fight, but he allowed himself enough time to digest before his next match. He still had around 15 minutes to go, but it would probably be better to change into his clothes sooner rather than later.

When he exited the locker rooms and turned towards the bleachers, he came face to face with his next opponent.

“Seems I got lucky that I got to fight you so early.” Kiryuuin’s white hair was tied up in a bun having ditched her usual headband, most likely for better mobility in combat.

“Lucky? Do you really want to be out of this competition that badly?” he questioned. At this point, Ayanokoji had come to know the way that Kiryuuin acted.

She laughed, “I really only stayed in this competition to fight you and Nagumo, but I gave up on that when we were placed on opposite sides of the bracket. It sucks too, I probably would have beat his pretentious ass.”

“I suppose we’re both individual participants in this exam.”

She nodded, “I didn’t want to be paired with any of the other years or anyone in my class. Ideally if I did, it would have been you who I asked, but obviously that wasn’t feasible. The third individual participant is a first year student, right? That one first year, Amasawa, who follows you around.”

“You’ve noticed that?”

“I’m lurking in certain places.” She grinned mischievously.

Ayanokoji narrowed his eyes slightly, “Creepy. Anyways, I was surprised Koenji didn’t go solo in this exam. I believe he entered a small group with one of my classmates and a few other third years. Because of that he’s not participating in the martial ability competition, but he would probably sweep a lot of the competition if he did.”

“That guy is weird in a completely different way from you and I. But I suppose what you two happen to have in common is your unpredictability.”

Ayanokoji looked up at the clock within the gym, finding that it was 12:25. “Well, I suppose it’s time to get ready for this match.”

The gym was still relatively busy due to the influx of people who had arrived to eat lunch, so many had decided to watch the matches while they ate. As the floor was being cleared of people, Ayanokoji and Kiryuuin took their places on other ends of the mat. They were still a bit early, so they waited for the command to step onto the mat.

At exactly 12:30, Mashima ordered them to step onto the mat. He had previously witnessed the two of them fighting together, so they probably had a relatively good grasp of one another’s abilities. The room quieted as they tuned into the action.

“Let me know if you need another explanation of the rules.” Neither of them signaled that they required it. “Ready? Begin!”

This time, Ayanokoji took the first offensive and rushed Kiryuuin on the attack. They only had a distance of a few feet from each other at the start, so his increased reflexes gave him an overwhelming advantage. He jabbed towards her solar plexus without much force, but this gave her the chance to grab his arm. This is what he had planned for, suddenly moving his forearm up from her grasp and slamming it under her chin. He wasn’t going to use the amount of force he could have, he didn’t want any of his attacks to have lasting effects on his opponents. Well, that would most be the case for all except one opponent he would fight in the future who would walk the line between what was acceptable and not. She was reasonably knocked back from the force of it, but quickly recovered and charged at him with a kick aimed to the chest. He blocked it to the side, but once her foot landed on the ground she moved her other leg into a roundhouse kick. He narrowly dodged this, but rushed forward again with another punch to the face. She managed to block it and tried to return it in quick succession. Ayanokoji blocked both of her attacks and performed a front kick aimed just below her ribs. Kiryuuin was pushed onto the floor from the attack, struggling to regain her breath. She jumped up from her spot on the floor, with Ayanokoji going after her once again afterwards and grabbing her collar. He was relentless with his attacks, but since one arm was preoccupied with holding her she was given the chance to aim for his face while he was attacking. He easily dodged her attempts to fight back, but that didn’t mean that she wouldn’t continue to struggle anyways. She grabbed his fist, but he maneuvered his hand to where he was now holding onto her wrist. He made a motion that bent her arm in an unnatural way, but only enough to strain it and not enough to break it. He still hadn’t even broken into a slight sweat, these were all simple actions in his mind.

She had noticed early on into the battle that he was holding back extensively from what she had witnessed in the past. It wasn’t as if she was a weak opponent, but compared to him there was a very wide gap between them.

As he held her arm from behind, she tried to use her elbow to jab him. This instead resulted in her other arm being caught by him as well. After a few seconds of struggling and trying to use any body part she had free to hit him, Kiryuuin eventually gave in. She could tell that the ten seconds were up.

A whistle blew, and with that his grip on her arms was released. She faced him with a smirk. “I wonder if I’ll ever get to see you replicate the same kind of strength you had on the island.”

“Well, if you can find another corrupt Acting Director who is extensively trained in combat before the year is over, then let me know.” His voice and face stayed the same, but Kiryuuin appreciated his attempt at a joke. He held his hand out. She grasped it firmly and continued to smile back at him with her usual teasing expression.

They walked off of the mat together and put their shoes back on. Ayanokoji caught a glimpse of Horikita sitting in the bleachers and felt a piercing stare directed back at him.

“Your little class leader is glaring at you.”

“I’m surprised you managed to notice considering that the rest of the people in my class are also probably glaring at me too.”

She laughed at his statement, “Seems like you did something unexpected. That’s what I think at least.” 

He hummed softly, “I wonder.”

They walked out of the gym together, neither of them having much to do by sticking around the area. “I should probably leave you for now. My presence will only make you stand out even more.” Kiryuuin waved goodbye and began on her way to the third year dorms. Ayanokoji considered it would also be for the best considering that being seen talking with women all the time wasn’t a very good look right after breaking up with Kei. Of course, he didn’t intend to date anyone ever again, but rumors spread easily. If he was to predict when they would start, he would give it maybe a month at most until everyone in their class starts pairing him with random people he’s merely friends with.

—

The martial ability tournament really was turning out to be the longest of all the events. It was already 2:30 PM and only now was it finally time for the third round. From now on, the process would most likely speed up significantly, and the matches would become filled with those who had higher ability in combat. There would always be some who had lower ability than the others and only survived due to luck, but he could now say with confidence that the majority of battles would be relatively even pairings. This was pushing aside the issue of himself, Hosen, and Amasawa, who were all in a league of their own in separate ways.

Checking the bracket as he walked in the gym, Ayanokoji was surprised that Horikita had managed to battle her way to the third round. Though, checking her competitors it made sense. However, her next battle would be against someone who had defeated her in less than a few seconds a while back. Hosen. Ayanokoji was still confident he would win even if face to face with Hosen. He possessed actual martial arts training, and although raw strength could sometimes outclass technique, his own strength was most likely comparable despite his physique not showing it. Street fighting wouldn’t do you much good when your opponent possesses both the strength and skill to take you down.

For his current match, it was determined to be against Kitou. Many of the students in Class A practiced martial arts, so to be at the top of what would arguably be the most martially skilled class was certainly a feat. It was most likely because of this fact that Sakayanagi kept him close in dangerous scenarios. She was someone who couldn’t defend herself, so it would be detrimental if she didn’t go out of her way to bring protection in the case of meeting someone like Ryuuen. Although Kiyotaka didn’t have much of an idea of the true skill that Kitou possessed, he was sure that he would win no matter what. The most insight he had into the man’s technique was the pillow fight back during the school trip, but that didn’t count for much considering it was a pillow. His poor pillow’s sacrifice… rest in peace.

He caught sight of Sakayanagi’s white hair in the bleachers, surrounded by her two henchmen as always. While catching the eye of Sakayanagi, Kamuro beside her was glaring at Ayanokoji as if he was garbage, and Hashimoto was unrelenting with a mischievous grin. He rolled his eyes and ignored their attempted provocations, but this match most likely had a relatively high value for Class A which warranted some concerns. Out of Sakayanagi’s group, Kitou was undoubtedly the most talented martial artist despite the addition of some third and first years within their composition. Despite this, she remained wholly unfazed by what she knew was going to take place before her. Perhaps it emerged from a state of curiosity as was likely the case, but it was almost as if she had sensed the change within himself. She did not pose his ability to take first place and surpass Class A as a threat. It was like she knew that he would condemn his class to a fate of sinking to the bottom once again.

Ayanokoji took his place somewhere in the area around the mat, waiting for the confirmation of his own match’s start. Kitou soon walked in front of him while the organizers were taking their five minute break in between matches' end.

“I witnessed your first two battles so far. I can tell that you possess a level of skill that’s unexpected for someone I used to regard as someone unimportant in the background.” Ouch. That was a slightly harsh way to describe his presence, but it wasn’t technically incorrect. They had only bonded slightly due to their time together in Hokkaido. They couldn’t be considered friends, but it wouldn’t be a stretch to call them acquaintances. Even during that trip, Ayanokoji had retained a relatively faint presence, only stepping in when things were bound to ruin his own enjoyment of the vacation.

He shrugged, “I trained a bit in junior high, but it’s nothing special.”

Kitou narrowed his eyes, but soon after shook off his comment. “I can tell that Sakayanagi-san holds you in quite high regard. When I told her I was going to win specifically in regards to this match, she responded with ‘Try your best.’ Something about the way she said it makes me think there’s more behind it than what was on the surface. That is why I’m looking forward to our match.”

“She regards me highly? I don’t know what I could have done to earn that, and I’m not sure whether I should be thankful or not.”

Kitou seemed to have believed his lie. It was still unknown to everyone that Sakayanagi and Ayanokoji had any sort of connection, other than maybe the few who had associations to the White Room in one way or another.

They waited awkwardly, not being close enough to talk about anything but also having to stay in the same area. Eventually, Mashima walked back in from his break and told them to get ready for the match. By this time, the process was already well known by both of them.

They arrived on the mat once again, Ayanokoji not bothering to get into his fighting stance until required. Kitou was already prepared and at the ready, presumably wary about his opponent as a person of unknown strength.

Mashima gave the same starting words as before, with the match kicking off with the blow of a whistle.

Both of them kept their distance at first, but stayed light on their feet in order to dodge any possible oncoming attacks. Kitou went in for the first attack after finding an opening that Ayanokoji had purposefully created in order to lure him into his own attack. Kitou grabbed onto his left bicep using his right arm and intended to follow up on this by throwing him to the ground, but Ayanokoji struck first. When his arm was grabbed he responded similarly by grabbing hold of the same part of Kitou’s arm before wrapping his other arm around his back in quick succession and throwing him to the ground. Kitou made an attempt to stop his footing from being lost, but the strength of the throw was too aggressive so he braced for impact and got up quickly after the fall. Ayanokoji didn’t have the opportunity to lock Kitou into place due to his quick recovery and the technique he had used to make him fall.

As they stood across from each other once again, Kitou’s breathing started to pick up the pace and Ayanokoji remained completely expressionless and calm. His strength and technique was nowhere near close to what Ayanokoji could handle, although worthy of praise nonetheless.

In order to break the stalemate, Ayanokoji feigned a roundhouse kick which led to Kitou closing the distance in order to get into a better position, but was instead kicked in the side with an enormous amount of force. After getting up another time with a bruised body, Kitou began to recognize that he was not going to win this battle. The eyes of his opponent were so lifeless that it was hard to even imagine a person with a face so still and composed being a living and breathing human. Ayanokoji was far scarier than he had recognized in the past. Was he always lurking like this? What flaw put him into Class D in the first place?

Ayanokoji seemed to notice that the gears were turning within Kitou’s head, so it was decided he would end the match as quickly as possible. He approached Kitou and jabbed towards him, the attack being blocked with Kitou returning his own. The punch was swiftly dodged before he grabbed the sleeve and collar of his attacker and forced him onto the ground once again. To end the match, he grabbed his opponent’s arm and bent it up towards the ceiling with his wrist locked firmly in place. Ayanokoji placed another foot on his back to ensure that he would have no means of escape. Kitou patted on the ground lightly with his free hand, signaling his yield.

The whistle blew, and Ayanokoji let go. He held out his hand in order to help Kitou up from the mat. He graciously accepted the help, recognizing that he had lost to a truly skilled opponent.

Kitou held out his hand after being helped up in order to shake to an end of the match. He grasped the hand and firmly shook it, nodding slightly. Kitou’s breathing was very labored while Ayanokoji maintained the same pace and pulse as he had at the start of the match.

“You’re very skilled. I don’t think I stood a chance from the beginning, did I?”

“Perhaps not. What do you practice anyway?”

“A bit of everything I suppose. And you?”

“Same. I don’t think I could even count what I’ve practiced on my hands.” He could remember the names and techniques for every single one, but some were obviously more useful than others. He simply mixed them all in a way that worked with specific opponents of all varieties.

“It was an honor to fight against you, I see why Sakayanagi sensed your strength.” He nodded in a motion of departure and turned around to put his shoes back on.

Sakayanagi’s recognition would soon become more public with his new actions being the driving factor of her change in the near future. More and more people were beginning to get a sense of his true strength, which was mostly worrying even though it was something he had planned extensively for. He was no stranger to being watched, but the eyes of hundreds of people on him constantly would be slightly unbearable to deal with. However, he didn’t believe that normal people would be able to comprehend what he held within. Even those who had known some of his secrets without the full story would not be able to grasp what he is .

Chapter Text

Ayanokoji lingered around the gym for a while while waiting for the remaining matches to conclude. He witnessed Horikita’s battle with Hosen which was over in a matter of seconds, as was to be expected considering what a powerhouse he was. She didn’t stand a chance from the beginning and everyone recognized that including Horikita herself. He had noticed that for the match that Hosen was fighting, almost every single member of Class 1-C had entered back into the gym to watch. Whether this was some sort of order or just curiosity was unknown.

With the matches concluding and the break period beginning, he was approached by someone he judged he would meet with soon.

Nanase had also entered in the competition, but only made it to the second round before being eliminated by Amasawa. It was simply unfortunate luck, but she was incredibly skilled on her own. She approached where he was sitting in a relatively isolated part of the bleachers, eating a protein bar before his next match.

“Seems you’re going to have to fight Hosen.” He nodded. “I believe that you have the skill to beat him in combat. I’ve seen enough of him at this point to be able to make that call, but you’re still of unknown strength for me.”

“You saw me fight today and on the island though. I’d say compared to most here you have a much better sense of my abilities than others.”

She sighed, “I’m supposed to be rooting for Hosen, especially since he forced us all to come to every one of his battles and also because it would be beneficial for our class, but I’m definitely supporting your victory in my mind.”

“So you were forced to be here. I kind of assumed since the people in your class look like they would rather be anywhere else.”

“I think he wanted to threaten us with his power. He expects to win every battle, even against you and Amasawa who are unknown factors to him. Though on the island, Amasawa was just messing around the entire time.”

“Pride will be his downfall.” He noticed her expression contort to one of concern. “Save your worries, Hosen doesn’t have technical training. He can probably land a few hits just from his size, but it’s not going to hurt me much.”

“I believe in you, I wouldn’t doubt you for one moment.” She gazed back into his eyes with confidence. An unwavering loyalty, but that still didn’t address the issue of what her actual motives underneath the surface were. She wasn’t just there to avenge a dead friend. Nevertheless, she departed without any visible suspicion from Ayanokoji.

Ayanokoji sighed as he walked away and threw away the wrapper of the protein bar on his way down from the bleachers. He glanced at Horikita out of the corner of his eye who had her own attention focused on him. She had been there for every single one of his battles so far, trying to judge his strength and power in relation to the class and others. Although she acknowledged his strength, she personally could not believe that he was capable of actually defeating Hosen who had thrown Nanase, Sudo, and herself to the side all in a matter of seconds. No matter how skilled you were, if you didn’t have the strength to compete with someone of his caliber, you would not stand a chance. However, now that the truth about Ryuuen’s momentary departure from being a dictator had been revealed, she was starting to doubt things once again. Even if that had happened at the beginning of winter break, Ryuuen hadn’t healed from his injuries before coming back to school, and Ayanokoji hadn’t shown any signs of bearing any injuries. Then again, there was also the case with Amasawa who was heavily bruised and still fighting with expert precision on the island from what she had observed with Ibuki. And the event with Yagami and Amasawa…she could barely even comprehend what happened there. One thing was for sure, she had no clue what the extent of his power was or where it came from. Her only hope to understand him now was to observe as much as she could.

Apparently there were many others who were also interested in this particular match, with people who weren’t even in the same class as either of them coming to watch. It may have also been because the finals would be coming up within the hour and the last matches would probably be the most exciting so far. Somehow, all of the class leaders of the second year had shown up to watch. Sakayanagi for amusement, Ryuuen to watch Hosen be defeated, and Ichinose both out of worry and to get a sense of the power of possible opponents in the future. For each of them, people close to them had also shown up whether due to curiosity or direct orders to do so.

Ayanokoji walked down to the floor level again, but he expected Hosen to show up the latest he could get away with. He was correct, and only one minute before the start of the match, he appeared.

He let out a hearty laugh at seeing his opponent, “I’ve been waiting to fight you for a while now! You better not be a disappointment, ya hear me?”

He ignored his remarks and took off his shoes before stepping onto the mat.

“I forgot you’re fucking silent, aren’t ya?” Cheap provocations weren’t doing anything to worry Ayanokoji.

Mashima also had his own thoughts about this match. He had heard several things about Hosen; he was certainly a fearsome opponent. If faced against himself, he would probably be defeated as well. Something particular about this matchup that he remembered was something that was mentioned to him one time by Chabashira. They were discussing Ayanokoji together after Acting Director Tsukishiro had finally been ousted from his position of leadership, when she brought up a moment in the past from the beginning of the year. Apparently she was called to the back of the first year dormitory by Ayanokoji one night and had to pull a knife out of his hand. It was clear that he didn’t stab it there himself and it wasn’t used by either Sudo or Horikita who had been at the scene of the crime. She mentioned offhandedly that she thought it was probably someone from Class 1-D, particularly Hosen, because after the incident they all began pairing up with her class and Hosen in particular became a pair with Ayanokoji. After that last discussion, Mashima had mostly strayed away from doing any more to learn about Ayanokoji. Tsukishiro was gone, and there was no need for anything else. Still, that didn’t stop his curiosity from brewing within his mind as he watched the two step onto the mat.

Hosen didn’t get into any sort of fighting stance and stood in a menacing way, grinning evilly back at Ayanokoji. On the other hand, this was a match that Ayanokoji would have to take relatively seriously. It wasn’t anything different from what he had already experienced—he had beat several professional fighters in the past—but if he made a wrong move or let Hosen get a hit on him that was unplanned it would certainly affect his performance.

“I’m going to remind you of the rules–”

“Yeah, yeah I get it already! No excess violence.” It seemed that Hosen had already been warned multiple times and was getting sick of the repetitive words. He hadn’t gotten too violent as to be expelled yet, but he was definitely hurting his opponents in a way that would leave them hurting for at least a week or two.

Mashima glared back at Hosen due to his disrespect, but continued past the segment warning him again. “You have five minutes. Ready?” As the two stepped forward and faced each other Ayanokoji’s gaze was unrelenting despite the threatening aura that was radiating from the man that stood before him. Although he probably didn’t have such a presence within Hosen’s mind, he could very well be extremely threatening when needed for psychological warfare and things of the sort. For now, presenting himself as a weaker opponent would work to his advantage.

“Begin!”

Hosen rushed forward on the attack and tried to grab Ayanokoji to slam him into the ground. He narrowly dodged and got two light punches off onto his opponent.

“The fuck was that supposed to be? A pillow?” There wasn’t any rule that explicitly banned trash talk from occurring, but the assumption was that you would want to save your stamina for fighting rather than speaking. It seemed that Hosen hadn’t even considered being out of breath as a possibility. Unfortunately for him, wasting his breath on something so useless would most certainly be to his disadvantage in a situation such as the one he was in now.

Hosen once again approached and took two swings at Ayanokoji, both of which he blocked and diverted. Now that he had close proximity, Hosen essentially headbutted Ayanokoji’s stomach and grabbed around his waist in order to bring him to the ground. It hurt, but the pain left Ayanokoji completely unphased. He slammed his knee into Hosen’s face, who released his grip from the force his face was hit at, simultaneously judging that Ayanokoji wouldn’t be dragged down so easily. Before he had time to fully back away, Ayanokoji stepped forward and delivered a fast and powerful blow from his fist to Hosen’s solar plexus, knocking him back. He continued to stand his ground, nose now bleeding, and stayed ready for any sudden attacks from his opponent.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have underestimated you so much. Obviously I didn’t notice at the time, but you got a lot of muscle mass dontcha.”
“It’s just genetics.”

Hosen grinned and wiped away the blood that was dripping from his nose. “Like hell it is.” He charged towards Ayanokoji and continued to punch back at him. Ayanokoji dodged everything, waiting for a sufficient opening that would negate most risks. With a punch that had a lot of power behind it, Hosen leaned forward slightly into the empty area where Ayanokoji had once been. He had been forced into an unfortunate situation, and he only realized once a strong force hit the side of his stomach. This was the result of a kick from Ayanokoji. Usually in situations with opponents who weren’t martially trained he strayed away from using kicks other than short ones that couldn’t be susceptible to being caught, but he was given the opening so he took it to perform a much stronger kick.

The officials who were observing the fight were wondering whether this would be considered excess violence, but it wasn’t really a bloody fight or anything that would leave lasting injuries. Their standard for “excess violence” was things more like broken bones and completely bloodied faces.

Hosen fell to the side, actually being knocked down for the first time in the tournament. He quickly brought himself back up after coughing up a small bit of blood, but started to get angry at the state of the match. He was being beaten when he was supposed to win, to win against the fucker who had let himself get stabbed in the hand just for the benefit of himself and his own class. He thought of Ayanokoji as someone who was even more insane than he was, because even though he had been stabbed he showed no visible signs of pain on his face and barely bat an eye when the knife itself stabbed into his flesh. It was such an anomaly of a day in his mind, someone who didn’t flinch at his presence and stood with an emptiness that had the potential to scare even people like himself.

He laughed slightly at the absurd situation before him and the man who stood unbothered in front of him. As Ayanokoji approached him and tried to get another hit off, Hosen did something completely unexpected. He purposefully let himself run into the fist and lunged forward to force Ayanokoji to the ground. With a lunge like that, there was no way to prevent himself from being taken down to the ground. Even despite Hosen now sitting above him with his fist at the ready, Ayanokoji remained unbothered by the situation. Hosen began to punch him, with Ayanokoji blocking. Before a few seconds could pass, Ayanokoji sat up and grabbed one of Hosen’s arms that was at the ready and twisted it and locked his legs around Hosen. He used his strength to roll over to where he was now above Hosen, still with his arm locked. To prevent him from moving up, Ayanokoji wrapped his hand around Hosen’s throat to force him to stay onto the ground. Hosen tried to grab him down and fight back, but with only one arm and his airflow reduced it was excruciatingly difficult. Even when using all his strength to sit up, Ayanokoji’s hand did not budge from its place at his neck.

The audience watched in complete awe as the whistle was blown. Ayanokoji got off of Hosen while the crowd remained speechless at his victory. It was an incredible feat to beat someone of his caliber, and so everyone couldn’t help but display their shock that this nobody took down a behemoth like Hosen. It didn’t even look like he was struggling with the fight either at any point during it, but calmly analyzing each move of his opponent and countering it with his own strength.

As soon as he stepped off of Hosen, he got up and tried to take another swing which was swiftly and easily dodged.

“Hosen! Stand down.” Mashima yelled. He was clearly infuriated from the results of the fight, but it was hard for him to continue denying to himself that he was outclassed by some hanger on of the second year Class B’s leader.

Amasawa was standing on the sideline smiling and began clapping and cheering despite the rest of the room being silent. It was a slightly absurd scenario, and everyone besides those who had insight recognized this. Both of the two strongest opponents in the competition with completely opposite personalities somehow having a connection between them.

Ayanokoji was going to try to ignore her for now, but while he was putting his shoes back on she approached him.

“I’m so excited to fight against you in the finals!” The thought hadn’t crossed her mind that she would lose against her opponent, which happened to be Ryuuen. She had probably been waiting for an opportunity to spar with him for quite some time, even in light of that one time she almost broke Kushida’s arm and he won in a few seconds.

“You’re not scared of losing?” he asked her, already sensing the truth.

“Not at all! If you wanted me to forfeit the finals I would.” Ayanokoji had never once asked for her loyalty, and actually encouraged her freedom instead of the worship of himself. Her actions and attitude made him feel slightly uncomfortable despite having known for quite some time that this was the state of those in the other generations of the White Room.

He sighed, “Don’t forfeit. I’d like to spar against you at least once. If you want to choose a specific martial art for the match, I’m fine with that as well.” She was internally glad that she would actually get to spar with him, even if she knew she would lose just as she had hundreds of times against Yagami.

Amasawa made a small humming noise while she thought, “Nope! I want to spar against you with everything we’ve learned.”

Ayanokoji nodded, “Then I’ll fight you completely seriously with all I’ve got.” He could feel her excitement growing at his declaration.

Chapter Text

Ayanokoji still had to stick around for the final match, but returning to the bleachers was slightly awkward with the gazes of everyone in the building being focused solely on himself. Once Amasawa’s match with Ryuuen started up, some eyes diverted to the fight on the gym’s floor. It didn’t last long, the match concluded with Amasawa quickly taking him out. Ryuuen wasn’t a strong opponent by Ayanokoji’s standards, but what he did have was persistence. That’s the only reason why he had dragged out the fight with him for so long, but in a short battle like this he wouldn’t stand a chance against any of the White Room students.

Several students of Class B had strong opinions on the final match. Kushida already knew that Ayanokoji would win against Amasawa from the beginning from what happened during the culture festival, but she was slightly excited to see her get beat by someone. Out of everyone at the school, Amasawa had quickly become Kushida’s least favorite. Karuizawa had still sat and watched the match despite the pain it caused her. It was two of her least favorite people in the school, though she still couldn’t bring herself to hate Ayanokoji yet. She really only wanted to watch if not to witness his strength one more time. He still promised to protect her, but she doubted whether he would actually keep his word.

There was once again a break in between the semifinals and the finals, mostly in order to give people time to flood into the gym and watch. Not everyone came back, but a decent chunk of people returned just to see the end play out.

Ayanokoji walked down to the gym floor again, Amasawa still waiting at the bottom. She was mostly unscathed from the fight with Ryuuen, with Ayanokoji probably having sustained more damage from Hosen than she had with him.

“I wish I was in the same generation as you, even if I would have just dropped out. At least I would have gotten to be around you more!” She smiled. These weren’t her true feelings on the matter since she did value the friendship of Yagami and the others.

“I think you would’ve lasted for longer than 75% of the students. But yeah, you’d drop out.” She didn’t mind this harsh truth one bit, she just knew it to be so.

She suddenly looked over at Ayanokoji very intensely. “Remember, don’t hold back.”

He nodded back in response, it was never his intention to hold himself back. “I wouldn’t miss an opportunity like this.”

They waited in silence, with his stoic expression juxtaposing her bright and cheerful one. The only thing that both of them had in common was the darkness within their eyes, although the depth of his eyes was the only thing that the other White Room students couldn’t replicate.

The time had arrived, and excitement within the crowd was clear. Some within Class 1-A began cheering for the challenger on their own side, but while it seemed that Class 2-B should be cheering, they were completely silent. The tension within the numbers of their class who had returned only for the final match made the entire gym uncomfortable. From an outsider’s point of view, it would just seem as if they had a lot riding on the competition and they weren’t sure if Ayanokoji would win. But it’s precisely because they didn’t know whether he was going to win that made them anxious for the match’s start. They were afraid of what the result would be, and deep down they hoped he would lose even if it would mean that they would get less class points.

Ayanokoji and Amasawa stepped onto the mat before Mashima had even managed to get the words out, but both could tell just from his body language that they were going to begin soon. They stood a few feet apart from each other, each preparing themselves in a stance and keeping their arms in front of themselves in order to block the possibilities of any incoming attacks. Neither could predict the other’s movements before the match could start, with the two being incredibly unpredictable. However, Ayanokoji was a step above Amasawa in the fact that he knew the White Room better than anyone else. He knew exactly what they were taught throughout the years, and he knew what skills she possessed.

Mashima’s first words faded into the background and so did the cheers of the audience. The battle had already started within the intense gaze each had focused on the other. Despite the distractions around him, it was almost like Ayanokoji could hear the pulse of Amasawa from where he stood, he wondered if the feeling was mutual. His breath was steady, and so was hers.

“Begin!”

Time stopped for a moment despite both taking off at the first syllable of the word. A shared millisecond of excitement. When that moment of anticipation had concluded, the surroundings of each faded back into reality.

Amasawa kicked towards the space where Ayanokoji had previously been, narrowly moving out of the way in order to dodge her attack. After the first miss she sprung back up with a low attack that was once again dodged. Ayanokoji found an opening which she was not able to cover up in time for his superior reflexes to reach. She was hit in the side, but even despite the power of the blow she seemed unphased by the pain. Pain was just that. Pain. It didn’t matter how much they had to endure, they would be forced to get back up. This was the experience they shared, another instance of what separated them from other students. Others may feel the pain, but to those who had enough already it didn’t mean anything to them. It was just a word.

Amasawa used her smaller size to her advantage, but this didn’t matter in the case of Ayanokoji. She dashed to the side and tried to hit him from the back with a quick roundhouse kick that he once again managed to narrowly dodge. He needed to stop with the close calls. He backed away from her for a moment in order to observe her movements, but both remained light on their feet. She prepared to rush forward on the attack, but he moved forward too. She managed to get a punch onto his stomach but even despite the force she used it was ignored by him. He grabbed the arm that she had used to punch him and used his positioning to throw her onto the ground. He planned to trap her onto the ground but she managed to regain her footing after rolling out of the throw. She tried to sweep his legs as a distraction before performing a series of consecutive attacks after he dodged, but he cleverly used a well placed kick to push her away from him.

Even those in the bleachers who had no knowledge of martial arts were stunned by the complexity of the battle compared to previous ones they had witnessed. It was especially apparent to those who practiced that this was an exceptionally skilled match, and they would lose against either of the two in any circumstance.

Amasawa rushed towards Ayanokoji, to which he responded by trying to grab her collar. He missed it narrowly. She grabbed his arm and held it behind his back while standing behind him herself. This was often a tricky hold to get out of since it could leave one with a broken arm if performed incorrectly. He grabbed her arm from behind himself and transferred her weight onto his back before throwing her forward and causing her to release her grip on his arm. She once again rolled out of it, but was beginning to show signs of being visibly tired. Her breath was becoming more unsteady, but she still managed to keep a consistent speed despite how hard she was fighting. Ayanokoji had to admit that he was also starting to sweat, but his heartbeat and breathing never quickened.

Ayanokoji ran forward on the attack and delivered a punch to her abdomen. She grabbed his arm but he overpowered her strength and grabbed her shoulders before slamming his knee into her stomach and consecutively hitting her in the face. She almost fell to the ground from the initial pain but stood tall as she backed away after a second. She was so genuinely happy that she was getting to fight him, even if she might lose. This was another way Amasawa planned to test whether he really was worthy of worship, and her answer was a resounding yes all around. She broke out into a smile despite her seemingly desperate situation, much to the confusion of the audience. But Ayanokoji knew exactly why she was doing this. Even with her unpredictability, he knew at that moment what her thoughts were. It didn’t bother him, he was simply glad that someone who had been through as much as she had was able to experience a feeling of overwhelming joy that was foreign to all who stepped foot within that place. However, it was time to end things.

She came forward with a kick that was aimed at his face, but he blocked this and hit the place in the side of her neck that made her fall unconscious instantaneously. He caught her in his arms as her eyes shut and she fell to the ground suddenly, but unsure of what to do with the now unconscious Amasawa, he just lightly set her down on the ground.

The gym once again went dead silent. The fact that he hadn’t sustained any major injuries and had been one of the only people in the competition to knock an opponent out cold was an overwhelming shock to all. Remaining a nameless figure that drifted around the school without much of a presence was no longer an option, as expected.

He checked Amasawa’s pulse just to make sure she was doing alright, but both that and her breathing were coming down from their elevated state. A medic in the area came over to check her as well and gently woke her up, but she seemed to be completely fine.

“I guess you beat me,” she said as she smiled back at Ayanokoji.

He smiled, but it didn’t feel as fake as normal even if it was only a small one, “You put up a good fight, we should have a rematch some time.”

He helped her to her feet and gave a thumbs up back to him, “Anytime! You need to practice somehow while you’re away, don’t you?”

One of the officials whispered something to Mashima who was also silent before he seemed to regain his composure. The reason why they had delayed the announcement of the winner was because if Amasawa had been genuinely injured then Ayanokoji would be expelled and disqualified, making her have won the match by default. “The winner of the martial ability tournament is Ayanokoji Kiyotaka from Class 2-B!”

Even though there were a lot who didn’t know him, they weren’t particularly disappointed that he had won since they had no connection to either. So they cheered for the winner while the class he belonged to had naught but a few people clapping for his display of ability.

Ayanokoji returned back to the locker room after talking to Amasawa for a few minutes more when everyone began to file out. The room was completely empty since he had been the last to change, and the darkness of the area aside from the half of the room that he had turned the lights on was eerie. Having nothing else to change back into, he put his school uniform back on and gathered his bag that was mostly empty since he didn’t have many belongings to begin with.

After gathering everything, he waited. Five minutes, then ten, and then thirty passed where he simply waited. The locker room was supposed to be closed, but you couldn’t lock someone inside from the outside since there was a lock that could be turned from the other side. He had turned off the lights in order to make it seem like he had already left.

He checked his phone in the dark. A text from Horikita that was wondering where he was. He didn’t open the chat to show that he had read it in order to avoid drawing her attention. After a while of waiting he witnessed the lights of the gym shut off. He could finally leave in peace. He grabbed his bag and left the locker room that was attached to the gym in near pitch darkness. He had made it about three steps out of the room after shutting the door when he saw the shadow of a figure cross his path and block it. He already knew who it was in the limited light, there was no need to turn on his phone’s flashlight.

“You didn’t answer my text.”

“So you really waited here for over an hour without even having confirmation that I hadn’t left?”

It was hard to see Horikita’s expressions in the darkness, there was nothing except moonlight shining through the windows of the gymnasium which only dimly illuminated their faces. “No, I had been watching for your exit the entire time. When they announced for everyone to leave and that they were going to lock up the gym I hid underneath the bleachers.”

He sighed, “All that just to talk to me. I bet there are other people knocking on my door right now while I’m not even there, you could have been one of them.”

“We both know you wouldn’t open the door even if you were there.” That part was true.

“Anyways, what do you want anyways? People might get suspicious if we’re here alone in the dark, so I’d like to make this as quick as possible.”

“Fine,” she sighed. The two moved outside to where there weren’t any people seeing as it had gotten dark early and there were no longer any activities taking place in the area. Not many would choose to stick around the gym for no reason. They stood face to face, but the darkness created harsh shadows and only a small amount of visible light, seeing as the sun had set quite some time ago. It only really occurred to him how long he had waited when he looked around at the empty campus. Luckily it wasn’t past curfew yet, but oddly enough the street lamps had not been turned on.

Even in the dim light he could make out the small change in Horikita’s expression that seemed to be a show of weakness. “You scare me.”

Ayanokoji almost had the urge to laugh at a statement like that. “Choosing to meet up with me in an isolated and dark area seems to be an oversight on your part then.” He knew that this was a serious discussion, but he said it in a joking tone anyways.

"I'm serious. Everything about you is a mystery to me, and the fact that you beat her…."

"You fought Amasawa on the island, of course you'd understand the wide difference in ability between you and I."

"But you defeated her easily, it’s like you never thought you would lose in the first place."

Ayanokoji stared back at Horikita in the dark, meeting her gaze that wished it were anywhere other than with him. But she needed to confront him even if it only meant decoding a small aspect of the things he hid.

"Maybe that's true. I suppose I can see why someone would find me scary." He had been called a monster so many times that he barely even cared what was said about him anymore. But for someone he may have considered to be a friend in the past, a twinge of disappointment hit him. He turned around and looked towards the almost full moon which was partially covered with clouds. The sea of stars was visible in the sky from the lack of light pollution. It was a truly beautiful sight, something he would keep in mind to remember during the times where he would look up and only see the brightest color imaginable. “I sometimes wonder if any person could ever find my true self likeable. It’s not that I particularly long for that feeling of companionship, it’s usually easier to do without it, but I’m simply curious about whether there is someone like that.”

Horikita was surprised to see him share a small moment of vulnerability with her. “What about Ichinose? She’s quite possibly the most genuine and caring person to ever enter this school, I’m sure she would accept you no matter what.”

“I feel that it would be even worse in her case. She trusts me, she thinks that I care about her and I have the capability to understand her with compassion and empathy. If she found out about ‘me,’ the real me that has done things she couldn’t even begin to imagine associating with myself, she may never recover.”

Horikita paused. She seemed to be collecting her thoughts, so he didn’t rush her or attempt to leave. “I don’t really know who you are, I can admit that. But I believe that there must be someone out there who can finally come to a state of understanding and accept you for who you are. I’m willing to be that person, but turning against the class is the wrong move if that’s your desire.”

Although her goodwill was appreciated, she should really be smarter than that after what he just told her. Looking back, she continued to try to save Kushida even when it seemed that she was a lost cause and would never end her traitorous ways. In a way, he hoped that she would find success within himself as she had managed to with Kushida, but he knew realistically that it wasn’t possible. It’s one thing to question if you have a heart, but it’s another thing entirely to be acutely aware that you are lacking one.

The moonlight ceased to reflect from his eyes. And yet, Horikita still held onto the idea that she could retrieve that light for him.

“I have never required friends. The desire to be understood, to be accepted, to relate to others, these are all things I have never felt. Didn’t you feel similarly in the past?” Horikita’s face tensed up at his question. “The difference between you and I is that I have been aware for all of my life that independence and isolation are two sides of the same coin. And for me, the coin always lands on tails.”

He turned his head and began to walk away towards the dormitories, with Horikita left in the possession of puzzle pieces that had been entrusted to her. She wasn’t sure what to make of it or how to put it together, but she was afraid of what the full picture would reveal. Perhaps the first step in understanding him was to stop fearing him. Maybe instead of fear for the truth, she should embrace the desire to learn more even if what the truth was would alter her perception of reality.

Chapter Text

And so tomorrow had become today with testing taking place bright and early in the morning. Each homeroom teacher was within their classrooms supervising the individual tests of just their class, but no one would dare cheat knowing the cameras were in the room watching vigilantly at all times.

It was a bit awkward when Ayanokoji walked in that morning and sat down at his seat nonchalantly despite being fully aware that the people around him were sending distressed glances. He was used to the feeling of being observed, but there were also very few people in the classroom which made it much easier to recognize the eyes on him. He would be within the school for five hours, but the tests realistically wouldn’t take him past twenty minutes each. He could solve everything instantly, but his hand can only write so fast. He didn’t have to panic either, so he could take his time without letting his hand cramp up like most would on a stressful test. After each of the tests they would be permitted to wander the halls or return to a room within the building where they would be able to relax or study before the next test, with one of each being located on each floor of the building. The rooftop was also accessible at this time, but no one would go up there on a cold day like this. Once your testing was done, you would be forced to leave. Each student had individual passes that were given to them at the door after their name was checked on a list that would give them entry to each test. There were also people supervising the hallways, so if you were going to make a commotion there would be severe consequences. Expulsion would most likely be on the table.

Ayanokoji spaced out until the test began, but sadly he no longer had his window spot to stare out into the clouds. It wasn’t a particularly interesting day, actually quite boring and gray, but it would have given him something to do other than fiddling around with his pencil.

The first test began, history. Arguably his worst subject, so he was glad to get it out of the way first. Even though it was a subject he wasn’t great at, he had been paying attention in class giving him the ability to perfectly answer each question along with other background information he already knew. He had a lot of knowledge that related to each of these individual events in one way or another, but all of history was far too much unnecessary memorization for the White Room. Even so, he was confident that he would get full marks for this test after reading the questions.

He took his time through the test, but with the announcement that thirty minutes remained he heard the sounds of pencil scratching become louder. At times he would hear someone erasing what seemed to be an entire question. This was not an easy test, he could tell that much. Most history tests that they had taken so far were multiple choice, but this one was different in the case that they had to construct responses to questions that didn’t have a simple answer with only around half of the exam being multiple choice. Though, written exams that went with special exams were always more difficult than a normal midterm or final. As well as the increased difficulty, there was also once again the addition of some questions that were not included in the curriculum and had significantly more difficult and complex answers than the rest. They probably set the maximum for even an honors student around 90 points again.

Eventually he set down his pencil and walked to the front to hand in his test to Chabashira-sensei before making his way out of the room and into the halls. Judging by how empty he observed it to be, he was one of the first to finish the exam. He didn’t really know what to do, so he headed over to the study room or whatever that new place was. There were some bean bags in it and a couch along with a few actual desks and portable ones too. He wondered if this would soon be opened to the classes normally, it seemed that this is what they were preparing for and opening it now was merely a test run.

After sitting on his phone for a while, another person entered. It was Yukimura. He hesitated slightly at noticing that Ayanokoji was the only one within the room, but walked in anyways and sat down at one of the desks presumably to do some last minute studying. Ayanokoji didn’t look up, there was no need to. With the room still being empty, Yukimura began to speak while placing his study materials on the desk.

“I apologize for my disturbance yesterday,” he sighed. He was probably feeling slightly guilty after Ayanokoji had made a comment about never having friends in the past before the Ayanokoji group. He was actually hoping that Yukimura would use his anger to his advantage in trying to defeat him since it would give him some form of motivation. Even if it wasn’t today, there would come a day where Yukimura would throw away those past ties and move past what happened to become a stronger opponent.

“Don’t worry about it, I don’t really mind much.”

“I…” his voice shook as if he had more he wanted to say. “If the rest of your abilities are like your score on the math test, then I’ll assume you intend to score full points on each test.” His inflection made it seem as if Yukimura was having some sort of internal conflict with himself.

“That’s the plan. Maybe there will be something I can’t even answer on one of the tests though, who knows.” He doubted that would be the case, after history he couldn’t consider any subjects to be weak since they were much methodical. There was not anything he would not be able to answer.

“Then I suppose I’ll have to believe our friendship in the past as a lie,” Yukimura’s voice showed hints of remorse, but was overall confident in what he was saying as if one side had finally accepted its defeat. He was ready to move on.

Ayanokoji shrugged, he didn’t particularly care. It wasn’t like he hadn't genuinely seen them as friends, but he wouldn’t feel lingering regrets or much of an emotional connection to them. He could leave. “If that’s what you think, then go ahead. I’m not going to try to reassure you forever that I did see you and the others as friends, I am perfectly fine with cutting past ties.”

Yukimura’s face slightly scrunched up, but he couldn’t get another word out before another person entered the room. It didn’t matter who it was, the discussion was over. That would most likely be the last private conversation they would ever have.

The day continued as any testing day would through Japanese, physics, and English until the final test of the day started. It was mathematics, a somewhat fitting finale for testing. Ayanokoji had no favorite subjects, but if he was to say that he was the best at anything it would most definitely be math. Formulas, identities, and other tools were easily memorized and applied when you knew how to manipulate an equation accordingly. For those who struggled at math, this year would have been exceptionally difficult with the introduction of calculus to the mix, but it was all old news to Ayanokoji. He noticed that it was actually a little bit enjoyable to solve the problems when he did so out of his own free will instead of an order to do so.

There were more people in the class for this test than the others, with the students consisting of all the most academically advanced students within Class B. Horikita, Koenji, Matsushita, and more. But tension still remained with the presence seated at the back of the classroom that silently waited for the order to begin. Those who were in the class now had already taken at least one of the tests by now and were beginning to see the pattern they recognized from the test at the beginning of the school year with the extremely difficult problems. This test would be the one to prove the gap in between the rest of the class and himself even further.

Chabashira-sensei gave the order to begin with a slight crack in her voice. She seemed to be feeling the pressure as well.

Ayanokoji picked up his pencil, and just as fast as the first number was written on the page did he suddenly write the last. There was no need to revise his answers, he knew he was correct. No matter if it was the difficult questions, the easy ones, the ones that were tricky and often messed people up for slightly stupid reasons, they would all be correct. This was a predetermined eventuality.

He stood up around twenty minutes into the exam, walked to the front of the class, handed his test to Chabashira-sensei, and walked out of the school. He did not leave with regrets or thoughts of what he could have improved. He had already calculated what score he would get before he had even taken the test.

And with the shock of seeing him walk down the aisle in between the desks and the wall of the room, everyone hoped he messed up somewhere. They hoped he would not be as scary as he was, but all of them acknowledged the single irrefutable truth.

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka’s tests were all perfect scores.

—

After returning back to his dormitory, Ayanokoji prepared for his performance that night. Those who were performing were told to wear something nice, but if they didn’t have anything then they could simply wear their school uniform. He was one of these people, having nothing other than casual clothes to wear outside. It would be a waste to spend points on something he would wear once and never use again.

Having decided he was going to ditch the blazer, he silently buttoned up the white shirt and loosely put on his tie. If he presented himself to be as unremarkable as possible in the field of performance arts, which may be doubted due to his randomly extraordinary abilities he had shown only a day prior, it would further the subversion of their expectations. After all, it was unlikely that they would think of this previously nameless figure as being someone who had such a broad range of abilities. They would think that he had already given up on winning both the miscellaneous talent and performance arts events in order to fully display his abilities as he had promised without the interruption of other factors within his group. That was where his class was mistaken. Horikita was most definitely the only one among them who was aware, but she couldn’t find the courage to tell them and prevent the shock of it all from hitting them as it had for her.

Ayanokoji walked towards the auditorium. Students weren’t required to attend, but it seemed that many were going whether out of boredom or curiosity. There were also some who were genuinely interested in watching the performances, as well as those who simply wanted to see how the special exam played out.

Weirdly, Ayanokoji had been assigned the last slot despite signing up first. Perhaps it was assumed that many of those who signed up last minute weren’t actually skilled in their field of practice, so it seemed that talents were equally distributed around the different times of the afternoon and evening. It would make more sense to place those in a club associated with performance arts in the first and last slots along with some in the middle, but as for why he was chosen to be dead last he hadn’t a clue. Maybe it was just a coincidence, maybe it was something else, even so it didn’t matter that much.

From the time frames listed, the performance seemed like it would go on until around 8 PM, mostly because this seemed to be the event with the least participants. Performing arts were not for everyone, most people would rather do one of the other miscellaneous talents than subject themselves to possible stage fright. There were also a few group performances of what seemed to be actors, but the requirement was most likely that you needed to be in the same group.

Since his turn wasn’t until much later, he could sit down in the auditorium and watch for a while. It was still kind of empty in the room, so Ayanokoji took a seat in an area that had only a few people dispersed around. After a while of more people entering the room, the lights finally dimmed.

Somewhere into the first act, he saw white hair out of the corner of his eye. At this point the auditorium was decently crowded with people, but it was still oddly specific that Sakayanagi decided to sit next to him. She didn’t speak a word to him, and he didn’t look back in her direction as if it was just some random student and not the leader of Class A. Hashimoto and Kamuro were also sitting next to Sakayanagi and looked over but seemingly turned away to whisper to each other about the situation they now found themselves in. They should have at least been discreet about it, but overall he would prefer if they stayed quiet while he was trying to watch the performances.

For the duration of the night, he spaced out and became lost in thought while also observing the talents of others. Overall it wasn’t particularly spectacular, people were good, others were just average. Every once in a while there would be a truly extraordinary person who took stage, but those were few and far between and were all part of clubs that specifically focused on what they practiced. Additionally, the school seemed to be recording in order to create more promotional material for the school to give it additional support from the government. They would most likely be editing it down and only including students who were above average. Another reason was to observe for scoring later.

There was a ten minute intermission around halfway through, but Ayanokoji didn’t feel any need to get up so he just stayed seated and messed around on his phone. Sakayanagi respected his boundaries and didn’t talk while also in the presence of Hashimoto and Kamuro, which only left the two even more confused as to why Sakayanagi chose to sit in this area.

The rest was unimportant, Ayanokoji checked the time around 30 minutes before his performance and got up to head backstage. While he was there, people were practicing quietly, but he didn’t really have anything to practice and he hadn’t brought sheet music either. This left him sitting awkwardly in the corner while he waited for his turn. Some people were also very confused as to why he wasn’t preparing at all when others were frantically trying to get in as much practice as they possibly could before their turns.

The backstage area slowly cleared out until he was eventually the last one remaining, with the act ending with applause before his own. It would be hard to follow, she was an extremely talented singer.

The curtains closed so that the next act could prepare, but the lights did not dim, signaling that there was still more left. Horikita sat in the crowd with her eyes hyper focused onto the stage. He hadn’t gone yet, she knew he would be out soon.

One of the assistants backstage asked if he needed help wheeling the piano out, but he declined the help and easily placed it on the stage in a way that he had observed other performances to be played in. He went back to grab the seat and placed it down before sitting in it himself.

When the curtains opened, it did not feel any different from the other eyes that had been constantly watching over him in the White Room. There was a wall between himself and the audience. He positioned his hands over the keys and stared down. He felt no particular pressure in this situation, stage fright did not affect him in the slightest. He played the first chord, and from there he began.

The audience was apprehensive, what would he play? Would he be extraordinary here too? There’s no way he could possibly have such a wide range of expertise. Students were whispering amongst themselves before those first three notes formed to create a sound that most would be familiar with. They believed their thoughts had been proved correct when even those who were not musically gifted picked up on the song he was playing. Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata No.1.

Ayanokoji expected this kind of response from the crowd while he had been pondering the outcome before the performance. It was natural for them to think that way, it wasn’t a particularly intricate movement. However, his expertise came in playing everything perfectly from memory, and many people had managed to observe the fact that he had no sheet music laid out in front of himself. His focus was fully on the task at hand, but for the first time it finally felt less like a task and more like a performance. People were watching expectantly, enjoying it. It was no longer the cold stares that knew he would carry out his orders with precision and accuracy.

Horikita was sitting in the crowd, watching expectantly. She hadn’t expected him to choose such a simple piece but perhaps this was the extent of his musical abilities. In her opinion, the somber tone of the piece fit his own demeanor and mysterious side rather well. Excluding the second movement, the first and third movements felt very representative of the boy she had come to know throughout these past two years. In a way, it was both humbling and motivating to have such an extraordinary person standing by her side this whole time, or rather in her shadow. Had she perhaps been standing in his shadow this whole time without realizing it?

His hands flowed across the keys in a methodical way he had catered to his own abilities, and before he knew it he had finished the first movement. However, he continued despite the surprise of those who thought this was the cue to start clapping. He had finished his performance, had he not? The second movement was next. It was lesser known, but still acted as a transition between the calm first movement and the intensity of the third.

Those in the audience who had no clue about music were sat confused thinking that it should have already ended, while those who knew of the second movement were suddenly hit by the realization that he was playing all of Moonlight Sonata. Horikita was one who recognized this, and despite her foolish beliefs that there may well be some general field he isn’t skilled in, she was naive in thinking that. At this point she had already begun to accept it, but she felt a chill run down her back near the end of the second movement.

The second movement was much shorter than the other two, making it so that those who were waiting in anticipation of the third wouldn’t have to wait long. Ayanokoji plucked away at the keys, envisioning the sheet music within his mind. This was the only one he was less experienced in, but it oddly felt more enjoyable because of that.

Finally, the second part was completed. The confused students hesitated to clap, they were unsure if more awaited once again. It was wise of them to hold back.

Ayanokoji positioned his hands above the keys once again, suddenly beginning what would be a brutal piece for anyone inexperienced. Many people don’t see piano as a musical instrument that requires a lot of stamina since it doesn’t have to deal with breath control and strings don’t cut through your fingers, but it’s actually quite intense for both the mind and hands once you get to much more complex pieces.

From just the beginning, the people who were once left confused were suddenly filled with understanding. Even they understood that this was not something the average pianist could play, and for the other pianists in the crowd they understood how difficult it was.

Horikita watched him intensely, feeling the hair on her arms rise to form goosebumps. It was oddly scary how intensely he was playing with a completely stoic expression and almost robotic movements. Only a minute into the third movement, she noticed the formerly automatic hands ease up and move with the flow of the music rather than as an automated machine would. She wondered what was on his mind, what it was that made him act like a machine in the first place.

Ayanokoji wasn’t thinking of the complexity, nor was he thinking about the crowd. For once in his life, he was completely within his own mind, immersed in the piece without the strain of being perfect placed upon him. Did he like the music? He wasn’t ever sure if he had ever really liked anything, but he was inclined to say yes. It felt deeper than just a sound, it felt like something that came from within. Every time he had played piano it had been too perfect, but even if his playing sounded mostly the same it somehow felt different as if to say that he finally grasped the true meaning of music. It wasn’t just a pretty sound, it was something beautiful that could not be described in words. And even amidst the intensity of the piece, he felt as if it had the capability to stir up similarly intense emotions within himself as well.

What caused the change? He wasn’t sure. It was the first time he had been affected so greatly by music. For just a moment, he would cling onto this feeling. He would cling onto the world itself.

The moon was a beautiful sight to behold. But the capability to understand it comes from within the eye of the beholder. Within his mind, Ayanokoji conjured up the sight of the moonlit campus at night, the intensity of the shadows but also the soft subtleties of the light that bounced onto them causing blueish colors to form in its place. The clouds that partially covered the stars swept over the sky, with the lack of unnatural light revealing those that were not covered by the wisps of gray from their hiding places. There was white within the colors of the night, but it was a sort of delicate light that didn’t attempt to forcefully project the harsh light onto his face and wipe him into a blank slate. It took him to a place that was far from his own reality.

In this state, there was no White Room. There was not the persistent gaze of ‘that man.’ There was no performance and there was no battle to be won. There was no past. There was no future. There was just him standing under the almost full-moon with a friend.

Chapter Text

It had been an hour since the end of the performance. Ayanokoji didn’t linger on his thoughts or feelings from the time, but what he did do was go on a walk. He didn’t have a destination, he just wandered around wherever the wind took him.

Eventually he ended up by the water looking out onto the ocean. The city was bright with light and color even during the night. There was no lights out for a city that was always awake. He sat down on a bench nearby and stared off across the water. The colors reflected in a wavy pattern that went along with the current of the ocean. In the past he had felt similar to an object in the water’s current, going wherever he was pushed without resistance. He just floated without a soul in the world knowing he existed. No one would stop to think about a single object floating in the ocean, the possibility of it existing.

Now that wasn’t the case. He had the freedom to choose which way he wanted to go and fight against the current. He had the opportunity to be free, a state of freedom where people cared about him and he got to make his own decisions on how he wanted to live his life. 

“Free.” He wasn’t really free. He couldn’t really fight back forever. Someone will eventually lose the will to fight against the current, the ocean is too big and powerful after all. That person will sink to the bottom and not emerge, because there’s no way they can. The weight and pressure of the ocean is overwhelming, so all they can do is drown. He knew this fact well, and he accepted it. He knew this fact because he had used it against several people at this very school already.

To watch over the surface of the water while knowing that his fate lay in the depths felt oddly relaxing. He was at ease with his situation. In the past, he had already accepted a life without ever getting the freedom he secretly desired unbeknownst to those who only viewed him as a machine that complied with every order. Getting to experience freedom when it seemed so far away, even for an instant, even for three years, that feeling was better than he could have ever imagined. But he didn’t mind going back after he graduated so much anymore.

While he was lost in thought, he heard a familiar tapping sound against the pavement that seemed to be approaching him. Ayanokoji shifted his gaze over to the approaching figure. Her face was shrouded by the dark, but even as she slowly moved forward he knew that it was a small smile of amusement that rested on her face.

“Beautiful isn’t it?” Sakayanagi asked.

“Yes, it is.”

“I suppose that even after almost two years the sights of this campus won’t get old for you,” she stated. He didn’t need to respond, they both acknowledged that this kind of moment shouldn’t be contaminated with excess words. It was true though, he couldn’t possibly get bored of seeing the same place every day. The seasons changed, there was nature around him where the wind blew to gently sway the leaves, and he was no longer isolated. Things changed, people changed.

Ayanokoji was sitting in the center of the bench, but scooted over to give Sakayanagi some room to sit down. She thanked him with a light nod and sat down next to him, propping her cane up using the bench.

They didn’t exchange words for around ten minutes, just sitting in silence with the space around them filled only with the sounds of nighttime on campus. That was the case until the girl next to him broke the silence.

“I’m interested in what you will do next. Your motives for suddenly revealing your true self… I wonder what they could be.” She looked over to him, the smile on her face growing more teasing. It seemed that she had somewhat of an idea, but his own next actions could not yet be determined without observing what his own class’s reaction would be.

“I wonder that too.”

“You’re not worried at all? I would assume not since it seems that you’ve been planning this for quite some time.”

“There’s nothing to worry about. The extra attention is just going to be a bit uncomfortable for me is all.” That’s really all there was to it, nothing out of the ordinary.

Her eyes looked far in the distance towards the tall buildings that lined the coast. They almost put her in a trance for a moment. “Pursuing your own goals, that’s what you came to this school for. Pursuing freedom. This is one way of grasping a hold of that. If anything, all I genuinely wish for is your own happiness with the decision you choose.” She sent an almost forlorn glance his way before taking her time to get up. She turned away from the ocean and faced him. “I just hope you remember that I’m the only one who has the right to defeat you.” She left him with one final smile of amusement before walking away, presumably towards the dorms.

Ayanokoji accepted her parting words. He didn’t care who defeated him, he just wanted it to happen. He wanted to be defeated so that in proxy his father would be defeated. Only then would his time at this school be fully satisfying. But he supposed it wouldn’t be that bad if he left without that happening. It would be disappointing, sure, but he still had things to look back on. Happy memories…was happy the right word? Bright memories would be a better way of describing them, he didn’t attach any happiness with them.

Ayanokoji looked back up at the moon. It was a full moon tonight, but it was also much clearer than the day prior. The moon being full made a bright reflection of the imperfect object glaze across the water. The stars faded into the background of the night sky with the light pollution from the city in the distance.

Maybe in the future, he would learn happiness and eventually associate that feeling with the memories he made there. Maybe there would come a day where he could stand under this sky and feel happy. There would be a day where he would have to say goodbye to the illusions of hope that occasionally lingered in his mind. He knew that day would arrive faster than he knew it.

The sky would be gone from his life after graduation.