"Nothing will come out nothing." - Shakespeare.

"Man is born free, but everywhere with chains." - Rousseau.

"A true friend wouldn't use their friendship as a shield to demand a request." - Masachika Kuze (Roshidere V1 Chapter 2)

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"...It's kinda quiet, isn't it?"

"I am not the one sitting here and zoning out for whole three minutes... What's going on inside your head, Kiyotaka?", her calming voice said.

I never lose composure. And even less when talking to someone like her but...

I was unsure. If I should tell her this or not. Maybe her parents have other ways of telling her. But there is no way around it.

I chose to have this conversation. I am not forced to do this. But now or never. Who knows if there will be a tomorrow for me?

"Ah, you see Alisa. Do you know why I confessed to you? I think I have just explained the tip of the iceberg to you. There is a way more to it. For now, promise me something, never tell anybody else about this. If you need somebody else to talk about this, the chairman knows about our situation, and Yuki is always welcoming you."

"U-Uhm...Sure, but why would I need them?"

Simply because you will need a lot of time to process it, you would need somebody on your side who is neutral and knows details that I do not know.

The chairman still holds a ton of secrets regarding that place from me. To find out, I will need to take the long route.

"Because you cannot tell this anybody. It's classified information, most of it, is only my knowledge. If you share this information, I would hate to break it to you, but your death will not take longer than twenty-four hours."

"A-Are you going to leak information about the military?!"

It's something similar. The military is included in what I am about to tell her.

"No. But listen carefully now. It's nothing to joke around. It will affect me and you permanently."

As she finally shut her mouth, a skill that girls lack, I inhaled deeply, sitting in her room's chair, I turned to her, she was sitting on her bed, leaning on the wall, hugging her pillow nervously.

"Alya, have you ever thought about getting engaged? Married?"

She just nodded shyly. However, she understood where this was going.

"Before I enrolled in this school. A lot of things happened in my life. I am part of a rather noble and well-mannered family. The Suou's. Before that, however, I was something else. Not a Suou certainly. My old family name was Ayanokouji."

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I understood what he was saying. The last time I eavesdropped, I was surprised at what Kiyotaka was talking about. Ayanokouji.

A rather familiar unfamiliar name. I feel like I have heard it a thousand times. But in reality, I never understood what my brain was trying to tell me.

"Ayanokouji is a rather unknown name to the average girl and boy of our age. But two years ago, that name was rather well known."

Some gears started shifting inside my head. But nothing is connecting at all.

It feels like there is too much forgotten. As if just blueprints were being told here.

"Back 16 years ago, my mother was pregnant, with me, her first child. And my father, Atsuomi Ayanokouji was working as a psychologist. Or so I always thought. Right after my birth, my sister came nine months later to this world. A rather complicated year for my family, two babies at once is quite exhausting to take care of. And thus, my parents decided, it would be good that one day my father would take care of me, and the other would do my mother."

If started quite normally. Nothing special as of now, but it sounds like there is something dark coming towards me. His eyes never left mine.

Hypnotizing me to the point some fear was installed in me. It felt like I talked to someone, who was trapped inside his body. Like a ghost taking over his body sometimes. But this rarely happens.

Two people in one. I thought Kushida was bad in this. But he is even worse, the more you stare into the abyss of his eyes, the more the abyss stares back at you.

I don't want to admit it. Even though it is completely against my ideology and pride, this guy got me trembling with his voice alone.

"Sounds ordinary right? The part about my father being a psychologist is completely false. He studied philosophy and psychology, politics, and some history. These were his main fields. Not long after he ended his studies. He married my mother, but the marriage, as normal as it is for families of such standards, they got engaged without any of them knowing.

But, they loved each other quite quickly. They have two healthy children and one of those two is me. However, as you know politicians are crazy people. Visions above the realistically achievable scores. So, to prove that his party was superior to his opposing, he with the help of his close partners created a project."

He coughed a little before continuing, his gaze got intense, and it felt like his eyes were melting me like ice in the sun.

"The White Room. Originally called Project TS, it stands for Total Superiority. This project was a school. One that is hidden from the outside world and stayed hidden for around 14 years."

"A school...?" I muttered to myself. His eyes sharpened, and my god.

His eyes were insanely attractive, yet they looked dangerous.

"Yes. But not really. The school I am talking about is at the borderline between a normal human rights violation and a complete post-war crime."

Post-war crime? Does that exist? I assume that he means something that came from the result of a war, or something from that direction.

"It was something like a laboratory. One that made ordinary babies, into entire machines that work and perfection orders. But these children are not normal. They are also trained for the physical, mental, and academic limits. I think the weakest product of the white room, competes with the smartest natural geniuses in the world."

But what if...what if such a genius is born naturally? In addition to that, he was placed in such an environment.

There are a lot of questions inside of me. But as soon as the realization hit me, I realized how badly I treated him. How terrible everyone has treated him.

The article...the Talk with Chabashira. The relationship with Yuki...The island exam... Yamauchi's expulsion, wait a second...

Everything makes sense now. It's as if he was hinting at it months ago, he was hinting toward it before those articles even reached the students of this school.

"Congratulations, sensei. You are standing right in front of a human experiment. Ayanokouji Kiyotaka is my name. A pleasure to meet you."

Kiyotaka. You were controlling it. It wasn't a competition in the first place. You made the moves for Classes A, C, B, and D.

"My father created the concept, designed and led the project, and he had insane success with it. And then, those products of the white room reached a point in intelligence and combat skills, that even entire ordinary trained humans couldn't match the strength of a child. Eleven-year-olds were there, beating Yakuza members without weapons and strict rules to follow."

You set everything up. You predicted the outcomes. It wasn't A vs B vs C vs D... It was you against them all. And you won.

All the time I thought I made decisions independently, to counter decisions made by Ichinose, Katsuragi, and Ryueen, who also made their decisions independently.

But I was all wrong. Just as much as I was dancing on his palm, the others were as well.

My brain isn't able to understand how you did that, or why. But one thing is for sure.

You are amazing. And I love you too much.

Kiyotaka is the definition of "A wolf in sheep's clothing."

"However, I was different. Whilst the others were made genius, I had the insane advantage of being already born with a few screws loose in the beginning. With a few screws loose, I mean the fact that I was a lot more advanced from the beginning. And it may sound arrogant, but I think, that even if I enrolled here as an eleven-year-old, I doubt that anything would even trouble me in the slightest."

It wasn't arrogance for sure. It was just honesty.

"I think that's where it all began. The training was hard, with insane amounts of punishments if you collapsed. Failures were gotten rid of. The slightest mistake will cause you to drop out. And as we had zero chance of surviving the outside world, we were forced to try as hard as we could, or just die."

"That's..."

I wanted to hug him so badly, but this information is important. I need to stay focused. To stay always awake during this conversation, not allowing myself to zone out once.

"Well, my training continued, and at the age of ten, I was all alone. Everyone has dropped out forcefully or of their own free will. And then there was only me left. A ten-year-old guy trying to survive. And my daily life was boring, depressing, and just lame. I never failed once, I mastered all of the existing martial arts, and my knowledge exceeded the one of a human's lifetime at the age of eleven and I was just perfecting some areas like swimming. Breaking record after record."

So he was alone for years...But... what about Yuki, his mother? Have they not noticed anything?!

"Kiyotaka. What about your mother and sister?"

"This all happened when my mother was gone for work, eight hours of hard training every day is tiring. In addition to that, when my mother was present, he studied with me some philosophy for an hour or so privately without any instructors. The rest of the day, I forced myself to keep quiet, to not ruin my family. At some point, I began to think every human was in some sort of white room, so I didn't even bother anymore."

"So...Y-You are impossible to beat for everyone and everything? You are made for this situation... Kiyotaka. Can I ask you something?"

"Sure. Go on."

"Why did you tell me this? You never had to, and I didn't need to know I guess. It's good to know and I am glad to know you much better now. I came to understand you more and more."

"..."

Surely he wouldn't understand what I mean by that, most people wouldn't understand.

"Kiyotaka, I guess my love has deepened now. I know the basics of your backstory now. And well... I am more than surprised. A-And..."

I couldn't stand it anymore and tears began flowing down my face. Sobbing and trembling as usual. This is my average performance when over-stressing.

I am nothing for such things. I am made to have a rather comfortable and chill life. Not something that sounds like an experiment from the Cold War or started by the N4zis.

"It's fine. I am honestly amazed at how long you tried. But don't worry. Things are improving lately, and there is good news about it, depending on how you want to take it."

"H-Huh?!"

Good news? Does he mean the fact that he started comforting me for the very first time in history?

"Alya, we two will be married once we leave the school campus, did you know that?"

"..."

My breath and heart stood still, eyes wide open and my hands freezing on the spot. M-Married?!? Like married married?!

"M-Married?!?"

"Yes. I never told you, did I? Before enrolling in this school, my grandfather set up an engagement for me. And well, my future wife is going to this school, speaks Russian, has many complexes, and is insanely good in academics. I even got your name before enrolling here if you didn't know. Did you know about me before enrollment?"

My parents mentioned the name Kiyotaka sometimes. But I didn't think it was about him... I always thought 'Kiyotaka' was a friend of my father. But apparently, it's my husband's name.

"N-No! It's something unexpected... Give me a second to comprehend all of this... Our families set us up for marriage, without us both knowing each other. I then fell in love with you naturally and we are a couple now, and now you are telling me I could've just waited until the end of our third year?!"

"Precisely. What you say?"

"I won't say no to you. I-I am married?! Means we are... H-husband and wife at this young age?! Does somebody else know this information or is it classified as well?!"

I couldn't believe it! My first love is my husband. And we are only fifteen... And the funniest thing is, this all happened due to a coincidence. It could've been anyone we would have gotten engaged with. But this is a match made in heaven.

"Not necessarily classified. I believe only Yuki knows this, but I assume she isn't that good at memorizing. Don't bother about it. It's nothing special, but if I were you, I wouldn't mention it out loud. Alya? Is everything fine? Your face is red..."

I was about to black out at any second. This was too much for me. No fifteen-year-old girl with my mentality would even stand properly after what Kiyotaka says.

We are a "married" couple, and nobody knows. He knew that we would get married. And that way before we even enrolled in this school.

My question now is: Did he confess to me on the island, just for the sake of eliminating a problem early on?

What if it didn't serve any other purpose than just clearing me out of his mind...

I...

"Y-Yes. Everything is fine. Kiyotaka, can we talk about something else? There was a question on my mind earlier. The white room. What do you honestly think about it? You are the most incredible human I know, or even the entire world knows. Opinion on that?"

I think that he is some sort of traumatized. His voice is a little different when talking about this kind of topic. So are his eyes and hands. He isn't tensed, but rather even calmer.

As if this is the topic he has good memories of, even though that is not the case. Kiyotaka seems quite hit by it. No strong expressions on his face and the sense of winning is completely unknown to him.

Even a win is some sort of loss for him, he looks like he is tired of everything and wants something genuine, new, and fun.

I hope...that he knows I mean it.

"What I think of the white room huh? Well, honestly I don't hate or like it. I got used to it, I guess. The White Room wasn't anything for weak nerves. People died, and some had fear about the right to their existence. Whilst others eight years ago were out there playing in the snow or going to the beach with their family and friends, I was there, having to train without an end."

He exhaled and inhaled.

"I lost a lot of relationships there. None of them romantical, none of them were friendships. But others started developing some sense of brotherhood, fighting for their life in there together, no matter what. Maybe it was a bit exaggerated by my side of even providing you with disclosed information about some deaths, but I think you are an exception to this. But the more I think about it, the more grateful I get for what kind of education I received. In this school, the competition is high, and it makes fun."

"But do you think there is somebody out there better than you?"

"I will try and stay realistic. I doubt that anyone out there, known publicly and without any usage of drugs, comes close to either me or even the other white roomers. Even the 'failures' of the white room who received at least 10 years of education, will surely wipe the floor with anybody in this school."

It's a crazy thought. If he is serious about the failures of that same place putting up a fight with Sakayanagi-san, Yuki-san, the Student Council President, and or Koenji, the problem is right in front of me.

To find out his true potential, the environment would have needed a lot harder challenges. He is like a fighter jet on a cruise, outrunning private jets. 

He doesn't need to get serious to show everyone's levels on the island. He did it with absolutely zero effort if the entire year failed to beat him, who else will?

"Most of the time, I lie and try to downplay myself straight onwards. But this time, I want to be honest, I think, that the white room achieved its objective. This school is a joke."

Not only a small joke but a huge joke to him. Why did he even enroll here? Just to meet his future wife or what?

He joined this school for a reason, which I am not quite sure of right now.

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As I left him alone for the rest of the day, I decided it would be a great idea to go ahead and finally pack my things. Yes, even I am lazy sometimes.

Masha is a lazy person as well, well, she sometimes is one. But so am I. Everyone has days where they get demotivated and lazy.

This is one of them. And I wasn't entirely sure as to how to continue after this. We won the special exam, and are now ranked as Class B.

In short, we built up enough momentum in one exam. However, moving forward, we will arrive back on the school campus, and I am looking forward to finding out more about the other classes. Kiyotaka told me to stay cautious with Class A and C.

After all, the new Class D has enough problems to worry about for now. However, this does not mean that our class will not join the conflict of interest over there.

Everyone wants a piece of the cake. Right now, the Ichinose class is heavily influenced by third parties. May it be the teachers, other classes, the other years, or even the student council.

As of now, everyone supports their interests in that warzone, and I am no exception to this.

While packing my things, I remembered one thing. That is, my main goal is and was to graduate from Class A as a student council member.

And how should I be able to join the student council? The president is Manabu Horikita. The brother of Suzune Horikita. The Vice president is no other than Maria.

This means, that I got quite an easy path from an outsider's perspective. However, the problem begins here. I joined the student council just because my older sister and the older brother of a classmate let me sound like they did it because I annoyed them.

I want to make it without any third-party help. Not even Kiyotaka's. His help is a cheat itself, just give him the right amount of money or give him some sort of special service, and you will wake up as the school's chairman the other day.

I-

Ring Ring

My phone?

As I picked up, the person on the other hand surprised me. It was a masculine voice, and well, I knew him from somewhere. I guess it was P.E. Lessons where I heard this voice regularly.

{Hello?}

[Who are you?] I said, in the hope of confirmation.

{Kanzaki Ryuji, I apologize for wasting your free time outside school time.}

Kanzaki Ryuji, Class B, and part of the leadership with Ichinose and Himeno. I am not really into their business but with a little more information from Kiyotaka's side, I could maybe push further.

[It's fine. But what is the reason you called me?]

{It's about the special exam. If you wonder where I got your number from, it's from Ichinose. Did you get time to meet up?}

It's not that I didn't expect this, but I am unsure if I really should meet up. It could be a trap, and with a little blackmail here and there, some secrets between me and my boyfriend could get leaked to the public very quickly.

And that is