The White Room Troubles

Chapter 4: A Piece of the Master

Chapter 4: A Piece of the Master

Intro

Ayanokouji Kiyotaka sat at one of the tables in the library. He was reading and enjoying another mystery novel by Agatha Christie, called "The ABC Murders".

It was a Wednesday and usually he would be around the White Room completing activities in the curriculum, however, today he had a day off. He also had a day off yesterday and part of Monday too. Kiyotaka knew the reason for this.

Just a couple days ago on Sunday, he had "truly" talked with his best friend, Suzuki Shizuku, for the first time in a few years. Despite the fact he didn't care about anyone anymore, even his own best friend, he felt contempt with the time he spent with her. It reminded him that he thought Shizuku was special.

However, that was the last day he ever saw her.

The next day on Monday, she had killed herself in her bathroom with a knife. He knew this was going to happen since that was what they talked about on the Sunday, but what he didn't expect was for it to affect his curriculum.

Kiyotaka was told by the instructors and the manager of the 4th generation that he was to have free time for the next few days. It was completely unexpected, but part of him welcomed it. From then, he decided to do what he usually did on his free Sundays, which was heavy workout sessions in the gym, playing piano in the music room, and reading some of the 100 million books held in the library.

But while he was reading the Agatha Christie novel, he stopped for a second as his mind wandered elsewhere.

Suzuki Shizuku.

Despite her disappearance from the world, he couldn't get her out of his mind.

He had vowed from that day that he wouldn't care about anyone. Not his friends. Not his father. No one. He would only care about himself. What other people thought and said, wouldn't matter to him. He couldn't care less.

So why couldn't he get her out of his mind?

The reason was simple. Suzuki Shizuku was a special case.

Before his change, they had been extremely close. They were best friends. But after his change, they had stopped being close. They never talked to each other outside of paired activities. They never ate together. They never walked with each other. They had lost their closeness after his change.

However, despite this change, Shizuku and Kiyotaka still had a small sense of closeness that one couldn't describe without experiencing it. It wasn't physical, but emotional. Neither of them understood this intimacy, but it was something that kept the two of them together no matter what happened. It was also the reason why they felt contempt on Shizuku's final day.

There was also another reason why he couldn't get her out of his mind.

On Shizuku's final day, the two had talked about wanting to feel freedom, wanting to be in the outside world. Kiyotaka had always been a curious child, and that curiosity never left when he changed. Part of the reason he's in the library is because of that curiosity. He was only told to read books that were related to his curriculum and ones that were the most important to learn.

However, Kiyotaka had read books that never mattered in that case. The novel by Agatha Christie he was currently reading was one of those. For this reason, the amount of books that he read in the library transcended what one would even believe.

The matter was that his curiosity of wanting to be like a human in the outside world was awoken thanks to both their conversation on Sunday and Shizuku's request for him before she died.