Today I decided to go and visit the other classes. If my predictions about the true nature of this school are correct, then taking this early opportunity to learn what I can, will be incredibly valuable.
Going by myself would also be a mistake, I may choose to remain under the radar in the coming months so doing something like this alone could bring me unnecessary attention. Horikita or Shinomiya would be ideal. Horikita may not be as social, but she can certainly prove useful as a scapegoat for the success of Class 1-D if needed. That being said, Shinomiya is the more ideal choice. Her more social nature will take more focus off me, and she is far more likely to understand the real nature of our class visits and take action that benefits me. I should go with her if possible.
I looked over at Horikita as she packed her things. Now that class had ended, she would likely just go back to her room like she had done the past few days. The more I thought about it, going with Horikita didn't seem worth the trouble. I guess Shinomiya is the only option. If I want to progress with my other objective, then of course she is the best option. Getting her introduced to the other class leaders early will make the next part of my plan much easier.
I saw Shinomiya getting up to leave and realized that this would be my only chance to ask her.
I got up and met her by the classroom door. "Hey, Shinomiya, are you busy this afternoon?"
"No, not particularly. Why do you ask?" She replied.
"I was planning on visiting the other classes, and I was wondering if you would like to join?"
"Sure. I was actually thinking about doing that myself, and I don't mind the company."
This worked out well, if she was also planning on visiting the other classes maybe she is thinking the same thing as I am.
"I see. I asked Horikita if she wanted to go too, but she declined. I don't want to go by myself."
I lied about asking Horikita to cement that I did in fact want to go but not alone, but I wonder if she would have?
"I guess she has been unsocial as ever."
Maybe Shinomiya would have been willing to go alone after all. If so, her goal may be slightly different than mine. Interesting.
With that, my afternoon adventure had begun.
We first arrived at Class B and my first thought with each class was to find the students who stood out to me during the entrance ceremony. The girl with a cane from Class A, the blonde girl in Class B, and the guy with shoulder-length magenta hair from Class C. While I can't be certain that all three of them would be central figures in their respective classes, the probability was high.
The girl who I learned was named Honami Ichinose was very welcoming. I didn't get any inclination that she had discovered the truth regarding the S-System. I don't expect any of the other classes to have figured it out but it's important to be vigilant.
The students we met from Class B were certainly friendly, and their class seemed like it would be an easy group of people to be around. However, for someone without any social experience like me, that may not be the case.
It wasn't long until we left Class B and I happened to run into another person I was looking for. The guy with magenta hair. He introduced himself as Kakeru Ryuuen, and he was someone who I considered to be far more dangerous at this stage. The fact that his entire class was still here made me wonder if he held them after their teacher left to address them as a class. These were the actions of a class leader.
Actions like this could mean that class C has questions about how the school is set up. This is something that I will need to keep in mind. After entering the classroom something even more interesting happened. Shinomiya ran into a friend from her previous school.
From the mixed reaction she had at first, I'm not sure if she expected to find someone she knew or not. Either way, it didn't matter to me. This would prove an ideal situation to observe Shinomiya. This could provide another clue to why she was so different. This other girl, Chika Fujiwara, could also prove useful. Although it may be better to just passively observe for now.
As I considered this new development, I hadn't even noticed their conversation had switched to English. I am fluent in most spoken languages, so I didn't even notice the change at first because I wasn't paying attention.
Shinomiya then turned to me as if on cue and asked.
"Are you going to introduce yourself? You speak English too, right?"
I do speak English but having you broadcasting that wouldn't be my first choice. Checkmated by social convention I had no option but to join this conversation in English as well.
With a sigh, I said, "I'm Ayanokouji, nice to meet you."
Our conversation continued and the topic turned to travel. Before leaving my father's estate to come here I had only ever left the White Room once, so my travel experience was very limited.
So naturally I tried to take a backseat in the conversation, but my lack of social experience would appear to be the death of me when Fujiwara hit me with a crushing question.
"Ayanokouji, do you also enjoy traveling? I know I love getting to go to new places."
I've been checkmated by social convention twice in this conversation, this was a nightmare. If this continues, I may end up regretting my information gathering mission. I need to say something convincing that will satisfy Fujiwara while not inviting much follow-up.
Shinomiya seemed to be paying extra attention to me, although her reason was obvious. She likely knew what my honest answer to this question would be, but that wasn't my concern right now. I decided to give what I think a standard answer would be.
"I guess I find traveling interesting, but I haven't visited as many places as it sounds like you guys have. I've read about lots of interesting places, though."
The look on Fujiwara's face told me I had made the wrong choice, she seemed shocked by my lack of travel experience.
"I can't believe you haven't traveled around the world, Ayanokouji," she said.
"I've been all over. I've been to Spain, Germany, France, Australia, Greece, and even America."
Wow, doesn't that seem rude, talking about having visited all sorts of places when I just said I haven't traveled much. Maybe she has even less social etiquette than I do.
"Well, I have been to New York before." I decided to add before she could grill me more about my lack of travel experience.
While that wasn't a lie, I hadn't gotten to do any sightseeing, that trip was all business.
The conversation went on a while longer before we finally headed to class A.
As we walked in the first thought that crossed my mind was that this was the third time that the student who I expected to become the class leader was around to meet. This is perfect because going to all the other classes and introducing myself is exhausting.
The girl with a cane introduced herself as Arisu Sakayanagi. I wonder if she is related to the school chairman. That will be something to investigate later. Although I managed to gain some interesting background information on the other classes I haven't learned anything particularly useful yet. However, that would all change after I introduced myself to class A.
Sakayanagi looked like she was in shock as soon as I said my name. My instincts flared up and I began to tear through my memories of any time I had seen her before. I don't have any memory of her, so I know for certain we haven't met before.
Has she heard of me perhaps? Or am I overthinking this?
No, if she is connected to the chairman of the school run by the government then I shouldn't count out the possibility. This is the most relevant bit of information I have acquired today by far.
With some final pleasantries, we left class A and headed to the gym for the club fair.
While we walked to the gym this was the perfect opportunity to see what Shinomiya was thinking about the other classes.
"So Shinomiya. What do you think about the rest of the first-year classes?"
"Well as far as people who stand out there is Ryuuen for sure, but Sakayanagi would be a close second."
Her perception and intuition were on point. I'm not sure if she noticed Sakayanagi's odd reaction toward me, but even if not, this is the correct answer.
I decided to probe a little further.
"Why Ryuuen? We only spoke with him for a moment."
"Did you notice all of Class C was still there even about 15-20 minutes after class had ended? Not even all of Class B was still there and we went there first. I think he was holding a class meeting, and if so, I wonder why."
Brilliant. I knew I should expect more from her compared to the other students in my class, but I'm glad she picked up on this. If she can put that together without any prompting from me then observing her should prove interesting indeed.
"I had the same thoughts."
"What do you think about this school?" I continued.
"I've noticed a lot of things I find weird."
Now this was somewhat unexpected. I spoke to Horikita yesterday and today trying to give her hints about the S-System to see if she suspected anything without luck. So, the fact that Shinomiya has potentially begun to put it together was again a good sign moving forward.
"Oh, like what," I asked.
"The first thing I noticed was how Chabashira's explanation of the S-System seemed odd. It was like she was reading a script, but I don't know why. Then there are cameras in our classroom, and most of the public areas as well. I know they would want to maintain security, but this is excessive. Third is Chabashira and the other teacher's complete disinterest in keeping the students focused. Out classmates sleep, play games, and talk through lectures and nobody seems to care."
My apologies Kaguya Shinomiya, it seems I underestimated you. Despite your status as a dropout, you are nothing like the rest of class D. It seems I will have to treat you slightly differently than the rest of the class, though only slightly.
"I'm surprised that you noticed all that."
"So, you noticed it too Ayanokouji?"
"Yeah, I did."
"Do you have an idea of what this means?"
"Who knows?"
I intentionally gave her an unsatisfactory answer, it will make what I do later that much easier.
With that, we reached the gym with just a few moments to spare. The whole room was packed with students milling around with upperclassmen standing at booths around the perimeter of the gym.
"It looks like everyone is advertising their clubs," I said while checking out the different club offerings.
I saw that there are plenty of clubs I could join, although I don't think I want to put much effort into any of them. While looking around something or rather someone caught my eye. It was Albert from class C. He was with a group of his classmates. With him, I saw Fujiwara, whom I met earlier, and another girl who was registering for the tea ceremony club.
"Come on Ayanokouji, if you have an idea about what all this means you should tell me," Shinomiya said. It seems like she is interested in the workings of the school. I wonder if giving her a hint would help or hurt her progress. I suppose that the risk would be worthwhile, especially if it allows her to gain credibility among class D early.
"Ok, if you insist. I'll tell you what I've been thinking about the school."
"Alright Ayanokouji. I've been trying to piece this together, but nothing makes sense yet. Why would a school need so many cameras? Why would their explanation be so meticulous? How does all this come together? It doesn't seem normal."
I see, I think I figured out how the school managed to keep the workings of the S-System secret from the general student body even while giving us all the hints needed to solve it. Most students who could notice the clues still wouldn't consider the broader picture. Their perception of "normal" prevents them from considering the broader picture.
"I see your point. Consider this, what purpose would scripting the S-System explanation have?"
"I guess it makes it standard."
"Exactly right. The school wanted to make sure each class had the same explanation. So, consider why that would matter to the school."
Shinomiya stood there in thought for a moment before responding. "For fairness?"
"That's right. The school would want to ensure that each class receives the same explanation word for word to ensure fairness. This means that it would be unfair for one class to have differing knowledge about the S-System on the first day. If so, then we can conclude that classes will have competing interests. Does that make sense?"
Shinomiya then continued my explanation, "If classes have competing interests and the school wants to make sure their access to information is equal, then that implies that classes are competing against each other. But that doesn't explain why or how we are competing.?"
"You're right, but Chabashira gave us other hints to consider. First, her wording about points was very specific. She said we will receive 100,000 points "this month" not every month. It stands to reason that these points are part of the competition, or more accurately our allowance of points since each person spends their points individually."
"I can't believe you put all this together by yourself Ayanokouji."
"Yeah, I did. But did you pick up on the other main hint in the explanation?"
"What?" Shinomiya asked.
"Chabashira said our points are determined by merit, so naturally it stands to reason that our allowance of points going forward would be determined in the same way. If you remember I asked about that during the first day of class."
I saw a look of shock on her face as I'm sure she remembered my question from the first day of class.
"Furthermore, our merit can easily be judged by the school given the abundance of cameras. All our actions could affect our score."
"If your theory is true then our class is on a dangerous path."
I nodded in agreement. "While I don't know the exact methods of determining our point allowance based on merit, I am certain that our class isn't faring well. 22 instances of people arriving late to class, 94 instances of students using their phones during class, 47 instances of people having personal conversations during class, and 4 instances of sleeping during class. I honestly think I missed some since I wasn't really paying attention, and we aren't even through the first week." I said to a shocked looking Shinomiya.
"What do you mean by saying you weren't paying attention? How were you counting if you weren't paying attention? Or were those numbers just a guess?"
"I wasn't paying much attention before, I just counted now."
Shinomiya stopped walking as she looked at me in disbelief. I'm not sure what the big deal was. I didn't think counting all the infractions was difficult, I imagined that even someone like Horikita could do basic math.
"What's so hard to believe?" I asked her.
"How did you remember every single infraction?" Shinomiya asked still looking shocked.
I still wasn't sure what she was getting at, all I did was think back through my memories of our classes and counted the infractions.
"Never mind that now, the point that I was making is that Class D is in dire straits. Do you plan on doing anything about that?"
She looked at me and said, "Don't you plan on doing something?"
"What makes you think that?"
"I can't imagine you would share your thoughts with me like this if you planned on doing nothing. So, what is it Ayanokouji, what do you plan on doing?"
"Aside from telling you, I haven't decided yet."
As our conversation regarding the S-System wrapped up we reached the main gymnasium where the club fair was being held.
As we walked in, I saw the room was packed with more students than I thought would be here. If I had to guess at least 100 people were wandering around between the booths.
"I wonder if this school has any famous clubs?" I thought out loud.
"I would assume so," Shinomiya responded.
"Given the amount of money my family donates to the school I would think that some of the clubs must be nationally successful. "
We seemed to be right on time because just after we arrived an upperclassman stepped onto the stage and addressed the crowd.
"Thank you all for waiting, first-year students. We will now begin the club fair. A representative from each club will explain their function. My name is Tachibana, the student council secretary, and the club fares organizer. It's nice to meet you all."
After that brief introduction, different upperclassmen took turns on stage talking about their clubs. There were certainly more options than I thought. They had everything from athletic clubs like soccer or judo to clubs like tea ceremony or calligraphy.
"Do you want to join a club Shinomiya?" I asked.
"I'm not sure yet, there are several clubs that pique my interest, but I haven't decided anything yet."
I noticed she seemed especially interested in the upperclassmen talking about the archery club so maybe that's what she would decide on.
I originally didn't have any plans to join a club, but I may change my mind. I wanted to make the most of my 3 years here and maybe joining a club could be a part of that. As each of the upperclassmen introduced their club, they left the stage until just one person was left. He was average height with dark hair and glasses. He stood in front of the microphone but didn't seem to have any rush to speak.
As he stood there, I think I realized what he was doing. As more students noticed him standing there, some began to taunt him.
"Do your best."
"Did you forget your notecards?"
As the man continued to stand there unfazed, he confirmed my suspicions. The relaxed atmosphere of the room swiftly began to shift, and a sudden quiet began to overtake the room. Eventually, silence enveloped the room, and only then did the man begin to speak.
"I am the student council president. My name is Horikita Manabu, he said."
Horikita, I wonder if there is any relationship between him and Horikita from my class?
"The student council is looking to recruit potential candidates among the first-year students to replace graduating third years. Although no special qualifications are required for candidacy, we humbly ask that those considering application not be involved in other club activities. We generally do not accept students involved elsewhere."
"The student council is looking to recruit potential candidates among the first-year students to replace graduating third years. Although no special qualifications are required for candidacy, we humbly ask that those considering application not be involved in other club activities. We generally do not accept students involved elsewhere."
After his speech, Horikita took a moment to examine the crowd again and I thought his eyes met mine for a moment. After that, he left the stage and the club fair organizer returned.
"Thank you everyone for coming. The club fair has now ended. We will open the reception area for any students who wish to sign up for a club."
With that, the club fair was over and I turned to Shinomiya. "Did you make a decision on which club to join?"
Shinomiya glanced around the gym, her eyes scanning the various booths representing different clubs. "I'm still not sure," she replied, a thoughtful expression on her face. "There are so many interesting options. I'll probably take some time to think about it before making a decision."
I nodded in understanding. "Fair enough. It's a big decision, and you should choose something that genuinely interests you."
I wondered what she could be choosing between, so I decided to ask.
"Hey Shinomiya, which clubs are you considering?"
"Well, I used to be in the archery club at my old school, but I was also the Student Council Vice President. If I had to pick between the two, I'm not sure which one I would rather choose."
As we navigated through the dispersing crowd, I couldn't help but ponder the student council president's announcement. The idea of joining the student council intrigued me, and I briefly wondered if it was a path I should consider. I know that initially, I didn't want to draw attention to myself, but I had already begun to reconsider if that was the right thing to do.
However, for Shinomiya, I also recalled the warning about not being involved in other club activities. It made sense that they would want dedicated members, but it also limited the scope of involvement for those interested in multiple pursuits. Much of the benefit of being in the student council is something I could get by having a classmate join instead. Having her join could also be an option.
As we approached the reception area, I noticed a few students gathering to sign up for various clubs. Shinomiya hesitated for a moment before turning to me. "What about you, Ayanokouji? Are you thinking of joining any clubs?"
I considered her question for a moment. "I didn't plan on it initially, but after seeing the variety of options, I might give it some thought. It could be a good way to make connections and experience different aspects of school life."
The decision to join a club was more significant than I had initially thought. It wasn't just about extracurricular activities; it could potentially impact our standing within the school's intricate system. I expect that club performance can affect your class's evaluation in the S-System. So, it may very well be something I should consider.
With our time at the club fair ending Shinomiya and I left the gymnasium. She needed more time to decide which club she would join, and I hadn't yet decided if I would join one at all. Maybe my time at this school would be more eventful than I originally thought.
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Author's Note:
Hey Everyone,
I know, I'm sorry this took so long to upload. No I'm not abandoning this story, I just had other priorities for awhile and one thing turned into another. Eventually it had been months since I last released a chapter. Wow.
Anyway, I'm going to try my best to NOT let that happen again. I do have a plan for where I want this story to go, but there are plenty of small details I haven't nailed down yet so I would love your opinions. Be sure to comment what you think I should do and why below. Thanks again everyone for sticking with me and reading White Room Dropout.
Should Kaguya join the Student Council, the Archery Club, or both? (e.g. Nagumo in canon is in the SC but also does things with other clubs)
Join SC
Archery Club
Both
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Should Ayanokouji join a club? If so, which one? (If its a good idea idc if it was in canon or not)
Yes (Tell me what club)
No
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Give me what ships you are interested in seeing? I have some ideas but honestly I'm not set on any of them yet.
Should I bring in more Love is War Characters? If so then who?