It was late spring, where the petal of the Sakura trees breeze the weather, stepping into the bus my mind is occupied with the new school. Boasting 100% employment and college rate, not that I care about those things, but at least it makes a good bonus.
The door of a bus closes before it started to transport the people inside it, including me to the nearest bus stops. Closing my eyes to not let the environment turn my thoughts into a jumble of mess, I started to think once again.
An argument seems to form in front of me, yet I was too occupied in my mind to even given a single attention to it. The voice of a girl and a boy arguing? Why does this kind of situation feels, familiar?
A paper was turned beside me, it is probably a girl that was turning it. At least the height of 155-160 cm. The hand turning the page is too smooth and elegant for it to be a boy.
'Why would I ponder about a girl turning the pages of a small notebook?' I pondered.
'Looks like my cautiouness from when I was inside the White Room didn't leave me.'
I opened my eyes, to see an argument between a boy and girl once again. Looks like they were fighting over a seat for the old woman.
"Excuse me! Would any of you be willing to give up your seat?"
The girl ask with a concerned expression.
Gazing towards the girl, I inspect her posture, her facial expression, her tone of voice. Analyzing every of her feature
'She's trouble.' My mind pondered once again, glancing towards the window.
At the surface, looks like she wanted to help the old woman to get her seat, but that persistency even after the old woman proclaim that it's fine for her to just stand up. That girl has thirst to portray herself as someone good.
In other words, she's manipulating the situation around her, making use of the old woman's pinnacle and hardship for her own advantageous.
'Looks like I just need to pretend that I'm on her influence once we're at the school.'
Time passes, as the old woman already gotten a sit just because another woman volunteered her sit to her.
With a glance, I looked at the individual who keep turning the pages of their notebook. It is a girl, my suspicion were correct. Peaked by what she's reading, I look at the metallic reflection of the bus on top of her, acting as a mirror.
'A diary?'
Still having my standards over girls, I close my eyes once again, pondering about the information I take from the girl beside me.
'That one is having some brother issues. From the diary, her way of reading and posture. I don't know what she went through but I suppose I could use her if I gain her affection or trust in the future.'
With one more person to investigate, my gaze shifted once again this time to the boy that refuse to give up his sit when the girl asked him to give it to the old woman.
The blonde boy, now sitting with his eyes close and a smile of satisfaction shines from his face, now opening his eyes and noticed my gaze before smiling back with some narcissism from it.
Seeing this attitude my eyes shifted to the window outside, not giving a single thought about the blonde boy as I realize I might overthink for the part of my life that I could use to distant myself from the White Room with.
A single petal then flown inside the bus from the Sakura trees. This bus drive seems like forever before that single petal reminded me of something from the past. Why would this single petal trigger something from inside there?
Even my complex mind couldn't answer that simple question before I closed my eyes for the rest of the time inside the bus. An individual, a child keep flashing inside my mind, as not even a single second could my mind thought of anything else except that child after the petal dropped.
A scene then played inside my head, a game of chess? I have played thousands of games inside the unusually prolonged White Room experiment. I always faced the same opponent as I played chess over and over, almost like a routine where the result of it always tied.
Another thought then popped up inside my head, slowly piecing the pieces together.
'I suppose I owe it to the old man who forced my father to stop the experiment at the worry he's showing to his daughter...'
Daughter? He has a child? For the life of me I couldn't even piece the puzzle together. The identity of someone I played against all those years, the identity of old man's child. Are they connected somehow?
The bus then stopped, now reaching the bus stop near the school as every student inside the bus walks out to attend to their own classes.
Without any much of a thought, I walked to the gate before a familiar sound rang on my ears.
"We met again, Kiyotaka-kun. After only a couple of months."
My eyes widen from her arrival. Everything inside my mind clicked into place like a jigsaw puzzle. All of this, from the old man recommending this place to him convincing Matsuo-san for me to attend this school that's directed by the old man.
I finally see her plans. Reuniting us in this school to compete once again, now using the students on the school as chess pieces.
"Who are you? I don't think we ever met in the past."
With her signature laugh, she passes me, a glint of coldness hides behind her eyes after she turned her gaze at me.
"Heh, did your perfect memory tried it hardest to forget about my existent. My apologies, then."
The girl then continue walking, smiling coldly and leaving me alone in a trance state.
"Excuse me, can you stop standing in front of the bus door?"
The girl who ask for seats ask me to step aside.
A nod is all it took for me to continue walking more into the school. Still occupied, I didn't even realize the flipping page girl is standing on the stairs, trying to look condescendingly towards me. Is she even trying?
"Hey, you were looking at me at the bus, why is that?"
The flipping page girl asked. That day was luckily windy, making her stance a bit more intimidating than it should be.
How would I reply to this insignificant answer without creating problems for myself in the future...
"Oh, my bad. I was just wondering what makes you so calm sitting on your place when someone old is asking for a chair. I thought you are like me, disinterested."
"Don't assume that we're the same. I didn't give up my seat due to my task."
I don't think you need to sit to be able to read, also a reading is classified as a task nowadays?
"If that's all, then I'm off."
The flipping page girl turned around before continue walking back to the school as the tension of the aura has been lifted off from the scene.
Well, this scene could honestly be avoided if I didn't peek at her notebook, should've not get my awareness way too high toward girls due to me having one bad experience with one.
Speaking of a bad experience with one girl, if I'm not mistaken that girl's name...
Sakayanagi Arisu?
The girl who begged her father, the old man to let her enter the White Room experiment, I still couldn't figure out her true reason except for one thing. She's heavily obsessed with me for reason unknown.
At first, I only thought that she just another opponent that I could list off from my memory easily. Yet, countless time inside the White Room she proved me wrong.
Is it because she also learn beside me throughout the length of the experiment?
A fascinating girl for sure, I would not mistake that. No one could actually tie to me at chess except for her. Thousands of games, repeating the same two openings over and over. Almost smiling while we play those games.
I did not research on what openings do we always played together in every game, but I know that it's a rare one, and not many people who played chess use it very often.
A rare two openings, that for sure. Still, after all of those years inside the White Room together...Who is she actually?
Without I realize it, it's already time for me to introduce myself. Everyone in my class is currently looking at me awkwardly as I probably did not even speak for a good couple seconds.
What should my respond be? Should I gain everyone's attention and sway it to my favour, being the joker? That could be useful when I wanted to use them to fight against Arisu. But that would also go against that sit girl as she also try to do the same?
Maybe appearing mysterious and calm would make a better appeal? After all, a calm and mysterious attitude makes a better impression of people.
What's the best path could I do to make an impressionable introduction? Where I don't want to waste my energy tackling all the unnecesarry problems I will cause with this introduction in the future and could focus every of my effort to Arisu.
"You, what's the wait there. You don't need to think, just introduce yourself like you were yourself."
A boy said in an encouraging way. Talk about a class leader.
I stood up after making my decision.
"Uhh...My name is Ayanokouji Kiyotaka...Nice to meet you all. Umm, I don't have particular talent or anything...I'll try to work with everyone...Uhh, thank you for hearing me."
The class clap in an 'appreciation for introducing yourself' applause before everyone get into their own thing.
"Nice to meet you, Ayanokouji-kun, let's be good friend."
The girl beside me, Horikita Suzune if I'm right, scoffed slightly at my introduction.
I flopped it...
Looking back at the window, a thud of the table rang through the class, as a boy's voice is complaining about why we introduce ourselves in the first place, probably just a stupid student anyway, not worth my attention to.
The sound of a teacher calling everyone to seat down is now heard once again, now in front of the class.
"Everyone...on your seats." She said, walking into the class before putting her class book on the table.
"I'm the homeroom, teacher for Class D, Sae Chabashira. There will be no changing of classes in this school, I'll be your homeroom teacher for three years until all of you graduated."
The teacher. I forgot that the teacher is also a factor in this whole equation. Still, will Arisu use her teacher to become her pawn? That's my question.
The teacher then explaining that each student will get 100,000 Point every month after handing out everyone a copy of a school rule book before showing us the phone that we need to have in order to buy the stuff using our points.
As I opened my phone, a couple of numbers that shouldn't been there is there. With a single message from an unknown number.
A little dazed, I opened the message to find two messages.
"Sakayanagi Arisu, save this Kiyo-kun."
"Join me in Class A, or you're too scared to even fight me like back in the White Room?"
I could picture her writing this with a wide smirk, chuckling even. Now returning back to the point interface, I sighed, looking at the numbers.
'I really hope this is a glitch inside the system or something.'
On it, it was written that I currently have 20,100,000 point inside my account.
'You're kidding right, Arisu-san?'
Another message then popped up from her, to which she typed.
"Pawn to D4, what's your move, Kiyo-kun?"