The Cage That Taught Me to Fly (COTE Fanfic)

Ever since I was born, the moment my eyes first opened, the first thing I saw was white-every corner, all of it white. I was inside a cage-built from control, expectations, and brutality.

This cage shaped me. A masterpiece. A ruthless person. The best. But one thought always crossed my mind: why white? White symbolizes liberty, freedom. The more I grew in that place, the more my mind gave me strength to fly, even while trapped inside. The white cage gave me yearning and strength to fly.

Years later, I was given liberty from that cage for three years. But I realized liberty alone isn't enough to make me fly. So I let myself be captured once again.

There's a saying: the more you yearn, the more difficult it becomes to achieve. By choosing to return to the cage, I was handed another chance to fly-one I no longer believed in.

But this time, it wasn't liberty they offered me-it was freedom. Yet there's no such thing as freedom. It was nothing but an illusion. They gave me independence in my actions, but only within limits. They named it freedom, but in truth, it was only a cage without bars-where I could move as I pleased, yet always be steered to where they wanted me to be.

That's what they offered me. A false freedom, one where I can do whatever I want so long as I remain bound to them. And so, how will this new life of mine play out...

Disclaimer: This is a fanfiction between Classroom of the elite by Shōgo Kinugasa and The Quintessential Quintuplets by Negi Haruba. I do not own the original characters, settings, or story. This is purely a work of fan imagination.