Ayanokouji didn't have as normal of a start as he thought he would the moment he made it to The Advance Nurturing High School.
As it turns out, he had been immediately brought into a meeting with the chairman of the school.
He didn't pay it too much considering the circumstances. From what Matsuo had told him, he was lucky to be here as under normal circumstances, it'd be unlikely that him with no background available to the public would allow him to enter this school.
It was highly likely that Matsuo had pulled strings for him to be here and this was a meeting for the chairman to understand who it was that he was turning a blind eye to allowing into this school.
The boy remained stoic as he remained outside the office, observing the interior as his mind absentmindedly wandered.
He wasn't aware of how long it was before he heard a voice call from the office door for him to come in, prompting him to get up and enter.
The interior of the office was what he'd expect from his limited knowledge from pictures he'd have seen in the white room along with the man seated at the desk motioning him to sit down.
Ayanokouji found no reason to reject that and obliged, sitting down in front of the man who looked to be about forty years old.
"Mr. Ayanokouji, it's so nice to meet you face to face for the first time." The man started off with a smile as he held out his hand in a polite gesture. "Chairman Sakayanagi."
Kiyotaka didn't see a reason to not shake his hand, so he held his hand out to grip the man's hand, giving his own subdued response out of politeness and respect.
The man seemed to find this amusing with the expression he had on his face and what he said next surprised the normally implacable boy.
"Ayanokouji-kun. You don't have to be so guarded. I'm well aware of your history in the White Room thanks to Matsuo. I'm also well aware of your situation and have met your father before." He dropped that bomb as if it was nothing. Despite him telling him not to be so guarded, Kiyotaka could only be more wary of someone who would so easily let loose that he knew a secret like that so easily.
Realizing that he didn't seem to be helping the situation, Chairman Sakayanagi gave a deep sigh before he leaned back into his chair and brought out a stack of papers.
"Look. I'm on your side, so you don't need to worry about anything, but your presence here isn't exactly easy. I can easily protect you from sensei but I'm sure you know better than anyone that it isn't good to be lenient. Which is why I need you to want to help yourself." The man explained, piquing the boy's interest.
"What is it that you need from me, Chairman?" Ayanokouji asked finally, deciding that it was safe to give this man some levels of trust.
"Seems like you'll cooperate. Well, i'll need you to get a good understanding of this school since I doubt it would matter too much on whether or not you know now or later with your skills." The chairman began before giving him a full explanation of the school and what special exams are.
Ayanokouji was thankful for his good memory as he didn't need the olderman to repeat himself before he asked his question.
"I understand, but what is it that you need from me?" Kiyotaka asked, unsure of what the chairman could possibly want from him.
"I'd like to have you take a special exam that only applies to you with the risk and caveat of expulsion." He explained.
Kiyotaka didn't change his expression, but continued to maintain eye contact with the chairman, waiting for him to elaborate.
"No need to look at me like that. I promise this is for your own good." The man chuckled to himself from the boy's reaction.
"The reasoning is simple. As someone who's fully aware of your upbringing while being aware of the lengths your father will go to take you back. I wouldn't be surprised if he was able to even relieve me of my position here." The man admitted, getting Ayanokouji to tense up.
"Relax, even if the worst were to come, the things your father is able to do to me are extremely limited, but in the case it were to happen, it would be integral for you to have a safety net." Chairman Sakayanagi reassured the young boy.
"So what is this special exam then?" The boy asked, urging him to continue on.
"It's quite simple. I will be giving you a specially modified phone that you will be using in advance of your other classmates. This phone has a special app that only you and I have. It is an app that replaces the normal app that holds contacts and functions the same way, however, it is capable of monitoring the closeness between you and those who add you to their contacts list." The chairman showed him the app, before he took out his own phone to show his own. "Now, I have my own version to monitor your progress. I will not be privy to your personal details, but I will get a tally score of your progression with your classmates. Your special exam is to get close to enough people to be satisfactory by the end of every year."
"I don't understand. What is the purpose of this?" The boy asked, not sure how this was to benefit anyone.
"Because, Ayanokouji-kun. I'm fully aware of what you'll be trying to do if I didn't say anything. Your scores on the entrance exams told me more than enough as I doubt you developed a comedic streak during your time in the White Room. You will be doing your best to try and hide your skills while maintaining as minimal of a presence as possible. While I have no issues with such things normally, I do have issues with wasted potential." The chairman explained.
"I believe if you asked me to do my best in class, I'd have done it without resorting to such a roundabout method." Kiyotaka tried to protest, but was cut off by the man.
"That's not what I meant. I know what you're thinking right now. You don't see this school as a step to a brighter future. You see this school as a temporary haven before you return to your father. I'd like you to see this school as more than that, which is why I want you to do your best to make as many positive connections as possible to build a potential future where you will have enough people to aid you in obtaining your freedom." He held his hand up to stop him from speaking.
"Ayanokouji-kun. Don't waste these three years. Use this to gain power. I know you don't believe there's much you can acquire here from people your age when sensei holds such a high position but even he has his own limits on what he can do." The chairman's face showed his age as he gave to the boy his wisdom.
Ayanokouji stared into the man's weathered eyes before he sighed and relented.
"I understand, but please explain in more detail about how this special exam is supposed to work." Ayanokouji asked, getting a small smile from the adult.
"Every phone in this school has been updated recently. While no one else has the app, if they were to add you as a contact, their phones will monitor their body functionalities as long as they have their phone in contact with them. It will gauge their feelings of positivity towards you as long as they have their phones on them when in your presence. While we have been unable to work out all the finer details due to how complex the human body is, we have managed to accurately make it so that we'll be able to measure someone who you have shared contact info withs feelings towards you." The older man was practically beaming at what seemed to be his creation.
It seemed the school's budget was being used for some strange things.
"Right now it's still in its alpha stage and you are basically testing it out for us right now, however, this won't be just some arbitrary thing. You will be awarded private points the more progress you make, but if you aren't able to fill a very generous quota by the end of your first school year, I'm afraid I will have to expel you. This must look serious, otherwise we can't use this contract as a means to protect you." The chairman finished up.
Ayanokouji thought about the situation.
It seemed that by signing up for this, it would be entirely impossible for him to get expelled by external means as despite this being regarded as a special exam, it was also basically him being hired by someone from the government.
There were a lot of holes that were big enough to drive through in this, but it was currently better than what he could do alone.
The chairman was also right in that Kiyotaka would have simply lived the next three years as quietly as possible before bowing his head and heading back to that man's side, so someone as high up as the chairman going out of his way to help him build up potential allies to escape such things in the future wasn't something he could just ignore.
He could easily decline such an offer and simply do what he originally planned to do, but in this case, it wouldn't be right after the Chairman and Matsuo had pulled strings to get him into this school to begin with.
And so, Ayanokouji had made a deal with Chairman Sakayanagi, unaware of how things will change in the future, but one thing was for sure.
Kiyotaka Ayanokouji, the White Room's masterpiece, was going to have to develop people skills.
Line Break
"I'm Ayanokouji Kiyotaka. Uh… I look forward to studying with you all." He introduced himself to his entire class after it reached his turn.
There was an awkward pause as no one said anything else, before he sat back down, prompting the next person in the order to introduce themselves next.
"I blew it." He thought to himself.
AN
Ey, hello.
Nice to meet you unless you already know me.
As this is a prologue, I could only come up with a half assed excuse as to why our boy will be picking up every flag he can.
Also why it's short as I didn't want to spend five thousand words just for this.
Especially since if you know my current situation, you'll know I have no laptop, so i'm typing this from my phone.
Please tell me if there are any issues. Thank you.
RedGlitch