L's POV :

The Advanced Nurturing High School, an exceptional school opened in Tokyo and financed by the Japanese government. It was a very special institution, earlier today our class teacher Chabashira Sae had explained to us how things worked here. The school had all the services that a student could want during his student life, we were housed here and we were paid every month the equivalent of 100,000 yen to be spent in order to use those different services. The school was divided into three years like other high schools, it had 4 classes per year with 40 students per class. In total, there were 360 students living in this campus built on an artificial island in the middle of Tokyo.

360 students... If we were paid 100,000 private points each, it would cost the Japanese government the equivalent of 432,000,000 yen to distribute to the students in a single year. That was about 3.2 million dollars invested in this school per year, not counting the rest of the expenses.

It was an astronomical income for such young students, especially when compared to other prestigious schools around the world, none of which I believe offered similar rewards. Since it was a system that applied to all students who were part of the school, it was quite different from a scholarship program too. According to Chabashira-sensei, the school gave a certain value and recognition to those who had successfully enrolled in the school, and this value was reflected in the private points credited to us.

"If something is too good to be true, then it isn't." So went an adage. The system of this school was dubious, there was a chance that it was really that simple and generous, but it was better to confirm things for oneself instead of assuming that it was really the case. In other words, if I wanted to understand how things worked, in addition to relying on the rules of this school, I had to make my own observations.

Since it was the first day of classes, we didn't have any more classes until the next day, so we were free to leave. This was a voluntary choice made by the school in order to give the students time to explore the different facilities on their own. I was free to leave at any time, simply I preferred to stay in class a little longer to observe my future classmates. I had already memorized everyone's first and last names by quickly scanning the nameplates on their tables when we entered the classroom. I had also been able to learn a little about each of them during the talk session that had been organized by a member of our class named Yosuke Hirata.

Yosuke Hirata, 174cm (5'8 ½ ), 16 years old. Medium height boy with blond hair and brown eyes. From his appearance and his personality, I could deduce that he was a mature and friendly person, who was looking to become friends with everyone, he was also a boy who did not lack initiative considering the fact that he did not hesitate to confront a lot of strangers and make a session of presentations in order to break the barrier that still distanced us. This simple initiative, in my opinion, had already established Hirata-kun as the representative of the 1-D class in the minds of many students, especially the girls.

Kikyo Kushida, 155 cm (5'1), 16 years old. A very attractive young girl who would undoubtedly become popular with many boys, I just knew that her influence would grow far beyond the boys. Her social skills surpassed even Hirata's, her positive energy and willingness to connect with everyone were qualities that would quickly make her a rising star at this school, her attitude with the people in our class was observation enough to deduce that. After the teacher finished her explanation and left the classroom, Kushida immediately went around the rows to get information from everyone. She was a few rows away from contacting me unfortunately she was interrupted in her process by a group of friends who immediately invited her to go for a drink.

"The way you're sitting is bothering me."

My analysis was disturbed by the dark-haired girl sitting next to me. I looked at her faintly from the corner of my eye.

"You should try it, it will help you get even more into your reading."

"There's no way I'm going to sit like you, never in a million years."

It was a pity, she was missing out on a very effective technique to get the blood flowing to the brain. After removing my shoes, I had put my feet on my chair and sat on my knees. The weight of my body was applied to my knees and limited my blood circulation, therefore the blood flowed up to the brain, allowing a better concentration, my deductive capacities had increased by 40% for example.

This had earned me some strange looks from the class but they were not really bothersome. Moreover, I was not the only person with strange positions, there was also the young boy with blond hair named Rokusuke Koenji who was leaning on his chair with his legs crossed on the table. Are we the odd ones here or were the others just embarrassed to do the same? Well, that was a good question.

"Haven't you been taught manners?"

Horikita Suzune, 156 cm (5'1 ½ ), 16 years old. A young girl with long, straight, black hair, despite her attractive appearance, her personality could seem to many as more than deplorable. We'd had the opportunity to run into each other a few times today and none of our discussions had been positive so far, she hadn't made the effort to introduce herself to the class and didn't seem motivated to go socializing after class. She was a loner.

"Weren't you taught not to get involved in other people's business?"

I asked her in a calm voice, a question very similar to hers, yet you could tell by the muscles in her face that she was irritated by it. Provoking people was a good way to go if you wanted to see another side to their personality.

"If you behave strangely, you'll end up isolated."

"So you care about my well-being?"

"Not at all. Like I said, it's mostly because it bothers me, don't you think the smell of your feet might bother people?"

"My feet smell?"

"No, but if you keep doing it, they'll eventually smell and I don't want to be a victim of that."

The conversation itself made no sense, however, any opportunity was good to take if you wanted to get to know someone better. What people do and say are actions dictated by their way of being, and this is true even in the most insignificant of conversations.

"Don't worry, I'm pretty hygienic."

I said, settling in properly and starting to put on my shoes, it might have seemed like a sign of surrender but I was simply doing it because it was about time for me to visit this campus. Many of the students that were here had left the classroom so there wasn't much for me to do here anymore.

I had taken advantage of the afternoon to walk on the whole artificial island, at least partially, it had to be said that it was quite spacious, I had made a mental list of all the places and services that were offered, it was a primordial step when one found himself in unknown territory, to go on a reconnaissance mission.

I ended up making a detour to a grocery store to pick up the items needed for campus life. Shampoo, toothbrush, comb, kitchen utensils, and a few other important items. But most importantly...

"What's all this?"

I turned to the side, it was still my young classmate who was afraid of dying from the smell of my feet.

"Are you stalking me?"

I said to her in a sarcastic tone, even though it didn't seem to have been understood properly.

"No."

She looked me straight in the eyes, it was a rare thing, usually it was me who did it and it made people rather uncomfortable.

"Chocolates, sweets, candy, you're really uneducated, don't you know you should have balanced meals?"

"When used effectively, the brain burns quite a bunch of sugar, therefore I don't have to worry about my meals. You should try it."

Like it was instinctive, she threw her bag at my face, I dodged it slightly but still ate a good portion of her weight.

"Ouch."

I said without really feeling pain.

"Next time, refrain from calling me an idiot, otherwise..."

"Hm?"

My eyebrow rose slightly, showing an ounce of curiosity at what she had planned to do to me next. She pulled out a sharp compass and pointed it in my direction, I didn't know her well yet but I had no doubt that she was clearly going to plant it on me if I responded recklessly.

She thought I had called her an idiot when all I wanted to do was offer her to eat more chocolates because sugar is life. This girl really had a way of interpreting my words.

I decided to go to the cash registers, on the front shelves, I noticed a small box installed between two rows, it had caught my attention because it had no particular theme, we could find kitchen products as well as bathroom products or some types of food. The sign just above it said that these products were free.

This information made me wonder why there was a need for free products when the students were rich? Was the school afraid that the students would use their money too quickly? If that was the case then they really cared about them to the very end. It sounded like the behavior of a parent who didn't trust their child and didn't think they were responsible enough to manage their allowance.

However, in this kind of situation it was always important to imagine the opposite situation as well, in what other situation could these free products be used? The answer was simple. If the students had no more points on them and could not earn any more points, then these free products would allow them to continue living on campus.

The existence of free products implied the existence of one of these scenarios and it was important to confirm which of them was true, otherwise things within this school could get complicated. So that was going to be my first assignment.

I had just validated the purchase of my groceries at the cash register and immediately saw my private points being deducted from my balance. The phone really served as a credit card, it was a rather practical system, which was widespread in the real world now with some applications installed on the smartphones.

As I headed for the exit, I heard a boy yelling, the voice was familiar and as the sliding doors opened I understood why. It was a member of my class, a young boy with red hair, named Ken Sudou.

Sudou Ken, 183 cm (6'0), 16 years old. He was a tall boy with red hair, the first thing you noticed about him was his physical build in addition to his height, to maintain such a body, it was obvious that he did sports. He was also a boy with a very aggressive and compulsive behavior, he was easily provoked and didn't have much interest in social conventions, he was the one who had interrupted the presentations session finding the idea of Hirata useless.

He was currently confronting students from a class I didn't know, the tone had risen and if it continued like this, they would end up throwing punches at each other. Looking around I noticed a camera mounted on the wall, it was likely covering the entrance to the grocery store.

"Who do you think you are, looking down on me? Just because I'm class D?"

"Heh, you're so pitiful that we won't even bother with you, you're going to hell soon anyway so we'll let you enjoy it a little longer while you can."

Hell, hm? Looks like Sudou's presence in Class D had caused reactions from those students, why?

"Are you running away now?! Come back here!"

The three students had already turned their backs on him and left. Sudou who was filled with rage hit the dumpster next to the front door, scattering the trash on the ground. He left the scene without cleaning up. The bad scenario was getting more and more confirmed.

I headed in the direction of the three boys and interrupted them at the parking lot.

"Hey, wait."

I said in a dry tone that was directed at them. The three boys who were laughing among themselves about Sudou's situation suddenly stopped and turned to me.

"Huh? What do you want?!"

The one who seemed to be the leader of this small group answered me with a provocative tone, it was a good attempt but I needed much more than that to be destabilized, hands in my pockets I continued to stare at them without moving an inch, after a few seconds I proceeded.

" Tell me a little about the system of this school, why did you say that we would live in hell? "

I had deliberately and subtly made it clear to their group that I was also part of class D.

"What, you're in that bum's class too? Go enjoy your life on campus and get off our backs, will you?"

"You provoked him, you were in the wrong."

" How would you know, you weren't even there!"

It was true that I had not seen the beginning of the scene, simply the situation was obvious. As impulsive as Sudou was, he didn't have the profile of a person who bothered others as long as he wasn't bothered. Therefore he had no reason to start a fight with these three high school students if they had not provoked him before. In class, it was the same thing, the reason why the presentations session had upset him was because his turn was coming up and he didn't want to do it.

It was exactly what I wanted them to say, the simple and obvious argument of how I hadn't seen the whole drama. Too bad for them that in this case, that simple argument was just a trap that allowed me to pursue my plan.

"I didn't see it, yes. However, there was a camera in the grocery store and the camera saw everything. If I complain to the school administration, they will use the camera to check everything."

The three boys fell silent for a few seconds, it was a natural behavior, no one would expect me to take such drastic measures for a simple hassle. They would next try to put things into perspective in order to calm the situation down.

"Wait buddy, you're going a little overboard here, we were just trying to tease him, that's all."

"You teased and provoked him based on his class position, don't you think that's some kind of discrimination based on his social status?"

"Wait but if you do that your friend will be caught too! He threatened to hit us remember?"

One of the boys began to get impatient and to threaten me back, it was obvious that he was not as mentally stable as the other two.

"He had simply clenched his fists as he yelled at you, it was the behaviour of an angry man but that doesn't make it a threat, proof being that you aren't hurt. On the other hand, we can hear you mocking him and provoking him verbally, and that will be seen in the cameras."

The three boys were out of arguments, normally if they thought they were really innocent then they would be defending themselves to the very end, but they weren't. They knew deep down that they had done something wrong so it was difficult for them to objectively stand up for themselves. There were some people who were mentally tough enough to do violence while fully shouldering it, but these students clearly didn't fit that profile.

" Listen, we're sorry, there's no need to contact the administration, we'll go apologize to him, okay?"

One of them took the initiative to make amends, even though the other two members of the group didn't seem to agree, they knew they were screwed if one of them confessed and the others didn't, so they decided to go along with his decision. This was precisely the situation I was looking for. However, I hadn't done all of this for a mere apology.

"If you're going to apologize now it's just going to make the situation worse, let's do it another way. You will tell me what you know about this school and I will leave you alone. If I notice that you are withholding any information from me then I will immediately report this incident to the administration. Also since it's because of you that Sudou is angry, you will also clean up the trash he kicked down right after I get the answers I want from you, understand?"

In these kinds of situations, it was important to be as strict and threatening at the end as we are at the start, even after the opponent is defeated. For humans, admitting defeat is humiliating and weakening which impacts their mental strength. This weakening of their mental strength makes negotiations easier.

The three boys did not dare to look at me and their faces broke down, signs of anxiety, fear and frustration could be seen as if they were an open book. I walked to a bench near the parking lot and sat on my knees, my gaze still fixed on them. Confusion and disgust were the new expressions I saw on their faces.

"My answers. Now."

I replied, not giving them a break. One of the boys swallowed his saliva and regained enough courage to look into my eyes.

"What I told you earlier is reality, what you are going to experience in the future here is hell and all of that because of the S-system."

"The S-system? What is that?"

The boy clenched his fists and went to sit on the bench next to mine, he put his arms on his legs and looked ahead.

"You probably already know that you are given a certain amount of private points to spend for the month. It's information we all learn at the beginning, but it's not the only information there is to learn."

This was an inference I had already formed when making my speculations, his words at least confirmed some of my reasoning.

"In reality the private points are distributed according to another system, it is the class point system. If you don't know about this system yet, that's okay. The professors will present it to you in a month's time, namely on May 1, which will be followed by the class rankings."

So I was right to be suspicious, there is a whole hidden system that is going to determine how private points are going to be distributed.

"This class point system, explain it to me. I want to know everything about the S-system."

I answered him with a cold tone in order to push him to continue, meanwhile I noticed a certain disconnection from reality from his group of friends, as if they were immersed in their thoughts. If they had called this system " hell " it must have been because they had endured it and continued to suffer from it, thus I deduced that they were not among the best ranked classes.

"The class point system, it's a system based on class performance and class performance is based on individual student behavior in addition to their performance on certain exams."

"Certain exams?"

"In this school students are going to have to take written exams, the passing requirement to validate an exam is quite particular. Your teacher will tell you in due course, but to pass an exam, you just need to have a grade above half the class average."

So if the class had, for example, an average of 50 out of 100, the goal was to have more than 25 to validate. In other words, the higher the class average, the higher the passing score would be. It also meant that a student who had more than 50 points would pass regardless of the class average, since in an ideal setting of a 100 points average, the passing score would be 50.

Something wasn't right. I continued to observe him, he was giving me logical answers so far yet he was also hesitant, there was something he hadn't told me yet. I leaned in closer to him until his eyes met mine, I continued to stare at him without moving an inch and I could see the anxiety and confusion on his face. Was I intimidating or did I have a face that would scare children? I couldn't tell, when I looked at Watari he didn't seem especially upset... I guess...

"You still have something to tell me, say it to me."

I added.

"Tss, how many more questions are you going to ask me?!"

He asked me with a tone that was both calm and irritated, he was clearly not trying to provoke me but it was clear that I was increasingly becoming unbearable for him too. After taking a deep breath, he continued.

"Actually, when I was talking about 'certain exams' I wasn't only talking about those, there is another type of exams, the special exams."

"Special exams?"

" They are special exams, situational tests that call for skills beyond academic or athletic abilities. For example..."

He was slowly explaining to me the types of exams he had to deal with. It was natural for students of that age to not understand why the school was doing this, but I understood it well. One of the reasons for the special exams was to push students to apply their skills to problems outside of the academic setting. Even though we were the same age, we clearly didn't have the same life experience.

By the time I was 16, I had already averted a world war and solved hundreds of criminal cases involving various governments, and I had been exposed to forms of societies, types of humans, that the world would not prefer to know. My experience made it clear to me at once what the purpose of this school was.

The setting up of all the facilities, the isolation from the outside world, a functional economy, and special examinations that put the students through various difficulties. This school reproduced the system of a society on a miniature level, in other words, it was Japan in miniature.

They would put the students through a meritocratic and ruthless system in order to train them mentally to face the real world. Depending on one's point of view, this could be seen as an opportunity or a curse.

"Tell me about the grading system."

"Classes keep their students from the beginning until they graduate. In other words, you will live with those classmates for the next three years. All classes in a year start with 1000 class points by default, you should know that one class point is worth 100 private points, hence the reason you get 100,000 the first month. Depending on how your class performs during the month, you can lose class points or even go down to 0."

If class points determined the amount of private points then that further explained the existence of free products. There were scenarios in which one could receive only a small amount of private points or none at all. In these scenarios, it would be impossible to live on campus without the free products.

I stopped staring at the young boy whose name I didn't know yet and turned my gaze to the parking lot, still sitting on my lap, chewing my thumb while thinking about all the information I had just received.

This school was ultimately the opposite of a generous school, it was setting a huge trap for its students and it was up to the students to survive. The quality of a student's life at this school was going to depend on the quality of their involvement. If a student did nothing then they could be expelled at any time or live miserably. The system was also built on a foundation of collective responsibility, meaning that the actions of one student would impact the entire class. What a nuisance.

Special examinations could take many forms, and each class was informed of the content of the exams and of the rules. It was a level playing field in which everyone had access to the same information and had to use their own abilities as well as the strengths of their class to win.

However, there were also rules that were not told, the game was only equal on the surface, depending on the abilities and connections of each person, some students could access information that others did not. As I had just done. It was then highly likely that other first graders had knowledge of this system as well. And if they didn't know about it yet, they soon would. Obviously, not everyone could learn about this system, given the reluctance of students in other years to discuss it with us.

But if one person in each class knew about the system and told their class, they could influence the rankings. If we knew in advance what we were going to be evaluated on, then it was easy to decide more or less on the result we would build. The next question was how to convince the whole class to cooperate, which was not easy depending on the people in the class. For example, it was difficult for me to imagine Sudou believing someone like me; he would probably laugh at me. I had to find a way to make them understand that this system exists.

"Uh... can we go?"

I turned my gaze slightly, the three boys were still there and looking at me strangely, it seemed I had forgotten about them while I was thinking.

"One last question."

"Uh...yes..."

"Does the position on the leaderboard have any other consequences besides private points?"

The boy was surprised to hear me ask this question, he certainly didn't expect a freshman to learn and ask about this much. It wasn't what was generally expected of students of this age, simply it was like second nature to me. Knowing how to interrogate a person and extract as much information as possible from them was a fundamental part of my detective work. I had developed interrogation and information extraction techniques that surpassed even those of some intelligence agencies techniques.

"Actually yes... class A is the only class that gets all the credit, it's the only class that will have guaranteed access to the schools or jobs that they want."

So they had priority. In other words, within a month, when all students learn about Class A, they will all have the goal of getting into it. Currently all classes were starting from the same point, but in 4 weeks, the performance of each of these classes would determine their future positions and the only way to move up was going to be through special exams and behavioral performances.

I couldn't help but sigh when I learned of such a system, it was both exciting and boring.

"Thank you for the information, you can go now."

"Ehm...yes...you...you won't say anything?"

"You think I'm not a man of my word?"

"Uh no...forget I said anything, thanks for not spilling the beans...bye..."

Immediately he left his bench and quickly went with his friends to clean up the trash. I had not learned what their names were and in my opinion it was better that way. I could have reported them to see how the administration dealt with these situations, but that could also be a problem for me. If I reported them then Sudou would have to take some responsibility and that would affect the performance of our class.

I decided to let it go for now, it was important to be patient, there would be other opportunities to refine my knowledge of the school's system. It was 5:46pm which meant my appointment was approaching as well. Across the campus, towards the island's iron-walled borders, I could see the sun setting in the distance, giving a beautiful orange color to the whole island. It would soon be 6:00 p.m. and I was exactly where I was supposed to be.

There was a basic rule in this school that students could not communicate with the outside world. In order to simulate a miniature Japan, this rule was essential. However, every society had exceptions. In the real world as in this simulated world, my existence was an exception, an irregularity that did not officially exist. The governments I worked with, the intelligence agencies or even private clients, nobody knew my real identity, I didn't exist officially, it was one of the elements that allowed me to excel at my job.

My identity within this school was also falsified, it was something difficult to achieve but it became much easier when a foreign government was indebted to me. My papers were official so it was impossible to find out that Ryuzaki Ryu's identity was made up.

The reason why I was in this school... it was related with my appointment. Behind these walls, just above the sea, was fixed a radio which was not visible by the cameras, it had been placed in a blind spot and was powered by solar energy. Knowing that a radio consumed only a small amount of battery power, it could stay there for a very long time.

I could not turn it on by myself, it was fixed to a specific frequency and was turned on remotely by one person, the only one who knew about my existence. My longtime partner, Watari, who contacted me once a week at 6pm precisely."

"Report, Ryuzaki."

We had agreed that Watari would also use my pseudonym, we were strictly forbidden to talk about L Lawliet's identity in public, no matter how discreet we were. I explained to Watari all the discoveries I had made during my day, I told him about the S-system.

"I see... you found yourself in a very complicated situation, but I guess you can already see the potential behind this system."

"Perfectly, I will participate fully in the class life within this high school. I plan to actively help my class in order to form bonds with them."

"The whole point of going undercover is based on immersion. But then again, this is an area you know better than me so I don't have to teach you anything."

Watari replied.

Infiltration was a complicated art that I had trained for a long time, despite all the subtleties to know the goal remained simple, no matter what means I had to use, I had to build a social circle that would allow me to learn all the secrets of this high school little by little. From the secrets of the teachers to the secrets of the students, I had to learn as much information as I could."

"I guess today you couldn't learn anything about the main target. About the White Room."

"Not yet, however I am sure that there are people within this school who will sooner or later be able to tell me more."

"Near, Mello, and Matt will take care of the investigations for you until you come back. In the meantime, for the next three years, you need to concentrate fully on the White Room. If we are right, then this institution will become one of the greatest dangers to the world of tomorrow, it must be destroyed and you are the only one who can do it."

"The White Room will be destroyed, it's only a matter of time."

"Very well, report completed, good luck."

The radio went to sleep immediately and silence surrounded me, the sound of the water was pleasant and I could see some birds flying in the distance. This school was like a huge game and the game had already started. Class A... if I wanted to fully succeed in my infiltration then I had to move up in the social hierarchy. Seeing how Sudou had been mocked earlier, it was obvious that class D was a class that no one took seriously. In other words, I had to make sure that my class had a good ranking if I wanted to build a network of people who could serve as informants and actors in this system.

I had no Watari, no Wammy House, no intelligence agencies to help me execute my plans, in other words I was starting from scratch and it was my duty to rebuild everything. A smile spread across my face as I looked at the buildings in the distance, a feeling of excitement running through my body. I hadn't had this much fun in a long time.

A/N : Did I just make two different COTE fanfics with the same concept ? Absolutely, but it's so fun to imagine the different scenarios depending on the characters, so here's one with L (Ryuzaki) ! Enjoy !