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On April 5th, Tsukishiro once again arrived at the secret facility known as the White Room.
However, unlike the previous time when he was the one left outside, this time he wasn't the one waiting—someone else was waiting for him.
Tsukishiro didn't share Atsuomi's violent temperament. He arrived only three minutes later than the agreed time of 9 a.m., and that was solely because he'd hit a string of red lights on the way over.
He pushed open the door to a small classroom.
Inside, the two most outstanding students of the White Room's fifth generation were already there, waiting for his arrival.
Having served Atsuomi for so many years, Tsukishiro had a deep impression of the two top students in the fifth generation. He greeted them lightly:
"Yagami, Amasawa—this time, I'll be relying on the two of you."
The one called Yagami was a boy with short, light-brown hair and a bright, sunny smile. Amasawa was a girl with chestnut-red hair tied into adorable twin-tails.
Both of them looked to be around fifteen years old, like they were just about to enter their first year of high school. But once you understood their circumstances, you would know you absolutely couldn't treat them as ordinary first-years.
They were the products of the improved fifth-generation training program in the White Room.
They were, quite literally, the highest-caliber talent that could be manufactured by human hands. Intelligence, powers of observation, analytical ability, academic knowledge, and even physical prowess—which the White Room valued most highly—had all been honed to an extreme.
They possessed abilities far beyond their peers.
Yagami didn't say anything. Amasawa, being the livelier one, greeted Tsukishiro in turn.
"It's not a bother at all, not at all. If it weren't for you, who knows when we'd ever get to leave this place~"
Tsukishiro smiled gently at that, but he didn't dwell on the topic. After all, there were still Atsuomi's cameras watching this place. So he quickly got to business.
"You both already know this, but due to the authority structure of the student council at ANHS, I can't expel a student at will even as acting chairman."
"That's where the two of you come in. As students, as assassins sent from the White Room, your role is to take out Ayanokouji Kiyotaka—get him expelled and brought back to the White Room."
"Of course, I'll provide you with full support. For example, the materials on the 155 currently enrolled students at ANHS that I handed over three days ago—have you memorized them?"
It was an extraordinarily detailed dossier.
It didn't just cover the current two grade levels—it also included the incoming batch of first-years, with the only exceptions being Yagami and Amasawa themselves.
On top of that, it even contained a complete record of every course and training Kiyotaka had once received in the White Room.
And it was far more than just names and ages. Every student's past deeds, good or bad, and every secret they had desperately tried to hide—all of it had been converted into cold text on those pages.
Even the homeroom teachers at ANHS could never get their hands on something this complete. Only Tsukishiro, as acting chairman, had enough access to bring such data out and hand it to the fifth generation.
For a normal student, this would have been an impossible challenge. Just looking at that much data was enough to make your head spin—memorizing it all was out of the question.
Even if you grabbed an experienced HR manager out of society and had her go through a little over a hundred résumés, there's no way she'd memorize everything in three days.
At most, she could have the stack of resumes in hand during interviews and cross-check—but no one could just look at a face and go, "Oh, right, you're so-and-so, I remember all your details."
But for the two of them, products of the White Room's special learning devices, this wasn't a problem.
They didn't even need three days.
They could toss the files aside now and still accurately recognize every single person—and recall every past detail with absurd precision.
Amasawa simply nodded, indicating she'd memorized it all.
Yagami, on the other hand, looked bored.
"What's so hard about that? I finished it in one day. The sooner we deal with Ayanokouji, the sooner this is over."
"Oh?" Tsukishiro immediately picked up on Yagami's displeasure. His tone sounded understanding.
"I see. As the top student of the fifth generation, it's only natural you'd feel some resentment toward the top student of the fourth generation."
"After all, to all of you, Ayanokouji Kiyotaka is that infamous child from someone else's family. It's perfectly normal for you to harbor some ill will toward him."
Tsukishiro wasn't wrong.
Within the current White Room, leaving the staff aside, Ayanokouji Kiyotaka was unquestionably that child from someone else's family in the eyes of the fifth generation.
Ever since they were small, the fifth-generation students had heard the researchers whisper by their ears: "You must become a masterpiece surpassing Kiyotaka."
Hearing that again and again, those expectations piled up—just like parents nagging children with, "Look at that kid, look how great he is."
It was a feeling that was hard to describe.
Did they resent Ayanokouji? Did they hate him? Or was it a twisted mixture of both?
Yagami's expression gradually grew darker.
"Him? The White Room's greatest masterpiece?"
"That guy, who couldn't handle the training, who ran away from the White Room like some filthy rat crawling through a sewer—he's worthy of being called the greatest masterpiece?"
"Well, I mean, maybe Ayanokouji-senpai had his own reasons~…"
Amasawa, like a playful girl, spoke with a sing-song lilt, trying to soften her partner's views.
Tsukishiro narrowed his eyes slightly. So this is the top of the fifth generation, Yagami? With a mindset like that, he seems worse off than Amasawa, who's supposedly second place…
But he had no say in the future of the White Room. Soon, he probably wouldn't have any involvement at all. Whatever became of Yagami wasn't his concern. The boy was just a convenient tool that came with the job.
With that in mind, Tsukishiro's expression sobered a little. "Right—there's one more thing I need to warn you about. The current student council president—Yukio Hayashi. Have you memorized his file?"
When the topic wasn't Kiyotaka, Yagami reverted to his silent, mysterious act. So it was Amasawa who replied again.
"Yep, all memorized~ But this senpai doesn't seem like anything special, does he?"
"His past records are totally ordinary: some boy from a small seaside town, selected to attend ANHS, then performing outstandingly."
"Sure, his file's nothing impressive, but yeah, he really has stood out in all those special exams."
"That file…" Tsukishiro paused for a moment, then revealed the truth. "Is very likely fake."
"?" Yagami and Amasawa's eyes widened in unison. Fake?
"I won't hide this from you." Tsukishiro smiled again, that gentle look returning to his face.
"After I arrived at ANHS, the student who left the deepest impression on me was that Yukio."
"He is absolutely beyond anything you're imagining. I've personally visited the town in his file twice. The hospital records, his elementary records, his middle school records—on paper, he was indeed there."
"But when I questioned the doctors, the teachers, even the security guard at the school gates, none of them had any recollection of him. That's enough to prove that even for us, with the White Room's resources, this is a fabricated file we cannot fully see through."
"You can imagine what kind of background that suggests."
"So I want you to understand: regarding Ayanokouji Kiyotaka, do as you wish—that's your mission this time."
"But when it comes to him… it's best if you prioritize befriending him."
"All right, that's enough for now. Go make your preparations. Tomorrow, you'll officially be enrolling."
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