A Life Without Color

Chapter 9

We entered the gym where we would be having our lunch. The scent of blood and sweat tickled my nostrils. We sat down at the table, our little ragtag group of five. Just like everything else around here, the table and chairs were both white. The guards handed out our food and exited out the door. I stared blankly at the food. Nutritional gruel, packed chock full of all the vitamins you need to become an ideal specimen. Grey, mushy, and completely tasteless. Judging by the look on the others' faces, they'd had the pleasure of eating nothing but this shit for the past few days.

If you think that's bad, you should try eating nothing but this for 13 years.

Kei chewed on her bottom lip as she stared longingly at everyone struggling to force down their brown sludge. Her chair screeched loudly as she scooted slightly closer to Hirata's plate, the sound of her stomach gurgling causing him to grimace and stare blankly down at the table.

Coming in last place on the exam had left her with the consequence of skipping all her meals today. If she doesn't get her act together fast, this will be just one of many meals she'll be forced to skip.

I let out a heavy sigh, thinking about the rich food from the cruise ship and began to dig in with my spoon. I could tell that everyone had something they wanted to say to me, but they all appeared to be too overwhelmed to get it out. Next to me, Kouenji was also wolfing down his gruel.

Interesting.

I wonder if he's ever had to follow this kind of diet in the past. Or it could just be because we were both literally starved in the deprivation chamber for 2 days.

Unsurprisingly, Horikita was the first one to break the tense silence that had spread through us.

"Ayanokoji-kun, you owe us some answers," she said with a cool glare. She's looking at me the way she used to, before she consented to covering for me in school. Like prey that is ready to fight back with everything it has, knowing there's nothing else to lose. It looks like she's marked me as an enemy, then.

"We can't talk right now," I muttered out of the side of my mouth, looking up at the camera in the corner. Have they really not figured it out by now? The camera literally has a blinking red light.

"Pardon me, Ayanokoji-kun," Yosuke interjected.

Always polite, this man. Even after his horrific kidnapping and torture.

"We were told that we are allowed to converse during lunch as long as we stay away from forbidden topics."

I guess that's what Amawasa was talking about when she said the generations after me had a mandatory socialization period.

"Spoiled new generations get way more socialization time," I muttered. I was only half joking.

Horikita turned to Hirata.

"Ayanokoji-kun sure doesn't seem to have lost his uncooperativeness," she said. "Even in a situation fraught with danger, he refuses to assist us in any way."

Hirata raised an eyebrow at her passive aggressiveness. "Horikita-san, perhaps it would be best for you to talk this over with Ayanokoji himself."

What a guy.

"Fine."

"Before you do, I'd like to ask him a question first." Yosuke smiled apologetically at Horikita who was doing her best impression of a stone wall.

"Where did they take Ike?"

Of course that's what he wants to ask about. Should I be honest with him? Choosing that route would likely lead to me losing the piece of Hirata Yosuke. Once he finds out that the losers are killed, he will likely sacrifice himself in place of the next one.

White walls, white floors, a white ceiling. There's only one room that's the exception to this pattern. We call it the red room. You don't want to be taken to the red room. If you do, it'll be your blood they're mopping off the red floors next.

"They..."

I couldn't do it. I should have but I couldn't.

"I'm sorry, I can't tell you. It's too painful."

Having experienced living in the white room these past few days, I had no doubt that my classmates felt no small amount of pity for me for having to undergo this treatment my whole life. It also wouldn't surprise me if Horikita and possibly Yosuke had already started to analyze the potential side effects of being treated like this since childhood. It wouldn't take long for them to deduce that I am way more psychopathic then they had originally thought. That being said, it would be unlikely that they would try to force me into delving into my childhood trauma when I'd said I didn't want to talk about it.

"I understand,"Hirata replied sadly. "I won't force you, but I hope you will be able to talk to me about it when you feel ready."

"I have a query as well, Ayanokoji-kun," Horikita inserted herself back into the conversation. "Do you know what it is?

Judging by the fact that you didn't directly ask it, I'd say it's something that can't be asked while we're being watched. Probably something that has to do with escaping this white hell. Specifically, how I managed it before. Sorry Horikita, but that method isn't applicable to our current situation so I have no intention of divulging it.

"I have no idea what your question is," I replied to Horikita who was frowning with displeasure at my answer.

"What do you mean by that Horikita-san," asked Yosuke, who was clearly not privy to all the subtext happening between Horikita and I.

Before she had a chance to reply, a bulky guard wearing an all white uniform approached our table and informed us that our socialization time was over and it was time to return to class.