COTE One Shots

Timeless Masterpiece part 2

Over the past couple of months, I'd gotten to know Sakayanagi a lot better. For instance, her favorite color is purple. And... that's really it.

We have become good friends, though. And now, we enter grade school. 

I walk to school with Sakayanagi after I go to her house, which is surprisingly close to us.

"Hello, it's me, Ayanokouji." I say in the loudest voice I could muster, which is not very loud, while ringing the doorbell.

"Fufu, I'm here. Sorry for making you wait."

"It's not a big deal."

I'm able to help Sakayanagi pretty easily, since I've been training myself. Although I'm not very strong currently, my knowledge of the human body makes me a slightly more difficult foe to face.

"Grade school, huh," I murmur to myself, which did not go unnoticed.

"What's wrong, Ayanokouji-kun? Are you nervous?" she says with a smug smile.

"Nothing like that. I'm just curious to see how grade schoolers will be."

"Fufu, you say that as if you aren't one yourself," she holds my arm tighter. "Don't worry, I'll be with you. No need to get nervous."

"Like I said, I'm not nervous. Whatever. How's your chess going?"

"It's a little frustrating that I can't beat you. But I suppose that's part of what makes it fun." she says with a somewhat annoyed expression.

"One day, you might be able to beat me. Keep it up."

"I can only hope that day'll come. Oh look, we're here."

The school wasn't too big. The classes were split into 2 classes. Each had roughly 25-30 students. This continued until middle school. The entire class stays together in the same classroom for 3 periods, then we go to gym. Afterwards, we head to the cafeteria to eat lunch and finally go back to the classroom for our final 3 periods.

We start off with introductions. I mostly drone them out, only focusing to their names until I heard someone interesting.

"Hello, my name is Kanzaki Ryuji. I like to read books. It's nice to meet you all." the purplish haired boy says.

Weird, I didn't know Sakayanagi and Kanzaki knew each other. It's rather surprising. I hadn't seen them interacting much at all. Perhaps it's because they were important figures of class A and B respectively.

He seemed to be a bit more on the reserved side.

Next up was Sakayanagi, she introduced herself with: "Hello everyone, my name is Sakayanagi Arisu, I'd like to know you all better. Thank you."

Now it's my turn. I can only hope 1st graders aren't particularly mean.

"Um, hi, my name is Ayanokouji Kiyotaka. I guess I like playing chess. Thank you."

Why did I even say that... I doubt they even know what chess is.

"Alright class, it's time to start. Take out your notebooks, we'll start with math." the teacher said.

I sigh to myself. This peaceful life isn't so bad, yet it feels lacking in some way. I do suppose it's better than that place. Well, if you were to ask anyone, they would say that being anywhere else would be better than being in the White Room.

"Ayanokouji-kun, what is 5+4?" the teacher suddenly asks, shaking me out of my thoughts. She likely saw how distracted I was.

"It's 9, sensei."

"Very good!"

The day went on without any issues, I occasionally talked to others, but it was more like me trying to understand whatever language they were speaking. I don't think it was taught in the White Room.