The Mask Slips

Dammit Sudou

Hey guys! Sorry that this update took a while, family was over so I didn't have as much time to type out the chapter. Before we get started, there are some things that I want to say.

The first thing I want to talk about is the questions I asked you guys to answer in the author's note chapter. I let people vote for quite a while and after waiting it's obvious what you guys want.

If you are interested in what the choices actually are and you don't care about LN spoilers (the spoilers are from volume 11.5), then scroll all the way down to the bottom of the author's note chapter to see the questions and what the choices actually mean.

Question #1: Choice A

Question #2: Choice B

I'll go with these choices unless you guys flood the author not chapter saying you don't like those choices.

The next thing that I want to talk about is another question that a lot of people didn't answer so I'll ask again.

Ichinose is going to appear soon and we all know about the confession scene. Do you guys want:

A: Goes with the normal confession (canon). It will take longer for her to develop feelings for Akira.

B: The boys save Ichinose from being assaulted and there will be a fight scene with Kiyotaka and Akira. Ichinose will develop feelings for Akira sooner. It might be unrealistic lol.

That's all! Be sure to vote! Now onto the chapter.

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Ayanokoji POV

10 Years Ago

"Line up!"

All of the kids around me did as they were told and lined up in a straight line. I apathetically looked around and noticed the trepidation in everyone's eyes. Children beside me were crying and frantically looking around, waiting for the next one to collapse. Once a kid collapsed, they were wordlessly dragged out of this massive white room that I am all too familiar with. I lost count of how many kids that collapsed when it reached the double digits.

But I wasn't concerned with that, what I was concerned with was me being the last one standing. Nothing else matters.

A scientist stood in front of all of us and observed us with an emotionless expression.

"Today you will all be running around the room again. You will continue to do this until you reach the time limit. Begin."

We were never told how long we had to run, we would all just keep running until an alarm went off.

Kids then started to run around the room and kids were crying as they ran with all of their might. I joined all of the kids with an indifferent expression and took the lead. This was a routine that I always did during these runs and, in fact, all of the physical exercises.

The collapsing commenced after about fifteen minutes of running. At first, a kid would faint once in a while, but they soon started to drop like flies. The quiet and unresponsive kids would be wordlessly dragged out of the room as we kept running.

There were only about half of us when the alarm went off. The last remaining kids around me let out a sigh of relief until something unexpected happened. A voice from an intercom that was attached to the wall told us to run again.

This was quite strange because we were usually given time to rest before we move on to whatever physical exercise or academic lesson they wanted us to do.