The Mask Slips

The Deal

Authors note: Not gonna lie I kinda got burned out on this fic but I found some inspiration to finally complete this cause of the new volume. Once volume 11 is completely translated and I can binge the next 4 volumes my inspiration to continue this will probably come back. Plus, I think it is a more satisfactory chapter to leave off of. Enjoy!

Arisu Sakayanagi POV

I knew I was different from the other kids at a very young age. 

I was superior to all other children when it came to intelligence and academics. Nothing was challenging at all. Nothing caught my interest. 

I was living in a bleak, boring life. 

But that all changed.

I could still recall the scene across the glass screen on that day as if it had occurred only yesterday.

My father took me to a facility located deep within the mountains, its exterior dyed a pure white. No, it wasn't only the exterior.

As far as I could remember, both the corridors and the small rooms we went through were all painted in one single white color.

I placed both my hands on the transparent glass, doing my very best to see what lied beyond. The screen seemed to be some sort of one-way mirror so they couldn't see us from the other side.

Beyond the glass I was looking through were about twenty students playing in sets of two. They were playing this board game that I have not played yet. 

"What is it, Arisu? It's rare to see you this interested in something."

"This is an experiment attempting to artificially create a genius. There's no way I wouldn't find it interesting."

"...That's not a very childlike way of speaking, as usual."

My father spoke, showing a perplexed smile as he picked me up in his arms.

According to my father, anyone who went through the curriculum of this facility would, without exception, be educated to become someone exceptional. There's no way I wouldn't have misgivings about that.

"It's just, this experiment seems to have a lot of troublesome elements to it."

"Which means?"

"It seems to be attacked from all sides from a human rights perspective."

"Ha, haha..."

The moment people are born into this world, the moment they receive life, their potential is set in stone. It was all the luck of the draw. Then, it would sometimes manifest in various fields. That was the truth of the human world.

They can't do more than what is carved into their DNA. They awaken by the blood passed on from ancestors or by a sudden mutation. In other words, if you want to create a genius, you'd have to do it at the genetic level.

People who are born ordinary will never escape the realm of the ordinary. No matter how blessed their environment is, if somebody isn't excellent from the beginning, they won't become a genius. That had been my belief since I was young.

That was the conclusion I had reached after seeing my fellow classmates receive a top-quality education ever since I was an infant. That's why this experiment ran counter to my own way of thinking. That being said... I could agree that it wasn't so straightforward that DNA alone could explain all of it either.

"Even if someone graduates from this facility as the cream of the crop, will that truly be because of this experiment?"

"What makes you ask that?"