Chapter 4

Kiyotaka POV    The next school day was pretty boring, but after school was different. Once classes were done Sakayanagi immediately stop up and slammed her cane on the ground, drawing the attention of the whole class.

    An intense silence filled the room only broken by the tapping of her cane. She arrived at her destination of the podium and called out.

“Kiyo-kun, please come to the front of the room,” she said politely

“Alright” people were confused with the way she addressed me and why this was even occurring in the first place.

“First I would like to point out that this school is far from ordinary” Sakayanagi said “100,000 points per student? Free items at a convenience store on top of this? The hierarchy between classes? Judging students based on their merit? I’m sure all of you have noticed at least a few of these signs by now”

Shock filled the room as my classmates tried to fill the pieces of the puzzle. Though two men remained visibly unfazed.

“You’re talking about how our points will likely change next month based on how we act?” said my bald classmate, Katsuragi

“That’s right, but not just that. I predict a class competition will come.”

“And how do you know this?” asked one of our classmates

“I was certain about the points aspect after sensei’s speech yesterday, the class hierarchy was also plainly shown by how our upperclassmen act with each other and us… just to be certain I interrogated some of the upperclassmen. They were tight-lipped, but I still got plenty of information anyway.”

Katsuragi nodded along with this, showing he had already deduced this himself.

“I think the first move we should make is to nominate a leader for class,” she said clearly implying that she planned to take that position“So, any nominations?” Sakayanagi asked though she wasn’t asking for nominations, she was asking if anyone was willing to stand against her.

“Yes,” the bald man announced as he stood up. He was unfazed by the tense atmosphere and stood up to Sakayanagi’s challenge without fear“I believe myself to be a worthy candidate, I presume you’re nominating yourself as well?”

“Yes, though not just myself. Kiyo-kun and I will rule this class together.”

“You should not bring your personal feelings into play Sakayanagi, I don’t mean any disrespect towards Ayanokoji, but he does not seem suited towards the role of leader.”

“That’s just because you haven’t known him as long as I have” Sakayanagi smirked as she replied “He may have poor communication skills, but he managed to deduce more on the matter that I spoke of than I have” Sakayanagi didn’t back down as she returned a fierce gaze

“I see, you certainly seem like you’re speaking the truth. Let us give our classmates a chance to collect their thoughts, and decide on who to support”

“You’re right, those who wish to support either group can approach one of us whenever you feel like it”

    After this statement, the class dispersed. Sakayanagi came off as an aggressive and smart woman who could face any challenge without fear and teamed up with a silent genius.

    Katsuragi was a reserved gentleman who treated everyone equally, his intelligence rivaled Sakayanagi’s.“Let’s go, Kiyo-kun” Sakayanagi and I walked off. Soon after we were approached by a lot of our classmates.

    Kito Hayato, Hashimoto Masayoshi, Yano Koharu, Nishi Haruka, Sawada Yasumi all approached us after class. We went to a karaoke room to discuss matters of our class.

“It’s nice to meet you all, and thank you for following me.”

“I haven’t decided to follow you yet” replied Kito, “I’ll listen to that guy, but don't think I’m your dog”

“I see, so you’ll aid Kiyo-kun but not me” Sakayanagi replied “very well, I’ll respect your decision for now and gain your trust as time passes."

“Excuse me, but I’m wondering about the relationship between you two,” asked Nishi

“We’re childhood friends," Sakayanagi replied

“Ohhh, that’s so cool” Nishi responded

    During the meeting time, we discussed matters like our own strengths and weaknesses, What roles we would play, and how we could maximize the number of our points next month.

    It was decided that study groups would be held to aid our supporters who weren’t confident in their abilities when in public I would be accompanied by Nishi and Kito, Sakayanagi would be accompanied by Hashimoto and Yano, of course, this was not mandatory but encouraged when they had time available.

    Once the meetings were done Kito and Nishi accompanied me to the Pallet. We already ate at the karaoke room so they were a bit confused.“Ayanokoji-san why are we here?” Nishi asked

“To eavesdrop on conversations and meet people from other classes” I replied “by the way call me by my first name, I have a sister in this school so it would get confusing if we were both called the same thing”

“I see, well I can help you meet people! I know you’re super awkward so leave the talking to me, Kiyotaka-san!” I was a tad bit insulted, but it was nice to know she had my back.

    We grabbed our drinks and sat down, I had a tea, Kito had a coffee, Nishi had something girly. Once we sat down I started up a conversation.“Kito, you said you know martial arts, do you do regular training?”

“Yeah, every morning”

“would you like to be training partners?”

“Alright, let’s do it. I’ll call you at 4:30 every morning, Kiyotaka-san”

    While we were chatting Nishi approached a girl with light pink hair and said. “Hello, my friends and I are looking for people to meet from other classes, what's your name?”

“Ichinose Honami, and yours?”

“Nishi Haruka, it’s nice to meet you Ichinose-san!”

“Could you introduce your classmates to me to your friends?” she asked

“Sure, the apathetic one is Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, the scary one is Kito Hayato”

“Ayanokoji? I met your sister not too long ago!”

“I see, is she staying out of trouble?” I asked

“Yep! I even have her contact info!” such excitement for such a boring conversation

“Speaking of contact info, would you like to exchange yours with me?” asked Nishi

“Of course! I’ll exchange it with all of you!” she replied. After we did that she went back to her friends she was with.

“Looks, personality, and surrounded by people. She is likely popular with her classmates. You have a good eye, Nishi” I told her

“She just looked easiest to talk to” she stated back with a grin for her undeserved praise.

“Well, whatever… I haven’t heard anything from other students suggesting they had useful information, lets head out for the day”

“Kiyotaka-san, could we study in your room?” Nishi asked.

“Why?” I responded

“Because, if we’re going to be rolling as a squad now, becoming close will be necessary” it certainly made sense, plus this will also be a chance to judge their academic performance.

“Alright sounds good, Kito will you join us?” I asked

“Yeah, I'm down.”

    I handed them worksheets which they filled to the best of their ability. They were pretty good, I corrected them on their mistakes and told them what parts of the textbooks to focus on.

“Wow Kiyotaka-san, your really smart, what were your entrance exam scores?” Nishi asked

“100’s across the board” I replied, their jaws dropped but resumed studying afterward.

    At 8:00 they went back to their rooms, I laid in my bed and went to sleep.Kiyoko POV    I went to school with Haruka-san, we arrived at our seats 5 minutes before the start of class. During class sleeping, texting, and talking were all commonplace.

    After school ended I went back to my dorm, while walking back I ran into a disturbance. Sudo was being held down by two guys when another student was antagonizing him.

“I hope you’ve said your prayers” Sudo announced as he shook off the two guys.

“Stop this now!” shouted a pretty girl with pink hair

“Nothings going on here, Ichinose,” said the guy who appeared to be the leader.

“I can’t overlook this disturbance, should you continue to fight here I will call security” after hearing that the leader walked away. Though Sudo did not look like he was done.

“Sudo-kun, don’t let them goad you on,” I said to him

“Ayanokoji you’re here?” he replied

“Thank you for stepping in, Ichinose-san,” I said to the pink-haired girl

“No problem!” she replied, “Ayanokoji-san right?”“Yes, it’s nice to meet you”

“Nice to meet you too! Here let me give you my contact information, who knows when we’ll need to communicate between classes” We then exchanged contact information

“Please call me Kiyoko, my twin brother is in this school”

“Then call me Honami, Kiyoko-san”

    After that, we left each other. I went to my dorm and lounged around for the day. Eventually, I got up to get a drink when I heard Horikita-san talking.

“Nii-san, I’m not the failure I was back then,” Nii-san?

“You were a fool to come to this school” it was the student council president “my little sister assigned to Class D, how embarrassing”

“I will gain your recognition, Nii-san”

“Impossible,” he pushed his glasses up “You have neither the right nor the ability to aim higher... You must learn”

    He grabbed her arm and pinned her against the wall, reached his other arm up, and prepared to drive that arm into her stomach. But before it could hit, I caught it.

“You were really going to hurt her, weren’t you? Let her go” I held his arm in my hands while receiving his glare.

“Stop it, Ayanokoji-san” she looked down and said in a small voice. I let his arm go, but that arm immediately attacked with a backhand strike.

    I dodged with ease, but after that attack came to a quick and powerful kick. After barely dodging that attack he reached his arm out for a grab which I deflected.

“Your movements are quick, do you practice something?” I stared at him with my ugly eyes given to me by my father

“Card Games and Karaoke” I responded

“You’re a unique woman, Ayanokoji Kiyoko, right? I’ll be inviting your brother to the student council soon”“What does he have to do with any of this?” I asked while continuing to state him down

“He is exactly what makes you like Suzune,” he began to walk away before turning his back once more to say “I see it in your eyes”

    ‘What does he see in these ugly eyes my father forced me to bear’ I asked myself. Horikita and I walked off and bought some items from the vending machine. I sipped my green tea.

“You move fast, yet downplay it. Nii-san recognized you out of all the students in the grade as well” Her eyes were cast downwards as she spoke in the same soft tone.

“I’m sure he only knows me from the attention my brother attracts”

“Your brother?” she looked up in curiosity.

“The student council president said we are similar… he means that both of us are always chasing our brother’s shadow”

“I understand,” I was hoping to gain her trust from revealing this, I was going to need talented allies if I’m going to defeat Kiyo-nii.

    We sat in silence for an hour or so, the departed. In that silence, we grew closer. After departing I laid myself on my bed.

    Once again I found myself dreaming about chess, this time we were playing bullet games. Each side had one minute total to spend making moves. I picked up my knight and placed it on f3 then hit the timer, one second was spent on each move for the opening, but as time progressed I spent more time on my moves. Unlike me, Kiyo-nii never slowed down, he spent one second on each move, yet he thought many moves farther ahead than I could.

    We played 20 games of this and I lost each one, I was totally overwhelmed each game, we went through the same training, work just as hard as each other, yet the difference in our abilities was vastly different. Kiyo-nii was a genius while I was, and still am just… defective.

Heya guys, Nate-chan here, during each chapter I find myself focusing more on one of the twins part in the story than the others, is this format ok or should I spend an equal amount of time on each of them? Thanks for reading!