> "The truth, when hidden too long, doesn't fade. It sharpens. It waits for a spark."
— Manabu Horikita
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Tokyo, Ministry of Education — Briefing Room
The fluorescent lights buzzed softly above the roundtable, where murmurs and unease filled the air like static. Officials, lawmakers, and public safety officers sat shoulder to shoulder, every one of them holding the same document in their hands.
The title on the front page read:
> CONFIDENTIAL: WHITE ROOM — EXPOSÉ DOSSIER
Leaked through encrypted international sources.
Compiled and verified by the Ethics Bureau.
Photos. Diagrams. Psychological assessments. Names redacted. Reports of a facility hidden beneath government funding—one designed to sculpt human beings into tools of precision. Or weapons.
Every page felt less like education and more like engineering.
At the head of the table sat Manabu Horikita, now 21 and a key policy advisor in Japan's youth education reform initiative. Clad in his sharp black uniform, he didn't blink as the final pages of the dossier showed a grainy still image—a figure standing at the center of a classroom.
Kiyotaka Ayanokoji.
Older. Taller. Sharper. But unmistakably him.
> "He returned there?"
"He's one of them?"
"No… He's in charge now."
The whispers from the others came fast, disbelieving.
Manabu's voice cut through them like a blade.
"Send a delegation."
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Advanced Nurturing High School — Alumni Forum
The notice went out discreetly, but it reached them all.
Suzune Horikita, now a rising figure in administrative law.
Kei Karuizawa, thriving in university, but still carrying a wound only she and one boy understood.
Ichika Amasawa, trying and failing to blend into the outside world after the trauma of the White Room.
Ryuen, now leading an experimental training program for at-risk youth—brutal, but lawful.
Arisu Sakayanagi, seemingly amused, always one step ahead.
Class 1-A and 1-B graduates, from Kanzaki to Hiyori, curious but cautious.
> "You're invited as neutral observers."
"To verify, document, and report the truth of the White Room."
Suzune was the first to agree. Kei hesitated.
Ichika, upon hearing the name again, went silent.
They all had known Kiyotaka. But none of them had seen him in his element.
None had seen who he was without restraint.
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White Room — Perimeter Gate
The transport descended like a ghost through the mountains—an unmarked vehicle on an unmarked path. As the forest thinned, the complex appeared: metallic, geometric, sunken into the earth like a scar too deep to heal.
Security was minimal—but unnecessary.
The danger wasn't outside. It was already inside.
As the delegation stepped off the transport, the atmosphere shifted. Even the air here seemed heavier. Still. Controlled.
The massive gates creaked open without sound.
And there—waiting, hands clasped behind his back, suit pressed, face unreadable—
Stood Kiyotaka Ayanokoji.
Not as a peer. Not as a student.
As the Professor.
---
Kei froze.
Her throat went dry. She had pictured this reunion a hundred times. None of them like this. He didn't smile. He didn't frown. He simply nodded once.
"Welcome," he said quietly, "to the Y2M Facility."
Ryuen scoffed.
"Still got that personality vacuum going, huh?"
Sakayanagi chuckled behind her fan.
"Oh, this will be fascinating."
But it was Ichika who looked the most shaken. Her eyes scanned the facility, her breath hitching at every turn. She knew this place. The walls spoke to her in ways no one else could hear.
"You rebuilt it…" she whispered. "Why?"
Kiyotaka didn't answer.
Instead, he turned, walking ahead, expecting them to follow.
And they did.
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Final Scene – The Children
The guests were led through one-way glass to a room where dozens of children—uniformed, immaculate—sat in perfect rows.
But they weren't empty.
They were… talking. Whispering between lessons. One child even drew something on the corner of their notebook—a tree.
It was a subtle but seismic shift.
Suzune leaned in, narrowing her eyes.
"This isn't what I expected."
Manabu said nothing. But his gaze flicked to Kiyotaka.
"You changed the rules," he finally said.
Kiyotaka's voice was calm.
> "I rewrote them."
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[End of Chapter 1]
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