Chapter 1-1: Unofficial Special Exam

Ayanakoji POV:

My first day at the advanced nurturing high school should have been an exciting one. A day that marked the beginning of what would have likely been the best times of my life. It was my chance to learn more about the outside world and experience it firsthand instead of reading it in books. An opportunity to experience 'normalcy'. That on its own was enough to look forward to when I enrolled at the school. Of course, this would have been the case if it weren't for the message I received just a day prior.

Unofficial Special Exam

Dear Student,

You have been chosen to participate in an unofficial special exam that will be conducted throughout your 3 years at the school. The experiment aims to test the fairness of our special exams and how easily a student can be targeted for expulsion. As such, the school has chosen the following students as 'Test subjects'.

Class A: Shiro, Sora, Light Yagami

Class B: Akiyama Shinichi, Karma Akabane

Class C: Yuichi Katagiri, Jabami Yumeko

Class D: Ayanakoji Kiyotaka, Lelouch Lamperouge

The goal is simple, Expel as many students on the list as they try to do the same. Please be advised that leaking this information to students who are not involved in the exam will lead to immediate expulsion.

I had no idea what most of it meant, but I knew it wasn't a good thing. I started to question whether this was considered normal nowadays in high schools, but I quickly abandoned that possibility. Getting expelled for breaking the rules was one thing, but getting expelled by a fellow student was anything but normal. Maybe this school wasn't as normal as I thought.

As I rode on the bus to school, all I could think of was the unofficial special exam and what it might entail for my new student life. Something interesting happened on the way there, but compared to my thoughts, it seemed too insignificant to even think about.

We got to the school campus and all the students on board exited the bus. As I marveled at the architecture of the school, I made my way toward the school building and found my way to my new classroom.

As I arrived at my new classroom, I couldn't help but remember the scenarios that had played in my head of how my first day would go. As someone who disliked trouble, I needed to form proper relationships with my classmates without room for misunderstandings. I wondered if such a thing would still be possible with a target on my back, but I braced myself either way as I entered the classroom. 

I made my way through the tables and went to the seat that had my nameplate on it. But as I reached my seat, I suddenly stopped when I saw the table in front of mine. A student had already occupied it and was staring out the window with a distant look in his eyes. He had raven-colored hair and violet eyes. Even while sitting down, I could tell he was really tall, though he also had a thin build. Though his presence garnered a lot of attention from the surroundings, it wasn't the reason I was curious. It was because of the name written on his nameplate: Lelouch Lamperouge.

As I passed by him, I sat at my table behind him, which caused him to turn around. He looked at the nameplate on my table and looked up at my face, and with a small smile he spoke up,

"You must be one of the 9 targets."

"What are you talking about?" I feigned ignorance and responded without changing my expression, but it didn't seem to work as the boy continued,

"You don't have to be so cautious. As classmates, I don't think it would be appropriate for me to expel you."

"Is that so," Whether or not I believed in his words was irrelevant. At the end of the day, I didn't want to take part in this so-called 'special exam'. Contrary to my grief, the boy seemed to have accepted his fate and was even thinking ahead. This made me wonder how they selected the students for the special exam. Ideally, if they wanted to run a fair experiment or test, they would have chosen the students at random, but so far, I had a hard time believing that.

"Well, I can't say the same about the others. They might really try to expel us, so we should at least work together, don't you think?" Lelouch suggested, but I didn't reply. It wasn't because I was against it, but because of a certain student. She passed by and sat at the table near mine and didn't say a word, but I knew for sure, she had overheard what Lelouch had just said. The girl had long black hair and an expressionless face.

I remember seeing her on the bus too.

Any other student might have chimed in out of curiosity, but she kept a straight face and didn't even give us a second glance. Noticing his mistake, Lelouch simply stared at her and chuckled to himself while turning back and facing forward again. There was a rule against telling other students about the unofficial special exam, but because the girl didn't ask any questions, he didn't need to worry.

"Is there a problem?" The girl suddenly asked as she gave me a side glance. I hadn't realized I had been staring and simply shook my head in response,

"Not really."

"Seeing that you stopped your conversation when I arrived, I thought maybe there was a problem." She answered as she glanced at Lelouch, and he gave her a smile as he responded.

"Did you want us to include you in the conversation?"

"No, thanks. I don't associate with people that plan their misdeeds on the first day of school."

Misdeeds?

I see. From her standpoint, it might have sounded like we were planning on doing something that could possibly get the two of us expelled from the school. Little did she know just how much worse the situation actually was.

"C'mon, do you really think a bunch of first-years would have the guts to try such a thing?" Lelouch said with a mocking smile. I agreed with him on that one. The average high schooler wouldn't do something that would endanger their school lives so early in their high school career.

"I don't know you two, so who's to say you won't?" The girl, however, had a venomous tongue that seemed ready to counter any retort he had. The two of them were certainly good at socializing and I was starting to get envious.

"That's a mean way of looking at your classmates. And by the way, I'm Lelouch Lamperouge, what's your name?"

"Sigh. Please don't talk to me." She sighed as she answered in a deadpan tone and turned away from us. She seemed to be reading a book. At the same time, two ringing sounds simultaneously sounded and both Lelouch and I looked at each other for a moment. It was our cell phones. I pulled out my cell phone and checked the notification. It wasn't a message from the school as I had anticipated, but an email from an anonymous account. Reading through the content, I couldn't help but sigh.

USP meeting,

Apparently, we'll be dismissed early today, so let's meet up 30 minutes after the entrance ceremony at Keyaki Mall. All the other 7 will also be there. I heard there's Karaoke. Hope you can sing! See you there.

"All the other 7 huh?" Lelouch spoke up as he turned to gauge my reaction. Of course, I remained expressionless as I replied,

"It might be a play of words," I answered vaguely so that the girl sitting beside me couldn't understand what we were talking about, but all my efforts seemed to go in vain as Lelouch casually responded,

"That's true. There's a possibility the sender hasn't met any of the so-called 7 and is simply using this to lure everyone out. He probably sent the same message to everyone to trick them into thinking we all agreed to it."

It was as he deduced, simply put; each class had at least 2 students for the special exam, and so if they received such a message, they wouldn't be able to know what was going on with the other classes since they could only rely on each other's message. Just like right now; since Lelouch and I have no idea what's happening with the other 7 students, we were forced to trust the sender's words and go to the meeting spot to find out.

"We could choose not to go, but that might turn everyone else against us," I added to his words, and he nodded in agreement. If it turned out we were the only ones among the 9 who ignored the message, then the others could plot to expel us first. Whoever sent out the message knew exactly what they were doing, it was a psychological attack against everyone among the 9.

"Yeah, that might be a problem. We have no choice but to go." Lelouch concluded and I nodded in agreement. From the corner of my eye, I could see the black-haired girl eyeing us suspiciously, but from Lelouch's smiling face, I could tell he was doing this intentionally.

"What's wrong Miss 'Please don't talk to me'. Do you have something to add?" He spoke teasingly which caused the girl to glare at him with an annoyed expression. I found it amazing that he was risking expulsion just to get under her skin, but at the same time, it showed his confidence that she wouldn't be able to find out either way.

As Lelouch teased the black-haired girl, who we would later know as Horikita Suzune, the class quickly filled up with more students coming in. A blonde-haired boy in particular had garnered a lot of attention as he entered the classroom while exuding an aura of confidence, and at the time, I heard a sigh escape from Horikita as she shook her head. I could vaguely remember the blonde-haired boy causing a scene on the bus ride, so I understood her feelings.

It didn't take long for our homeroom teacher to arrive, and everyone quickly settled down. There were a lot of surprising details about the school's policy and rules, particularly the S-system and a few others, but for me, and probably Lelouch too, it felt like something was missing. 

Were they doing it on purpose? 

Under normal circumstances, there wouldn't be any reasonable way of expelling other students without some kind of stage to do so, which meant that the school was likely keeping the whole 'special exams' thing a secret. Since ours was 'Unofficial', it made sense to assume there would be official ones to be held by the school in the future, at least that was the explanation I settled for in my head.

"Well, it appears no one has any questions. I hope you enjoy your time here as students." Chayabashira-sensei, our homeroom teacher, left us with those words as she made a swift exit. The rest of the students couldn't hide their surprise at the large number of points they had been given and most of them excitedly made plans for the day.

"This school doesn't seem as strict as I thought," I muttered to no one in particular. Compared to the email about the special exam, everything the teacher shared was mostly positive.

"It's way too lenient if you ask me," Horikita said as she glanced toward me.

"Well, it's a good thing no one asked you. Right, Ayanakoji-kun?" Lelouch turned around as he added. Horikita glared at him, but he didn't seem bothered at all. They both turned to face me and waited for my reply. 

Can't we all just be friends?

"Everyone, can you please listen to me for a moment." As if sent by God, one of the students raised their hands and drew everyone's attention, including the two in front of me.

"Starting today, we're all going to be classmates. Therefore, I think it'd be good for us to introduce ourselves and become friends as soon as possible. We still have some time until the entrance ceremony. What do you say?"

The boy seemed like an upstanding student and exuded an aura of kindness that seemed to draw everyone in. At his suggestion, a series of introductions came from the students, though some seemed reluctant or shy, almost everyone introduced themselves in the end. Maybe because I was so drawn to normalcy, I found each of them to be quite interesting.

As for my introduction... Yeah, let's not talk about that one.

Anyways, the introductions ended, and we all moved to the entrance ceremony which also concluded without incident.