Prologue

In the dimly lit room, the only sound was the faint hum of the air conditioner. The walls were plain and boring just a few scuff marks from years of tough lessons and endless drills. There I was, Hachiman Hikigaya, sitting alone at a small metal table, staring at my own distorted reflection. The face looking back? I didn't even recognize it anymore. I hadn't been the same since I joined the Black Room.

They called it a place for the broken, a place for those who could survive the world's darkest corners and handle chaos. If the White Room took away humanity to build precision, the Black Room embraced flaws, teaching us to use our weaknesses as strengths and control the chaos around us. I realized my role wasn't to stand out by normal standards but to blend in, guide people, and stay invisible.

They taught me things most people wouldn't understand. Empathy, but not the kind tied to kindness. Mine was like a tool to get under someone's skin, to feel their vulnerabilities, hopes, and fears. The lessons were meant to break and rebuild me until my mind and heart held contradictions only I could understand. Emotions weren't to be ignored but used. The world wasn't just problems to solve with logic but a tangled web of relationships and flaws to take advantage of.

Now, I had graduated from the Black Room, and my next assignment was called Advanced Nurturing High School. It was called a "school," but anyone who really knew it saw it as a battlefield where every action, every word, and every relationship mattered. People thought it was a place for the elite to rise to the top. But I knew better. It was a system, a cage that rewarded ambition and discipline while throwing out the weak. The weak, and those who chose to stay invisible.

That's why being placed in Class 1-D was almost funny. It was the school's lowest tier, filled with students labeled as "inferior" by the system. Unmotivated, unsophisticated, unfocused. Most people would see it as a pit to climb out of, a stain on their future dreams. But I didn't mind. The Black Room taught me to keep my head down and watch from the shadows. Class D was exactly where I wanted to be. A place to sit back, observe, and wait. After all, chaos was my playground.

But I wasn't the only one here. Rumor had it that one of the White Room's "perfect products" was also placed in this school. A student with the same clean detachment and skills that my system despised. Ayanokouji Kiyotaka quiet, almost unnoticed, a background figure whose talent was hidden behind a blank expression. Just like me. But while the White Room taught Ayanokouji to erase himself, the Black Room taught me to wear masks.

I smirked at the thought. An immovable object versus an unstoppable force. That's what this was going to be about, right? Still, I didn't feel the need to challenge Ayanokouji yet. Not now. I would watch. Wait. Test the waters and see where things went. Ayanokouji was interesting, sure, but not my only concern. I had to blend in, get to know the people, and slowly influence their lives. Guide them how I wanted, but always from behind the scenes.

Advanced Nurturing High School wanted leaders, but leaders who followed the system's rules. My loyalty? Only to my own code. I didn't want to be a pawn for some faceless institution. If I could use this place as my own proving ground, like the Black Room taught, I could shape it to my will even from the shadows. I would be the hand moving pawns into place, the voice no one heard. A quiet observer, a hidden threat.

Taking a deep breath, I looked away from my reflection and let a cynical half-smile form on my lips.

"Advanced Nurturing High School, huh?" I muttered to myself. "Let's see if you're as unpredictable as they say."

Walking out of the room and toward my new life, a shadow in a place meant to reward the brightest lights, my footsteps echoed down the hall. Behind me, the Black Room stayed silent, a part of me I could never fully leave behind.