COTE: Rewritten

Chapter 1

The life of a typical high school student isn't very entertaining. The stress of studying and the frightening prospect of the future just really doesn't make for a good story.

However, in the case of the hundreds of students who attend Tokyo's Advanced Nurturing High School, this statement couldn't be further from the truth. On the surface, ANHS is simply a government funded school where anyone who graduates has their future guaranteed; "where dreams are made" ("夢が作られる場所") as the slogan of the school says.

Of course, it's not that simple, each student who aspires to attend the school most go through three stages before being accepted; the first being the standard entrance exams, the second, the interview, and the third, a background check.

Now, you might be thinking, "ANHS is such an interesting school", and of course, you'd be right.

But for all the wrong reasons.

What the students thought would be an easy ticket to guarantee their dreams, turned out to be a place of nightmares.

And I, Ayanokouji Kiyotaka, am one of these students.

...

The argument between two people, one, a high school boy, and the other, an office woman, woke me up from my nap.

Originally, the idea of taking the bus to school seemed like a good one, however, now, it looked like I had been very wrong.

The trivial topic of surrendering a seat to an elderly woman had somehow managed to escalate into a full blown verbal assault, which the boy had distinctly won.

Despite that, the office woman continued to cause a ruckus, demanding the high schooler relinquish his seat. The background noise wouldn't have bothered me at any other time, however, at that moment, I simply wanted peace and quiet.

So, with no other choice, I sat up from my own seat, tapped the office lady on the shoulder, and gestured toward the now vacant spot.

In return for my act of kindness, I received a delightful stare of confusion and disgust from the office woman. Of course, once she realised that I was not intending to grope her, she thanked me with a small bow of her head and guided the old lady to her new seat.

Finally, peace and quiet.

"That was really nice of you, giving your seat to the old woman like that."

...Or perhaps not.

"If you hadn't done anything, I would've helped her myself, you know?"

I turned around to face the owner of the voice, and to my surprise, was met with a cute girl.

"I see. I didn't really do much, I just wanted the office lady to shut up," I responded curtly.

"Oh... Don't you think that's a mean thing to say?" she asked.

"Not especially."

"... You should try to be a little nicer. It's not hard, and you can make a lot more friends that way."

"Is that why you're talking to me now? To act nice in the hope of making friends?" I questioned her.

"Uhm, well. It doesn't hurt to have friends, right?" She said, letting out a nervous chuckle.

"Are you implying that the only reason for being nice is to make friends?"

"..."

A look of thought overcome her face. To me, this exchange meant nothing, but to her, it seemed to be life or death.

"Ah. I see. You're one of those types." She stared at me, her facial expression stayed the exact same, yet the slight movement of her eyes were not lost on me.

She opened her mouth to speak, but we had already arrived at our destination.

The doors swung open, and as I took a step outside, I turned back to talk to the girl once more.

"I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. I'll take your advice and be nice just for you. You should drop the facade. It's wasted on a cute girl like you."

My comment made her jaw drop, whether it was in awe, or disgust, I may never know.

"I hope we can be friends, since it seems like we'll be spending three years together in the same class. It was nice meeting you, Kikyou."

"H-how do you-?"

Know your name? Here, I know everyone's names, Kushida Kikyou.

But not just names. Their class, their strengths, their weaknesses, I know them all.

Kushida Kikyou, on the surface, was a girl who is incredibly nice and outgoing, and has incredible social skills while also being an honours student. But in reality, the mask she put on everyday covered the real beauty of her human emotions.

I think I may have found my first play thing.