Return to Koudo Ikusei.
After receiving the room card to his original dormitory from Tsukishiro Tsunenari, along with the specially issued phone and the Black Sphere wristwatch the school provided—
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka showed no intention of staying to press him for information.
Instead, he went straight back to his own room.
After all, he now held the nominal title of combat teaching assistant.
Not needing to follow a rigid class schedule, he naturally enjoyed a great deal of freedom.
On top of that, with the "Hyperbolic Time Chamber" now available at the school, no one would take time off during regular class hours just to come practice combat.
This left Ayanokouji with quite the leisurely post.
But compared to that leisure, what concerned Ayanokouji more at the moment was a certain change in his body.
He noticed that the Parasyte—which used to be able to communicate with him only within his dreams—seemed to be reacting differently now that he had stepped back through the gates of Koudo Ikusei.
He sat down on the edge of the bed and slowly raised his right hand.
Gazing calmly at his right arm, Ayanokouji called out tentatively:
"...Zero?"
Aside from Ayanokouji's faint breathing, the room was utterly silent.
But deep in his mind, the Parasyte—who had long been unable to hold it in—immediately responded: "I'm here."
Along with the mental exchange, a faint, subtle wriggling sensation stirred beneath the muscles of Ayanokouji's right arm.
"Still, back when we were at the school before, I could only talk to you from inside the capsule. Now I can actually stay right inside your body... It feels pretty nice."
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka nodded thoughtfully:
"It seems the items exchanged from the Black Sphere shop only truly and completely transfer ownership to the buyer once they've genuinely been taken out of this school."
He paused, then asked, "So, can you form blades or tentacles now?"
The Parasyte Zero denied it flatly:
"No. In that regard it's no different from being in the capsule. I'm still under severe restrictions. It's just that, being bound to your flesh and blood, I don't have to be locked in that dark little room, so talking is a bit more comfortable, that's all."
Ayanokouji wasn't surprised by this.
If extraordinary powers could be freely abused within this school, Koudo Ikusei would have descended into chaos long ago—the presiding god would never permit such a thing.
He set aside his probing and got to the point: "All right, Zero, now recount everything you've recorded while at my side during this time... tell it to me in full, from start to finish."
This, presumably, was one of the fundamental reasons he had chosen to take only the Parasyte "Zero" with him when he left.
For someone who knew he would inevitably face a memory wipe after leaving, what could be more reliable than a "biological hard drive" possessed of its own independent consciousness?
Whether through subconscious suggestions in his sleep, or by directly establishing a mental link to question it after returning to school—
it was the perfect fail-safe he'd left for himself.
And the Parasyte Zero, as though long accustomed to this utilitarian mindset of his,
simply spoke up calmly:
"Well now, that's a long story..."
Time quickly moved on to the afternoon.
As the bell signaling the end of class for the ordinary students echoed across the campus,
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka—having learned the whole affair from the Parasyte and pieced the past together well enough—finally pushed open his dorm door and headed toward the dedicated combat classroom where he was about to take up his post.
However, before he could even push the door open and step inside—
"You're back pretty early." A familiar voice came from behind him.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka turned around.
Seeing Chris dressed in the standard Koudo Ikusei uniform, he nodded with his usual composure:
"Since I found that leaving was meaningless—and would even get me treated as a test subject—returning was naturally the only choice."
"Have you decided which class you'll be joining next?"
Chris walked up and asked casually.
Ayanokouji paused, then said:
"If I had a choice, I'd probably go to Ryuuen's class. As I recall, they should be pretty short on people right now."
"But the school seems to have a rule that the transfer process only starts once a vacancy opens up in a class. So where I end up is a matter of luck... I might even be moved up to an upper year."
His tone was flat: "Either way, my grades won't fall behind, so it makes no real difference which year I'm in."
Hearing this, Chris raised an eyebrow in feigned surprise:
"Judging by how utterly clueless you acted in the extra instance the day before yesterday, your memory must have been wiped at the time, right?"
"So does that mean the moment you got back to school, they even provided you with a memory-restoration service?"
Ayanokouji shook his head and spoke bluntly:
"It was the Parasyte I took with me. After I returned to school, it reestablished contact, and I learned all of this from it."
"However, it no longer exists in the so-called capsule form. It's now lodged directly in my right arm, and we can communicate mind to mind. Perhaps... only items that have genuinely been taken out of the school undergo a change in how their ownership is judged."
Chris stroked his chin and mused for a moment, as if turning it over in his head.
After a while, he let out a soft sigh:
"That's valuable information. I actually have to thank you for this little experiment of yours—and for the news you brought back."
As he spoke, Chris fished several item capsules out of his pocket and held them out to Ayanokouji.
They were the legacy Ayanokouji had left behind in the Black Sphere Space.
"Since your Parasyte has already told you how everything went down, you should know how to use these items too, right?"
Chris handed the capsules back to him. "These were yours to begin with—now they're returning to their rightful owner."
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka reached out to take them and nodded in thanks:
"Thanks for the trouble."
Then he glanced at the arena doors behind him and extended an invitation: "Care to try out a combat lesson?"
"I've been planted in this school as a White Room teaching assistant. To keep the cover believable, I won't be holding anything back in the instruction from here on."
Chris chuckled and waved it off:
"No need. Pure grappling works fine against humans, but it's hard to make it count against those inhuman monsters in the exam grounds—at best it's an auxiliary tactic."
Ayanokouji didn't mind the polite refusal and nodded:
"Then I'll get to it. We'll talk again when there's time."
At this, Chris gave a wave, watched Ayanokouji's back as he pushed through the doors, and didn't linger there for long.
But there was no denying it.
After all, Ayanokouji was the first to spend an enormous number of points to escape the school, only to miraculously return—and someone who had already played important roles several times in the first-years' advance tests.
So, just as a large crowd of students had rushed to the notice board yesterday to confirm the personnel changes, after class today there were still quite a few eager to come dig up some real intelligence about the "outside world."
And so, on the tree-lined path back, Chris came face-to-face with Ichinose Honami, Ryuuen, and their group, who were heading to the arena to find Ayanokouji and pry information out of him.
Seeing Chris coming from that direction, Ryuuen raised an eyebrow slightly, a little surprised: "Done already... Did you two rehearse your lines ahead of time? Or have you been secretly keeping in touch through Line all along?"
Chris shook his head and explained:
"I just went to find out what I wanted to know, that's all. Besides, we're all smart people—no need to ask for too much detail. A tacit understanding is enough."
Ryuuen thought for a moment, then asked directly:
"So what else did Ayanokouji go through out there, besides getting unlucky and dragged into the Black Sphere's extra exam?"
"Didn't ask." Chris spread his hands. "I just returned the items he'd left behind, and made a bit of small talk while I was at it."
"If there's any valuable intel, it'd probably be this: after he left and came back, the Parasyte he took with him fused directly into his arm and no longer exists in capsule form. Of course, even with the fusion complete, it seems it still can't materialize while inside the school."
Ryuuen's brows shot up:
"So that's a thing too..."
"Looking at it this way, does the Black Sphere—the presiding god—actually want us to save up enough points and leave, or does it fundamentally not want us to leave at all? I really can't figure out what game it's playing."
Not far off, Ichinose Honami now spoke up softly, offering her own conjecture:
"I heard from Yotsuya that in Monday's extra instance, aside from Ayanokouji, the intruders included some people closely connected to him... They looked just like operatives from some mysterious organization."
Ichinose's gaze sharpened slightly:
"I think the Black Sphere's intent is actually quite simple."
"It allows you to trade points for the freedom to leave, but it absolutely will not condone you carrying off the extraordinary powers that belong to the exam grounds..."
"Those who chase after the extraordinary will, in the end, only be devoured by it."
Ryuuen, however, curled his lip in disdain and sneered:
"If it's really as you say, Ichinose, then I'm afraid the intruders we run into in future exams won't stay as few as they are now."
"There's no way I'll believe that a school capable of monitoring our phone networks would just completely turn a blind eye and let us go around sharing the training methods for Ripple and Ki!"
"In this world, there will always be people who, driven by all kinds of ambitions and desires, want to pursue that sort of extraordinary, transcendent power."
Chris nodded to himself inwardly.
Those words weren't wrong.
So, those who reap without sowing would soon be slotted into the exam grounds to come.
Of course, if these behind-the-scenes scripts got spoiled, it would take away a lot of the fun.
Like Ayanokoji Atsumi and Nanase Tsubasa...
Chris was genuinely curious about the kind of magnificent expression that would cross Nanatsura Tsubasa's face once she saved Ayanokoji Atsumi in the exam grounds, only to learn from the Black Sphere that her childhood friend had actually died because of this very man.
Just thinking about it got him fired up.
Tucking away his malicious little amusement, Chris put on the expression of someone who'd just remembered something:
"By the way, I just asked Ayanokouji which class he plans to transfer into, and he said that if he had the choice, he'd want to join your class, Ryuuen."
Hearing this, the corners of Ryuuen's mouth twitched upward uncontrollably.
Though he fought hard to keep his cold demeanor, that surge of excitement nearly made him burst out laughing.
He pressed a knuckle lightly against the corner of his mouth, pretending to cover it up:
"Heh. Didn't expect him to think so highly of me..."
"But even if it's the great Ayanokoji, once he's in my class, the rules and procedures still have to be followed all the same. I don't care how badass he used to be!"
Seeing this, Chris fanned the flames:
"Ayanokouji told me he's here as a White Room teaching assistant now. To stay in character with the procedure, he'll be going all out when he teaches—at least for the time being."
"So, Ryuuen—want to go test the measure of the man?"
Faced with Chris's provocation, Ryuuen gave a disdainful snort:
"I always figured this Ayanokouji kid was hiding something and wasn't so simple, but I never thought he'd actually crawl out of some mysterious spy outfit... What is this, some third-rate light novel plot? How boring."
Ryuuen twisted his neck, producing a crisp crack-crack:
"Still, White Room or black room, who gives a damn where he came from."
"Is he really going to be stronger than us Black Sphere regulars?"
"You lot just wait right here and watch how easily I take Ayanokouji down!"
With that, Ryuuen strode off with great, sweeping steps toward the arena Chris had just come from, his back radiating arrogance.
Watching him go, Ichinose Honami let out a somewhat helpless sigh:
"Honestly... with Ryuuen's current prestige, there's really no need for this kind of superfluous show of force..."
Chris, however, shook his head and explained to Ichinose:
"Ichinose, this is where you don't get it."
"A man like Ryuuen is used to operating within an environment he controls, following his own way of surviving."
"Given his character, as a leader he naturally doesn't want any destabilizing factor beneath him that could threaten him—or even openly defy him."
"And the most convenient way to deal with a troublemaker like that is, without a doubt... pure violence—meeting him head-on and beating him into total submission."
As she listened, Ichinose Honami's delicate brows knitted slightly; clearly she didn't quite grasp this barbaric logic.
But considering the previous Black Sphere exams—
when facing danger, the weak would almost unconditionally submit to the decisions of the strong, with no voice to speak up at all.
In that kind of extreme environment, Ryuuen's strong-arm tactics perhaps really couldn't be counted as wrong.
Of course, given Ichinose's own nature, she likewise would never consider them right.
After all, one of the great hallmarks of humanity's step into civilized society is mutual understanding and win-win cooperation.
She knew, of course, that in life-or-death emergencies, authoritarian rule really did carry the most efficient execution.
But high-pressure policies could never last.
At the very start, you might forcibly crush all discontent through sheer, absolute strength.
But once things reached the later stages—when everyone had saved up enough points, gotten powerful equipment, and made real progress...
would the team, at that point, once again fall into a cycle of infighting and internal drain over power, all because of differing opinions?
Precisely because she looked so far ahead, Ichinose Honami, deep down, did not agree with the codes of conduct held by Sakayanagi Arisu and Ryuuen.
And it was fortunate, too.
Chris, who had always been the strongest of all, was rather easygoing by nature and had no interest whatsoever in joining the struggle for power.
This alone allowed the several classes to just barely maintain a delicate balance among themselves.
Just as the girl's thoughts gradually began to wander—
Sitting on a bench not far away, Sakayanagi Arisu, who seemed to have been observing them for a while,
came drifting over unhurriedly, bringing Kamuro Masumi along.
"What a coincidence—Ichinose, and Chris, too."
Sakayanagi Arisu said with a beaming smile, "To run into you here really is a rare thing."
Jolted from her thoughts by this sudden greeting, Ichinose Honami gave a light cough.
Forcing down the thoughts in her mind, she turned to look at Sakayanagi:
"Sakayanagi, are you here to question Ayanokoji for information as well?"
Sakayanagi Arisu, however, shook her head elegantly:
"I have no interest in going out of my way to seek out some stray dog who fled back in such a sorry state."
"The information you could pry out of him is nothing but a pitiful scrap. Even without asking, I could guess it nearly to the letter."
Chris was left momentarily speechless.
Though there was nothing really wrong with what Sakayanagi said,
somehow... hearing those words come from Sakayanagi Arisu, an "information hound" herself,
carried an indescribable sense of the absurd.
At this point, Kamuro Masumi, beside her, craned her neck to peer in the direction Ryuuen had left, and asked in puzzlement:
"Come to think of it, why hasn't Ryuuen come back out yet?"
She muttered, "Don't tell me his provocation backfired, he got thoroughly thrashed, and now he's too ashamed to show his face?"
Sakayanagi Arisu gave a soft laugh: "Isn't that perfectly normal?"
"Ryuuen's entire combat power right now is almost completely tied to that cybernetic body template of his."
"If we're talking purely about physical technique... in front of a so-called 'elite' like Ayanokouji, who received professional training from childhood and could topple grown adults at just a few years old, his little street-brawling haymakers are simply too unimpressive."
As for that—
having personally lived through the Black Sphere exams,
none of those present were the least bit surprised by it.
Ichinose Honami, on the other hand, was curious about the White Room that had come up in Chris's words earlier:
"That White Room... just what sort of place is it? Is it a secret organization that trains national spies?"
Kamuro Masumi nodded along eagerly and asked the same question:
"Right? It sounds so mysterious!"
The smile at the corner of Sakayanagi Arisu's mouth turned cold, and she disparaged it without the slightest hesitation:
"That would be giving them far too much credit."
"It's nothing more than a place that, under the guise of 'nurturing ordinary people into geniuses,' scours everywhere for a mob of mediocrities, then uses inhuman torment to sift out one or two passable defective products..."
"It grandly calls itself a cultivator of geniuses, but in reality it's just a garbage institution swindling the government for funding."
Listening to her barbed, needling tone, Chris couldn't help but sigh:
"You gave me the same assessment back when we chatted before. It seems you really do have a terrible impression of that place called the White Room."
Sakayanagi Arisu pursed her lips:
"That's because, a very long time ago... I nearly got sent in there myself. So I had the privilege of witnessing their 'cultivation model' firsthand."
Chris looked her up and down, his gaze deliberately lingering for two seconds on her utterly flat, unremarkable chest.
"Then you really do have ample reason to badmouth it."
"Otherwise... I doubt I'd still be able to see you standing here."
Sakayanagi Arisu caught exactly where his gaze had landed.
She instantly shot him an embarrassed, indignant glare and huffed: "There's no need to take such a roundabout jab at me over something like that."
"It's perfectly normal for a genius to have a few physical shortcomings. If anything, a so-called cram-style cultivation method like the White Room's ultimately just mass-produces obedient, order-following 'high-quality laborers.'"
"Something like that doesn't come anywhere close to a genius born capable of creating miracles!"
Chris spread his hands helplessly.
Still, to be fair.
Sakayanagi Arisu really wasn't wrong this time.
The White Room really wasn't much to speak of.
The Yagami Takuya it produced barely got any screen time in the original work before being written off, after all...
____
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