Another Like Me - Part I (CoTE x OC) ✔

SS.3 - An Aura of Mystery (Ryuji Kanzaki)

I've been a top honor student in my life for as long as I can remember.

I was well liked by my teachers and peers, and I was supposedly the face of our class. The person who was responsible for leading our school to greatness.

As a result, I've had several run-ins with people of different skill sets and caliber. I've grown to understand how people think, and how they react to different situations.

It gives you an idea of what a person's true nature is. Their actions. Their decisions. Their words. All these subtle hints involuntarily, slowly, surely, peel off the cover from a person's personality, and lays it bare to the naked eye.

I've come to understand how you can speed up this process of peeling the layer off, and exposing a person's true intentions. It's a skill that I would say, have picked up over the course of my several meetings and agendas.

No one is free from this skill. Every person has certain 'reflexive' actions built into them, and you cannot train these actions, nor can you modify them. They're a part of the human psyche, and it always erupts from the surface at the ugliest moment.

But not all people were hiding something. I could safely say that Ichinose Honami of my class, was one of the nicest people I have ever met. My interactions with her have slowly uncovered her true personality, and laid it bare in front of me to analyze.

But it is no different from her usual demeanor. Ichinose's true feelings are echoed in her expressions. She was what they called, true goodness.

These were the rather unorganized thoughts that roamed by head as I absentmindedly stared at Takeyama, who was being supported by Ayanokoji and Hirata to the AD coalition camp. He had pulled off a dangerous move against Ryuuen, and had ultimately managed to secure more points than him in the heated one-on-one battle. Won the battle, but lost the war. This quote would be apt to describe Takeyama's current situation.

I was inclined to go and help him, but being a horse myself, supporting Shibata, and being from the opposite Team prevented me from making any careless moves. It would be seen as good sportsmanship by my classmates, but it would probably be used against me by Class A and C. They were very much capable of doing that.

Takeyama had asked me to serve as a witness to an almost-scandal that could have put the White Team in great danger. Kinoshita-san from Class C, really was completely uninjured when I had moved over to her room. Ryuuen was there as well, but he did not care for my presence, and simply stared at me when I had entered the room. Of course, he had no authority to kick me out. After all, I was a part of the White Team.

I've had several chances to talk with Takeyama in the past few months, most notably during and after the Deserted Island Exam. His first impression was that of a painfully honest, bordering into the territory of downright rude, cunning person. His first visit of the Class B camp was not very pretty, and there was a bit of heated talks between him and I. But things were slowly ironed out during their next visit.

His second visit to me consisted of him showing me his Keycard from his pocket. I couldn't be sure if that was intentional or not, because he was completely oblivious, and maintained an unreadable expression on his face.

Was he trying to test Class B's sincerity in the alliance? I knew better than to guess Class D's Leader, even though I had definitely caught the letters 'Y' and 'M' written on the keycard. I could immediately eliminate Horikita Suzune and Hirata Yosuke using the current information. Takeyama consisted of a 'Y' and an 'M', and the card was in his pocket. It was almost definite proof that he had shown me his keycard. However, staying true to our alliance, and loyal to Ichinose, I decided that it's best not to guess Class D's leader.

Over time, I've come to respect Keisuke Takeyama, not only as an able commander of his class, but also as a person.

I'm probably the only person right now, other than Ryuuen, who is aware of Takeyama's destructive abilities and shrewd, cunning intellect.

My analysis of him consisted of only one aspect — Takeyama knows more than he lets on, and his antics tread the fine line between good and bad.

He was neither passive nor aggressive.

Neither quiet nor loud.

Neither assertive nor relaxed.

Actions that were seemingly easy to read, but actually incredibly difficult to discern.

He didn't have a twisted personality, but he didn't have a righteous personality either.

To me, his existence was shrouded in doubt, an enigmatic creature. For now, I'd keep a close eye on him. Whether he is an ally to Class B or not, only time will tell.

And I sincerely hope that Class B does not make an enemy out of Takeyama.

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A/N's:

Kanzaki is the best Class B character, hands down. Too bad he's stuck in a class full of wimps.

His arc in the Y2V5 novel is really good. I'm obviously not gonna get into the details here (cuz spoiler lmao). I wanna give him more importance, because he deserves it. Fanfiction is all about giving importance to characters who usually don't get much screen time in the canon series, so I'll be focusing on these background characters a lot more than usual.

Anyways, thank you for reading! Please vote for the chapter, it really motivates me to continue pumping out chapters! Cheers.

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