My KiyoKei Fantasies

White Room

The roads leading up the mountain were bumpy as we drove up to a certain secret facility. A place that has been unknown to the public for decades. Only a very small amount of government officials knew about it. An intense school that trained children from their birth to prove a theory. That it's not genetics that create a genius, but their environment. The school's name was known as the White Room. Many children attended the school but not many of them survived. It was a place that took away human rights from those children. They were hurt. Physically. Mentally, Emotionally. 

 I knew someone who was raised there. Since birth, he had been training to become a leader that would rule Japan once he was of age.

Ayanokouji Kiyotaka.

That was the name of that of the guy who was supposed to be that perfect leader. And also my husband. It's a long story but to sum it up, his father who ran the White Room facility was arrested for human experimentation and child abuse a few years ago. The police had custody of the place until recently. Now the one who has the keys to the place was Kiyotaka.

I never knew about the White Room until our third year of high school. That was when Kiyotaka explained everything he was hiding about himself to me. To be honest, I was a bit shocked at first. But it all the dots started to connect in my head. I finally understood the reason for his actions during school. With that, I could accept him. I trusted in him and wanted to help him no matter what.

We parked the car in front of the building. The building was huge. All walls and doors were white. There were no windows to let in any light. I haven't even stepped into the building yet but I could sense the coldness from here.

"You don't have to go in with me if you're not comfortable with that. There's not much here to see anyways." Kiyotaka informed me.

"No, I'll go with you. There's no way I'm leaving you by yourself in here." 

"If that's what you want."

I held his hand as he opened the main door. As expected, the hallways inside were pure white. No colour other than white existed inside this abandoned building. Each footstep of ours echoed throughout the building. 

I looked through a window to see a classroom. The chairs and desks, the pencils and erasers, everything was the same colour. To wake up and see the same thing everyday must have been torture for all the children attending here. I know that I wouldn't have lasted long in an environment like this. However, Kiyotaka manage to survive in this cruel place for a full fifteen years. On one hand, it was an incredible feat. But on the other hand, it was sad. There's no way to survive the White Room while keeping your emotions. He had to lock up any unneeded emotions deep inside his heart. That's probably the reason why he looks so calm and scary at the same time. It's not something that can be reversed easily or quickly. It would take YEARS for him to become even slightly normal.

As we walked further down the hall, Kiyotaka asked me a question.

"From what you've seen so far, how do you feel about this place?"

"..."

"Kei?"

"... It's just...it's just so cruel. This school, no. This torture facility should have never existed. Everyone who came here should have lived a happy, safe childhood. But it was all striped away from them."

I felt like crying while saying that.

"But you know? In a way, I'm kind of thankful to this place. Because of it, I was able to meet the person you are today. And from now on, I'm going to care for you forever."

"I think it's going to be other way around as I don't want to be eating burnt food for the rest of my life."

"Oi!!"

We continued walking down the facility. We passed rooms where the students would sleep and and eat. The places where they would train in physical activity and martial arts. The places where they would study traditional Japanese ceremonies.  There were so many buildings and  rooms. It's hard to believe that they were able to keep this place running for over twenty years without anyone knowing. Once we reached the back of the building, there was one room that caught Kiyotaka's attention. I was going to ask him about it but he spoke first.

"It's here. This is the room where I was raised in for 15 years. At first, there were many of us. Due to the strict training and everything, I wasn't able to become close with any of them. Over time, they all left the White Room because they couldn't handle the pressure. Even now, I don't know what happened to them. I don't know if they are even still alive or if they didn't make it. But back then, I slowly shut my away my heart to all the misfortune of those who didn't make it. I didn't have another way dealing with all the pain inside and I guess that's what shaped me to be the person I was when I first entered ANHS."

"That may be true, but due to your experiences at ANHS don't you think those events are what shaped you to be the person you are right now?"

"I think so. At first, I planned on returning here after graduation but my mind changed little by little.  Technically, I did return here but not in the way that I expected. I'd rather not come here ever again. I just want to live a peaceful normal life with you."

A lot of things have happened in Kiyotaka's life. Being trained to become the ultimate leader that would have ruled over the country since birth. Escaping the place that trapped him for over 10 years. Starting over with a normal high school student life. Returning to the place where he was born after graduation. It sounded like a story from a manga but it was reality for him. He won't be able to fully move on from his trauma. But I want to be the main person who supports him through the rest of his journey.

We returned to our car that was waiting for us outside. Kiyotaka locked up the front door and gate before coming inside the car. Our trip to the White Room was now over. We came here because Kiyotaka wanted to see the place he grew up in one final time. Now it's just going to be the two us walking side by side as we create new, happy memories.

~Fin~

Author's Notes:

Hello! Hope you guys are doing well. I've been wanting to write this one for a while and now I've finally have done it. I don't think Kei will ever see the White Room in the light novel but it's an interesting thing to think about. Speaking of the light novel, those two new coloured illustrations for Y2V7 look amazing and the cover too. Tomose's art has improved so much.  I'm looking forward to reading it! Anyways, I wanted to let you guys know that the next update will be a couple of very short stories that I wrote on paper when my power was out for a couple of days. I'm thinking that I might expand on a few of them at a later date. So if you find one that's interesting, let me know and I'll try writing an expanded version of it. Take care everyone!!