Gifted Academy: The Perfect Student

Missions.

Every single Outcome of the Ideal Human Project had one.

It was one that was decided by the \'higher ups\'—with a little input from ourselves. Each Outcome had a different \'mission\'.

Although we couldn\'t really be controlled by the \'higher ups\', most of us accepted it, only for the purpose of holding onto our humanity. Even we don\'t want to be serial killers—destroying the world, so all of us hold the \'mission\' we\'re given quite close to our hearts.

—It was like the only sign that we were still human.

Most of us only kill or even just use our abilities to the fullest when either our lives are threatened or if it would further us in completing our respective missions. We also had an unspoken rule not to interfere with each other.

—I only cared about my mission in the end.

I wonder if I will meet another Outcome at some time in the future. Ever since the Ideal Human Project was dissolved, we haven\'t contacted each other at all.

Well, there was also The Incident That Ruined the Outcomes.

• ────────────── •

The next day, I woke up pretty early in the morning and began making my way to Kanako\'s residence. It wasn\'t too far away from the school boarding facilities, so I just walked like I did the previous day. She had texted me a few times the previous night, with various answers, after a little while. However, it seemed that she had stopped completely.

I was somewhat curious to see what she was up to.

I scanned my keycard at the entrance of the grand apartment complex and made my way inside. I was suddenly blasted by a wave of warm air. It was a nice transition from the chilly morning atmosphere. Before long, I was standing at the door of her apartment. I decided to ring the doorbell to see if she\'d open the door for me without me having to force my way in.

I heard a few footsteps in the distance before her voice began travelling through the door.

"...don\'t you have your own keycard to this apartment?"

"I wouldn\'t want to walk in on you while you\'re changing."

"...you think I get changed out in the hallway or something?"

"I don\'t know that much about you."

"...you don\'t need to know a lot about me to know that I don\'t just get changed in the hallway!"

This conversation was getting a little pointless.

"Well, are you going to open the door for me?"

After a brief moment of silence, I heard a slight click before the door slowly slid open.

"Come in, I suppose."

As I started to walk in, she suddenly began pushing at the door.

"Wait... I didn\'t finish all of the questions from yesterday..." she appeared to be visibly sorry.

"I guess I\'ll have to spank you then."

"Huh?!"

"I\'m kidding."

Well, I\'ve done it now.

Before I could take another step, the door slammed in my face.

"...don\'t come in, you pervert!"

"Ah, I said I was kidding, didn\'t I?"

"...how can I know for sure? You were threatening to kick my door down yesterday!"

"I didn\'t actually kick it down, did I?\'

"...I can\'t trust you at all!"

Well, this was awkward.

"I promise I won\'t do anything. Can you let me in so I can tutor you?"

"...you barely did any tutoring yesterday; you might as well just stay home and assign me questions. You\'re just doing this for the money, aren\'t you?"

Well, money wasn\'t the entire equation.

"It doesn\'t really matter why I\'m doing this, does it?"

"...of course it does! If you\'re only going to tutor me halfheartedly, I might as well just study by myself and keep a pervert out of my house."

Now, what am I supposed to say here?

"I\'ll actually tutor you, so just let me in."

There was another period of silence.

"...only if you play me in another game of chess."

"Fine."

Eventually, I managed to convince her to let me in. The door slowly opened for the second time as I stepped foot into her apartment. I noticed that some of the mess strewn around the doorway had been cleaned up. She turned around and began making her way towards the lounge room. I followed behind as she picked up a chess board.

"So, how did you go on the questions I gave you last night?"

"Um... I didn\'t finish them... sorry," she seemed to be moving her body away from me as she responded.

"That\'s fine. Did you complete any?"

"I managed to answer seven of them."

That was actually more than I expected.

I had assigned her ten math questions to do with the expectation that she wouldn\'t be able to complete a single one.

The end game was in sight.

"Can you show me your working out for the questions?"

"Only after this game of chess..."

"Alright."

She set the pieces up on the board before taking two pawns into her hands.

"Which hand?"

"Left."

She giggled.

As she opened her palm, I was shown a white pawn.

"Same as last time, it seems."

As the two of us looked down at the board, I played my first move.

Pawn to E4.

Pawn to C5.

Ah, the Sicilian—this was going to be problematic for me.

I played a pretty standard Knight to F3.

She responded with Pawn to E6, beginning the French Variation.

As the two of us continued to play, I noticed that she was playing a lot less aggressively and a lot safer than yesterday. Now that the board was getting rather congested and it was quite difficult to make long calculations. I could tell that her experience was easily getting the upper hand in this position.

With basically no understanding of chess theory, I struggled to keep up with her momentum. I constantly found myself blocked and in sub-optimal positions.

A few more moves later, she had taken several of my pieces and held a decent positional advantage. I stood no chance in this closed game. With too many variables to calculate, I was unable to make the best moves.

"Check," she said with a smug face.

Ah, I was in zugzwang now.

My loss was inevitable.

A few more moves later, she had managed to gain immense momentum, and I found myself constantly in check with only bad moves to play in response. Slowly, my position was whittled down until...

"Checkmate."

Well, that was to be expected.