Ding, ding, ding!!! It was my alarm; I had just woken up and I was late for my first day of school at Japan's top high school. I'm not fond of school but it's better than staying here especially since he's dead.

I expected that when he died that I would feel something, I mean aren't you supposed to feel bad when your father dies, I can't say I felt anything of that sort though it's been 4 years.

I hurriedly took a bath, brushed my teeth, and started putting on my uniform, a rather glamorous uniform.

A black blazer, a white shirt, a brown tie with white stripes and black shoes. However, the school isn't strict with how you wear the uniform you could wear as you saw fit.

I knew all this as I read the school handbook last night. The school is so lenient that one can even change the uniform without fear of punishment, of course this means you could wear accessories like bracelets and hairpins.

I monopolized this school's leniency on uniform arrangement: I wore a black shirt underneath my white shirt, unbuttoned the first button showing the shirt within, untucked the white shirt, wore a blue tie with white strips, loosened the tie a little bit, and slipped on a black bracelet and a black watch, though I didn't wear the blazer.

I did all this to look as friendly as possible. I've never really had friends throughout my life except Hiro of course but he's my childhood friend so he doesn't count.

Though the color black might be counterproductive.

After I finished putting on my uniform, I rechecked my box to see if I had left any essentials, but it seemed I didn't, so I left for the door.

Goodbye Haruto, till we meet next. And Ayato... I hope you're doing ok.

I took a cab. I could tell you a million reasons why I didn't want to ride the bus, one being the stench, but bottom line I didn't want to.

As I was in the taxi, I re-read the school handbook. It stated how the school was founded in 2014 and is already Japan's top high school with a reasonable margin. It was a government-owned school that boasts to have the world's best curriculum for high students as well as having the biggest land property used for educational purposes in Japan.

It also stated some of the school rules, and might I add this school has some weird rules.

 This school is something else; its campus is so large that it has malls and is on a separate island connected to the mainland; it truly embodies the word 'prestigious'.

Getting into this school is quite a hassle, the exam was really something else. This school is targeted for geniuses, the gifted, the exceptional or just the very lucky.

I was slowly approaching the designated area that would take me to school. But before that I would like to ask a question one could only call philosophical.

Do all humans have free will?

I had been pondering this for the last few weeks—particularly after I got the acceptance letter.

It was by no means an easy question, as it was frankly too subjective.

If I were to ask a rash person he would say, "Yes we do that's why I can do this", he would say that probably hitting me. But the mere fact that I can create an accurate scenario of what would happen makes me doubt that's free will.

But then on the other hand, an analytical thinker would give a more educated answer saying, "Different situations create different results."

In some ways he might be correct and in fact the same scenario can create different results. As I could kill a man's parents and could get two results:

He could become a murderer.

Or he becomes a caped vigilante that is weirdly named after his fear.

Of course, these scenarios are blown out of proportion and there are more than 2 outcomes, but these are still within the realm of possibilities.

Therefore, the deciding factor is the person not the situation, therefore there are some aspects of free will won't that mean there are some aspects of free will.

But isn't that a controlled mentality?

The mere fact that a scenario can adjust one's mentality proves it is controlled. Back to the former scenario, I had mentioned that there is no definite result, but there is one thing that they all share:

A mindset changed by trauma.

No matter how strong-willed or weak-willed a person is, we all change with trauma. For better or for worse we are all moved by trauma of some sorts, some say it's needed growth.

It was a long drive, and I almost fell asleep, but I was interested to see the famous high-speed train. To enter the school, you had to ride a high-speed train. A journey that would take an average of 5 minutes with a normal train would take nearly 2 minutes with this train, about 2.5 minutes.

As I arrived at the train station, my heartbeat increased as I was anxious to see the school. I wasn't the only one late, we were about 40 of us, so they couldn't send all of us back, right?

Right?

We were told to line up, so we did. After a while, a man I assumed was the principal came to a podium and then spoke, "I'm sure you all are our new transfer students; I'm here to make sure you all understand some of our special rules."

 He spoke without emotion. His voice was neither imposing nor passive, one could say it was completely devoid of emotion.

"As you know, external devices are banned in this school. Instead, we use special phones. They will be shared with everyone. These devices can be used to tell your class and your basic personal information. They also have the accounts of all the teaching staff and students as well as the map of the school. Notice I used the word account, it means that this phone is incapable of dialing numbers, and there is also no social media on there."

The students reacted differently to this news; some were calm while others were worried about being unable to contact their families. Staff members went around giving the phones.

A staff member came and handed me my special phone—true to the principal's word, there was no app to dial numbers rather there was an app called 'Koda', it had a long list of accounts each having usernames.

On Koda, we could change our username to anything we saw fit.

"Furthermore, money is banned. Instead, we use a point system known as the RP system. One RP is equivalent to one yen. Phones will be used for transactions; in this school, RP can buy anything. If your phone is lost, you won't be given another one so be careful."

On the phone, there was an app that showed our balance, a savings program, and a transaction program.

"Lastly, leaving this school is prohibited unless you have a special situation, and you must give a letter before you are allowed to leave. When you've left you cannot interact with other students or any staff, if you are caught both of them you will get removed from this school. Despite the fact you can't leave school grounds I doubt any of you will get home sick, we have amusement parks, malls and other recreational centers."

As he left, people noticed his physical features. He had a very bald head that was without a doubt brighter than the sun. People gave snarky comments about it.

"I never knew I would be to come this close to the sun," a blonde-haired boy snickered.

"I think you mean the world's best mirror," a blue-haired added.

"Yeah, we're so lucky to witness such a sight," I replied hoping to get some positive replies.

"Like for real though." the blonde-haired boy replied.

"Save the chitchat for when you're on the train," a staff member said sternly.

We kept quiet after hearing his stern comment, I forgot to ask their names.

Heugh...

I didn't get worried though as there were other chances to make friends.

I was surprised this school accepted transfer students. I mean one would think Japan's top high school would have more than enough students though there's a rumor about the school.

 The school might be very strict. Though I personally doubt that is the reason for the expulsion of 40 students, let's leave that for now.

After about 2 or 3 minutes they reached where I was in the line and led us inside the train. You couldn't say I was at the front, but I wasn't at the back, I was somewhere in the middle.

I then entered the train, this was my opportunity to make friends, so I tried to talk to my seatmate. Luckily, she's a girl.

"Yo what's up," I said to my seatmate.

"Oh, nothing much. What about you?"

"Same, I guess. I'm thinking about how lucky I am to enter this school."

"Yeah, me too. I was just thinking about the same thing." She replied with enthusiasm as if she was waiting for me to say that.

Well, I led the conversation that way since most people wouldn't like to appear prideful or are just not sure how they ended up in this school and would just chalk it up to luck, so it would be a good conversation starter.

"I can't believe this school has malls and amusement parks," I said continuing the conversation.

We turned sideways looking at each other, I made sure to make eye contact and smile.

"I can't wait to go shopping."

"Especially since we don't use real money."

"For real, I heard there's even a water park".

As she said the word 'waterpark', it reminded me of some of my childhood trauma, so I winced. She noticed this and showed concern.

"What's up? You look..." She didn't complete the sentence and just looked at me with concern.

"Well, I'm not the best swimmer and can't hold my breath for long." That's a load of bullshit but I'm not going to tell a stranger about my trauma.

"I see. By the way, what's your name?"

"Oh, it's Nakamura Eiya."

"E-E-Eiya..." She said with a look of disgust.

"First name basis?"

"I'm sorry for calling you by your first name." She said looking away from me.

"It's ok... did I by chance offend you?" I said so because her face was oozing with disgust like I was some pervert who tried something.

"No..." She said sitting normally, turning away from me. "It seems you've truly discarded me from your life." She mumbled that last part, so I didn't hear it.

"Then why are..."

"Let's just focus on getting to school," she said stiffening up.

What did I do to her? I just said my name, and all this happened. Does she by chance know me? No, I would remember her. I thought I hit the jackpot since I sat next to a girl, a beautiful one at that, but I was wrong, heugh...

The remainder of the ride to school was awkward though barely 30 seconds had remained. As we descended the train, I saw a long line of people in awe.

Though I was also in awe, as we entered the school grounds we saw a huge electronic billboard. It said, 'Welcome to Tokyo Metropolitan Elysian High School.'

So, I'm here finally.