Kiyotaka Ayanokōji

Kiyotaka Ayanokōji is the main protagonist of the You-Zitsu series. He is a first-year student of Advanced Nurturing High School.

Following the entrance exam in which he scored precisely 50 points in every subject, he was placed in D-Class. He is situated at the rear left corner of the class seated next to Suzune Horikita.

Background
Almost everything about his past, prior to the entrance exams, is unknown. However, during a flashback, Kiyotaka was seen in a group of kids, where they were part of an unknown organization called the White Room, headed by his father. He appeared to have maintained his stoic expression even as a child, as he showed no emotion and looked on when another child, situated at his left, had difficulty breathing and probably fainted for unknown reasons. There was also a time where his father approached and told him those who don't reveal their talents are fools. From his time there, Kiyotaka underwent various training regiments, presumably including martial arts, while taking heavy and challenging written examinations giving him both extreme physical abilities and mental prowess. As time went on, more children started suffering like the previous child, eventually leaving him as the lone survivor of the group. His training caused him to believe that all humans are nothing but tools and that victory is all that matters in the world. With this point of view, he became determined to win no matter what and sacrifice anything or anyone to achieve his goal of obtaining victory.

At some point, he left the White Room and enrolled at the Advanced Nurturing High School to live a normal school life. Kiyotaka took the entrance exams to enter Advanced Nurturing High School and scored exactly 50 out of 100 points on every subject. It was heavily hinted by a few others that this act was done on purpose, just to avoid unwanted attention from the school, which he denied by claiming it to be merely a coincidence.

In the manga, he states (in his monologue) that the biggest reason why he choose Advanced Nurturing High School because he wants freedom. He states in his monologue that while in middle school, he was forbidden to associate with friends, or even relatives, that were not approved for him.

Appearance
Kiyotaka is a young man of average height with brown hair, brown eyes, and a fair complexion. He is usually seen wearing the standard school uniform. When outside school, he wears a white hoodie covering a green shirt with an orange stripe along with brown pants. He also is seen wearing a blue vest over a white shirt and brown pants.

He is considered to be very handsome, as was mentioned in the light novels, by Kikyō Kushida, that he ranked 5th in amongst the first year boys. This is somewhat confirmed as he has attracted the attention of many girls in his class, some of whom are even very popular.

He also has an incredibly well-built body which was pointed out by Suzune Horikita at the swimming pool. She noticed the immense muscular structure of his body and his arms, particularly his lower arms and questioned if he did sports, but he denied this. The reason for this is most likely due to the extensive training he went through as a child in the White Room. Most of the time, he is shown to express a carefree and idle look, which suggests an unconcerned attitude. This can be interpreted as indifference or a relatively passive demeanour. It is shown in a flashback, that even as a child he possessed a similar unmoving expression that he would keep until adolescence.

In contrast to the anime, the light novel depicts (to an extent) Kiyotaka with more dynamic facial expressions.

Personality
Kiyotaka is an inconspicuous and unobtrusive student, and while his grades are average, he possesses an extreme insight to study the emotions of people around him.

He is well-versed with history as he has quoted many historical figures who are all well known for their intelligence. He tends to comes up with ingenious and imaginative plans such as using the school rules so that he could obtain old test questions from an older D-Class student by paying him 15,000 points. He also used the rules and the purpose of points to bribe his teacher into stopping the expulsion of a student. In fact, it is hinted by a select few that he could have easily placed in a higher class if he applied himself.

He is somewhat socially awkward, as he is very poor at communicating with other people and fails at properly associating with them. As a result, he speaks in a very monotonous way (in the anime) and tends to isolate himself from his peers, not getting involved with social activities. These traits tend to leave the impression on others that he is cunning, uncaring, insouciant, and carefree, while also hinting at aloofness, latency, or generally a sense of apathy towards anything besides issues that specifically concern him. However, this isn't always the case; he is shown to be capable of holding conversations, though in a somewhat dull and toneless way, as shown in his interactions with Kikyō Kushida and his other classmates.

Kiyotaka has voiced intentions of making friends, but his temperamental and emotionless attitude tends to leave him exempted from such matters. However, he has formed associations with others and seems to leave an impact on them. This was when he stopped Suzune from being assaulted by her brother, though he had no reason for getting involved. Whether he is simply going with the flow or genuinely looking out for Suzune is unknown, as both patterns are definitely plausible. He appeared to show this caring side again after sacrificing 50,000 of his points so Ken Sudō wouldn't be expelled after the latter failed the recent exams. He also had no problem referring to himself as a friend to Honami Ichinose of B-Class (even though they had just met) when she reached out to him for help. Though whether this was a ploy on his part to ease her or a genuine display of consideration for her is unknown but it seems their later interactions suggest friendship. He quickly came to the aid of Airi Sakura when she was nearly assaulted by a crazed stalker and comforted her after the attack.

He does not like drawing attention to himself as after purchasing answers from old tests, he had Kushida take full credit even though he invested a lot of money to get them. This was seen again when he gave full credit to Suzune in stopping Sudō's expulsion after failing a test despite it being his plan and Kushida hinting it was him. He also allowed Sudō to believe Suzune planned the events that stopped his case after he was accused of hurting three students. In that time he denied his involvement in stopping it several times in the events of Sudō's case, in despite Ichinose, Manabu Horikita, and Sae Chabashira all hinting that he was the orchestrator for saving Sudō. He appears to not enjoy showing off his talents, which was the main reason for concealing himself from unwarranted attention. It's unknown why he hides his intellect but it is shown in a flashback that a mysterious man (hinted to be his father) informed him that those who would hide their talent are fools. From this event, it could be that he does so to prove that he can do something without revealing what he is truly capable of.

He does not seem to want to extend his energy unnecessarily in other matters. This was shown when he refused to become a secretary of the Student Council despite directly being offered the position by the Student Council president.

It appears that part of his aloof and standoffish personality stems from his mysterious past that he doesn't speak to people about. He gives vague answers about the matter and shows a dislike for people who ask about it, seemingly getting angry after they ask. In his anger, he is more serious in his tone of speech as shown when he sternly told Suzune not to pry into his personal history.

In his anger, Kiyotaka is not above threatening people as he refused to comply with Sae Chabashira's order for him to aim for A-Class after stating to have been asked to expel him at the request of an unknown person later revealed to be his father. He even resorted to threatening her and grabbing her by the collar, unafraid that she was a teacher and could have expelled him for assault.

Due to the upbringing in the White Room, he has come to see everyone around him as tools and is only intent on winning. He does not mind manipulating others nor concerning himself with sacrificing a pawn as long as they help obtain his goal. Because of this mindset and his actions, it is unknown on whether he actually cares for those he has befriended or if he just gained their trust to use them. In the light novels, however, he seems to care about a few of those he is close to and befriended, meaning he may not be too entirely jaded in his views. This appears as the case since there are some of his classmates he refuses to manipulate for his own purposes, showcasing his moral side.

Abilities
Kiyotaka's past is very mysterious, although he is shown to be extremely intelligent. Other than his claims of participating in after-school activities such as piano, calligraphy, and tea ceremonies it is unknown if he really did any of these things. There is no currently existing information regarding his past prior to the entrance exam of the school. He is shown to have been a part of an unknown organization in his younger years, though how long he was there or how he left it is unknown.

While Kiyotaka would try to make friends, his inexperience in social matters had caused him to miss out on forming a group. While he did find an associate in Suzune Horikita, he was put off by her dislike of friendship and aloof nature. Despite his desire to live a normal life, he found himself helping people in their times of need as shown when he helped Suzune avoid an assault from her older brother, helped Ken Sudō avoid expulsion twice and saved Airi Sakura from a stalker as well as gaining the latter's affections for him.

Physical Abilities
It is presumed that there is more to Kiyotaka than he lets on during his encounter with Manabu Horikita. Though Kiyotaka didn't attack he was able to evade strikes directed at him in the skirmish with relative ease. This act earned him praise from Manabu, who inquired as to what fighting arts he practised but received an unconvincing answer in return, showcasing Kiyotaka's excellence in martial arts.

It was also mentioned in the light novels that he has incredible speed as he was able to run at an equal speed as Manabu Horikita in a race, although Kiyotaka ended up losing the race at the sports festival due to the unexpected change of tracks, most likely done intentionally as hinted by Arisu Sakayanagi from class 1-A.

Similar to hiding his true intellect, he prefers to also keep his physical talents. Suzune Horikita has questioned him about why he hides his talents when he faced off against her brother and displayed how nimble, fast and agile he was. He hides most of his physical abilities, so the full extent of his physical feat and fighting skills are yet to be seen.

Kiyotaka's proficient fighting skills was seen when he overpowered and attacked Kakeru Ryūen, who is a decent fighter, where the latter was easily defeated as he ended up becoming afraid of Kiyotaka. Kiyotaka also managed to easily defeat and overpower Daichi Ishizaki, Albert Yamada and Mio Ibuki, despite one having a very large physique, and the other being a very skillful fighter on her own right.

Intellectual Abilities
Kiyotaka is shown to be extremely intelligent as he strangely and intentionally scored exactly 50 out of 100 points for each subject on his entrance exams. In the manga, it is hinted that he is even more intelligent than Suzune, who would later force him to aid her in reaching A-Class. He is also a very skilled negotiator as he was able to secure old test answers from a upperclassman by using both Kikyō's charms and his own persistence. He further displayed this by overturning the expulsion of Ken by offering his teacher points while knowing it was within the school's rules.

He is incredibly perceptive, where he is shown to be very accurate almost all the time since he was able to study the exact personalities in others as shown when he deduced Sakura's fear of strangers and her brother. He picks up on situations very fast as he deduced that Chihiro Shiranami was Honami's admirer, that Sakura was in danger from an attack by a stalker and saw through Suzune's façade of being healthy as she was ill in the survival test. He also knew Kakeru Ryūen was still on the island during the survival test just from seeing a communicator that he had and picked up on Mio being a spy for C-Class and outsmarted her by sabotaging her camera and making sure she'd steal the leader card before making himself the class leader.

The greatest display of his intellect was when he figured out the plan of class 1-A and class 1-C during the same test. He was a master in the art of manipulation, knowing which people were scheming and who he could use to get the game to run in his favour, eventually winning the test for his class. This incredible act surprised Kōhei Katsuragi and Kakeru Ryūen, who had a surefire way to win the test. Kiyotaka's plan earned him praise from both Suzune Horikita and Sae Chabashira who were both surprised by how the test played out.

Academic Abilities
While he prefers not drawing attention to himself and would much rather fade in the background, he possesses outstanding talents in his academics. This was seen when it was heavily hinted by the Student Council President and his homeroom teacher that he intentionally entered D-Class to hide his talent. Kiyotaka even declined an offer to join the student council, just to avoid more work, which showed he has great talent in the art of being inconspicuous, except for the few who happen to notice his talents. Most notably, Manabu Horikita, Honami Ichinose, Sae Chabashira, Suzune Horikita and Chie Hoshinomiya have all hinted that Kiyotaka is clearly the smartest student in his class and could have effortlessly gotten into the upper classes.

This appeared to be confirmed as Chabashira instructed Kiyotaka to start reaching for class 1-A immediately or be expelled for not applying himself, indicating he could easily accomplish it. He has even surpassed the intellect and ingenuity of Kōhei Katsuragi who is considered the second smartest in the year level. His actions in the survival test even caused Suzune Horikita to question what drives him since he has proven that he is more than qualified to reach A-Class. In the manga, Chabashira even hinted that he may even be academically smarter then even Suzune Horikita, which is notable as she is exceptionally excellent in her academics. Suzune even appeared to agree with Chabashira's statement after seeing his entrance exams questioning if he really got some questions wrong on purpose.

Plot
During the bus trip to school, he witnessed Kikyō Kushida pleading Rokusuke Kōenji to give up his seat for an elderly woman, but with no avail. Watching the scene, he commented on the situation as he noticed another girl looking on with a cold stare. Shortly after, the students arrive at the school where Kiyotaka talks with the other girl who inquired as to why he looked at her as he stated he saw a similarity between them in the bus incident. She told him not to compare them as she chooses not to involve herself in such trivial manner while he noted that she is worse than him. He attended the opening ceremony where he was shocked to learn he was classmates with the girl from earlier, named Suzune Horikita, who said it was a bad coincidence after being seated next to each other in class 1-D.

As most of the students introduced themselves, Kiyotaka evaluated their personalities before being asked to introduce himself. His unsure thoughts caused him to awkwardly introduce himself though he did give his name and hopes to be friends. Shortly after the class meet their teacher, Sae Chabashiram who told them about points and how the school operates.

Days went by, and Kiyotaka is still unable to make friends but did find an associate in Suzune Horikita, who sits next to him in class. He later met Kikyō Kushida, who is one of the few to interact with Kiyotaka apart from Suzune. She asked for his help in befriending Suzune herself, and he reluctantly agreed to take her to a cafe for the meetup. After class the next day he asked Suzune to accompany him, as it was a girls cafe and he felt too scared to go along. Upon arriving at the packed place, a table opened up for them to sit, where they were joined by Kushida, although that caused Suzune to leave due to her uncovering their plan.

After a month passed, the class was told they won't get any more points after losing them all, although put their effort in the upcoming test to gain more. Kiyotaka was tasked by Suzune to gather up the more idiotic students for a study group, however, it took bringing Kushida into the plan for everyone else to agree on joining.

One night, while he was out getting a drink, he found Suzune about to be assaulted by her older brother, Manabu Horikita, but quickly intervened by grabbing the man's hand telling him to release her. He was told by Suzune not to get involved and released Manabu before avoiding the latter's strikes with ease. He was asked which fighting arts he practiced but he replied with a vague answer. Manabu proceeded to recall him from his test scores and implied that Kiyotaka is hiding his intelligence but he called it a coincidence as Manabu left the area.

He was thanked by Suzune but he shrugged it off, and when she complimented his fighting skill he stated it was nothing special, just piano and tea ceremony lessons as to which she called him out on this contradictory statement. He was then questioned by Suzune if her brother's statement about him scoring half of what he should have made was true but he again provides a vague answer. Suzune remarked that everything about him is a mystery, to which he replied asking if the study group was finished, in which she confirmed. Ayanokōji wondered whether if it was Suzune's distant and cold behaviour that got her placed in D-Class, but she couldn't answer it.

When Suzune decided to disband her study group, Kiyotaka decided to use the school rules to his advantage. With the help of Kushida, he made a request for a upperclassman to give him answers for an old test in exchange for points while also having Kushida use her charm to further convince him to lower his payment. Not liking attention, Kiyotaka has Kushida take credit and a majority of the class passed except Ken Sudō, who would be expelled. Kiyotaka then used his points to bribe the teacher to overturn this decision, to which she agreed but only after Suzune helped out with the payment. Because of this, Ken was saved and the teacher told them to keep making things interesting for her since they did something for a classmate that no one else did in class 1-D.

During a celebratory party at his room, Kiyotaka was asked by Kushida if he had a hand in stopping Sudō's expulsion as the latter and his friends listened to see if this was true. However, Kiyotaka passed the credit to Suzune, much to her dismay. Later that night, he went to return a phone that Kushida left behind, however stumbling upon her hidden personality, cursing Suzune out loud. After being spotted, Kushida threatened him with rape charges after she placed his hand on her breasts. After asking whether she can trust him, he swore not to tell anyone about this as she reverted to her cheerful personality and walked off.

Kiyotaka soon made another acquaintance with Honami and helped her in facing a love confession from her friend by giving her the courage to be honest after she requested that he pretended to be her boyfriend. When that was done, he gained her gratitude and she paid him back by helping in proving the innocence of Sudō after he was accused of attacking three boys of class 1-C.

He and Kushida soon meet Airi Sakura, who witnessed the brawl but she didn't want to get involved, but after her camera broke she requested their help in two matters, first with the broken camera and then by telling her not to burden herself with the current event. Those encouraging words later motivated her to change her mind and help with the hearing. At the hearing, he comforted a nervous Suzune to return to her senses and called for Sakura, who provided her evidence. After the hearing ended for the day, Manabu stated he expected more from the hearing, as Kiyotaka shrugged it off and once more avoided Manabu's strike with ease, while affirming his belief in Sakura.

After that, Kiyotaka and Suzune devised a plan to get the trio of class 1-C to withdraw their complaint, which had Kiyotaka borrow points from Ichinose to buy cameras. The plan was successful as Suzune and Kiyotaka have the students believe that the Student Council President knows the truth, causing them to withdraw their complaint. Soon afterwards, Kiyotaka talked with Ichinose and with her help saved Sakura from being assaulted by a crazed stalker. After the stalker was apprehended by security, Kiyotaka made another acquaintance in Sakura.

During summer break, he was apart of a group of boys who planned to peep on the girls changing room under the codename "Argos-4", though he didn't really want to participate. Knowing that the boys would proceed behind his back, he decided to join but enlisted Suzune's help to sabotage the plan. He invited her to the pool and told her of the boys' plan, and asked her to steal the memory cards from the cameras at the right time. He later invited Airi Sakura the pool as well to have fun and they met up with some students of class 1-B. At the outing, Kiyotaka tried to use the event as a way to get Suzune to lose her cold demeanour and associate with people no matter how tough it was to get through to her. When the boys plan hit a problem, they signalled Kiyotaka for help and he had Suzune perform a speech that distracted everyone. This allowed the boys to safely abort the plan, while Suzune collected the cards. Kiyotaka thanked her for the help before asking if she had fun in which she gave a negative reply. He followed up by pushing her into the pool and she did the same though everyone else joins in afterwards.

On the school cruise, he talked to Ms Chabashira, who informed him of an unknown man who wanted Kiyotaka expelled. She promised to protect him but only if he started working his way up to A Class, but he refused to comply, causing her to promise that he will be expelled, which in turn caused him to grab her by the collar and warn her not to manipulate him. After that he went to the bow of the ship, where he contemplated whether he should reveal his talents just to stay in school.

He later spent his time with the 3 Idiots of D-Class, being confused over why they were excited about Ike asking Kushida if he can call her by her first name. He was even more confused when Sudō asked what Horikita's first name was, giving him the answer before going for lunch. At the restaurant, Kiyotaka noticed how out of element they were as Sudō grabbed one student for insulting them, leaving Kōhei Katsuragi to break up the fight and the boys leaving the area, Kiyotaka taking caution of Katsuragi. At night, he approached Sakura while she was on the deck of the ship, practising to ask him out, his presence startling flustering her. After being asked, Kiyotaka denied listening to her and asked what it might've been about. Sakura instead told him that she needed his help in becoming friends with the class, where she is seen to be still nervous around them. He agreed to help her, saying that it was nothing special, as she became elated and grabbed his hand out of gratitude. However, the moment between the two ceased when Kushida appeared and Sakura quickly excused herself by leaving.

Kioytaka talked with Kushida and noticed that her bubbly nature almost made him forget about the dark persona he saw the other night. When he tried to leave, Kikyō stopped him, shifting back to her darker personality to continue talking. She inquired if he was nervous and wary being alone around her, to which he confirmed, as she went back to her other personality, and told him that she just gets lonely when left all alone. She tried to tell him something else but decided not to go through with it and left while he was put off by her actions.

The ship arrived at the island and is told that they are meant to survive on the island for a week to achieve bonus points. After receiving the provisions, class 1-D moved out while Suzune asked about Kiyotaka's dreams after graduation, receiving yet another vague answer. After Hirata asked for everyone to gather supplies for camps, Kiyotaka volunteered, telling a surprised Suzune its best to not stick out. He is grouped with Sakura and Rokusuke Kōenji though he lost track of the latter when he escaped through the trees, presumably ditching the test then.

When they discovered a point spot, Kiyotaka hid with Sakura as he felt someone was coming and covered her mouth just as Kōhei Katsuragi and Yahiko Totsuka appeared. Kiyotaka overheard them talking and noticed a glimpse of A-Class' leader card, but knowing he was a cautious man, he deduced Yahiko was the leader. After the two left, he released Sakura and apologized for his actions but she was seen still heavily blushing and squirming on the ground, nervously mumbling that it was fine.

The day after the underwear scandal, the girls demand the boys be separated from them. They made Hirata stand guard, with Suzune stating that since he is a boy himself, he needed to be watched as well and nominated Kiyotaka as another guard since he didn't seem like the type to peep on girls. While some girls noted on his lack of prominence in the class, they nevertheless accepted him as a guard as he complained about being the last resort, but still accepting the request. While worked Kiyotaka asked Suzune why she made him a guard as she stated she needed incentive as Hirata couldn't be trusted. He soon asks how long she was going to pretend to be healthy while she asked how he knew she was sick in the first place as he mentioned her behavior since the test started.

While the class was distracted with the fire he started, Kiyotaka put his plan into action to help D-Class win the test. After returning Suzune in a deteriorating condition to the ship to be dropped out, he assumed the position as the class leader, meddling with class 1-A and class 1-C's plan so incorrectly guess D-Class' leader as still being Suzune.

When the test finished the following day, D-Class is declared the winner of the test due to correctly guessing the leaders of classes 1-A & 1-C, leaving class 1-B's leader out because he wanted to remain friends with them. Upon returning to the ship, Kiyotaka is questioned by Suzune on how the class passed the test and he told her the plan and how he outsmarted the other classes with various tactics, which left her in astonishment at his intellect. He told the other class the credit was all Suzune's, quickly gaining her popularity. Kiyotaka has then met aside with Kushida, who asked whether he would prefer being with Suzune, to which Kiyotaka said he didn't know, leaving her dissatisfied with the answer.

As this happened, Kiyotaka was contacted by Sae Chabashira who requested he meet with her again at the theater. Once there, Kiyotaka's plan is complimented by her and she revealed it was indeed his father who requested Kiyotaka be expelled though he also said Kiyotaka would leave of his own accord soon enough. Chabashira soon asked him on what he planned to do now, to which she receives a vague answer, laughing at his response.

He wandered the ship just as Suzune confronted him once again and he calmly accepted that she needed allies, having noticed she finally changed her anti social behavior. After he confirmed he did everything to help her, she gets flustered and blushed before begrudgingly thanking him while stating that she will see him as an ally though she warned Ayanokōji not to get too friendly with her as all she wanted is to reach A-Class.

While she went on about this, Kiyotaka internally noted that he doesn't acknowledge her, Kushida and Hirata as allies but merely pawns in helping him to win. As it turned out, Kiyotaka's time in the White Room made him more than willing to do anything to accomplish victory even if it meant using people for the purpose of believing that all of humanity are nothing but tools. He ended his monologue, stating that all that matters is him winning in the end.

Quotes

 * (To Suzune Horikita in Episode 6) "I will help you get into A-Class. But… don't pry into my life."

Trivia

 * It is heavily hinted by five characters that Kiyotaka is hiding his true vast intelligence and physical capabilities, so that he could enter D-Class, to intentionally hide them from others, for unknown reasons. Those five characters are Manabu Horikita, Suzune Horikita, Sae Chabashira, Honami Ichinose, and Chie Hoshinomiya.
 * According to Sae Chabashira, since class 1-D is for those with defective traits Kiyotaka is the most "defective" student of the class due to hiding his true talents.