Kiyotaka Ayanokōji

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

Following the selection test 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
Most of his past is unknown, but as a young child Kiyotaka was part of an unknown organization where there were several other children. He appears to have maintained his stoic expression as a child as he showed no emotion even when another child fainted for unknown reasons.

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 wore a blue vest over a white shirt and brown pants.

He also has a well-built body which was pointed out by Suzune at the swimming pool. She noticed the muscular structure of his arms, particularly his lower arms and questioned if he did sports but he denies this.

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 demeanor.

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

Personality
Kiyotaka is an inconspicuous student, as while his grades are average, he possesses great insight for someone of his class as he is able to study the emotions of those around him.

He quotes many historic figures who are all well known for their intelligence. He tends to comes up with ingenious plans as seen when he used the school rules to make his plans acceptable so that he could obtain old test questions from a D-Class upperclassman by giving him 15,000 points. He also used knowledge of 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 of easily ascended to the higher ranking class because of his talents.

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 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 uncaring and carefree, while all the more contrarily connotating aloofness, latency, or generally an absence of enthusiasm for anything besides issues that specifically concern him. However, this appears to not truly be 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 emotionless attitude tends to leave him exempted from such matters. However, he has been capable of forming associations with others and seems to leave an impact on them. This was seen when he 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. He appears to show this caring side again after sacrificing 50,000 points so Ken Sudō wouldn't be expelled after the latter was on the verge of being expelled from school due to his failure on the recent exams. He was also quick to intervene when Suzune was about to be attacked 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 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 which probably could have improved his status in the class. 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 spite of Ichinose, Manabu, and Chabashira all hinting that he was the orchestrator for saving Sudō.

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 from the Student Council President.

It appears part of his unmoving 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 when people press him on his past which causes him to reflect on it and leave him in anger. 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.

Abilities
Kiyotaka's past is mysterious, but he is shown to be quite intelligent other than his claims of participating in after-school activities such as piano, calligraphy, and the tea ceremony, no known information regarding his history as an individual prior to the Entrance Exam for the school currently exists. In Episode 6, he may have been apart some unknown organization in his younger years but how he left it is unknown.

It is presumed that there is more to Kiyotaka than he lets on as his encounter with Manabu, Suzune Horikita's older brother and the President of the Student Council of Kodo Ikusei, indicates; he displays the ability to evenly maneuver during their skirmish and evade strikes directed at him with an air of relative indifference. He displays some form of proficiency in some form or other of martial arts, a trait that the Student Council President detects; some level of dexterity with quick reflexes on par with Manabu and a display of a grappling-based martial art hints at Kiyotaka's level of proficiency.

He is a skilled negotiator as he was able to get the test answers from an upperclassman by using both Kikyō's charms and his own persistence, successfully getting the answers. He furthers extends this to halt the expulsion of Sudō by offering her points knowing it was within the school rules and with the help of Suzune his plan worked out in the end.

While Kiyotaka would try to make friends, his inexperience in social matters has caused him to miss out on forming a group. However, he does find an associate in Suzune Horikita though he is put off by her dislike of friendship and aloof nature. In spite of his desire to live a normal life, he finds himself helping people in their times of need as shown when helped Suzune Horikita avoid pain inflicted by her brother, he would help Ken Sudō avoid expulsion twice and save Airi Sakura from a stalker. His efforts to make friends has allowed him to make associates out of many people besides Suzune including those of other classes.

Despite his many talents, he prefers not drawing attention to himself and would much rather fade in the background. This was seen when it was hinted by the Student Council President that he purposely entered Class D to hide his vast intellect and when he declined an offer to join the student council to avoid the extra work. This shows he has great talent in the art of being inconspicuous though some others have caught onto his talents most notably Manabu Horikita, Honami Ichinose, Sae Chabashira and Suzune Horikita who all hint that Kiyotaka is clearly the smartest in his Class and could have effortlessly gotten into the upper classes but conceals his amazing intelligence from others.

Plot


Kiyotaka took the entrance exams to enter Advanced Nurturing High School and scored fifties on all the subjects. During the bus trip to school, he witnesses Kikyō Kushida trying to plead for Rokusuke Kōenji to move from his seat for an elderly woman to no avail. Watching the scene, he comments on the situation as he takes notices of another girl looking on with a cold stare. After someone else gives up their seat, the students arrive at the school where Kiyotaka talks with the other girl who inquires as to why he was looking at her as he stated he saw a similarity between them in the bus incident. She tells him not to compare them as she choose not to involve herself in such trivial manner as he notes she is worse than him.

He attends the opening ceremony where he and are later shocked to learned they are classmates to which the girl who is named Suzune Horikita states was a bad coincidence after they seated next to each other in Class 1-D.

As most of the students introduce themselves, Kiyotaka evaluates most of their personalities before he is asked to introduce himself. His unsure thoughts cause him to be unable to properly introduce himself though he is able to give his name and his hopes to be friends. The class meets their teacher Sae Chabashira who tells them about points and how the school operates.

Days go by, Kiyotaka is unable to make friends but does find an associate in Suzune Horikita who sits next to him in class. He later meets Kikyō Kushida who is one of the few in the next person besides Suzune to interact with him.

After a month, the class are told they won't get points after squandering their points, they put hopes in an upcoming test. Kiyotaka is tasked by Suzune to gather up a group of students for a study group but none comply however, he brings in Kushida who easily gets them to join.

One night, he finds Suzune about to be assaulted by her older brother Manabu Horikita but he quickly intervenes by grabbing the man's hand telling him to release her. He is then told by Suzune to not get involved and releases Manabu before avoiding the latter's strikes with ease. He is asked which fighting arts he practices but he gives a vague answer, Manabu recalled him from his test scores and left after implying that Kiyotaka is hiding his intelligence.

When Suzune decides to disband her study group, Kiyotaka decides to use the school rules to his advantage by requesting an upperclassmen give him answers to 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 passes except Ken Sudō who would be expelled. Kiyotaka then used his points to bribe the teacher to halt this decision, to which she agrees but only if he gives her a large price which he can't pay but he is supported by Suzune who puts some of her points as well. Because of this, Sudō is saved and the teacher tells them to keep making things interesting for her since they did something for classmate that no one else did in Class D.

At celebratory party at his room, Kiyotaka is 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 casts the credit to Suzune to her dismay. Much later, he goes to return Kushida's phone but witnesses her violent personality and his presence is made known to her and she threatens with sexual assault if he tells anyone doing so by placing his hand on her breast. He swears not to tell anyone as she goes back to her cheerful personality as he questions himself over her real self.

Kiyotaka soon makes another acquaintance named Honami Ichinose of Class 1-B, and helps her in facing a love confession from a friend by giving her the courage to be honest after she requested he pretend to be her boyfriend. When that was done, he gained her gratitude and she helped 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 fight but she doesn't want to get involved but after her camera breaks she asks for their help. In two instances, first by helping her with the camera and the second was by telling her not to burden herself with the current event. These encouraging words later motivate her to call Kushida to tell her that she will help at Sudō's hearing.

At the hearing, he has a nervous Suzune return to her senses and she calls upon Sakura who provides her evidence. After the hearing, when Manabu stated he expected more from the hearing, Kiyotaka shrugged it off and once more avoided Manabu's strikes after affirming his belief in Sakura.

After that, Kiyotaka and Suzune devised a plan to get the trio of Class C to withdraw their complaint which had Kiyotaka borrow points from Ichinose to get cameras. The plan is successful as Suzune and Kiyotaka have them believe the Student Council President is aware of the truth causing them to withdraw their complaint. Soon after, he talks with Ichinose and with her help he saves Sakura from being assaulted by a crazed stalker. After the stalker is apprehended by security, Kiyotaka makes another acquaintance from his class.

Trivia

 * In episode 2, he is shown to have excellent fighting skills but claims to have studied piano and calligraphy.
 * In Episode 6 where a glimpse of his past has been shown it is suggested he was part of an organization which may coincide with his skill at fighting.
 * Episode 4 marks the first time Kiyotaka referred to someone as his friend.
 * In Episode 6, he refers to Suzune as a friend.
 * In both cases, it is unknown if he genuinely sees them as friends.
 * According to Sae Chabashira, he is the most defective student of Class 1-D due to hiding his talents.