Chapter 1 - The Experiment

All it takes is one thing, one event to change your life forever. And I didn't know it at the time, but mine was deciding to go to that school….

The first day of attending high school. It was a day like any other for the most part. I couldn't stop thinking about what the school year had to bring for me.

“We will pay for you to go to that boarding school, but in return, don't talk to us.” That’s what my father said when I left. At the time, I didn’t really mind it all that much. I mean, I was about to start high school, and I wouldn't have to see them anymore. As I entered the gates, my blonde hair blowing in the wind, I came to the realization that maybe high school would be a better part of my life.

“Wait for me, Sasha!” a girl exclaimed as she ran up toward the doors of the auditorium. She slightly bumped into me, and at the time, I didn’t think it was all that much of a problem, but she thought otherwise.

“Please, please forgive me,” she said.

“Oh, don’t worry,” I responded.

“So, what’s your name?” she asked me.

“Oh, my name is Joshua Oakley,” I said. “What’s yours?”

“My name’s Rin Subaru,” she said. “Sorry, I have to go.” She ran off toward her friend and the auditorium doors.

I’d never really made that many friends in middle school and elementary school, but I felt like high school might be different, especially because of the school I was going to — Shiro School for the Advanced. It’s a brand new school that had just opened this year, and somehow, I got in. You had to be either extremely smart, extremely athletic, or a rich kid to get into this school. I, however, am none of those. I got in off of pure luck. Somehow the entrance exam was pretty easy for me, and while I’m not very athletic, I run cross-country, but I’m about average when it comes to my time. And my parents are well off — enough for them to be able to send me here, but not enough to buy my way in. Maybe they accepted me because I was a foreigner. The fact that I’m American and attending a school in Japan is a bit different, I guess. That will set me apart from the other kids.

Probably the hardest part of attending here was learning Japanese over the course of only a summer, with no prior knowledge of the language or the culture. Finding this school and sending in an application was probably the best thing I ever did. I could finally get away from my good-for-nothing parents who never really wanted me. Plus, I finally get to try a new thing away from home, and I get to basically start over. Maybe I’ll be able to make some friends while I’m here. I never was really an outcast or bullied; I just didn’t really try to make friends up until now. Frankly, with this being a whole starting-over sort of deal, I want to try new things.

I slowly walked up the steps with my backpack on my back. As I reached the auditorium doors, I saw so many faces in the audience. Up on stage, there were five different people. I didn’t recognize a single one of them, but I assumed that one of them was probably the principal, along with the others probably being some teachers or some large donors.

I started to look around, trying to find a seat, and then I saw one next to Rin. As I approached her, I was sort of worried about how she might respond if I asked to sit next to her. But I decided to go for it anyway.

“Hey, is that seat taken?” I asked Rin.

“No, it isn’t. Go ahead and take it,” she said. “Once again, sorry about bumping into you earlier.”

“Thank you,” I responded. There was a girl sitting next to her who I assumed was Sasha. She had nice long brown hair, pretty much contrasting with the dyed red hair that Subaru had.

Sasha and Subaru kept on talking to each other while I looked around over the crowd. I was trying to search for any other foreigners, even if they weren’t from America, but I wasn’t able to find anyone of any sort that would’ve been from anywhere but Japan.

Almost everyone had taken their seats. I overheard Subaru say, “Oh, it’s about to start,” to Sasha as they started to close the doors to the auditorium. A man walked up to the podium and had a speech prepared. He laid the papers down onto the podium, preparing to talk.

“My name is Yohita Subaru and welcome, everyone, to Shiro School for the Advanced. As it is our first year being a school, we have something special planned for every one of you students, whether you be a third year or a first year. But more on that later. First, I’d like to thank everyone for coming here, and I hope that we have a great school year with our amazing staff and amazing students such as you. I’d also like to thank our donors from the Shiro Science Department for helping fund our school. With their help, they made this school possible.”

His speech was strong. That was really the only word I could find to describe it. He felt confident and ready for the school year ahead.

“All of you here as students were selected either through your academic excellence, your extreme athletic ability, or your parents were donors to our school. I guess, though, I shouldn’t be saying all of you. Only one of you is an exception to this rule, and that person will be left unnamed and unknown to all of you.”

“What the hell is he talking about?” I heard murmur through the crowd.

“As this is our first year opening, our teachers have put together a little project of their own. A sort of hunt, if you’d like to call it that. The one person that didn’t get in here based on those three criteria isn’t just here not based on those three criteria, but because they’re not like all of you. Well, they couldn’t be any more different from all of you, and yet similar at the same time…”

Oh no, is he talking about me? I thought. I couldn’t stop thinking about it until he said—

“This person isn’t a human. They are an AI created by the Shiro Science Department. As much of our staff used to work there before becoming teachers for our school, they decided to put on this little bit of a hunt for all of you. Here is your goal: find the person that is a robot. Figure out who they are, and you will get free tuition until you leave this school in your third year. The only rule is, if you do figure out who it is, you may not tell anyone else under any circumstances. If you do, you will be expelled. Along those same lines, if you guess someone who is not a robot, you are also expelled…”

What the hell? I thought to myself. Is this guy crazy or are they actually serious about this?

“Now, this will be no easy walk in the park,” he continued. “This AI has been programmed to think, look, talk, and act like any other person here. During some of the early tests, I did not even realize that this was a robot. Their main function is to simply blend in. While they may stand out in some moments, it will only be when it is shown that this is normal under their mindset. They may not be the smartest, they may not be the strongest, but that’s because they choose not to be, or at least they are told not to be. And now I’d like for all of you, and I do mean all of you, to accept this challenge and find who the robot is.”

“Now, why the hell should I compete in this?” a student exclaimed from the crowd.

“Good question. While it is not mandatory, we do want to express this: all of you, and we do mean all of you, have the chance to compete in this and find out who it is. The thing is, this person is in this room. It could be the person sitting in the front row closest to me, or it could be the person sitting the farthest away in the back corner. The person is already learning, adapting, finding better ways to fit in. This challenge will only get harder as the year goes on, so it’s best to start getting to work now. Thank you once again for attending here, and good luck!” he said as he walked off the stage and out toward the schoolyard.

“What is even going on?” I heard as people were exclaiming around me. Before I knew it, everyone was talking. The whole auditorium erupted in noise, though it seemed like the overall consensus was that most people believed it, but some still didn’t because it was just so out of the realm of reality for everyone. The fact that a humanoid robot was not only near perfection but had already been built was just insane for everyone to believe.

I decided that it might be better for me to not think about it all that much. Then I realized that the principal’s name was Subaru, and that was the same as the girl I had met earlier.

“Is that your father?” I asked her.

“Yeah, that’s my dad,” she said. “I thought you would have known. Oh wait, you’re a foreigner. I guess you wouldn’t have known.”

“Yeah, I had no clue,” I said. “So does that mean you know who this person is?”

“Nope, I don’t have a clue,” Rin said. “To be honest, I didn’t even know this was going on. I knew that there was something special for this year, but my father refused to tell me.”

“I guess they really are that serious about this,” I added as I started to look for an exit.

“Hey, do you know where the Dormitory Building 1A is?” I asked Rin, trying for her to hear me over the loud noise of people talking.

“Yeah, I know where it is. If you head south from the auditorium, you should find it just off to your right,” she exclaimed, barely being able to talk over everyone.

“Alright, thank you so much,” I said as I started to leave, before she stopped me.

“Hey, could I get your number really quickly?”

“Yeah, sure, Subaru,” I said as I walked back toward her, pulling out my phone.

We exchanged contact information, then she said, “Thank you, Oakley.”

“Please just call me Joshua. Since I’m from America, I just prefer it overall.”

“Okay then, thank you, Joshua!” she exclaimed as she started to walk away.

I started to make my way out as I headed toward my dormitory, wondering what I should eat for dinner. While we are allowed off campus, it’s probably better if I eat somewhere on campus. I thought it would probably be best, though, to just go to my dorm first and then figure out where to go from there. Plus, I wanted to figure out who my roommate was.

Once I found my way out from the maze of people in the auditorium, I walked down the steps and out toward the courtyard. I walked along the buildings, all of them labeled with numbers and letters based on grade and what class they were in. Then I hit 1-AB, standing for boys. Next to it was 1-AG for girls. The building looked pretty nice. It was sort of shaped like a “U,” with dorms on both sides as you walked toward the entrance. It was only two floors tall, but the rooms were pretty spacious, so I assumed that there couldn’t be too many people in my class.

As I made my way to the entrance, I saw someone trying to swipe their key card, but it wasn’t quite working.

“Hey, do you need some help?” I said.

“Yeah, it seems like my keycard isn’t quite working,” he said.

“We can ask the front desk to get you a new one, but for now, let me just help you in,” I said as I went to swipe my keycard at the door. “By the way, what’s your name?”

“My name is Toma Jaeger. What about you?” he asked.

“My name is Joshua Oakley,” I responded as I opened the door.

“Oakley. I've never heard that name before.”

“It's English, so that makes sense, and I'm from America.”

“Oh, that explains it well. It's nice to meet you, Oakley.”

“It was nice to meet you too, Jaeger, but in the future, please call me Joshua. I just prefer it, and it's pretty strange to be called by my last name.”

“Yeah, that makes sense,” he said.

He walked up to the front desk, telling them about his messed-up keycard. The lady said that she’d be able to help him. As I walked through the hall, I tried to find the correct room. I almost walked past it, but I was able to find it.

I swiped my keycard and was able to get in. The room was pretty simple: a bed on each side with a desk underneath it, a decent amount of space in the middle with a couch and a TV, individual closets for both of us, and a shared bathroom. There was nobody else in the room. Not even any clothes or bags or anything, so I was the first person to be there.

Thankfully, my two suitcases that I had delivered earlier in the day were already there on my bed. I immediately walked up to my bed and quickly unzipped them to get out some of my clothes along with some of my posters and my computer.

I was underneath my desk setting up my computer when I heard the door unlock.

“Oh, hello,” I said, trying to figure my way out from underneath the desk. As I stood up, I realized who my roommate was. It was the same guy from the door with his short black hair and brown eyes.

“Hello again,” he said as he walked in through the door.

“It’s good to see you again, Jaeger.”

“Likewise,” he said, walking toward his bed.

“Don't mind me, I'm just trying to set up my computer. Then I want to hang up a few posters before going out for dinner.”

“Yeah, no worries. This is our room, so you do whatever you want,” he said as he laid his suitcase on the bed. “So where are you thinking about going to eat? Because I might have to join you.”

“I'm not really sure. This is my first day on campus, and I didn't even really get a tour up until today.”

“Well, there's a nice American place about half a mile from here if you want to go there.”

“Yeah, that sounds nice. I haven't really had any American food since I first got here,” I said as I started to take out my poster.

“What are you hanging up?” he asked.

“Oh, just a poster from my favorite TV show,” I said as I stuck a tack into the top of it.

“Attack on Titan, huh? I did enjoy that show, but it isn't my favorite.”

“When trying to learn how to speak Japanese, I found that it would probably be better if I watched some Japanese shows as well. Attack on Titan was by far my favorite.”

“Yeah, I heard it's better to try watching shows in different languages when you're trying to learn the language.”

“Yeah, it actually worked pretty well. I'm surprised I learned the language so quickly, despite it being completely different writing systems and completely different ways of grammatically saying stuff,” I said as I grabbed a stack of my T-shirts and put them into a drawer.

“So is that why you're here? I mean, you're the only foreigner that I've seen at this school so far.”

“I'm not really sure. I mean, I guess I did pretty well on the entrance exam, but I'm not really athletic all that much, and my parents are well off—well enough to send me here,” I responded. “How about you?”

“Yeah, I'm an athlete, and I play basketball.”

“Oh, that's good. Do you have a favorite player?”

“If I really had to choose, I'd have to go with Steph Curry since he's the closest to my height.”

“Yeah, that was something that was really interesting when I first got here, since I'm pretty tall even for an American, and here I feel like a giant.”

“Yeah, how tall are you?”

“I'm 6'0", but I might be 6'1" by now. Do you know anyone else that's close to my height?”

“I don't really. And I have a lot of buddies that also made it based on athletics.”

“Oh yeah, do you know anyone who does cross-country here? Because I'm trying to join the team.”

“Yeah, I know a guy. Do you want to try to meet him for dinner or something? We can talk about you maybe joining the cross-country team.”

“Yeah, that sounds nice. Thank you so much,” I said as I put away my suitcase into my closet. “I've been meaning to ask, what do you think about this whole robot thing?”

“To be honest,” he said, “I don't really know. It kind of came out of nowhere. I don't think I'm really going to try that much on it. But if I find anything or leads, I'll try to work it out, I guess.”

“Yeah, I guess it was the same for me. I mean, it was really out of the blue, and I guess it's just one more thing to add to the list of stuff that I need to do while I'm here.”

“What do you want to try to do while you're here, since you're not from here?”

“I don't really know. I didn't really know much about Japanese culture until I got accepted here and really tried to figure it all out, but I'm still really confused about a lot of stuff. It'd be kind of nice to get a bunch of traditional Japanese experiences, I guess,” I said as I finished putting my second suitcase into the closet.

“I could try to help you do some of those things. I mean, I feel like they're almost natural since I've lived in Japan my entire life.”

“Sweet. Thank you so much, man.”

“I'm almost done and ready to go. How about you?” I said as I turned toward him.

“Yeah, I think I'm good for tonight. I think I'll finish up sometime tomorrow morning before classes start.”

“Alright, and by the way, can I get your contact information?”

“Yeah, sure. Why not? I mean, we're kind of forced to be friends at this point since we're roommates,” he said as he put on his shoes.

“Yeah, I guess let's just hope it stays that way,” I said as I finished tying my shoes.

“For sure!” he said almost excitedly, as he opened the door.