The classroom air was tense, silent enough to hear the fluorescent buzz. On the board, Lady Gaga our sharp, merciless instructor wrote in bold letters: EGD Test. Her voice cut through the room like a blade.
"This will decide your place."
The words echoed. For us, it wasn't just an exam. It was survival.
Outside, we were led into the woods. No phones. No help. Just ourselves. The EGD Test was a survival trial, stripping away pretenses until only the core of each student remained. The class split into three groups: A, B, and C.
Group A was confident but fractured by the presence of the transfer student, Lana Marie Ishiguro. Tanjiro immediately called her out "She's an idol! The Thick Girls' ace!" and the entire dynamic of the group shifted. Pretenses and lies thickened. Her trembling hands, her staged timid smile it was all theater. I, goru Yakusugi, could see through it.
Gojo manipulated from the shadows. Feeding information to Group C, sabotaging Group B, he thrived in psychological warfare. Hannah, the prefect, tried to enforce order, but hunger and distrust turned classmates into enemies. The bully stalked opportunities. Everyone was an actor, every move a gambit.
The first clash happened fast. I cornered Lana by the river, stripped away her mask. "You're lying. Every word. Every smile." Her cheerful façade cracked, her voice twisting with venom. "You… you're empty! You don't feel anything. You're a ghost in human skin!"
Her words cut, but I stayed silent. In her anger, I saw it her real face, desperate to be seen. A pawn hiding in plain sight.
Meanwhile, fires lit the woods. Groups fought over scraps, trading blows, teeth bared by starvation. Gojo laughed as plans crumbled. Tanjiro held Hannah back from falling into ambush. The survival test became war.
By the end, weeks later, none of the groups succeeded. Lady Gaga announced it bluntly: all three groups had failed.
The real trial was about to begin.
The mock exam arrived, and with it, a girl who would change everything Makima Sato. Friendly, calm, magnetic. She blended in, yet controlled conversations without effort. Unlike Lana's cheap lies, Makima's charm was invisible. That made her dangerous.
During the break, privileges allowed us to move between zones. It was then I found Anakusubi Anama—fragile, desperate, and easy to shape. I laughed with her, listened, and set unspoken rules. She obeyed them like a loyal puppy, blind to the strings I pulled. With her five hidden privileges exposed, she became mine.
But when the TA Exam began, the ground shifted. Makima revealed her true self. Her mask shattered gone was the cheerful girl. In her place stood a strategist, a queen moving pawns without mercy. She came at me with everything, a direct challenge, calculating risks even when it meant sacrificing pieces.
Zone 7 clashed with Zone 6. The celebrations of victory, the cries of loss they all faded when Makima stood against me. In the exam hall, it felt like only the two of us existed. Pawns at our sides, but the board belonged to neither of us.
Anakusubi clung to my rules, my control. But her heart longed for the mysterious sender of those hidden messages. That was why she fought so hard, why she stayed in the game.
Makima's voice cut sharp as her mask fully broke. "You think you're the one moving the board, Akiru. But you're just another pawn like me."
Her words echoed in the silence. The noise of classmates Tanjiro, Gojo, Hannah drowned away. The Zone battles blurred. The exam halls dissolved.
In the end, it was only Makima and me.
Two players.
One board.
And a war no one else could see.