Arisu Sakayanagi, Kiyotaka Ayanokouji - Classroom of the Elite (You-Zitsu) - Gallery

A Queen's Gambit of Flesh and Feeling: Arisu Sakayanagi's Intimate Checkmate Against the White Room's Masterpiece

The soft click of a polished ebony king being laid gently on its side was the only sound that broke the profound silence in Arisu Sakayanagi's meticulously arranged room. The air, tinged with the faint, elegant scent of jasmine and old books, seemed to hold its breath. Outside the window, the sprawling, state-of-the-art campus of the Advanced Nurturing High School was a tapestry of distant lights under a velvety night sky, a world away from the intellectual battlefield contained within these four walls.