Kiyotaka Ayanokouji

Kiyotaka Ayanokouji is the main protagonist of the Yōkoso Jitsuryoku Shijō Shugi no Kyōshitsu e anime and light novels.

Kiyotaka 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.

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 ikemen 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 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 demeanor. 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 come 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.

He appears to keep his word as he promised Airi Sakura that he would come to her aid when she needed it, a promise well-kept as he rescued her from a stalker. Also, he promised Suzune that he would get her to A-Class even though she forced him into helping her obtain her goal. Kiyotaka put his plan into action by helping Suzune shed some of her cold nature to open up to others and reaching the class which had partially worked as he helped her get mass popularity from the survival test.

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. When Airi contacted him for aid, as she was nearly assaulted by a crazed stalker, he quickly came to save her and comforted her after the attack.

He does not like drawing attention to himself as after purchasing answers from old tests, he had Kikyō 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 Ken's expulsion after failing a test despite it being his plan and Kikyō hinting it was him. He also allowed Ken 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 Ken's case, despite Honami, Manabu Horikita, and Sae Chabashira all hinting that he was the orchestrator for saving Ken.undefinedHe 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, later revealed 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.undefined

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. During this moment, he stated his dislike of being manipulated as he even resorted to threatening her and grabbing her by the collar, unafraid that she was a teacher who 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 whether he actually cares for those he has befriended or if he just gained their trust to use them.

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, 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. Though Kiyotaka didn't attack, he was able to evade Manabu's strikes in the skirmish with relative ease and managed to deflect one punch to a point where it forced Manabu back. This act earned praise from Manabu, who inquired as to what fighting arts he practiced but received an unconvincing answer in return, showcasing Kiyotaka's excellence in martial arts.

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 an 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 and with Suzune's help, his plan succeeded.

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 Airi's fear of strangers. He picks up on situations very fast as he deduced that Chihiro Shiranami was Honami's admirer, that Airi was in danger of 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 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 skilled 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 and Sae who were both surprised by how the test played out and question why he tries if he doesn't want to advance.

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 Sae instructed Kiyotaka to start reaching for class 1-Aimmediately or be expelled for not applying himself, indicating he could easily accomplish it. His intellect has been shown to even surpassed that of the mindset and ingenuity of Kōhei Katsuragi who is considered the second smartest in the year level. His actions in the survival test even caused Suzune to question what drives him since he has proven that he is more than qualified to reach A-Class. Sae was also amazed by his plan easily pulling one over on the other classes even giving him praise.

In the manga, Sae even hinted that he may even be academically smarter than even Suzune, which is notable as she is exceptionally excellent in her own academics. Suzune even appeared to agree with Sae's statement after seeing his entrance exams questioning if he really got some questions wrong on purpose.

Trivia

 * 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.
 * Kiyotaka ranks #10 in "Male Character" category in the 2018 edition of Takarajimasha's Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi! guidebook.
 * In the 2019 edition, he is ranked #4.