Why Did Nanase Attack Ayanokoji in Classroom of the Elite?

Why Nanase Blamed Ayanokoji

Nanase Tsubasa's attack was rooted in the fate of the Matsuo family, not in a school rivalry or an order from Hosen.

Before entering the Advanced Nurturing High School, Kiyotaka Ayanokoji lived in the White Room, the secret educational facility created and controlled by his father. Ayanokoji eventually escaped that environment with outside assistance. One of the people who helped him was Matsuo, a member of the Ayanokoji household staff.

Ayanokoji's father considered that assistance a betrayal. According to the history presented in the light novels, Matsuo lost his position and faced severe retaliation. The consequences also reached his son, Eiichiro Matsuo, whose future deteriorated after his father's punishment.

Nanase knew Eiichiro personally and cared deeply about him. From her perspective, the sequence was painfully simple:

1. Matsuo helped Ayanokoji escape.
2. Ayanokoji's father punished Matsuo.
3. Eiichiro suffered because of that punishment.
4. Ayanokoji continued living at school while the Matsuo family collapsed.

That emotional chain made Ayanokoji the most visible target for her anger. He had not personally ordered the retaliation, but Nanase associated his escape with everything that followed.

This motive is established during the island confrontation in Classroom of the Elite: Year 2, Volume 3. Seven Seas' official synopsis deliberately presents Nanase's decision to accompany Ayanokoji as suspicious, asking what the first-year student hopes to gain by leaving her own group and following him.

What Happened Before Nanase Attacked Him

Nanase did not suddenly lose control during an ordinary conversation. She deliberately created an opportunity to be alone with Ayanokoji.

Nanase Joined Ayanokoji During the Island Exam

The second-year uninhabited island special exam required students to travel between designated areas, complete tasks, and accumulate points over two weeks. Unlike most students, Ayanokoji initially participated alone.

Nanase separated from her own first-year group and asked to accompany him. The official English description of Volume 3 emphasizes that her choice appeared to offer her no obvious benefit. Her actions therefore raised an immediate question: why would she sacrifice her own position to support an older student?

The official Season 4 episode guide follows the same basic chronology. In Episode 10, Nanase is already travelling with Ayanokoji and claims that his route and priorities should come first. That cooperation creates a temporary impression that she has become a dependable ally.

Her helpful behavior was genuine in some respects, but it also allowed her to study him. She could observe his endurance, decision-making, physical ability, and emotional reactions while waiting for a suitable moment to confront him.

She Led Him Toward an Isolated Location

On the seventh day of the exam, Nanase insisted on taking a mountain route despite the danger of worsening weather. Ayanokoji recommended a safer detour, but she pressed ahead.

The official Season 4 Episode 12 synopsis confirms that Nanase specifically requested the mountain crossing and then revealed a personal story after they reached the summit. The episode's Japanese title, "The End of Vengeance," signals that this is the point where her concealed purpose comes into the open.

The location mattered. They were away from the larger student groups, and the terrain gave Nanase privacy to say what she had been suppressing.

She confronted Ayanokoji about Eiichiro, the Matsuo family, and the consequences of his departure from the White Room. The conversation then became a physical attack.

Why Nanase's Personality Seemed to Change

One of the most confusing parts of the scene is Nanase's switch from her normal speech and behavior to the more aggressive identity she calls "Boku."

The scene can initially look like a supernatural possession or a literal transfer of Eiichiro's personality. That is not the explanation Ayanokoji accepts.

"Boku" Represented Eiichiro and Nanase's Grief

Nanase normally uses the feminine first-person pronoun "watashi."During the confrontation, her manner changes and she begins using"boku," a pronoun more commonly associated with boys and young men.

She presents this side of herself as though Eiichiro's will is acting through her. The "Boku" personality speaks with greater hostility and directs its anger at Ayanokoji.

Ayanokoji does not treat this as proof that Eiichiro literally exists inside Nanase. He interprets it as a psychological construction created from grief, guilt, fixation, and Nanase's memories of him. In other words, Nanase had given her desire for revenge a separate voice.

This distinction matters. The scene is not confirming reincarnation, possession, or a paranormal ability. The apparent second identity is tied to Nanase's inability to process what happened.

The Persona Let Her Avoid Her Own Doubts

Nanase was not completely convinced that attacking Ayanokoji was morally right. She knew he had not personally persecuted Matsuo. She had also spent enough time beside him to see that he was not behaving like a cruel mastermind.

The "Boku" persona helped her suppress those contradictions.

By treating the desire for revenge as Eiichiro's will, Nanase could tell herself that she was acting on behalf of someone who could no longer demand justice for himself. That made it easier to direct her pain at Ayanokoji instead of confronting the more complicated truth: Ayanokoji was also a victim of his father and the White Room.

This reading is partly interpretive, but it follows the reasoning Ayanokoji uses during the confrontation. He challenges the logic behind her accusation rather than accepting the alternate persona at face value.

Was Ayanokoji Responsible for the Matsuo Family's Fate?

Ayanokoji's escape was the event that triggered his father's retaliation, but that does not make him the person who chose to punish Matsuo.

The direct responsibility belongs to Professor Ayanokoji, who controlled the White Room and treated Matsuo's assistance as disobedience. Kiyotaka did not order Matsuo's dismissal, destroy Eiichiro's prospects, or ask for anyone to be harmed.

Nanase's accusation therefore depends on indirect responsibility. She believes that because Ayanokoji benefited from Matsuo's sacrifice, he carries some moral burden for its consequences.

Ayanokoji's response is characteristically cold. He does not offer the emotional apology Nanase expects, nor does he pretend that he can restore what was lost. Instead, he forces her to examine whether her revenge has a rational objective.

Even if she defeated him, what would change?

Matsuo would not be restored. Eiichiro's suffering would not disappear. Sending Ayanokoji back to the White Room would primarily satisfy the system that had caused the tragedy.

That realization weakens Nanase's resolve.

Did Nanase Intend to Kill Ayanokoji?

The confrontation is violent, but the canon does not establish that Nanase had a firm, calculated plan to murder him.

Her stated objective is closer to defeating him, punishing him, and forcing him back toward the place from which he escaped. She attacks seriously enough to test her physical ability against his, but she is acting from emotional instability rather than executing a careful assassination.

Ayanokoji remains in control of the fight. He avoids and neutralizes her attacks without needing to injure her severely. The difference between them is not only physical. Nanase is driven by anger, while Ayanokoji continues analyzing her movements and mental state.

Her inability to land a decisive blow exposes the weakness of her revenge. She cannot overpower him, but more importantly, she cannot provide a convincing answer when he questions what victory would accomplish.

Why Nanase Stopped Fighting

Nanase stopped because Ayanokoji broke the emotional logic supporting her attack.

He recognized that "Boku" was not Eiichiro himself and confronted Nanase with the fact that she was using a constructed identity to carry unbearable feelings. Once that separation began collapsing, she could no longer present the attack as Eiichiro's unquestionable demand.

Ayanokoji also refused to give her the reaction she expected. He did not panic, retaliate cruelly, or beg for forgiveness. His calmness forced her to confront the mismatch between the person in front of her and the villain she had built in her mind.

Nanase ultimately understood that:

• Ayanokoji had not personally chosen the Matsuo family's punishment.
• He had been imprisoned and shaped by the same system connected to their suffering.
• Returning him to the White Room would not constitute meaningful justice.
• Her revenge was preserving her grief rather than resolving it.

She therefore abandoned the attack and regained control of herself.

Was Nanase Working for Tsukishiro?

Acting Director Tsukishiro knew about Nanase's connection to the Matsuo family and used that vulnerability to direct her attention toward Ayanokoji.

However, Nanase should not be confused with the White Room student secretly placed among the first-years.

Season 4's official introduction confirms that a White Room agent had entered the school under Tsukishiro's arrangements, but Nanase's personal history and behavior do not make her that operative. Her attack comes from grief and manipulation, not from White Room training or a desire to defeat Ayanokoji as a rival product.

Tsukishiro benefits from Nanase's anger because anyone pressuring Ayanokoji increases the chance of his expulsion. Yet Nanase's feelings are her own. She is not merely pretending to care about Eiichiro as part of an assignment.

This is why her failure does not end with a cold mission report. It ends with an emotional collapse and a reconsideration of what she believed.

Confirmed Facts and Reasonable Inference

Several details are directly established by the story:

• Nanase knew Eiichiro Matsuo and was deeply affected by his fate.
• Matsuo's father suffered retaliation after helping Ayanokoji leave the White Room.
• Nanase blamed Ayanokoji for setting those consequences in motion.
• She joined him during the island exam while hiding her full motive.
• She attacked him after revealing her connection to Eiichiro.
• Her "Boku" state reflected an Eiichiro-based identity formed through grief.
• She stopped fighting and later cooperated with Ayanokoji.

Other conclusions require interpretation:

• Nanase may have targeted Ayanokoji because blaming Professor Ayanokoji directly felt impossible.
• Calling the revenge Eiichiro's will may have allowed her to avoid responsibility for her own anger.
• Spending time with Ayanokoji probably weakened the image of him as an uncomplicated villain before the fight even began.

These interpretations fit the events, but the narrative does not reduce Nanase's psychology to a clinical diagnosis or provide a complete medical explanation for the "Boku" persona.

The Real Meaning of Nanase's Attack

Nanase's attack is less about whether she can physically defeat Ayanokoji and more about misplaced blame.

Both characters were harmed by the White Room's power. Ayanokoji lost his childhood to it, while Nanase lost someone she cared about after the institution's creator retaliated against Matsuo. Professor Ayanokoji's actions placed them on opposite sides even though neither had created the system.

Nanase initially sees Kiyotaka as the person who escaped at Eiichiro's expense. After confronting him, she begins to recognize him as another person trapped in the consequences of his father's decisions.

That does not erase Matsuo's sacrifice or Nanase's grief. It does explain why her revenge ends without a second serious attempt. Defeating Ayanokoji would punish the wrong person and serve the very forces that ruined the Matsuo family.