Classroom of the Elite, I Have a Life Simulator 14

"Then let me help you refresh your memory."

"I forgot to warn you: ever since that incident back then, I was diagnosed with some sort of condition. I don't know exactly what it is, but it seems that beating people up isn't really a crime for me."

A man's voice suddenly appeared in the air, so abrupt that the girl's hand seemed to freeze, as if paralyzed by some magical force.

"Emi Eura."

"Born in Toshima, Tokyo, sixteen years old. Father, Tadashi Eura, former worker at Toshima Chiba Heavy Industries, currently unemployed. Mother, Yuko Eura, housewife. The family has a total debt of 31 million yen. You previously attended Shuchiin Middle School, but were expelled in your first year for intentional assault."

The man's voice paused, and through the background noise, one could clearly hear heavy breathing and a rhythmic thumping sound.

"If what I've said is correct, please stop the series of actions you are about to take that might harm Kei."

The voice in the wind sounded sharp and dangerous, like a silent threat.

Only then did Emi Eura notice that the source of the voice was merely the phone in Karuizawa Kei's hand, currently on speakerphone. The fact that she was being nonchalantly threatened by someone whose identity she didn't even know made her inexplicably furious. Just as she took a step forward to continue, the voice came through the receiver again:

"If you hurt her, I swear that no matter what your medical report says to help you evade responsibility—"

"I will make you pay the corresponding price."

"Also, I'll be there soon."

"Kei, turn off the speakerphone."

"Oh, okay."

Hearing Kitagawa Ryo's words, Karuizawa Kei quickly turned off the speakerphone and pressed the phone back to her ear.

"Like this, is this okay?"

"I'm not sure, but as long as you can stall her, it's fine."

The voice on the other end was breathing slightly, the tone clipped:

"I'll be there in three minutes. Just hold on a little longer."

"Believe..."

"I believe in you."

"Okay."

Karuizawa Kei heard the other person let out a soft sigh, followed immediately by the call ending.

Kitagawa Ryo hung up the phone, confirmed the location and direction once more, and accelerated further, already running through the woods at a rapid pace. A deep, powerful voice of an old man came through the white earpiece in his right ear:

"Five minutes."

To be honest, running through the woods was not a good choice, but if he ran along the hiking trail, he would surely be stopped if seen by the staff.

Adjusting his center of gravity to dodge a rock ahead, Kitagawa Ryo began to steady the breathing rhythm that had been disrupted by speaking earlier. He had been traveling through the woods for seven or eight minutes since receiving Karuizawa Kei's distress signal, and the final distance was roughly six hundred meters.

If Kitagawa Ryo were to run six hundred meters on a proper track, he wouldn't even need three minutes, but considering the terrain and his stamina, three minutes was the limit he could promise.

Kitagawa Ryo did not make promises lightly, but he had just promised to reach Karuizawa Kei's side in three minutes.

His lungs felt like they were burning, and his throat emitted a painful wheeze, as if it had solidified into a dehydrated riverbed.

His breathing grew heavy, his heart pumped frantically in his chest, and sweat appeared on his pores only to dry quickly, his clothes clinging damply to his body.

"Hey..."

Just as he could almost see their backs, Kitagawa Ryo suddenly received a call from Ichinose Honami.

"Ryo, I've contacted the park staff. They'll be here in about ten minutes. Don't be impulsive, as long as Maki..."

The voice on the other end was also breathless; Ichinose Honami said into the phone:

"Anyway, Ryo, don't hang up, or I won't be at ease."

"Understood."

It had delayed him by about twenty seconds, but there was still time.

He reached out to push aside Emi Eura's arm. That arm, raised high and never daring to fall, was like an antenna pointing toward the clouds, stiff and refusing to lower.

The boy stood in front of Karuizawa Kei, as if he were always meant to stand there.

He extended his tongue to moisten his parched lips, stepped his right foot onto the step above, and leaned his body slightly forward. This posture made him look full of danger and provocation.

"Kid, who are you?"

"Kitagawa Ryo."

Kitagawa Ryo glanced at the phone in his pocket; the green call button was still lit.

"I'm the boyfriend of Karuizawa Kei, whom you've cornered here."

"Are you here to pay her debts? Alone?"

The man known as Ken-ge seemed to feel that being provoked by a high school-aged brat made him lose face. He stepped forward, spat out his cigarette butt, and crushed it with his foot.

"No."

Kitagawa Ryo looked at Karuizawa Kei, who was on the verge of tears because of his arrival, and Ichinose Maki, who was hiding behind him with a terrified expression. His tone grew even colder.

This kind of desperately suppressed anger and slightly neurotic tone made Ken-ge feel a chill.

He slapped Emi Eura across the face, the force of the blow leaving Kitagawa Ryo's palm slightly stinging and red.

"I'm here to stand up for my girlfriend."

"Are you looking to die?"

Although the relationship between Ken-ge and Emi Eura wasn't particularly deep, he couldn't just stand by and watch his girlfriend get hit in public; as the leader, he had to act, and the delinquents behind him immediately swarmed forward.

But just as the group intended to teach this arrogant kid a lesson, they suddenly heard the sound of synchronized footsteps. It seemed like people were coming down from the mountain, and there were quite a few of them.

Ken-ge's expression darkened. Whether they were tourists or staff, if he were caught beating someone up on the spot, even with his influence in this area, it would take a lot of effort to smooth things over.

"Kid, consider yourself lucky today. Move!"

With a grim face, he led his men, trying to shove past Kitagawa Ryo, who was blocking the mountain path.

"I do consider myself lucky today."

Kitagawa Ryo said with a relaxed smile:

"My family happens to have a construction contract on the top of this mountain, so it's quite convenient to call for backup."

A dark, dense crowd of at least twenty people rushed down from above. Aside from the old man leading them, they were all sturdy men in matching black tight-fitting short-sleeved shirts. What made Ken-ge's throat go dry was that each of them was holding a forty-centimeter-long telescopic baton.

Kitagawa Ryo took a baton from his family's butler and pointed it directly at a man with dyed yellow hair among the delinquents.

The setting sun, nearing dusk, cast a vast and brilliant blood-red glow behind him.

"I remember your mouth being the filthiest."

"Come out."

"Are we not going up anymore?"

"There should still be enough time."

After the staff led away the group of delinquents who had "accidentally" fallen and ended up bruised and battered, Kitagawa Ryo sat on the stone steps and smiled at Ichinose Honami, who had hurried over. Unlike the slightly ferocious expression he had worn earlier, he only showed this kind of smile when looking at Ichinose Honami.

"I didn't expect something like this to happen."

Ichinose Honami smoothed her skirt and sat down beside Kitagawa Ryo. Ichinose Maki and Karuizawa Kei were currently undergoing routine questioning as "accidental" witnesses. Since the other party had already been cowed into silence, they could just make up whatever version of events they wanted.

"Is this what your family does, Ryo?"

Kitagawa Ryo scratched his head and quickly denied it:

"Our family runs a legitimate business. We only have these people stationed here temporarily because we have a construction contract at the summit. I heard they're building a large observation deck where you can directly watch the fireworks festival in Tokyo from here..."

"I want to take Maki back. She must have been terrified by what happened today."

Ichinose Maki interrupted Kitagawa Ryo, sounding a bit weary. She looked toward the summit, which wasn't actually that far away, and forced a smile:

"If we come again next time, we'll go to the top then."

"Sorry."

Noticing the girl's lack of enthusiasm, Kitagawa Ryo stopped talking.

"Mm, there's no need to apologize. Besides, Karuizawa-san must have been frightened today too, so Ryo should thank her for me."

"Honami could do that herself, couldn't she?"

Ichinose Honami watched the sun slowly sink toward the mountain peak, glancing at her own shadow as she replied in a low voice:

"Isn't she Ryo's girlfriend?"

Kitagawa Ryo stared at Ichinose Honami for a few seconds as if he didn't recognize her at all, before teasing her in a relaxed tone:

"What? It seems our act was quite convincing, even Honami thinks so."

"Mm-hmm, if that's the case, Kei's friends shouldn't be able to spot any flaws."

"Actually, I was also considering when to bring it up to Kei..."

"Maki is out."

Ichinose Honami suddenly stood up. She felt that her own tone carried a hint of pleading:

"I'm going to head down the mountain with her first."

"Mm, alright."

Kitagawa Ryo suddenly felt that his response sounded familiar, but he couldn't remember when he had said those words to Ichinose Honami.

He just watched in silence as Ichinose Honami and Ichinose Maki walked down the mountain. Maki seemed to look back at him twice, and he raised his head to wave and smile at her.

Right now, Kitagawa Ryo felt as if he were drifting on the surface of an ocean, like a loose and fragile piece of duckweed in a desolate, boundless sea. The past stood there like reefs, and from time to time, he would collide with these reefs, resulting in waves of pain.

If one party is missing from the memories shared between two people, then all the past events of the other person actually fall into a black hole of time. Every word and every sentence—the memories you treat as treasures—are nothing more than the corpses left behind by time when only you remember them; they are worthless.

"Kitagawa-senpai."

He didn't know how much time had passed, but when the girl behind him called out, Kitagawa Ryo finally woke up in a daze. The sky had already darkened; it was nearly six o'clock.

"I'm very sorry about what happened today."

Kitagawa Ryo looked at the girl standing there; her honey-colored hair danced in the air like a sprite.

"I didn't anticipate that group of people."

"It's fine, it's fine."

Karuizawa Kei hurriedly waved her hands in denial, nervously twisting the ends of her hair:

"The senior just asked me not to refuse Maki's request and to have a good time playing here today; no one could have known we would run into something like this."

"Kei, you knew, didn't you?"

Kitagawa Ryo wore a bitter smile as he reached out to grasp a fallen leaf.

"Yes, I came here today to cooperate with Kitagawa-senpai's confession plan."

Karuizawa Kei nodded and held up three fingers:

"Actually, from the very beginning, the senior had already organized this date in advance. The so-called random bus route was all fake because the senior had already investigated the bus sequence and arrival times. As for the park, we just had to suggest getting off here once we realized we were approaching the stop."

"Although I don't know what arrangements the senior made, he definitely would have arrived at the temple with Honami-san by noon to make his first attempt. Based on the information I noticed at noon, it must have had something to do with the love fortune slips, because the rule about not interpreting the love fortune slips was just too suspicious."

"Then the mountaintop was likely the final location for the confession, though I didn't get a chance to go up there because of this incident, so I can't be sure."

Karuizawa Kei gave an embarrassed smile, then pointed to herself and said:

"As for my role, it was to propose a breakup to the senior there."

"Looking at the results, I, the actor handpicked by the senior, really botched the performance. I was supposed to end up as a member of the audience, after all."

"Not at all."

Kitagawa Ryo suddenly laughed, but there wasn't a hint of joy in it:

"Honami's performance was the worst one of all. It was so bad that I couldn't even play off her, so bad that I couldn't pick up any of the cues, and so bad that she couldn't even deliver her lines or keep a poker face."

"Senpai..."

Karuizawa Kei looked at Kitagawa Ryo with concern.

"Ah, I'm fine."