Classroom of the Elite, I Have a Life Simulator 18

"Mr. Izaki?"

He had been preparing to head out and speak to the butler about this matter, but he hadn't expected the man to arrive at the hospital room first. His expression was even more serious than Kitagawa Ryo had imagined.

"Uh, have I been diagnosed with some terminal illness? Or did Mr. Izaki not sleep well last night?"

Cracking a joke as usual, Kitagawa Ryo stretched his limbs.

"I feel pretty good right now. Can I be discharged?"

Mr. Izaki scrutinized Kitagawa Ryo, noting that his complexion was much better than it had been yesterday, and nodded.

"Wait for the doctor to come by for another check-up this morning. If everything is fine, you can be discharged. The young master's physical constitution has always been excellent."

"Got it."

Kitagawa Ryo swung his arms, feeling good. He personally felt that this bout of illness was simply the result of multiple factors stacking up—a coincidence so high it reached the heavens.

"Hm? Why is that umbrella here?"

Catching sight of a black umbrella leaning against the corner of the wall out of the corner of his eye, Kitagawa Ryo frowned and walked over to inspect it. The "I&K" on the handle proved that this was Ichinose Honami's umbrella.

"It must be that... Miss Ichinose forgot to take it last night."

"Hey, hey, who forgets their own umbrella on a rainy day? You'd notice it when you get rained on, right?"

Kitagawa Ryo leaned toward the hospital room door, poking his head out to look around.

"Or did Honami come by this morning?"

"But Miss Ichinose truly did not take this umbrella last night. I happened to see it at the hospital's lost and found."

Mr. Izaki's overly calm narration made it impossible to tell if he was joking. He sighed and continued:

"Miss Ichinose's situation has been a bit off lately. Has the young master really noticed this?"

"...Even if I noticed, so what? I'm leaving soon anyway. Who knows what things will be like when I come back in a year? It might take over a decade for people to become close, but a few months is enough for them to grow distant."

Kitagawa Ryo curled his lip, feigning indifference.

"Would the young master like to hear my opinion on the relationship between the two of you? I suppose I have watched you both grow up, after all."

Mr. Izaki began, and after seeing Kitagawa Ryo nod, he continued:

"Miss Ichinose is afraid lately. A fact she has never realized is that your existence is simply too important to her. In truth, she has always been very sensitive to the possibility of losing you. However, things are different now. Perhaps your presence has become too overwhelming? Because of that, she is terrified of the possibility of losing you. Consequently, her erratic behavior during this period is more frequent than usual."

"Perhaps the young master doesn't think much of it. You might think Miss Ichinose hasn't changed from before, but that is because you still view her as a healthy girl who gets shy and acts spoiled. However, for Miss Ichinose, this is abnormal."

"What does the young master think of her relationship with Miss Karuizawa?"

"Not very good? There wasn't much interaction between them to begin with."

"But if it were before, Miss Ichinose should have been more friendly."

"...She isn't someone who has to be friendly to everyone. Or rather, such a person couldn't possibly exist. If she can learn to make correct judgments about others for herself, even if she shows a little aggression, I think that is growth for Honami."

"Is that so? Is that why the young master chose Miss Karuizawa?"

"Perhaps at the beginning, I was indeed harboring such intentions. Just like when I lied to Honami about Maki confessing to me."

Mr. Izaki was silent for a moment.

"Does that count as testing her?"

"No, it doesn't."

Kitagawa Ryo stroked the delicate texture on the umbrella handle with his finger, then looked up and stared straight at Mr. Izaki.

"I want Honami to think seriously about the relationship between us on her own, to let her... does that sound a bit strange?"

He laughed at himself.

"Just like when I gave Hotaru to her, I kept emphasizing that it was her cat, precisely because I wanted her to know that she has things she can control. She can create memories of her own, and she can think about... Ichinose Honami herself when considering problems. I think I'm almost there; I'm just one step away."

"If the young master has his own plans, then I will say no more."

"But please allow me to ask one last question."

"If Miss Ichinose were to insist on standing in the rain one day and refused to go home, how would the young master stop her?"

"The most convenient way would be to stand in the rain with her, and then, by making her feel sorry for me, I could take her back."

Kitagawa Ryo snapped the large umbrella open. The massive black canopy almost instantly filled Mr. Izaki's field of vision. He tilted the brim upward.

"But my way is to give her an umbrella that can cover both of us."

Mr. Izaki nodded, bowed slightly, and said:

"I will go get your breakfast."

As he walked out of the room, Mr. Izaki reflected on the conversation with Kitagawa Ryo. He didn't believe he necessarily understood Ichinose Honami better than Kitagawa did—after all, it was Kitagawa who had spent all this time with her—but a faint sense of unease remained. Mr. Izaki recalled the scene from last night when he had escorted Ichinose Honami out of the hospital. Unlike when she was in front of Kitagawa Ryo, Ichinose Honami had looked like a doll on the verge of collapse, as if some mainspring inside her had stopped turning, the gears clicking and grinding with an eerie sound.

The personality born within her would surely destroy her emotions and lead her future toward ruin.

This thought suddenly popped into Mr. Izaki's mind, but it was merely his own imagination.

Miss Ichinose had always stood in a place unreachable by ordinary girls. Her personality was something normal people couldn't fathom; it shouldn't even exist in reality. Yet, when applied to Miss Ichinose, it didn't seem strange or unnatural at all. But if that were the case, those suppressed emotions would eventually erupt one day. Perhaps at some point in the future, she would abandon every stance she had held until now for the sake of someone.

Mr. Izaki sighed softly toward the direction of the hospital room.

And that person, in all likelihood, was Kitagawa Ryo himself.

After his morning check-up, the doctor told Kitagawa Ryo that it would be best for him to rest in the ward for another day. With nothing to do, he could only watch the grass and flowers in the hospital courtyard. It had rained the night before, and the entire courtyard was filled with the distinct, earthy scent that follows a storm—neither unpleasant nor particularly pleasant.

Karuizawa Kei arrived at eleven in the morning with Izaki. She didn't see anyone in the ward, and it was only after wandering around that she found Kitagawa Ryo in the courtyard, watching a line of ants moving their colony.

"Are you feeling better, Senior?"

As soon as Kitagawa Ryo looked up, he saw Karuizawa Kei standing prettily behind him. She was wearing a sleeveless dress with a white and blue color scheme, looking clean and refreshing. Seeing such a girl with a girl-next-door charm on a summer morning truly made one's mind relax involuntarily.

"I feel like I'm already at the point where I could be discharged."

Patting the dust off his pants, Kitagawa Ryo stood up and stretched.

"I don't see Ichinose-san."

Karuizawa Kei stood on her tiptoes and scanned the area:

"But her umbrella is clearly in the ward."

"That's because Honami forgot to take it last night. She should be coming to get it today."

"Oh, I see."

Karuizawa Kei took two paper cranes folded from paper out of her bag:

"I forgot to tell you yesterday, Senior. When you fainted, you accidentally knocked over the glass bottle on the bedside table. The medical staff didn't notice when they came in to put you on the stretcher, so many of the paper cranes inside were crushed. These are the two relatively intact ones I managed to pick up from under the bed at the time."

"Is that so?"

Kitagawa Ryo tried hard to recall; there did seem to have been a crisp sound of something shattering at the time.

"It's a stroke of luck that you weren't cut by the glass shards, Senior. That bottle landed right behind your heels. If you had fallen backward... pfft, never mind, I shouldn't say that."

Karuizawa Kei watched Kitagawa Ryo fiddle with the two paper cranes and asked curiously:

"Did Ichinose-san give these to you?"

"Yeah, I was twelve back then. Honami even said she wanted to fold twelve hundred for me."

Kitagawa Ryo tapped the heads of the paper cranes. These little things were folded quite delicately; even though only a few dozen were eventually given to him, one could tell how much effort Ichinose Honami had put into them at the time.

"I remember the legend says that if you fold a thousand paper cranes, you can make a wish."

Karuizawa Kei knew the meaning behind paper cranes. She had intended to fold them when she was giving a gift to Ichinose Maki, but she gave up because she didn't have enough time.

"That's what they say, but this is the same logic as the marriage fortunes at a temple."

"For the person you love, it doesn't matter if you don't fold a thousand. For the person you don't love, folding a thousand won't make them fall in love with you."

"If you really take this kind of thing seriously, thinking that folding a thousand can save a patient's life or win back a lover's heart like in a story..."

Kitagawa Ryo let go of one of the paper cranes in his hand, watching it get swept up by the wind into the sky, disappearing without a trace in an instant:

"It will just fly away."

Chapter 20: Fireworks Are Cold (Part 4)

Kitagawa Ryo sat at the table writing a greeting card. His phone was on his right, and a cup of steaming cocoa was on his left. He held his pen, looking quite hesitant. A dozen sheets of white paper used for drafts had already piled up beside him, each with a different opening.

It had been a long time since he had given Ichinose Honami a birthday gift. Since he gave her that umbrella when he was twelve, five years had passed until this year.

Kitagawa Ryo and Ichinose Honami had been exchanging birthday gifts since they were seven. Throughout their elementary school years, it even formed a strange pattern of correspondence; for example, if you gave me a handmade item this year, then what I gave back would definitely be a handmade craft. What left the deepest impression on Kitagawa Ryo was when he had a whimsical idea at eleven to make a pair of gloves for Ichinose Honami by hand. The final result was that Ichinose Honami received a collection of unidentified yarn fuzz.

Of course, Ichinose Honami's return gift that time was equally unusable—a thing she called a "scarf." These gloves and the scarf were eventually dismantled back into yarn by the two of them, who couldn't bear to look at them anymore, and then Hotaru got several yarn balls to play with.

Back then, the two of them thought it didn't matter at all, because they would spend many more birthdays together afterward. Once a year was enough to experience all kinds of "firsts."

It was precisely because they felt there would be an infinite number of "next times" that they didn't care about those "first times."

Kitagawa Ryo discarded another opening. He thought carefully about the rationality of sending a handwritten greeting card in modern society, but in the end, he scratched his head and started on a new sheet.

Karuizawa Kei sat nearby, practicing folding paper cranes with the drafts Kitagawa Ryo had thrown away. She suddenly became interested in this craft and, without feeling the slightest bit bored, folded all the papers—which were covered in messy sentences like "Happy Birthday Honami-chan," "I want you to see this card when," and "When was the last time I gave you a birthday gift?"—into fluttering paper cranes. The side with the writing was folded inside, so no clues could be seen from the outside.

Kitagawa Ryo knew the reason for his distraction; he was waiting for Ichinose Honami to arrive. A phone call would also suffice. He felt it was impossible for Honami not to come and get the umbrella, but it was already three o'clock, and the door to the ward had not been pushed open again, nor had there been any sign of communication on the phone to his right.

He was inexplicably stubborn. Since Ichinose Honami wouldn't take the initiative to call him, he wouldn't take the initiative to contact her either. Kitagawa Ryo spun his pen, staring at the black screen of his phone as if it would light up in the next second and show Ichinose Honami's profile picture, but it never did.

Kitagawa Ryo slumped over the desk, tapping the table with his pen. He slowly fell asleep. The biggest effect his illness had on him over the past two days was drowsiness, as if he were trying to make up for all the sleep he hadn't gotten in one go. This nap wasn't long, but Kitagawa Ryo had a strange expression on his face after waking up.

"What's wrong?"

Karuizawa Kei had finished folding all the paper cranes and was sitting there examining her results. Regrettably, compared to the one she used as a model, hers were clearly rougher. As she was worrying about how to improve, she looked up and met Kitagawa Ryo's thoughtful gaze.

"I just had a dream."

Karuizawa Kei listened to Kitagawa Ryo recount his dream. In that world, he and Karuizawa Kei had basically no interaction. Although he occasionally saw news about school bullying on TV, he had never actually known Karuizawa Kei.

"What about Ichinose-san?"

Karuizawa Kei pursed her lips, seemingly dissatisfied with this dream.

"...Just a neighbor who moved in recently, someone whose name I only knew."

Kitagawa Ryo himself was a bit surprised. In the dream, the Ichinose Honami he knew had no childhood friend named Kitagawa Ryo. On her sister's thirteenth birthday, she chose to steal a hair clip as a gift for her sister, only to be dragged to the store by her mother to kneel and confess her guilt.

This kind of malicious development made Kitagawa Ryo feel uncomfortable from the bottom of his heart; it was an out-and-out nightmare.

"It was just a nonsensical, strange dream. No need to worry about it."

Karuizawa Kei softly coaxed Kitagawa Ryo, whose expression was looking rather grim:

"The reality is that every member of the Ichinose family received a hair clip because of you, didn't they?"

"Yeah."

Kitagawa Ryo responded in a muffled voice. He suddenly knew what he should write in this birthday card. He picked up his pen and, skipping the draft paper, began to write directly onto the simple card:

"On the occasion of Honami's sixteenth birthday, what I want to say to Honami is this:

Time may wash memories away until they are blurred, but it also proves that the days we spent together were not false. Our bodies gradually growing, and the hearts that grew stronger alongside them—perhaps in the future, Honami will come to dislike the person you are now, but I hope you know that who you are now is not the end, and we will not end as the people we are today.

I know Honami doesn't like dwelling on the past; you always yearn for the future. But I still wish for you to remember the feelings of the past:

The feeling of cherishing someone, the feeling of liking someone.

Gentle feelings, warm feelings, happy feelings.

Sad feelings, regretful feelings, painful feelings.

I don't think these things are meaningless, because they are what make you who you are.

Even if they seem trivial, it doesn't matter. I want these emotions to remain in the depths of your heart; I hope they can become your will and your weapon.

However, I still hope you can become a more authentic person. I hope you can find happiness just like any other ordinary girl. Honami, you are a person of outstanding talent, but sometimes I think it wouldn't matter if you were just an ordinary person, as long as you could show a smile. It's okay to cry, it's okay to get angry. Throw a tantrum, be willful, even cause me trouble—that's fine too.

I hope you can trust your own heart when making decisions. I hope you can care more about yourself. If a situation arises where you must sacrifice yourself to save others, don't discard yourself without a second thought. You aren't a truly omnipotent angel, nor are you a prisoner born with original sin.

These hopes may be my arrogance, but they are also my most sincere wishes.

Happy birthday."

The first piece of bad news Ichinose Honami received on her birthday was that her mother had collapsed at work due to exhaustion. The timing was so coincidental that for a fleeting moment, Ichinose Honami even wondered if her mother had done it on purpose, but she immediately cast that absurd thought to the back of her mind.

Stimulating the nerves in her face with cold water to force herself to stay awake at four in the morning, Ichinose Honami paced tirelessly through the hospital corridors—registering, picking up medicine, consulting with doctors, and communicating with people from her mother's company. By the time everything was finished, the horizon was already beginning to show the faint light of dawn.