Classroom of the Elite, I Have a Life Simulator

"He doesn't remember anything now; he poses no threat to you at all."

Arisu Sakayanagi leaned her cane against the bedside table. She smoothed the hair behind her ear, her silver-white locks possessing a distinct, high-quality luster. The petite girl lifted her gaze, looking at Eiichiro Matsuo with a faint, enigmatic smile. Her deep purple pupils were as tranquil as a stagnant pool, making it impossible to discern what she was thinking.

"What makes you so certain that I don't know him, or that he doesn't know me?"

Arisu Sakayanagi paused for a moment. She had recognized Eiichiro Matsuo's identity long ago; in fact, it was she who had intentionally leaked information about Ryo Kitagawa to his father over two years ago, which was why she began to smile.

"His life didn't just begin at fourteen, and you aren't the only friend he has ever known."

Eiichiro Matsuo calmed down, sensing that the girl's tone didn't seem malicious. He frowned and asked, "Do you know that Ryo came from the White Room?"

"The White Room?"

Arisu Sakayanagi tilted her head. Her posture was impeccably upright, and this slight swaying motion actually made her appear a bit more lively.

"You could say that, but in essence, it's a bit different."

"The goal of the White Room is to cultivate a group of emotionless robots... oh, it seems there is someone else here. Is it alright for her to know?"

Arisu Sakayanagi glanced at Tsubasa Nanase, who was standing to the side, and asked with interest.

"She is someone I can trust."

Eiichiro Matsuo responded immediately.

"If you truly know something about Ryo's past, I implore you to tell me."

He then took a step forward, bowed slightly, and said with pursed lips, "Please."

"Fine. Besides, it looks like he'll have to wait quite a while, though, who knows? Maybe he'll never wake up?"

Arisu Sakayanagi playfully poked Ryo Kitagawa's cheek with her right index finger.

"...You wouldn't be that pathetic, would you?"

She whispered.

"How much do you know about the White Room?"

"I only know it's an organization that cultivates geniuses... I didn't dare ask my father too much."

Mr. Matsuo, Eiichiro Matsuo's father, was a butler who worked for high-ranking figures, which was why he knew a little bit about it—but only a little.

"As for the White Room, it is indeed much like what you imagine: using closed-off management and education to mass-produce artificial geniuses, or rather, emotionless robots?"

Arisu Sakayanagi explained to him: "I went there once when I was little. In that massive white building, five or six-year-old children sat there receiving their education. It was very stifling."

The girl shook her head: "Even if this kind of education truly produced a successful case, it isn't suitable for promotion. Or rather, this plan was wrong from the very beginning."

Arisu Sakayanagi placed her hand on the boy's face in front of her: "The things created that way are simply not human. Even if they are geniuses, it's useless."

"Humans can understand what warmth is through mutual contact. This is extremely important. The warmth of skin-to-skin contact is by no means a bad thing."

"So what?"

Eiichiro Matsuo seemed to have a bad premonition. He struggled to steady his wavering heart and continued to listen to Arisu Sakayanagi.

"That is why I want to prove that their methods are wrong."

Arisu Sakayanagi's smile remained unchanged: "If their philosophy is that humans can become more powerful by stripping away emotions..."

"Then, wouldn't it be enough for me to create an existence that acts for the sake of emotion, and then have him defeat the White Room's 'greatest masterpiece'?"

"Is that person Ryo?"

"It was just a coincidence."

Arisu Sakayanagi shook her head: "In fact, Ryo Kitagawa's situation at the time was quite special. After his parents died in a car accident, he lost all his memories. Although he was ten, he was no different from a newborn baby. This reason led to almost all his relatives rejecting requests to adopt him."

"If such a child were sent to an orphanage, it wouldn't have been a good choice either."

"I was in the hospital at the time and overheard the nurses talking, so I had my father 'adopt' him."

Eiichiro Matsuo suppressed his anger and asked: "Do you mean you sent Ryo in there?"

"Yes."

"Then what about his correspondence with Honami Ichinose?"

Upon hearing this topic, Arisu Sakayanagi covered her mouth and chuckled softly for some reason before continuing: "Actually, we only found out later that the Ryo Kitagawa of that time still remembered a few things. For instance, his childhood friend Honami Ichinose. Oh, he called her 'Little Sister Honami' back then, and Honami Ichinose called him 'Big Brother Ryo Kitagawa'."

"Before he left with the people following us, he snuck over to Ichinose's house to see her one last time. He even arrogantly left behind a fake mailing address—which, in fact, was a vacation home owned by the Sakayanagi family in the United States. I have no idea when he memorized that."

"Sure enough, Ichinose Honami began sending letters to him at that address afterward. Naturally, they all ended up in our hands."

Sakayanagi Arisu seemed to recall those days, her tone lightening slightly:

"Actually, what we wanted to do back then was implant a concept into the amnesiac Kitagawa Ryo: something along the lines of 'you must work hard for the sake of someone else.'"

"Later, we discovered that we didn't need to implant anything at all. Such an existence already resided in his subconscious."

"Are you referring to Ichinose Honami?"

Matsuo Eiichiro cast a deep look at Ichinose Honami, who was lying on the bed across from them.

"Correct, though there is no prize."

Sakayanagi Arisu's tone was flat. Perhaps, to her, casually exploiting the feelings between two people who didn't even know each other wasn't a big deal—it was more like finding a fun toy:

"Kitagawa Ryo accepted our guidance quite smoothly. With his past memories as a foundation, he quickly believed that he truly had a younger sister. And so, in that sealed white room, he worked himself to the bone for this fictional 'sister'."

"He really was very hardworking."

She spoke as if offering praise, her eyes lowered toward the unconscious Kitagawa Ryo:

"Despite having no particular talent, he held onto the philosophy of becoming stronger for his sister's sake. In the first three years after entering the White Room, he transformed from a blank slate into one of its top performers. The Ryo from back then was truly cute enough to make one's heart ache."

"As long as someone said, 'Big Brother, do your best today,' he could study tirelessly until he collapsed from exhaustion. If he was allowed a pat on the head, he could knock down people with better physical stats than his own in the afternoon physical education class, only to run back covered in injuries and say to his sister, 'I did it!' He was no different from an obedient little puppy."

"Oh my, are you angry?"

Sakayanagi Arisu looked at Matsuo Eiichiro, whose fists were clenched, and smiled:

"It was something Ryo was willing to do himself."

"That's because he was brainwashed by you! You are exploiting his will!"

"Is that so?"

Sakayanagi Arisu seemed to think of something interesting; she ignored Matsuo Eiichiro's rather rude tone:

"It's a pity his will wasn't actually that formidable."

"In the fourth year—hmm, I suppose he was about fourteen—Ryo seemed to reach his limit."

She tilted her head, recalling the memory with great seriousness:

"Whether it was academics, physical training, or the cultivation of other knowledge, he suddenly couldn't keep up with the pace."

"Falling behind in a place like the White Room is a terrifying thing."

"He began to lose his ability to retain memories in large chunks. Not only could he not remember what he learned that day, but by the next day, he would forget what he had learned the previous month. The result was that Ryo's grades dropped step by step to the very bottom of his cohort."

"Thinking back on the expression he had when he realized he had been eliminated... it was quite desperate. Yet, he cried and begged to stay for his sister's sake. His failure was quite ugly, too."

The corners of Sakayanagi Arisu's mouth hooked into a cruel arc:

"So, in the end, I was the only one who could send him out. As a failed product."

[You turn over in the ocean of dreams. These bubble-like dreams wrap around you, as soft as the most luxurious sofa. You wave your hand, and a piece of a dream flies over, beginning to play before you like a movie.]

[You realized you could peek into the dreams of others when you were thirteen. From that point on, you began to intentionally hook into various dreams in this area during the night. You didn't realize at the time the immense pressure this behavior would exert on you later; to you, it was merely a pastime to kill the night.]

["But the dreams of these people are so boring."]

[You yawn. Most of the dreams of your peers in the White Room at night are blank—as empty as that massive white room. These hollow dreams don't even cause a ripple when they enter your mind.]

["Should I look at my sister's dream?" You struggle with this question every night. On one hand, you truly have an unimaginably intense obsession with your sister, but at the same time, you feel that peeking into the dreams of someone close to you isn't the right thing to do.]

["But I want to see it so badly."]

[This thought emerges in your mind, spreading through your heart like wild, overgrown weeds.]

["How about... just one look?"]

[Moved by the impulse, you slowly search for your sister's dream in this area. Before long, you find her, because unlike the other white dreams, this one is as clear as crystal and glows with seven-colored light.]

["If my sister says bad things about me in the dream, I'll just pretend it's a dream."]

["If my sister says good things about me in the dream, I'll treat it as her true subconscious thoughts!"]

[Having comforted yourself in advance, you carefully touch the dream. The next moment, your consciousness is sucked inside.]

["Dear Big Brother, Kitagawa Ryo! This is Ichinose Honami. It has been two weekends since you moved away. Because I am very unhappy right now, I don't want you to be happy when you read this letter. If you were happy, you wouldn't know about my unhappiness."]

["Actually, what makes me even more unhappy is that when I am unhappy, I cannot go directly to your house to tell you that I am unhappy. Instead, I have to write a letter to tell you at a time like this. By the time you receive the letter, I might have already forgotten about this matter, and by the time you write back, I might already have new things I want to tell you."]

["I really don't like writing letters. I would rather look at your face, look into your eyes, and tell you these things."]

[Sakayanagi Arisu looks at the letter sent by Ichinose Honami in her hand and rubs her forehead, feeling somewhat weary.]

["So, why exactly do I have to be the one to write the reply?"]

["Because you were the one who proactively suggested taking on the role of that 'sister' back then, My Lady. Therefore, I believe that if you write this reply, you will be able to more deeply empathize with the other party's thoughts and perform the role better."]

[The old butler standing nearby, dressed in a suit and tie, bows and says.]

"Is that so...?"

Self-proclaimed genius Arisu Sakayanagi had not taken an interest in anything for a very long time, though Ryo Kitagawa had barely managed to qualify recently. She read the entire letter once more; by literary standards, it was perfectly suited for a ten-year-old, riddled with various typos and the occasional grammatical error, but if one considered only the sentiment, it was quite sincere.

"As compensation for usurping your identity, I shall weave a beautiful dream for you."

Arisu Sakayanagi gripped her pen:

"Don't wake up."

She swiftly wrote a reply to Honami Ichinose under the guise of Ryo Kitagawa, expressing her longing for Honami Ichinose, subtly hinting at a desire to increase the frequency of their correspondence, and finally, stating quite bluntly, "I really do like Honami Ichinose the best!"

And so, for the next three years, she continued to correspond with Honami Ichinose in this manner.

"Are you at a loss because a boy in your class confessed to you? Oh, the other party should be in middle school now as well; the time is about right."

Arisu Sakayanagi spread out a sheet of letter paper, a mischievous thought suddenly blooming in her mind:

"I like you. Although we have been separated for three years, it is precisely because we were apart that I have come to realize my own feelings."

"Although I cannot meet you just yet, would you, Honami Ichinose, be willing to become my girlfriend—to become Ryo Kitagawa's girlfriend?"

Arisu Sakayanagi paused her pen, resting her head on her hand as she chuckled and tapped the desk with the pen.

For some reason, she did not feel the joy she had imagined she would.

Instead, as she wrote the final sentence, her heart gave a slight, sharp throb.

It must be an illusion.

She thought to herself.

Chapter 31: Like Waking from a Dream

["Hello, this is the psychiatrist Arisu Sakayanagi."]

["I am Ryo Kitagawa."]