Winter's Seaside Is a Great Time to Get Acquainted

"----"

Silence.

"Do you feel it's a bit too early to say these things when you've just met?"

No, no, no.

Kitagawa Ryo shook his head, and as he ate his candy, he suddenly blurted out this sentence:

"I just suddenly realized that this orange-flavored fructose doesn't taste as good as the toothpaste with the same flavor..."

"Isn't it sweet?"

"Oh, it's more accurate to say it's too sweet; I'm not used to it."

Kitagawa Ryo quickly added:

"But you'll get used to it eventually."

Do you like it? Or do you not like it?

If it's about Sakayanagi Arisu, then perhaps this can never be defined by information asymmetry, so let's just let it go.

He crunched the candy in his mouth.

Chapter 109: Winter at the Seaside is a Good Time to Get to Know Each Other

"Please put on your equipment in an orderly manner."

Following the instructor's instructions, the children, who had been standing in the white room, put on the VR glasses at hand.

This method, conceived by the White Room, is a teaching method that allows test subjects to learn about the outside world without direct contact with it. It is conducted once or twice a month, with each session lasting about half a day. The main activities involve using VR glasses to simulate and travel through a virtual external environment.

After the vision went completely dark, the light spots indicating the start of the program quickly appeared. As the image gradually became clearer, the instructor's voice could be heard in my ear:

"Previously, we studied courses centered in Japan, including basic public transportation rules. Today, we're heading overseas to Hawaii, on the other side of the United States."

"The learning objective is to acquire basic knowledge about marine ecology and biology."

VR devices can reproduce real-world landscapes in 360 degrees with similar image quality, and the devices purchased by White Room are of excellent quality. Therefore, for most of the children in White Room, apart from those suffering from 3D dizziness, VR courses are a very novel experience.

But no one dared to treat this course as a game. The White Room offered the course simply so that these test subjects could adapt seamlessly to the outside world without any problems when they arrived.

Although it sounds like a rather idealistic solution, it also reflects the White Room's attitude: this is ultimately a course, a course that needs to be assessed.

Therefore, in each VR lesson, the children, including Kitagawa Ryo, were required to listen to the lesson while keeping their eyes wide open to find unnatural points in their surroundings, supposedly to train their observation and insight skills. If they failed, a cruel physical punishment was often inevitable.

It is against this backdrop that everyone has been vigilant from the very beginning.

Azure sky, crystal clear sea, and snow-white waves splashing up at your feet.

In the virtual environment, their eyes gleamed with intense desire as they relentlessly searched for potential virtual traps.

Therefore...

"So, this must be the first time Ryo has seen the real ocean, right?"

Kitagawa Ryo raised his hand to shield his forehead. Directly in front of him, Sakayanagi Arisu leaning on the railing and asked him a question.

The Uninhabited Island was naturally surrounded by a vast ocean, but since it was already winter, the two of them couldn't get any closer. As for getting their feet wet from the waves? They'd catch a cold.

"Right."

For Kitagawa Ryo in this simulation, this was truly his first time seeing the sea, but since he had seen it before, it wasn't like the snow a few days ago.

The closed-off educational management of White Room means that these familiar scenes for children can only become false, imagery modified by adjectives. Even the sea in VR devices is rarely noticed by anyone.

Because humans cannot observe things solely through sight, and scenery cannot be understood simply by being seen.

The sound of waves rose and fell around my ears, the wind on my face felt sticky, the salty smell in the air swirled around my nose, and of course, there was the girl who was coming closer to me.

"What were your feelings when you first saw the ocean, Liang?"

Sakayanagi Arisu deliberately walked very slowly, her hands behind her back, as if she were stepping on some non-existent grid on the ground.

"It's beautiful, and it's the first time I've ever seen the sea in winter."

This first time was actually different from the first time in Sakayanagi Arisu's words. Kitagawa Ryo exhaled a breath of white air and looked towards the line where the sea and sky met.

"The sea is calmer in winter than in summer. Do you like this kind of quiet?"

Following Kitagawa Ryo's gaze, Sakayanagi Arisu seemed to have found something she was even better at, and her tone unconsciously carried a touch of childlike boastfulness:

"I've been to the beach many times before—in spring, summer, autumn, and winter."

"When does Arisu like the sea?"

"Hmm."

Sakayanagi Arisu steps when asked a question by Kitagawa Ryo:

"I had never thought about this before."

"Perhaps when we could see the sea before, we didn't pay attention to what season it was. By the time we became aware of the changing seasons, it was too late to go to the beach."

As if a memory had been stirred, Sakayanagi Arisu spoke softly:

"I've been to the beach many times since I can remember, but to be honest, it didn't leave a particularly deep impression on me."

"Just as people tend to idealize or distort the people or events in their memories over time, I suddenly thought of the sea again while I was in the hospital ward."

"Actually, it might also be related to the fact that I've read more books. The sea is still just the sea, and going for a walk on the beach is just a walk. But when I'm lying in bed, I unconsciously give them some kind of meaning."

At this point, Sakayanagi Arisu gestured for the two to walk down to the beach. Since they were still at a safe distance, the crew members following behind did not stop them.

Sakayanagi Arisu had reached the beach, turned around and suddenly started walking backwards with her hands behind her back, tilting her head upwards towards Kitagawa Ryo's small face:

"Liang, look."

Turning his head slightly, Kitagawa Ryo saw the short footprints the two had just left behind.

The two rows of footprints walking side by side stood out on the deserted beach, causing Kitagawa Ryo's heart to flutter for a moment for no apparent reason.

"How is it? Don't you feel a little strange?"

Noticing the change in Kitagawa Ryo's expression, Sakayanagi Arisu chuckled softly.

"Footprints are just traces left by walking, but the footprints left by two people walking side by side on the beach can make people feel a little itchy. That's the power of imagery."

Sakayanagi Arisu's silvery-white hair danced lightly in the wind, and her gait seemed to have gained a touch of bouncyness.

Of course, this might also be why she didn't bring her cane this time.

So Kitagawa Ryo followed Sakayanagi Arisu, who wasn't carrying a cane, and listened to her slowly tell her story, occasionally interjecting, but not much.

"So, for me at that time, the meaning of the sea changed, and the wish to go to the beach again naturally arose."

"Because I knew perfectly well that it was impossible; my father wouldn't allow me to go to the beach, and I didn't have the ability to do it myself."

"When a person becomes so weak, any noun, verb, or adjective sounds dangerous."

"Like now."

"A walk on the beach in winter."

Sakayanagi Arisu relaxed and spoke in a melodious tone:

"Winter, the beach, a walk."

"... That's just too dangerous, for a patient."

"So I'm very grateful to my dad, and also to the doctor who developed the treatment."

Seemingly realizing that the words revealed some information that Kitagawa Ryo was unaware of before, Sakayanagi Arisu quickly added:

"Liang doesn't seem to know yet, does she? I had a serious congenital heart condition. If I hadn't found that USB drive a year ago, I might not be standing here now."

"USB flash drive?"

"Yes, I found it in the courtyard when I was still in the hospital. It was Hotaru, the pet dog at home, who led me to that USB drive. By the way, I don't think Ryo has ever seen Hotaru before, since he stayed in the hospital after leaving the White Room and then came back to the White Room."

After the topic of fireflies was brought up, Sakayanagi Arisu became quite animated:

"Actually, the reason we were able to find Ryo back then was because of Hotaru."

"And I remember it very clearly, Hotaru was especially close to Ryo at that time, I had never seen it like that before."

Upon hearing the familiar name, Kitagawa Ryo couldn't help but smile.

"We'll have a chance to meet again someday, and I also really like fireflies... cats and other small animals."

"Um."

Sakayanagi Arisu nodded and continued:

"The reason Ying was adopted by our family was because she led me to discover that USB drive. The USB drive supposedly contained a complete pathological analysis and treatment plan for congenital heart disease. I recovered because I used the plan and medication from that drive."

"Dad said the owner of the USB drive might be Ying's previous owner, but so far we haven't found a single clue."

"Although we don't know who this person is, if we can find him, he will be a benefactor to our Sakayanagi Family."

"..."

Kitagawa Ryo nodded, accepting the praise. He naturally couldn't admit to being the one in charge now. After all, the initial goal was to cure Sakayanagi Arisu. Now that the goal had been achieved, he might as well let the identity of this mysterious person sink into oblivion forever.

"Ryo, is there anything interesting you want to tell me?"

After telling her own story, Sakayanagi Arisu tilted her head and looked at Kitagawa Ryo beside her.

"Of course, if there's something you don't want to talk about, you don't have to."

"Hmm... how about we talk about something related to me?"

Suddenly realizing that Kitagawa Ryo had spent almost his entire life in a facility like the White Room, Sakayanagi Arisu quickly added a veil to her statement.

However, she soon realized with some frustration that she didn't have much actual contact with Kitagawa Ryo, like a dry well with a bottom that could be seen at a glance. No matter how much she tried to retrieve it, it seemed that there was only so much left.

If it were the old Sakayanagi Arisu, she might not have cared. A single glimpse from her sickbed would have been enough to fuel her dreams for years to come. But the current Sakayanagi Arisu wants more.

She wanted to know more about Kitagawa Ryo, just like the meal she had at noon.

So what we have now is not enough, or rather, it's far too weak.

Faced with Sakayanagi Arisu's suddenly aggressive gaze, Kitagawa Ryo nodded seriously.

"Actually, I've been very happy these past few days with Arisu."

"Whether it was chatting and playing cards in the ward at the beginning, or that day at the Cultural Festival, or the later showdown."

"Arisu was the first person I saw outside the White Room."

"In a sense, Arisu was the one Salvation me."

Kitagawa Ryo was not lying.

In fact, he was already in a hopeless predicament in the White Room, barely managing to stay afloat by hoping to gather more information for the next simulation.

Faced with both physical and psychological torment, even with Kitagawa Ryo's exceptionally strong will, it's hard to say he could find a way out.

After all, Kitagawa Ryo's personal freedom had already been restricted at that time.

It can be said that the turning point that enabled Kitagawa Ryo to improve his situation in the White Room and launch a revenge attack on the White Room was the actions of the Sakayanagi Family.

To this day, Kitagawa Ryo still doesn't understand how much this variable has to do with the [Marriage Contract] tool he used back then, but the reality is that the Sakayanagi Family helped him escape the White Room and gave him enough capital to carry out this series of plans.

"So I've been thinking about how to face Arisu, and how to get along with you Arisu."

We don't want to play house or anything like that.

Not as family, nor as rivals.

Kitagawa Ryo himself hadn't really thought it through, because it was also the first time he was facing a healthy Sakayanagi Arisu.

Therefore, for most of the simulation, he did not take Sakayanagi Arisu into consideration.

But only today Kitagawa Ryo gradually come to understand.

The initial interactions between people should be awkward and unfamiliar, which is how they gradually develop a tacit understanding.

"It's alright."

Kitagawa Ryo heard Sakayanagi Arisu's reply.

[Others may be your hell, a place where armor formed from the scars of the soul, swords forged from defensive gazes, labyrinths of language, and traps concealed by smiles. Behind all that, of course, a lonely heart still trembles, and an undying yearning for communication remains.]