The Fist That Ends It All

"Then there's the so-called Marriage Contract, which is ultimately just an agreement from the previous generation."

"Besides, Marriage Contract is way too early for people our age."

At this point, Kitagawa Ryo gestured towards Amasawa Ichika, who was propping her head up, swinging her legs, and watching TV with great interest:

"Those are just little kids."

After saying these words, Kitagawa Ryo went out and gave a few more instructions to the bodyguards outside the door before returning to look at Yuki and saying:

"Regarding the White Room, I agree with Arisu's opinion."

Let's go see their trial and their final moments.

"False, real, painful, pleasurable... turn the page completely."

"Then start over."

"Ayanokoji Atsuomi, age 44, male. From Aso City, Kumamoto Prefecture. High school education."

Abandoned by her biological parents in childhood, she was raised by her grandparents.

"My grandfather passed away when I was in middle school, and I lived with my grandmother. After failing to get into high school, I started working."

Tsukishiro paused, then continued reading the documents in his hand with a slightly playful tone:

"My first job was as a male escort. After entering society, I never went home again. Even when my grandmother passed away two years later, I didn't attend the funeral."

"Although it's a digression, I still want to ask why Mr. Ayanokoji didn't go back to attend his grandmother's funeral? After all, she was his only remaining relative."

Sitting on the narrow chair, Ayanokoji Atsuomi responded with an indifferent attitude:

"I think there was such an incident, probably when I was twenty. But I didn't see her die, and I'm not interested in those kinds of things. I've already done my best to live for myself."

"So now, looking at that situation objectively, what do you think? Has your opinion changed?"

"Of course not, in fact, it's no different from before. My grandmother led a failed life and died as a failure. She could have abandoned me back then, made good use of the insurance money left by my grandfather after his death, and could have lived a slightly better life."

"But at least she showed me how miserable the life of a loser can be, and I don't want to live that kind of life."

Ayanokoji Atsuomi's speech caused the three children watching from behind the one-way glass wall to frown in unison. Kitagawa Ryo listened very carefully, because although Ayanokoji Atsuomi was completely finished in this simulation, he was still doing well in reality, and knowing all about his past would only benefit him.

As for why Ayanokoji Atsuomi was willing to confess so honestly, one reason was that Tsukishiro's Yorozuya had already collected most of the information about him, so there was no point in trying to hide it. Another reason was that even now, Ayanokoji Atsuomi still held the hope of being able to get away with it.

In fact, from the moment his personal freedom was restricted, he already harbored the idea of flattering the Onigashima Faction, and he didn't hesitate to tell many of what he had seen and done in the Naoe Faction over the years.

Then, Kitagawa Ryo already knew that Ayanokoji Atsuomi himself had also publicized his political career extensively, from his crushing defeat in his first election at the age of twenty-five to his comeback two years later, through several ups and downs and several resurgences, before finally gaining the trust of Naoe Jinnosuke and taking charge of the White Room Project.

"And then, it concerns your child, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka."

Tsukishiro squinted, a smile playing on his lips:

"Speaking of which, I was also involved in this matter."

"I remember the child's mother was a hostess named Mika."

"You made a financial deal with her, registered them as husband and wife, and then had Ayanokoji Kiyotaka."

"Oh right, I remember the name 'Kiyotaka' was given to me by a woman named Mika."

When Tsukishiro said this, his tone was quite calm, but Xue, who was watching from outside, suddenly became a little concerned.

She still remembered the explanations Kitagawa Ryo gave about 'names' back then, and her relationship with Kitagawa Ryo also started with the topic of names.

Even Yuki's fondness for her name stemmed largely from Kitagawa Ryo's words.

And the snow she saw for the first time in Tokyo, when she was taken out of the White Room, still often comes to mind in her dreams.

I will still miss the cool snow, the feeling of it gently falling into my palm.

So when Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's name, she suddenly became a little interested.

But Tsukishiro's words quickly interrupted her imagination.

"It was named after another of her favorite male escorts."

An answer that is anything but romantic, and in fact, makes you want to complain.

Just as Yuki was feeling somewhat disappointed, Kitagawa Ryo almost burst out laughing.

He estimated that Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's expression when he learned the origin of his name would be quite interesting.

However, it's more likely that the other party simply doesn't care.

The next topic of conversation between Tsukishiro and Ayanokoji Atsuomi was some political matters, including the unsavory things the latter had done for the Naoe Faction over the years. After listening for only a short while, Sakayanagi Arisu and Yuki both showed some discomfort.

Let's go to the other side.

Although Kitagawa Ryo wanted to hear more about these scandals, to avoid upsetting the two, he instructed his bodyguard to compile a copy of the information for him afterward, and then took the initiative to leave with them.

Because Ayanokoji Atsuomi still possesses some value, he is currently still under interrogation.

But the Suzukake Tanji on the other side is different.

Even if the verdict were handed down in court, the things he did to Kitagawa Ryo were already quite heinous. Therefore, according to the Kitagawa Family, he is experiencing, no, he should be said to be experiencing twice as much of what he did to others.

Harlow's Harlow's Monkey Experiment actually had one last step.

The reason why Suzukake Tanji never told Ayanokoji Atsuomi was that, compared to a psychological experiment, the experiment known as the "Pit of Despair" was more like a cruel form of torture.

In 1971, after Harlow's second wife died of breast cancer, he began to experience mental health problems.

In the days that followed, Harlow built a small, dark room, or rather a cage, made of stainless steel with an inverted pyramid structure. He placed food at the bottom of the cage and then hung a rhesus monkey upside down inside for two whole years.

After the experiment, the rhesus monkey developed severe, persistent, and depressive psychopathological behavior. Even nine months after its release, the monkey would sit blankly with its arms crossed, as if it had lost all ability to perceive the outside world.

And now, Suzukake Tanji is undergoing the final stage of his most beloved Harlow's Monkey Experiment:

The Pit of Despair.

This brutal pleasure will ultimately end in brutality.

Chapter 118: The Fist of the End

Because of Kitagawa Ryo and Yuki's arrival, Suzukake Tanji was freed from his upside-down position after a long time. Two burly bodyguards brought Suzukake Tanji, who was listless, had bloodshot eyes, and food scraps on his lips, over.

At first, the Kitagawa Family was worried that the other party might be so stubborn as to starve himself to death, and even considered injecting him with nutrient solution to keep him alive. But the fact is that even when he was hung upside down in that inverted pyramid-shaped cage, unable to see or hear anything, and could only eat by rooting around the trough like livestock, Suzukake Tanji still showed no intention of starving himself.

It's not that he never had that thought. When he was first locked in the [Pit of Despair], he began to beg for mercy, then demanded a fair trial, saying that the Kitagawa Family's actions were a heinous form of vigilante justice. After that, he became listless, praying for a quick death. He even tried to fast, but it usually lasted no more than two days before he would start eating again.

Suzukake Tanji had analyzed and studied the Harlow's Monkey Experiment countless times during high school, but he never expected that he would end up with the same fate as the monkeys in the experiments.

"Tie them up there, then get out."

Kitagawa Ryo was deeply impressed by these tough restraints, after all, he had been bound with the same restraints every time he was injected with an overdose of drugs in the White Room before.

Although Suzukake Tanji no longer seemed to pose any threat, just to be on the safe side, Kitagawa Ryo still had his bodyguards tie the weak and powerless man up tightly again.

After the two bodyguards bowed and left, Kitagawa Ryo also turned to Yuki beside him and said:

"I'm going out too."

Unexpectedly, Kitagawa Ryo said those words. Yuki instinctively reached out to hold his hand, which was so close to hers, but grasped only empty air.

"This is something you'll have to face alone. There are no security cameras in the room, and the soundproofing is excellent."

"No matter what Xue wants to say or do, no one will know."

At this point, Kitagawa Ryo smiled slightly and raised his hand, waving gently in the direction of the snow.

"I'll be waiting for you outside the door."

Then he pushed open the door and went out.

With another muffled thud, the door to the room slammed shut.

Perhaps it was the loud noise that startled Suzukake Tanji. He, who had been motionless like a dead man, finally raised his head. Due to being hung upside down for a long time, his blood circulation had also become problematic. His face was haggard, and his eyes were full of frightening blood vessels. He was completely unrecognizable as the 'glory' he had once displayed in the White Room.

Moreover, like the monkey in Harlow's [Pit of Despair] experiment, Suzukake Tanji's mental state seemed to be problematic, his thoughts quite disordered. After squinting at the snow in front of him for a long time, he suddenly uttered the following words:

"You're the [Cloth Mother] from the Fourth Generation, right? What are you doing here?"

He muttered a few words under his breath:

"But it doesn't matter anymore. How's the White Room going? It should be a success by now. I told you my educational philosophy was sound... Strange, where's my experimental data? This is a perfect work that surpasses the Harlow's Monkey Experiment from back then--"

It seemed that a certain word in Suzukake Tanji words had triggered Xue, and one could feel as if a raging fire had burst forth from her small body for a moment:

"Enough already... what [Cloth Mother]?"

Like the sound of shattering glass, unlike anything I'd ever heard before, it was so rough it was hard to believe snow could make it; it was like a barking roar.

"What White Room? What Harlow's Monkey Experiment?"

"It's all your fault, absolutely everything, from the beginning to the end, no matter what, no matter who..."

Xue's speech had lost its logic, and even the format of her sentences had begun to distort.

"Neither I nor any of the other children should be your guinea pigs."

A barrage of questions, like the Tempest.

The scene of her receiving orders to move into Kitagawa Ryo's room years ago flashed through Xue's mind, and it was as if something had suddenly blocked her throat, causing her voice to involuntarily turn into a sob:

"Moreover, it was because of your order that I can't even be sure of my own feelings, and I don't even know if I like anyone."

[Ordered to fall in love with someone you've never met, and to say "I love you" for an hour every day in a sealed room covered with pictures of Kitagawa Ryo]

No one would accept an artificially created relationship of admiration and love; it's a deception no one would accept.

But, ironically, I've actually fallen in love with it.

Suzukake Tanji's consciousness was already quite blurred, so she naturally couldn't understand Xue's rapid-fire questioning. Instead, she seemed more interested in Xue's current expression:

"You've finally learned to cry? That's wonderful! Tears and laughter may be different, but they serve the same purpose."

Perhaps still lost in her own world, or perhaps simply trying to escape reality, Suzukake Tanji suddenly laughed, as if she had witnessed a promising development in the experiment:

"I chose you because I noticed your smile."

"I remember now. It was around noon one day, in the cafeteria. That's when I realized you were special, because the test subjects in the White Room didn't care about lunch at all; they just ate mechanically."

"I remember it very clearly. You said 'I don't like it' to the carrot in front of you."

"To think that you could raise such an experimental subject in White Room, just like the children outside, I really thought you were the perfect candidate, haha."

Suzukake Tanji was laughing when he suddenly started coughing. The coughing continued, and he twisted his body, bound to the chair, but he still managed to mutter intermittently:

"You're like that experimental subject in the Fifth Generation; you're a child who's born to laugh, but you can never learn to cry. Why is that?"

"That guy named Liang is also strange. Even though the dosage he was injected with was not something his age could handle, he didn't cry, whether it was deliberately delaying the withdrawal reaction or increasing the dosage for arterial injection."

"Laughter and tears are inseparable; if you learn to laugh, how can you not learn to cry? As a [Cloth Mother], sometimes crying is more effective than laughing."

Suzukake Tanji finally stopped coughing, and he raised his head, spitting as he spoke:

"Perfect timing! Now that you've learned to cry, teach Liang a thing or two. Isn't your laughter something he taught you?"

He was met with a heavy straight punch.

All the children in the White Room have undergone rigorous physical training and combat skills training. Even among the Fourth Generation, Yuki's individual performance is among the best. However, from childhood, every child in the White Room has been instilled with a fear of the White Room staff.

They didn't have the guts to throw a punch at these adults, even if they could beat them.

This is the research result of the Little Albert experiment, and Suzukake Tanji, a psychologist, has always firmly believed in it.

Therefore, faced with this dreamlike scene, Suzukake Tanji could only stare wide-eyed in confusion and bewilderment.

His profile and the corners of his mouth, still covered in food scraps, looked quite dirty.

Xue lowered her eyes, and the enormous reaction force was simultaneously transmitted to her right hand.

But this slight stinging sensation brought her a long-lost sense of joy.

"Shut up, don't call him by his name or talk about him."

The children in the White Room were menacing when facing their classmates, but as docile as babies when facing adults.

Another punch landed directly on Suzukake Tanji's right eye socket. He cried out in pain, but his entire body was tightly bound by strong restraints, making it impossible for him to move.

The fighting techniques they learned could only be used against their competitors in the same class. Every time they sparred, the adults in the White Room, led by Suzukake Tanji, would watch as if they were watching a gladiatorial contest in ancient Rome.

Chin, bridge of the nose, profile... avoid vital areas such as the temples.

As Kitagawa Ryo's roommate for the past few years, Yuki witnessed all of Kitagawa Ryo's tragic fate.