Their Future

However, what bothered Kitagawa Ryo was that Ayanokoji Kiyotaka had specifically asked Tsukishiro to deliver a message to him before being sent to the orphanage:

[Finally, someone defeated that man].

Perhaps we can glean some insight into Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's true thoughts from this.

But Kitagawa Ryo doesn't have that in mind right now.

Upon reflection, he had already completed the plan he had set for this simulation.

Change Sakayanagi Arisu, uncover information about the White Room, investigate Ayanokoji Atsuomi, and rescue everyone from there.

With his left arm covering his eyes, Kitagawa Ryo slowly fell asleep.

A butler who was waiting nearby quickly brought over a warm blanket, but it was soon snatched away by Sakayanagi Arisu and Yuki, who were even faster.

Neither of them intended to let go, and neither dared to speak, so they could only stare at each other with wide eyes, each clutching one side of the blanket, like two cats with their fur standing on end.

After a silent struggle of two minutes, they finally managed to work together, one on each side, to spread the blanket over Kitagawa Ryo.

Sakayanagi Arisu Kitagawa Ryo's left hand from his eye. She immediately noticed the needle marks that hadn't completely scabbed over; a year wasn't enough to erase everything.

But there are many years to come.

Every child grows up, new teeth replace old ones, and days pass by faster and faster. The same seven years can be everything in a seven-year-old's life, but for a fourteen-year-old, it's a childhood filled with laughter and conversation with friends. For a twenty-one-year-old adult, it becomes just a fleeting glimpse in a dream.

She will stay with him.

They will all stay with him.

The way to ruin a person is simple: just make them believe, and then destroy what they believe in.

Ayanokoji Atsuomi realized this after entering the world of politics—or perhaps even earlier.

Those who rise to the top are mostly "second-generation" and "third-generation" individuals who were born into power. In his eyes, the sons of great politicians who are ignorant and lack a sense of crisis are like flat carbonated drinks, only able to spout fallacies on television day after day under the protection of their fathers.

There are even people who have successfully transitioned from the entertainment industry to politicians thanks to their good looks and fame.

Most of them are merely pandas used to attract audiences.

Ironically, even so, they still had more room for advancement than a politician with no connections like Ayanokoji Atsuomi.

When Ayanokoji Atsuomi held parties in the banquet hall of that fifty-story luxury hotel, he often thought of his childhood, when he lived in the small hut where the adults managed farm tools. The roof was made of tin sheets, and there was neither electricity nor gas. To take a bath, water was heated on a stove and poured into a wooden tub. He could only take a bath once or twice a week.

He went from the ground floor to the fiftieth floor, using up everything he had so far.

From the age of twenty-seven when he joined the Naoe Faction, he devoted himself wholeheartedly to it for seventeen years, whether it was the dirty and hard work at the beginning or the White Room project later on.

Ironically, when the White Room Project first started, Naoe Jinnosuke forbade him to use the name of the Naoe Faction, and the initial start-up capital was all the savings that Ayanokoji Atsuomi had accumulated over the years.

Ayanokoji Atsuomi had imagined the tragic scenario of the White Room Project failing many times over the years, but he believed that he would still be able to stand up and fight again, just like when he failed in his first election.

But--

"The election for the new prime minister has recently begun. Judging from the first day's approval ratings and voting results, Onigashima, a member of the Citizens Party, has secured first place with an absolute advantage. It is reported that Onigashima has always attached great importance to people's livelihood and education, and in every speech he calls on the country to pay attention to education. The Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School, which has attracted widespread discussion in recent years, was also proposed by him..."

The television, deliberately installed in Ayanokoji Atsuomi's room, was playing the latest news.

"Naoe Shun succeeds Ayanokoji Atsuomi as the new head of the White Room. At yesterday's press conference, Representative Naoe Shun officially succeeded Representative Ayanokoji Atsuomi as the new head of the White Room. Representative Onigashima also attended the press conference and stated that he would further strengthen communication and exchanges between Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School and the White Room, striving to create a new era..."

Regarding the question of why Representative Ayanokoji Atsuomi resigned, Representative Naoe responded, stating that a recent government investigation uncovered large-scale corruption in the management of the White Room, and that an Ayanokoji Atsuomi party investigation is currently underway, hence his temporary resignation.

Ayanokoji Atsuomi couldn't turn off the TV because he wasn't given the remote.

He just stood there watching the middle-aged man on TV, who was talking animatedly, looking like a panda or a flat carbonated drink.

This is Naoe Jinnosuke's biological son.

Corruption.

The word pierced his ears.

Ayanokoji Atsuomi suddenly recalled the Matoba on the day he accepted the White Room Project, when he withdrew all three of his bankbooks at once.

That was more than ten years ago.

He seemed to have suddenly lost all his strength, staggering as he sat down in the chair behind him. His eyes couldn't see anyone, but just seemed to be looking blankly over everything, as if looking at a distant and empty place.

It's my birthday today, so I'm taking a day off.

Today is my 21st birthday, and I'm out with friends so I can't update.

I remember seeing a saying before that makes time seem to fly by because each year you live when you're seven is one-seventh of your life, and when you're twenty-one, it becomes one-twenty-one. I think this idea makes a lot of sense, and I used it in yesterday's updated chapter.

Here's a bonus picture of Sakayanagi Arisu swimsuit.

Chapter 120: Their Future

Ayanokoji Atsuomi committed suicide that winter. What drove him to despair was not the political career that had been stripped away, but the future that he could see the end from the beginning.

He spent forty-four years turning his life from a single-choice question into a multiple-choice question, but ultimately returned to a dead end.

In fact, Ayanokoji Atsuomi waited alone for three months, but no one, whether from the Naoe Faction, the Onigashima Faction, or even other opposition parties, was willing to say a word for him.

Every day on the news, those who had once shared drinks with him but whom he looked down upon from the bottom of his heart were still dressed in suits and still looked glamorous. At these times, Ayanokoji Atsuomi would feel like a fish being roasted on a fire, along with the little bit of pride that had been buried deep in his heart.

Ayanokoji Atsuomi completely collapsed. This wasn't entirely due to the blow from this incident, but rather because in the instant Naoe Jinnosuke smiled and abandoned him, he knew he could no longer stand at the pinnacle of this country.

What had stubbornly sustained him for so many years collapsed from the deepest part of Ayanokoji Atsuomi's body.

As he submerged his head in the sink full of water, Ayanokoji Atsuomi already imagined the news reports after his death. He would probably be portrayed as a politician who committed suicide out of guilt for corruption, but by then no one would care at all.

His only blood relative was Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, who was sent to an orphanage. However, Ayanokoji Atsuomi never considered himself his father, and naturally, he would not ask the other to consider him a blood relative.

In the final, blurring moments of consciousness, Ayanokoji Atsuomi suddenly smiled.

He remembered that, to make it easier for families who had lost their only child to adopt them, the children in the orphanage often didn't have surnames, so like the White Room, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka should just be known by the name Kiyotaka.

This was someone completely unrelated to him, the favorite gigolo of the woman who was once legally his wife.

Name.

It's another rainy day.

The autumn rains seemed to have lasted for almost a century, making the small courtyard look somewhat sickly. Tall, lush, and unidentified trees were planted around the courtyard, their branches stretching upwards, lifting up the gray sky. From the sky's perspective, the courtyard looked somewhat like a deep well, and raindrops pattered down into it.

Sakayanagi Arisu an umbrella, spoke with a touch of nostalgia, then suddenly turned to Kitagawa Ryo and smiled:

"About eleven or twelve years ago, I lived here for a long time. This used to be a children's ward, and I would come to this courtyard to take walks and do some rehabilitation exercises."

Kitagawa Ryo was holding an umbrella. He was actually more familiar with this place than Sakayanagi Arisu. In the last simulation, the only world he had ever seen was this corner of the world.

Ten years have passed since Ayanokoji Atsuomi's death, and just as he had predicted, Ayanokoji Atsuomi's death was uneventful, just like his birth.

The White Room still exists, but it is now more closely aligned with the Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School, and its promotional messaging has consistently mirrored that of Tokyo ANHS. The original White Room has vanished without a trace. Apart from the individuals involved, what remains in people's memories is simply that it was a famous training institution that nurtured geniuses like Kitagawa Ryo and dedicated itself to developing the potential of every ordinary person to its fullest extent.

As for Kitagawa Ryo himself, perhaps influenced by the Koenji Conglomerate, which was of the same caliber, the Kitagawa Family had been consciously handing over the family business to him from an early age, cultivating his ability to be the helmsman of the Kitagawa Family's giant ship. Unlike Kitagawa Ryo Koenji Rokusuke not act eccentrically; he simply completed his work quietly and accurately, showing the image of a standard heir.

However, the only thing that gave Kitagawa Ryo a headache was that, perhaps because he was worried that the persecution he suffered in the White Room in his early years might have left him with some hidden illness, or perhaps because of the precedent that the Kitagawa Family almost died out if they hadn't found him, their illegitimate son, the various demands for marriage, both overt and covert, have become more and more frequent since Kitagawa Ryo came of age this year and reached the legal age for marriage.

Although Kitagawa Ryo and Sakayanagi Arisu faded from public view after the show ended that year, and "Genius Duel" was removed from all online platforms due to Ayanokoji Atsuomi's issues, the internet's memory is sometimes so strange. A video compilation of the couple from childhood sweethearts was released a few years ago, bringing up their old variety show relationship again and giving it a good old rehash.

Kitagawa Ryo initially thought it might be another tactic by his family to subtly pressure him to get married, but after checking the IP address, he discovered that the video's creator was just an ordinary fan who simply wanted to reminisce.

However, what made Kitagawa Ryo's lips twitch was that he actually knew this person; it was Matsushita Chiaki from Class D in real life.

So you're not only Sakayanagi Arisu in class, but you can also provide this kind of support in simulations?

In fact, even Matsushita Chiaki probably didn't expect such a surge in popularity at first. She simply happened to glimpse old posters, support signs, and a knitted children's sweater while packing her things when she graduated from high school and left her parents for university.

These things instantly transported her back to the time ten years ago when she and her parents would sit in front of the television every week.

My father's tea is still just as strong, but he goes to the toilet more often. My mother still knits, but when she threades the thread through the eye of the needle, she has to get her eyes much closer and aim at the light.

With a mix of nostalgia and reminiscence, Matsushita Chiaki found some old video footage and, half-complaining and half-reminiscing, recounted the story of her family and the two children who were about her age.

At the end of the video, Matsushita Chiaki said the following:

"The White Room Faction and the Advanced Nurturing High School faction are still arguing to this day about which educational method is superior, but in reality, ten years ago, they simply represented which gifted child you were supporting."

"I still remember that my mother really liked that boy named Liang, who was the same age as me. She said she would knit him a sweater and send it to him, but in the end she never found a concrete way to do it."

"As for me? I probably remembered him when I was suffering from Concentration; it was the first time the two of us faced off."

"As far as I remember, that day was a snowy day."

Although Kitagawa Ryo had investigated and found no problem with the video's distribution, he was absolutely certain that someone was pushing the hype behind it. Since Kitagawa Ryo's identity was unclear at the time, the reporters who rushed to the scene to rehash the old story could only approach the readily available chairman of Tokyo Advanced Educational High School, Sakayanagi Shigemori.

The kind-looking middle-aged man simply smiled and replied, "They're still the same as before."

Thinking of this, Kitagawa Ryo couldn't help but sigh, raising the umbrella slightly so that raindrops could fly onto his face. The slightly cool touch refreshed him for a moment.

"Was that USB drive also found here?"

"Yes, it's under that tree up ahead."

Sakayanagi Arisu walked briskly. This time in her life, she did not choose to go to Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School. In her own words, it was because she had observed Special Exam for the class of Chabashira Sae back then.

She didn't feel that she could learn anything from such a Special Exam.

In fact Sakayanagi Arisu doesn't really agree with either Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School or the White Room, whether it was then or now.

Kitagawa Ryo followed Sakayanagi Arisu to the tree he knew very well, reached out and stroked the white cat perched on his shoulder. Hotaru tilted her head up, her little head held higher than the sky, looking like she wanted to praise him.

After teasing Hotaru for a while, Kitagawa Ryo had a vague idea about Hotaru himself, but all of this would have to wait until the end of this simulation.

Sakayanagi Arisu has told the story of that year countless times, but she still repeats it without getting tired of it, after all, it was the most important turning point that changed her life.

"Does Arisu plan to take over as the Chairman of Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School?"

Recalling some of the things Chairman Sakayanagi had said to him a couple of days ago, Kitagawa Ryo asked a question.

"That's the plan."

Sakayanagi Arisu tucked a few stray strands of hair back behind her ears.

"Does Ryo know how Ayanokoji Atsuomi persuaded my father to join the White Room Project?"

She then immediately answered her own question:

"What he said at the time was that the White Room was a quasi-charitable organization dedicated to saving children's lives and ensuring that children born unexpectedly and not accepted by their families could receive a normal education."

"Children, education, life—these were all words that fathers at that time, no, at any time, couldn't refuse. That's just the kind of person he was; there was no way around it."

At this point, Sakayanagi Arisu gave a helpless smile.

"Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School actually started with this goal in mind."

"Does Liang know about Class D, who just graduated this year? They were in Class D from the time they enrolled until graduation."

Kitagawa Ryo nodded upon hearing this:

"Know."

In fact, this was the class he should have been in, but the change in the timeline this time prevented him, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, Sakayanagi Arisu, Matsushita Chiaki, and others from enrolling in Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School. It's understandable that Class D ended up being Class D in the end.

In any case, Kitagawa Ryo doesn't expect Horikita Suzune and Karuizawa Kei in their undeveloped forms to lead the team to promotion.

However, Sakayanagi Arisu suddenly reported a series of data:

"Among the forty students in Class D, there are students from single-parent families whose high schools had their admissions revoked due to a violent incident; there are students who were the worst students in their class during junior high and were only good at bragging; there are students with extremely poor physical fitness but a great talent for electronics; and there are students from average families who were unremarkable and excelled in no particular area during junior high."

"In Liang's opinion, what aspects should a normal high school student prepare for their future during high school?"

Kitagawa Ryo answered without the slightest hesitation:

"Academic performance, club activities, and interpersonal skills."

Generally speaking, it boils down to these three aspects.

Sakayanagi Arisu nodded and smiled at Kitagawa Ryo. Unlike ten years ago, she was now an adult, and every smile and gesture of hers was even more captivating. She was also taller than Kitagawa Ryo remembered.

"Therefore, Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School gave them the opportunity to enroll and the opportunity to cultivate these three abilities."

"The admission process for Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School is criticized every year, but it's actually a rule that was passed down from my grandfather."

"Education is a platform."

"These are his words."