The Dream Is Over

The Hotaru beneath you spoke in your mind.

"Actually, Master, as long as you realize this isn't Ichinose Honami's dream, you can wake yourself up the very next second."

"No way. Since it's my own dream, I can do whatever I want."

You rolled around on Hotaru's soft back.

"I've always wanted to dream that one day Hotaru could talk again and carry me around on her back."

"Ah... How childish. You're really just talking to yourself."

"Hey, hey, you can't say things that ruin the mood in a dream."

You gave Hotaru a hard smack, then lay back in its soft fur and closed your eyes.

"Actually, I should've realized it the first time I woke up. Ichinose Honami isn't the kind of person who entrusts her unrealistic ideals to a sweet dream. She's a brave, strong girl who grits her teeth and overcomes even the toughest situations."

"I was already close to figuring that out back then. But my own nightmare clouded my thinking, so I inexplicably chose to kill myself and start over."

"The second time I woke up, I didn't jump out the window too early. Instead, I found a lot of clues around the house, and, by sheer coincidence, figured out this was my own dream. Or rather, my dream had been covered over by Sakayanagi Arisu's dream."

"Actually, there were only three kinds of important handwriting in the house. My own, on the two notes I'd left to remind myself before entering the dream."

"Sakayanagi Arisu's, on the prescription, the love letter, and the whiteboard."

"And Ichinose Honami's, written while Sakayanagi Arisu was disguised as her. The writing on everything else in the house, like the wedding photo, was in that hand."

"I never thought Sakayanagi Arisu would play Honami in the dream, too. And she even deliberately messed with me. She added 'Kitagawa Ryo' as a signature to the note I'd left myself saying, 'Don't trust Ichinose Honami,' and misled me for quite a while. If I hadn't happened to notice that the handwriting matched the 'Kitagawa Ryo' on the wedding photo, I might've been trapped for even longer."

"Once you realized that Ichinose Honami had nothing to do with the house, you'd naturally think of Sakayanagi Arisu."

You lay on Hotaru's back and stroked its white fur one strand at a time.

"But she still left you a clue in the form of a psychologist named Sakayanagi Arisu."

"Of course. Didn't she let me go back then, too? Sakayanagi always puts on that kind of front, but she's actually pretty nice to me."

"Every time I enter a dream, I leave myself an anchor to help me escape. The only reason I was trapped in the dream for so long this time was those two inexplicable nightmares!"

You complained indignantly.

"Hey, Hotaru, do you think dreams are really another world line?"

"I told you, you're asking yourself. I'm just the Hotaru you imagined in your dream. It's just a cat!"

You pouted, feeling a little bored.

"Those fragments of dreams were so real. It was like I'd actually gone through all of that with Honami."

"Ah, come to think of it, did I accidentally drag Honami into my dream this time...?"

"No way!"

You sprawled over Hotaru, looking as if you were about to burst into tears.

"Doesn't that mean Honami saw everything I saw? Both the first nightmare, where I was just watching, and the second one, where she killed me with a knife."

You clutched your forehead and wailed.

"And that goddamn dream where my dream and Sakayanagi Arisu's dream got mixed together!"

"My life... is over."

"Ah, you're awake."

Sakayanagi Arisu noticed Kitagawa Ryo slowly opening his eyes.

Your smile froze the moment you saw her.

"Am I still dreaming?"

"No, you and she are both awake now."

Sakayanagi Arisu pointed to Ichinose Honami, who was also slowly coming to.

"It's time we talked about us."

She gave you the same devilish smile she had worn back then.

[A plot branch point has been reached. The player's talents will determine the outcome.]

[Player talent detected: Dreamweaver (gold)]

[Entering hidden ending branch]

[Branch one: Face Sakayanagi Arisu. This branch leads to the hidden ending—Oedipus Rex—and unlocks the plot CG "Fate."]

[Branch two: Escape from Sakayanagi Arisu. This branch leads to the hidden ending—Salvation—and unlocks the plot CG "Masterpiece."]

[Determining the player's branch based on their talents...]

Chapter 32: The Dream Is Over

[Determining the player's branch based on their talents: branch two]

[Plot CG triggered: Masterpiece]

[Masterpiece: Again, again, again! Until I defeat you.]

[Read this plot CG? (It may help you with the rest of the game.)]

"...If I said I couldn't remember anything, would Sakayanagi believe me?"

As he spoke, Kitagawa Ryo glanced at Ichinose Honami, who was still dazed, lost in the afterglow of the dream. She didn't have anything like his experience with entering dreams. Her mind had suddenly been stuffed with several inexplicable memories, so it would probably take her a while to process them.

"Oh my. Then I should thank Ryo for remembering my name even after losing his memory. How commendable."

Sakayanagi Arisu sat there with her legs crossed. After Kitagawa Ryo woke, her enthusiasm had clearly risen several notches. Her deep-purple eyes held an almost uncontrollable smile... and possessiveness.

"Actually, over the past two years, I've rather missed the days when Ryo was around."

"After all, Ryo really surprised me at first. If things had continued at that rate, perhaps the title of 'Masterpiece' at the White Room might have gone to you."

She covered her mouth with one hand and chuckled. Her every movement conveyed a poise that made Kitagawa Ryo keenly aware of how much Sakayanagi Arisu had grown over the past two years.

"But if I really became some kind of 'Masterpiece,' wouldn't that mean the White Room's educational philosophy had completely failed?"

"The truth is, I was just a fake genius, not even as good as those systematically trained in the White Room. You can see that now, too, Sakayanagi. After all, I lost to you zero to seven back then."

Kitagawa Ryo straightened up. It looked as though he was just getting comfortable, but in reality, he was edging closer to Ichinose Honami and the door.

"...You're not staying still."

Sakayanagi Arisu lightly tapped his restless leg with her cane. She stroked Kitagawa Ryo's bangs and gave him an utterly sweet smile.

"Your little sister is right here. Why are you looking at another character?"

"Hey, hey, the role-playing game ended two years ago."

Kitagawa Ryo tried to slap her hand away, but found that he couldn't seem to resist her words. Memories of striving for her on that snowy-white bed, as soft as feathers, resurfaced in his mind.

"...I can't believe this is happening."

He gritted his teeth as he spoke.

"It seems that even after leaving the White Room, you still haven't escaped the effects of that suggestion."

"But I suppose that makes sense. During the six years you can remember, you spent nearly four of them acting under the influence of that suggestion."

Sakayanagi Arisu opened her arms to him. Even with her arms spread as wide as they could go, her petite frame made her look like a little child.

No, perhaps she was deliberately trying to look that way.

"Brother... come back to me."

She offered you an invitation sweet enough to melt.

"I'll train you into my most successful opponent."

"Then we'll have another match."

"Please wait."

The one who interrupted Sakayanagi Arisu was Ichinose Honami, who had come to her senses.

She still seemed a little unwell, and held her head as she got out of bed. But she walked straight up to Sakayanagi Arisu and stood between her and Kitagawa Ryo.

"I don't know what happened between you and Ryo in the past, but it was all when I wasn't there. Now I am."

Ichinose Honami spread her arms wide. Unlike Sakayanagi Arisu's embrace, hers was a protective stance, shielding the person behind her.

"If Ryo doesn't plan to go with you, I won't just stand by and let you take him away."

Ichinose Honami faced her own heart. Her helpless longing poured out from within. The feelings from the dream had become something real in her heart, a sincere truth named "love," slowly overflowing.

"Ah."

Sakayanagi Arisu narrowed her eyes. She slowly lowered her arms. She was considerably shorter than Ichinose Honami, but even sitting quietly, her presence seemed to faintly overpower Honami's.

"—Is that so?"

"But Ryo has practically no memories of you. To him, you're just a somewhat familiar stranger."

Sakayanagi Arisu signaled to a bodyguard, who dragged a fairly large box in from the floor outside the hospital room. She walked over and opened it.

Inside were neatly stacked sheets of letter paper, so many that they nearly filled the large suitcase.

"You're not his girlfriend, either. Even the letters you exchanged over those four years were fake."

The wind blew the window open. A gust lifted the few sheets on top, carrying them into the air before they spun down all over the hospital room.

"You can't even tell for yourself, can you?"

Sakayanagi Arisu casually picked up a sheet of letter paper.

["I've read Ryo's last letter over and over. Just as Ryo said, even though we're separated by thousands of miles and can only communicate by letter, I always feel warm and truly happy whenever I read his words."]

"Which parts are sincere, and which are delusions born from something else?"

Sakayanagi Arisu closed her eyes. Then she opened them, and all the amusement had vanished from her deep-purple gaze. Her eyes pierced Ichinose Honami like sharp blades.

"Or was it all fake?"

"Enough."

Kitagawa Ryo turned a cold gaze on Sakayanagi Arisu. It was probably the first time he had ever looked at her like that. Even when he'd learned that she had deceived him by pretending to be Ichinose Honami, he hadn't felt emotions this negative and dark.

He reached out and took Ichinose Honami's hand, giving her a reassuring smile.

At last, Kitagawa Ryo looked deeply at Sakayanagi Arisu once more.

"I'm sorry."

He apologized to the girl, who still didn't understand what was going on, then stepped forward and returned her cane.

"Honami."

Kitagawa Ryo took Ichinose Honami's hand. For an instant, Sakayanagi Arisu thought they were going to run away together, but they weren't heading for the hospital room door. They were headed for the window on the other side.

"If you trust me."

Kitagawa Ryo set one foot on the windowsill and smiled at Ichinose Honami.

"Then jump with me!"

Ichinose Honami didn't know what was happening, but she followed Kitagawa Ryo's example without hesitation. Holding hands, they leaned halfway out the window. People below seemed to notice them and cried out, trying to stop their apparent attempt at a lovers' suicide.

"Then Sakayanagi Arisu's dream is over."

Kitagawa Ryo and Ichinose Honami plummeted from the high floor. As they fell, he tightened his grip on the hand of his most precious childhood friend.

"The dream I built for you... the one where you defeated me two years ago."

"Now, let's return to where it all began."

The howling wind rushed into Kitagawa Ryo and Ichinose Honami's ears. In midair, Kitagawa Ryo adjusted his position and pulled Ichinose Honami into his arms to shield her.

"That was the true story of me... and Ichinose Honami."