The Third Ending (Part 1)

"You wove such an outrageous dream for me, and now you still expect me to help you escape the White Room's pursuit?"

"...Wasn't this the world you wanted, where you could defeat me with your own hands? Now you're dissatisfied with it? You're awfully hard to please."

Kitagawa Ryo ran all the way, holding Ichinose Honami's hand.

"What do those people even want? It took me so much effort to finally spend two peaceful years with Honami."

"Is that Kitagawa Ryo?"

A different middle-aged man's voice suddenly came through the other end of the earpiece.

"Hm? Sakayanagi's father? The Chairman of Tokyo Koutou Ikusei Junior High School?"

"That's right."

He answered in a low voice.

"Actually, I have a way to protect you and Ichinose Honami from the White Room, given that you're being pursued."

"Hey, hey, you're not telling me Honami and I should enroll in your school, are you?"

"Unless you can think of another way."

"What about Honami's family?"

"I'll arrange for people to watch over them. You have my word."

"...Why are you helping me?"

"I need you to prove your worth."

Kitagawa Ryo stopped walking and asked with interest:

"How?"

"Compete against the White Room's masterpiece, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka. The events will be Chess and hand-to-hand combat."

"You have to win both."

The Third Ending (Part One)

[The player has used a Temporary Talent Card. Based on the current simulation, a relevant talent is being drawn for the player:]

[You have obtained the talent "Grand Master (Gold)"]

[Grand Master: You have reached the level of an international grandmaster in Chess (only in Chess)]

"Ayanokoji Kiyotaka."

"Oh, so he's that man's son. It seems he really does have an almost unreasonable obsession with this kind of education method. He didn't hesitate to throw even his own son into a plan with a one-hundred-percent failure rate."

"What do you mean? He ended up becoming the only successful case in his year. Hey, with his background, doesn't that make it seem like the outcome was rigged?"

Seated on a spacious sofa, Kitagawa Ryo leafed through the files in his hands and casually made a snarky remark.

"You didn't used to talk this much."

Sakayanagi Arisu smiled with narrowed eyes. Though she said that, she seemed to be enjoying the current atmosphere. Of course, she would have enjoyed it even more if the woman sitting beside Kitagawa Ryo weren't there.

"Isn't this all thanks to you people sending me to the White Room? You wanted to prove the limits of humanity through the power of emotion. I still don't know why Sakayanagi would have such an idea."

"Actually, I only wanted to use a counterexample to prove that the White Room's philosophy was wrong. If it still bothers you, I can apologize."

Sakayanagi Arisu gave a slight bow, her formal courtesy impeccable.

"...There's no need. We're only using each other now, anyway."

Kitagawa Ryo lowered his head and continued leafing through the stack of files.

"If you really feel sorry, stop calling me 'Ryo.'"

Kitagawa Ryo lifted his head. His tone remained lazy, but Sakayanagi Arisu could tell from his eyes that he was serious.

"Just call me Kitagawa, like I call you Sakayanagi."

"...Is that so?"

Sakayanagi Arisu sighed softly, seeming to want to say more. But Ichinose Honami pointed eagerly to a part of the file before she could.

"Ryo, look here."

"Hm? Here?"

As Kitagawa Ryo's attention was completely drawn to Ichinose Honami, Sakayanagi Arisu merely shook her head. For some reason, she regretted putting Ichinose Honami's image into Kitagawa Ryo's mind. She watched his profile as he pondered a way forward, absently fiddling with her fingernails.

"The 'Masterpiece'?"

"If you go by the timeline, I should have been a fourth-generation White Room student, just like Ayanokoji Kiyotaka. But I was an outsider. Neither the age at which I entered the White Room nor the amount of time I spent studying there could compare to his."

Kitagawa Ryo studied the files in his hands and sighed.

"Looking at it this way, he should be able to crush me on paper."

"Jokes aside, the White Room is a genuine 'learning hell.' Unlike me, an unemployed layabout who spent two years doing nothing."

"If you can bring out the same skill you had two years ago when you defeated me, I don't think you'll lose to this Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, at least not at Chess."

Sakayanagi Arisu seemed dissatisfied with Kitagawa Ryo's attitude and tapped her cane lightly against the table.

"I saw Ayanokoji Kiyotaka once in the White Room. Even then, his Chess skill was already on par with mine. By that standard, you, who defeated me at Chess, shouldn't be too afraid of him."

Kitagawa Ryo merely shrugged at her words, then turned to Ichinose Honami.

"Honami, what do you think of my Chess skills?"

"Hmm."

Ichinose Honami thought hard before finding a way to describe it.

"About the level of an amateur?"

"That's about right!"

Kitagawa Ryo shut the file in his hands, agreeing with Ichinose Honami's answer.

"How could that be?"

Sakayanagi Arisu looked at the two of them. Neither seemed to be lying. She lowered her head and thought for a moment before asking in surprise:

"Could it be that back then, you were in my dream...?"

"Yeah."

Kitagawa Ryo raised an eyebrow, feeling a little puzzled. After he had forbidden Sakayanagi Arisu from calling him "Ryo," she hadn't switched to "Kitagawa." Instead, she'd been referring to him as "you." He couldn't understand what she was thinking.

"I probably played nearly a thousand Chess matches with Sakayanagi in her dream. I didn't dare play against you until I'd figured out all your habits, your favorite tactics, and how you'd respond in different situations."

"But if that's true, I should remember."

"You can cover that dream with another dream where nothing happens. Just like your dream affected the one I had at the beginning. A dream within a dream, that's all."

"Then..."

Kitagawa Ryo seemed to realize what Sakayanagi was about to say. He pointed at his head and sighed.

"First, there's only one short night left before my match with Ayanokoji Kiyotaka. Without knowing where he is, I can't lock onto his dream, let alone simulate the match in advance."

"Second, I can't use this ability endlessly. And because the negative consequences were pretty severe in the past, I've barely used it these last two years, aside from spending every night building your dreams."

As he said this, Kitagawa Ryo glanced at his girlfriend. Ichinose Honami was holding his arm and smiling at him as she always did, but she still made his back prickle with unease.

"Ahem... Building all kinds of dreams with my girlfriend doesn't count, of course."

He awkwardly moved on from the topic and continued:

"It's not that there's no way. Under the rules we agreed on, tomorrow's match will take place with only Ayanokoji Kiyotaka and me at the venue. The Sakayanagi Family and the White Room will each watch remotely using equipment, as witnesses. That way, the match stays fair."

"But even then, there's some room to work with. I just need to pull Ayanokoji Kiyotaka into a dream right before the match starts."

"Can you pull someone who's awake into a dream?"

Ichinose Honami furrowed her brows.

"I thought your ability only worked after someone else had fallen asleep."

"Oh, you're right. I can't. Dreams only come about when someone is asleep."

Kitagawa Ryo nodded in acknowledgment, then smiled.

"But of course, I have a way to make Ayanokoji Kiyotaka take a nap."

"As for Chess, just trust me."

"I didn't expect you to invite me out this late, Miss Sakayanagi."

It was the night before the match, and it was already around midnight. Ichinose Honami quietly closed the door to her room and walked straight down the corridor to a small room.

Sakayanagi Arisu leaned against the doorframe and nodded to her.

"There's something I absolutely have to talk to you about. It concerns him."

"Is that so?"

Ichinose Honami didn't seem inclined to ask for details. She entered the room and turned on the light. A Chessboard lay before her, its black and white pieces scattered across it. Ichinose Honami sat down on the stool on the far side.

"I thought you might refuse to talk to me, Ichinose. I've done some terrible things to you in the past, so I wouldn't be surprised if you hated me."

Between the ages of ten and fourteen, Sakayanagi Arisu had corresponded with Ichinose Honami while pretending to be Kitagawa Ryo. At the same time, she'd impersonated Ichinose Honami to manipulate Kitagawa Ryo into taking action. In a way, she'd toyed with both of their lives.

"Yes, what you did was truly terrible, Miss Sakayanagi."

Ichinose Honami looked straight at her, her eyes resolute and fearless.

"I remember what you did to me, and I've also remembered what you did to Ryo."

"Is that so?"

Sakayanagi Arisu slowly sat down on the chair nearest the door. Perhaps her frail, petite appearance easily stirred other people's desire to protect her. She reached out and toyed with the queen on the Chessboard.

"Then I'll look forward to your challenge."

"If he succeeds tomorrow, we should be able to meet at Tokyo Koutou Ikusei Junior High School in less than a year."

She reached out and knocked over the knight standing upright on the board.

"If we get the chance to be opponents, give it everything you've got."

"Tokyo Koutou Ikusei Junior High School..."

Ichinose Honami recalled the scenes she'd seen in Kitagawa Ryo's dream. Unfortunately, back then, all her attention had been fixed on herself, standing at the finish line and then somehow failing anyway. The dream had later involved some events inside the school, but she couldn't remember them very clearly.

She still remembered the face of a blond man she'd called "Senior Nagumo."

That nauseous feeling again.

Ichinose Honami quickly suppressed the discomfort rising from her stomach.

"What did you want to talk to me about tonight, Miss Sakayanagi?"

"I'm just curious about how he's been living these past two years..."

Apparently noticing the bright look Ichinose Honami immediately gave her, Sakayanagi Arisu waved a hand helplessly.

"After all, for the past two years, I was deceived by the dream he created for me. I always thought I'd beaten him back then, and that Matsuo Eiichiro had been taking care of him these past two years. It wasn't until I woke up from the dream yesterday that I realized I knew almost nothing about what he'd been through."

"Why should I tell you anything about him?"

Ichinose Honami flatly rejected Sakayanagi's request.

"If anything, your position is the strange one, Miss Sakayanagi. If you trace things back to the start, you were almost entirely responsible for the tragedy of Ryo's childhood. You interfered in someone else's life on a whim when you were a child."

Ichinose Honami glared at Sakayanagi Arisu.

"I don't even understand why Ryo would choose to work with someone like you, let alone create a dream for you that lasted more than two years."

"An unexpectedly honest answer."

Sakayanagi Arisu didn't seem angry at Ichinose Honami's words. She simply clasped her hands together and rested her chin on them, praising her.

"Sometimes, honesty is necessary. Dreams built on lies always end when you wake up."

After a brief sigh, she told Ichinose Honami the real reason she'd called her over that night.

"If... and I mean if."