After his thirty-third fall, Kitagawa Ryo landed his first effective blow on Ayanokoji Kiyotaka.
He focused his strength into his right hand, seized an opening Ayanokoji left while dodging his roundhouse kick, and slammed a fist hard into his shoulder.
But Ayanokoji seemed not to feel any pain. The very next second, he quickly regained his stance and returned a heavy punch.
Kitagawa forced his eyes wide open and tried to lower his center of gravity as much as he could, but Ayanokoji came at him like a phantom, firing rhythmic, sharp jabs at his head. Then came an elbow strike that crashed into Kitagawa's chest.
"Ugh."
When the white light faded, Kitagawa was standing opposite Ayanokoji once more. For the first time, he felt a dense stinging pain spreading through his head.
Ayanokoji seemed to notice something was wrong with him, too.
"Are you okay? Ready to start the fight?"
Kitagawa pressed hard between his eyebrows. Amid the memories scattering in every direction, the girl's face grew increasingly blurry.
"Yeah. Let's begin."
Kitagawa shook his head. His body dodged Ayanokoji's attack on instinct. The guy had just asked after him with a friendly expression, but within seconds of the match starting, he was unleashing one unrelenting attack after another.
Ayanokoji liked to hide his real attacks behind feints launched with his left hand. Kitagawa quickly stepped back to create distance, dodging while searching for an opening to strike. It felt as if the rest of his brain had grown sluggish and stopped working. The only things this organ needed to consider now were when to attack and when to dodge.
There wasn't even time to blink. Kitagawa calculated the timing and dealt with Ayanokoji's incoming left kick, but was soon struck high on his flank by the other boy's fast right kick. The violent impact and pain almost instantly overwhelmed his nerves and body.
He bent over instinctively to ease the pain in his abdomen, but the next moment, Ayanokoji came charging in again, braced a knee against Kitagawa's neck, and pinned him flat on the ground.
"You lose."
He spoke as though stating an established fact.
"Yeah."
"Then let's go again."
Kitagawa spat two mouthfuls of bloody foam onto the ground.
Starting with the sixtieth attempt, Kitagawa tried trading blows, almost crazed with the desire to make Ayanokoji bleed. The brutality of their fights climbed to another level.
[Combat Expert (Blue) talent proficiency maxed out. Upgraded to Martial Artist (Purple)]
From the eighty-seventh attempt on, Kitagawa regained his composure and abandoned the strategy of trading blows, trying instead to find a flaw in Ayanokoji's technique.
Ayanokoji snapped out his right leg, shooting it viciously toward Kitagawa's abdomen.
By now, Kitagawa knew Ayanokoji's rhythm so well that he moved left like a robot following a program. He swung a kick toward Ayanokoji's chest, but Ayanokoji twisted and stuck to him like a burr, driving a straight punch at Kitagawa's chin. Kitagawa didn't panic. He turned his left hand and caught Ayanokoji's wrist, then swung his right fist toward his eye.
By this point, neither of them had any reason to hold back. Ayanokoji leaned back and kicked upward toward Kitagawa's throat.
At the exact same moment Kitagawa's punch landed in Ayanokoji's eye socket, the kick shattered his throat cartilage.
Just grit your teeth again.
"Let's go again."
"I didn't expect Ryo to win the Chess match so easily."
Ichinose Honami didn't know much about Chess, so she wasn't as engrossed in the process as Sakayanagi Arisu, who was still hunched over, studying the endgame between them. As far as Honami was concerned, it was enough that Kitagawa Ryo won in the end.
"Next up is the fight."
Sakayanagi had finally finished simulating how she would have played if she had been in Ayanokoji's position. She stretched and looked at the screen.
"He's already... dreaming, isn't he?"
Ichinose quietly watched the boy leaning against the wall, seemingly resting with his eyes closed, and took a deep breath.
"Ninety-nine times."
"What do you mean, ninety-nine times?"
Sakayanagi asked, taken aback.
"Before Ryo left today, he told me he was going to give himself a hundred chances."
"In other words, he'll weave a dream with ninety-nine layers all at once."
"You're crazy! Why didn't you stop him?"
For the first time, disbelief shone in Sakayanagi's deep purple eyes. Back then, Kitagawa Ryo had played nearly a thousand matches against her in his dreams, but they hadn't all taken place in one night. They had spanned almost a year.
"Because I believe in him."
Ichinose came back to herself and smiled at Sakayanagi. She was worried and her heart ached for him, but she still trusted Kitagawa Ryo's judgment.
"What if he loses all his memories again, like he did back then?"
Sakayanagi reined in her emotions.
"It'll be okay."
Ichinose touched the screen with her finger, as if she wanted to stroke Kitagawa, whose eyes were still closed, through it.
"The memories Ryo and I share don't need anything to hold them. The two of us are the best vessels for that time. If I see him, and he sees me, we'll naturally remember the past. Our time has always been intertwined."
The girl clasped her hands in front of her chest and made a wish.
"All I have to do is wait for him to win."
[Unwavering Perseverance (Purple) talent proficiency maxed out. Upgraded to Persistence (Gold)]
[Persistence (Gold): Just grit your teeth again. (You have gained this great quality)]
[Dreamweaver (Gold) talent usage limit exceeded. Temporarily unavailable]
Kitagawa Ryo opened his eyes.
"Let's get along."
"Let's get along."
The outcome was settled.
[Story CG: Masterpiece, finished reading]
[When you opened your eyes again, the first thing that entered your view was undoubtedly her waist-length golden-pink hair. Beneath her light bangs, her blue-green eyes were filled with surprise and disbelief. You caught the faint scent of green oranges.]
[You waved to her:]
["Um, hello?"]
["Never mind. I won't pretend I've lost my memory."]
[You smiled and reached out to pull her into your arms:]
["I'm back, Honami."]
[This simulation lasted two years and one hundred twenty-eight days. You may choose one talent to retain. That talent will be used automatically in future simulations.]
[Congratulations, player, on achieving the hidden ending: Salvation]
[Salvation: Then let's make this promise here: we'll walk a long way together.]
A Note on Going Premium
First, a word about last week's reward campaign. The goal was ten extra chapters, or 40,000 words, and you all pushed it to the limit in just three or four days. Thank you for your support. Over the six days from April 30 to May 5, I updated 62,000 words in total. Excluding the regular 4,000 words per day, that's 38,000 extra words, so I basically finished the reward campaign before the book went premium.
Now, about the book itself. I'm honored that so many of you have enjoyed this Classroom of the Elite fanfic. I've written all these words without even reaching the main story of Classroom of the Elite. Most of it has been semi-original writing about the characters' experiences before high school, since the original didn't cover much of that. For example, the section about Ichinose Honami shoplifting was summarized in just over a thousand words in the original. I don't know why some people said that my first three chapters, totaling 11,000 words, were copied from the original. The same goes for Karuizawa Kei's storyline, which was mostly scattered across various passages and flashbacks in the original.
So when writing these characters, I've tried to make their actions fit the logic of their behavior in the original. I'll continue writing them this way in later chapters.
As for the third simulation, I can understand the comments in the reviews saying it was "weird and crazy," "too jumpy," and "hard to understand." I was too impatient while writing it, wanting to speed up the plot without considering that a style that was too stream-of-consciousness might not suit a web novel that readers follow day by day. What I mean to say is simply that I didn't write it well. It wasn't really stream-of-consciousness. I apologize again.
There won't be any more supernatural abilities in the chapters ahead. After this failed experiment, I don't think I'll write anything like that in Classroom of the Elite again. I'll keep the talents within normal, manageable bounds. I'll also readjust the pacing and style, returning to the more delicate approach I used in the second simulation.
Anyway, I hope the second major arc after the book goes premium will give everyone a better reading experience. The first chapter after it goes premium will probably be updated around five or six this afternoon. I hope you'll continue to support me.
As for the reward campaign after the book goes premium, give me another couple of days to catch my breath. I've been updating ten thousand words a day for a whole week, so I need to rest a little.
Finally, I hope every reader of this book can keep GKD on the road to making their dreams come true.
Sakayanagi Arisu IF Side Story
The Ending You and I Shared
The person you love isn't "me," but "Ichinose Honami," right?
I'd known that from the very beginning. In fact, I'd based years of deception on that very fact. At first, I'd only played the role of "Ichinose Honami," the "little sister," to get a reaction out of Kitagawa Ryo. Was my acting simply too convincing?
The convincing fake had forged the girl's love along with everything else.
I had never agreed with the White Room's ideals. People didn't grow stronger by shedding their emotions; they grew stronger because of them.
Friendship, family, and love.
With those, I built the image of a little sister who needed protection, who couldn't do anything on her own.
At first, I'd been stiff, like an inexperienced actor, unable even to get my lines right. But little by little, I grew used to having someone who worked hard for my sake. I praised him, encouraged him, and pushed him to go further, drawing out his potential and talent.
If you want to fool other people, fool yourself first.
"Big brother..."
I read Ichinose Honami's letters aloud to the boy bent over his studies in the footage, even though he couldn't hear me, and copied the feelings in them into myself.
A girl's affection was simple and easy to imitate. When she saw him, she had to act flustered, unable to meet his eyes for more than three seconds. From her gestures to her movements, she had to signal that she wanted to be protected and cherished.
"It's easy enough, isn't it?"
After repeating it and reinforcing it again and again, it no longer mattered how it had started. Kitagawa Ryo and I had built the strongest sibling bond.
But it was truly strange. I could say all kinds of sugary things so naturally that I no longer had to prepare my lines in advance, even though they went far beyond what siblings should say to each other. Yet not even the slightest trace of a girl's fluttering heart or shyness stirred inside me.
After all, this was a story filled with lies and deception from beginning to end.
Only after he escaped the White Room—and the fantasy I had woven for him—did I realize the horrifying truth.
"Ryo."
For the first time, I didn't call him "big brother."
"I think... no, I really do..."
I was certain of what I felt.
He went to Ichinose Honami. That was the reality before my eyes.
[Let's tear it all down and start over.]
[We'd already spent four years dreaming. So I'd keep turning a blind eye to the truth of the world and cover reality with a fabricated story.]
[This was the gentlest world for me. I pulled him into my arms.]
Kitagawa Ryo sometimes wanted to lie in a hot spring where he could stretch out his limbs, soak in the warm water, and enjoy some leisurely time.
He'd heard that some people soaked in cold water after a hot bath, spent a while in a sauna, and then jumped into cold water again. Kitagawa couldn't understand that. He simply liked soaking in hot springs to relax. Once his body was warm and the heat had brought a faint flush to his cheeks, he could return to the changing room, dry himself off, and leave. The middle-aged men in the changing room always liked to wrap their towels around their waists after bathing. They'd down a bottle of chilled milk in one hand while resting the other on their hip. Kitagawa politely nodded to them in greeting and left.
For a long time, Kitagawa Ryo had washed in a rather cramped space. No, it couldn't even be called bathing. Like the other test subjects, he had simply followed a strict schedule and completed the task of washing himself.
After his parents died, he had probably spent six years in the White Room. Only recently had the Sakayanagi Family brought him out as their sole successful product.
"Did you get nice and warm?"
The curtain by the entrance swayed gently. Kitagawa had just stepped outside when he heard Sakayanagi Arisu ask him.
She was gazing at a night sky with only half a yellow moon and not a single star. Her body had warmed all the way through, and as she felt the occasional breeze, she turned to look at him.
Her face was a little flushed, just like Kitagawa's. Her skin, usually as pale as if she were ill, had taken on a faint blush, showing that she had warmed up thoroughly. Though she had entered the stage of puberty, her body was still a long way from that of a grown woman; she looked nothing like a high schooler. Her deep purple eyes and fantastical silver-white hair sometimes made people think she wasn't real. Because of that, Kitagawa often had the feeling that one day she might suddenly disappear.
Like Alice falling into a rabbit hole.
She'd only been in the bath for a short while because of her heart condition, but her eyes still shimmered with moisture, and her damp lips glistened like cherry blossom petals.
"I'm nice and warm. Hot springs always feel wonderful, no matter how many times you soak in them."
Kitagawa nodded in reply. The two of them were on a summer vacation before high school began, in Ibusuki, Kyushu.
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