Just How Many Girls Have You Carried Things in Your Mouth For? / This Little Sister Can Carry Things in Her Mouth Too...
Perhaps because Kitagawa Ryo's tone was too serious and earnest, Amasawa Ichika pouted and apologized with a hint of grievance. This pitiful expression made Kitagawa Ryo feel even more guilty. After all, it wasn't Ichika's fault in the end. Moreover, the other victim, Yuki, hadn't recovered as well as Amasawa Ichika had. Every time she went out of school to meet Yuki, she felt very insecure and had to be held by Yuki for a whole night before she could feel at ease.
"Well, how should I put it? I feel like we can take it slow. At least let's erase the concept of 'mother' first. After all, it's just a fabricated concept created by humans, just like the original 'Cloth Mother' experiment."
Seemingly noticing that Kitagawa Ryo's tone had softened again, Amasawa Ichika nodded earnestly.
"But I really feel like Liang is like family to me; he cares about me and takes care of me."
As if recalling something she had heard about earlier that day, Amasawa Ichika continued 'naturally':
"If he weren't my mother, then to me, Ryo would probably be like an older brother."
"Um, brother--"
For a moment, when Kitagawa Ryo was locked onto by Amasawa Ichika's fluorescent yellow eyes and heard that address, he was also inexplicably dazed.
Even so, he could still clearly hear from that voice, as sweet as the cream he had just eaten, that the term of address he was so used to hearing on a daily basis, which was supposed to refer to family relationships, was now making its grand entrance amidst the chaos, carrying an almost sentimental tone.
Chapter 254: How many girls have you carried things for?
Although he knew he had unwittingly fallen into the deep pit that Amasawa Ichika had dug that had only just been exposed, the facts proved that if Kitagawa Ryo had to choose between the titles 'Mom' and 'Brother', he would still choose the latter without hesitation.
Moreover, Amasawa Ichika is indeed almost a year younger than him, and with her eyes being the same color as Hotaru's, it's fair to say that his extra care for Amasawa Ichika during Sakayanagi Arisu's second simulation was not unrelated to this.
... But could you please be a little more serious?
Kitagawa Ryo has heard the term "brother" from Hotaru countless times in his two lifetimes. Sometimes when Hotaru is being affectionate, she will at most draw out the word "brother--". But the two times that Amasawa Ichika just said, cough cough, felt a bit inappropriate in every sense.
"Call me whatever you like, Ichika."
But in the end, Kitagawa Ryo still gave an agreeing answer while his gaze lingered.
"Great! Actually, I've wanted an older brother for a long time."
After receiving permission from Kitagawa Ryo, Amasawa Ichika also put her hands together in front of her chest with a big smile, her tone a little sentimental, revealing a contented and happy look.
Although both were test subjects in the White Room, unlike Yuki who had a family willing to accept and care for her, Amasawa Ichika, born through in vitro fertilization, could easily see through simulated memories what kind of cynical bastard her father was. It could even be said that the two had almost no connection or affection between them except for blood ties.
In this respect, Amasawa Ichika is indeed a lonely girl without the care of her family.
Thinking of this, Kitagawa Ryo's eyes softened again.
However, he immediately saw Amasawa Ichika sitting opposite him thoughtfully raise a finger and smile slyly:
"Then, can we call Ryo that at night too?"
Recalling the three symbols that Amasawa Ichika had been gesturing to him when they met this morning, and the events of the entire day, Kitagawa Ryo silently twitched the corners of his mouth.
Okay, he retracted all his previous thoughts.
Fortunately, none of his real sisters, Ying, should be able to cross the ocean to come to this cruise ship and catch him in the act.
Meanwhile, Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School.
Unlike the First Year students who were still enjoying their vacation on the Luxury Cruise Ship, the second-year students, who had finished their Summer Special Exam, all returned to school, and the results were as expected.
Under the leadership of Miyabi Nagumo, who has already secured the position of the next Student Council President, Class 2-A year, which had been promoted from Class A Class B to Class A, once again won first place in this Special Exam. However, compared to the First Year, who competed until the very last moment on the Uninhabited Island, the second year's exam was already decided from the very beginning.
As always, Miyabi Nagumo, who controlled the entire grade, methodically used the rules and mechanisms of the Special Exam to collect all the Private Points she could possibly obtain from the school and then precisely controlled the Class Points each class could obtain, maximizing all the benefits.
Although Asahina Nazuna had always disapproved of her childhood friend Miyabi Nagumo's increasingly flamboyant behavior lately, as a beneficiary of the system in Class A, she really didn't know what position to take to persuade him. In the end, she could only take a walk alone on the school's paths at dusk to clear her mind, just like now.
After walking around in circles for a while, just as Asahina Nazuna was about to return to her dormitory, she suddenly realized that the amulet she had been wearing on her wrist was nowhere to be found.
Although it was an item she bought at the start of the school year just over a year ago, perhaps it was a destined connection, as Asahina Nazuna has always treasured it, feeling that wearing it would unconsciously bring her peace of mind and good luck. She has always believed in this kind of mystical belief, and her good relationship with Miyabi Nagumo is also because the two of them have been in the same school and even the same class from elementary school to high school, which she feels is probably also a special kind of fate.
Of course, it's only a "good relationship." After all, to be honest, Miyabi Nagumo has a good relationship with most of the girls in the second year. However, this is also one of the reasons why Asahina Nazuna has always disliked her childhood friend.
After anxiously searching back along the path she had been walking for about ten minutes, Asahina Nazuna finally breathed a sigh of relief, because she had finally found her amulet lying quietly in the grass beside the path.
But just as she quickly approached and was about to pick it up, an even faster black shadow suddenly swept past Asahina Nazuna's eyes. The next second, she saw her amulet being carried in the beak of a crow, which spread its wings and flew to a nearby tree branch, leaving Asahina Nazuna somewhat dumbfounded.
Although Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School has always prohibited students from keeping pets, it is obviously difficult to control wild birds flying in the sky. Students can often see flocks of migratory birds passing through the Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School grounds during certain seasons, after all, the greenery here is really good, making it a rare place to rest.
However, now was clearly not the time to think about that. Asahina Nazuna was trying to make some noise to get the crow, which seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, to put down her amulet, while also being afraid that it would carry it even further away. So she just looked up at it longingly for a long time.
But the crow seemed determined to wear her down, leisurely perched on that high branch, still holding her amulet in its beak, showing no intention of putting it down or spitting it out. Asahina Nazuna's eyes welled up with tears as she prepared to call Miyabi Nagumo to come and help.
But the moment she took her phone out of her pocket, Asahina Nazuna witnessed the most unbelievable scene of her life so far.
Amidst the dappled shadows of the trees, a small, pure white kitten suddenly leaped from one of the trees. The rustling sound it made immediately startled the crow, which cawed twice before spitting out the talisman and then, with a flap of its wings, flew away to who-knows-where.
Then, to Asahina Nazuna's astonishment, the kitten deftly snatched the amulet that the crow had left on the tree, hopped down to her feet in a few leaps, meowed once, and placed the amulet on the ground.
Then, it vanished into the woods in a flash, leaving only Asahina Nazuna disheveled in the wind.
No, why are there cats at school?
And why does it always feel like the other person is so skilled?
How many girls have you carried things for?
Chapter 255: This little sister can also pick things up.
When Kitagawa Ryo and Amasawa Ichika came out of the DIY Free Kitchen, it was already past five o'clock in the afternoon. But unlike the bustling streets in the afternoon, the deck was now empty again, with less than an hour left in the Treasure Hunt Game.
"They should have gone back to the meeting room on the fifth floor by now."
However, Kitagawa Ryo didn't show any surprise. He just yawned lazily. He and Sakayanagi Arisu always had the same way of thinking. In addition, he had heard a few words from Horikita Suzune. Although he had spent the whole afternoon in the kitchen, he could basically guess about Sakayanagi Arisu's actions.
Horikita Suzune once said that in the afternoon, Sakayanagi Arisu asked her to scan any QR code and send her a screenshot. This information alone shows that Arisu had already seen through a glaring flaw in the rules of this Treasure Hunt Game, namely the mechanism that each student could only scan one QR code per phone.
Once a person's gambling instinct kicks in, it's hard to stop easily, especially after they've tasted a bit of success or want to recoup their losses.
In fact, if we compare this Treasure Hunt Game to a lottery, it becomes much easier to understand.
Each student has one chance to participate in a lottery by spending 5,000 Private Points. Given that the prize is a guaranteed win, some students will inevitably be tempted to try again, but the rule of one chance per person limits them to that.
Therefore, this demand will naturally create a corresponding market. As long as there are students who are somewhat addicted or eager to earn more and participate in the lottery a few more times, the lottery qualification can rightfully become a commodity with trading value and a trading market.
Moreover, Sakayanagi Arisu's plan not only exploited a range of student psychology with the school administration, but also took advantage of the school's high probability that they would not give out the final grand prize of one million points to the students. Conversely, this could even become the best promotional material for Sakayanagi Arisu to sell lottery eligibility to the public.
The logic is simple: when there are 189 QR codes, the probability of winning one million is 1 in 189. But what if there are only 39 remaining QR codes, and the million-dollar prize hasn't been drawn yet? The probability then becomes 1 in 39, right? So it's perfectly reasonable for me to charge you extra Private Points, right? What if you get incredibly lucky and win one million? Wouldn't that be a huge win?
Of course, the above is just the most general promotional plan. If Kitagawa Ryo is not mistaken, Sakayanagi Arisu should have sent people to guard the prize redemption point on the fifth floor from the beginning, to collect as much information as possible about everyone's winnings, and to use this as a basis to continuously entice and sell prizes, saying things like "the lowest tier of 6,000 points has basically been drawn" and "the chance of winning 10,000 points or more in the lottery now is over 80%".
"But what if these QR codes actually yield big prizes like 100,000, 300,000, or 500,000? Wouldn't that be a loss?"
After listening to Kitagawa Ryo's casual guesses, Amasawa Ichika, who had already given up thinking, subconsciously asked the question as well.
"It's normal to have this kind of thought. Let's take the situation Ichika mentioned as an example. For instance, Arisu sells a QR code's lottery entry for 10,000 Private Points, and then that QR code wins a grand prize of 300,000 points. As the seller, you would definitely feel like you lost out, right? After all, if you had opened the lottery yourself, you would have had 150,000 Private Points by the end of the cruise vacation. So, you would have lost a full 140,000 points."
Kitagawa Ryo simply smiled upon hearing this, casually shaking his head as he looked around at the various restaurants and shops, and then gave an example to Amasawa Ichika to explain:
"But this is just a perspective from the seller's point of view, because in the current environment, it's almost impossible for the student to keep that 300,000 yuan intact until the end of the vacation."
"First of all, unlike the school, Arisu will definitely publicize this student's good luck in a real-name manner. And as long as this student is not a complete loner, he must have friends, or at the very least, classmates. After winning so many points, wouldn't it be reasonable not to treat everyone to a cruise?"
"Then, if I'm not mistaken, the school has probably set up a series of traps after this Treasure Hunt Game. They will definitely try every means to entice you to spend this windfall and recoup your points."
"Finally, from the buyer's perspective, the comparison is different from the seller's, because what he has in his card is not the 150,000 Private Points that can be converted into real points, but 300,000 points that can be spent."
At this point, Kitagawa Ryo smiled slightly and reached out to hook Amasawa Ichika's nose:
"Look, Ichika is already heartbroken about losing 140,000, but for the buyer, it means that even if I do nothing, I'll lose a whole 150,000 from my account."
"By then, it will be perfectly natural to feel that if I don't spend money, I'm losing money!"
"Shaping students' views on money and consumption... Although the school says it won't set up any extra Special Exam during the cruise vacation, it may have already started."
After saying that, Kitagawa Ryo glanced up at the upstairs twice, but still didn't go up to watch the excitement. Instead, he and Amasawa Ichika took advantage of the quieter time to find a restaurant with a nice view and ordered dinner.
Watching Amasawa Ichika effortlessly finish a single-person meal in front of him, Kitagawa Ryo had to admit that the saying that girls have an extra stomach to hold desserts might actually be true.
As the two of them leisurely finished their dinner, the clock on the wall slowly ticked past six. At the same time, a large number of First Year students came down from upstairs as if on cue, most of them looking excited, gesturing wildly as if discussing something. Occasionally, you could hear them saying things like, "So-and-so won a big prize of 300,000 or 500,000 yen," "Maki the school can hold more events like this," and "Classmate Sakayanagi really lost out in the end; she should have kept the prize for herself."
Just as Kitagawa Ryo finished his meal, wiped his mouth with a napkin from the table, rested his chin on his hand, and watched through the transparent glass as the students eagerly started spending their prepaid cards, his phone rang again in his pocket.
This moment is just like that moment back then.
If his memory serves him right, Kitagawa Ryo remembers receiving a text message from Amasawa Ichika around this time yesterday while he was having dinner with Karuizawa Kei.
Thinking of this, Kitagawa Ryo calmly took out his phone and glanced at it.
As expected, it was a message from Sakayanagi Arisu:
"I've already earned enough for my date with Ryo--remember to come keep me company tomorrow."
After giving a silent affirmative answer, Kitagawa Ryo continued to smile and chat with Amasawa Ichika, who was becoming increasingly distracted as the evening approached, about everyday anecdotes.
To be honest, upon seeing that the sender was Arisu, he even felt a little relieved in some ways.
Although it's a thought I'm very unwilling to admit and absolutely cannot say out loud, I'm so glad that it's Sakayanagi Arisu tomorrow.
After all, that way, I won't have to worry about too many things tonight.
Compared to today, tomorrow is practically a day off.
Kitagawa Ryo thought to himself with a light heart.
Seemingly noticing the confident and relaxed look in his eyes, Amasawa Ichika, feeling underestimated, glared back defiantly, equally confident in the results of his decades-long dedication to fitness in the White Room.
So, after a brief evening walk that seemed more like a warm-up, the two of them tacitly entered the luxury suite that Kitagawa Ryo had reserved in advance.
Unlike yesterday's shy and budding romance, Karuizawa Kei had specially prepared and changed into a bunny girl outfit, Amasawa Ichika put a lot of effort into being bolder in her address and actions.
In just a short while, she whispered in Kitagawa Ryo's ear every way to address her brother, from the most dignified and solemn "Nisan" and "Oniisama" to the incredibly affectionate "Onii" and "Onii-chan," and even the cheesy and coquettish "Ni" and "Nini" that almost only exist in anime and manga like "No Game No Life," which depict sibling relationships.
When uncontrollable passion launches a full-scale attack, even frost and snow will spontaneously combust, and reason will become its slave.
Chapter 256: Heh heh, there are just too many traitors.
Before they knew it, the cruise vacation for the First Year students had reached its third day. With most students recovering from the physical and mental fatigue of the Uninhabited Island Special Exam and the school's generous giveaway of prizes during the Treasure Hunt Game yesterday afternoon, Kitagawa Ryo could clearly feel the cruise ship's popularity gradually increasing, as evidenced by the number of people coming to the restaurant for breakfast.
Of course, this is also largely due to the fact that he booked the 8 o'clock slot this morning, not the earliest 7 o'clock slot.
As for why breakfast time was delayed to 8:00 AM today, Kitagawa Ryo believes the answer should be left to a certain outstanding graduate of the White Room.
After all, he himself only found out at the very last moment that the number three meant it would continue until 3 a. m.
Looking at the breakfast on his plate, Kitagawa Ryo felt a little unappetized today.
However, this was not because of last night. In fact, if we're being honest, the pressure and impact on Amasawa Ichika's abdomen or stomach were probably greater than his. What really made Kitagawa Ryo his appetite was something else that happened when he came to the restaurant this morning.
As luck would have it, just this morning, after finally waking up under the powerful control of his biological clock, and then breaking free from the tight embrace of Ichika, he transformed into Time Management Master, got himself ready, and had only taken a few steps out of the room when he ran into a certain class teacher from Class 1-A.
To be honest, the moment Hoshinomiya Chie Kitagawa Ryo saw Hoshinomiya Chie struggling to walk out of the room while leaning against the wall, and considering the rumors about this homeroom teacher's private life, he was ready to flee the scene immediately, claiming that he had absolutely not seen anything he shouldn't have seen.
However, it seems that Hoshinomiya Chie and Chabashira Sae, these two seemingly inseparable but actually platonic besties, have some kind of radar installed on him these past two days. Even though they are not fully conscious, they still spot him in a second and immediately wave him over to help them to the infirmary.
However, Kitagawa Ryo clearly didn't want to get involved in this trouble. After casually glancing around, he ran a few steps and 'grabbed' a girl from Class A to help. After all, she was their class advisor, so it was only right that she take responsibility.
Whether it was a coincidence or because this girl named Himeno Yuki really liked to wander around the deck all day and enjoy the breeze, after being conscripted by Kitagawa Ryo to take Karuizawa Kei back to her dormitory after the Uninhabited Island Special Exam, Himeno, with a helpless look on her face, was once again 'recruited' by him.
Then, just as Kitagawa Ryo thought everything was over and was about to run away, Hoshinomiya Chie, who had only taken a few steps with her arm around Himeno Yuki's shoulder, made some incomprehensible noises like "ah, ooh-ooh, haa," and then suddenly lowered her head and vomited all over the deck. This had a shocking effect on both Kitagawa Ryo, who hadn't gone far, and Himeno, who was even closer, on both a physical and psychological level.
It was only later that I learned that Hoshinomiya Chie suffers from seasickness. In addition, she was in high spirits last night due to a happy occasion, and she was also relaxed and hungover after finishing her Treasure Hunt Game job. The combination of these two factors led to the situation this morning.
In a sense, Kitagawa Ryo is now increasingly understanding why his homeroom teacher Mashima Tomoya, has never made a move on his two beautiful colleagues Chabashira Sae and Hoshinomiya Chie, who are so close to him, all these years.
No, according to him, he never even considered her as a member of the opposite sex.
Because of the little incident that morning, Kitagawa Ryo didn't eat much and hastily finished his breakfast. He glanced at the time on his phone. Although it was still about half an hour before the time he was supposed to Sakayanagi Arisu, he wasn't in the mood to wander around. So he simply arrived at the meeting place ahead of time and waited patiently for Sakayanagi Arisu to arrive while casually observing the other students passing by.
Just as he had predicted yesterday, the shops here seemed to have rehearsed in advance, putting up banners this morning with "Promotional Activities" and "Buy Two Get One Free" to attract customers. As for whether the various items inside had been secretly priced up before being labeled as discounted, that was anyone's guess.
It must be said that the school also designed the rules regarding Private Points with the students' psychology in mind from a very early stage.
Private Points can be used to buy everything in this school. This is a rule that students hear from their homeroom teachers when they enroll. However, the only confirmed detail under this general rule is that Twenty Million Personal Points can be used to transfer classes. When this rule is mentioned, the homeroom teachers will thoughtfully remind students that no one has ever been able to accumulate enough points to transfer classes since the founding of Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School, even through fraud.
If one readily believes this argument, one will naturally feel that accumulating Private Points is meaningless, since the amount of 20 million is simply too enormous, and the positive feedback given to students is almost nonexistent.
To give a simple example, like the rule about buying points with Private Points that he and Ayanokoji Kiyotaka discovered during the Midterm Exam, if the school had clearly stated from the beginning through the homeroom teacher that 'XX Private Points can be exchanged for one Written Exam score,' most students would have accumulated Private Points to achieve this achievable goal and gain sufficient benefits. The excessive spending by students in the months leading up to the start of the semester would have been somewhat alleviated.
But the school did not do that.
Therefore, for the vast majority of students, the aforementioned rule becomes rather vague and even meaningless. The special nature of Private Points in this school is quickly diluted. With the exchange rate of 1 Private Points equal to 1 yen, students who are more familiar with and willing to accept this system naturally treat it as money to spend, and then they will fall headlong into the consumption trap that he had casually mentioned to Amasawa Ichika before.
Unlike any previous Special Exam, in this implicit Special Exam about money and consumption, which was destined to be a long-term one, Kitagawa Ryo couldn't really help his classmates much. Moreover, due to differences in their positions and abilities, his thinking and solutions to this exam were destined to be different from theirs.
Rather, he himself has unwittingly become part of the effort to stimulate spending among other students in this Special Exam, because so far, probably no student has spent more Private Points on the cruise than him.
It must be said that compared to his experience in Class C of Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School during his second mock exam with Karuizawa Kei, his three years at Tokyo Advanced ANHS High School this time were undoubtedly more challenging in many ways, perhaps due to the rivalry and attention between the two sides behind him and Ayanokoji Kiyotaka.
"Excuse me, I have something I want to talk to you about, Kitagawa-kun from Class 1-B."
Just as Kitagawa Ryo was stretching and lost in thought, a girl's voice suddenly came from beside him. Although her words sounded quite polite and her tone was quite courteous, it strangely gave off a domineering feeling that could not be refused. It made Kitagawa Suzune, who had just watched the Kitagawa Ryo yesterday, feel several years younger, as if he had returned to the past.