The Mole Was Me All Along? (5k)

Ichinose Honami took several deep breaths. Her tone was no longer melancholy, but it was no longer the familiar calm and gentleness; instead, it was more lively and even playful.

"Let's go back. After all, Teacher Sima is still here. Staying out for too long will cause some trouble."

As he spoke, Honami turned around and belatedly said:

"Looking back now, it's really a good thing Liang didn't come out."

Unlike Kitagawa Ryo, who always remained calm, Ichinose Honami may have actually been longing for Kitagawa Ryo to appear by her side and face her mother with her in many of her conversations with her mother.

Ichinose Honami had seen similar scenarios in countless stories, but when she actually faced this situation, she suddenly understood those seemingly silly lines—the eagerness to prove to parents that the relationship between two people is true love, the holding hands as if they were fighting against the whole world.

Because she was genuinely unsure, Ichinose Honami even doubted that if Kitagawa Ryo were willing to appear by her side, she could speak to her mother without stammering, even without saying a word.

However, after everything truly came to an end, Ichinose Honami also understood Kitagawa Ryo's thoughts, because that would truly ruin this final step that they had worked so hard to reach.

To give an inappropriate example, thanks to Ichinose Honami's past image in his mother's eyes, no matter how Kitagawa Ryo appears, he is roughly like the guy in that joke who has dyed yellow hair, rides a motorcycle with a ghost fire, and immediately says, "Old Deng, your daughter is pregnant."

"So it's best to wait until after graduation to formally meet the parents."

Kitagawa Ryo Ichinose Honami, naturally taking her hand and passing her the warmth of his skin.

"Please entrust your daughter to me with complete peace of mind... How about this?"

That makes it sound like my opinion doesn't matter.

"Too."

Kitagawa Ryo nodded upon hearing this and stopped in his tracks.

"We should definitely consult Honami's opinion first."

As he spoke, in the spacious hallway that could easily accommodate three people, Kitagawa Ryo suddenly moved closer to Ichinose Honami, and before she could even react, he had already pinned her against the wall.

It wasn't that Kitagawa Ryo suddenly became interested in this domineering CEO-style wall-slamming technique; it was just a coincidence that the time and place were all right. If we had to add another reason, it could probably be considered a small act of revenge on his part.

This is because this was the third and final simulation involving Ichinose Honami, and it was an action the other party had performed on him.

Among the four heroines who have their own chapters, Ichinose Honami is probably the one who is most conflicted about the bad ending, followed by Sakayanagi Arisu. It was during her time with Arisu on the cruise ship that Kitagawa Ryo slowly found some tricks to deal with it.

If you can't stop thinking about a certain memory and can't get over it, then why not recall something positive, touching, like a chapter from a fairy tale?

They were happy in the past, so they can be happy now and in the future.

Kitagawa Ryo looked down and could feel the strange sensation of Ichinose Honami's eyelashes and nose lightly touching his chin. The subtle contact between their skin caused their body temperatures to rise unconsciously. Due to the height difference and their posture, from this angle, Kitagawa Ryo could see the girl's amazing curves as soon as he looked down.

Memory does indeed need a carrier, which could be a thing, a scene, a smell, and in this case, it's an action.

Perhaps because the two people's footsteps stopped for too long, the motion-activated lights in the hallway also went out silently after half a minute.

When vision is lost as the primary source of information, the brain naturally enhances the sensitivity of other senses to help obtain information from the surroundings.

Unlike Kitagawa Ryo, who was aided by Hawkeye, Ichinose Honami felt that the breathing of herself and Kitagawa Ryo suddenly became clearer or rather, heavier the moment her vision suddenly went black.

Ichinose Honami has always been a good child, whether in the eyes of her family, classmates, or teachers. That's why, in the initial timeline, she shut herself off and hid in her room for half a year, refusing to go to school, after her mother exposed her for stealing.

The longer something is suppressed, the stronger the rebound will always be.

Especially considering that she had said something to her mother tonight that she had never dared to imagine before, something that could definitely be considered a 'bad kid's statement'.

Ichinose Honami felt her right hand being pressed against the wall. The back of her hand against the wall felt slightly cool, but her palm was quickly filled with warmth. Kitagawa Ryo's fingers forcefully squeezed between her fingers, while his other hand wrapped around her waist, through her thin summer clothes.

"Kitagawa-san, Ichinose?"

Just then, they suddenly heard Sima Kexian calling their names from downstairs, as if he had come looking for them because they had been away for too long.

Spurred on by his shout, the motion-sensor lights in the hallway, which had been off, suddenly turned on again, instantly casting two shadows of two people embracing intimately on the wall.

"I'll be back right away..."

Kitagawa Ryo instinctively tried to respond to Sima Kexian Tsurugi, who seemed to be climbing up the stairs, but Ichinose Honami immediately cut him off with a direct physical retort.

Their story begins with a hair clip theft.

Then, this secret, clandestine kiss reignites the relationship.

Barely managing to get past Sima Kexian's inspection at the last minute, they returned to the rehearsal room to practice until 9 p. m., after which the Drama Club members obediently returned to their rooms under his supervision.

Unlike the other empty rooms, just as he had expected, another woman was already living in the room.

Yuki was sitting on the bed watching TV, which was probably a positive sign that she was making progress by being willing to contact the outside world and accept information from it. However, when Kitagawa Ryo walked closer in his slippers, he was somewhat dumbfounded to find that all the videos playing on the screen were recordings of his past as a theatrical Actor.

The moment he paused for a second, the girl, still wrapped in a blanket, pounced on him with a cry. Ignoring the fact that Kitagawa Ryo hadn't showered yet, she pulled the blanket up with both hands and pushed him down onto the bed, wrapping him up with her.

"I'm covered in sweat, I'm going to take a shower."

Kitagawa Ryo tried to struggle to get up, but Yuki just pressed down on him with her full weight, tentatively touching his cheek like a cat. It was only at that moment that he noticed that the other person was only wearing his own shirt, which he had put in the room in advance. There seemed to be no underwear, because it was completely unobstructed from the wide neckline.

"It's okay."

"Liang said last time that he would wait until it snowed to come see me, but I didn't expect him to leave school again so soon. Is it because he wants to see me? Is it because he likes me?"

She spoke without any hesitation what would make girls her age blush and feel shy, as if it were nothing out of the ordinary, and then answered herself:

"Anyway, I like coolness, and I want to see coolness too."

"However, although I'm very happy, there's still one thing that makes me unhappy."

As she spoke, Yuki held up one finger in front of Kitagawa Ryo:

"Because according to Liang's previous promise, our meeting this time means that it has snowed, which means that there are less than half a year left before I start school."

"But it's still summer vacation."

At this point, she sighed sincerely:

"It's practically a reminder that I have to wait another six months or so."

Summer will be over soon.

Kitagawa Ryo patiently soothed Yuki's emotions. If treating Amasawa Ichika was like coaxing a child, then treating Yuki was simply like coaxing a little girl.

In fact, according to what he knew, the other party's recovery progress during this period was quite encouraging. After all, even among the Fourth Generation in the notoriously difficult White Room, Xue was considered one of the most outstanding, and there was absolutely no need to worry about her intelligence. It was just that the way she interacted with him had become like this.

"When autumn comes, the snow will come to our local Cultural Festival."

"I will come again when it snows in winter."

"Then came spring, when Xue entered school."

Summers that will never repeat themselves again, autumns that will never again be filled with recollections and lies, and winters that will never again feel like a Phantom Dream —all these have been realized, and what follows is the spring when long-cherished wishes are fulfilled.

Chapter 270: Was I the Mole? (5k)

When Kitagawa Ryo led the Drama Club members back to school in triumph, laden with the honor of winning first place in the competition, it was already the last day of summer vacation.

When he picked Hotaru up from Asahina Nazuna- senpai, who was still somewhat reluctant to leave, she suddenly invited him to go to the fifth floor of Keyaki Mall for a fortune telling on their last day together.

Asahina Nazuna seemed to have always been quite interested in this kind of mystical metaphysics, but Kitagawa Ryo, who had already been there twice, felt a little embarrassed to go again and face the old lady fortune teller. In addition, he didn't feel that he was familiar with her to that extent, so he ultimately chose to refuse, saying that he was a little tired from participating in the competition outside of school, and brushed her off.

Then, he received payment and heartfelt gratitude from Katsuragi Kohei. Thanks to Kitagawa Ryo's popularity, a simple internet search could easily find photos or videos taken by fans or reporters at the scene, making it easy to confirm that he had indeed completed the request and given his sister the birthday present he had prepared.

Katsuragi Kohei was indeed quite satisfied with Kitagawa Ryo's actions. Although the commission fee they had agreed upon beforehand was only 100,000 Private Points, he stubbornly transferred 150,000 points to him in the end, which surprised Kitagawa Ryo.

Even though Class A did lead the grade for the entire first semester, due to his intervention, the class's overall Class Points were actually only around five or six hundred. In addition, they failed to achieve anything in the Uninhabited Island Special Exam. Therefore, these 150,000 Private Points were definitely not a small number that could be easily obtained.

Moreover, if we consider the issue from the perspective of a class Leader, Katsuragi Kohei's actions can be said to have both given him tangible benefits and provided him with verbal leverage. Assuming that Class D could not find a second Leader, and considering that Kitagawa Ryo himself did not intend to use this as an excuse, this matter would have been enough to bring Katsuragi Kohei down.

And so, after these two simple little episodes, with the arrival of September, the second semester of First Year began as scheduled. After being away from the classroom for more than a month, it was obvious that many students in Class B were not in the right state of mind and were visibly lazy.

Of course, this is also closely related to their remarkable turnaround in Class Points during the summer vacation. It is common for them to become complacent after the tension is released, but they can simply take the opportunity to tighten it again later.

Such an opportunity soon presented itself to everyone. After lunch break on the first day of school, everyone received the news that the afternoon classes would be changed to a two-hour class meeting.

After all, they had been students at Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School for a semester, and they had all guessed that this sudden class meeting was a prelude to the next Special Exam. As a result, their somewhat lazy attitude was slightly curbed, and they all held their breath and waited for the homeroom teacher Mashima Tomoya, to give his explanation.

As soon as the afternoon bell rang, Mashima Tomoya, with a serious expression, walked into the classroom under the watchful eyes of the entire class. Without saying a word, he immediately announced the purpose of the class meeting and read out the school's arrangements:

"From today until the beginning of October, there will be extra physical education classes in the schedule to prepare for the Sports Festival. I will distribute the new schedule, so please keep it safe. Also, information about the Sports Festival will be sent along with the schedule, so please read it carefully."

With that, Mashima Tomoya handed out the stack of explanatory documents to the students sitting in the front row, instructing them to pass the documents down from the front to the back.

Before they even received the actual documents and read them, some students' expressions changed slightly just from hearing the words "Sports Festival" uttered by Mashima Tomoya.

If the past semester hadn't taught them not to make loud noises in class, many would probably have screamed in pain. After all, while there are athletic prodigies like Ken Sudō eagerly anticipating this event, if it's sports-focused, many more students will inevitably find it annoying.

"In addition, the school's homepage also publishes activity details like informational materials. Please refer to the webpage if needed."

Ignoring the various reactions from the students in the class, Mashima Tomoya continued to explain the Sports Festival in a calm tone.

After receiving the detailed instructions, Kitagawa Ryo carefully read through the contents twice from top to bottom. Unlike the modified version of the grade-level chaotic Sports Festival he had experienced before, this Sports Festival could be described as quite traditional and normal, which even made Kitagawa Ryo, who was prepared to welcome the modified Acting Chairman Tsukishiro, feel a little uncomfortable.

Listening to Mashima Tomoya's words, Kitagawa Ryo took out his phone again and browsed the official statement posted on the school's website. After comparing it with the document in his hand, he confirmed that there were indeed no major changes to this year's Sports Festival.

Whether it's the Cong Ge approach or the reward and punishment mechanism, it all follows the old practices. You can feel Tsukishiro's harmless smile and his style of doing things so that as long as I do nothing, no one will find a handle to say that I'm favoring someone else.

"Ms. Mashima, I didn't see any mention of Special Exam in the school's announcements regarding this Sports Festival. Does that mean this Sports Festival isn't considered Special Exam?"

Soon, students raised their hands Mashima Tomoya a question.

To the surprise of the students in Class B, the first person to raise their hand was not Kitagawa Ryo, the class Leader they had already recognized, nor Horikita Suzune, who had temporarily served as the class Leader at the beginning of the first semester, nor Sakayanagi Arisu, who served as the commander in the later stages of the Uninhabited Island Special Exam, but Ichinose Honami.

"This Sports Festival isn't exactly a Special Exam, but it could still change the standings between classes, so please take it seriously."

Mashima Tomoya nodded in affirmation, then added another instruction:

"Of course, personally, I also hope to use this opportunity to make everyone in the class pay more attention to physical fitness. After all, having a healthy body will ultimately benefit oneself."

It has to be said that, as a regular at the gym with a muscular physique, Mashima Tomoya's words were surprisingly convincing.

Next, Mashima Tomoya tried his best to offer reminders within the scope of the homeroom teacher's duties:

"The most noteworthy aspect of this Sports Festival is the school's approach of dividing all grades into two groups for the competition. Specifically, A and D, and B and C will compete against each other. As is customary, our Class B will be placed in the White Team during this Sports Festival. This means that during this period, Class C will be your temporary ally and partner."

As soon as Mashima Tomoya uttered the name of Class C, many students wore expressions of misfortune. After all, even though the two classes had cooperated during the Uninhabited Island Special Exam, the grudges that had been built up couldn't be erased in just a couple of days. If they really had to choose, everyone would definitely prefer to ally with the nice guys in Class A rather than cooperate with the delinquents in Class C.

Although the grouping of AD and BC seems fair, upon closer inspection, the current Class D is actually the former Class A. In other words, the First Year red-white battle is roughly equivalent to the original AB battle against the original CD. It still feels like there is a certain disparity in strength.

The problems don't stop there. According to the rules of Kitagawa Ryo's reading, the red and white groups in this Sports Festival actually span the entire grade. That is to say, they are grouped into the Red Team along with Class 2-B and Class C, Class 3-B and Class C. If they lose in this cross-grade red and white battle, they will also lose 100 Class Points.

But Kitagawa Ryo knew the situation of the upperclassmen all too well. Whether it was the second or third year, under the leadership of Miyabi Nagumo and Horikita Manabu, Class A basically dominated the entire grade, so the pressure was immense.

However, compared to the last Uninhabited Island Special Exam that changed the grade's situation by scoring hundreds of Class Points, this Sports Festival was quite conservative in terms of rewards and punishments, and it certainly didn't qualify as a Special Exam in terms of scale.

Thinking of this, Kitagawa Ryo turned his gaze back to the documents in his hand and reviewed the results of the Sports Festival's awards and punishments once again.

The Sports Festival consists of two types of events: competitions for all students and competitions for students to nominate. As the names suggest, the former requires all members of the class to participate, while the latter allows students to nominate their own students to participate. Achieving good results in either type of competition will earn points for the class and group.

After all the competitions are over, the school will tally the final scores and award or penalize each class accordingly, which can be divided into three categories.

First up is the cross-grade Red and White Battle that Kitagawa Ryo was just lamenting. In this competition, the losing group will have 100 Class Points deducted equally from all classes in that group.

Then comes the grade-level red-white battle, where the losing group loses 50 Class Points.

Finally, the four classes in the grade will compete for the overall score. The class that comes in first place will be awarded 50 Class Points.

The class that ranks second in the overall score will have its Class Points remain unchanged.

The class that ranks third in the overall score will have 50 points deducted from its Class Points.

The class that ranks fourth in the overall score will have 100 points deducted from its Class Points.

A closer look reveals that this Sports Festival is all about deducting points, not adding any. Apart from the fifty points awarded to the Class Points with the highest total score in the grade, even winning the red-white battle only results in no point deduction.

In other words, even if Class B performs exceptionally well in this Sports Festival and takes first place in the total score among the four First Year classes, if both the small red-and-white classes within the same grade and the large red-and-white classes across grades fail, they will still end up losing 100 Class Points, which is really unfair.

However, aside from being stingy with Class Points, the school did prepare quite generous individual rewards for the students this time:

The school will award the student who wins first place in the individual competition with 5,000 Private Points, or the equivalent of 3 points in the Written Exam (if the student chooses the points, they cannot be given to others in any way and can only be used by the student in the mid-term Final Exam of this academic year).

Besides the first-place winner, the second and third-place students will receive a reward of 3,000 Private Points or 2 points on the Written Exam test, and 1,000 Private Points or 1 point on the Written Exam test, respectively.

Compared to the meager Private Points, there's no doubt that the vast majority of students immediately focused on these few points in the Written Exam. After all, the lesson of being expelled immediately for failing the Final Exam was a bloody and unforgettable memory for Class B, and the voices and smiles of Yamauchi Haruki and Kanji Ike were still right before their eyes.

Although the students in Class B hadn't slacked off in their studies over the past semester, there were still some students, like Sudo, whose foundations were really weak. For them, these Written Exam scores were the best lifeline to prepare for the future and were awards they absolutely had to strive for.

In addition, the school has prepared extra prizes of 100,000 and 50,000 Private Points for the student with the highest score in the whole grade and the student with the highest score in each grade, respectively. However, there are no prizes for Written Exam scores to choose from, which makes Ken Sudō somewhat disappointed.

Of course, just like the competition between classes and groups has a reward and punishment mechanism, the school also prepared punishments for the ten students with the lowest scores in each grade.

What's somewhat concerning is that, unlike before, the school did not provide a detailed explanation for this clause, but instead vaguely stated that the punishment would vary depending on the grade level.

"Ms. Mashima, what is the punishment for the ten students with the lowest scores? Will it be expulsion like the Uninhabited Island Special Exam?"

This time, it was Yukimura Teruhiko took the initiative to raise his hand to ask a question. As a good student who was good at academics but bad at sports, he had been afraid of things like Sports Festival Sports Festival fitness tests since elementary school, and he even looked a little pale.

"No, at least not for us First Year."