Classroom of the Elite, I Have a Life Simulator

At 7:00 PM, Kitagawa Ryo sat on the hotel bed, using his laptop to review the files organized for him by Izaki. These included the details of Karuizawa Kei's school life over the past six months, as well as the personal and family backgrounds of Emi Eura and the other bullies.

He frowned as he went through everything that had happened over the last half-year, from Karuizawa Kei unexpectedly becoming the core of the class girls because of him, to the incident where Wakata was cornered, and finally, the rumors of Wakata's suicide and the subsequent school bullying inflicted upon Karuizawa Kei under the accusation of being the culprit.

"First, Wakata."

Kitagawa Ryo pulled up the information regarding her. At a glance, he saw that her father had been forced to flee to Hokkaido three months ago to escape loan sharks after racking up massive gambling debts. In the month that followed—the month leading up to Wakata's suicide attempt—she and her mother had been constantly harassed by these loan sharks. They would pound on their door in the middle of the night, and when they opened the door in the morning, they would find the carcass of a dead dog left on the threshold. These relentless incidents forced the landlord of their apartment building to terminate their lease for the sake of the other tenants.

Following that, on the final day before they were forced to move out, the desperate mother took her daughter and attempted to commit suicide by burning coal at home. However, because the dosage of sleeping pills she had given Wakata wasn't high enough, Wakata actually woke up halfway through the process and, in a daze, crawled to the door and managed to knock it open.

It was precisely because Wakata had knocked the door open that their suicide attempt was discovered immediately. Because she had inhaled a smaller amount of gas, Wakata survived after emergency treatment, though she remained in a vegetative state of brain death. Her father, who had been in hiding, had returned to his hometown to raise funds, eventually selling their old family home and a prized heirloom sword just to return to Tokyo with the money.

The result was that the tragedy was caused by the pride that had kept him from being honest with his wife. After paying off all the loan sharks, the father poured all his remaining assets into his daughter's medical care.

"...So, Wakata didn't actually die?"

Kitagawa Ryo tapped on his keyboard to search through the news from that day, and he did indeed find records of the case.

"So the rumor that Wakata committed suicide due to school bullying was just a lie."

After discovering this fact, Kitagawa Ryo even noticed a note left by Izaki:

[According to hospital feedback, the patient's recovery is currently progressing well, and there is hope for her to wake up.]

"Then how did this rumor spread in the first place?"

Kitagawa Ryo clicked to the next page of the file, and the name "Emi Eura" caught his eye.

He knew this girl. On one hand, they had attended the same elementary school; on the other, Emi Eura had already displayed an extremely malicious personality back then. Kitagawa Ryo had once witnessed her skinning a live frog with a toothpick without a hint of hesitation, a scene he could still recall to this day.

Emi Eura was a girl who held a complete disregard for life.

Kitagawa Ryo opened her detailed profile:

"Resident of Toshima Ward, Tokyo, fourteen years old. Father: Eura Tadashi, former worker at Toshima Chiba Heavy Industries, currently unemployed. Mother: Eura Yuko, housewife. Total family debt: 21 million yen."

[The rumors regarding Wakata were, in all likelihood, secretly spread by her.]

Izaki had noted this down.

During the half-year he spent following his parents to the United Kingdom, Kitagawa Ryo had learned many lessons. When his father learned that he had transferred schools and fought a bully to protect a friend back in elementary school, he had told him, "Violence is sometimes not the best method."

At the time, Kitagawa Ryo had retorted with some dissatisfaction:

"But it is the most direct, the most powerful, and the most satisfying way."

His father had nodded, acknowledging his point, but immediately followed up:

"Perhaps in the future, Ryo, you will encounter similar situations. You can use violence to stop and threaten them just as you did before, but those people might agree or even apologize out of fear for a moment, but they will never let it go. They will absolutely, resentfully continue to find others to take revenge."

"They will find thugs from the class, find the big bosses in the school, or even find people from the underworld. They will keep coming back for round after round. Even if you win every time, they won't feel fear; at most, they'll just think you're good at fighting. If you really go too far, they can turn the tables on you."

"And in the end, if they can't deal with you, they can target the person you're protecting. If that really happens, no matter how you retaliate or seek an eye for an eye afterward, it won't change the fact that she was hurt or worse."

Kitagawa Ryo nodded thoughtfully:

"Is Father asking me to solve the root of the problem directly?"

His father patted Kitagawa Ryo's head approvingly:

"Ryo, you must remember, you can jump straight out of the rules set by the school circle."

"Because your surname is Kitagawa."

Violence is the rule humans are best at. My fist is bigger than yours, I'm better at fighting than you, so I can make you submit.

However, modern society cannot push this rule to the extreme because causing serious injury or death is illegal. With this as a constraint, no matter how many times Kitagawa Ryo beats the bullies down and makes them kneel before their victims, he is only acting within the rules recognized by the students. As long as it remains within the rules they understand, even if he can intimidate them for a moment, he cannot make them permanently abandon their bullying behavior.

Therefore, one must jump out of these rules and crush their long-held perceptions directly using a higher set of rules.

Kitagawa Ryo recalled his father's words while organizing and categorizing the personnel.

After about half an hour, Kitagawa Ryo heard a knock at the door.

Karuizawa Kei had fallen asleep in Kitagawa Ryo's arms just half an hour after they met that afternoon. Perhaps it was because she hadn't had a good night's sleep in the past two months, so she slept very soundly this time. Kitagawa Ryo had no choice but to take her to the hotel he had booked, letting Karuizawa Kei sleep in another room for the time being, while leaving a note by her pillow to let her know he was right next door.

Kitagawa Ryo opened the door, and it was indeed Karuizawa Kei. She seemed to have just woken up; her hair was a mess, and her cowlick was sticking up wildly. Kitagawa Ryo couldn't help but reach out to smooth it down for her.

Karuizawa Kei kept her head down. Her lips opened and closed, then opened and closed again. She fidgeted like a fish washed up on the beach by the waves, her eyes filled with a kind of thirst and hope:

"Ryo, are you going to leave again?"

Kitagawa Ryo's movements stalled.

Chapter 10: Childhood Friend, Fiancée, and Book Friend

"Are you going to leave again?"

When Karuizawa Kei asked this, she sounded like a trembling old woman. She gripped Kitagawa Ryo's shoulders as if his next answer would decide her life or death. Upon noticing that his right hand, which had been stroking her hair, had stopped, Karuizawa Kei felt as if the air had frozen, making their movements appear thick and sluggish, to the point where even opening her lips to vibrate her vocal cords felt difficult.

"I will help Kei solve the problem. After this, they shouldn't be able to..."

Kitagawa Ryo tried to comfort Karuizawa Kei. His return this time was indeed just a short trip; his parents had long since arranged his school and future schedule in London. Perhaps he could find a way to make time to come back and see Karuizawa Kei as much as possible, or they could keep in touch through modern communication technology. But these words swirled in his throat several times and ultimately remained unspoken.

Karuizawa Kei's face turned somewhat pale. She didn't seem to realize what Kitagawa Ryo was saying, or perhaps she had already understood the hidden meaning behind his words.

"Ryo... when are you leaving?"

After this question was asked, Kitagawa Ryo knew that Karuizawa Kei was still making a final struggle. He looked at her unnatural complexion and felt a pang of reluctance himself, but he still gave the answer:

"About a week from now."

"Are you returning to the United Kingdom?"

"Yes."

Karuizawa Kei looked at Kitagawa Ryo's face a few more times as if she had finally found some relief, but then her body slumped as if all the strength had been drained from it. It was as if the ice she had been standing on had suddenly shattered, and she looked as though she were about to sink right into the ground.

Kitagawa Ryo sensed Karuizawa Kei's mood, but for now, he could only offer comfort:

"I promise that Kei will never encounter what happened before ever again. I believe that Kei can—"

"I don't believe it."

Karuizawa Kei suddenly interrupted Kitagawa Ryo, not even knowing herself why she had suddenly raised her voice:

"I don't believe in myself, okay?"

A thought flashed through Karuizawa Kei's mind: what if Kitagawa Ryo hadn't appeared before her today? She even felt that such an outcome might have been the right one. If Kitagawa Ryo was only coming back for a mere week this time, she couldn't accept it.

Compared to the current reality, she would rather Kitagawa Ryo live forever in her memories and the photo by her bedside. The Kitagawa Ryo from that time was the real Kitagawa Ryo—the one who would always stay by Karuizawa Kei's side, the one who would never leave.

"Don't want you to go, Ryo, you can't go. If I'm alone... there's no way I can do it."

But as reality stood before her, Karuizawa Kei's voice grew increasingly desperate, as if she were speaking to Kitagawa Ryo through a thick layer of frosted glass. Her broken, incoherent words carried a tone of pleading. She knew she was putting Kitagawa Ryo in a difficult position, but she could no longer stop herself from acting this way.

Yet Kitagawa Ryo still did not answer; to be precise, he could not answer at this moment. Should he make a promise to Karuizawa Kei? If he did, how would he fulfill it?

Perhaps it was hard for others to understand the relationship between Kitagawa Ryo and Karuizawa Kei, but for Kitagawa Ryo himself, Karuizawa Kei was the companion who had been with him throughout his lonely childhood. Before he was twelve, he had never once seen his parents. Mr. Izaki would only repeat over and over that when the time was right, his parents would come to find him naturally. But this reason was impossible for children to believe; the fact they could see was that Kitagawa Ryo was a boy without parents.

Karuizawa Kei was the only child who would get close to Kitagawa Ryo.

Although it couldn't be ruled out that this was because both were outcasts huddling together for warmth, Karuizawa Kei truly occupied a large part of Kitagawa Ryo's heart.

And so, the two remained silent for a long time. This silence sank and sank, until it hit the ground and shattered into pieces.

"I..."

Kitagawa Ryo shook his head, feeling a slight headache. He let his gaze wander, searching for another topic. As he looked down, he saw the hem of Karuizawa Kei's dress. Although Kitagawa Ryo had pulled her away in time that afternoon, she had still been splashed with some coffee, leaving small stains on her pure white dress.

"Kei is still wearing this dress."

Although the way he changed the subject was too blunt—even Kitagawa Ryo himself felt it was a form of avoidance—he didn't expect Karuizawa Kei's attention to be captured immediately. She hurriedly looked down, rubbing the coffee stains with her hand in some distress:

"It's a pity it got dirty."

"It's fine. I think this dress doesn't fit you quite as well this year, Kei."

Kitagawa Ryo used his hand to compare his height with hers:

"Kei has grown several centimeters taller than this time last year. At least three or four centimeters."

"R-really?"

"Yes. How about I take you to buy a new dress for the summer?"

Kitagawa Ryo took her hand and, with a hint of firmness, led Karuizawa Kei into the elevator and pressed the button for the first floor.

Karuizawa Kei seemed to have some fear of the enclosed space of the elevator. When people entered and exited halfway through, she kept holding onto Kitagawa Ryo's arm, hiding behind him. Kitagawa Ryo felt her body trembling slightly. This tremor traveled through the point where they were connected, like a strange kind of yearning.

Over the next two hours, Kitagawa Ryo and Karuizawa Kei walked into various clothing stores like a real student couple, trying on outfit after outfit. However, Karuizawa Kei never truly settled on the one she wanted, so Kitagawa Ryo could only follow her into the next store.

Karuizawa Kei let her hair down and put on a dress as red as blood in front of Kitagawa Ryo.

Karuizawa Kei tied her hair into a ponytail and put on a dress as white as snow in front of Kitagawa Ryo.

Her hair was grown very long, and she seemed to handle both high and low ponytails with ease. Whenever Karuizawa Kei stood beside Kitagawa Ryo facing the fitting mirror, her honey-colored hair would linger at the tip of Kitagawa Ryo's nose with a silken fragrance.

"I think this one is quite nice."

Kitagawa Ryo pulled his thoughts back and commented to Karuizawa Kei, who was currently wearing a long, blue floral dress.

"Is that so?"

Karuizawa Kei stretched, revealing her beautiful, youthful figure.

"But there might be an even better one."

She shook her head at the fitting mirror, intending to go back into the changing room to swap out the one she was wearing.

"It's almost ten o'clock."

Kitagawa Ryo checked the time on his phone to remind her. Although he knew girls had a talent for shopping, he felt a subtle sense of unease that she had spent over two hours just trying to buy one piece of clothing without making a decision.

"Then Ryo can just accompany me to pick one out again tomorrow."

Rustling sounds came from the fitting room, and Karuizawa Kei's voice reached Kitagawa Ryo's ears through the door, making him smile in spite of himself:

"If you can't decide, then let's just buy them all."

"No--way."

Karuizawa Kei seemed to get anxious all of a sudden. She pressed against the door, changing her clothes quickly while denying it:

"I have to pick the one that fits best."

"..."

Kitagawa Ryo sighed and leaned against the wall nearby. He more or less understood her intention.

He walked Karuizawa Kei to the entrance of her apartment building. Kitagawa Ryo intended to watch her head up the stairs and return home before turning back, but he didn't expect her to come running back with a clatter just as she reached the entrance.

What Karuizawa Kei said to Kitagawa Ryo was:

"Let's take a photo together."

Kitagawa Ryo didn't quite understand her intention. If they were going to take a photo, the brightly lit street they had just walked along would have undoubtedly been the best choice. Here, at the base of the apartment building, aside from a dim, aging streetlamp, it was essentially pitch black.

"Sure."

However, he wouldn't refuse her request. Kitagawa Ryo always felt a sense of indebtedness when facing her, especially when Karuizawa Kei looked him in the eyes.

The two of them found a patch of ground under the streetlamp that was reasonably well-lit. Only when they got close did they notice two moths fluttering and buzzing as they collided with the lightbulb. Kitagawa Ryo stretched his right hand holding the phone as far as he could, but his arm wasn't a retractable selfie stick. Even at full extension, the frame was too small, and someone's face would always end up partially cut off.

"Just get a little closer."

Karuizawa Kei leaned her head over instantly. Her face was now pressed tightly against Kitagawa Ryo's, so close that their breathing and exhales overlapped, even giving Kitagawa Ryo the illusion that they were breathing the same air.

"Cheese!"

Kitagawa Ryo glanced at Karuizawa Kei out of the corner of his eye; she was looking at the lens with a serious expression.

He pressed the shutter button with his right thumb, and under the somewhat blinding flash, their second photo together was born.

"Does it feel a bit like those photo booth stickers you see on the street?"

Karuizawa Kei remarked as she looked over the photo. She seemed satisfied as she stepped onto the stairs, but after climbing a few steps, she turned around with her hands behind her back to look at Kitagawa Ryo, who was still standing there:

"Do you still remember the photo we took at our elementary school graduation, Ryo?"

"Back then, we were secretly holding hands, using the crowd in front of us as cover."

She suddenly smiled playfully, her tone peaceful and happy:

"I'm so glad you came back to find me, Ryo."