Chapter One: The Story, of Course, Wasn't Over / Chapter Two: Why Hotaru Likes Suzune Best

Epilogue

Chapter 1: The Story Is Not Over Yet

After the Summer Special Exam, the Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School thoughtfully provided students with about two weeks to fully enjoy their vacation. They even refrained from announcing the results of the Special Exam immediately after the exams, explaining that the scoring and statistics were relatively complex and required more time to ensure fairness and rigor.

However, at this point, most of the students at ANHS were no longer concerned about the results of this Summer Special Exam. Everyone's attention was drawn to the series of big news stories that occurred in the last few days of the Special Exam.

The first issue is that Miyabi Nagumo was expelled for violating school rules.

This kind of topic, which would have been enough to keep ANHS students discussing it on the campus forum for more than a week in the past, can only be considered an appetizer now. After all, Miyabi Nagumo did something that made it onto a news program on TV just a few days after dropping out of school.

The other party actually Chosen One of this Special Exam. Although most students at Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School were not particularly familiar with political positions such as Minister or Senator, they could tell from the impressive prefixes in the news report on TV that the person being assassinated was definitely someone of great importance.

According to official reports and videos and photos taken by other citizens nearby, Miyabi Nagumo disguised a homemade firearm as a camera. She deliberately approached the victim, deceived his bodyguard, and then fired at close range. In just one shot, the middle-aged man named Ayanokoji Atsuomi collapsed to the ground, overjoyed.

It wasn't until then that several of his bodyguards finally arrived and pinned Miyabi Nagumo to the ground, restraining her. She seemed to have no intention of running away and was just standing there in a daze. By the time the ambulance arrived a dozen minutes later, Ayanokoji Atsuomi Miyabi Nagumo had already lost their vital signs.

The former died from gunshot wounds that damaged and caused bleeding in the heart's major arteries, while the latter died from cyanide that he had hidden in his mouth beforehand and chose to commit suicide by poisoning himself after being subdued by his bodyguards.

Frankly speaking, if the students of Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School hadn't already returned to school that day, they would probably have been surrounded by reporters asking questions about Miyabi Nagumo. However, some reporters did manage to contact the school, but were promptly and firmly cut off from the matter. The school stated that the reporters had already been expelled for violating school rules before taking such actions, and even claimed that Miyabi Nagumo herself had committed misconduct earlier this year.

Of course, the students at ANHS University wouldn't pay any more attention to the details that reporters later uncovered, such as the other party's movements over the past month and their political leanings. After all, that was something they were too lazy to understand and had no interest in, especially since the impact of this incident would have further repercussions.

In fact, after Ayanokoji Atsuomi's name was reported, some students at ANHS already thought of Ayanokoji Kiyotaka from Class 2-C, since the surname Ayanokoji is not very common. However, before they could even post about it, ANHS University announced that Ayanokoji Kiyotaka had voluntarily submitted his withdrawal application due to family changes, which basically confirmed the relationship between the two.

In addition, Ishigami Kyo from Class 1-A also left the school in this incident. However, his fame in ANHS was not as great as that of Miyabi Nagumo or even Ayanokoji Kiyotaka. So apart from the First Year students, the second and third-year students didn't pay much attention to him.

In any case, for them who were still high school students, murder and politics were relatively distant concepts. The shock they felt upon suddenly hearing that a classmate they knew or were even familiar with had been involved in such a matter was unimaginable. After all, the worst outcome they could imagine for Miyabi Nagumo was that she would be disgraced and expelled from school.

But the world never stops turning just because someone is missing. After all, in the eyes of most students at ANHS, the death of the politician named Ayanokoji Atsuomi would not have mattered at all if it weren't for the fact that the murderer was Miyabi Nagumo, who was suspected to be the father of Ayanokoji Kiyotaka.

As for Kitagawa Ryo and the girls around him, they were more concerned about the aftermath than the incident itself, especially after Ayanokoji Kiyotaka withdrew from Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School.

After all, everyone knows about the bet between Kitagawa Ryo and Ayanokoji Kiyotaka. When one of them leaves first, people naturally start to worry that Kitagawa Ryo might also have to leave ANHS, thus ending what might be their last carefree student days together.

However, probably because most of the politicians with ulterior motives were taking advantage of the situation to make various moves and jump around, Kitagawa Ryo wasn't called back immediately. After all, it was someone with the surname Ayanokoji who died, not someone in his family. So he just settled down in ANHS and started to adopt the same mentality as Kiryuin Fuka: just stay one day at a time.

After learning that Kitagawa Ryo would not be leaving anytime soon, the girls around him were relieved. After all, with the exception of a few, most of them had already decided to study at Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School until graduation.

This isn't a choice between love and studies; it's simply a consideration for the future. After all, their relationship with Kitagawa Ryo doesn't need to be demonstrated in this way. Focusing on improving themselves and making their future paths smoother is the truly responsible approach and attitude towards their relationship.

Thanks to Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School's fully enclosed management model and the fact that it is still just a high school, many of the external storms did not reach it, and those that did were basically blocked by the school. However, this does not mean that this incident had no impact on ANHS other than being a topic of conversation, at least not for the current Student Council, Horikita Suzune.

Looking at all the Student Council since the founding of ANHS School, Horikita Suzune is probably the one who has experienced the most turbulent times.

The Student Council is currently facing a simple problem: it's short-staffed again.

With Ayanokoji Kiyotaka and Ishigami Kyo dropping out of school one after another, the Student Council, which already had few members, suddenly lost two more. Leaving aside the latter, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was, after all, the official vice president of the Student Council, and with such a vacancy suddenly appearing, someone definitely needed to fill the position.

Theoretically, this spot should be filled by a second-year student, but apart from Horikita Suzune, there are only three second-year students left in the Student Council Sakayanagi Arisu, who is already the vice president, Katsuragi Kohei, and Katsuragi Kohei Amasawa Ichika.

However, both Katsuragi Kohei and Amasawa Ichika clearly stated that they had no interest in the position.

The latter is mainly due to her carefree personality, or to put it bluntly, her laziness. She has always been the kind of person who acts unconventionally. Unless she is really needed to step up, she will definitely slack off whenever she can. For Amasawa Ichika, becoming the vice president of the Student Council would only bring her more work and there would be no benefits. So she immediately declined the offer with a smile.

Katsuragi Kohei was still reeling from the Ayanokoji Kiyotaka incident. In fact, he was the one who knew the least about the whole thing but was also the most hurt. After all, he genuinely wanted Ayanokoji Kiyotaka to take over as the class Leader and lead the class forward. But unfortunately, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's focus had long since shifted away from ANHS.

It was precisely because neither of the two second-year students was willing to take on the position of vice president that the candidates had to be moved down to the First Year, and in the end, the more proactive Yuki snatched the position.

There was nothing they could do. The other two students were also wondering what had happened. After a Special Exam, their leader and one of their teammates had both run away, leaving them completely bewildered.

But Yuki is different. If Kitagawa Ryo had already left Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School with Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, that would be fine. But since he's still here, she'll definitely take the opportunity to accept the position she's been eyeing for a long time. Why did she specifically look for the materials related to Kitagawa Ryo's Valentine's Day celebration before the Club Special Exam in May? Wasn't it just so she could have a chance to recreate it later?

Now is the perfect time.

And so, after a rather chaotic series of departures and transfers, Yuki finally took office as the vice president of the Student Council, and on her very first day in office, she immediately presented her ideas and applications to the Student Council Horikita Suzune.

"Want to hold one more large event at the end of this summer vacation?"

Looking at the documents Xue handed over, Horikita Suzune rested her chin on her hand and tilted her head, sensing a familiar feeling. Amasawa Ichika, standing beside her, leaned over and casually remarked:

"I think this event was held once before?"

After saying that, she recalled for a moment and added:

"It wasn't the one on Valentine's Day this year, but some timeline from the past. I heard Hiyori and Megumi mention it."

As someone who gets along well with everyone in the entire circle, Amasawa Ichika has also specifically collected the information that is currently available. After all, apart from those few bad ending world lines, the few people who have had simulation experience will not deliberately hide the story of the world line in which they won. After all, this can also be regarded as another form of 'What kind of champion are you?'

According to the information Shiina Hiyori Karuizawa Kei, that incident was a win-win situation for them; both of them won!

However, only the four people and the cat know the truth. Anyway, neither Kitagawa Ryo nor Hotaru will actively expose this lie. A mental victory is still a victory. As the saying goes, when you're out in the world, your identity and experiences are what you give yourself. So everyone can freely Chronicle of Time and start creating their own stories.

"It seems that Ryo also applied to host that event. Ryo probably referred to his own experience from back then for this year's Valentine's Day celebration. After all, I remember Hui saying that Ryo also used a drone to confess his love that time. It's a kind of path dependence."

Upon hearing Amasawa Ichika's words, Xue breathed a sigh of relief and immediately replied confidently again:

"It's because Liang took the initiative to carefully organize both of these events that I wanted him to receive a surprise from me as well."

"That's a good idea. This year, Liang has done a three-pronged approach for Valentine's Day. He arranged everything perfectly for Honami at the school celebration, and he also gave Arisu a performance that generated a lot of buzz outside of school. He even responded to Hiyori's feelings at the same time. He really should be able to relax and simply be a kid waiting to open his Christmas presents and see what everyone gave him. So, what's our next step?"

"... Why is it just 'us'? This was my idea first, okay?"

Faced with Amasawa Ichika, who smoothly began saying "we, we," Xue also twitched the corners of her mouth in protest.

"I was just worried that Yuki wouldn't be able to prepare properly on her own. Don't worry, this matter will only fall on the two of us, no, also Arisu Suzune. I definitely won't tell Arisu. In the end, you're still thinking about what happened at Tokyo Tower on Valentine's Day, right? I bet you were there before you even enrolled, weren't you?"

"Tch... Say whatever you want, I've already gotten my revenge on Arisu Ichika. But if you want to get involved, then get involved too, along with Suzune. But it won't just be the three of us; Sakurako will help too."

As she spoke, Xue raised a thumb again to emphasize:

"Alright, that's the limit. Don't tell anyone else, especially you big mouth, Ichika."

"Where am I a big mouth? If I were, I wouldn't have to work so hard to prepare food in the mornings... um."

Reaching out, she covered Amasawa Ichika's mouth as she started spouting nonsense again in the Student Council's office. Horikita Suzune also looked up at Yuki with a serious expression, waving the letter in her hand. Just as Yuki thought she was about to say something serious, she suddenly heard Horikita Suzune declare with a solemn face:

"Actually, Liang stayed with me the whole time from the latter half of Valentine's Day until the next day, which was also my birthday."

"... I don't know anything about this. I wasn't even enrolled at that time."

"But it's important. After all, if we only look at the result, I should be the ultimate winner of that day's celebration. By the way, do you want to see the (championship) ring that Liang gave me that day...?"

"Sigh, it's a pity that Suzune didn't wear the decisive attack speed set I gave you that day, otherwise it should be credited as one-third of the credit."

"I'm saying... why don't you approve this application first, and then submit it to the school for final approval?"

In short, amidst someone's somewhat frantic suggestion, and without Kitagawa Ryo's knowledge, preparations began for a celebration unlike any other, a gift from the girls to him alone.

P. S.: Thank you for reading and subscribing.

PS2: To briefly explain the upcoming updates, first, there will be a short epilogue, roughly a flashback and recap, following the timeline of the main story shortly after. Then there will be personal side stories with a larger time span, jumping to graduation and even further into the future. Finally, there will be various previous simulations and "what if" scenarios from the main storyline as side stories. That's all.

Chapter Two: The Reason Why Hotaru Likes Suzune the Most

Ying has been very busy lately.

In a sense, even Kitako herself didn't expect that she would start living the strange life of going somewhere on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, going somewhere on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, and resting on Sundays even earlier than Kitagawa Ryo. Although she felt that her brother should divide it into even more detailed periods, with the time intervals broken down into daily estimates, and that he probably wouldn't be able to rest on Sundays either.

In fact, during the year or so that Hotaru spent at Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School, she spent most of her time in Kitagawa Ryo's dormitory room. Occasionally, when Kitagawa Ryo needed to go out to compete, she would stay at other people's dormitories, such as those of Asahina Nazuna, Chabashira Sae, and Sakayanagi Arisu.

But being "welcomed" to their dorm room for a short rest by various Pooper Scooper like this is indeed a first for Ying.

After all, even though she prides herself on being a kind, cute cat who never hisses, Hotaru is well aware that in her brother's and the heroines' simulated lives, she is at best a reader watching the story from a VIP spectator seat, and her Fate will be forced to change as the story unfolds, or rather, as her brother's Fate unfolds, such as being treated as someone's heirloom and having some kind of substitute literature written about her.

To be honest, of the four heroines, Horikita Suzune is probably the best to her, this harmless little cat. Otherwise, she wouldn't have thought of helping her take the initiative on Valentine's Day. As for repaying the kindness of the cat, Hotaru still feels that she is fine.

However, things are indeed different now, especially after Kitagawa Ryo revealed the truth about their backgrounds and the life simulation. After they returned to ANHS after the Summer Special Exam, Hotaru started being dragged back from Kitagawa Ryo's dormitory by various girls with their own ulterior motives.

First to appear are the Student Council trio, whose secret plan is called the "Temporary Alliance to Keep Sakayanagi Arisu from Knowing," or simply the "Festival Preparation Team," consisting of Horikita Suzune, Amasawa Ichika, and Yuki.

After all, everyone wants to replicate Kitagawa Ryo Ichinose Honami on Valentine's Day, and set up a celebration full of commemorative significance from the past, present, and future. So, the first thing to do is naturally to dig out materials from memories.

In this respect, Yuki and Amasawa Ichika are absolutely intimately familiar with each other. After all, the one who truly has an information gap with them is Sakayanagi Arisu, who is outside the room the whole time. For a long time, these two girls from the White Room could only stare at each other as spectators in the White Room.

The former may have left earlier, but looking back, Amasawa Ichika doesn't think it's a good thing. After all, it's like watching a certain national CP's variety show drama from a closer perspective, and the former is definitely the loser.

That's precisely why the two of them became extremely interested in Horikita Suzune's romantic history.

After all, it is well known that unlike Sakayanagi Arisu, Ichinose Honami, and Karuizawa Kei, Horikita Suzune is the same kind of person who only retained one part of the Sims' memories (Hotaru never mentioned that she only chose four chapter heroines at the beginning). However, unlike them and Shiina Hiyori, Suzune is the only one who successfully achieved a happy ending in that Sims' life.

Although Shiina Hiyori, Yuki, and Amasawa Ichika are all saying they've won big, that's only good for fooling their friends. The worst thing is that they'll fool themselves too. Everyone knows their own situation. Only Shiina Hiyori Karuizawa Kei, isn't progressing as well in the romance storyline. She's barely a runner-up in terms of raw talent, mainly because there wasn't a real champion in that simulation.

Since everyone's preparations and arrangements were quite evident, and Horikita Suzune didn't feel the need to hide her past experiences—unlike Karuizawa Kei who suffered two consecutive defeats or Ichinose Honami —she treated it like watching a documentary about True Vision's championship victory. It also gave her a chance to relive her championship performance and find some previously overlooked details to contribute to the preparations for this celebration.

And so, at the urging of Amasawa Ichika and Yuki, Horikita Suzune took the initiative to temporarily borrow a certain god's cat, who was currently working part-time as a director and projectionist, to her dormitory, planning a thrilling movie-watching event.

As for the invitation from its Pooper Scooper, whom it liked the most besides its brother, the kitten certainly had no reason to refuse.

After a brief review of Suzune's simulation, Director Hotaru didn't find any scenes that needed special attention or editing. So, after thinking about it, she decided to directly upload this precious recording of her brother's perfect score and one-life playthrough.

The following is a casual conversation between one of the parties involved and two bystanders:

"Why is Arisu's scene shown right from the start?"

"She probably doesn't even know herself, Suzune hasn't said anything either."

Upon arriving, they immediately encountered a familiar face, Amasawa Ichika and Xue's interest quickly soared, as if they were experiencing the thrill of eavesdropping on gossip that even the parties involved were unaware of.

Horikita Suzune, standing to the side, could only offer a somewhat helpless explanation:

"I didn't mention this before mainly because our real-life identities are a bit different from that time. You'll see as you continue reading."

As she spoke, she began to immerse herself completely in her memories of the past.

Although it was a scene etched in her memory, just like the difference between first-person and third-person perspectives, watching it again from Hotaru's Bystander's point of view allowed Horikita Suzune to discover many things she hadn't noticed before, not to mention there were two equally observant bystanders nearby.

"So, in Suzune's life, Ryo is actually your cousin or cousin by blood? And they still managed to have a happy ending?"

"No, it's mainly because Liang's background hasn't been revealed yet. Saying too much would be spoiling the plot. Rather, if it weren't for this connection in the first place, I wouldn't have ended up living with Liang by chance."

Looking at the familiar scene of herself living with Kitagawa Ryo, being ordered around to do various things by him with the excuse of "your brother did this and that back then", Horikita Suzune couldn't help but show a nostalgic smile.

"I have a feeling that Ryo is just messing with Suzune. Isn't Suzune's brother the former Student Council of Horikita? I've never heard of him being able to play the piano, cook, or Tea Ceremony. All these reasons seem like he's just trying to fool Suzune."

However, Amasawa Ichika quickly expressed her opinion first, mainly because Xue entered ANHS a year later and Horikita Manabu had just graduated when she entered, so she didn't know much about Horikita Suzune's older brother.

"... Just think of me back then as someone who simply got stuck in a rut, seeing my brother as some perfect being that I absolutely had to surpass."

After being told this by Amasawa Ichika, Horikita Suzune felt a little embarrassed. After all, this was part of her embarrassing past. And as the other person said, from the perspective of hindsight or as Bystander, Kitagawa Ryo was indeed like someone who was making fun of a silly relative during that time, except that she was the silly one being made fun of.

"And it feels like Ryou has added a lot of his own ideas. Look, he insisted on teaching Suzune to do some Tea Ceremony, but after all that practice, it all ended up back onto himself. It feels a bit like Hikaru Genji Plan in The Tale of the Tale of Genji. He's practically shaping Suzune into his own ideal in every sense of the word. If this were the other world, I feel like the next step would be to use the excuse of learning some kind of sexual technique to trick Suzune into bed."

Yuki herself didn't know why everyone else came out of the White Room, but Amasawa Ichika always seemed to learn these strange and inexplicable things from somewhere she didn't know. After this speech, Horikita Suzune blushed a little and quickly cleared her throat to change the subject:

"Actually, Liang was just deliberately using this method to fight fire with fire, wanting me to know not to arbitrarily enshrine anyone on a pedestal in my heart. Now it seems to be quite effective, because it was probably after being completely fooled by Liang that I started to actively deny things that I had never questioned before."

"Moreover, the things and skills that Ryo taught me are still very helpful to me now. For example, in the Tea Ceremony, although Hiyori has been in the Tea Ceremony Club for more than a year, her actual skills are still not as good as mine..."

Just as Horikita Suzune was about to add, "This matter is also recorded in the relevant topics of the Uninhabited Island Special Exam," Amasawa Ichika and Yuki had already been drawn to Sakayanagi Arisu had reappeared on screen.

"It seems that Arisu's personality and character are pretty much the same regardless of which timeline Arisu; it's that subtle sense of superiority and pride that makes her seem to look down on everyone else."

"Yes, yes, actually I had that feeling the first time I saw her in the White Room. Arisu was like a child visiting the zoo with her parents, and we were the animals she was observing. That's why she felt particularly upset when she didn't win the Chess."

As soon Sakayanagi Arisu, the two victims of the White Room reached a consensus, and then quickly noticed the cane that the other was carrying.

"Oh, so in your Suzune, Arisu was still sick back then, right?"

"Yes, when I first met Arisu, she always carried a cane with her to help with her daily activities."

In response, Amasawa Ichika, showing no mercy to the person involved, curled her lips into a smile:

"If Arisu were like that where I'm from, I would have insisted on having a race with her, no matter what I said. Hehe, I would have made sure to keep a slight lead while whispering in Arisu's ear, 'How can a real genius outrun a fake genius like me?'"

Compared to Amasawa Ichika, who had already begun to transform into a chaotic evil little devil, Yuki stroked her chin and offered her own opinion:

"Actually, if you think about it that way, it should be Ryo who truly made Arisu a complete genius. Then I can understand her attitude towards Ryo a little better."

"... Is it possible that what's playing out right now is my life?"

"Ahem, sorry, it's mainly about Suzune and Ryo. It feels like there's no dramatic conflict right now, and I'm getting a bit sleepy if I don't chat with Arisu about it. But it's okay, peace and quiet is the best, right?"

"Let me translate for Xue. It basically means, 'It's not bloody enough. I want to see rivers of blood!'"

Horikita Suzune simply shook her head upon hearing this:

"I'm getting more and more curious about just how chaotic or bloody your life was during that time."

"That's no problem. Next time, Ichika and I will ask Suzune to take a look. But to be honest, with Ayanokoji Atsuomi's death, isn't information about the White Room starting to be released? It just goes to show that when it comes to whitewashing, no matter which timeline it is, those people will always make the same choice."

After letting out a somewhat melancholy sigh, Xue rallied her spirits, refocused her attention on the image, and began to steer the conversation in a lighter direction: