I have a life simulator.

"I".

Write on your right palm:

"K".

"The umbrella handle is engraved with I & K, which is the initials of our two names."

"and after."

She took the watch from Ayako's hand and quickly folded it into a paper crane.

"Oh, I forgot."

Kusaka Ayako silently watched the other person, then regretfully unfolded the paper and scribbled a large line over the crime of "causing the death of Kitagawa Ryo":

"I like you."

As a psychologist, Kusaka Ayako rarely admits to her failures, but when facing Ichinose Honami, she experienced a sense of helplessness and loss for the first time. She walked out of the room, looking at the origami cranes in her hand, thinking to herself.

She turned her gaze into the empty room.

Honami Ichinose fell asleep, clutching the birthday card in her hand, her lips curving upwards as if she were having a sweet dream.

Chapter Twenty-Nine: One More Time

You brush aside the scene before you and find yourself in a long corridor filled with fragments of dreams. The walls, ceiling, and even the floor beneath your feet are all playing various scenes.

"No...no." In the park late autumn, Honami Ichinose rejected someone's confession.

"We don't want it anymore. We might just throw it away as trash anyway, so please take it back." In the temple halfway up the mountain, Ichinose Honami handed an unopened fortune slip back to the monk.

"Since Ryo is alright, I'll head back now. Mom will worry if I go home too late tonight, and I still need to tell Maki about your current condition." In the pristine white hospital room, Ichinose Honami, who had rushed over in the rain, only saw someone briefly before hurriedly leaving.

[And finally, Ichinose Honami's shadow was cast on the ground by the rising fireworks. The instantaneous shift in light made her shadow stretch and magnify in a flash. The shadow twisted forward, ferocious yet weak, tightly gripping a knife.]

"Ah... a familiar feeling."

You recall the last words Hotaru spoke in your mind:

"Then anywhere will do. They're all nightmares she had while unconscious, so it doesn't matter which one."

"Is this the nightmare that Honami unconsciously had?"

"But it's so real."

As you take each step forward, no matter how bizarre a person's dream may be, it must be transformed from some prototype in reality or an event that has already occurred. However, in Ichinose Honami's ocean of nightmares, you always feel as if it has really happened.

"It's like another parallel universe."

You look up at the light screen blocking your view. Ichinose Honami secluded herself for six months after her theft before finally entering Tokyo Higher Ikusei Junior High School.

This seems to be the only timeline where I don't appear.

You stand there quietly watching Honami Ichinose struggle.

"If Senior Nagumo can lend me four million personal points to ensure that Class B is not expelled, I can agree to Senior Nagumo's request to date him."

Ugh, that's so strange.

How could anyone make such a selfless statement? You reached out and cleared the scene from view.

"If she's really in a difficult situation, I want to help her. I'll do everything in my power, no matter who it's for, even if it eventually puts me in a desperate situation," Honami Ichinose declared.

That's so strange. Is Ichinose Honami that kind of girl? Hey, that kind of girl doesn't qualify as a leader at all. If her opponent discovers this obvious weakness, she'll never be able to recover for the rest of her life.

"It's been a bit lonely lately, just Fanbo and me eating lunch alone. Student council affairs are so busy, there's no way around it. But the good thing is we can confide in each other when we're troubled." The annoying blond guy's fake smile at your feet makes you feel nauseous. You step on his face and continue walking.

"No, we won't be able to find it this way."

You feel more and more information rushing into your brain. Even if you are more resilient than the average person, it doesn't mean you can memorize all the information here at once and then distinguish between true and false information to find the clues left by Honami Ichinose.

"If this is Ichinose Honami's dream."

"So, under what circumstances do people place their fantasies into their dreams?"

What kind of person places their hopes in their dreams?

What kind of person is Ichinose Honami in your memory?

You simply ignore all the information surrounding you, using the most forceful and brute-force thinking method to integrate all the remaining memories in your mind, the elements constituting the current situation, clues, potential solutions, and judgment materials, returning to the very origin of the problem.

"There must be some clues that I missed."

"If the first dream I entered without any memory was Ichinose Honami's most original dream, then there must be clues that I haven't found yet."

"But how do I get back into that dream now?"

You tapped your head, trying to focus on just this one problem.

"Assuming that the first dream is considered reality by 'Ichinose Honami,' then it is indeed a worldline that she might have imagined. For example, in the worldline where she stabbed me to death, as I just saw, she would probably crave such a beautiful dream, where I didn't leave him in the dream, and then we fell in love and got married... If someone wants to return from a dream to reality, wouldn't committing suicide in the dream be a good idea?"

You slowly covered your mouth and nose with both hands, like a child competing with other children to see who could hold their breath the longest, gradually suppressing your breathing. Soon, your lungs began to wail again.

As if trying to suppress this self-harming behavior, my heart was beating much faster than before, and my brain was screaming, trying to pull my body back to reality.

The illusion of all strength draining from your knees and body. A feeling of exhaustion. Or... a sense of near-emptiness wells up from within you.

The line between life and death is beginning to blur.

The human body craves survival, but your strong will suppresses your survival instinct at this moment.

The dream in front of me is still playing on a loop.

"If Senior Nagumo can lend me four million personal points to ensure that Class B is not expelled, I can agree to Senior Nagumo's request to date him."

How can a girl say such self-deprecating things, especially since you are Ichinose Honami? You can't even do that in your dreams.

"Again."

As darkness gradually fell, your lips, pale and bluish from suffocation, curled upwards into a hopeful smile.

"Whoosh whoosh whoosh."

You jolted awake, gasping for breath like a drowning person taking their first breath of fresh air. You sat up, breathing heavily with fear. The woman sleeping beside you was awakened; groggily, she switched on the bedside lamp, its warm yellow light instantly enveloping both of you.

"Did you have a nightmare? You're cold."

Honami Ichinose sat up and pulled you into her arms. Being woken up by your bedmate while you're sleeping isn't a pleasant experience, but she seemed unconcerned, gently drawing you into her embrace and speaking in a languid, soft voice:

"That's why I said don't take those weird medicines prescribed by doctors before bed. Never mind, I'll throw them away tomorrow."

She gently patted your back with her hand, and her delicate lips came close to your ear:

"It's okay, it's okay, I'm here, I've always been here."

As you sort through the chaotic memories in your mind and calm your racing heart after facing death, you cautiously ask:

"A doctor? Is it Dr. Sakayanagi?"

"Of course, I've said before that this psychologist is mysterious and unreliable. Besides, there's nothing wrong with Liang after losing her memory. Since we got married half a year ago, I have a responsibility to take care of Liang. Moreover, I can take good care of Liang."

She puts her hands around your back under your armpits, and you feel Honami Ichinose rubbing her face against your chin.

You look around and notice a box of capsules on the bedside table to your right, with a piece of paper that looks like a prescription underneath.

You reached out and took the paper in front of you, and under the dim light of the desk lamp, you slowly began to decipher the words on it:

"Name: Kitagawa Ryo, symptoms include amnesia. After communicating with the patient, we recommend taking..."

...This handwriting is so familiar. You suddenly realize with a jolt that the handwriting on this medicine pick-up slip is almost identical to the handwriting on a document you saw before. Is it the note that says "Don't believe anything Ichinose Honami says" or the love letter that Ichinose Honami claims to have written to her by Kitagawa Ryo?

No, you clearly remembered it just now, but the next second, the style of those handwritings, even the existence of the love letter and the note itself, are gradually fading from your memory, like fine sand slowly flowing down an hourglass.

"What time is it now?"

"Ah, it's 5:57, it's almost dawn. What would you like to eat for breakfast, Liang?"

"You will lose your memory every morning."

You suddenly remembered this absurd setting, and you hurriedly broke free from Ichinose Honami's embrace, rushing into the living room without even putting on your shoes. Sure enough, there was a landline phone there, just as you remembered. You quickly dialed Banyan Arisu's number.

"Hello, this is psychologist Arisu Sakayanagi."

The next second, a cold voice came from the other side. You didn't have time to think. The memory was fading even faster than you imagined. In the vase on the windowsill, the flowers were swaying in the morning breeze. The sunlight seemed to be about to shine through them and into the house.

"I am Kitagawa Ryo, your number one patient!"

You almost shouted it out, but then you quickly realized Ichinose Honami was there and immediately held your breath and whispered:

"If I call you again, no matter how much time has passed, you must tell me:"

"Climb over the windowsill and jump down."

"Hmm? Although I don't understand what you mean, is there anything else you want to say?"

Sakayanagi Arisu asked in confusion, but the next second all she heard from her receiver was a busy signal.

Honami Ichinose picked up the receiver that had fallen to the ground and gently placed it back on the landline. She then went up to you and hugged you, who looked completely bewildered.

"Um, who am I? And who are you? Where am I right now?"

You seem to have forgotten many things, and by the time you come to your senses, you already feel the warmth of my embrace.

Honami Ichinose raised her head and pressed her right index finger against your lips:

“I am your wife, you are Kitagawa Ryo, and you are my husband, Ichinose Honami.”

"We have been married for 237 days, and there are 128 days left until our wedding anniversary."

"Don't be afraid, I will always be with you."

"Ah."

Her gentle words made you completely give up thinking, and you fell into her arms.

"Hey, Eiichiro, Ryo has been sleeping here all day. Is he really alright?"

Nanase Tsubasa tugged at her childhood friend Matsuo Eiichiro, who was standing next to her. She looked at Kitagawa Ryo, who had been lying motionless on the hospital bed and had been unconscious all day, with some concern. On the hospital bed next to him, Ichinose Honami was also lying quietly. The two of them were breathing steadily, as if they were just asleep.

"In the end, it's all because you insisted on making Ryo go to Tokyo to find Ichinose Honami. Now look what's happened, both of them have ended up like this."

Nanase Tsubasa and Matsu Eiichiro seemed unwilling to speak, and stomped their feet in frustration.

“There’s nothing we can do about it. Ever since Ryo was kicked out of the White House when he was fourteen, he has been in a state of continuous amnesia. Apart from Ichinose Honami, his childhood friend who spent his childhood with him before he was ten, I can hardly think of anyone else who could have the opportunity to awaken his memories.”

Matsuo Eiichiro pursed his lips, looking at his friend on the hospital bed with some concern.

After he finished speaking, he fell silent again. For a moment, the only sound in the ward was the even breathing of the four people. So much so that the sound made by the white cat that suddenly moved immediately attracted the attention of the two of them.

"Hey, Hotaru, don't run around like that at a time like this."

Matsuo Eiichiro quickly went up and hugged the white cat that seemed to want to pounce on Kitagawa Ryo's face, but at this moment, Hotaru, who was originally well-behaved, seemed to have seen something annoying, baring her teeth and making gurgling sounds in her throat.

"I heard that Ichinose and Ryo were corresponding between the ages of ten and fourteen, but I've never heard Ryo mention it. He didn't show any signs of amnesia in the months after he left there. Now that I think about it, it's a bit strange."

After finally calming Hotaru down, Matsuo Eiichiro turned his gaze back to Ichinose Honami's face.

"Ryo remained silent about what happened inside the White House, and as a friend, I couldn't directly ask him."

Just as Matsuo Eiichiro was wondering, the door to the ward was suddenly pushed open, and the person who entered was not his father, who had arranged for the two of them to be admitted to the hospital for recuperation, but a girl who looked to be about fifteen or sixteen years old and was leaning on a cane. Behind her were two burly men who seemed to be bodyguards.

"who are you?"

Matsuo Eiichiro's expression changed drastically. Unlike Nanase Tsubasa, because of his father's work, he needed to know more than the average person. Therefore, he understood just how sensitive Kitagawa Ryo's identity was. If those people really found out that such an experimental subject had escaped from there, his family, including Nanase Tsubasa, might be implicated.

The silver-haired girl ignored Matsuo Eiichiro and walked straight to Kitagawa Ryo's bedside. Just as Matsuo Eiichiro was about to stop her, he was stopped by the burly man behind him.

Sakayanagi Arisu reached out and stroked Kitagawa Ryo's forehead, speaking softly:

"I never expected to meet you again in a place like this. To be honest, I thought I would never see you again. It's such an incredible coincidence."

"It's been two years and one hundred and twenty-eight days since we last saw each other, Liang."

"Or."

She smoothed the furrowed brows of the boy on the hospital bed:

"Should I call you brother?"

Chapter 30: Dreams Woven Together

"Hey, I don't care who you are or what your relationship is with Liang, don't touch him now!"

As Matsuo Eiichiro struggled to get over the two towering men who formed a human wall, he desperately shouted to Sakayanagi Arisu: