I have a life simulator.

"Do not believe."

"You know, but you still ask."

Horikita Manabu gave a wry smile upon hearing this:

"But are you really confident that you can stay in Tokyo?"

"Yes, I have."

Kitagawa Ryo propped his head up and looked out the window at the passing vehicles and crowds:

"That person will definitely take action."

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Has Horikita read "The Little Prince"?

When Kitagawa Ryo returned to the house after making the phone call, Horikita Suzune had already taken a shower and was sitting on the sofa reading "The Little Prince," the book Kitagawa Ryo had brought back yesterday.

I watched it when I was very young, but I've forgotten a lot of it now.

Horikita Suzune sat upright with her legs together, turning the pages of the book. Her hair was still a little damp, and her whole body was covered in moisture.

Will Horikita agree with the fox in the story?

Kitagawa Ryo suddenly asked this question. The fox was one of the creatures the Little Prince met on Earth. The fox asked the Little Prince to tame it so that it could break free from the millions of foxes and become the Little Prince's one and only fox. In return, the Little Prince would become the fox's one and only little boy.

"Only what has been tamed can be understood; taming is just another name for establishing a connection."

Horikita Suzune slowly turned the pages of the book. She had indeed read this famous novel before, but after flipping through it for a short while, she recalled the contents of the story.

"It's pointless to be unique to each other, so the fox was eventually abandoned by the Little Prince as well."

"Therefore, the so-called taming, that is, the establishment of a connection, is itself meaningless."

Horikita Suzune still seems to be bothered by the idea of ​​making friends; she stubbornly believes that one person can survive on their own.

"But you clearly want to reconnect with your brother, or rather, that's what you've been trying to do all along."

Kitagawa Ryo doesn't understand Horikita Suzune at all, just as Horikita Suzune doesn't understand why Kitagawa Ryo became Horikita Manabu's friend.

"Are you saying that I'm like a fox that can never catch up with the other person, and can't even see their shadow?"

"Is there a difference?"

"Different."

Horikita Suzune put down her book, pursed her lips, and argued:

“I think…it’s different.”

"You said you wanted to follow in your brother's footsteps, but you yourself have denied your idea."

Kitagawa Ryo handed the photo of the two of them on the table to Horikita Suzune:

"Would you like to try it?"

"Try what?"

"Try connecting with other people."

Kitagawa Ryo showed her a photo of Karuizawa Megumi:

How about we try being friends?

Horikita Suzune's eyes darted around, unwilling to answer. She was indeed unwilling to deny her long-held beliefs, like a child who knew she was wrong but stubbornly refused to apologize.

"……All right."

"How about we start with the first step and try to become friends?"

Kitagawa Ryoya felt that things were progressing too fast, so he put away his phone and spoke again.

Do you want me to tame you?

Horikita Suzune raised her eyes without any hesitation, her purplish-red pupils revealing a look of eager anticipation.

"impossible."

Kitagawa Ryo shook his head:

"I was already tamed by a rose long ago."

521 Extra If Line Voting

I originally planned to write a side story yesterday, May 520th, but I forgot. So I'll move it to today. Readers who see this can post a thread to suggest which side story they want to see. It should be written in the next day or two, and it won't affect the regular updates.

There are currently four ideas:

1. Supplement to the sequel of Ichinose Honami's story.

2. The "if" route of Sakayanagi Arisu, namely the "Oedipus Rex" split ending in Ichinose Honami's third simulation.

3. The "if" route for Shiina Hiyori, which is the world line in the current simulation where Kitagawa Ryo did not meet Karuizawa Megumi.

4. Karuizawa Megumi's "what if" scenario, specifically the world where Ichinose Honami did not kill Kitagawa Ryo in the second simulation.

I'll choose the post with the most views first and write about the rest as needed.

Chapter 18: Malice...Malice

Emi Jiangpu's father was a complete alcoholic and gambler, which was why he was fired from his job. After becoming unemployed, the man did not realize his problem and instead became even more reckless in his gambling.

"Both prostitution and drugs are losing money; only gambling is a win-win situation!"

Jiangpu Huimei still remembers the scene when she was a child, her father would pick his teeth and rudely ask her mother for money:

"Once I win some money, you'll see what I'm capable of."

However, the end result was that the Jiangpu family was burdened with more than ten million yen in debt. The more they gambled, the more they lost, and the more they lost, the more they gambled. They pushed all their capital down and gritted their teeth to borrow money from loan sharks. The exorbitant interest rates of these loan sharks were like a demon with its scarlet maw wide open, swallowing the entire Jiangpu family whole.

The man, who had lost so much gambling that he could no longer gamble, began to drink heavily. He still had no intention of going out to work to pay off his debts. His daily life consisted of a cycle of drinking, vomiting, falling into a stupor, and drinking again. His mother had to do odd jobs to supplement the family income and raise money to pay off the monthly debts. Therefore, for a long time, Jiangpu Huimei was left at home to take care of this drunken alcoholic.

Cleaning up a man's vomit is one of Jiangpu Huimei's most skilled yet most painful tasks. The viscous substance mixed with the pungent smell of cheap liquor and the sour stench is like the boulder that Sisyphus could never push to the top of the mountain in Greek mythology. After she finishes cleaning it up one time, she will find that the other person has already swaggered around and vomited all over the bed again.

When Emi Jiangpu was seven years old, she seriously considered whether to cover her father with a transparent plastic film so that she would only need to clean the plastic film covering him once a day, but it was just a thought.

Even after starting elementary school, Jiangpu Huimei still seemed to carry a lingering fishy smell, which naturally caused others to avoid her, just like when she stood alone at the door after school and no parent came to pick her up.

As far as the eye could see, Jiangpu Huimei saw only the legs and wheels of adults. She looked up and saw that the parents and cars formed a series of walls. She carefully made her way out of this jungle of walls.

Taking advantage of someone's misfortune is an innate human skill; even children know this principle. After all, everyone understands that elevating oneself is difficult, but belittling others is easy. Since both methods can achieve the goal of elevating oneself, choosing the easier path is only natural.

Trampling on people and things lower than oneself brings a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. After becoming a victim of bullying, Emi Jiangpu seems to have become a cheap teddy bear, responsible for creating cheap happiness for her classmates. After she is teased and embarrassed, as long as one person takes the lead in laughing, the whole class will giggle together.

During that time, Emi noticed the presence of Karuizawa Kei. Unlike Emi's silence from beginning to end, Karuizawa Kei was a child who was used to apologizing. Her tears were both abundant and passionate, but she did not realize that her apologies and tears would not actually have any effect.

Bullies treat their victims like whipping a spinning top; the faster you spin and the more violently you react, the more excited they become.

Emi felt a sense of closeness, like two people sharing the same fate. She began to actively inquire about Karuizawa Kei. On a snowy winter day, she was determined to become friends with Karuizawa Kei, who was also a victim of bullying.

The snow was falling heavily that day. Emi's shoes crunched on the snow as she stepped heavily, listening to the snow shattering like glass under her feet. From childhood until now, she had grown up like a dog, sniffing other people's scents. She judged that Karuizawa Kei was the same kind of person as her.

Emi Eura wanted to try to find solace in each other with Megumi Karuizawa, believing they would definitely have common topics and become friends.

But she saw Karuizawa Kei standing with another boy, and the boy, with his head down, said to Karuizawa Kei:

"I want to transfer to your school."

Jiangpu Huimei sensed something unsettling from the boy's gaze and words—a feeling called liking.

She suddenly remembered the scene of her and Karuizawa Megumi being pulled by the hair by boys at school, and Emi suddenly felt that she had been betrayed.

Both she and Karuizawa Megumi lived on thin ice at school; their days were equally fragile, and they were both victims of bullying.

but.

Jiangpu Huimei stared at the two people not far away, almost through gritted teeth.

Karuizawa Kei actually has a boy who likes her, and it seems he wants to rescue her from this sea of ​​misery.

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The boy's name was Kitagawa Ryo, a fact that Emi only learned later. However, by the time she heard the name, he had already become the center of attention in the entire school, because the moment he transferred in, he ruthlessly stopped the bullying in the class using a brutal method of violence against violence.

Emi Jiangpu was fortunate enough to witness the fight. Kitagawa Ryo's attacks were very measured; they were the kind of attacks that would make people cry out in pain but would not actually cause any serious injury. When she heard some girls nearby discussing that "hitting people is wrong," she snorted coldly.

The effect of this attack was immediate; the bullying that Karuizawa Megumi faced at school disappeared as if it had never existed.

While watching with hatred and jealousy as Karuizawa Kei's life returned to normal, Emi began to pick up the pieces of her broken self and piece them back together as a human being. Since violence was effective, she might as well use violence to solve the problem.

Jiangpu Huimei started carrying a fruit knife with her. She hid the knife in her schoolbag. One day, as usual, she was cornered by the boys after school. She suddenly pulled the knife out of her bag. It was actually just a knife with a blade that was only four centimeters long, but the boys still backed away in unison.

On one hand, they were afraid of the gleaming knife in Jiangpu Huimei's hand; on the other hand, they felt that Jiangpu Huimei's smile was eerie, as bright and frightening as the blade in her hand.

Jiangpu Huimei stared at them for a long time, until the boys shouted to each other and left. After they left, Jiangpu Huimei's spirit and body collapsed, and she fell to the ground with a clatter. She held the knife and cried for a while before slowly walking back.

Karuizawa Kei and Kitagawa Ryo got along better and better. They spent almost all day together. At noon, they would sit in the courtyard and eat lunch together. Every day, Emi could see Karuizawa Kei opening her body and speaking in front of Kitagawa Ryo, as if she wanted to open every pore and breathe in the air around Kitagawa Ryo. When she sat next to him, she naturally created a closed space.

Karuizawa Kei was free and willful in this space. She could say whatever she wanted in front of Kitagawa Ryo, complaining and telling him good news. Kitagawa Ryo could answer any question she asked, like an all-knowing encyclopedia.

Jiangpu Huimei stood in a corner, peeling a frog alive with a toothpick. This act itself did not bring her any pleasure, but after someone in the class saw it last time, many girls kept their distance from her, so she began to enjoy this activity.

She felt like the little match girl in the fairy tale, watching Karuizawa Kei in the snow and ice, hoping to bask in her light. Day after day, she was like one match after another. When Karuizawa Kei finished eating her bento and cleaned up, Emi also casually stuck a toothpick into the frog's head and threw it into the trash can.

On the day of the graduation photo shoot, Emi Eura's class was placed after Karuizawa Megumi and Kitagawa Ryo's class. For the rest of her elementary school years, although she was no longer bullied, she was effectively isolated. Emi Eura stood alone to one side, like a strange tree growing out of the cliff, standing there both domineeringly and abruptly.

Jiangpu Huimei looked up and saw two people secretly holding hands in the crowd through the gaps in the crowd.

-------------------------------------

Kitagawa Ryo disappeared.

Karuizawa Kei entered junior high school alone. On the first day of school, Emi Eura noticed that Karuizawa Kei was assigned to the same class as her.

She took the initiative to elevate Karuizawa Megumi to the center position among the girls in the class. The only lesson Emi learned from her father was that if you want a gambler to lose more, you have to let him win a couple of rounds at the beginning.

Karuizawa Kei was still ridiculously naive. Emi Eura gradually lured and led her through the transformation from a victim to a bully. She thought bitterly that if it weren't for Kitagawa Ryo's appearance, Karuizawa Kei would have become like this long ago.

Then, by using Wakata's rumors, Karuizawa Kei can be branded as a "murderer" and a "bully," allowing him to transform himself into the representative of "justice" and use this as an excuse to take revenge on Karuizawa Kei.

But to my surprise, Karuizawa Kei seemed to genuinely consider me a friend.

When Emi Jiangpu realized this, she almost burst out laughing.

Karuizawa Kei didn't know her at all when she was in elementary school, let alone bullied her. However, in her heart, Karuizawa Kei was far more hateful than those bullies. When she saw Karuizawa Kei humbly pleading in front of her, one half of Eura Emi was enjoying the expected result, while the other half of Eura Emi was still not satisfied. She even wanted to crush this humble plea in one fell swoop, unwilling to leave Karuizawa Kei with any dignity.

Emi Jiang had a knife in her bag that day. She had gotten used to carrying a knife over the past two years. She decided to give Karuizawa Kei a pain that she would remember for a lifetime on that day. She knew that Karuizawa Kei would definitely wear the white dress that Kitagawa Ryo had given her on that day.

She was waiting to stain the dress red with her blood.

When Emi Jiangpu was full of hope and dreams for her friends, she received no response. So all of that turned into an equal desire for revenge. Perhaps this emotion had been following her like a shadow for a long time, but it was only in the last two years that it finally found a target for revenge.

Then, Kitagawa Ryo returned.

Therefore, Emi Eura thought of a better way to get revenge on Megumi Karuizawa.

She wanted to personally destroy Karuizawa Kei's pillar of support, regardless of the consequences.

I hate you, even though you treated me like a friend. I hate that you achieved my dreams before me, I hate that you're doing better than me, I hate that you, who once shared my suffering, now have a better future than me. I also hate my own cowardice, I hate that I wasn't lucky enough to be born into a bad family, I hate that I wasn't talented enough to change my family situation. I'm giving you all the hatred I have for myself, and using it all to hate you.

-------------------------------------

"I would like to have a private meeting with Emi Eura."

After seeing Horikita Suzune off, Kitagawa Ryo dialed Karuizawa Megumi's number and began speaking without any preamble.

"Yeah……"

Karuizawa Kei neither agreed nor disagreed on the other end of the line.

"Well, I'll hang up first."

Just before Kitagawa Ryo was about to hang up the phone, Karuizawa Megumi suddenly shouted:

"Wait a moment!"

"Didn't we agree to go see her together?"

She suddenly rejected Kitagawa Ryo's words.

"Don't go anywhere... I'm coming right away. Ryo, Ryo, stay by my side."

Kitagawa Ryo's resolute tone made him hold his breath. Never before had she stated the facts with such seriousness.