Just as Sakayanagi Arisu was momentarily stunned by the sudden request, a slightly mocking voice echoed from the other end of the hallway:
"Come now, President Tsubaki. After all this roundabout effort, isn't it just a ploy to form an alliance with the Kitagawa family through marriage? There are plenty of victims from the White Room. If we go by your logic, doesn't that mean Kitagawa-kun has to get close with every single child from the fifth generation?"
Kitagawa Ryo turned toward the source of the voice. A flamboyantly dressed middle-aged man was approaching with exaggerated steps, holding the hand of a young girl.
"President Amasawa... perhaps things aren't quite how you imagine," said Yuki's father with an awkward expression upon recognizing the man.
Even within elite circles, there existed stark differences in wealth and power—a fact even children knew.
At a recent gathering hosted by Ayanokouji Atsuomi, children of conglomerates had openly quarreled, shouting things like, "My father will bankrupt your father's company!"
Yuki's father was merely the president of a major company. To outsiders, it seemed like a high status—but in truth, he was only moderately known in business circles. In the early days of the White Room project, he had invested heavily, likely hoping to rub shoulders with political and financial elites.
On the other hand, while the Amasawa family wasn't on the same level as titans like the Kouenji or Kitagawa families, they still easily surpassed Yuki's father in every way. No wonder his tone grew meeker in Amasawa's presence—perhaps from guilt at having his true motives so bluntly exposed.
Yuki was his biological daughter, yes—but she was also practically a stranger, someone he had barely seen since birth.
Was all that attentive care and high-level psychological treatment truly from guilt? Or was it simply for show, aimed at someone else's eyes? Only he knew the answer.
"Long time no see, Ichika," Kitagawa said warmly, ignoring the verbal fencing between the adults. He gently patted Amasawa Ichika, the girl who had come with President Amasawa.
Though President Amasawa appeared scornful, his actions were no different from Tsubaki's. If Yuki's father at least showed guilt toward his daughter, Amasawa had always treated Ichika with cold calculation.
When the White Room dissolved, Ichika had been returned to the Amasawa household. But no one—not even the president himself—held any affection for the girl who had once been a mere "test-tube baby."
Perhaps in the beginning, Ichika still held hope for familial warmth, but the Amasawa family's apathy soon crushed that hope completely.
However, when news spread that Kitagawa Ryo had been acknowledged by the Kitagawa family and declared their sole heir, Ichika's position shifted. Having once shared a close bond with him in the White Room, she was now granted the right to use the surname "Amasawa" again.
"Ichika missed Ryo so much."
Still sporting her trademark twin tails, Ichika threw her arms around Kitagawa Ryo tightly.
Among all the White Room test subjects, the fifth-generation children were the most mentally stable. With the exception of a boy named Takuya, who refused to accept the dissolution of the White Room and Ayanokouji's departure, most had quickly adapted to the outside world.
And Amasawa Ichika stood out among them. In terms of appearance and social interaction, she was indistinguishable from any normal child—perhaps even more emotionally expressive.
To Kitagawa, her actions seemed like a natural display of childlike dependence and closeness.
Especially those eyes—identical in color to Hotaru's. To Kitagawa, Ichika felt more like a little sister.
But to President Amasawa, that intimacy carried another implication. It was the very reason he now acknowledged Ichika.
"Since Ichika's here too, why don't you come with me to see Yuki?"
After chatting with Ichika for a bit, Kitagawa returned to his purpose for visiting. With a nod and brief greeting to President Amasawa, he continued on toward Yuki's hospital room.
The two men exchanged subtle, meaningful glances. Then Amasawa broke the silence:
"We won't be joining you."
"Perfect. I had some things I wanted to discuss with President Amasawa anyway."
The two adults walked off toward the exit, but at a hallway corner, they ran into Sakayanagi Arisu.
"Sakayanagi-san?"
Both were startled, but Arisu quickly recovered and offered an explanation:
"My father asked me to come find Ryo. The police still have some questions for him."
"I see."
"Makes sense."
Both men looked slightly awkward. After all, their intentions mirrored one another—and now, the person at the center of it all stood right before them.
"Kitagawa-kun is in my daughter's hospital room."
President Tsubaki pointed the way, and the two men departed in haste.
Left alone, Sakayanagi Arisu hurried in the direction they'd indicated, a strange unease stirring in her heart—like a barely-there thread pulling at her from within.
-------------------------------------
Yuki sat on her bed, wrapped in a blanket embroidered with blooming white cherry blossoms. She was nestled amidst those embroidered petals, cocooned in white.
A delicate hand emerged from between the flowers and reached for a phone placed nearby. She hesitated with the phone in her hand, then put it down, only to pick it up again after a moment of indecision.
The screen lit up, dimmed, lit up again, and dimmed once more. She kept pressing the raised button on the phone's side, the glow pulsing like parted lips that couldn't quite speak.
[I'll come see you tomorrow.]
After this ritual, she finally opened her chat history with Kitagawa Ryo. Peeking just half her face out from beneath the blanket, her eyes fixated on that single message.
Just as she debated whether to send a new message to ask if he had arrived, the hospital room door creaked open.
It was Kitagawa Ryo.
The moment he appeared, warmth surged in her chest. Emotions brimmed so intensely it felt like she might overflow.
But even she couldn't be sure which parts were genuine and which were illusions born of trauma.
The feelings from back then. The feelings now.
"You seem to be recovering well."
The room was spacious. After Ichika greeted Yuki, Kitagawa handed her the TV remote, letting her watch a program from the couch. Then he moved to Yuki's bedside, pulled up a chair, and sat down with a gentle smile.
"Yes. Father and Mother have been very kind to me."
Yuki nodded obediently. She loosened the blanket slightly and leaned against the headboard, chatting with him.
If Kitagawa had been the White Room's most tormented subject, then Yuki was undoubtedly the second.
Kitagawa had only learned afterward the kind of experiments Yuki had been subjected to.
According to Suzukake Toya's testimony, it had all been inspired by Kitagawa's insights into rhesus monkey behavioral trials. Yuki was selected from the fourth generation precisely because of that inspiration—and endured the resulting horrors.
But those were unchangeable memories now, and Kitagawa shook his head, pushing the past aside.
"Do you have any plans for the future, Yuki?"
Judging by her past performance, Yuki had always been a brilliant mind—perhaps even more gifted than Ichika.
"...I don't know. Father mentioned sending me abroad to study."
Her gaze became unfocused when the future was brought up. She wasn't alone in this. Every child released from the White Room felt similarly lost. For them, that place had been their entire world.
Her confused smile was bitter and sincere.
Her first smiles had been instinctive. Every smile since then had been learned from Kitagawa.
"Has your father ever mentioned anything about me?"
"Just that I should spend more time with you. But I think we're already really close."
She answered honestly. To prove her point, she reached out and poked Kitagawa's cheek.
"I'm really glad to see you doing so well."
Her finger became a palm, gently caressing his face as she beamed.
She had seen his blood, even slept beside it for an entire night.
Compared to those days in the White Room, Kitagawa was visibly healthier now. Yuki genuinely felt happy for him.
"Soon, I might visit Suzukake Toya. Do you want to come?"
Kitagawa didn't shy away from her closeness. Recalling what her father had said, he offered gently.
To him, facing fears was better than being chained by them forever.
Suzukake Toya, the White Room assistant, had been secretly handed over to the Kitagawa family at their insistence. Since the case wouldn't be disclosed to the public, the Naoe faction didn't mind giving them this favor.
Incidentally, the one who tracked down and captured Suzukake was none other than Tsukishiro Tokinari. It was his specialty, after all.
The moment the name "Suzukake Toya" was mentioned, Yuki visibly paled.
"You're going to see him"
Before she could respond, a voice cut in from the doorway.
It was Sakayanagi Arisu, who had caught up.
Excluding Ichika—now engrossed in a romance show with her chin resting on her hands—the remaining three formed a perfect triangle.
Kitagawa was the first to break the silence. He smiled and asked:
"What brings you here today, Arisu?"
But Sakayanagi ignored his question.
She walked straight up to Yuki and spoke in a provoking tone:
"If you want to move forward, you have to see him."
"Only by confronting him will you understand yourself. Otherwise, he'll always be the one who can shatter your entire identity with a single word."
Sakayanagi spoke bluntly of the past, even though she hadn't lived through it.
Perhaps because she hadn't, she could say it so directly.
"Or are you afraid that by meeting him, you'll admit all your feelings were forged by him?"
"That's not true!"
Yuki shouted suddenly, startling even Ichika.
Clutching her chest as if to hold back her racing heart, Yuki protested:
"No, I don't accept that. Not now, not ever."
Anyone who saw the footage would assume her feelings for Kitagawa had been artificially constructed.
Even her own father likely hoped that forced affection would become real over time.
Daily brainwashing, the induced attachment from isolation—how could love born under those conditions be considered genuine?
On the TV behind them, the romance show "Geniuses' Daily Lives" was airing.
Two sets of footprints trailed side by side across a beach. A sentimental narration played:
[Other people may be your hell. Their guarded eyes are blades. Their words, labyrinths. Their smiles, traps. And behind all that, a lonely heart still trembles, still longs to connect.]
"I want that too..."
"I want to say 'I like you' to Ryo without fear. I want to be like an ordinary girl, smiling and crying and living for the one I love."
"But whenever I try, a voice in my head orders me to 'fall in love with him,' even before I understood what love really was."
"I want to be like you."
Yuki looked at Sakayanagi with the eyes of a wounded animal.
That gaze reminded Sakayanagi of her first visit to the White Room.
She had walked the long corridors alongside her father, gazing curiously through one-way glass at the children inside, commenting on their movements with excitement.
Just like that.
Just like a child visiting the zoo for the first time.
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