Overwhelming, intoxicating emotions are not proof of love. All they prove is how lonely and bored those people were before they met.
So then, what is proof of love?
In my short life, the answer I found is: companionship.
If the goal of love is marriage, and the goal of marriage is lifelong companionship, and love gradually transforms into something deeper over time—then perhaps my brother and I had already reached the destination from the very beginning.
We both said we would stay with each other forever. But maybe the word "forever" is itself the greatest lie. If we made a list of the world's most common lies, "I love you" would be at the top, followed by "I love you too." All promises involving eternity would follow, no more than illusions that can never be realized.
And so in the end, I abandoned that vow. I abandoned my brother and... left.
But perhaps because there really are gods in this world, I didn't die. I didn't leave this world.
Driven by that lingering attachment from the past, I became a simulator—or perhaps, I became the very concept of a simulator.
For a long time after, I watched my brother dive into every kind of life simulation game. He would lose himself in their stories, just like he used to tell me bedtime stories—fast-paced tales that advanced years in mere minutes with a few taps on a screen.
Clear one, then start another.
The golden talents in those games were always rare. Refreshing for a new character meant waiting thirty seconds to a full minute of ads. But my brother always waited. Then he would watch that randomly generated character—with a handful of golden talents—live a good life under his fingertips.
He never named any of them after himself.
Because what he longed for was never really that.
[Good Health].
[A Loving Family].
No simulator ever gave those as talents. The gold-rimmed ones always had flashy names like [Titan Strength] or [Noble Bloodline].
So how could I make my brother happy?
After a long time thinking, I found the answer: design a perfect life for him.
I found a shard of a parallel world that resembled our own and created a new life simulator game from it.
Then, I found Ichinose Honami, Karuizawa Kei, Horikita Suzune, and Sakayanagi Arisu—girls who each shared a fragment of my brother's soul.
From that point on, I became a reader. A cat.
I read the stories of my brother meeting and falling in love with each of them.
I hoped those girls would help him rediscover happiness.
And once he cleared all four chapters, I would send him into that world—granting him the talents he earned in the simulations, along with the girls' memories.
That was the perfect life I had designed for him.
But I never expected the "special reward" of transmigration to be used up ahead of schedule.
Because my brother, disoriented by the contrast between the simulations and reality, was hit and killed by a speeding truck.
So I had no choice. I used the reward early—bringing him into that world after only two simulations.
Though things didn't go exactly as planned, I discovered a surprising bonus.
As the simulations progressed, I gained a small ability to make adjustments to that world.
It could only affect the girls, but I transformed it into a new "special reward."
Even now, I sincerely hope he finds happiness.
Even now, I still flip through the old simulations and pull out their precious mementos:
A popsicle stick engraved with "Try Again."
A dim photo of two people beneath a streetlamp.
A torn paper net used for scooping goldfish.
And a USB drive containing medical solutions for congenital heart disease.
Whenever I see these things, I feel like I can truly empathize with them. Like I'm in love with him, too.
No matter how many times.
No matter how many times.
If I could... I'd name the heroine in the story "Hotaru."
Alright, that part was a joke.
What I need to do now is something far more important.
Because this... is his wish.
-------------------------------------
Sakayanagi Arisu felt like she had awoken from a long dream.
At the end of that dream, she had spent an entire day cleaning a large room from ceiling to floor. She kept scrubbing until it was spotless, until the floor shone like a still pool of water.
[This will be your wedding room in a few days.]
That sentence suddenly popped into her mind like a game notification.
She drew the curtains aside, and the glow of sunset spilled into the room. Golden light shimmered at her feet like scattered coins, cast between her shadow and the furniture.
"Arisu."
Kitagawa Ryo stepped in through the door, and Arisu, seeing him, greeted him with a sweet smile:
"Ryo, is something wrong?"
Wrong? What could be more important than their wedding just days away?
"I found the owner of the USB drive—the one with the treatment plan."
Ryo's voice was calm, but Arisu's eyes widened in surprise.
"Really? Who is it? How did you find them?"
Of course she knew what USB he was referring to. Just months earlier, she had taken him to that tree where it had been found. The Sakayanagi family had been searching for the author for over a decade.
The person who had changed her fate like a character from a fairy tale—the one who gave her back her health.
Arisu imagined someone with a long white beard, a kindly face—an elderly genius.
After all, when they had found the USB, the family consulted top cardiologists across the country. They all agreed that the treatment plan was astonishing, effective, and clearly the work of someone with at least two decades of frontline medical experience.
But Ryo's next words made Arisu frown.
"It was me."
"I wrote that treatment plan myself."
"Ryo, that's not funny. It's a bad joke. I've always been grateful to the person who—"
He cut her off.
And then, in perfect detail, he recited the entire contents of the treatment plan—including annotations and explanations.
In all these years, Arisu had never seen Ryo study medicine. Certainly not congenital heart disease. But standing before her now, he spoke like the most knowledgeable expert, explaining her condition and its solution with precision and clarity.
"That's impossible..."
She stared at him in disbelief.
"You were only seven then. You were in the White Room. There's no way..."
"Didn't you say it felt like a fairy tale? Then try to understand it like one."
Ryo closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them with a gentle smile.
"In Alice in Wonderland, the Mad Hatter was stripped of his time by the Queen, so his world remained forever at three o'clock. He held tea parties in an endless loop."
"Maybe your Alice also visited another Wonderland. Maybe she met me there."
"And in that world, I too was stripped of something—or maybe I gave it up willingly. An entire lifetime, or more. But I wasn't having tea parties. I was thinking."
"Thinking about one question—how to make Alice (Arisu) healthy again."
The dream ended there.
Sakayanagi Arisu let go of the pillow she was hugging and opened her eyes.
She had dreamt of two other lives—like parallel worlds. But unlike her usual dreams, everything in this one was vivid, even after waking. The emotions lingered, just like it had really happened.
Sitting at the edge of her bed, she slipped on her shoes and quietly sat for a moment longer, eyes closed, savoring the dream.
She saw herself running across a beach.
Letting out a wry chuckle, she reached for her cane on the nightstand—only to grab at empty air.
There was nothing on the nightstand but her phone.
Maybe she had knocked it to the ground in her sleep? She scanned the floor and under the bed.
Nothing. It was simply... gone.
As she puzzled over this, her phone suddenly rang.
It was a call from the student council.
Arisu answered in a daze, and a somewhat apologetic voice greeted her:
"Is this Sakayanagi Arisu from Class 1-D?"
"Yes, that's me."
"We're terribly sorry—due to a clerical error on our part, your name was mistakenly included on the list of students unable to participate in the summer special exam. We deeply apologize."
"...Huh?"
She let out a small, confused sound.
She remembered submitting an exemption request just a few days ago. In fact, she'd signed dozens of such medical documents since she was young.
The caller misunderstood her silence as dissatisfaction and quickly added:
"If needed, we're willing to compensate you with private points. Would 10,000 points be acceptable?"
"Oh... sure. That's fine."
She ended the call awkwardly, then got up.
Carefully, she moved.
Her once-fragile legs now held her weight without trembling. Her heart beat steadily, strong and calm in her chest.
Just like in the dream.
A dream come true?
She splashed her face with cold water. The chill grounded her. This was reality.
She picked up her phone and dialed her father's number.
Even after enrolling in Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High, she still called him sometimes.
"Hello? Arisu, is something wrong?"
"Lately, my heart's been acting up a little."
She approached the topic from the side, maintaining composure even now.
"Really? That's strange. I thought your heart condition had already been resolved. Maybe it's stress? Try not to stay up too late. Eat properly. If it's serious, I can arrange a doctor outside of school."
"It's not that bad. Probably just poor sleep."
"Alright. Just take care of yourself. Your health is what matters most."
"Mm. I'll hang up now."
She ended the call.
Everything from her dream seemed to overlap with reality now, leaving her with a surreal sense of absurdity.
She realized she had forgotten to ask something important. She quickly turned on her computer and searched with keywords:
[congenital heart disease, cure]
The top result appeared instantly:
[Breakthrough in congenital heart disease research: Kitagawa Conglomerate invests billions over ten years to overcome the condition.]
Kitagawa... Ryo.
Was it you?
It was you, wasn't it?
A powerful rush of emotion surged within her.
Her heart raced. Reflexively, she placed her hand over her chest—but this time, it didn't hurt.
Blood flowed steadily. Emotions flooded her brain.
She burst out of her room, skipping the elevator and racing down the stairs.
Walking, then jogging, then full-out running.
Movements she had no memory of ever doing. Her limbs flailed out of sync, her breathing was wild.
But it felt incredible.
She leapt down the final steps.
She remembered the sound of Yamada and Miyake sprinting up the stairs, their feet pounding. Back then, she had tapped up the steps one by one with her cane.
"Thud."
She landed cleanly.
Just two steps, but it felt like a leap from meters high.
She found Ryo's room. Pulled out her spare key.
There was so much she wanted to say. Her fingers trembled. She needed multiple tries to get the key in the lock.
If this were truly a fairy tale, the next scene would be mutual confession, a destined reunion.
But this was reality.
"Arisu-san? You're here this early to see Ryo?"
Another voice came from behind.
She turned.
It was Horikita Suzune, looking puzzled.
She had just been shopping the day before and found two outfits she thought would suit Ryo. She had come early to ask him to try them on—and instead found Arisu at his door.
"..."
Arisu's hands froze—but she recovered quickly.
Why should she hesitate?
Horikita Suzune wasn't Ryo's girlfriend. Why should she care if she saw her enter Ryo's room?
Her heart condition was gone—that meant the dream had been real.
And that meant she, Sakayanagi Arisu, was the one and only—
Alice.
Her eyes sharpened.
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