"Another simulation, done and over with."
Chiose's lashes trembled. When she opened her eyes again, it was already the following morning.
The moment the last simulation had ended, she'd collapsed straight into sleep — not a single stray thought in her head. No Taki, no lifespan, nothing.
When a simulation ended and the world went quiet, Yoshiiro Chiose's mind was simply… blank.
Her sister had the added bonus of being a sleep aid. Not only had her conscience failed to torment her — she'd slept more soundly than she had in months.
In all the simulations she'd run, this was the first time she'd ever felt like that.
[Congratulations, Host. You have comprehensively and thoroughly destroyed Shiina Taki's life! The sheer lasting force of the damage you've inflicted has left even The System in awe. You truly are a wicked woman. And if you still somehow doubt your own wickedness — place your hand on your heart and ask yourself: could you really feel genuine, intense grief or sorrow for a fictional character at this point?]
[Calculating Remorse Index… Congratulations, Host! Lifespan awarded: Six years and one day.]
[Remaining Lifespan: Ten years, exactly.]
[Overall Rating: Above Average.]
[P.S. The degree to which Host has… mastered The System's full potential has left The System genuinely surprised. Also — you really are a terrible person. Giving someone everything, and then taking it all away. Tsk, tsk, tsk.]
"???"
What on earth. Why was there a postscript now.
You're clearly the worst one here, you know. You, The System.
Chiose left her bedroom and stepped out onto the balcony. Her hair was a wild, uncombed tangle, and the creases from her sleep shirt were still pressed deep into the fabric.
It must have been just past six. The first light of the rising sun fell over Yoshiiro Chiose and left her briefly, quietly dazzled.
"How beautiful. The morning sun. And I get to watch ten more years of sunrises."
That was, of course, contingent on stopping here — on never running another simulation again.
But could she really stop?
"No. I can't. It's completely impossible to refuse anymore."
Chiose had come to believe that the only way to quit simulating was never to have started in the first place. Once you were in, each run only pulled you deeper.
The most terrifying thing about the simulations was this: every year lived inside one was real. Every single second of it.
In the simulation with little Tomori, Chiose had ground through six years.
In the simulation with the alcohol lamp, she'd lived through a full month.
And in Shiina Taki's simulation, nearly half a year had slipped by.
All those long, drawn-out years left Yoshiiro Chiose with a feeling she couldn't quite name — a sense of unreality, like the weight of it hadn't fully landed yet. Add it all together, and it came to seven years.
[Simulation and reality are basically identical… I'm starting to lose track of where one ends and the other begins.]
Chiose ran her fingers along the iron railing of the balcony, turning the thought over and over — trying to detect any difference between the texture of this and the texture of things inside a simulation.
There was no difference. None at all.
[As I've said before — Chiose, you're already a fully qualified wicked woman. It's only the scraps of moral instinct you've managed to hold onto that are making a fuss.]
[My dear little Chiose — wake up already! You let The System perform euthanasia during the surgery. You let The System interfere in the simulation nine years after Host's death, wearing Host's face to deliver a blow straight to Taki's heart… and you still think you're a good person?]
Good woman. Wicked woman. Can human beings really be sorted into such tidy little categories?
"That almost sounds reasonable," Chiose said. "But I don't accept it."
Yoshiiro Chiose was not a wicked woman. She was simply a good woman who wanted to keep living.
Just a pitiful creature who kept dying, over and over, in order to go on being alive.
And besides — simulations were fiction. Feeling guilty over something fictional was, when she thought about it, a little childish.
The old Yoshiiro Chiose had been a bit of a childish fool. The current Yoshiiro Chiose had already begun to disown her.
There was a saying for that, wasn't there.
When you can disown who you used to be, that's when you've grown. Something like that.
"So this is growth. This is maturity. Not becoming worse — just becoming more."
"…What a complicated question. I don't want to think about it."
Yoshiiro Chiose stretched — a long, lazy stretch — and felt her body loosen and lighten in one go.
Only someone who had felt the full, bone-deep agony of a body on the verge of death could truly appreciate the simple joy of having decades more ahead of them.
She wandered back into the living room, drew the curtains, shed her sleep clothes, and headed downstairs to buy groceries.
If she ran short on cash, she could always busk on the street corner.
She was a guitar virtuoso now, after all.
Busking. It really was a decent way to make money.
Chiose staked out five different street corners for a full hour, watching. Her conclusion:
"The System. I've decided to convert a small portion of my lifespan into cash."
Lifespan-to-cash was simply faster.
In a single week she could earn seven or eight years' worth. And one month of lifespan could be exchanged for roughly three hundred and forty thousand yen.
Busking — while profitable — was slow, unreliable, and beyond satisfying her own vanity with a bit of showboating, served essentially no purpose.
The take-home was too small. It was too late to find something more lucrative now. Lifespan conversion was still the best deal by far.
Just one month… it wouldn't matter much.
[Confirming exchange: one month of lifespan for three hundred and forty thousand yen? Host, please confirm once more.]
Should she?
Exchanging lifespan for things — it was selling your soul to the devil.
Chiose sat down at a café on the street corner, gazing blankly out the window at a girl busking outside.
"Confirmed. Make the exchange."
[Ding——]
"Excuse me, miss — is this your handbag? It seems you dropped it."
A server appeared, setting a small, neat leather pouch on Yoshiiro Chiose's table.
"Ah… yes. That's mine."
Chiose pulled the zipper open and looked inside. It was stuffed with ten-thousand-yen notes — crisp and new, each one catching the light with a faint, clean shimmer.
This was money that had simply arrived. Free of charge.
One month of lifespan was nothing compared to a single successful simulation. And yet one month of lifespan could be traded for this much money?
Three hundred and forty thousand yen. That was three hundred and forty thousand yen.
No part-time job. No sacrifice of anything in the real world. Just like that — this much.
This was almost…
She tucked the wallet into her shoulder bag with quick, practiced hands, paid what remained of her loose change, and left for the flower shop.
"Three bunches of violets, please."
"Of course! That comes to—"
How much was it?
Yoshiiro Chiose had no idea.
She carried the flowers to the front doors of Tomori's building and Taki's building. She didn't knock. She simply left the flowers and walked away.
Two bunches for Tomori's door. One for Taki's.
"And that's that. Simulations are simulations. Yoshiiro Chiose has made her peace with all of it."
Simulations yielded an inexhaustible supply of lifespan. Lifespan could be exchanged for anything. And The System wanted her to keep simulating — that was how its own interests were served.
"The whole thing is one big loop, isn't it. How fascinating."
Faust and A Clockwork Orange could only dream of an opportunity like this — to make a deal with a clever devil and come away without losing a thing.
Herself and The System. They had always been bound together by fate.
Chiose's steps grew lighter. She caught her own reflection in a shop window by the roadside.
In those rose-red pupils of hers — three tiny golden rings seemed to have appeared, glinting softly where there had been none before.
____
________________________________________
🌸 Help Love Bloom!
Our girls need a little push... and you can help!
💖 Gift for Everyone: Once we hit 50 Powerstones, I'll release +1 bonus chapter to warm your hearts.
🚀 Community Reward: If we reach 20 supporting members, we'll have a +5 chapter marathon across all stories! The romance won't stop.
👻 Come to our secret corner: Search for GirlsLove on (P). You know that's where the magic happens... 😉