True Education: I Have a Life Simulator

["Hello, this is psychiatrist Sakayanagi Arisu."

"I'm Kitagawa Ryo."

You heard yourself say that. Though you had lost your memory, you still managed to find three notes tucked inside the pocket of your bathrobe.

The first read: "If you're confused, call psychiatrist Sakayanagi Arisu," followed by a phone number.

The second note simply read: "Meow meow meow meow meow." You couldn't make sense of it—was it a code? It was signed: "Hotaru."

The third said: "Don't believe what Ichinose Honami says. Everything—Kitagawa Ryo."

After confirming that Ichinose Honami—the woman who claimed to be your wife—had left the house, you dialed Sakayanagi Arisu's number.]

["Kitagawa Ryo, is it?"

The voice on the other end chuckled.

"You just called me yesterday. I didn't expect to hear from you again so soon."

"I don't remember that."

You couldn't recall anything from yesterday. Cautiously, you asked:

"What did I say yesterday?"

"Hmm, let me see... I happen to have the recording. Want to hear it?"

"Yes, please."

"You're my patient after all. The sooner you recover your memory, the better."

She played the recording. Aside from your brief exchange, it was mostly white noise. Yesterday, you had paused for long moments after hearing terms like "White Room" and "Eiichirou Matsuo." Today, those terms slid into your mind naturally, and with them, fragments of memory returned.

"That means you're improving. Congratulations."

Sakayanagi sounded genuinely pleased, her normally calm voice tinged with warmth.

"Did I really try to jump out the window yesterday?"

At the end of the recording, your voice had asked her that exact question.

"...If you really had, I doubt you'd be talking to me so calmly now."

"True."

You looked out the window—it was at least six or seven stories up. If you had jumped...

You flexed your limbs. Everything was intact.

"Anything else?"

It sounded like she had another call coming in—perhaps the life of a psychiatrist was that hectic.

"I'll call again if I think of anything."

You glanced at the clock. It was just past 9 a.m. There might still be something in the house to jog your memory.]

[You first looked through the photo album Ichinose Honami had handed you. Childhood photos of yourself.

Most were likely taken by your parents. You noticed neat little captions beside solo shots: "Ryo studying hard," "Ryo playing soccer," "Ryo loves sweets."

The handwriting was neat, refined—very different from the writing on the wedding photo Ichinose had shown you earlier. You instinctively believed it to be your mother's.

Everyone has a childhood. Even you, memoryless as you were, could imagine your younger self through these pictures.

One photo caught your attention.

"Happy 10th Birthday, Ryo!"

A birthday party. The setting wasn't the current home, but rather an outdoor area—perhaps camping. A car was visible in the background. You sat before a cake with ten candles, grinning, cream smeared on your cheek. A man and woman flanked you, smiling.]

[You flipped ahead. The last photo showed you at sixteen, with Ichinose Honami. You were pinning a clip in her hair.

Her smile in the picture was so radiant it made your head spin.

"Huh...?"

A whisper escaped your lips.

Something was off. Very off.

But at the same time, it felt like you had recovered something important.

You flipped backward—again, and again.

Searching. Rewinding.

But—nothing.

It was missing.

What should have been there wasn't.

"When you were sixteen, you went on a trip with your mother and father. There was a car crash. You survived, but lost your memory."

You recalled Ichinose Honami saying that.

But thinking further... there were more inconsistencies.

Many, in fact.]

[You laid the three notes out again.

The first one—no signature, but its info was legit. It led you to Sakayanagi Arisu. The font was machine-printed, like a business card.

The second—"Meow meow meow meow meow." Signed: "Hotaru."

A cat?

As you stared at the string of meows, your mind conjured up a white kitten.

Why white?

You shook your head. But the image only grew clearer—fur white as fresh snow, blinking with glowing firefly-colored eyes.

Hotaru!

Suddenly, you remembered. And with that, a floodgate opened.

You remembered petting her... rescuing her in the rain... saving her from bullies near the village kennel.

Why just three memories?

You rubbed your head and sat on the living room couch. You stared at the second note again, but the strange sensation didn't return.

Still, you had remembered your pet cat.

The third note: "Don't believe what Ichinose Honami says. Everything—Kitagawa Ryo."

That one disturbed you the most.]

[Ichinose Honami—the woman who gently cared for you that morning. She claimed to be your wife. You recalled her saying today marked your third wedding anniversary and tenth year together. She promised to return home by 5:30 p.m.

You walked back into the room you'd woken in. Opened the wardrobe. First thing you saw—women's underwear. You blushed, setting them aside to search deeper.

Your fingers brushed something hard—you pulled out a small whiteboard.

Tutors used these; some families hung them to track daily tasks.

This one was old and dirty, with faint traces of erased writing.

If only time could rewind, letting you peel back each message layer by layer...

But that wasn't possible.

All you could make out were notes like:

"Remember to take your meds."

"Don't open the door to strangers."

Hardly informative.]

[You brought the whiteboard to the living room and compared the handwriting with the two handwritten notes.

They didn't match.

So the whiteboard had been written by the "Ichinose Honami" living in the house—yet she hadn't written the second and third notes.

But something about the handwriting nagged at you.

You remembered the love letter Ichinose had shown you that morning.

You retrieved it from the living room drawer.

Placing it beside the whiteboard, the truth hit you:

The handwriting matched exactly.

You felt a rising sense of chaos.]

[You confirmed that the Ichinose Honami you met that morning had lied—more than once.

One: She said you lost your parents at sixteen in a car crash. But there were no photos of you with your parents after age ten. The neat captions stopped as well. If they had died at sixteen, the photos and captions wouldn't have stopped so early.

Two: She said you wrote her that love letter at thirteen. But its handwriting matched that of the whiteboard. If she wrote the whiteboard reminders, then... did she write a love letter to herself?

You rubbed your chin, glancing at the third note again. The inconsistencies supported its warning.

"Don't believe what Ichinose Honami says. Everything—Kitagawa Ryo."

Ichinose had told you that was your name. So this message was likely from your past self.

But—

You grabbed a pen and wrote "Kitagawa Ryo" five times.

The handwriting didn't match the note.

Even trying sloppier versions or closing your eyes, the result never came close.

Pacing the living room, you suddenly noticed the same "Kitagawa Ryo" handwriting—on something else.

"I see..."

All the puzzle pieces locked into place.

It all pointed to a single answer.

Only one step remained.

You decided to wait.]

[At 5:25 p.m., you called Sakayanagi Arisu again.

"Hello, this is psychiatrist Sakayanagi Arisu."

"Yes, it's me—Kitagawa Ryo."

"Did something come back to you?"

She yawned.

"I'm just about to finish for the day."

"Five thirty, right?"

"Hm? How do you know that?"

She sounded surprised, then paused.

"You..."

"Yes. I know now."

"Is that so...?"

Her voice trembled slightly, but she recovered quickly.

"Congratulations. My No. 1 patient no longer needs me."

"Yeah. Goodbye."

You hung up.

Almost immediately, Ichinose Honami opened the door.

She froze in horror as she saw you half out the window.

She screamed:

"Ryo! Get down from there!"

The wind rustled your hair. Without hesitation, you swung your other leg outside and let go.

"Goodbye!"

You shouted at the woman running toward you as you fell.

She failed to catch you.

"Honami..."

"No—more accurately, Sakayanagi Arisu-san."]

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[You felt your body fall onto a furry back. Reaching out, you patted the head of the giant beast.

"The dream is ending,"

Hotaru's voice echoed in your mind from beneath you.

"Actually, Master, as long as you realize this isn't Ichinose Honami's dream, you could wake up at any moment."

"No way. Since it's my own dream, I can do whatever I want."

You rolled around on Hotaru's soft back.

"I've always wanted to dream of a day where Hotaru could speak and carry me around."

"Ah... so childish. But technically, you're just talking to yourself."

"Hey, hey, you can't say such joy-killing things in a dream."

You gave Hotaru a hard pat, then closed your eyes nestled in her soft fur.

"I should've noticed the first time I woke up. Ichinose Honami isn't the type to entrust her hopes to an idealized dream. She's the kind of girl who faces difficulties head-on with courage and strength."

"Back then, I almost grasped that idea. But I was too influenced by the nightmare and ended up foolishly choosing suicide to reset."

"The second time I woke up, since I didn't jump out the window early, I ended up finding many clues around the house, and mistakenly deduced this was my dream. Or rather, a dream of mine overlapped with Sakayanagi Arisu's."

"There were only three types of key handwriting in the house: My own—on the two notes I wrote to remind myself before entering the dream."

"Sakayanagi Arisu's—on the prescription slip, the love letter, and the whiteboard."

"And Sakayanagi pretending to be Ichinose Honami—like the writing on that wedding photo."

"I didn't expect her to play Honami in the dream too. And to make it worse, she tampered with the note I left myself—'Dont trust what Ichinose Honami says'—by adding 'Kitagawa Ryo' at the end to mislead me. If I hadn't randomly compared the writing with the wedding photo and noticed they matched, I might've stayed trapped even longer."

"Once you realize there's nothing in the house actually related to Ichinose Honami, you naturally think of Sakayanagi Arisu."

You stroked Hotaru's white fur strand by strand.

"Still, she left the identity of the psychologist, Sakayanagi Arisu, as a breadcrumb."

"Makes sense. Didn't she let me go too? Sakayanagi always puts on that cold front, but deep down, she's not bad to me."

"Every time I enter a dream, I leave anchors for myself to escape. This time, I got stuck because of those two bizarre nightmares!"

You complained with frustration.

"Hey, Hotaru, do you think dreams are really alternate worldlines?"

"I've told you—you're talking to yourself. I'm just your imagined version of Hotaru in this dream. It's just a cat!"

You pouted in boredom.

"Those fragments of dreams... they felt too real, like I really went through them with Honami."

"Ah, did I accidentally drag her into the dream too this time...?"

"No way!"

You collapsed dramatically onto Hotaru's back, looking ready to cry.

"Does that mean Honami saw everything I did? The first nightmare I observed, and the second one where she killed me with a knife."

Holding your forehead, you wailed in despair:

"And now this tangled mess of a dream, interwoven with Sakayanagi Arisu's?"

"My life... is over."]

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

["Ah, you're finally awake."

Sakayanagi Arisu noticed that Kitagawa Ryo was slowly opening his eyes.

Your smile froze the moment you saw her.

"Am I still dreaming?"

"No, both you and she are awake now."

Sakayanagi pointed to the side, where Ichinose Honami was also slowly regaining consciousness.

"It's time we talk about our situation."

She once again showed you the same devilish smile as before.]

[Story has entered a branching point. Outcome will be determined based on the player's innate talent.]

[Detected Talent: Dreamweaver (Gold)]

[Hidden ending branch unlocked.]

[Branch 1: Confront Sakayanagi Arisu. Leads to hidden ending — Oedipus Rex. Unlocks CG: "Fate".]

[Branch 2: Escape from Sakayanagi Arisu. Leads to hidden ending — Salvation. Unlocks CG: "Masterpiece".]

[Based on detected talent, determining player branch...]