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16: "Cold"
🕑 Added 2025-09-23 01:04:57 +0000 UTCHospital
A quiet room
"Don't make that face."
Toru looked at his depressed girlfriend sitting by the window and comforted her, "The doctor's prediction might not be accurate. Look, I'm still alive and kicking."
Even though he said this, he knew very well...
The side effects of the extreme pressure method were taking full effect.
This was why he had never agreed to marry Ryo.
Marriage would delay her life.
That's why he proposed breaking up, but Ryo firmly refused.
It's fine.
After his death, Ryo would definitely find a good home.
Even though she was already 34 years old, she was still so beautiful and cute.
There was no reason she wouldn't find a good man…
…Alright, better not think about that.
Wouldn't want to get jealous while I'm still alive.
"Well, Toru-kun is going to live a long life."
Ryo tried to comfort him.
"We still have to get married, don't we?"
She gently reminded him, "Remember when we went to Meiji Shrine that time? We saw the newlyweds. The bride wore such a beautiful white kimono… I wanted to wear one too."
Everything will be fine.
It has to be fine.
"That doesn't seem like you."
"What?"
"Ryo rarely shows such a gentle expression. It surprised me."
Toru looked at her with a slight smile on his lips.
Seeing his smile, Ryo felt her heart clench.
How can he still be so optimistic?
He's obviously dying.
———
"Do you still remember where we first met?"
Ryo fell silent for a few seconds...
"…I remember. Under the bridge in Shinjuku."
"I loved the way you played the bass. Free and effortless, like a breeze that can't be caught. When you asked me to support you, I was so surprised at the time. Your bass wasn't cheap, so why did you still need my support? Later, I realized...you loved music too much. You spent so much money on it every month that you could barely afford to eat..."
Toru smiled at her.
"I like people who are dedicated to their careers or hobbies. Those people are very attractive."
After coughing violently, he continued as if nothing had happened.
"On our trip to Hokkaido, before we graduated high school, you took the initiative to confess to me. I was really happy. Especially happy. That someone so dedicated to music could make a place for me in her heart… it surprised me. I was content. Even amazed. After all, when we were together before, you were always lost in your ocean of music and barely paid attention to me."
"But I..."
Ryo lowered her head and spoke desperately:
"I never did anything for you. I don't deserve to be your girlfriend at all."
She hadn't done anything.
What was the use of regretting now?
It was too late…
———
"It's enough. I was satisfied just having you support me when I needed it most."
Toru shook his head slightly.
"I thought about giving up countless times in university. My fingers bled, and Hitori told me to stop trying, I hesitated. If it weren't for you encouraging me to keep going… well, anyway, thank you."
"For having a girlfriend like you, I always thought I was very lucky."
If it weren't for her, he never would have reached the realm of a god-level bassist.
In his simulated life, Toru had always put career and skill training first.
Love was never his only pursuit.
———
"I'm not as good as you say I am."
Ryo felt an overwhelming wave of guilt in her heart.
She hadn't done it out of love.
She just wanted Toru to become powerful so she could reap the benefits.
———
"If it were Hitori, she probably wouldn't have let me go abroad. But Ryo, you didn't try to stop me, you accepted my request without hesitation."
"I..."
Ryo's lips trembled slightly, and in the end, she just lowered her head.
She had simply chosen the easy way out without thinking too much.
At that moment, the more Toru praised her, the guiltier Ryo felt.
———
"Sorry, I brought up Hitori again."
To avoid suspicion, Toru stopped talking about Hitori.
Ryo shook her head slightly.
"It's fine. Toru-kun, did you have a good relationship with her?"
"Maybe? But we haven't contacted each other in almost ten years. She blocked me. It seems like she's gone back to how she was when I first met her..."
"She was still a quiet, shy girl, difficult to approach. Later, I sent her so many private messages and even went to her house to look for her… but Hitori had no interest in responding."
———
Toru looked away.
But Ryo couldn't.
She had stolen the man that Hitori had loved—
And she hadn't even taken care of him.
She had a guess as to why Hitori had returned to her socially anxious self...
———
She had learned to wear makeup, socialize, and study hard.
All just to win Toru's favor.
But after being rejected by him...
She lost the backbone behind all her efforts.
She even lost the reason to keep playing the guitar and returned to being a socially anxious girl.
———
"I ruined the lives of two people."
Ryo felt even more distressed.
She didn't know what to do.
If Hitori could just yell at her...
Maybe she would feel better.
———
"Ryo."
After calling his girlfriend's attention, Toru's expression softened.
"I let Hitori go, not because she's bad, but because I love you more. I can't abandon the person I love just for her, right?"
———
"But I'm not as good as you think I am."
Ryo thought that maybe it would have been better if she had never existed in this simulation.
She clutched her chest, feeling how sadness filled her heart.
If she had never existed...
Hitori could have been with Toru.
They could have been happy together.
They wouldn't have needed her as a third wheel.
———
"Don't overthink. Let's go home."
"Mm."
———
◇
[Following Toru's advice, you took him home from the hospital. His health continued to decline. You realized the doctor's judgment had not been wrong.]
[During his final days, you prepared to learn how to cook. After being together for so long, you had never even made him a proper meal.]
[To do this, you sought help from a friend who was very skilled in cooking, Nijika. She was very happy to hear your request and agreed easily.]
[One day, you ran into Hitori at STARRY. She saw you and quickly walked away.]
As expected, Bocchi still hates me.
———
[Over the next six months, you took good care of Toru, but his health did not improve at all. He grew weaker, struggling to breathe after only a few steps.]
[Fearing something would happen to him, you sent him back to the hospital.]
———
"I can't keep using text simulation."
Ryo decisively chose full immersion mode.
She wanted to spend the final days of Toru's life with him.
◇
Inside the hospital ward.
Toru felt his frail body and turned his face toward the window.
Because it was winter, the branches were stripped bare of leaves.
If nothing unexpected happened, he likely wouldn't survive the night.
The simulator really was merciless. Not a single extra day. If it said he would die at thirty-five, then at thirty-five he would die, with no trace of compassion.
Reflecting on the bass skills he had already raised to the divine level, Toru felt satisfied with this life.
The only regret, perhaps, was that nothing had ever happened between him and his 2D waifus.
Mainly, Ryo seemed cold by nature. Even after they started dating, he dropped every possible hint, but she never agreed… After over ten years of purity, Toru himself had become cold to it. When Ryo finally took the initiative, he actually had no interest left.
"Toru-kun, what are you thinking about?"
"…Just happened to be thinking of you."
Toru came back to himself, looking at Ryo walking in through the door.
He smiled. "Ryo, come with me for a walk. I feel like my body's in pretty good shape."
Perhaps it was the final flare before the end, but Toru sensed a small recovery in his condition.
Ryo hadn't wanted to agree, but when she saw the firmness in his eyes, she nodded.
Toru slowly got down from the hospital bed and picked up the bass that had been sitting by the headboard all this time. This bass, his longtime companion, had been a gift from Ryo, and he had always treated it as a treasure.
Ryo moved to support him, but he shook his head lightly, refusing.
At first she was worried, but when she saw his steady stride, she relaxed a little, even dared to hope for a miracle.
Together they came to the courtyard below.
Toru sat down on a bench. The hospital gown made him look unspeakably frail. Though still in his prime, he was like an old man already at death's door.
He spoke slowly. "Do you remember that day, half a year ago? I had meant to give you a present, but I didn't expect an accident, and you ended up sending me to the hospital instead."
"But it's fine. I still have time to give it now."
Toru smiled at her, then lifted the bass.
"Ryo, a belated birthday gift. I hope you'll like it."
The winter wind carried a biting chill, lifting the long black hair he hadn't cut in ages because of his illness.
Ryo didn't interrupt him.
Because she knew, Toru was saying his final farewell.
When his fingers moved the pick across the bass strings, all the cold around them seemed to fade away.
The melody wasn't complicated.
It had no lyrics woven with flowery words.
It had no complex techniques.
It wasn't as catchy as a guitar.
It wasn't as loud as drums.
It wasn't as grand as a symphony.
But Ryo felt warmth in it, a warmth that belonged only to her, a love that had never changed from beginning to end.
It was a love letter Toru had written to her.
A love letter only she could receive, delivered straight into her heart.
After a few minutes, the melody gradually faded.
"What's this song called?"
Ryo rubbed at the corners of her eyes and tilted her head back to keep herself from crying.
And Toru, just as he had called her tens of thousands of times before in their time together, spoke her name:
"Ryo."
——
[It seems that having resolved the obsession in his heart, Toru passed away that very night in your arms. You did not shed a single tear, because you knew, no matter what, it was already too late.]
[A few days later, you attended his funeral. At the grand ceremony, people of every skin color and language came to mourn. For the first time, you realized how wide his circle of friends had been, spread across the whole world. They spoke of heaven's jealousy of talent, of the world's unfairness, saying that with Toru's gift, he should have shone far brighter. Yet he had given the best years of his life to you.]
[You deeply regretted it, but the dead cannot return. All the splendor of the world, after hundreds or thousands of years, becomes nothing more than a handful of dust. Even a miraculous talent, what can it accomplish after death?]
[Pity that you had countless chances to keep him, and yet not once did you take hold of them. For this, you regret it for life.]
[Simulation End]
