"Pleasure working with you, Manager Nagasaki."
On the screen, the overseas executive nodded approvingly.
"Thank you! I'll continue to do my best!" Rie bowed excitedly.
With that, she stood and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, watching Tokyo's sky gradually brighten.
Dawn painted the clouds red. A new day had begun.
Soyo should still be asleep right now.
Rie pulled out her phone, looking at her daughter's photo on the screen. Soyo in her school uniform, beaming.
"Mom did it, Soyo."
Rie said softly, determination flickering in her eyes. "Mom will give you the best life!"
...
Meanwhile, several kilometers away at the estate.
Early morning sunlight was rather harsh, illuminating the room's post-indulgence chaos.
Soyo curled beneath the covers, listening to the sounds of Seiji dressing. The rustle of fabric was amplified in the quiet air, each sound reminding her of what had happened last night.
"Soyo Nagasaki."
The man's voice came from beside the bed, carrying that morning rasp, still undeniably cold.
Soyo's body instinctively flinched. Slowly, she emerged from the blankets.
Her eyes were red and swollen, her neck covered in glaring marks. She looked like a porcelain doll that had been shattered and hastily pieced back together.
"Starting next week," Seiji said while adjusting his tie, watching the girl on the bed through the mirror, "Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, you'll be here by 9 PM."
Soyo's eyes flew wide, a flash of panic breaking through the stillness.
"Three nights... a week?"
Her voice was hoarse. "But... I still have school... and if Mom notices I'm not coming home..."
"That's your problem."
Seiji turned, looking down at her, his eyes brooking no negotiation. "Study group at a friend's house, club training, whatever excuse works. Make it up yourself."
"Whether you can fool your mother is up to you. After all, that text you sent her last night was quite the performance."
Soyo bit her lip, hatred churning inside.
Seiji was turning her into a liar.
Not just claiming her body, but slicing her life and soul into pieces with his casual commands.
"Considering you're still a student and need time to recover..." Seiji glanced at her shoulders, visible above the blanket and covered in red marks, a cruel smile playing at his lips. "The other four days are your rest days. Be grateful."
Soyo's fingers clenched the sheets until her knuckles went white.
Resist?
Refuse?
Her mother's excited smile during the video conference flashed through her mind. Sakiko's numb expression beside her.
She had no leverage.
After a long silence, she slowly bowed her head, her bangs hiding the last glimmer of light in her eyes.
"...Yes. I understand."
The answer was soft as a sigh, yet it was also the death knell for "Soyo Nagasaki" as an independent person.
From now on, she was merely a puppet with two faces. Obedient honor student by day, plaything on call by night.
Just then, her phone screen lit up. A message from Mom:
[Good morning, Soyo! Mom's shift just ended. Heading home to make you breakfast. Did you sleep well last night? Love, Mom.]
Soyo stared at those words.
Each character was a needle stabbing into her eyes.
Did you sleep well last night?
She'd struggled through hell all night. While her mother had worked through the night for the man who'd thrown her into that hell.
"Heh heh..."
Soyo suddenly laughed.
A dry, raspy sound, carrying a bone-chilling brokenness.
She reached out and typed her reply:
[Good morning, Mom. I slept great. I love you too.]
Message sent.
Soyo set down her phone and closed her eyes. A tear slid from the corner of her eye.
Seiji left the room.
...
[System Notification]
[Ding! Congratulations, Host, for successfully conquering Soyo Nagasaki.]
[First-stage reward received: Crisis PR and Reputation Management Team.]
[Description: This is a top-tier PR team operating in the shadows, capable of instantly steering online discourse, whitewashing scandals, or engineering social death. With it, you wield the scepter of public narrative.]
Seiji stood on the veranda.
Hot coffee in hand, he gazed at the system notification in his mind.
"Crisis management team?"
He sipped his coffee, looking toward the awakening city in the distance.
"A practical ability. May not need it, but better to have it than not."
...
Elsewhere.
Toyokawa Group headquarters.
"Bastards! These bloodsuckers! When they were begging me for partnerships, they were like dogs. Now they dare demand additional margin calls?!"
CRASH!
An expensive crystal ashtray shattered against the wall.
Yuichi Toyokawa had lost all his former composure.
Hair disheveled, eyes sunken, tie askew, he was like a desperate beast raging in its cage.
His desk was piled with urgent documents:
Bank demand letters, supplier termination notices, and the one that made his blood run cold: a report on hostile acquisition of core assets at rock-bottom prices.
"Chairman, Fuji Bank called again..." His secretary stood trembling in the doorway, barely daring to breathe. "They say if we can't fill the bridge loan gap within three days, they'll initiate asset freeze procedures..."
"Tell them to go to hell! Tell them I'm working on it!"
Yuichi roared, his trembling hands reaching for the desk phone, not knowing who to call.
His former allies now avoided him like the plague.
"How did it come to this... just one more month and that project would've paid out..."
He slumped in his chair, his panicked gaze sweeping over an acquisition proposal on his desk.
It was the only buyer willing to "help" at this point: an offshore shell company.
Their offered price was insultingly low, pure vulture capitalism, but it seemed to be his only lifeline.
"Mystery buyer..." Yuichi gritted his teeth, staring at the unfamiliar company name. "Who's behind this? Takikawa? Asami? Akaishi?"
Too many possibilities. He couldn't narrow it down.
Even former friends could become enemies the moment you showed weakness.
He had a gut feeling that a massive net was closing around him, and he couldn't even see the hunter's shadow.
Anxiety, fear, rage gnawed at his sanity like serpents.
"Damn it! I worked so hard to claim the family head position..."
Yuichi seethed.
He never imagined the gap between himself and Sadaharu Toyokawa would be so vast.
He'd taken over the Toyokawa Group smoothly enough, yet he couldn't control the internal factions or withstand external probes and invasions.
"Fuck it all!"
Yuichi's eyes suddenly fell on a financial newspaper beside him, featuring "Genesis Medical."
"Genesis... Seiji Fujiwara..."
He latched onto something. "That kid's been riding high lately, and I heard he and Sakiko..."
A desperate, despicable idea took shape in his mind.
Since normal business methods had hit a dead end, perhaps using that "worthless" niece who'd been cast out could buy him one last chance?
...
Seiji set down his empty coffee cup and returned to the bedroom.
The massive floor-to-ceiling windows carved morning light into blocks across the carpet.
The bed where he'd ravaged Soyo last night was empty.
Megumi would handle everything.
Taking her home, cleaning up traces, ensuring she could appear before her mother like a normal high schooler who'd simply stayed over at a friend's house.
Seiji's gaze swept the disheveled bed without lingering.
Like a diner who'd finished a meal, sparing no thought for the empty plate.
He crossed the living room and headed for the master bedroom.
The door was ajar.
The room was quiet.
In the air floated a scent entirely different from Soyo's: cool, elegant, refined.
Sakiko's scent.
Sakiko Toyokawa knelt on the carpet beside the bed, laying out the suit he'd wear today.
Ironing, smoothing, brushing away nonexistent dust.
Her movements were meticulous, focused and careful.
She wore a simple white dress, her pale blue hair gathered behind her with a plain ribbon, revealing that face still exquisitely beautiful yet somehow less sharp than before.
Hearing the door, she looked up.
"You're back."
Her voice was calm, like an ordinary wife awaiting her husband's return.
But Seiji knew this was only surface.
Since being completely claimed, especially after witnessing Tomori's and Soyo's falls, Sakiko's mindset had entered a curious phase.
She no longer offered any pointless resistance.
For routine "service," she'd comply, only murmuring token objections when things got too extreme.
But overall: no resistance, no enthusiasm.
As if completing a job.
Yet Seiji had noticed something off.
When had it started?
About two weeks ago.
He'd been dealing with Mitsui Conglomerate aftermath, barely sleeping for two days straight.
Not that his constitution made it difficult, but he did feel fatigue.
So that night, he'd used Sakiko as little more than a release, tormenting her half the night.
By any logic, her slender frame should've left her too weak to get out of bed the next day.
But strangely.
The next morning, not only had his own fatigue vanished completely, his spirits sharper than ever.
And Sakiko, who should've been "barely alive," was merely pale, already up and preparing everything for him.
Her recovery was unnaturally strong.
And then there was that scent.
Every time they reached the deepest union, a faint, ethereal fragrance would emanate from Sakiko's body.
Cool, sweet, carrying a strange vitality.
It made him instantly refreshed, even mentally invigorated.
It defied science.
But...
Seiji's gaze fell on the system panel.
[Note: Current version is 1.0 Slice of Life. Please enjoy these peaceful days!]
Some things had been hinted at much earlier.
"Interesting."
A playful smile curved Seiji's lips.
His Sakiko seemed to be hiding a tremendous secret.
Sakiko had calmly accepted being claimed.
Yet she desperately guarded this one secret.
Sakiko herself understood clearly.
Once this secret of hers, which brought ultimate pleasure and instant recovery, was discovered...
She would lose any possibility of "mental independence."
She would transform from a "reluctant plaything" into a "slave craving to be milked."
That pitiful, remaining shred of self-respect would be utterly crushed.
Seiji walked up to Sakiko, looking down at her.
"Busy with something?"
"Preparing today's clothes for you." Sakiko kept her head lowered, hanging up the freshly pressed suit.
"Good work."
Seiji's tone was flat, but his hand slipped unabashedly inside the collar of Sakiko's dress.
Sakiko's body stiffened.
But only for an instant.
She quickly relaxed, allowing that hand to wander across her body, her expression remaining calm.
Seiji's fingers felt that astonishing elasticity and smoothness, but his mind was elsewhere.
I need an opportunity.
An opportunity to force out all her secrets.
He withdrew his hand and headed for the bathroom.
"I'll wash up. Have breakfast ready."
"Yes."
Sakiko answered softly, rising and walking toward the dressing room.
...
Late night.
Genesis Estate, Sakiko's bedroom.
The lights were off.
Only the pale glow from her laptop screen illuminated the girl's serious, focused face.
Without having to work part-time or care for her father anymore, she had plenty of time. She'd picked up her interest in composing again.
Suddenly.
Her phone screen lit up in the darkness, vibrating.
An unknown number.
Sakiko glanced at it and answered.
"...Who is this?" she asked casually.
From the other end came a voice she knew well and despised, now carrying a note of sycophancy and desperation.
"Sakiko? It's me, it's me! Your uncle, Yuichi Toyokawa!"
Sakiko's expression instantly darkened.
"What do you want?"
"I need something! Of course I need something!" Yuichi spoke rapidly, like a drowning man clutching at a straw. "Sakiko, I know I treated you badly before, but we're still family! The Toyokawa family is in trouble now, and only you can save us!"
"Save you?"
Sakiko let out a cold laugh, as if hearing the century's best joke. "I'm just a castoff who was thrown out. What could I possibly use to save you?"
"No! You can!" Yuichi's voice dripped with desperation. "Aren't you with Seiji Fujiwara now? He's an even bigger deal than the Toyokawa family these days! If you just whisper in his ear, say one word, those banking bastards won't dare touch us!"
Pathetic.
Sakiko silently judged.
When he'd schemed and manipulated to seize power from Grandfather, had he ever imagined this day?
Now that he'd hit rock bottom, he suddenly remembered his "worthless" niece?
She was about to hang up.
"Sakiko! Hear me out!" Yuichi seemed to guess her intention and hurriedly threw out his bargaining chip.
"If you help, I'll return all the businesses your grandfather and mother built! Every last one! Those are your mother's and your line's life's work! Don't you want them back?!"
Those words seared into Sakiko's heart like a red-hot brand.
Mother...
Her breath stopped.
On the other end, Yuichi continued his desperate pleading and promising.
But Sakiko could no longer hear a single word.
Her trembling finger swiped open her phone's photo album, landing on a faded old photograph.
In it, a gentle, beautiful woman held her as a child, standing beneath the company sign, smiling radiantly.
Mom...
Sakiko's eyes instantly softened.
She took a deep breath, suppressing all emotion, and cut him off with an ice-cold voice.
"I understand."
Then she hung up.
The room fell silent again.
Sakiko leaned back in her chair, rubbing her aching shoulders, feeling a wave of exhaustion.
Ask Seiji Fujiwara again?
No.
That would be foolish.
That man enjoyed conquest and plunder, not charity and pity.
Begging him directly would only expose her weakness, giving him leverage for even more extreme, more humiliating games.
If he discovered her body's secret because of this, that would be disastrous.
---
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