"Understood."
Haruno walked over to Yukino's side and said gently, "Little Yukino, let's go."
Yukino gave no reaction. In her world, only the commands of one voice now existed.
Seiji's mouth curved with amusement, and he added, "Follow Haruno's arrangements until I issue the next command."
"Yes, Master."
This time, Yukino finally responded.
She lifted her eyes, looked calmly at Haruno once, then started walking and fell in behind her.
Watching the perfect figures of those two peerlessly beautiful sisters depart, Seiji nodded with satisfaction.
He turned and went back to the study, pouring himself a glass of wine.
At the same time, he picked up his phone and dialed his secretary.
"It's me."
"Boss!" On the other end of the line, the secretary's voice carried barely contained urgency. "Something's happened!"
"Speak." Seiji's tone held not the slightest ripple.
"The Saionji conglomerate's overseas allies, several tech giants led by the American firm 'Cyber Core,' just held a joint press conference! They're claiming a disruptive major breakthrough in carbon-based chips, and they'll unveil the prototype of their first carbon nanotube processor next week!"
The secretary spoke at lightning speed. "Their CEO openly proclaimed that the era of silicon chips is over, and that all the technologies we've previously released are about to become garbage! The global capital markets have gone insane right now. The stock prices of several of our semiconductor subsidiaries have plunged more than 15% in five minutes!"
"Oh?" Seiji took a light sip of red wine, an interested smile surfacing on his face. "Is that so?"
This counterattack had come a bit faster than he'd expected.
"Boss, we have to take action immediately!" the secretary urged.
"No need," Seiji cut him off mildly.
"Eh?" The secretary froze.
"Let them fly a little longer." Seiji's voice was full of cat-and-mouse mischief. "I like to watch prey put on a full performance before I crush it underfoot."
He paused, then continued, "Also, get me in touch with the Asia regional editor-in-chief of Nature. Tell him I have a paper here that I want published as fast as possible."
"A... a paper?" The secretary was completely lost.
A paper, at a time like this?
"Yes." A cruel arc curled at the corner of Seiji's mouth. "A paper that will collectively put every carbon-based chip lab in the world out of work, today."
...
...
The night had grown deep.
But for the global tech and finance sectors, this was destined to be a sleepless night.
In America, at Cyber Core's headquarters.
A grand celebration party was underway.
Sharply dressed elites raised their glasses in toasts, every face glowing with the satisfaction of vengeance.
At the center of the party, surrounded by the crowd, was Cyber Core's CEO, John Davis.
Just hours earlier, he had personally orchestrated a tech-world reversal that had stunned the globe.
Faced with the Fujiwara conglomerate's despair-inducing technological monopoly in the silicon-based field, he had decisively chosen another path, betting heavily on the carbon nanotube chip technology they had been secretly developing for nearly a decade.
The facts proved he had bet correctly.
When he announced "the dusk of silicon, the dawn of carbon" at the press conference, the global capital markets responded with the most enthusiastic of welcomes. The Fujiwara conglomerate's stock price plummeted in tandem, while the share prices of their alliance soared.
"Seiji Fujiwara... that young man from the East. He's far too arrogant!"
Davis raised his glass high and gave a triumphant speech. "He thinks that mastering the endpoint of silicon means mastering the world? But what he doesn't know is that we've already switched to a brand new track!"
"EUV lithography machines... the so-called FinFET Architecture, in front of our epoch-defining carbon nanotube processor, are nothing but heaps of scrap iron about to be swept into the garbage heap of history!"
Enthusiastic applause broke out.
"Mr. Davis, what's your take on the fact that the Fujiwara conglomerate has yet to make any response?" a reporter called out.
Davis let out a wild burst of laughter. "Response? What response could he possibly make? Right now he's probably hiding in his mansion, shaking like a leaf!"
"My guess is he'll soon send someone over to beg us to license a few of our carbon-based chip patents, just so he doesn't lose too disastrously!"
"Hahahaha!"
The atmosphere of the entire party reached its highest peak under Davis's manic laughter.
...
...
On the other side.
"The time is about right."
Seiji set down his wine glass and issued a brief command to the secretary at his side.
"Notify Nature. They can publish."
...
The party went on.
Suddenly, a commotion broke out at the back of the crowd.
Several top technical experts from MIT and Caltech were staring fixedly at their phones, the expressions on their faces shifting rapidly from initial puzzlement to shock, then to disbelief, and finally settling into ashen despair.
"Oh, my God..."
"This... this is impossible... it has to be a fake!"
"It's over... it's all over..."
The commotion grew louder. More and more people pulled out their phones and clicked the link being frantically forwarded around.
The official site of Nature.
A paper that had just been published, without even peer review, released under the highest authority of "Editor-in-Chief Special Approval."
The title, like the writ of a god's judgment, seared itself onto the retinas of everyone present.
[A Process for the Fabrication of Perfect Single-Layer Graphene Wafers at Standard Temperature and Pressure]
Author: Seiji Fujiwara.
"Graphene...?"
A few non-technical investors were still puzzling over the meaning of the word.
But to every technical person on the scene, the word was nothing less than the doomsday bell.
Davis, basking in adulation onstage, also sensed the eerie shift in atmosphere.
He frowned, took a tablet from someone, and clicked the link.
When he saw the paper's title, the unbelievably clear process flowchart beneath it, and the perfect Raman spectroscopy data the likes of which he had never seen...
His brain went blank in an instant, with nothing but a hollow ringing.
As CEO of a top tech company, of course he knew what graphene meant.
He also knew that every top laboratory in the world had spent untold sums of money, and to date had only managed to produce fingernail-sized samples riddled with defects, and only under extreme, demanding conditions.
Standard temperature and pressure...
Centimeter-scale, perfect single-layer wafers...
What kind of concept was this?
"Mr. Davis!" An old, white-haired professor, the company's Chief Technology Officer, came rushing over, his voice trembling with fear. "This... this paper... if it's real..."
He didn't continue, but he knew Davis understood.
If it was real, then in front of this perfect single-layer graphene, their carbon nanotube technology was like a primitive man's stone axe up against a future-era star destroyer.
Not even on the same dimension.
"No... impossible..."
Davis's expression turned ugly. "It's a slideshow! A concept! Fabricated data the Eastern brat made up to save his stock price! He can't possibly have a physical sample!"
But before his words had fallen.
The paper's page refreshed.
A short video, with no editing whatsoever, appeared in the attachments section.
In the video, a long, knuckled hand held up a wafer that was almost completely transparent under the lights, thin as cicada wings.
The voiceover behind the video was a cool, emotionless female voice as perfect as AI synthesis.
"Sample: 4-inch single-layer graphene wafer, prepared by CVD method at standard temperature and pressure. Defect rate: 0.00001%. Carrier mobility: 200,000 cm²/Vs. Test environment: standard atmospheric pressure, room temperature 25 degrees Celsius."
At the very end of the video, the camera slowly panned upward.
The hand casually placed the wafer that could change the world onto a tea table, beside a cup of steaming red tea.
Then the camera froze on a face.
A face that plunged Davis and everyone present into an icy abyss.
Seiji Fujiwara.
He was sitting on the sofa, an amused smile at the corner of his mouth, lightly raising the wine glass in his hand toward the camera.
A sharp clatter rang out as Davis's tablet slipped from his hand and crashed to the floor, the screen shattering to pieces.
The entire party fell into dead silence.
The same word was written on every face.
Despair.
The dawn of carbon?
No.
This was the swan song of carbon.
...
...
That night came to be called "The Graphene Night" in the global history of technology.
When that video and its disruptive paper went public together, the entire world was rendered speechless.
The "Anti-Fujiwara Alliance," still reveling moments earlier, collapsed in an instant.
Cyber Core's stock price triggered circuit breakers several times within ten short minutes, and its CEO, John Davis, suffered a sudden heart attack on the spot and was rushed to the hospital.
The Saionji conglomerate's last overseas allies and sources of capital support went up in smoke.
Countless carbon-based chip labs that had cost vast fortunes declared their projects bankrupt overnight.
Countless scientists looked at that paper and sank into the immense agony of being utterly shaken.
The next day, every tech giant, conglomerate, and even sovereign wealth fund manager in the world tried by every means available to reach the man at the center of the storm.
Yet no one could get through to Seiji's private number.
He was simply sitting at his ease in his own Japanese-style room, savoring premium Gyokuro tea.
Before him, a girl in an understated kimono was pouring water and warming the cup for him with flawless poise.
It was none other than Yukino Yukinoshita.
After a night of "rest," the air about her seemed to have grown even more still and reserved.
The cool, distant temperament of the Ice Queen had fused perfectly with her current absolute, slavish obedience, forming a brand-new charm that was unsettling to behold.
She was like a peerless famed blade that had been sheathed away, plain and unremarkable on the surface, yet ready at any moment to bare the deadliest of edges for her master.
The ringtone of an encrypted private line rang out at an inopportune moment.
Seiji glanced at the caller ID. The Shinomiya Family.
He answered.
An aged but full-bodied voice came through the line, the speaker's posture deliberately lowered.
"Is this Seiji Fujiwara-kun? I am Gan'an Shinomiya."
This was none other than the supreme power-holder of the Shinomiya conglomerate, one of the four great conglomerates of Japan.
"Head of the Shinomiya Family, what can I do for you?" Seiji's tone was as bland as if he were speaking to a stranger.
"Fujiwara-kun, your methods are truly impressive." Gan'an Shinomiya gave a dry laugh, his tone full of wariness. "Within a single night, you've torn open the sky over the entire semiconductor industry. I'm in awe."
"You're too kind."
"Fujiwara-kun," Gan'an Shinomiya stopped beating around the bush. "The reason for my call is that, on behalf of the Shinomiya Family, I would like to discuss the possibility of cooperation. We are willing to pay any price."
"Any price?" Seiji repeated the words with amusement.
"Yes. Any price."
Gan'an Shinomiya paused, then suddenly chuckled. "I've heard that Fujiwara-kun is still single. My granddaughter Kaguya, useless as she is, is reasonably accomplished. If Fujiwara-kun does not find her unworthy, the Shinomiya Family is willing to arrange a marriage alliance, having her come to assist you in the role of a 'servant.'"
Yet Seiji only let out a soft laugh.
"I appreciate the head of the Shinomiya Family's kind offer," he said mildly. "However, I have no interest in this for the moment."
On the other end, Gan'an Shinomiya's breath caught violently.
"Fujiwara-kun, you..."
"I have no need of the Shinomiya Family's strength." Seiji's tone remained flat, but the content was overbearing enough to brook no argument. "That will be all."
He himself was one of the few great conglomerates of Japan.
He had no need to drag the Shinomiya Family in for what would only be redundant weight.
With that, Seiji hung up the call directly.
Setting the phone down, his gaze fell onto Yukino in front of him.
The girl had taken no notice of the call that could shake the upper echelons of Japanese society. She was simply, quietly brewing him a fresh cup of Gyokuro at exactly the right temperature.
Perfect, loyal, and pleasing to the eye.
Seiji lifted the teacup with satisfaction and took a light sip.
Looking out at the clear sky beyond the window, he suddenly found that staying inside this cold mansion all the time was rather dull.
His gaze returned to Yukino's flawless face.
"Let's go," he said.
Yukino immediately set down the tea utensils, stood, and waited quietly for her master's next command.
"Back to school."
A wicked smile curled at the corner of Seiji's mouth.
"There should still be a noisy little fox there who needs to be properly 'educated.'"
...
At the same time, in Chiba, at Sobu High.
Inside the student council office.
Iroha Isshiki was tidying her short brown hair in front of a mirror, a smug, scheming smile spreading across her face.
"Done!" She jangled a brand-new ring of keys at the student council officers beside her, one of which was unmistakably the master key to the student council office.
"As expected of the president! You actually got it from the head teacher!"
"Now we can bypass the Service Club entirely and apply for budget directly from the school administration!"
Listening to her friends' flattery, Iroha's small face was full of "everything is under my control" pride.
But her ambitions stretched far beyond this.
Her gaze passed through the window toward the second-year classroom building.
The Ice Queen of the Service Club, Yukino Yukinoshita.
And that mysterious major figure who had stirred up the whole school, Seiji Fujiwara.
Hmph, what's a little Service Club? Iroha calculated to herself.
Seiji Fujiwara... is the ultimate goal! As long as I can hang on to that thigh, never mind a student council. The whole of Sobu High will be in my pocket!
Just you wait and see, Yukinoshita-senpai!
She thought with utter self-assurance, completely unaware that this little fox of hers had long since stepped into the hunting ground laid out by the true hunter.
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