Chapter 199: Kaiba Chiaki's Reward
"You've done well, Amano Rei. As for your reward, name whatever you want."
Inside the Kaiba Corporation president's office, Amano gave Kaiba Chiaki a brief summary of the past few days, ending with the news that Kaiba Chiha would be returning to the corporation by next week.
Chiaki was clearly satisfied with how he had handled things.
Amano had no intention of making things awkward by mentioning that Chiha had declared her one and only sister to be Yui. That was a problem for another day.
Right now the more pressing matter was the reward.
Chiaki had offered it without placing any conditions on it whatsoever. She had effectively handed him a blank check and told him to fill in whatever number he liked.
So what should he fill in?
Money? Cards? Some staggering sum of Eva Points that would buy him financial independence for life? Or perhaps he could ask Chiaki to leverage the Kaiba Corporation's connections to acquire something that had no market price at all, like Pot of Greed or Graceful Charity?
Amano was self-aware enough to know his contribution had not been worth that much. He had taken a trip back to his home district, confirmed Chiha was safe with his own eyes, and passed along the message that she could return to the corporation. That was all.
The parts where he had dueled a Displaced Singularity and helped restore District 32's collapsing order had been his own choice entirely. They had nothing to do with the task.
Even so, if he asked for something material, even something slightly unreasonable, Chiaki would almost certainly agree to it. That was not in question.
But he knew what would happen to his standing in her eyes the moment he did.
In the end he set the idea aside. That was not the only reason, either. Taking pay proportional to the work performed had always been how he operated.
And compared to money or cards, things he could obtain through his own effort given enough time, there was one thing that required Chiaki's direct approval to access. Only one thing in all of Eden Tower that was currently hers alone.
"Chiaki-senpai, I want you to promise me something."
"What is it?"
"Include me in future Tower Exterior Exploration missions."
"That is what you want as your reward?"
A flicker of genuine surprise crossed Chiaki's eyes.
She had left the reward open-ended partly out of curiosity. She had found herself wondering what a man like Amano Rei, someone who felt so unlike anyone she had met before, would actually ask for when given a blank offer.
She had run through countless possibilities. Not one of them had been this.
This man was more interesting than she had anticipated.
She let the flicker settle before speaking in her usual composed tone. "Can you tell me your reason?"
"The same reason you have, I imagine. Anyone who takes that kind of step would have to be chasing something, trying to get closer to the truth of how this world actually works."
After everything that had happened recently, including the Dark Games, the Duel Chronicles, the Three Wicked Gods, Obelisk buried in the artificial earth beneath the city, and the chain of order collapses triggered by Eva network data corruption, Amano had come to a clear conclusion. Eden Tower, the largest structure humanity had ever built, was hiding things. Things it was not meant to hide forever.
And finding those things from inside the tower was nearly impossible.
The entire structure existed within the mainframe Eva's jurisdiction. Everything you could see, every truth you could stumble onto from the inside, was ultimately only what the mainframe Eva had chosen to let you see.
If you wanted information that genuinely existed beyond Eva's reach, you had to leave.
"Chiaki-senpai, you didn't launch the Tower Exterior Exploration program with a sightseeing trip in mind. There are things you want to know. And those things are off-limits to search for inside the tower."
Even with her composure held as firmly as she could manage, the faint tension at the corner of Chiaki's eyes betrayed the movement happening underneath.
Seeing it, Amano knew he had played the right card.
What she had not expected was that a duelist from the slums of District 32, someone with no connection to the upper districts and no knowledge of what happened at the top of the tower, could spend a single month in Academy City and reach out on his own to touch the hidden shell wrapped around Eden.
"Very well. I agree. The next expedition is scheduled for roughly six months from now. That gives you time to continue growing stronger as a duelist, Amano Rei."
"Growing stronger as a duelist? Is there actually dueling involved in Tower Exterior Exploration?"
Using cards to decide everything was the rule Eva had established inside Eden Tower. Outside it, dueling should theoretically be useless. So why would strengthening himself as a duelist be relevant out there?
"That falls under Kaiba Corporation's highest-classified information. You don't have the clearance to know yet. All you need to do is become as strong as possible before we depart. I'll handle the rest."
"Understood, senpai."
"And don't forget the promise we made regarding the upcoming Academy Challenge Tournament."
Chiaki settled back into her chair, crossing her legs with quiet confidence, and gave him a composed smile.
"I look forward to meeting whatever Synchro Summoning has to offer on the Fusion Academy stage."
"Don't worry, senpai. That particular promise has been on my mind since the day you made it."
"Good."
Kaiba Chiaki. Affection plus 1. Affection: 69.
A single point, but it confirmed he had asked for the right thing. Chiaki had been the most difficult person to move on the affection scale of anyone Amano had encountered. A small gain from her meant more than a large one from someone else.
And beyond that, the right to approach the truth was something only Chiaki could grant him right now. No amount of money or rare cards could buy what she held.
By the time Amano returned to the mid-level district, the move into the villa had just finished.
Shio clung to his legs and wept openly for a considerable stretch of time.
"I always believed you could do it, brother! It's so good to be your sister. Living somewhere like this, I never even dared dream about it before!"
Kikawayu had taken up a comfortable position on the large bed in Amano's room and was assessing the mattress with an air of authority.
"How is it only your bed that's this big? There's room for three people here. Maybe we should squeeze into one bed tonight, just like we used to back in District 32."
Finesse blinked. "You used to sleep together?"
"Occasionally," Kikawayu said, thinking back. "The house in District 32 was small. If we wanted to hang out at home, we all ended up on the bed together. Sometimes we stayed up too late and just fell asleep like that."
"You were all so close," Finesse said, with unmistakable envy in her voice.
Shio lifted her chin with dignity. "That was when I was little. I'm not sleeping with Yuu-nii anymore. I'm grown up now, and I need my own space. I'm claiming the room downstairs."
She moved quickly to secure the room she had already decided on.
Kikawayu, despite having a full villa's worth of rooms to choose from, picked the corner room at the far end of the second floor, as though deliberately putting distance between herself and everyone else.
Once Shio and Kikawayu had both gone, Finesse moved quietly across the room and leaned close to Amano's ear with a smile.
"Amano. Do you want to... tonight?"
"It's not really a good time, is it? Yuu and Shio are both here."
Before, the villa had been just the two of them. That had been one thing. With the whole group moved in now, this kind of situation was considerably less convenient.
"Don't worry about that. I had the soundproofing in this room specially designed. Even if there were a gas explosion inside, closing the door would mean no one outside could hear a thing."
Soundproofing engineered to that standard had crossed a line somewhere between safe and alarming. If there were an actual gas explosion, was the intended outcome dying quietly in your sleep with no one the wiser?
And soundproofing alone was not a complete solution either. What if Shio or Kikawayu knocked on the door wanting to come in?
"I'm sorry, my lady. I have somewhere to be tonight."
"Where?"
"The Nanki'in estate."
"Ha?" The color drained from Finesse's silver eyes in a way that made them look genuinely lightless. "Amano. Are you feeling alright? Do you understand what you just said? Are you writing your will?"
"It's purely tutoring."
Amano felt a very real chill run through him. Something genuinely cold had come off Finesse in that moment.
He explained in full: the monthly exam at Synchro Academy next week, and the condition that if Nanki'in Sakuya failed to place in the top ten of Class 1-E, she would be removed from her class representative position.
"It's really just tutoring?"
"Really."
"I suppose so. Nanki'in Sakuya isn't the type to do anything outrageous. As long as it's not Rin Seiya's place."
The low-level hostility Finesse carried toward Rin Seiya was visible even now. It was the mirror image of how Rin Seiya had been happy to pull Sakuya into the film club but showed obvious wariness around Finesse.
"Alright. Make it up to me properly once the Synchro Academy monthly exam is done."
She pressed her lips briefly against his and turned to leave the room.
Her casual confidence with that kind of thing had been growing steadily. Whether that was a good development or a concerning one, Amano had not yet decided.
The academy city reopened after the one-week suspension for the Wicked God disaster, and by the time classes resumed, the calendar had turned to November.
Inside Eden Tower, more than just the date had shifted. The mainframe Eva controlled seasonal temperatures as well, and November meant the system had eased the climate into late autumn rolling into early winter. The temperature had dropped sharply. Even sitting inside Class 1-E's classroom, the cold cut through clearly.
The class's chatter had naturally drifted to the subject of the sudden drop.
"November's especially cold this year."
"The mainframe Eva has the current year designated as a cold winter. Temperatures are supposed to run about ten degrees below the usual."
"Why go to the trouble of recreating historically cold and warm winters? Wouldn't it be simpler to just keep the temperature constant year-round?"
"Apparently the body stays healthier if it experiences full seasonal temperature variation."
Nanki'in Sakuya reached into the "Loyalty, Honor" crossbody bag at her side and produced a bottle of milk, about half full and still warm.
"It's still warm. Would you like some, Amano?"
"Yes."
Amano had miscalculated. Back in his previous life he had assumed that a room packed with enough people would generate its own collective warmth through sheer body heat. The sudden temperature drop had proven that theory entirely wrong. Everyone's collective warmth was not proving sufficient.
Taking the warm milk from Sakuya, he looked at the open bottle and remembered something.
The Thought Reading cooldown had gotten in the way before he could work out exactly why Sakuya always left half her food and drink for him. Then the Wicked God battle and the academy suspension had pushed it further back.
Now, finally, was the right moment to find out.
"Class rep. Why do you always leave half of everything for me?"
"I just happen not to finish it."
That was the expected answer.
But this time Amano had prepared for it. He had steered the conversation here deliberately so he could read the relevant thoughts at exactly this moment.
'Thought Reading.'
Thought 1: I think Amano asked me this same question last week. Does my answer sound unconvincing?
Thought 2: I tried so hard to seem natural, and he still noticed something was off. As expected of Amano. He is very perceptive.
Thought 3: Even Amano probably doesn't know about the Nanki'in family's forbidden secret technique. Mother told me that if you regularly feed someone food with your own saliva on it, they will gradually, helplessly fall in love with you. I'm not sure when it will start working. I'm a little excited to find out.
"Your mother is clearly messing with you."
"Hm? What did you say, Amano?"
Sakuya blinked at him with genuine confusion.
"Nothing. Forget it."
He had gotten too worked up and let the thought escape out loud.
Sakuya's mother had taught her daughter something like that with a straight face. She sounded like quite a person.
Though even at her most scheming, the class rep's thinking only went this far. Compared to Kikawayu's unfiltered inner monologue or Finesse's more direct declarations, Sakuya's version of scheming was almost endearingly wholesome.
Amano drank the rest of the milk in one go.
Maybe the Nanki'in family secret technique actually worked a little.
With the Thought Reading result in hand, he found that sitting here with Sakuya felt easier and more comfortable than almost anywhere else. She was genuinely straightforward, genuinely without malice, and that simplicity settled something in him that he had not noticed needed settling.
"Quiet down!" Kondo walked through the classroom door and brought the noise under control.
"You have been enrolled for one full month. As I'm sure most of you are aware, in addition to the upcoming monthly exam, the first month of each semester is when the three academies open their transfer channels. This is the opportunity for students who feel they chose the wrong summoning method to change institutions."
Amano remembered this. He had originally planned to spend one month at Synchro Academy before quietly transferring to Fusion. The idea felt like something from a different lifetime now. In the space of that single month, the academy's faculty had apparently decided he represented the future of Synchro Summoning.
"Today," Kondo continued, "two transfer students will be joining Class 1-E. Please make them feel welcome."
The class broke into low murmuring during the brief wait.
"Transferring in the day before a monthly exam. That's rough."
"Never mind the exam, I want to know if they're a boy or a girl."
"I heard it's one of each."
"Balanced. Good work, sensei."
The first transfer student stepped through the door. Amano's eyes went wide. He stared at the girl at the front of the room, then turned to look at Sakuya in the next seat, who looked equally stunned.
"Hello, everyone. My name is Nanki'in Yukki. I'll be joining you starting today. Please take care of me."
The transfer student was Nanki'in Yukki. Though given her circumstances, calling her a transfer student felt slightly wrong. She was more of a new enrollment entirely.
Though that raised an immediate question. Yukki's deck was built around hand trap Tuner monsters. Was that actually compatible with Synchro Summoning?
"She's adorable! An absolute beauty!"
"Wait, she said her name is Nanki'in Yukki?"
"Is she related to the Nanki'in family?"
"Now that I look at her, she does resemble the class rep a bit."
The quiet murmuring of recognition had barely settled before the second transfer student entered the room, turning those subdued reactions into open, audible shock.
"No way, this one is even cuter!"
"Hold on, weren't they supposed to be one boy and one girl?"
"That one's supposed to be the boy?"
"Wait, he looks kind of familiar. Didn't he go up against the duel committee rep in the joint tournament?"
Seeing Nanki'in Yukki walk in had been a surprise.
Seeing Kikawayu walk in nearly knocked Amano's jaw off his face entirely.
Somewhere in the back of his mind he vaguely remembered that Kikawayu had mentioned transferring at some point, that he preferred being at the same academy as Amano over staying at Fusion. He had not given it much thought at the time.
But unlike the question about Yukki's hand trap Tuners, this was not simply a matter of compatibility.
This was the Three Phantom Demon Lords deck.
Could it play Synchro?
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