The morning of was strange to him, everything felt... extreme.
Sounds. Scents. Light. Sensations. Everything.
They all felt extreme to his senses, and although they were becoming better each passing moment, it couldn't have felt more like an eternity.
"Reis, can I come in?" Diatah called out to Reis, knocking on his bedroom door.
He wasn't in the state to be around anyone right now, but that would never apply to his family... especially not Diatah, or as everyone more frequently called her, Nithys. "Yeah, come on in, Nini."
"Uhm... can you help me with my hair? Mom's helping big sis Eimi with something right now." Nithys shook her hair as if to show him the problem she was dealing with, her hair was tangled up which stopped the nine year old from getting her twists done by herself.
He chuckled a little at the sight, wincing immediately after from the pain that shot into his brain. "Alright, sit there, princess."
Nithys sat on the floor, right in front of a chair in the room as she waited for him. The latter, slowly walking himself to the chair with weighted steps, until he eventually sat down behind her on the the chair.
He moved to touch her hair, hoping to get an idea of where it got tangled up at, only for her hair to start floating upwards as his hand got close.
Reis didn't pull his hand away, instead, he froze. Not moving a muscle as he stared at the phenomena, confused but elated at what was happening.
Without warning, each of the tangled strands began gently untangling themselves without fail, Nithys for one being oblivious to the whole process as she couldn't feel anything.
'After so long... why now?' He thought to himself, a question with no immediate or obtainable answers in the moment.
As if that wasn't enough, he moved to start twisting the remainder of Asa's hair, but it began parting itself evenly, before he watched her hair twist itself cleanly. It had been 10 years since he had last been able to use his abilities, so the sudden re-emergence of his abilities, or at least a portion of them was incredible to him.
Adonis stared at it for some time, trying to make sense of the event, but the attempt turned out to be in vain.
He fiddled around with her hair for the next ten minutes, in an attempt to sell himself doing her hair to Asa, as though Adonis was fast with twists, he wasn't nearly that fast.
"Done." Adonis got up after, still processing what had just happened. Asa hugging him as he placed a kiss on her forehead, before she walked out of his room
He sat alone on his bed in silence, trying to process what had just happened. 'What the fuck is going on right now...'
A sharp pain shot through the side of his head briefly again. "Ugh... what the hell even is, huh..." He froze for a moment, realizing that his mind was impossibly clear in that moment.
The several hundred-billion fragmented fragments of information, that were shooting across his mind, had slowly been piecing themselves to complete pieces of information this whole time... and to say they were mind blowing would be an understatement.
"You're kidding... right?" What he was looking at within his mind was... to be honest, he didn't quite have a word for it. But, he was certain about one thing, he and his family would never be the same.
Advanced technology. Medicine. Energy systems. Weaponry. Material science. Engineering. The list went on, his eyes darting left and right behind his eyelids.
"Aha!" He let out a chuckle stunned. "I remember everything."
He opened his eyes a moment later, the pain having subsided entirely, but there was still a subtle tingling at the crown of his head, as his mind was still piecing other complex fragments into whole pieces of information.
But he'd remembered something that made him realize he was already far behind schedule, as a certain race had been in stasis for over a decade as he grew up, and they couldn't survive stasis for much longer.
Bringing him back to what happened after the collapse of reality that forced his existence, and right before the tearing of space-time here in the Congo basin initially. The in-between. He had initially been meant to rip through the fabric of space-time on a different planet, but fortunately... or unfortunately, his entry had been aligned with the planet being accidentally hit with a planet killer.
Of which he absorbed, but simultaneously, the sudden event inverted the tear that should have birthed him, absorbing that race and their planet, effectively saving them from destruction.
"The Selyth." His memory, or pre-memories of his pre-existence, were coming back in full. Few, as they were, their implications would disagree. 'This incessant bubbling feeling of boundless energy I feel within... but I don't even know where it—' His train of thought halted right there.
"No... The planet killer. That means I can do that again." He murmured, disbelieving of what he had just thought of. He hurriedly sat on the floor, wanting to test it out quickly.
He picked up a pencil, holding both ends with his fingers, using both hands as he focused rather intently on the pencil.
It took a few moments, but subconsciously he was able to carry out what he had in mind, and the result was... jarring.
In place of the wooden pencil, was now a plastic ruler.
"Aha." He chuckled speechless.
He paused. "...Or I'm somehow being affected by a hallucinogenic." He shook his head. "No way in hell I am. This changes everything I initially had planned though. No, there's the ticking clock called 'the Selyth', so that has to come as a priority."
He moved to his desk, opened his laptop on the desk in his room and sat down.
"Ok." He took a breath. 'I have impossibly extensive knowledge of all advancements, in several fields from several hundred-thousand Type I to Type IV civilizations... even a literal handful from a few pseudo Type V civilization, but that's irrelevant as of now.'
He started up his laptop.
'Type I and Type II for now, should be my focus for where to source advancements from... for now. Sourcing from the others; while they may be better; is a useless endeavour. There's no use in sourcing information about technology you cannot manufacture.
The other civilizations can be ignored entirely for the time being. As for which advancements on the other hand, medicine... perhaps?'
Reis stopped for a moment, before grabbing a new notebook from a desk drawer, opting to hand write any rough notes he had.
He stared at the blank page longer than he expected to.
For all the knowledge flooding his head, the problem in front of him was painfully simple. Not what he could, or should do… but what could be done realistically.
He tapped the pen against the paper. Once. Twice. Three times. Reis didn't move for a while as constraints he needed to follow, fired one after another in his mind.
The pen remained suspended between his fingers, its tip hovering just above the paper, as if even the smallest motion would collapse the structure forming in his mind. It wasn't hesitation in the traditional sense, but rather a filtering process on what could be his primary task.
Entire frameworks of possibility were rising and collapsing at speeds no human mind was currently capable of sustaining, each one being measured against constraints that felt almost instinctual.
Infrastructure limitations. Computational ceilings. Existing hardware bottlenecks. Manufacturing scalability. Detection risks.
'How bothersome,' He thought to himself, as his fingers twitched slightly. 'Earth in and of itself is a limitation.'
He narrowed it down to the two main dilemmas he had, then broke it down again to short, medium, and long term tasks that needed to be resolved.
The two main dilemmas he had to solve, were his family's well being, and the Selyth's safety.
"An AGI with an unprecedented amount of processing power, competent loyal individuals, and a massive private island. A series of legal business entities, that can actively and passively acquire the funds I'll need."
Being as he was a singularity himself, technically speaking, he found a name that best fitted his first company.
Singularity Corp.
It was to function as an enterprise, a parent company of with five subsidiaries under it,
Origin Technologies, inc.
Horizon Biotechnologies, inc.
Eclipse Engineering, inc.
TAU, inc.
Quasar Energies, inc.
These would be actively pursuing the goal of reuniting the Selyth. The primary goal of this branch in to gain a sustainable foothold in space in under a year, as he had to consider terraformation or locating a habitable planet or planets for the Selyths.
Depending on how habitable their planet still was after the event. Outside of those six, would be the entities that would actually appear publicly.
Keystone Corp.
The primary body, which would have four entities.
The first of which was a public facing company: Keystone Inc. Branching out towards multiple financial and economic sectors across the board.
Keystone Technologies. Keystone Space and Security. Keystone Defense. Keystone Aerospace. Keystone Pharmaceuticals. Keystone Studios & Music. Keystone Industrial. Keystone Foods. Keystone Services. Keystone Infrastructures.
Followed by three institutions that would not only make his future financial moves secure, but give him power and leverage through infrastructure.
Kronos. An Invite only bank.
Obscura. An commercial bank with an Investment department, and high entry balance requirement.
Lockhart & co. A Private Bank, as tribute to their father.
All of which would be under TAU inc. and off all records, of course. The banks were the shield, if he moved his money through his own banks, he wouldn't have to worry about certain below the belt games from others or authorities.
As for where he was going to anchor said banks though, now that was what made it strange.
In order to achieve the elite prestige and regulatory immunity for his financial houses, he would have to distribute these institutions across distinct, hyper-specialized jurisdictions. Avoiding the housing of all three in one place; instead, balancing high-tier regulatory compliance with ironclad sovereignty.
Kronos, would go to Geneva, Switzerland or Vaduz, Liechtenstein. The reasons were almost self explanatory in from the location of the former.
The Swiss and Liechtensteiner banking scenes are the gold standard for high-net-worth discretion. By operating an invite-only model, he would further build an unmatched cachet of exclusivity. Plus, Switzerland remains the premier safe haven, allowing him to cater to ultra-high-net-worth individuals while projecting absolute prestige.
Obscura's ideal location was the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) in the UAE... or Singapore. The DIFC effectively operates under its own legal system and features a highly respected regulatory authority.
Not to mention, Dubai has cemented itself as one of the world's preeminent wealth and investment hubs, heavily shielding banks from the political "below-the-belt" maneuvers often found in the EU or US.
Lockhart & co. was likely to be placed in the Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands. The reason was simple: to maintain prestige while completely bypassing punitive governmental tax grabs or intrusive domestic red tape, the Cayman Islands was an undisputed leader in that regard.
It offered absolute tax neutrality, a sterling reputation within institutional wealth management, and strict regulatory frameworks that keep foreign overreach at bay.
The spreading of these institutions, would effectively protect his distinct branding of each while utilizing the strongest offshore jurisdictions in the world.
As for how he was going to credit them, well... eight to ten thousand metric tonnes of gold in each bank should just about do the trick. It helps that he knows several undiscovered mines, but he'd have to mine and refine it in record time, whilst keeping it quiet.
But even gold was mostly useless outside displaying precious metal commodity in reserves, and for the plan involving the creation of his banks. After all, once he gets his space operation going, it's value would effectively plumett to an economic equivalent of loose change.
The truth of the matter, was that while handling this himself was possible, it was incredibly inefficient, and prone to unnecessary attention. The first few, maybe not, but it would get to a point where it will present itself as a blunder.
The understanding of what he had to do was a hefty task, but it was also slightly irritating to him in how fleeting, yet relatively expensive and time consuming it was guaranteed to be.
But he had to do all this in record time... and by record time; he was currently six years old, so between now and his 7th birthday, he wanted to have the first phase sorted out.
If he were to take a conventional approach, it would cost exponentially much more time. Unfortunately, Earth, was the fleeting first frontier. One he had to overcome, and fast.
Which brought back to his two immediate problem. First off, people. He needed individuals capable of giving themselves absolutely to him and his cause. Those who won't simply die for his cause; no, that was too easy... he wanted those who would live solely for him.
But where does one find such people?
The answer was simple, at death's door. When death becomes guaranteed, a person who can successfully deliver salvation at it's doors, becomes salvation itself to the person.
The search for who was a non-existent task, as he already had an idea of a person who would be beyond excellent for the task.
The second immediate problem was funds. But he had a swift solution to it, given he still had enough residual energy to create something small.
He spent the remainder of the day planning, until Keiko made him stop, calling him down for dinner.
Dinner was quiet, as it usually was when everyone had too much on their mind but chose not to burden the others with it.
Keiko had made something simple. Rice, grilled fish, an assortment of seafoods, and vegetables. Nothing extravagant, but warm, consistent, grounding.
Adonis sat across from her, his siblings filling the rest of the table. Nithys swung her legs slightly under her chair, humming to herself. Eimi and Emrys were arguing in low voices about something trivial, some mathematical shortcut for a formula that they had derived and justified, that one of them insisted was more efficient.
Svanhildr, or as she was more commonly called, Esme; short for Esmeray; was reading something on her tablet while eating, her eyes moving faster than anyone else at the table could track. Likely a dissertation she had taken some interest in.
Up until Keiko clapped her hands once, as they all went quiet, settling down for dinner. Normal.
That was the strange part. Everything looked normal.
But nothing was.
Reis ate slowly, more out of habit than hunger. His mind wasn't on the food. It was moving through numbers, systems, timelines, structures. Not the overwhelming flood from earlier, but something far more controlled and focused now.
There wasn't a need to rush, but time still mattered.
Capital came first. Without it, everything else was theory. With it, everything else became execution.
"Ryusei."
Reis looked up, only family called him by his japanese name every now and again. Keiko was watching him, carefully.
"You've been quiet today."
He gave a small shrug. "Just thinking."
"That's never stopped you from talking before." She countered, her voice gentle and soothing, tender with motherly love as always.
A faint smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Thinking about this and that."
Emrys just looked at his older brother and didn't say any more.
Keiko looked at him for a dozen or so seconds, trying to parse what he wasn't saying. "Eat your food sweetheart." She said ultimately, and there was a softness to it.
Reis nodded slightly and returned to his plate. The conversation moved on without him, but he stayed present enough to respond when needed. It mattered. This, right here, mattered.
Because everything he was about to do would ripple back to this table.
When dinner ended, dishes were cleaned in a practiced rhythm. No one had to be told what to do. They moved like a system, efficient and quiet. By the time the kitchen was spotless, Keiko gave them all a look that meant the day was done.
Placing a kiss on each of their heads, before going to a recliner to read a book. "Don't stay up too late, all of you."
Keiko treated them as her children, as they were in truth her children by blood and every other way that mattered, but never like 'children'. They were more disciplined and particularly more intelligent than 99.99999% of adults, so she often saw no need to treat them as children.
One by one, they peeled off to their rooms. Reis waited.
"Maman..."
Keiko turned to look at Adonis. Seeing his face she realized it wasn't something simple he wanted to say, so she closed her book.
"Qu'est-ce que c'est, mon étoile?." She tapped her lap a few times, gesturing for him to come sit.
The term, 'mon étoile', was very intentional. Meaning 'my star', other times she referred to him as 'my ever giving gift'. Of which was also very intentional.
Adonis wasn't conceived by Keiko, or anyone at all clearly, but he somehow shared half of his DNA with Keiko while he was in this human form. The other half she couldn't decipher what it was, but she knew it wasn't human.
Keiko couldn't conceive, at least not before the still unexplained event known as Reis happened to her. That was why she called him her star, and her ability to conceive afterwards, was why she called him her 'ever-giving gift'.
She usually looked forward to these moments, but she was also occasionally scared by them. As he was something she couldn't quite comprehend, but trusted nonetheless.
"I remember where I came from."