Evening settled over the sprawling private estate of the Suzuki family, one of Japan's four great financial dynasties. Every window blazed with light.
A banquet worthy of half the continent's elite was underway.
Not just Japan's upper crust, but power brokers and old-money families from across Asia had gathered here, drawn by an invitation too valuable to decline.
Suzuki Sonoko had already informed her parents of her plan: she intended to convert nearly half the family estate into a training ground modeled after Konohagakure's facilities, available for all Reincarnation Game players to use. Or more accurately, for Makoto Nishikado and his inner circle.
Her parents had agreed on the spot, with even more enthusiasm than their daughter.
To cement their grip on this golden connection, the couple had burned through decades of accumulated social capital, pulling every string they had across the business and political worlds of Japan and greater Asia.
Every titan, every patriarch, every family head worth knowing had received a personal invitation.
What was the point of latching onto the strongest person alive if you didn't let the whole world see it?
The catering alone was a spectacle. Not only had the current Totsuki Elite Ten, led by Tsukasa Eishi and Nakiri Erina, been brought in, but even retired members from previous generations had been coaxed out of seclusion with staggering fees. All of them were cooking tonight.
Amid the culinary paradise, a girl with long pink hair and star-shaped hair clips trembled with every bite.
"Mmm... this is incredible. The Totsuki Elite Ten really do live up to the hype!"
Nakano Itsuki wore an expression of pure transcendence, her generous figure swaying with each satisfied sigh.
A shame there was no Gourmet Cell clothes-bursting effect here.
Her adoptive father, Nakano Maruo, ran a major general hospital in Tokyo. In the pecking order of Japan's upper class, he hovered somewhere around the top of the third tier, maybe scraping the bottom of the second.
Getting a meal prepared by the Elite Ten on any normal day was a pipe dream. Tonight, she was making up for lost time.
"Itsuki, could you please be a little less... conspicuous?"
Beside her, a girl who shared ninety-nine percent of her features, distinguishable only by hairstyle, outfit, and attitude, muttered the warning through gritted teeth.
Nakano Nino.
Back home she was the cook of the five sisters, and the one most happy to feed Itsuki's bottomless appetite. Watching her little sister enjoy food usually made her smile too.
But this wasn't home.
Every person in this room was someone their father had to look up to.
Nino's gaze drifted toward the center of the banquet hall.
There, a cluster of political and corporate titans, the kind of people even Nakano Maruo could only crane his neck to glimpse, were crowded around a single figure.
Every face wore an ingratiating smile. They looked like a pack of starstruck fans at a meet-and-greet, tripping over each other to offer flattery.
Nino knew exactly who the man was.
Makoto Nishikado.
The universally acknowledged strongest person in the world. The most powerful supernatural being alive.
"...He's pretty hot, actually," she murmured without thinking.
She'd always had a thing for the wild type. Men with an edge, a hint of danger, the kind who made your pulse spike.
When she'd seen Makoto on television before, the sheer apocalyptic scale of his power had overwhelmed everything else. She hadn't even registered his face.
Now, up close, she realized he checked almost every box on her list.
If she had to nitpick, he didn't smoke, and his hair wasn't bleached blond.
Yes, her taste in men was exactly that bizarre.
"Is this really the time to be drooling?"
A third girl, nearly identical to the other two, deadpanned from the side.
Unlike bright, food-obsessed Itsuki or sharp, fashionable Nino, this one carried a gloomier air. Thick bangs hid most of her face, giving off strong shut-in energy at first glance.
Nakano Miku.
Among the five sisters, she and Nino clashed the most.
Watching Nino criticize their younger sister while simultaneously staring at Makoto with glazed eyes was more than Miku could stomach.
You're one to talk about Itsuki.
Caught red-handed, Nino's pride flared. She crossed her arms and huffed. "I was simply observing the world's strongest human. Miku, does your mind have to live in the gutter?"
Miku nearly choked on a laugh. Who do you think you're fooling?
They'd shared the same womb. Nobody was fooling anybody.
"Alright, alright, knock it off. People are staring."
The only short-haired sister stepped in, speaking softly.
Nakano Ichika.
Though all five were virtually identical in face and figure, anyone who saw them together instinctively pegged Ichika as the eldest. That bone-deep composure set her apart like a lighthouse among candles.
She'd barely gotten Nino and Miku settled when something made her pause.
"Wait. Where's Yotsuba?"
The other three froze, heads swiveling.
Their gazes locked onto the center of the hall, where Nakano Yotsuba was marching straight toward Makoto and the cluster of Asia's most powerful families, radiating cheerful energy with every step.
"What is that girl doing?!"
All four sisters went pale.
Yotsuba was a firecracker on a normal day, the most outgoing and socially fearless of the five. But this was a room full of people who could buy countries.
Could her pathological extroversion please, for once, pick a better time to kick in?!
Equally on the verge of cardiac arrest was Nakano Maruo, watching from a short distance away.
He spent most of his life at the hospital. His surgical skills were top-tier in Tokyo, with powerful clients lining up daily for consultations, which meant he was rarely home and had never been great at connecting with his five adopted daughters.
All he could do was provide unlimited financial support.
But he cared. Genuinely cared.
When Ichika wanted to break into entertainment, he'd quietly pulled strings behind the scenes. When Nino's temper got her into trouble, he'd discreetly made the problem disappear.
When all five sisters' grades cratered and their school, Black Rose Girls' Academy, refused to keep them, he'd been working on a gift package for the Shuchiin Academy board to force an enrollment.
But this...
Nakano Maruo screamed internally:
You big dummy! What do you think you're doing?!
Under the horrified stares of her father and four sisters, Yotsuba charged up to Makoto without an ounce of fear. She raised a small hand high and waved, beaming with the force of pure sunshine.
"W-woah! Iweally ish you!"
The chatter around them died instantly.
Fujiwara Daichi, Suzuki Shiro, Tokugawa Mitsunari, and the other elite patriarchs who'd been swarming Makoto all turned to look.
They studied the girl with the ribbon tied like rabbit ears atop her head, cute and reckless, and their brows furrowed in unison.
Where did this kid come from? Can't she see we're talking to Lord Makoto?
Makoto studied Yotsuba for a few seconds, then recognition flickered across his face. He gave a small nod. "Oh, right. It has been a while."
The frowns vanished. Fujiwara Daichi and the others performed an instant attitude adjustment, swapping irritation for their most obsequious smiles.
"A friend of Lord Makoto's?!"
"We used to do Yoga together all the time!" Yotsuba grinned at Makoto, innocent as a sunbeam. "Makoto's amazing. Every time, he'd press down on me and it felt sooo good!"
Silence.
The entire banquet hall went dead quiet.
Nearby, all four sisters and Nakano Maruo locked up like statues, brains short-circuiting.
No... no way... Yotsuba went that far?
When did this happen?! How did none of them know?!
Even the Akizuki sisters, Utaha Kasumigaoka, and others long accustomed to the revolving door of women around Makoto stared in disbelief.
They considered themselves experts on his social circle, but this rabbit-eared girl? Complete unknown.
Where did she come from?
The assembled tycoons went white as sheets.
Holy...
Are we even allowed to hear this?
Are we going to be silenced?!
More than a few stole glances at Yotsuba. Fair skin, natural blush on her cheeks, eyes as clear as a child's, radiating a warmth and vitality that stood out even in a room full of stunning women.
Makoto's expression went flat. He broke the cursed silence. "It was stretching. I was helping you stretch. Can you not phrase it like that?"
"Huh?"
Yotsuba blinked, the picture of cluelessness. A few seconds later, the magnitude of the innuendo caught up to her.
Her already pink cheeks turned scarlet. She scratched the back of her head with a sheepish giggle.
Like a Gengar.
Before the Reincarnation Game had pulled him in, Makoto had maintained a strict morning exercise routine.
Years of writing in his previous life had wrecked his body, so after transmigrating, he'd made fitness a priority.
Yotsuba, the athlete of the five sisters, shared the same habit. During middle school, they'd crossed paths on their morning runs more than once, and over time had gotten to know each other by name.
Back then, though, Makoto's head had been filled with nothing but making money and achieving financial freedom. He'd buried himself in writing day and night.
With the misunderstanding cleared, Nakano Maruo quietly exhaled.
Thank god. The precious flower he had worked so hard to raise hadn't been plucked by some dirty pig.
But the next second, a faint wisp of regret crept in uninvited.
Wait...
If it had happened... would that really be so bad?
Not that he was like those other elites in the room, scheming to marry off daughters and sisters and nieces to climb the social ladder. That wasn't him.
It was just... word of the Crab Monster incident had spread far and wide. Superpowered individuals were only going to become more common.
Some would be relatively normal, like Makoto and the Akizuki sisters. Others would be as deranged and dangerous as the Crab Monster.
If his daughter could find a partner capable of protecting her, that mattered more than anything.
But hold on...
Did Makoto qualify as "normal"?
Remembering how the man had carved a bloody path through his enemies, killing without hesitation at the slightest provocation, Maruo fell silent.
Setting aside that casual-murderer aura, just look at the company he kept...
A girl in black stockings with legs that went on forever. A pair of sisters with identical faces. A quiet, translucent-presence type.
A raven-haired beauty who somehow radiated sugar-baby energy. A girl with a hair-bun whose flashy style couldn't disguise her fundamental airheadedness...
Yeah. Let's table this discussion for another day.
Yotsuba chatted with Makoto for a few more minutes before the frantic eye signals from her four sisters dragged her back to the fold.
With the interruption over, Fujiwara Daichi seized his chance and leaned in, voice careful. "Makoto-sama, may I ask... why did you choose Chika to serve as the new Prime Minister?"
Fujiwara Chika was his second daughter.
When the news had first reached him, the veteran politician's brain had stopped working entirely.
This wasn't a pie falling from the sky. This was a gold brick crashing onto his skull.
Makoto's answer came in two words, and the room went catatonic again.
"She's fun."
Night deepened without anyone noticing.
At the fervent insistence of Suzuki Shiro and his wife, Makoto's group decided to stay the night at the Suzuki estate.
The lady of the house, Suzuki Tomoko, warmly invited Mrs. Yukinoshita to join her for a private spa session.
Their real target was, of course, Makoto.
But a newly risen family like the Yukinoshitas, whose meteoric ascent was powered by their daughters' abilities, was still worth cultivating as an ally.
In the eyes of many old-money families present tonight, the Yukinoshita household, once a third-rate clan at best, had earned a "seat at the table." Two daughters with supernatural powers would do that.
And the family most invested in courting them was the Suzukis. When Makoto had returned from America, the first car he'd gotten into was Mrs. Yukinoshita's, even turning down the Suzukis' invitation. That slight still lingered.
Mrs. Yukinoshita accepted with a graceful nod and left with Tomoko.
Later, in the guest room assigned to the Yukinoshita sisters.
Silence had stretched on for a long time when Haruno Yukinoshita finally lowered her voice. "Yukino... let's talk to Mom. A real talk."
Since returning from the Naruto world, the Yukinoshita family's social standing had soared. But inside the household, things had grown painfully strained.
In the real world, one sister still lived alone in her upscale apartment. The other buried herself at the company and never came home.
The reason was simple: they couldn't face their mother.
Before, their mild-mannered father had served as a buffer, barely maintaining surface-level peace. But now, coming home meant dealing with their formidable mother one-on-one. Neither of them had the nerve.
Haruno knew this couldn't go on.
Yukino Yukinoshita was quiet for a few seconds, then gave a small nod.
She was right. Their mother had already lost their father. If the two of them kept their distance out of cowardice, how lonely would she be?
Resolved, the sisters left their room together and asked a Suzuki maid where their mother had gone.
Learning that Mrs. Yukinoshita and Tomoko had finished their treatments and returned to their respective rooms, they followed the maid's directions to their mother's door.
Both took a deep breath, hands rising to knock.
Then a sound reached them through the heavy door. Muffled, strange, unmistakably tinged with a peculiar kind of pleasure. Punctuated by breathy little... barks.
Yukino's hand froze in midair, every ounce of courage evaporating.
Moments later, the panting shifted into barely-suppressed moans.
Then came their mother's voice, tearful yet utterly intoxicated:
"That man could never compare to you! ...Don't... don't leave me, Makoto. I... I don't need anything else!"
A teasing male voice answered: "And what about your daughters?"
"F-forget them! Consider it as me, Ayano Yukinoshita, never having had them! Those... those ungrateful girls... let them fend for themselves. They've always thought I was just in the way!"
Outside the door.
Haruno and Yukino stood frozen, as if lightning had split them from crown to sole.
Mom...
How could you say that?
Makoto had once observed that the Yukinoshita sisters were polar opposites.
The elder, Haruno, wore a flawless mask from head to toe, always presenting the immaculate image of a family heir to the outside world.
The younger, Yukino, did the reverse, turning her sharpest, most abrasive edges outward for everyone to see.
But beneath those contrasting surfaces, the sisters shared something fundamental.
Both were deeply dissatisfied with the lives they'd been handed.
That was why, in the original story, they'd spoken again and again about wanting something "genuine."
It sounded melodramatic.
In plain terms: they felt this wasn't the life they wanted to live.
Yukino despised how everyone around her, sister and mother included, wore false masks and played political games to elevate the family name. Fake. All of it.
Haruno's circumstances were different, but her feelings ran parallel. She'd grown sick of performing as the perfect heir, which was exactly why a university student and corporate successor kept showing up at the high school division, looking for entertainment among teenagers.
After all, she didn't dare mess with the elites in her own circle. What if she picked the wrong target?
But Mrs. Yukinoshita's perspective was the polar opposite of her daughters'.
Which could be summarized as: You two are fucking bitching about nothing!!