Saturday, I:37am.

Asahi was sitting in front of his computer, thinking. ‘Those two dudes, they’re dead, aren’t they?’

[ Yes. ]

‘So, removing their abilities was just so the two big bosses had it burned in their minds that my backer has that ability?’

[ Correct. ]

‘And they won’t tell anyone else?’

[ No. Those two are incredibly cautious and data-driven individuals. They lack too much information regarding your supposed backer. Their deals with you are extremely profitable for them, and you offer things that they cannot get anywhere else. Given their intellect, they are aware that it is incredibly likely that kidnapping you or trying to force your hand in any way, it would only end up in a loss. Therefore, they will properly brand you within their societies as someone to be left alone, making so that others do thread extremely lightly when it comes to messing with you. ]

‘Logically speaking, that shouldn’t let me have a total of ten months of no harm.’

[ Yes, if you are applying Earthling logic, with an Earthling intellect, on the pitiful amount of information that your brains can handle. However, I am not an Earthling, and I have access to all the information, all of it. Earthlings almost never choose the optimal path, regardless of what their morals are, because the optimal path often looks nonsensical to you all. ]

‘Yeah. The video thing with Ryota and Setsuko, and telling me to do the same with Amaya, I for sure wouldn’t do that, because it does look dumb.’

[ Taking your morals into account, that was the optimal path that the three of them had in common, with reasons differing between them. Any further explanations not only will not help you understand, but it will break your rule of not peering into their past. The vast majority of things that I analyze to give you the optimal path, do not even exist in any of Earth’s languages. ]

‘Yeah, I get it, we’re dumb.’

[ Yes. ]

He laughed. ‘Fine, I’ll try to stop worrying about that and focus on getting stronger and living my life.’

[ Good for you. ]

He logged onto his group project and started to work.

 

8:21am.

While he was having breakfast with Fumiko and Mayumi, his phone rang. It was Lìshǐ Fen.

“Hello Kinoshita-sama, all the paperwork is done. If you sign them and transfer the money this morning, the current residents will have moved by Monday at 6pm. I already arranged new residences for them, in case the sale goes through. Both you and Takagi Mayumi should receive an e-mail from the University as soon as the money has been transferred.”

He smiled. “That’s great. Can I meet you at nine? Anywhere is fine.”

“My desk at nine then.”

“I’ll be there.”

Mayumi looked at him quizzically. “Was it about the apartment?”

“Yup. I’m gonna go sign the paperwork in a bit. The apartments will be empty by Monday at 6pm.”

Fumiko smiled. “With you overpaying by that much, it’s really hard to pass such an offer.”

He grinned. “I’m actually really excited to start changing things, way more than I am for the house to be honest.”

Mayumi displayed an excited smile. “Do you have any ideas already?”

He nodded. “So, like Fumiko guessed before, 902 will be absorbed into this one, so we have plenty of room for the three of us. What I’m thinking of doing with 903, 904 and 905, is to make it sort of an office. I’ll have to ask the other group members, but I was thinking about turning all three into one single apartment. Two master suites, two separate bathrooms, a kitchen, a recording room, and the rest just open office space. We set up working areas for everyone, according to their personal specifications, so we can really go ham on our project. Just to add, but no, I’m not opening a video game studio. What do you think?”

Mayumi’s eyes sparkled. “I love it!”

Both Asahi and Fumiko smiled, seeing how excited she was.

Fumiko displayed a pensive expression. “I think that the idea is quite good, but you know that you need to do things a bit differently there, right?”

Asahi nodded. “Yup, if they agree, the five of us will spend an entire weekend setting everything up manually. As for how it was remodeled so fast in terms of structure, I’ll just say that my backer did it. The consortium does their remodeling in a similar way through magic, albeit slower, and that’s known withing the TS, so it’ll be fine. So, my idea was to invite the three of them to come here on Tuesday, and show them the space. If they agree, we sit down and make a list of everything we’ll need, without a budget limit, and rush order it. Anything that wouldn’t arrive here before the weekend, I’ll just get from the System.”

Fumiko smiled. “That should be enough.”

Mayumi had an incredibly bright smile on her face. “I really hope they agree.”

Fumiko looked at him quizzically. “What about the five apartments on the tenth floor?”

“The teleporter, and whatever weird thing I end up buying from the Store.”

Fumiko chuckled. “Ah, of course. Five luxury apartments for storage, almost forgot about this common thing that everyone has.”

In a merry mood, they finished their breakfast.

When it was time, he went and signed the papers. After signing it, and transferring the money through the System, Lìshǐ Fen handed him his copies, and the deeds to the properties he bought.

It was like bureaucracy meant nothing to her.

Back in his apartment, they decided to not start any renovations until 902 was vacant. But he showed a few things to the girls, so they had an idea of how it worked, but he quickly undid them.

He spent the rest of his morning working, in order to be free to hang out with Amaya in the afternoon.

 

2:12pm.

Asahi opened the front door of the apartment, wearing shorts, and a t-shirt.

Amaya was wearing a video game t-shirt, baggy shorts that went down to the middle of her thighs, and hiking boots, with her backpack on her back. Her long and silky black hair, was as usual, tied in a single braid.

Asahi smiled. “Come in. Mayumi is in her room, working on a paper for her elective class.”

With a tinge of red on her cheeks, she smiled and went inside. “Excuse me.”

They both went to his room.

As she entered, she looked around the mostly barren room, aside from what was now more of a gaming station than a desk.

There were two consoles alongside his beast of a computer, and on top of the three 30” monitors, there was an 80” tv on the wall.

The room was also impeccably clean and organized.

He gestured to the bed. “You can leave your backpack there if you want.”

She nodded, putting her backpack on his bed.

He sat down on one of the extremely comfortable chairs, and rolled the other over to her. “I’d like to have a talk with you before anything else, but I need your word that you won’t talk to anyone about this, besides the four friends we have in common, and whomever else I clear in the future. Before you ask, it’s not anything illegal, and I’m not doing anything bad. I want to share it with you, so you won’t be the only one to not know.”

She displayed a curious, yet serious expression. “Okay, I promise.”

[ Go ahead. ]

With that, he shared with her the same information that he shared with Setsuko and Ryota on the previous night.

By the end, her mouth was agape, looking at her phone, with earbuds on.

“Again, I try my best not to use it, because I don’t want to taint my relationships.”

She blinked, still looking at her phone. “I have so many questions, but I’ll leave those aside. And as I said, I won’t tell anyone.”

He smiled. “Thank you. Oh, and obviously, don’t show that video to anyone. If someone besides us tries to see it, it’ll disappear.”

She nodded, not surprised in the least. “I imagined so.”

By the look on her face, she was quite used to people that did some logic-defying things, even within the context of powered-people.

He gave her a bit of time to process things, before he asked a question. “So, what do you wanna do?”

She displayed a pensive expression, then the tinge of red on her cheeks deepened. “I don’t know. How about we start with whatever you do with Mayumi or Fumiko? Aside from the physical stuff.”

“Sure. I’ll make something clear, okay? I won’t hit on you, or make a move, or anything like that. I’m going into it with a purely platonic relationship in mind. So, if something lewd happens in the future, that’s on you.” He said, shrugging at the end.

She chuckled, feeling a little bit more comfortable.

They played games, watched silly videos, checked out some gaming news, ate some snacks, talked, interchangeably repeating some of those activities.

Around 5pm, Mayumi stopped by to say hello to Amaya, before going back to her room, to finish her paper.

The two of them hung out until 9pm, when they had dinner with Mayumi and Fumiko.

Throughout the entire time that they hung out, Amaya slowly started to feel more comfortable around him, speaking more, without restraining herself as much. There was still some shyness by the end, but it was a huge progress.

He learned several things about her in the process.

She trained her power diligently for about two hours a day. She had a female dog called Jasmine, whom she loved with all her heart. All of her friends, aside from the ones they had in common, were from other countries, due to having made them in a boarding school in Sweden.

Aside from her love for video games, she also loved puzzles, and was incredibly good at solving them.

By learning all that, he realized how shy she really was. She also told him that during the first six months on that boarding school, she barely talked to anyone. The reason she attended it in the first place, was partially due to family tradition, but also because she wanted to get better at making friends.

She stayed for an hour after dinner, to hang out with Fumiko and Mayumi as well.

Asahi was the one to open the door for her when she left.

Before leaving, Amaya spoke shyly. “Can I ask you for something before I leave?”

“Sure.”

She stayed silent for a few seconds, before speaking. “I’d like to give you a hug.”

He smiled, opening his arms.

Slowly, she approached, and gently embraced him.

He reciprocated the gesture.

Letting go of the hug, she spoke shyly, but with a radiant smile. “Thank you, I really enjoyed hanging out with you. It also helped me a lot.”

“You’re welcome.”

After she left, he went back to the living room, where Fumiko and Mayumi were waiting for him on the couch.

He sat beside Fumiko, who ended up being in the middle.

Fumiko smiled. “She looked much more comfortable around you. Still a bit shy, but it was a really noticeable improvement.”

He nodded. “She was indeed very shy in the beginning, but as she started to have fun, she loosened up a bit.”

Mayumi spoke with a teasing tone. “That’s nice, but you didn’t even put on a nice and tight tank top to show her your assets.”

He chortled. “Just boot up a game, so we can run away from you pimping me out.”

They played for an hour or so, then had a short sex session, before the girls fell asleep. Since he had no need for sleep, he spent the entire night writing.

 

Sunday, 3pm.

He appeared in Trish’s living room.

She was waiting for him, wearing jeans, a tank top and a jacket. However, this time her hair was loose.

He gently grabbed her hips, brought her close, and kissed her. “Are you ready to make a new friend?”

She nodded. “If she’s anything like Fumiko or Mayumi, it will be my pleasure.”

“I think you’ll like her.”

Holding hands, they made their way to apartment 701.

A couple minutes after ringing the doorbell, Thea opened the door. She wore short shorts and a Royal Decree t-shirt. The logo was a scroll with a royal seal, drawn in what looked like a mixture of neoclassicism and post-impressionism. Her curly auburn hair was tied in a bun.

As she looked at Trish, she smiled brightly.

Asahi smiled. “Thea, this is Trish. Trish, this is Thea.”

Trish smiled, already entranced by Thea’s cuteness. “Hi, nice to meet you.”

Thea made way for them to enter as she spoke. “Nice to meet you too. Please, come in.”

The furniture in her apartment was fairly minimalistic, tailored for comfort above all.

They sat down in the living room, on absurdly comfortable couches.

Suddenly she got up. “Oh god, sorry. Do you want something to drink?”

Asahi chortled. “No, I’m good.”

Trish smiled. “No, thank you.”

Thea sat down, blushing.

After talking for a bit, the girls found something that they were both quite passionate about, speed. Thea with her car, and Trish with her motorcycle.

They talked about drifting, doing long trips at completely ludicrous speeds, vehicle specs, and many more things related to those topics.

They also talked about themselves growing up, and bonded over their hardships when it came to making friends, albeit for different reasons.

For hours they talked.

She had all sorts of snacks and beverages prepared beforehand for them.

Around 8pm, Asahi got up interjecting in their conversation. “Girls, I have to go now. I don’t think there is a problem leaving you two by yourselves, right?”

Trish smiled. “No, we will be fine.”

Thea got up, gave him a tight hug, and a kiss on the cheek. “I’m really, really thankful that you introduced me to three people that I can be friends with, but I also want to hang out with you too, okay?”

He smiled. “Yeah, me too.”

As he gave Trish a goodbye kiss on the cheek, Thea sat back down.

Asahi blinked. “You know that I don’t need the door to get out, don’t you?”

Thea nodded, giggling.

Asahi laughed, as he vanished from their sight.

 

He appeared in his room, feeling Mayumi working on her computer.

‘System, send up to ten billion dollars to the charities you chose, within the limits you set in order to not corrupt them, please.’

[ Done. ]

He then sat down in front of his computer, lost in thoughts.

‘I might have a great idea for a game to make by myself. But… Is there anything that can help me with that? Because, I don’t think I’ll be able to finish it in time.’

[ Multi-Focus (Passive) – You are able to put your full focus in two completely different things at the same time, without generating any extra mental fatigue. Additionally, your multitasking capabilities are greatly increased. Cost: 500,000P ]

His eyes widened. ‘Holy shit. Buy it, please.’

[ Done ]

Suddenly, he felt like his mind expanded.

‘This is like… if my mind was a single core CPU, it just gained another core, and multiple threads per core.’

[ In a sense, yes. One of its underlying benefits is to be able to easily approach the same problem from multiple angles simultaneously. ]

He smiled, booting up his laptop on top of the desk.

He made a digital clock appear between his laptop and his keyboard.

After cracking his knuckles, he logged onto his solo storage on the competition’s server.

Looking at the laptop, and his screens, he got up, and connected it to one of the screens.

Smiling, he started looking for assets and collecting them through both devices at the same time.

He only stopped working to have dinner with Mayumi, and although he told her that he started to work on a game, he didn’t tell her what it was, because it would be a surprise.

 

Monday morning, at the end of the Game Development class, as they were preparing to leave, Professor Kimathi called out to him.

“Kinoshita-kun, can you please come here? I need to talk to you.”

He smiled, and looked at Mayumi. “I’ll catch up.”

She nodded, kissed his cheek, and left alongside their friends.

Asahi went to Isla’s desk, smiling. “Is there perhaps some suspicious behavior in my competition account?”

Isla furrowed her brow. “Yes, there is. And if you don’t have a good explanation, you already know what will happen.”

Asahi pulled out his phone, prepared a video on it, and handed it to her. “There you go.”

She looked at it with suspicion, but took it, then played the video.

It was Asahi working on his laptop and computer at the same time. Hours and hours’ worth of footage.

She skipped through it, widening her eyes. “Okay, this is a good explanation. You’re one scary kid.” She then handed him the phone. “Why not leave the file on your storage? We could have seen it there and dismissed the issue.”

He scratched his head. “I’m a bit anal about my files, and this video doesn’t belong to my project.”

Isla laughed. “Dear lord, another me. Alright Kinoshita-kun, you can go now. I’m looking forward to whatever you’re making.”

Asahi smiled, and left.

As he got outside of the class, Mayumi and the others were waiting for him.

Setsuko spoke with palpable curiosity. “What happened?”

“I started a solo project, and used my laptop and computer at the same time.”

Setsuko tilted her head. “That’s not unusual though.”

He pulled out his phone and showed them snippets of the video, which left them almost speechless.

Amaya nodded. “I can see why they would find a problem with it. That’s really impressive. What’s the game going to be about?”

He smiled. “That’s a secret. It’s not a trust thing, but you’ll understand why it’s a secret when it’s done.”

Setsuko probed him a bit on the subject as they left, but nothing really intrusive, just for the sake of banter.

Asahi was finally starting to come to terms with his abilities, that they were a part of him, that they were truly his.