After Kazuya calmed down Chizuru, she didn’t go back with him and instead decided to stay with her grandma for the night.

Kazuya didn’t want to deprive her of her remaining time with her grandma and agreed.

Although Chizuru told him to go home, he couldn’t leave her at the hospital.

He didn’t want to let her convince him to go home so he agreed to her wish, but, instead of leaving, he stayed outside the ward.

As uncomfortable as the night was for him, he didn’t regret spending the night at the hospital.

“Hey… Kazuya… Wake up… Wake up…” Kazuya woke to his beautiful girlfriend shaking him lightly.

He was asleep on the waiting bench outside the ward.

“Hm, babe?” He squinted his eyes and rubbed them to get used to the light.

“Come on… I’ll take you home…” She pulled his hand and tried to get her up.

“Mmm… It’s fine babe… you can stay with your grandma… I’ll just make myself comfortable.” Kazuya spoke while half-asleep and changed his position.

“It’s fine… I spent the entire night with her. She needs to rest. I’m going home to get some breakfast before we have to leave for college.”

“It’s fine… Mmm… we can skip college for today.”

“Come on~” She pulled his arm to try to get him to stand up.

“All right, all right… I’m up. I’m up…” He finally woke up completely.

“Let’s go…” She held his hand and brought him to the car.

“Get in… You can rest. I’ll drive.” Chizuru got him to sit in the passenger seat.

“It’s okay, I can drive.”

“Don’t worry about it. Get some rest. You waited all night for me.” She smiled sweetly.

“If you say so.” Kazuya closed his eyes and rested in the car as she drove.

He trusted his girl’s skills in driving enough that he could go to sleep with her at the wheel. He’d taught her how to drive himself.

She’d never had the chance or even the need to learn how to drive so Kazuya had to do a crash course for driving for Chizuru.

He’d taught her how to drive like a pro within a week.

Seeing how Kazuya instantly fell asleep, Chizuru was speechless while at the same time touched that he waited for her the whole night.

‘He’s probably really tired… I should’ve sent him home myself last night.’ She didn’t want him to stay there for the whole night.

‘You could’ve at least come inside the ward…’

She had many thoughts while she was driving to the penthouse. She would drop off the car there and walk to her apartment.

She pulled up into the apartment’s garage and parked the car there.

“Get up honey… We’re home.” She ran her fingers through Kazuya’s hair.

“Mhm… Yeah. You can get going. I’m just going to take a little nap before I go.”

“Sigh… How can I leave you right now? Especially after you waited all night for me…”

“It’s fine…” He said in a sleepy voice.

“Come on… I’ll put you in bed.”

Chizuru got out of the car and brought Kazuya out.

She led him all the way to his penthouse and brought him to the bed.

“Come on. Fuck college, let’s just sleep in today.” Kazuya ambushed Chizuru and pulled her into the bed with him.

“Kyaa!”

He hugged her and closed his eyes, using his girl as an amazing and soft body pillow.

Chizuru was also of half a mind to close her eyes and go to sleep in the comfortable arms of her boyfriend.

‘Forget it… I’ll nap for an hour or two… I’m pretty tired anyway.’ Kazuya’s sleepiness was infectious and Chizuru also gave up on her morning lectures and instead went to sleep.

…

The next few weeks went by in a flash.

Chizuru was spending quite a bit of time with her grandma each day.

Ruka had strangely disappeared from both Chizuru and Kazuya’s radar for a while which was suspicious for Kazuya but he didn’t look into it.

Kazuya was working in full force on his AI. 

He knew that no matter how quickly he goes about working on it, he wouldn’t be finished in time.

It was a harrowing time for both Kazuya and Chizuru.

For Chizuru because it was her grandmother who was in this situation.

For Kazuya because Chizuru seemed just so sad to him. She was very good at hiding it and not letting anyone know her state. But Kazuya knew. He could tell.

There were very minor subtleties in her usual expression that gave away to him how much pain she was actually in. 

Things at Nexus were also going well. The military contact had set up another meeting with them. This time their requests were more concrete.

They wanted a functional AI that could pilot drones with the maneuverability that a normal person controlling it using a controller would have.

They needed fully automated cheap scouting drones that would be used to map unknown terrain.

They needed the software to my fully automated, reducing the manpower that would be needed to scout hidden terrain that is otherwise inaccessible via satellite, like forests.

He didn’t mention any war-based applications but Kaguya could read between the lines. She understood that the main application of those drones would be for mapping enemy terrain and locating any specific targets. So the software not only needed to run the drone automatically but also needed facial recognition and a multitude of other features that would be usable for military applications.

After they expressed their intention, Kaguya didn’t give them a concrete answer and told them that she would contact them soon with confirmation and a timeline along with their resource cost.

She consulted Kazuya about how long something like this would take.

“Drone pilots… Honestly, about a week or two. It’s very basic stuff. Tell them that we need six months to deliver their completed product.”

Kaguya was surprised when she heard that such an application would only need two weeks to complete.

“Six months… I understand, I’ll let them know. Do you want me to convey some special requests or need for resources in the meeting?”

“Not really. You can take care of everything at your discretion. I trust you.” Kazuya left everything in the hands of his capable CEO.

“I understand. On another note… Can you tell me what’s going on? The thing with Hayasaka…” Her ever-existing icy expression revealed nothing. It was as if she was indifferent to her own question.

“It’s not a big deal… My secretary comes with some political baggage… I can take care of it, in time… As long as we can delay things until I can get the AI functional…”

“Political baggage, you say… Can you tell me about it? Wait… Nanami, that’s her last name, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Satoshi Nanami… Does he have any relation to her?” Her expression changed ever so faintly.

Kazuya noticed the faintest hint of desperation in that momentary shift in that expression.

‘It’s similar to Ishigami’s desperation…’

“I don’t know… I’ll ask her.” He texted Mami asking her about the name.

-He’s my grandfather. Why do you ask?-

“There you have it. Her grandfather.” Kazuya showed the text to Kaguya.

“So it’s him…” Her words were cryptic.

Kazuya didn’t ask her since he knew that if he asked too much, he’d be pulled into the situation. He’d rather not do that.

“Yeah, Mami’s dad is a bit of a run-down political figure. Mami ran away from home to get away from him. He’s something of a controlling dude. He didn’t like it and sent people after her. That’s it.”

“And you asked Hayasaka to take care of the… ‘leftovers’ as a message to him?”

“Something like that, yeah.”

Kaguya seemed to be deep in thought for a few seconds while she was sitting on the chair in front of Kazuya’s desk.

“May I be frank with you?”

“We’ve been working together for quite a while now. I like to think we’re not only co-workers but also people who have each other’s backs. You don’t need to ask me to be frank with me.” He said with a nonchalant expression.

“…Is that so?”

Kazuya got up from his seat and walked to the couch.

“Come on, take a seat. You seem to be about to make a big revelation.” He patted the couch and invited her to sit on it with him.

She nodded and went to take a seat with him on the couch.

She turned slightly to face him such that their knees were touching.

“I think that I should tell you the real reason that I decided to work for you… Or even the real reason that I didn’t just stay in the US and came back to my home which didn’t really welcome me back with open arms.” Her voice had a very faint undertone of bitterness to it.

Kazuya noticed her everlasting icy expression melting just slightly.