"Since Father is slandering me like this, I suppose I'll have no choice but to bully this Miss Nagasaki Soyo quite thoroughly.
"Tomorrow, I'm planning to go look at properties near Inaba High School. I intend to buy one and convert it into my private research institute. If Ms. Nagasaki or Miss Nagasaki Soyo happens to have time, perhaps we could arrange to meet somewhere near Kaihin-Makuhari.
"Whether or not we can become family is something that can only be confirmed after we've actually met and spent time together."
Hanadasaki Ame chose his words carefully as he spoke.
"A private research institute? Ame, you're… well, never mind. Do whatever it is you want to do. There's not much I can really advise you on anyway.
"I'll talk it over with them first and see whether they have time tomorrow."
After exchanging only a few more words, Hanadasaki Tatsuya quickly hung up.
He would not interfere too much in Hanadasaki Ame's affairs, because he had long since understood that his child was far smarter than he was—sharp in judgment, decisive in action, and, above all, restrained. He was not the sort to indulge his own desires recklessly.
There was already very little left that Hanadasaki Tatsuya could teach him. The only thing he really could do now was support him unconditionally and watch him continue to grow.
A short while later, while taking a walk outside along the road to help digest his meal, Hanadasaki Ame received a message: Nagasaki Soyo had time to meet him tomorrow.
As for Nagasaki Nozomi and Hanadasaki Tatsuya, they were not students and did not have any vacation. They still had to go to work as usual.
Through Nagasaki Nozomi, Hanadasaki Ame obtained Nagasaki Soyo's phone number and Line account.
He tried adding her, and she accepted very quickly. Presumably, someone had already informed her on her end.
Her Line profile picture was a small medicine bottle with a gray cap against a blue background, beside what looked like a small packet of tissues—or perhaps cotton swabs. It might not have been an entirely precise reading, but the profile picture a person chose for social media did tend to reflect their mental state to some extent.
What Hanadasaki Ame sensed from it was instability, irritation, and emotional stagnation.
Meanwhile, Nagasaki Nozomi had described Nagasaki Soyo as gentle and sensible. Combined with what he had already learned in conversation—that Nagasaki Nozomi was a strong career woman—Hanadasaki Ame already had a rough picture of the mother and daughter.
A forceful and ambitious mother.
A daughter who appeared caring and gentle on the surface, but was in truth deeply starved for affection.
A very ordinary situation.
Within a family, there was often a central figure around whom everyone else revolved, making their compromises here and there to preserve the household's stability.
Anyone without an income of their own, or burdened with some other dependency, naturally found it difficult to stand fully independent, and so was easily shaped by the rest of the household.
Most of the time, that could hardly be called a bad thing. After all, parents were meant to educate their children and influence them.
But a woman like Nagasaki Nozomi—a career-driven powerhouse—would naturally spend most of her time immersed in work, leaving little opportunity to truly communicate with Nagasaki Soyo.
A child raised in that sort of environment was bound to develop at least a few small psychological issues.
After giving it some thought, Hanadasaki Ame decided it was not a major problem. As long as Nagasaki Soyo could continue playing the role of the good child, the rest hardly mattered.
What concerned him more was how long his father, Hanadasaki Tatsuya, would actually be able to stay with Nagasaki Nozomi.
At heart, his father did not have much ambition for a career. But because Hanadasaki Ame had solved the family's financial problems through stock trading, Hanadasaki Tatsuya had become much more relaxed, and that ease had in turn made his work life smoother and more effortless. He got along well with superiors at every level, and had been promoted again and again. In that sense, he and Nagasaki Nozomi were fundamentally very different kinds of people.
If they couldn't make it work…
Then they could simply separate.
They were both independent adults, perfectly capable of bearing the consequences of their own choices.
After making that brief assessment, Hanadasaki Ame sent Nagasaki Soyo a message, offering a simple greeting and arranging a meeting time for tomorrow.
Beyond that, there was really nothing more to say.
They genuinely did not know each other.
After wandering about for a little while longer, Hanadasaki Ame returned home and went into the study next to his bedroom. There, he resumed reading and studying, while also attempting to sort through the research knowledge he had obtained from using his ability today.
That knowledge was only partial. It did not include the entirety of his future research results, and it felt somewhat fragmented and discontinuous. He would have to interpret it carefully.
The left and right walls of his study were completely covered by custom-built bookshelves. Several shorter shelves also stood across the room, while near the balcony were a desk and a sofa for rest.
The shelves were crammed with books of every imaginable kind—from the natural sciences to philosophical inquiry, from historical research to cutting-edge technology. The contents were wildly diverse, and nearly every volume he had read was covered in extensive annotations.
The only thing in the study unrelated to learning was a violin stored in its case.
Whenever he grew tired from studying, he would occasionally play it for a while to ease the exhaustion in his heart.
There had been too many bitter, stifling days and nights that he had spent in this study alone.
…
In the top-floor unit of a high-rise apartment building, Nagasaki Soyo curled up on the sofa, staring at the messages on her phone in silence for a long time.
She had only just learned that her mother intended to remarry. It had caught her completely off guard.
They were mother and daughter, dependent on one another—so why did a faint sense of estrangement suddenly arise between them?
No… perhaps it had always been there.
Perhaps she simply had not wanted to look at it.
Her mother was busy with work every single day, and even when she came home, she was usually exhausted. In moments like that, Soyo could never bring herself to ask anything. Much less learn whom her mother had met outside of work, or how long that relationship had continued before it reached the point of marriage.
Just thinking about going tomorrow to meet this completely unfamiliar "little brother" filled her with irritation, anxiety, and a suffocating kind of pain.
She could already imagine how awkward the meeting would be, and how disgusted she would feel having to smile politely and fake her way through the interaction. The thought alone was enough to make her feel like she could barely breathe.
She glanced at her Line contacts. A few classmates from Tsukinomori Girls' Academy had messaged her—ordinary, everyday chatter.
She did not tap into the conversations, only skimmed the snippets visible in the list.
She would be advancing directly from Tsukinomori's middle school division to its high school division, just like many of her classmates. Since they were not being split apart by graduation, it was natural to maintain steady contact.
There were no messages worth replying to.
And from the handful of people she actually cared about, not one had contacted her.
After sitting in silence for a while, Nagasaki Soyo suddenly noticed one particular person.
She was a rather lively girl in Soyo's class, someone with a wide social circle and excellent access to information. It always seemed as though she had connections everywhere.
There was a saying that any two people in the world could be linked through just a few intermediaries. If so, was it possible that this girl could help her gather information on the "little brother" she was supposed to meet tomorrow?
The thought of going into that meeting completely ignorant of who he was was something she simply could not accept.
Vacation was dull enough as it was, so she went ahead and sent a message asking whether the girl might be able to find anything out.
The reply came quickly.
Wait a moment.
So Nagasaki Soyo idly scrolled through social media while she waited.
It did not take long before another message arrived.
They had already found something: the student council president of the first-year class, Yashio Rui, had studied under the same violin teacher as Hanadasaki Ame!
That classmate also sent her Yashio Rui's Line account and told her to add her and ask directly.
Nagasaki Soyo thanked her first, promising to bring her a small gift once school started, and only then sent a friend request to Yashio Rui.
The request was accepted very quickly. Nagasaki Soyo briefly introduced herself, exchanged a few pleasantries, and then moved straight to the point, asking whether Yashio Rui knew Hanadasaki Ame and what kind of impression he had left on her.
Unexpectedly, after falling silent for a minute or two, Yashio Rui sent her a video.
…
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 172)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 116)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter105)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter100)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter69)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter119)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 70
From Junkman to Wasteland 60
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 40
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 66
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 50
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 52
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 55
The Way the Umamusume Look at 42
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 40
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 36
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 30
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 26
My patreon : patreon.com/queen_sin