Chapitre 69: Peace

Kazuya lazily sat in the living room of the Kouzuki household. He had just finished his training and was watching TV while trying to recover. He switched the channels until he finally found the news where he was waiting for a certain report that he had been worried about.

"[A boy is currently missing who is about the age of 18. Here is his most recent photograph, please inform any of the authorities if you have seen or have any details about his whereabouts, his name is…]" Kazuya continued watching the news and breathed a sigh of relief.

"[Good news for all those who thought that artificial intelligence will never be available in this generation! The innovative and mysterious company has just released their demo for an artificial intelligence network that will allow users to interact with the company's main mascot Rucy!] The male announcer said.

"[Wow, you sure are fired up for this invention]" The female announcer giggled.

"[Of course! I went to the technological expo myself and was quite skeptical after their announcement. Kazuno Technologies have been slowly gaining recognition with the numerous number of useful programs that we never even imagined would be useful. Who knew that everything was a prelude to something like this?]"

"[What exactly did you see?]"

"[It was exactly as they advertised it! Rucy-chan was so cute and even responded to anything I could think of perfectly! She also has the ability to connect herself with all the programs that Kazuno Technologies have collaborations with to even be more useful to their masters! Such a masterpiece]"

"[Wow, a complete virtual assistant that responds to voice commands? Are you sure about this?]"

"[I'm sure. Some may think that I'm being paid for advertisement but I assure you I'm not. I was the one who shamelessly used my identity to spend more time with Rucy-chan in the demo room just so that I could confirm more of my suspicions on my own. This just might be the invention of the year… no the century!]"

Kazuya couldn't help but give a bitter laugh after hearing the excited news reporter. He was present at the technological expo that was held in their prefecture and was the one who permitted the journalist to extend his time with the demo. This was because this announcer was later revealed to be a closet otaku in the future.

It turned out to be more than he expected as the company got free advertisement in the news because of him. Both him and Mei couldn't show themselves to the public yet so he let the inventors themselves led by Void Android and Squid Buddha to present and supervise the demo for their company.

This was one of the promises he gave his employees when he first tried to get them to join. They would be recognized for their inventions if they do so wished. It was because of this that made majority of them think that the strict contract wasn't really a bad because the company was also risking itself for the sake of their seemingly hopeless inventions.

"Kazuya! Where are your glasses?" Kyouko walked inside and immediately noticed the absence of the glasses she bought for him.

"Err… I just finished training so I haven't worn them because of the sweat" he glanced around and found it sitting near the window.

It had been a little over two years since the incident with Lee in the national tournament. Kyouko had become more overprotective of her son and would get him anything that she thought would protect him from any kind of harm. She recently watched a documentary about the dangers of radiation, hence, the presence of the glasses she always wanted him to wear.

"(Mom… even if it was severe radiation, that wouldn't even faze me)" he thought in his mind before moving to get the glasses.

"Good! Have you seen Mei?" She was looking for her assistant who was supposed to be slacking off.

"Nope. She left early with Yumi-nee-san in the morning" Kazuya pretended not to know what they were up to.

"Seriously… she's taking Yumi-chan's mentoring too seriously. She's been doing that ever since she started college and she's already working now!" Kyouko complained.

Yumi was hired as one of the assistants under Kyouko. No one complained as she was a Fujiyama and she directly learned from Mei which made her showcase her talents to convince everyone of her position. She was known as the Ice Queen's successor or the Ice Princess.

"Don't worry about them too much mom. I'm here so I'll play with you, okay?" Kazuya held her hand. He didn't want her to worry about Mei and Yumi too much because everything they were doing was going to help her in the future.

"Really? You've been really busy with your friend Takaya-kun lately so I thought it would just be me today" she snuggled up to her son. This would always calm her down and relax her especially whenever she's anxious.

She was happy. What Mei told her was correct. All her son needed was time. Because of the message Kazuya said at the end of the video when he was with Lee, Kyouko decided to let go of wanting his memories to return and just accepted him as he now was.

As time passed, her decision yielded fruits as the usual Kazuya began to smile more and more and even let her spoil him like she used to. He was no longer the moody child he once was.

"Mom, I'm still covered in sweat so let me change okay?"

"Don't worry about it. Your scent soothes me you know. It may not be long before I won't have the privilege to hold you like this you know"

"Hmm? Why not?" he tilted his head looking confused.

"Silly boy. Won't you be embarrassed to be seen by people, especially girls to be spoiled by your mom like this?" Kyouko giggled at her son's surprising innocence.

"Why would I be? My mom the best among all the other girls. I wouldn't be embarrassed by such a thing"

"You promise?"

"In the name of the Kou—" Kyouko put a finger on his lips. "You shouldn't say that so lightly. The future is still far ahead and you might regret making such a promise" she appreciated the thought but she didn't want her son to be bound by such a promise once he starts to chance when he hit puberty.

"You worry too much mom. I'll always be your son and you'll always have the right to give me a hug. I'll just show you instead of being bound by a promise" Kazuya gave her a hug and kissed her forehead. He grew a lot closer to Kyouko especially after Mei had gotten a lot busier. He finally understood how it was like to have a mother care for him so he made sure to let his mother know how she was loved.

"Uuuu… I'm going to cry if it turns out you were lying to me" she held him closer and wished that his words really were the truth. He was growing up very quickly and she couldn't carry him in her arms anymore.

Kazuya had grown a lot taller in the past two years. He didn't know how tall he was during this time in his life but he felt that he was taller than he should be because despite his average height during his middle school years, he was already taller than most of his peers.

He wasn't the only one. Tomoyo didn't let his growth spurt catch up to her as the pat loving girl made it too obvious when she lowered herself just so he could pat her. This made him come up with his own theory about mana helping with the growth of earthlings who have the capacity to use them.

Because of their growth spurt, Jirou now had a hard time whenever he would spar with the two. This was more apparent in the case of Kazuya who more or less already mastered every single style he was either taught or gone up against during his time with them.

Since things were relatively peaceful for the past two years, Kazuya has had a lot of time to study the book given to him by the demon king. He even tried a few experiments on his own and added a few theories he felt should be added as well as tried a few tests to answer some of the questions his predecessor needed to do on earth.

The Kurogane Conglomerate suffered a heavy blow from the collaborated attack from both the Kouzuki Corporation and Stockton International. They were not able to implement a media block because of the presence of the more powerful influence in the hands of the father of the girl which Lee involved in his revenge.

That was not all. The conglomerate expressed very strongly that Hashiyama Lee had already been disowned by their family for his independent attacks against Kazuya. The gun Lee used was found at the scene and ballistics confirmed that the gun was registered to the Kurogane family which further implicated them to have been behind the attack.

However, due to the lack evidence to support their actual involvement to the incident, Kazuya's statement in the video which let him convince the men Lee hired actually helped the Kurogane family a little. That being said, the Kurogane family steered clear from any conflicts between the Kouzuki family now that they have Stockton International at their backs.

*RING RING*

"Your phone is ringing Kazuya" Kyouko reminded her son who didn't seem to want to answer the call after seeing who it was trying to contact him.

[Stockton Kurumi]

*sigh* "I'll go and take the call and get changed. We can go out to play or we can stay home if you want to" Kazuya excused himself.

Kazuya never actually expected Kurumi to have been involved in the incident nor did he expect for Lee to make such a move. It would have been good if he did which was he had hidden his cellphone inside his kendo uniform. Kurumi's presence the moment he put himself in a corner changed his plans a lot especially since Lee's plans actually involved him showing himself.

The girl who had a bad habit of showing herself whenever he least expected it seemed to have brought over this trait from his previous life. She could have potentially ruined everything he had planned, so after confirming that she indeed had relations with him before he lost his memories, he made her swear to never speak of it. This was a kind of test that he had set for her as well as a risk since there was not way of dealing with the situation without the other party getting her involved.

Unfortunately for Kazuya, unlike his expectations, Kurumi had kept her word which made him realize that this troublesome girl and the weird girl from his previous life highly valued their lost relations. She never even showed signs of breaking her oath even after getting hit by one of the assailants. He didn't know what her intentions were in both lifetimes but the fact that he now owed her a debt was real.

To make matters worse, her father stepped in as he expected the moment she got involved. He even came up with a crazy condition that no one should interfere with their friendship. This put pressure on him to not to fully reject this girl like he initially intended. Stockton International went all out in their cooperation to help them suppress all the influence the Kurogane Conglomerate had to try and cover up this incident. They even suffered a financial loss to give them a warning that messing with them was not an option they could choose without repercussions.

He had mixed emotions about how to handle this person. Kazuya thought that everything would have been much simpler if she had told in in his previous life that they were friends before he lost his memories. Even if she didn't want to claim something like that, she could have simply told him that she wanted to be his friend. He would not have thought as much as he needed to or avoid her as much as he did if she had done so.

"Hello?" he reluctantly answered the phone.

"Good afternoon Kazuya-kun. How are you today?" She sounded a bit nervous but she always would at the beginning. Kazuya found this amusing because this girl had always been afraid that he might reject her calls at any time.

"I'm the same as always. I just finished training and will be going to be doing things with my mom after I get a little rest and get changed" He replied while he picked out the clothes he was going to change to.

Even though her father wanted the two to become friends, they actually haven't up after he had gotten discharged from the hospital. This was mainly because he learned that she had the intention of transferring to Sacred Forest Academy.

He encouraged her and didn't find anything wrong with this idea because she was an upperclassman in middle school in the same academy much like Shiroyukl Tomoyo. But what he didn't know that his encouragement made her even more motivated to study. Kurumi had to settle for making phone calls and sending messages for the time being.

"Did you call because you had some trouble with your studies again?" he knew this girl would make such excuses to call so he wasted no time and asked her. Kyouko had been a little troubled with work lately so he wanted to help his mother to have a relaxing day off.

In his first life, Kazuya had a cell phone that he used to contact work or contact Mei. He really didn't have anything much to use it for. A full charge on would usually last him a few days but it was quite the opposite in this life. He would sometimes have a difficult time keeping his phone alive for half a day and would have to use his mana to charge it up at school.

*BEEP*

"Huh?" his phone reminded him that he received a message as he was in a call.

"What's wrong Kazuya-kun? Did something happen?" Kurumi started getting nervous again.

"It's nothing. I just received a message" he looked at his phone and it was another one of the culprits.

Kurumi was fond of giving him calls while this person stuck to her nickname as a 'robot' and started sending him messages as soon as she learned how to use a cellphone by herself. These two, combined with Mei and Kyouko would make him thankful for being able to discover training intricate mana control so that he could charge his cellphone conveniently.

"It's not that important so you can tell me what you called me for" Kazuya decided that finishing this call was more of a priority so he decided to ignore the robot girl for now.

"Well… I have good news! I've finally passed the transfer exam and will be transferring to Sacred Forest Academy immediately!"