Harem Sync: Divine Edition

Chapter 125: Haruki Sent Me

Yukihime was in the children’s courtyard with four permanent followers and two who were still deciding whether to follow or not.

Genius arrived through the gate like any visitor.

"Tio Genius!" Yukihime dropped what she was doing and went— not running desperately, but running in her own way, straight, fast, with that specific kitsune dignity that doesn’t abandon even in speed.

She hugged him around the waist with the strength of a child who doesn’t calibrate.

Genius held her without stepping back.

"You’ve grown." He said.

"I haven’t grown..."

"You have..."

She let go. Took a step back. Looked at him with that child’s old evaluation.

"Uncle has the eyes of someone calculating something."

"I always am."

"More than normal."

Genius kept looking at her.

"Yukihime."

"Daughter of Haru Mizuki, who is Tokyo, who is the guy who was on the other side of the courtyard this morning and disappeared before I got there."

"And who is probably in Sector B right now revealing the crystal I deduced existed but didn’t know the exact location of."

"I need a favor." He said.

Yukihime crossed her arms.

"Oh." The followers noticed the atmosphere changed and stepped away discreetly.

"Your father is in this academy." Genius said.

"I know."

"I need to know which sector he is focusing on."

Yukihime looked at him for a moment.

"She’s calculating." Genius noticed. "Eight years old and already calculating."

"Uncle wants me to spy on dad." She said.

"I want information."

"It’s spying."

"It’s an exchange of information between allies."

"Uncle has nothing I want."

"I do."

Pause.

"What?"

Genius took from his pocket a small envelope, sealed with a wax stamp that wasn’t from the academy.

"A letter from your grandfather." He said. "Baron Valtherion. It arrived at my house addressed to you via the Genials House because someone didn’t know your address here yet."

Yukihime stared at the envelope.

"Grandfather."

"Who she never met."*

"Who is going to the capital because of Haru and Isabela."

"And who wrote to her first."

She took the envelope.

She did not open it in front of Genius.

"Sector B." She said. "Dad is focused on Sector B. And there’s a group with him, Mother Isabela, Kira, and Golden... they will be there."

Genius processed.

"Sector B."

"Same as I deduced."

"But he will arrive there through physical knowledge and I through calculation."

"And he is revealing now or has already revealed."

"Thank you." He said.

"Uncle." Yukihime called before he left.

Genius stopped.

"Dad doesn’t like losing." She said. "But he likes even more when someone keeps up with him."

Genius looked at her.

"She’s telling me I can go to Sector B."

"That Tokyo won’t treat me as an enemy."

"I know." He said.

...LATER THE SAME DAY...

Morrow returned.

He found Armand in the same place where the morning had started, Room 14, but now empty, only him sitting in a chair with his legs stretched out, looking at the ceiling like someone waiting for someone to arrive exactly at that moment.

"You wanted to talk to me." Morrow said, standing at the door.

Armand didn’t look up immediately.

"Sit."

Morrow sat. Tense. Waiting for the scolding.

He told everything, the confrontation in Sector F, the push, the disqualification, the dropped fragments that Dex had picked up and then used poorly.

Armand listened.

Without interrupting. Without showing reaction. Just listening, with that specific patience of someone who already knew the ending of the story before it began being told.

"So you’re not mad at me?" Morrow asked when he finished.

"I’m not."

"But I was disqualified." Morrow insisted, almost needing Armand to confirm the failure so it would make sense. "I lost the test. I failed."

Armand finally looked at him.

"Calm down." He said. "I knew you would be disqualified."

"What do you mean?"

"You are the missing variable in my plans."

Morrow fell silent, processing.

"Come." Armand stood. "I’ll explain."

...PRESENT — MAIN CORRIDOR...

The group Haru had formed in Sector B had yielded more than he expected, not in value per crystal, but in volume. Five small crystals collected before the natural split happened: Isabela and Kira going their own way, two new students following their own path after gathering enough points to be satisfied.

Only Golden and Haru remained.

Again.

"Good." Golden commented looking at the points. "We got a lot but they were few points because of the split."

"As expected."

"You don’t seem upset about it."

"I’m not." Haru said. "Let’s go."

"Where to?"

"To someone. Today is the last day. It’s going to heat up."

...

They found him at the same high point as always, legs stretched out, toothpick, watching the movement below with the expression of someone watching a play whose script he already knows but still appreciates the performance.

"Do you have something related to the test?" Haru asked, climbing up to him.

The Chinese man didn’t answer immediately.

"Why did you wait this long?"

Haru thought, looking at the horizon. "Today is the last day. The cheapest crystals have already been found."

On the other side of the academy, in the artificial forest, Genius was thinking exactly the same thing, walking slowly between the trees, calculating with the same logic. "Now only the valuable ones remain." Haru thought. "And they are hidden as they should have been from the beginning."

"Too much simplicity creates complexity."

"Do you know the location of the rare crystals?" Golden asked directly.

"But isn’t that cheating?" The Chinese man asked back.

"No." Golden replied. "You’re not in the test. You’re not looking for crystals. You’re just talking."

The Chinese man looked at him with that expression that never changed.

"Interesting argument." He said.

"It’s true."

"Truth and rules rarely live in the same house." The Chinese man spat the toothpick, took another from his pocket. "But in this case... maybe they do..."

Silence.

"I don’t know where the rare crystals are." The Chinese man said finally. "I wasn’t part of this test format. In my year it was direct combat... but"

Haru cut him off. "You’re not helping because you like observing given situations given reactions..."

"But I can do something else for you." The Chinese man continued, looking directly at Haru now, ignoring Golden.

"What’s the price?" Haru asked.

The Chinese man smiled, slow, genuine.

"Depends."

The wind hit hard at the top of the stands, cold, sharp, bringing the smell of rain that had not yet arrived.

Haru asked, not out loud, not for Golden to fully hear, just a short phrase that got lost in the wind even as it left his mouth.

The Chinese man stared at him for a long second.

Then he smiled again, different this time.

And disappeared from the stands without anyone seeing exactly how.

"What did you ask?" Golden asked.

"It doesn’t matter now." Haru said. "Let’s align."

"Align what?"

"The remaining fragments."

Golden took out the envelope, revealing everything he had, a considerable amount, the result of negotiation and information trade he had accumulated like someone who never stops calculating.

Haru did the same, he had little, comparatively.

"From now on you reveal the crystals." Haru said.

"But that’s fewer points for you." Golden looked at him. "It would be better if you knew exactly where each of those fragments are."

"I do."

"What!?"

"I do." Haru repeated, simple, without unnecessary emphasis. "But I want you to be the one revealing."

Golden stared at him for a moment, processing what that meant.

"He knows the locations." He thought. "And still wants me to appear in the records as the one who revealed."

"Why?"

He didn’t ask out loud. He chose to trust, the kind of trust that had been costly to build but now came naturally.

"Let’s go." Haru said. "It’s getting night. It will intensify."

In the service courtyard the head continuous was there with Whisky grazing beside him, the animal calm, the owner equally calm, both seeming completely detached from the chaos unfolding across the academy.

"Hey, boss." Haru said arriving, showing the map fragment.

The boss looked at him.

"You guys are really lazy." He said. "First day was fast... now you come at night asking for what exactly?"

"Route confirmation." Haru said.

The boss looked at the fragment Haru showed, an area he knew, an area he had cleaned together with Haru weeks ago.

He sighed.

"The map is in the kitchen...."

...ARTIFICIAL FOREST — GENIUS...

Genius closed his eyes.

Opened them again.

[Genius Eyes: Activated]

The entire forest gained a different outline, every shadow processed, every leaf movement calculated against expected wind patterns, any anomaly immediately highlighted against the predictable background.

He walked slowly, attentive, the kind of attention that did not tire because it was more calculation than physical effort.

He stopped.

He heard something.

He jumped without thinking, trained reflex from months of situations exactly like this.

BLAST.

It cut through the tree where he had been standing seconds before, clean, precise, energy enough to split the entire trunk.

Genius landed on another tree, higher, evaluating.

"Careful not to break the crystal." he thought. "It must be somewhere here."

From the shadow, a figure stepped out, half-open eyes, constant smile, nunchaku spinning slowly between fingers like a toy that never stops moving.

"Who is this?" Genius thought.

"Chinese." The man said, a full introduction in one word.

He launched another blast, cutting the tree in half.

Genius had already jumped.

"Shit." He thought mid-air, recalculating trajectory. "First: if he’s attacking, he’s not a first-year and might break the crystal. Second: I can’t fight back without being disqualified. Third: why is he attacking me?"

"Haruki sent me." The Chinese man said, advancing, not running, walking, as if speed wasn’t necessary when you already know where the prey will be.

Genius dodged.

"What!?"