Chapter 188: An Infinitely Large Overkill Debt?
After sealing Shiyue's soul beneath layers of ocean water, the Dark Game's abyss prison dissolved as the surrounding waves pulled back and faded.
Shio returned to her human appearance. She picked up the scattered dark Cyber Dragon cards from the ground. Among them, she also picked up a small azure gemstone pendant barely two centimeters across, its surface faintly glowing red. This tiny thing was the eternal prison now holding Shiyue Yi's soul.
As for what Shiyue would actually experience inside the abyss prison, Shio had no idea. She had never been to prison herself.
Honestly, all she had really needed to do was defeat Shiyue in an ordinary Dark Game and let the Overkill debt drive her out of Eden. The end result would have been more or less the same.
But Shio admitted to herself that she had let anger take over in that moment. Thinking about the girl she had called a friend, who had in reality been coveting her brother all along. Thinking about how every time Shiyue clung to her and asked to visit the dormitory on weekends, the real purpose was to use Shio as a connection to get close to Amano Rei.
Even at the risk of the Eva mainframe detecting her, Shio had needed to punish Shiyue with her own hands.
It was genuinely dangerous, though. Master Vail had already warned Shio not to casually use Tearlaments power inside Eden. If she was careless, the one who ended up expelled might be Shio herself.
"Next time, I have to hold back." Shio quietly warned herself.
But she already knew. Whenever anything involving Amano Rei came up, holding back was not something she was capable of. Like a strange switch that just had to be pressed once to send her completely off.
The Dark Game in which the Wicked God descended had, through everyone's combined efforts, been kept to the minimum possible damage. Even so, black sludge erosion that had covered nearly two-thirds of the mid-level district still caused significant harm to most buildings.
Even with the mid-level district's Eva system and its very future-cyberpunk automatic building repair functions, the damage area was simply too large. Academy City announced a one-week suspension of classes.
Amano was enjoying a rare break, choosing to spend it lying flat on the dormitory sofa doing nothing.
What he was not entirely used to was this: ever since the duel with Shiyue ended, Finesse had become unreasonably clingy.
This was not the kind of clingy Nanki'in Sakuya brought, the kind where she simply followed him wherever he went. This was the literal kind, where Finesse kept finding reasons to press herself against him.
Maybe it was because her revenge obsession had finally been resolved. Maybe it was because her affection had crossed the 90-point threshold. Either way, whatever polite physical distance Finesse used to manage to maintain when spending time with him had simply ceased to exist.
"Finesse, is this not a little too close?"
On the sofa, Amano was starting to feel genuinely cramped.
Lying around on the sofa during holidays had always been his and Kikawayu's shared hobby. Not long ago, Finesse had looked down on this kind of degenerate lifestyle with visible disdain. But from breakfast this morning, she had pressed herself against Amano on the sofa and showed no interest in moving.
"Is it really that close? I think it feels fine. Right now I don't want to do anything at all. I just want to stay by your side."
So the VSN message she had sent him at the end of yesterday's duel had been completely sincere.
It was hard to know how to put this, exactly. He was used to the young miss running on a packed-to-the-minute schedule. Now that her goal and her obsession with revenge had finally been resolved, the version of Finesse who wanted nothing more than to do absolutely nothing had gained an unexpectedly charming laid-back quality. Especially the way she clung to his arm like a cat, which Amano did not mind in the slightest.
The young miss had genuinely been through a great deal lately. Now that she had truly settled things with the person who killed her mother and completed her revenge, Amano was glad to see her able to relax.
As a side note, after that Wicked God battle, the Wein family's influence across Eden had been surging, at one point threatening to overtake Kaiba Corporation's. Especially Finesse, as the duel's decisive force. Even if she never worked another day in her life, the title of the hero who saved all of Eden would be enough to secure her a commanding position in any future corporate or family competition she chose to enter.
But speaking of what Finesse had gained from that duel, there was one particular detail Amano could not help being curious about.
"Finesse, the infinite Overkill: how much did it actually earn you?"
When an Overkill is completed, even if the defeated duelist's own balance is insufficient to cover the amount, the Eva mainframe will advance a portion of the Overkill reward to the winner and then pursue the debt from the losing party directly. But infinite Overkill points were another matter entirely.
Obviously, Eva was not going to advance an infinite amount of Eva Points to Finesse. If a single person held an infinite sum, collapsing Eden's entire currency system would take nothing more than the tap of a finger.
"It looks like 500,000 Eva Points were added to my account."
500,000. That was probably the entirety of Shiyue's savings. For a middle school student, 500,000 in savings was genuinely extraordinary. But for someone whose true identity was a dark duelist, it was not exactly shocking.
Still. Infinity converting to 500,000, even draining Shiyue's account to the last point, left Amano with the distinct feeling they had come out short.
"It's not only the 500,000." Finesse added. "My account also shows an outstanding Overkill Reward pending collection."
She held up her Eva Terminal for Amano to see.
It did indeed display: [Pending Collection: Overkill Reward: infinity]
"And occasionally, this pending Overkill reward just... releases some Eva Points on its own. Sometimes a few hundred. Sometimes a few thousand. The largest single payout so far was 20,000."
"Is there any pattern to it?" Amano asked.
"None whatsoever." Finesse shook her head. "I don't even know where the money is coming from."
Was it Shiyue, somehow earning money to repay the debt?
Setting aside the sheer impossibility of repaying an infinite debt through earnings, a normal person's thinking would not even attempt to approach it that way. And as for Shiyue herself, she should have died in the Dark Game and would have no means to earn anything.
"Let's check back after a week," Amano suggested.
Even supposing Shiyue was somehow alive and earning as hard as she possibly could, an infinite debt could never be repaid. In a week she would face expulsion from Eden regardless. If after that week the pending Overkill reward was still generating payouts on its own, the source had nothing to do with Shiyue and was connected to something else entirely.
Finesse stretched lazily on the cramped sofa. "Too bad, really. Before, I probably would have been thrilled. But now I'm honestly not that short on money."
"You might not be. I am," Amano muttered quietly.
"Oh? Are you short on money, Rei? Then it's easy enough to fix~" After her lazy stretch, Finesse looked up at Amano with the calm, satisfied eyes of a cat who has spotted its target.
From that smile, Amano got the distinct impression she was already planning something.
He wished he had not spent today's Thought Reading this morning listening to whatever deeply unsuitable things were running through Kikawayu's head.
The following afternoon, Finesse pulled Amano along with Uncle Gong driving, until they arrived in front of a three-story villa-style duplex loft.
"Ta-dah!" Finesse stood in front of the building and made a sweeping gesture. "How about it, Rei? I now own property in the mid-level district!"
Through Latir's arrangements, Finesse had already been gaining more access to family business operations, which had improved her financial situation somewhat. Now, after resolving the Puppeteer and becoming known as Eden's hero, the Wein family was directing resources toward her even more visibly.
But beyond the fame, the main reason they were more willing to allocate resources to Finesse was simply that the Puppeteer matter had finally been put to rest. Before, no matter how much resource Latir and Karl sent her way, she would convert everything usable into money and connections for investigating the Puppeteer. Things were different now.
This villa, which had originally been under Karl's name as a newly developed property, was transferred directly and generously to Finesse.
"And I specifically told Second Brother to add your name to the deed when transferring ownership. So right now, half of this villa belongs to you too!"
So he had not managed to escape the fate of being gifted a luxury property by a wealthy woman after all.
It was not as sprawling as the Nanki'in estate with its garden and grounds, but a duplex loft villa had a genuine warmth to it that the estate's formality lacked.
"Kikawayu and Shio can move in tomorrow too. From now on we don't have to be crammed onto that small dorm sofa!"
Finesse grabbed Amano's wrist and pulled him through the front door.
"But tonight, let's have just the two owners of this villa get settled in first!"
The entire afternoon, Finesse maintained this state of barely contained energy, leading Amano back and forth through every room and giving him a detailed tour of every corner of the villa's layout.
Amano kept getting the feeling that today's Finesse was a little too enthusiastic about all of this. Even more enthusiastic than he was, and he was the one who had just received half a building.
As the sky began to darken, Finesse, having finished her thorough tour, finally pulled Amano to the largest room on the third floor.
"This is the room I prepared especially for you, Rei. Take a look. Are you satisfied with it?"
Even though the sky outside had mostly faded, the last of the evening light filtered through sheer curtains and fell across a room that needed very little help to be impressive. Luxurious furniture, professional interior design, well-considered use of the space. Even a genuinely demanding person would have struggled to find anything to object to.
Amano was not a demanding person.
"Only... a double bed might be a bit large for just one person."
A single bed would cost less and leave more floor space.
Click.
Before the thought even finished forming, the door was locked behind him by Finesse.
With both hands behind her back, Finesse slowly moved closer.
The last of the evening sun fell across the girl's smooth flowing red hair, lighting up the flush across her face in a way that could not have been more obvious.
"Uh... young miss?"
"Tonight, you may only call me Finesse."
Finesse's slender pale fingers came to rest gently against Amano's neck.
"Our souls have already been connected beyond the physical. So something like this is not really strange, is it, Rei?"
Through the fading golden light, looking at Finesse's face up close, Amano's heartbeat began speeding up on its own.
"My mother once told me that a girl's first time is very important. But this is my fully considered decision. You don't need to feel any pressure at all, Rei."
"Finesse, I..."
He never finished the sentence. The approaching scent of lemon took care of that entirely.
Was this really happening tonight?
So she was completely serious about this?
Doubting in a moment like this was genuinely unfair to Finesse. But out of caution, Amano activated the Thought Reading skill.
Thought 1: I like him. I like him so much. I really really like him.
Thought 2: I absolutely will not let you escape.
Thought 3: You are mine tonight.
There was no getting out of this.
Especially given how clearly Finesse had been planning and setting this up well in advance, going to the trouble of bringing him here to a villa that almost nobody knew about. There was no dormitory scenario here, no chance of being rescued by someone wandering in at the critical moment.
He had been completely and thoroughly cornered.
So this was the kind of feedback that came with 94 affection points.
Fine. He conceded. She had won this one, Finesse Wein.
That night, both of them grew up a great deal.
[Finesse] [Affection +4] [Affection: 98]
The next morning, watching Finesse sleep in the covers beside him, Amano found himself reflecting quietly.
A man's first time is also important.
But with a partner like Finesse, he truly had no complaints.
Her appearance was unquestionably top-tier. Fair and smooth skin, long legs. Aside from being somewhat flat in one area, there was nothing else to fault.
If forced to name another flaw, he supposed she had been rather relentlessly enthusiastic from start to finish, which had made things somewhat hard to keep up with.
But that quality, much like the flatness, was not really a flaw in any meaningful sense.
Sensing him stir, Finesse quietly opened her eyes. Her silver-grey gaze settled on Amano with complete and unhurried sincerity.
"More?"
"How about... trying something else first?"
"What do you mean? Position?"
"Skill."
Now that the two of them could genuinely be considered to have confirmed their relationship, there were some things Amano no longer had reason to keep to himself.
He genuinely wanted to try with Finesse what the vaguely described Union of Kindred Spirits skill actually did in practice.
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