[Unknown POV]
"So, sweetie, what's he offering now?" the man asked while watching his live feed of 'strong men'.
I replied with the utmost respect and professionalism to my boss, knowing that my life could be discarded at his whim. "He has requested the timeline of the task to be moved up, whether accident or not, he'll handle the cover-up, and he's willing to pay double for the commission."
"Hmmm..."
"There's also some information I was able to dig up about the other target, number 27, the 'red rose'."
"Oh?"
He seemed pleased by my capabilities at least. 'I guess I'll live another day.'
"She was last seen in Heilongjiang at the underground arena."
"Wonderful..."
[Kuzan POV]
"Huhf."
"You okay, Kuzan?" Diana asked me while putting her right hand on my shoulder.
"It's nothing, I just felt chilly all of a sudden."
"It must be because we're descending. Come on, let's get ready to disembark," the girl provided a perfectly valid explanation for my feelings.
'Why then am I feeling so jumpy right now?'
I could see it, but for a moment, in the blink of an eye my [Willful Eye] skill activated for a split second showing me a confusing image that I was barely able to recognize.
'This damn skill, always being so useless.' I had, of course, tried to train it multiple times to 'upgrade,' however, its use was completely out of my control, only 'activating' when it felt like it.
I had learned through my continuous testing that the more I analyzed 'different' martial artists, the faster it would get closer to 'leveling-up.' However, despite the many masters I had met and studied under in Japan, it refused to 'break through.'
'There must be certain conditions to it. Using preexisting knowledge about its behavior, I would assume it has something to do with the quality of the individual and their 'uniqueness.'
'I'm sure it would evolve if I met him, but I'm just not willing to take that risk yet. Hopefully, he'll also be enough of a prize to unlock it.'
'I mean, come on, what am I supposed to do with a flag?'
[10 minutes later]
We had finally finished our landing and the boarding stairs had even been opened up.
I rushed down the stairs, not wanting to waste a second further.
"Kuzan!!!" Of course, the first one to 'welcome me' would be my sister, who excitedly pulled me into a hug after so long.
I decided not to ruin the familial moment by mentioning the tears in her eyes, especially considering I was a bit rude for the past few weeks, not even returning their calls unnecessarily.
"It's good to see you too after so long, Melissa, and don't worry, I've already packed all the sweets from Japan before leaving!"
The girl seemed even more ecstatic now that I had mentioned not forgetting her precious treasures.
"And of course it's good to see you too, Xiao Li." I decided to ignore the girl's attempt to greet me with a small handshake and pulled her into the same brotherly hug from a moment ago.
"I hope that you've been enjoying your time here with my sister." I asked the girl, instead receiving a response from my sister on her behalf.
"Of course she has. Now come on, where's Diana?"
I sent a small sneaking glance at Xiao Li's face, only to see a lukewarm response to the mention of her name.
"She's still in the aircraft, waking up Uncle Lander. She'll be here in a moment."
'Thank God, looks like they did have some kind of a conversation before coming here.'
I had initially thrown the responsibility of managing these things to my sister, despite knowing that it was like giving alcohol to an alcoholic or like giving a pitchfork to a devil, but I had no other choice.
'There was no way I was gonna take time dealing with it myself, and if I started to just ignore them, that would only get more annoying down the road.'
'Plus, I couldn't tell Aunt Elizabeth about all of this. I'm sure that if she got wind of it, instead of dealing with the antics of the little devil, I would have to deal with Lucifer himself.'
So, the responsibility of managing my 'relationships' fell on my dear old sister, 'who did a pretty good job by the looks of things.'
At least I thought so, considering the ease by which Diana introduced herself to her and shook her hand. It was a cordial meeting, nothing more.
"Yes, a sweet exchange of greetings, nothing more." I continued pushing the issue onto the future Kuzan to deal with, effectively choosing to ignore the 'sparks of lightning' coming out of both of their eyes while 'analyzing' each other.
'This goddammit skill.'
I decided to move the meeting along after greeting everyone present, including my Aunt and Uncle Albert. Uncle Ikaria was currently awaiting our arrival with a big celebration dinner at home.
"We have so much to catch up on, everyone, and I have so much to talk to you about, including another family vacation pretty soon-"
"Where, Kuzan, where!" I was interrupted in my statements, however, by my sister, who couldn't wait to 'explore' once again.
"Actually, why don't we wait for all of our talks during dinner?" I decided to be the one to do the honors and began teasing my sweet little sister first, sensing a feeling of comfort wash over me as we began our little quips, getting back to our routine.
"Humph, fine." The girl in question turned her head away, acting like the 'victim' of my 'bullying' once again.
I rolled my eyes at her behavior and prompted everyone to enter the limousine, refusing to continue our chats until we reached home.
Thankfully, neither my Aunt nor my Uncle were opposed to either Uncle Lander or Diana 'discovering' the location of our mansion. They had both earned our family's trust years ago, despite technically being 'outsiders.'
In Xiao Li's case, both Melissa and I had to convince Aunt Elizabeth of our trust in her for her to be let into our home.
The location of our home wasn't a family secret or anything, 'I think at least,' but the number of people outside the family who knew of its exact location could be counted on one hand.
'Even the guards only patrolled 'around' the surrounding forest rather than the home itself.'
'Even to get in or out of the mansion, you have to use one of the 'hidden' exits, which have a number of safety measures and confirmation checkpoints.'
'Even Master Shikai Bun, I'm sure, would be unable to get through without alerting everyone of his presence.'
'Why then am I focusing so much on their safety?' I took a quick glance at my sister, who was currently chatting away with the other two girls, trying to break the 'ice' between them.
'Just to be safe, I'll go with the more 'secure' plan. I'll just have to direct Uncle Ikaria of a few things. It's fine.'
I continued tapping my index fingers while thinking of any improvements I could make to my instructions just in case, earning a worried look from my sister, who was aware of my habits.
"Don't worry about it. It's nothing. We've almost arrived." I assured my sister while pointing out our arrival back home.
"Uncle Ikaria." I went to the old man and gave him a strong hug before entering the mansion.
"Young master, you've truly grown up. It's so wonderful to see you. You've brought true joy to this old man's heart." The old butler continued in his pleadings while wiping tears from both his face and his glasses.
"I can now die in peace knowing the Rosen family won't be cut off. Even your father wasn't such an 'accomplished' man at your age, only having your mother after coming of age..."
I decided to stop feeling 'bad' for the old butler and entered the house, ignoring his 'words of wisdom.'
I let out a small sigh and waited for everyone to get accustomed before starting our discussions.
"So, Kuzan, we're having dinner now. You promised to tell me!" The girl laid down her accusation, leaving no room for debate, despite only having had a spoonful of food before 'laying down the law.'
"Ok, ok, just don't talk with your mouth full or Uncle Ikaria will get mad..."
"So here's the thing, I've got some tickets for the greatest martial arts tournament in China and I wanted to invite everyone to watch-"
"WHAT!" To my surprise, even Mr. Lander had quite a strong response to my invitation. The man was literally bawling his eyes out while grasping my hands in gratitude.
"Do you mean the Great Raitai Tournament, my dear boy?" Ignoring Mr. Lander's weird tone of voice, I maintained my dignity and responded in kind, trying my best to maintain the 'serious' attitude of the conversation.
"Yes, Mr. Lander, I was even able to get us all front-row seats." I spoke to the man with a smile while at the same time afraid of giving the man a heart attack.
"How, young man? Even I wasn't able to book us tickets to the event. How did you do it, Kuzan?" The man seemed ecstatic beyond belief, continuously shaking my hand while doing so.
"Well, you know, participants get to invite a certain number of people-"
"WHAT!" The man seemed even more shocked as the conversation continued.
I raised my eyebrows at his question, acknowledging the missing link in communication. 'I thought he knew?'
"I have to participate, of course, as a Kaiou-"
"WHAT!!!" It seemed that the 3-strike combo was finally too much for the old man, as he collapsed in his chair.
"He's just being dramatic, don't worry." Considering even his own beloved niece wasn't worried for him, we decided to ignore him and restart our discussions.
"Yeah, so we're going back to China eventually."
"You said 'eventually', where else are we going, Kuzan? Come on, I know you're still hiding something, tell me, tell me-"
"Fine, fine." I held out my hands to prevent the little munchkin from screaming any further.
Still, I decided to tease. "We're going to a museum."
"A museum? What kind of museum, where is it?"
"Its a museum with only one-no, two artifacts."
"Stop being so mysterious, Kuzan!" Melissa pouted, clearly annoyed by my vague answers. "Whats the point in going to a museum like that?"
"Oh, but my dear sister, that's where you're wrong. This museum is definately worth a visit, after all..."
"It houses the greatest treasure to the human race."