Tokyo: After years of stagnation, the heiress of the yakuza arrives.

Luxury apartment.

Tokyo was completely dark, and an endless sea of ​​lights stretched out outside the floor-to-ceiling windows. In the distance, traffic moved slowly on the elevated highway, with red taillights forming thin strips of light.

Looking down from dozens of floors above, the entire city was as quiet as a shrunk map placed on a table.

Onodera Zanne sat in the study, her long hair draped over her shoulders, and she had changed into a light-colored loungewear dress.

The two zoo tickets I used today were pressed into a transparent folder, along with student council materials, archery club application forms, and several industry reports with values ​​ending in many zeros.

The phone on the table was on speakerphone.

"The handover in the Kansai region must begin before graduation."

A middle-aged man's voice came from the other end of the phone; it was deep and steady, revealing little emotion.

"Logistics along Osaka Bay, hotels and tourism projects in Kyoto, financial companies in Kobe, and schools, hospitals, real estate and local media in which the family holds shares—you can't wait until you get your diploma to become familiar with these things."

"The board has compiled the first batch of names and will send them to Tokyo tomorrow."

Onodera Zanne looked down at a page of information on the tablet and said gently, "No need to send anyone over, the electronic version is fine."

"Some things can't be judged solely by reports."

"Documents that require my signature can be sent in encrypted form, meetings that require my presence can be held online, and for events that require my personal attendance, please notify me three days in advance so I can make the necessary arrangements."

There was a two-second silence on the other end of the phone.

The man didn't seem surprised by the answer, but simply rephrased it: "Canyin, this isn't about helping you manage a few companies, nor is it about those projects I gave you to practice on before."

"The family is preparing to gradually hand over the real core businesses to you, and you must make sure that those below you can see you."

"If those industries only function properly when I'm in the office, it means the people currently in charge are incompetent, and they should be replaced."

"People are not just numbers on a report."

"Therefore, a change is even more necessary. At least the numbers won't suddenly change their stance just because half-siblings are sitting in a meeting room."

The study fell silent again.

The person on the other end of the phone was the current head of the Onodera family, and also Onodera Zanne's father in a blood sense.

When people in the Kansai area mention him, they subconsciously lower their voices and put the words "head of the family" after his surname.

Because that's not the title of an ordinary family, but rather the final point of contact for a whole network of relationships spanning both the political and business circles of Kansai.

From port logistics in Osaka Bay to vast tracts of land and tourism in Kyoto and Nara, and then to Kobe's financial, trade, and medical systems, the Onodera family's influence extends almost throughout the Kansai region.

The shadow of that family can be seen behind local councils, schools, media outlets, private railways, and countless companies with cross-shareholdings.

Unlike the Jingu family, the Onodera family did not establish its roots in Tokyo, and rarely made a conscious effort to demonstrate its presence nationwide.

But in the Kansai region, many seemingly unrelated companies, organizations, and individuals, if traced back several layers through their funds and connections, will eventually come to share the same surname.

Onodera.

The King of Kansai.

This wasn't some exaggerated nickname that a few students at school casually came up with for a rich young lady just to appear well-informed.

It is a fact that many people tacitly agree on in private, but would not discuss in public.

There can only be one head of the family.

The problem is that the Onodera family has never lacked people who want to take this position, nor has it lacked children with the blood of the head of the family flowing in their veins.

The current head of the family has many women: some are openly married, some live discreetly in other residences, some stay by his side for personal gain, and some leave after the relationship ends, taking enough resources with them.

A family affairs office needs to maintain a dedicated list to avoid embarrassing situations related to birthdays, parties, and the order of succession.

With more women, there are naturally more children.

The half-siblings are scattered from the family home to overseas, and some of them have independent trusts, company shares and complete upbringing paths from birth.

Others were arranged to marry into different families, and some didn't even appear in the most prominent position in the family tree.

Only when the family truly needs it will someone rummage through the thick archives to confirm whether there is any bloodline that could be utilized that has been overlooked.

The man on the other end of the phone let out a soft sigh: "Your brothers and sisters are all at this house tonight; they have objections to the handover list."

"A written objection may be submitted."

"They believe that written objections won't reach you."

"It's definitely not possible to get there."

Onodera Zannen's tone remained gentle: "Without data, without alternatives, and only the fact that I should receive more documents containing this kind of information, the secretary will simply return them."

"Several people believe that the secretary dared to return it because you had already taken control of the administrative office."

Onodera Zannen lightly swiped his finger across the screen, zooming in on a quarterly report from Osaka.

"It wasn't pre-emptive control. The head of the affairs office was reappointed last month through a family meeting, and the number of votes in favor exceeded the required percentage. There were no procedural issues."

"Those who opposed you had just been disqualified from voting before that meeting due to issues with funding, taxes, and projects."

"Therefore, they should deal with their own problems first."

The man fell silent again.

This is Onodera Zannen.

She doesn't slam her fist on the conference table, rarely says anything with obvious threats, and maintains a gentle tone that makes people feel comfortable throughout.

But when the people who were objecting were about to stand up, they would find that the chairs, tables, doors, and even the right to speak had already been quietly moved away within the rules.

The younger generation of the Onodera family are not uneducated.

From a young age, they were taught finance, law, politics, and business, and they also enjoyed resources that ordinary people could hardly imagine.

The problem is that there are too many resources.

So many of them, as long as they don't intentionally kill themselves, can live a comfortable life relying on their surname.

Whatever needs to be fought for will be provided, whatever problems need to be solved will be handled, and any consequences will be smoothed over by the family.

Over time, so-called elite education becomes more like awarding medals to a group of people who are born at the finish line.

The medals are beautiful.

But people may not actually run away.

Unfortunately, the family is too large.

The larger the entity, the less it can tolerate several generations of mediocre people.

Otherwise, the industries, relationships, and power accumulated in the past will not collapse overnight, but will be gradually eroded by countless seemingly insignificant small problems.

By the time everyone realized what was happening, all that was left was an empty shell bearing an ancient surname, its contents long since rotten.

When the Onodera family discovered this problem, they hadn't had a successor who could truly silence all factions for many years.

Some are intelligent, but not calm enough.

There are calm people, but not enough ability.

He was barely capable enough, yet he was torn apart by the women around him, his maternal clan, and interest groups, like a piece of rice cake about to crack.

As for those who believe they possess all three qualities, after a few real-world interviews, it's often found that confidence is their most outstanding ability.

So, the family started looking outside.

The children whose patriarchs were scattered in various places, never formally brought back, and never even used a surname.

The bloodlines of the collateral branches of the family that were scattered due to the struggles, and the descendants who were once considered worthless and left to fend for themselves.

They all came back into the Onodera family's sight during those years.

Onodera Zannen is not the only one.

Many people were brought back with her. Some were suddenly transferred from ordinary schools to the top private schools in Kansai, while others were placed in family businesses.

Some people, when they first moved into this house, didn't even know what to call the same father.

Yesterday, he was just an ordinary child unnoticed by anyone; the next day, he had to sit at a long table, competing with more than a dozen people of the same bloodline for the only spot.

That's not a reunion.

It was just an asset inventory that was many years overdue.

"Your family has accepted you."

The man on the other end of the phone finally spoke: "It wasn't just the administrative office; several of the most conservative old men also signed their names today."

"After you graduate, you will first take over as the group's vice chairman, and the core sectors such as ports, finance, healthcare, and real estate will be handed over to you in batches."

"Barring any unforeseen circumstances, there will be no other candidate for the next head of the family."

After hearing these words that were enough to keep countless people in the Kansai region awake all night, Onodera Zannen's expression didn't change much.

"What were the conditions proposed by your mother?"

The man's voice paused for a moment.

"They contacted you?"

"The documents sent this afternoon include shares in several companies, seats in foundations, some overseas assets, and all the votes they can influence within their own organizations."

"Don't trust them."

Why?

"You should know that they never intended to take you back before, but they are willing to do so now only because you will become the heir of the Onodera family."

"They want to rekindle the broken relationship."

Onodera Zanne raised her eyes, and her quiet face was reflected in the floor-to-ceiling window.

"The Onodera family never intended to take me back."

"The situation is different."

"What's different?"

"At least in the end, it was the main family that found you, and it was the main family that brought you back to Kansai, giving you the opportunity to receive education and get involved in these industries."

"To be precise, after confirming that there was no suitable heir in this generation, the family found all the confirmed blood relatives outside the family at once."

"I'm just one of them."

The man's voice deepened slightly: "A lingering echo."

Did I say something wrong?

No.

So the person on the other end of the phone didn't answer immediately.

Onodera Zanne's understanding of the past did not come from her father's sudden remorse, nor from the elders in her family who habitually disguised interests as kinship.

Instead, it came from the files, remittance records, private hospital medical records, former maids' testimonies, and a large number of documents left behind when the two families were shifting blame to each other.

Her mother also came from a respectable background.

However, even among the wealthiest families, there are still distinctions of rank.

In front of the Onodera family, the mother needed an opportunity to continue climbing the social ladder.

So, a young woman was placed on the marriage alliance list, and with the pre-arranged resources, cooperation, and smiles of mutual satisfaction, she was sent to the seemingly well-equipped mansion in Kansai.

They have the best of everything in terms of food, clothing, and daily necessities; they have someone to accompany them when they go out; they have a private doctor when they are sick; and their walk-in closet is bigger than the average person's house.

Everyone around her would lower their heads when they saw her, and if she wanted something, she only needed to ask, and it would appear in her room the next day.

Besides freedom.

And the right to be truly treated as a human being.

The head of the household is not surrounded by only one woman; the main residence and the villas scattered in other places have never been quiet.

The relationships between women are intertwined with the interests of their respective families.

Whoever gets more attention today may see a change in which project tomorrow.

Instead of celebrating a child's birth, their gender, health, maternal lineage, future value, and the type of marriage they can be placed in are recorded.

Onodera Zannen's mother was not well received there.

After the marriage was completed, her family got the cooperation they wanted, and the Onodera family also got the benefits they deserved.

As for how the women who were sent in fared, it suddenly became unimportant.

Even though she spoke less and less after becoming pregnant and giving birth, locked herself in her room for long periods of time, and her mood worsened day by day.

They will only be categorized by those around them as having a weak personality, being immature, and being unable to adapt to life in their own home.

"Your mother was mentally unstable at the time."

The person on the other end of the phone suddenly spoke, as if they had finally found a plausible explanation.

"Many things are not as simple as the documents you see. Her sending you away may just be a momentary impulse."

"She had severe depression and postpartum emotional problems, which the doctors discovered very early on."

"My family arranged for treatment."

"Arranging for a doctor to prescribe medication regularly and having servants ensure she doesn't appear at parties or in front of other women—that's not treatment."

"The situation was very complicated at that time."

"Complexity does not mean there is no outcome."

Onodera Zanne's voice remained gentle, without questioning or showing any obvious fluctuation when his deceased mother was mentioned.

"Before committing suicide, she used the last of the people she could mobilize to send her infant child out of the house."

"She avoided the eyes of the Onodera family, and also avoided the people her maternal clan had placed around her, and then, she died."

It's not about leaving.

It wasn't an accident.

It's not as casually stated in the family archives as "unfortunately passed away due to long-term mental health issues."

She committed suicide.

In that house, so large that a vehicle was needed for transportation, with so many servants whose names were countless, and where food and money were never lacking, a woman who seemed to have everything ultimately had only two choices for herself and her children.

One option is to send the child away.

The other is to end one's life.

Onodera Zanne has no real memory of her mother.

She was too young when she was sent away, too young to remember the warmth of the woman's embrace, nor could she remember the expression on her mother's face when she last looked at her.

All the impressions I gained afterward came from an old photograph and snippets of information in those cold documents.

But she knew one thing.

When both families treated the child as a resource whose value could be measured, only the woman, who had been driven to the brink, sent her out of that seemingly luxurious but actually more terrifying home than a prison at the last moment.

The man on the other end of the phone lowered his voice: "Our family does bear some responsibility for this matter."

"The word 'responsibility' is too light."

"What do you want me to say?"

"Nothing needs to be said; what has already happened doesn't need to be reorganized through language."

The man remained silent for a long time, and in the end, he did not continue to explain his mother's death, but instead changed the subject back to another family.

"After her death, the first thing her maternal clan did was not to look for you, but to send people to ask whether the marriage alliance and cooperation would be affected."

"They were worried that the Onodera family would take their anger out on her, and were even angry about why she chose that time to die. You should have found out about these things as well."

"Um."

"They looked for you later."

"Found it too."

Onodera Zannen swiped the tablet and brought up a survey record from many years ago.

"The name and address of the welfare home, the temporary identity I used at the time, and the staff member who took care of me are all clearly written in the documents."

"But they didn't bring you back."

"Because the Onodera family did not search for me at the time, I was not included in the scope of inheritance."

"By taking in a child who is not recognized by his father's clan and whose mother has died, they not only gain no benefit, but also risk incurring the wrath of others."

To put it bluntly, it's not worth it.

The family paid to confirm that the child was not dead and where the child was living, and then locked the documents in a cabinet.

They continue to maintain a respectable public narrative that their marriage partner has unfortunately passed away.

As for whether the child who was sent away would go hungry, get sick, or what he would become in the orphanage, no one really cared.

Wealthy families have no shortage of children.

Especially in families of this size, children are often not synonymous with kinship, but rather a resource that needs to be nurtured, selected, exchanged, and consumed.

Those with value are carefully nurtured under the light, while those without value are discarded where they cannot be seen.

As long as they don't come back to cause trouble, whether they're alive or dead, it won't affect the family meeting the next day.

Onodera Zannen lived outside for many years, without anyone feeling sorry for him or searching for him.

No one would care that she was once so thin from malnutrition that she looked like a telephone pole that could be blown over by the wind at any moment.

No one would know that in that drafty orphanage where food was never plentiful in winter, two children devised a highly effective strategy to get more potatoes from the other children.

It wasn't until the Onodera family realized they didn't have enough descendants that they had to recount their scattered bloodlines.

It wasn't until his mother heard the news that she realized the child who had been considered worthless back then might be being groomed by the Onodera family as an heir.

The people on both sides appeared almost simultaneously.

On one hand, they held onto blood ties, surnames, and everything the Onodera family could offer.

On the other hand, there's the relationship left by her deceased mother, and the maternal grandparents' affection that came many years late.

The two men said completely different things to her, but did the same thing.

Place a bet.

If Onodera Zanne were just an ordinary child, they wouldn't have paid so much.

At most, they would arrange a seemingly respectable life to prove that they had not completely abandoned their bloodline.

But when she mastered courses she had never encountered before in a very short time, easily surpassed all the younger generation who had been carefully cultivated by the family for many years, and solved several problems that even adults could not handle.

The betting started to increase uncontrollably.

The mother's side was the first to pour resources into her relentlessly: schools, teachers, private teams, company shares, overseas connections—anything that could be given to her was piled on.

Because they knew better than anyone else that this was the best chance to regain control of the Onodera family.

If Onodera Zannen becomes the successor, the relationship that was severed due to his mother's death will not only be reconnected, but will be even stronger than before.

The Onodera family reacted too slowly.

But it was only a step too late.

When the elders of the family discovered that the young girl, who had been living away from home and had not received any elite education, surpassed all the younger generations the family had previously trained in terms of intelligence, judgment, execution, and absolute rationality when faced with interests.

In many ways, he even surpassed those who had served as the head of the Onodera family throughout history.

What was originally a broad-based bloodline recycling program quickly turned into a focused cultivation program that spared no expense.

So many years have passed, and of those children who were initially found together, some have left the competition with enough money, while others have been assigned to marginal industries.

Some people are still unwilling to stay in the house, trying to prove that they are the more suitable candidate.

Meanwhile, Zanne Onodera sits in a luxury apartment in Tokyo, hundreds of kilometers away, and with just a single sentence, can decide who will be in charge of the next phase of four core industries in the Kansai region.

The gap is so large that there is no need to continue comparing.

The man on the other end of the phone said, "Precisely because you know these things, you should understand even more that everything they're giving you now has a price."

"I know."

"So you're still prepared to accept it?"

"Why not accept it?"

"They will use these resources to demand something in return from you."

Onodera Zanne gently closed the tablet: "Okay, write down the exchange conditions clearly in advance, and I will reward you for the reasonable parts."

"Including helping them infiltrate the core of the Onodera family?"

"If the value they provide is sufficient."

For the first time, the man's tone betrayed obvious displeasure: "What do you take your family for?"

"Just like them."

There was complete silence on the other end of the phone.

Onodera Zannen didn't say it more explicitly, but the answer was already clear.

She viewed these two behemoths in the same way the Onodera family viewed her and her mother's family viewed her.

There was no belated sense of emotion, nor did it generate any so-called sense of belonging due to shares, power, or the status of an heir.

tool.

pedal.

And the resources she can use as she moves toward her goals.

Both families believed they had bet on the most outstanding descendant, thinking that as long as they continued to invest, they could get dozens or hundreds of times the return from her.

In a sense, they were not wrong.

Onodera Zanne will take over the business, maintain the family, and bring many things that have begun to decay back to normal.

It might even elevate the title of "King of Kansai" to a level never before reached.

But that wasn't because of family ties.

Simply because she needs enough money, a high enough position, and enough stable power that is not interfered with by others.

Go and do something that was decided long ago.

"I won't be going back to Kansai for an extended period before I graduate."

Onodera Zannen spoke again, his tone as calm as if he were announcing a confirmed schedule.

"The handover can begin, and the assets can be transferred to my name, but life here in Tokyo will remain unchanged."

"No one from my family is allowed to enter the apartment, investigate my private arrangements, or follow me under the pretext of protection."

"What else do you have in Tokyo that's more important than the handover of the entire family business?"

"These are my conditions."

"After graduation, you have no reason to stay in Tokyo."

"Whether or not to stay in Tokyo does not conflict with the handover."

"Are you planning to stay in Tokyo while taking over the entire family business?"

Onodera Zannen glanced at the two zoo tickets in the transparent folder, her gaze lingering for a fleeting moment.

"Um."

As for her claim that she planned to enter the system after graduation, that was obviously false.

Onodera Zannen doesn't go to some government agency to sit in an office and wait for the workday to end.

They devised ways to exploit public resources, then put on a show of arrogance and bully two innocent passersby who came to conduct business.

The answer I gave that day was simply following what the other person was saying from the very beginning.

What truly awaited her was countless industries, boards of directors, family factions, and a vast power system that had long been tacitly agreed to be handed over to her.

The man seemed to want to ask more questions.

Onodera Zannen didn't give him a chance: "Send the handover plan before midnight tonight, and I will reply before noon tomorrow."

"I will handle the conditions on my mother's side myself; the main family doesn't need to get involved."

"Remnant sound."

"Is there anything else?"

There was a long pause on the other end of the phone, followed by a barely audible sigh: "That's all, get some rest."

The call has ended.

The study quieted down, the phone screen slowly dimmed, and the reflection in the French windows became clear again.

Onodera Zannen sat at the table without getting up immediately. Instead, she lowered her head and dragged the files from the two families into the same folder and renamed them.

Available Resources

There is no paternal lineage.

There is no mother clan.

There is no home.

For Onodera Zannen, those two places were never home.

One is a cage that drove the mother to her death, and the other is a birthplace where the mother was used as a sacrifice in a marriage alliance, and the mother was enraged after her death due to the break in their interests.

The only difference between the two sides is who offered a higher price at different times.

She has very few people she truly cares about.

To be precise, there are only two.

The first one is my mother, who has already passed away.

It's not because of spending time together, not because of memories, and certainly not because of the love that blood ties should naturally bring.

Instead, when everyone else chose self-interest, only the woman, driven to the brink, used the last of her strength to send her out of the mansion, which was even more oppressive than a prison.

As for the other one...

buzz-

The phone on the table suddenly vibrated.

Onodera Zanne lowered her eyes as a contact she had just added that day popped up on the screen.

Yoshiko Sawamura

A photo was sent first.

In the photo, Kaoru Amamiya is sitting in a private room at a barbecue restaurant, her ears slightly red, holding a plate of side dishes that she is about to hand over.

Kuroba Shido, standing next to him, kept his head down, still sporting the same abstract face with a crooked mouth and slanted eyes from the zoo. On the table was a warm water that Amamiya Kaoru had pushed over.

Immediately afterwards, a second message popped up.

【Onodera-san, something terrible has happened! Your boyfriend cheated on you!!!】

Onodera Zannen: "..."