Fujiyama Yumi was on her way home after handling the rest of the matters for the day after Kouzuki Kyouko left for the day to avoid the phone calls that have been bothering her ever since the news of Kazuya rejecting the proposal of Stockton International princess had spread. People had less guts to ask someone who was the successor of the name Kouzuki Corporation's Ice Queen because she, like her predecessor, was as cold as ice when she dealt with business matters.

It was when she was driving home that she got a call from the only person who she had no problems explaining the situation to.

"Were all the things I read true? The young master was really proposed to by that princess?" This was the first words that Yumi's sister who was now away in a university asked.

"It's true. The mistress went home early today to talk to the young master…" she explained what happened.

Yui was originally planned to work full time after she had graduated from her studies but the girl had decided to learn more about cuisine so that she could satisfy the palates of both Kyouko and the young master that she was supposed to serve. Because of her reason, their grandmother had approved of Yui's decision. The young master was a bit of a gourmet after all.

"So that's what happened…" Yui's voice was convinced. The actions suited someone like Kazuya after all. "Was the person he was describing Mei-chan?" she couldn't help but ask.

"Who else could it be?" Yumi parked her car after arriving at the Kouzuki estate.

*BAAM*

A loud sound that was accompanied by a tremor immediately alerted Yumi as she got out of her car and rushed to the source of the commotion.

"Welcome home Yumi" Akane greeted her after she had arrived.

"What's going on grandma?" Yumi peeked at the garden that was covered in a cloud of dust. The moment it cleared up, she found the master of the household lying on the ground while the young master who seemed to have been the one who caused this, stood proudly over Kouzuki Kou.

"The miss and the young master just found out that Kou-sama had arranged a marriage for the young master before he was born." Akane replied.

"It's your turn mom. He won't be able to bully you now." Kazuya tagged Kyouko in to have a chance at punis.h.i.+ng Kou who had most of his strength used up by now. Kyouko wasn't fit for battles against someone like Kou so she was usually bullied by her father who had been growing a lot ever since Kou was being taught by Tsuna again.

"Welcome back Yumi-nee." Kazuya already knew the moment she arrived and went to greet her after Kyouko had started another round of punishment towards her father.

"I'm home young m-master." Yumi stuttered as she remembered her conversation with Kyouko during the day. She tried to hide the flush on her face and was a little glad that it was night time.

"I know things have been busy but how is your progress lately?" Kazuya asked since he hasn't looked over her progress for a while.

If this had been three years ago, both Yumi and Akane would have been shocked at the scene that was taking place at the yard. Tsuna's arrival however changed Kazuya's plans a bit as he added an entry to the book that was produced and entrusted to him by the demon lord; h.e.l.lion Mallum.

[Theory of Potential Unlocking]

· Taking into consideration the theory of omnispecies, Earth may have once had an abundant amount of mana but in the span of time, the planet's inhabitants have evolved or devolved to adjust the scarce presence of mana itself.

· The capacity for creatures to take full advantage of the usage of mana has been locked through the pa.s.sage of time to make sure that the planet, with its lowered level of mana to survive.

· All creatures have their genes working in their lifespan. These genes have been inherited from the past and while some of them are active, most of them are in a dormant state.

· Certain conditions like battling or danger may unlock additional potential and/or increase the chances of improvement. It would depend on a person's available unlockable potential but most of it is unknown at this point.

- An example of this when a creature is in it's growing stages, genes that are responsible for growth of both the body and the mind are activated and accelerate a person's capabilities.

- Another example is when you grow up and those genes are locked slowly. An adult will no longer have the metabolism they once had as well as the healing factors.

· Certain triggers in the environment will trigger the dormant genes of these creatures to be activated. It is possible that everyone has an innate ability to take advantage of the once abundant mana in the planet. The potential however has been locked and remains dormant because of the planet or the environment's condition.

With Kazuya's access to earth's technology as well as his memories of his time in Edea, this was one of the experiments he had confidently added into the legendary book that was made by his predecessor. It was taken after his study of genetics as well as the various notes of Natsu's theory of omnispecies that fascinated him the moment he read it.

The Kouzuki clan's main house had an abundant amount of mana ever since Kazuya had formed the mana gathering formation. It was only until a certain incident that this formation had grown unstable and the abundant mana it once had needed some time to recover to its ideal state.

With that in mind, the people inside it like Mei who was like Kazuya and originally did not have the talent to naturally control or sense mana eventually had the capacity to because of the knowledge that Kazuya had imparted to her. While the two of them unlocked their potential through knowledge, their growth was unlocked because of the environment.

Kyouko and Kou who originally had the talent and capacity towards mana grew even more because of the environment in their natural habitat. This gave Kazuya the idea to see if the other people that lived in their household like Fujiyamas could potentially unlock their capacities because of it.

The Fujiyamas, especially Akane, Yumi and Yui had already proven themselves to be trustworthy in Kazuya's eyes so to increase the protection in their family, Kazuya and Tsuna decided to give teaching them how to use mana a try. They were not the only ones who were taught as Kazuya already started on Tomoyo and Nanami whose homes were inside the range that was affected by the formation Kazuya had slowly expanded throughout the years.

Tsuna and Kou were responsible for Akane while Kyouko and Kazuya were responsible for Yumi's learning. Yui, was a little unfortunate because she was going to leave and train her culinary skills so she was not included in the plan.

As for the results, Kazuya had included notes in his theory that recorded Yumi's progress that was a lot similar to Mei. The only difference in their path was their primary elements which were a complete contrast of each other. Yumi had an affinity to the water element and had taken a liking to using ice spells that fit her nickname in the business world quite well.

"I have made some progress young master." Yumi opened her palm and within seconds, a small ice sculpture started forming in her palm. The finer details took a little time but it was a lot quicker compared to when Kazuya last asked.

"Impressive!" an honest praise startled Yumi a little as Kazuya held her hand to feel the flow of mana that came from her hand. "You have grown quite fast despite how busy everything… huh?" Kazuya was a little surprised because the mana flow he felt had been quite disturbed causing the sculpture to form a few cracks. "Your control has improved a lot but as usual, your concentration…" Kazuya's voice trailed off as he couldn't think of why someone like Yumi had problems with her concentration.

"I apologize young master…" Yumi couldn't help but feel a little bitter because anyone else wouldn't have been able to put a dent on her concentration. The fact that Kazuya held her hand so casually every time he asked her to perform this made her want to cry as her resistance towards him was something that she couldn't improve.

"It's fine Yumi-nee. I'm just a little worried that you might have been overworking yourself after seeing that you've made such progress." The worried gaze Kazuya gave her filled Yumi's chest with warmth and her stomach b.u.t.terflies.

"Kazuya, Stop bullying Yumi-chan." Kyouko appeared by his side.

Kazuya glanced as where Kou was and saw that Akane had already moved towards him and used a spell that helped recover injuries. Though it was one of the basic spells, it was better than nothing and it gave Akane some practice as well.

"I would never bully Yumi-nee. She's kind and tries to help me with things even if I don't ask." Kazuya replied and made Yumi's knees weaken. Kyouko found this amusing.

"Then how do you think Yumi-chan will be like as a wife?" Kyouko asked while grinning towards Yumi who tensed up.

"A perfect wife" Kazuya replied nonchalantly.

"I didn't know you had such a high evaluation of Yumi-chan. Does that make her your ideal wife then?" Kyouko saw the begging expression on Yumi's face but she asked her son anyway.

"Who wouldn't want a beautiful and elegant person like Yumi-nee for a wife? They would probably have something wrong with them!" Kazuya nodded to himself as his mood improved after taking his frustrations out on Kou.

"Then what do you think about—"

"Y-young master!" Yumi immediately interrupted the conversation before Kyouko could finish her sentence. "Who did Kou-sama betroth you with?"

"s.h.i.+royuki Tomoyo"

-

34th floor of the Salt Lake Hotel, inside one of the most famous restaurants in the city, Jonson, Kurumi and Maron were having dinner. This was the place where Kurumi liked to eat the most when they dined outside and her father made reservations immediately after hearing about what happened during the day.

"I didn't know something like that happened during the day… Sorry Ku-chan. I should have been there to back you up so that that idiot wouldn't have had the guts to reject your proposal." Maron grit her teeth and tried to comfort the sullen Kurumi who had looked gloomy all day.

"Stop it Maron." Jonson stopped his niece. He was quite upset since his daughter had once again made another blunder just after her return. Kurumi didn't tell him about her plans even though this had to do something with her future. Jonson couldn't help but be both a little annoyed and thankful towards Kazuya for his reaction today.

"Don't tell me that you're on Kouzuki Kazuya's side uncle?" Maron talked back and got a glare in reply.

"At first, I didn't want to interfere with Kurumi's matters because I wanted my daughter to mature and be responsible for her own decisions. I can only blame myself for spoiling you too much Kurumi. This is my fault." Jonson surprisingly apologized towards Kurumi who was taken aback at her proud father's apology.

"This has nothing to do with you Dad. I… didn't do enough research…" Kurumi replied as her voice turned softer.

"No, I should have given you a bit of advice. I knew you were already heading to a direction that put yourself farther away from your goal of getting closer to Kouzuki Kazuya but I remained silent and hoped that your EQ would improve as was initially low because of your ident.i.ty." Jonson sighed.

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"EQ… Is it really that bad?" Kurumi asked while wondering if that really was the case.

"I'll put it in a way that you'd get a clear understanding… You're unable to see past your own preferred scenario. You may have been researching Kouzuki Kazuya but you never thought about how he thought and a.s.sumed that he would react possitively in your imagination. He is not me my dear daughter. He will not react positively to whatever you do." Though Jonson sounded harsh, he originally wanted to say that the level he put Kurumi at was Maron's EQ level while Kurumi's was even lower but he couldn't bring himself to say that.

"I—"

A beautiful melody suddenly interrupted their conversation as the grand piano in the restaurant caught the attention of the people that were dining.

"That's weird… there shouldn't be anyone playing tonight…" Jonson didn't recognize the person that was playing the piano. It was probably a customer who was quite capable but unlike him, his daughter recognized the person playing as soon as she saw his face.

"Kazuykun's father…" she muttered. Kurumi had done all sorts of research on Kazuya. After hearing about his introduction to his father, she of course did her research on Kurogane s.h.i.+s.h.i.+o. Though the father and son had their differences, Kazuya resembled this man quite a bit so Kurumi was able to recognize him immediately.

"The crown prince of the Kurogane conglomerate huh…" Jonson immediately fell into deep thought. This person's position was already in the bag and their banquet was not too far off.

"Like father, like son" Maron commented. "Looks like both of them have similarities other than their looks. I wonder if he could sing as well as his son?"

"What do you mean Maron-chan?" Kurumi instantly reacted to her thoughtless comments. "Did you hear Kazuykun sing!?" as if forgetting about her current situation, the envious look Kurumi gave her made Maron think that there was no saving this cousin of hers.

"He... performed in the music cla.s.s and made most of the people who listened cry, including sensei…" Maron retold the story and didn't forget to add the argument that led to the shocking event.

"That's unfair… I want to hear…" Kurumi felt even more regret. She left after Kazuya had rejected her after all.

*CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP* the people in the restaurant applauded after s.h.i.+s.h.i.+o had finished playing his piece.

"Thank you. I was only dared by my father who didn't believe that I had retained my piano lessons as a child but I am glad that everyone applauded my shameful performance." s.h.i.+s.h.i.+o bowed politely at the crowd. He looked over to the table that was right next to the Stocktons where Tenma had been sitting with a gla.s.s of wine.

Jonson didn't notice it until now but the current head and the next head of the Kurogane clan had been sitting near him all this time. He was in his doting father mode so he really didn't pay attention to the people in the restaurant but s.h.i.+s.h.i.+o's performance immediately made him very much aware of his mistake.

"(I should have given a closer better look at the patrons before taking a seat…)" Jonson thought to himself as he wasn't able to tell if those two were here before him or arrived after they have. It may be the same to most people but to Jonson, the presence of people like them just knowing this fact would have shed some light in knowing why these two were here.

"Hmm?" s.h.i.+s.h.i.+o pa.s.sed by the table and looks to have noticed the Stocktons. "I didn't think I would run into the Stocktons. Good evening to you." Stockton Jonson couldn't tell if this person was acting or not. If he was, he was quite good at it because Stockton Jonson already had a trained eye that was used to reading all sorts of people.

"You're Kouzuki Kazuya's father right?" Maron spoke before anyone else could.

"Hmm? Yes he is my son. It will be Kurogane Kazuya soon though." s.h.i.+s.h.i.+o acted as this didn't have anything to do with the conversation. He was secretly thankful to the rude Maron who helped him steer the conversation directly into the main topic. "Did he perhaps do anything that displeased this young lady?"

"Tell me, who is he engaged to and do you have the capability to make my cousin take over that position?"

.