Chapter 1412 1330 — Spy Statue

A couple of days before Akechi came to speak privately with Zaboru, the Renkonan household had been unusually peaceful. That should have been a good thing, especially after everything that had happened throughout the final months of 2001, but for Ayumi the calm was beginning to feel suspiciously close to torture. She had finally begun her proper holiday from Akaishidan because practically everyone around her had collectively decided that being seven months pregnant with twins meant she should no longer be allowed to do anything remotely resembling serious work. Ayumi herself strongly disagreed with that interpretation. In her opinion, she was pregnant, not broken. She could still sit, write, draw, review scripts, think about puzzles, and complain about game design perfectly well. Unfortunately, Akechi had responded to every attempt at negotiation with essentially the same answer: no. Reduced hours? No. Remote supervision? No. Short planning sessions? No. "I'll only work when I feel comfortable"? Still no. Zaboru had been more diplomatic, but somehow even more annoying because he agreed with Akechi while smiling lovingly enough that Ayumi found it difficult to become properly angry at him.

That afternoon, Ayumi sat comfortably on the living-room sofa with one hand resting over her increasingly large belly while watching Arumi play several meters away. Her daughter had somehow transformed the carpet into another tiny kingdom. A rabbit sat beside her leg, the Golden Retriever lay obediently nearby, a cat occupied one cushion as though it had personally paid for the house, while a squirrel moved repeatedly between Arumi and a small pile of snacks. Even the gecko had somehow become involved, clinging to the side of a wooden decoration while Arumi happily gave everyone assignments. "Usagi-chan, stay there. Doggy, don't eat that. Neko-chan, you guard this one, okay?" The ridiculous thing was that they actually listened. The rabbit stayed. The dog stopped trying to investigate the snacks. The cat stared lazily at the designated area as though fulfilling guard duty entirely on its own terms. Ayumi watched for several seconds before smiling. She had long since stopped pretending this was completely normal, but because Arumi herself treated commanding several different species as the most ordinary thing imaginable, everyone in the family had gradually adapted around her. "Good job, Rumi-chan," Ayumi said warmly. Arumi turned toward her with a bright smile. "Mama! They're helping!" Ayumi looked toward the rabbit, then the dog, then the cat, all of whom remained exactly where her daughter had instructed them to stay. "…Very helpful." Arumi giggled and immediately returned to managing her tiny animal organization.

Ayumi leaned back and sighed again. "Sigh…" She was bored. Painfully bored. Mysteries: Animax continued appearing in her thoughts constantly. She wanted to revisit several character interactions, redesign one of the interrogation scenes, and experiment with how players might gather evidence without turning every investigation into a menu. She had even considered sneaking into her study late at night and pretending she was merely "organizing documents," but Zaboru had somehow developed an unnatural ability to detect whenever she attempted anything remotely work-related.

Unfortunately, Zaboru was currently occupied elsewhere in the house, which meant Ayumi could not even entertain herself by bothering him. Her eyes slowly wandered toward another part of the room, where Zenshin sat beside Zanichi with several sheets of paper spread across a low table. The two had been talking frequently lately, more than usual, and that had started catching Ayumi's attention. Normally Zenshin spent enormous amounts of time reading quietly, occasionally asking Zaboru questions about games or approaching Zanichi whenever machinery interested him. Recently, however, he had been actively discussing electronics with his grandfather, and the conversations were becoming increasingly strange.

Ayumi tilted her head and listened. Zanichi was drawing a compact circuit diagram while Zenshin pointed toward one section. "Grandpa, if the receiver is this small, wouldn't the signal become unstable when there are too many walls?" Zanichi nodded. "Usually." Zenshin studied the drawing and asked, "Then increasing sensitivity here would help?" Zanichi replied, "Yes, but noise becomes worse." Zenshin went quiet for several seconds before pointing again. "What if we filter everything outside the range needed for voices? We don't need everything else if we only want speech." Zanichi paused. Ayumi also paused. Then Zanichi gave a small nod. "That would work."

Ayumi stared at her son. What the hell? She was not technologically helpless. Years around ZAGE, Akaishidan, Zaboru, and Zanichi had given her a better understanding of software, development hardware, networking, computers, and electronics than most people would ever need. But watching her four-year-old son casually discuss miniature transmitters with his grandfather felt like she had accidentally entered the middle of an engineering seminar. Zenshin pointed toward another part of the drawing. "Could the antenna be hidden inside something?" Zanichi replied, "Depends on the material." "Plastic?" "Easy." "Something like a toy?" Zanichi looked at him for a second. "Yes."

Ayumi narrowed her eyes.

Zenshin suddenly noticed her watching. His expression transformed immediately into the most innocent smile imaginable. "Mama."

Ayumi smiled back slowly. "Zen-chan."

Zenshin casually moved one sheet of paper beneath another.

Ayumi's eyes narrowed further.

Suspicious.

The problem was that Zenshin was always suspiciously intelligent, so determining whether he was specifically hiding something or simply being Zenshin was nearly impossible. Her son had been reading books meant for adults for so long that the family had gradually stopped reacting whenever he understood subjects completely inappropriate for his age. Mathematics, history, computers, electronics, economics—if something interested him, he simply absorbed it. Sometimes Ayumi forgot how young he really was until he became tired and climbed beside her for affection like any normal child. That contrast always made her heart soften. She was incredibly proud of him. But she also occasionally wondered whether having a genius child meant parents were legally permitted to install locks on the library.

The following day, Zenshin approached her while she sat in the bedroom reading. He carried a small box with both hands and looked painfully innocent. "Mama, here." Ayumi lowered her book. "Hm? What is it, Zen-chan?" Zenshin placed the box beside her and opened it. Inside was a small Karate Bunny Buntei figure, a pair of headphones, and what looked like a heavily modified Z-Pod connected to several tiny components Ayumi did not recognize. She immediately picked up the figure. "Buntei?" Zenshin nodded proudly. "Yes." Ayumi smiled. "It's cute." Then her attention moved toward the modified Z-Pod and her smile slowly disappeared. "Zen-chan… what exactly is this?"

Zenshin answered with the casual confidence of a child explaining a drawing. "Mama likes hearing Papa's noises, right? So this lets Mama listen to Papa when he's working. You just put Buntei near Papa and use the headphones." Ayumi froze completely. Her eyes widened. "Z-Zen-chan… how do you know that?" Zenshin tilted his head. "Because it's obvious, Mama." Ayumi's face started becoming warm. Zenshin continued, completely unaware—or perhaps very aware—of the damage he was causing. "When we all sleep together, Mama sometimes pretends to be asleep but turns toward Papa when he moves. When Papa works near the bed, Mama listens. When Papa goes somewhere else at night, sometimes Mama wakes up and looks for him. So I thought Mama probably likes Papa noises."

Ayumi covered her face with both hands. "Oh my God…" Zenshin waited patiently. After several seconds, Ayumi peeked through her fingers and immediately reached a horrifying conclusion. Genius children are terrifying. She tried to recover some dignity. "I-I don't specifically like his noises." Zenshin merely stared at her. Ayumi held his gaze for three seconds before surrendering. "…Okay."

Zenshin smiled.

Ayumi looked toward the equipment again. "But Zen-chan, this is basically eavesdropping." "Yes." His immediate answer almost made her laugh. "And you're giving your mother an eavesdropping device?" "Yes." "Why?" Zenshin answered simply, "So Mama won't be bored." Ayumi stared at him, and whatever moral argument she had been preparing immediately collapsed. Her expression softened. "That's unfair." Zenshin blinked. "What?" Ayumi pulled him closer and kissed the top of his head. "Nothing."

She examined Buntei again. From the outside, it looked completely ordinary—a small collectible figure standing proudly with its fists raised. "The transmitter is inside this?" Zenshin nodded. "Grandpa helped?" Zenshin smiled innocently. "Grandpa likes making things." Ayumi stared. "That wasn't an answer." Zenshin continued smiling. Ayumi sighed. "Definitely your father's son."

Later that afternoon, Ayumi casually entered Zaboru's private workshop carrying Buntei. Zaboru looked up from his computer and smiled immediately. "Hm? Ayumi?" She smiled sweetly. "I bought you something." His expression brightened. "For me?" Ayumi nodded and placed the figure on his desk. Zaboru picked it up and laughed. "Whoa, Karate Bunny! Buntei! Is this your Handiwork Ayumi? Hehehe, nice!" Ayumi almost felt guilty. Almost. Zaboru rotated the figure, inspected it happily, and placed it beside one of his monitors. "I like it." Ayumi smiled. "I thought you would but no i just found it on the store yesterday and its so cute." Zaboru looked toward her warmly and said, "Thank you, Ayumi." Her guilt increased noticeably. Then Zaboru leaned closer and kissed her forehead, which made the guilt approximately twice as bad. Ayumi immediately decided it was time to leave before she confessed that the cute present was secretly surveillance equipment constructed by their four-year-old son.

That evening, Ayumi sat comfortably in bed with the headphones over her ears and the modified Z-Pod resting beside her. She stared at the activation switch. "This is wrong." Several seconds passed. "Very wrong." Another pause. "…Just a little." She pressed it.

A faint crackle entered the headphones, then everything became surprisingly clear. Keyboard sounds. The subtle movement of Zaboru's chair. His breathing. The tiny noises he made while concentrating. Ayumi froze and then slowly sank deeper into the pillow. She could hear him muttering to himself. "Hmm… no, too expensive…" More typing followed. "Maybe reduce this… no… that ruins it…" Then silence. A chewing noise entered the headphones.

Ayumi blinked.

Another chewing sound.

She immediately smiled. "Of course he's eating."

The quiet noises continued: typing, breathing, occasional humming, fingers tapping against the desk, the soft scrape of his chair whenever he changed position. For some inexplicable reason, Ayumi felt herself relaxing almost immediately. She could picture him perfectly without seeing him—long hair slipping slightly forward while he worked, the focused look in his eyes, his habit of tapping the desk whenever he was trying to connect several ideas together, the tiny grin that appeared whenever he solved something he had been struggling with or whenever he thinking something he always leaned back to his chair.

Ayumi hugged the pillow beside her. "Zabo…"

After years of marriage, two children, and two more currently growing inside her, she remained hopelessly obsessed with this man. Perhaps even more than when they had first fallen in love. She smiled shyly to herself before hearing another loud chewing noise. "You seriously eat too much."

Elsewhere in the house, Zenshin sat quietly with a book across his lap. He read several pages before a tiny grin appeared. "Heh…" To anyone watching him, there was nothing unusual about the scene. A gifted child reading another difficult book. Yet behind that childish expression, thoughts moved with a familiarity that did not quite belong to someone his age. Hopefully this changes things enough. He turned one page. I don't know exactly how everything will move this time, but Mama hearing more of what Papa hides from her should help. His eyes drifted briefly toward the direction of Zaboru's workshop. Papa always thinks he can protect everyone by carrying things himself. Mama hates being protected without being told anything. Those two really are troublesome.

A small smile appeared again.

The Buntei device was far more sophisticated than anything a four-year-old should have been able to build independently, but Zenshin had been careful. Zanichi had handled nearly every difficult engineering problem. Zenshin merely asked questions—carefully chosen questions, simple enough to look like childish curiosity while guiding his grandfather toward exactly the device he wanted. Grandpa is amazing as always. The thought crossed his mind with such familiarity that he barely reacted. Still, I need to be more careful. If I keep asking for solutions too directly, Grandpa might eventually wonder why I already know what problems need solving.

Then Zenshin almost laughed.

Making a spy device inside Buntei is pretty funny, though.

"Hehehe…"

He returned to his book. Whatever happened next was no longer completely under his control, but that was acceptable. Sometimes changing the future did not require controlling every event. Sometimes one only needed to move a single piece earlier than before and watch what changed around it.

Several days later, that single piece produced an unexpected result.

Ayumi sat quietly on the living-room sofa wearing the same headphones while Akechi and Zaboru spoke inside the workshop. She had originally activated the device only because she missed hearing Zaboru working. She expected typing, humming, random game-development complaints, and perhaps several minutes of him eating something loudly enough to annoy her. Instead, she heard Akechi enter. Then she heard everything.

The Hamazou family. The plan surrounding the information that might eventually be used against her. The danger of outsiders turning her family history into a weapon against ZAGE. Akechi explained that the worst attacks would mix truth and lies. Zaboru admitting that simply assuming Ayumi would be emotionally unaffected was foolish, especially now. Akechi saying he would willingly let the old Hamazou reputation take the damage if it protected his sister. Zaboru thanked him. Both men discuss how to keep Ayumi away from the worst of whatever might eventually happen.

Ayumi listened without moving.

One hand slowly settled over her belly.

Her expression became difficult to read…..

To be continued.

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