The hallway of the top-floor presidential suite in the Olympic Village.
The air seemed to have solidified into a tangible entity.
It was suffocating and oppressive.
On one side was Catherine Underwood, president and director of the WMA, and behind her, a group of security and medical team members with serious faces and aggressive postures.
On the other side, behind the door that had recently opened...
Justify stood there, dressed only in Kaito's oversized jacket, which almost served as a dress, with her long blonde hair still damp and disheveled as if she had just woken up, and a faint, seductive blush lingering on her pretty face.
And standing in front of her, protecting her completely like an indestructible mountain, was Kaito
In Catherine's golden eyes, which always overflowed with confidence and a desire for control, there now shone a burning and imposing rage: the fury of feeling betrayed, outraged, and of having her most precious possession stolen right before her eyes.
Meanwhile, Justify looked nervous and scared.
But she clung tightly, desperately, to the corner of Kaito's jacket.
However, her sky-blue eyes were filled with unprecedented determination.
Kaito's expression was as calm as ever.
But beneath that serene and deep gaze lay an unshakeable strength that refused to yield even an inch.
A war for the "ownership" of a beautiful young woman.
It was about to explode completely in this narrow hallway!
Catherine's gaze, like two cold and sharp scalpels, landed on Kaito's shoulder, piercing her stare directly at the girl behind him—the girl who was once her most perfect "creation."
"Justify"
Her voice was completely devoid of emotion, as cold as the Siberian wind.
"Last night's farce ends now"
"Now, change your clothes immediately and return to your team"
"Prepare to undergo the most exhaustive evaluation of your physical and mental state conducted by the 'Skynet' system"
"This is an order"
She tried to use the familiar and unquestionable "master-servant relationship," like a queen addressing a vassal, to forcibly rescue a situation that had spiraled out of control.
Just as all the WMA team members expected Justify to obey subconsciously and reflexively, as she had countless times before...
She leaned half of her body out from behind Kaito
With courage, she stared straight into Catherine's cold eyes.
"No, Ms. Underwood"
Although her voice still trembled slightly, she uttered every word clearly and firmly!
"I feel... good now, very good"
"I don't need the 'Skynet' evaluation"
"What I need right now... is to rest"
Seeing Catherine's face instantly fill with absolute astonishment, Justify gathered the greatest courage she had ever possessed.
Then she uttered words even more shocking: a true "declaration of defection!"
"Furthermore..."
"Currently, I am a 'patient'"
"According to Chapter 3, Article 7 of the 'International Regulations for Labor Protection and Basic Human Rights of Umas,' a patient has the right to freely choose her 'attending physician'"
"Now..."
"...I choose Mr. Kaito"
Those words were equivalent to giving Catherine a monumental slap in front of everyone!
Her face turned pale instantly!
She directed her overflowing fury toward that cursed Oriental man with the serene face!
"Mr. Kaito! It seems your disgusting 'sorcery' can not only massage bodies but also corrupt minds!"
"In just one night, you turned my most outstanding champion athlete into someone who has forgotten even the most basic discipline..."
"...Into a foolish idiot blinded by love!"
"You are mistaken again, Ms. Underwood"
Kaito smiled, responding with the ease and serenity of a Tai Chi master, deflecting a thousand pounds with four ounces.
"I didn't corrupt anyone"
"I simply returned a living 'person,' who breathes, laughs, and cries, whom you forcibly stuffed into the shell of a 'perfect machine'..."
"She became herself again"
He turned his head and looked at Justify, who was by his side, with a tenderness that made every woman present tremble.
"As for the romance..."
"...That is the most beautiful gift destiny has granted her after achieving a 'new life'"
"That sounds truly wonderful!"
Catherine exclaimed with disdain.
"The only thing you did was covet her talent and try to turn her into another 'trophy' you can display to the world!"
"Quite the opposite"
Kaito's smile remained, but his words were like the sharpest knife.
"I never treat them as trophies or creations"
"Each and every one of them is my family"
"It is you, Ms. Underwood..."
"When your most perfect 'creation' developed the slightest flaw, your thought was not how to repair it, nor how to appreciate it..."
"...But rather to angrily label it a 'failure' and 'trash'"
"Tell me, which of us..."
"...Seems more like a cold and ruthless 'businessman'?"
"You—!"
Kaito's words were like a red-hot poisoned dagger!
They struck with precision and ferocity the deepest and most sensitive nerve that Catherine would never allow anyone to touch!
It left her speechless for a moment!
Just as the atmosphere in the hallway reached a deadlock...
"Ding—!"
A crisp sound.
The elevator doors opened.
El Emperador, Symboli Rudolf, the Queen, Gold City, the Overlord, TM Opera O, and the "host," Taiki Shuttle...
Kaito's Harem Legion, a force capable of sweeping through all of Tracen Academy!
They appeared majestically, like deities descending from heaven, in this narrow corridor!
Each of them exuded a terrifying and suffocating aura!
At once!
In this small, luxurious hallway!
The numerical superiority and momentum of the Tracen team completely and overwhelmingly crushed the WMA!
El Emperador, Symboli Rudolf, approached Catherine elegantly, whose expression had turned completely somber.
She wore the impeccable "professional" smile of a student council president.
"Good morning, Ms. Underwood"
"It seems you and our chief rehabilitation therapist are having a very... 'deep' morning conversation about therapeutic philosophy"
"We appreciate your effort"
"May I ask if Tracen Academy needs to provide you with any necessary 'diplomatic assistance'?"
Her implicit message was extremely simple and totally dominant.
"Even though this is your territory"
"Our people are not to be touched!"
Looking at the "Tracen Dream Team" in front of her, united like a single slab of iron.
And looking at Justify, who had taken her position resolutely and firmly beside Kaito
Catherine knew it.
Today it was completely impossible for her to take Justify by force.
She took a deep breath.
Suppressing the fury boiling in her heart, she recovered the last vestiges of serenity and elegance befitting the president and director of the WMA.
She straightened her impeccable suit.
"Very well, Mr. Kaito"
She looked at Kaito, her golden eyes as cold as two blocks of eternal ice.
"It seems you have already made your decision"
"In that case..."
"...Let's settle this on the race track"
"The second phase of the WGP preliminary rounds is about to begin"
"I will let you and your... 'new family' see it with your own eyes..."
"...How miserable and pathetic the fate of a failure 'abandoned' by me and the 'Skynet' system will be"
Finally, she looked at Justify
Speaking in a malicious tone, almost a curse, she said:
"And you, Justify"
"You will regret this"
"Soon you will discover that without 'Skynet'... you are nothing"
After finishing speaking, Catherine did not stay long.
She turned around and left, taking her somber-faced team with her.
Only the Tracen people remained in the hallway.
Justify watched as Catherine walked away with a firm step, a flash of instinctive fear in her eyes.
But that feeling dissipated immediately and completely upon feeling the warmth of Kaito squeezing her hand.
"Whoa~!" Taiki Shuttle leaned in, blowing a huge bubble of gum.
"That old witch seems to be very, very angry~"
"Hand of God! You were so cool just now! Cooler than a superhero in a movie!"
Meanwhile, Kaito held Justify even tighter in his arms.
Right in front of all the members of his harem.
He gently kissed her forehead.
With a voice that was not loud, but clear enough for everyone present to hear, he announced softly:
"Welcome home, Justify"
Justify's "defection" made the conflict between Tracen and the WMA fully known.
The following WGP races would no longer be a mere athletic competition.
It would be a brutal faction war, a matter of life and death.
At the same time, Kaito's harem group officially welcomed its first blue-eyed, blonde "new member" from abroad.
How to ensure her full integration into this great family—which is already "riddled with factions" and full of "undercurrents"—would be a totally new and extremely interesting aspect of the next phase of the daily battlefield.
And Catherine's threat was certainly not an empty one.
In the coming days, she would undoubtedly use all of WMA's resources to launch a comprehensive and ruthless campaign of repression and persecution against Justify and the entire Tracen group.
Meanwhile, Kaito needed to start preparing to conquer his next, even more difficult target.
The proud and indomable undefeated European queen who never looked down on anyone: Zenyatt