Eizan was staring at the beautiful girl laying on his bed lost in thought. It had been a few hours since the incident with Towa had ended. She had cried her eyes out for the first hour after they got home. She had fallen asleep in his arms after her tears stopped flowing. He mumbled to himself. “I need to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again. I don’t know what I would do If I lost her.” He continued to stare at her for awhile while kneeling on the ground next to the bed. He let out a long sigh before standing up and leaving the room.
Eizan walked over to the computer sitting on the table. He opened the clamshell on the laptop. A few seconds later he was staring at lines of code and complicated mathematical problems. “I know I said I would give the money away but, maybe I should pay someone to watch over her.” He started to laugh. “I sound just like my grandpa.” His phone started to buzz on the table next to him. He glanced over at it and smiled. “Speak of the devil.”
Eizan picked up the phone and greeted his grandfather. “Hello Grandpa, I hope your day has been more pleasant than mine. I really appreciate your help earlier.” He felt a closer connection to the man at the moment. He had never understood his grandfather’s incessant need to protect his family until now.
On the other side of the line Carter sighed. “It was no problem at all. How is she?”
“She’s sleeping now. She cried herself to sleep an hour or so ago.”
“It must have been a traumatic experience. You should understand it well.”
Eizan was shaking his head. Of course, Carter wouldn’t have known this. “No, the time something like this happened to me it was just business. For some reason I could tell it wasn’t the kidnapping that bothered her.”
Carter sighed. “You’re probably right. I’ve seen how strong willed that little girl is over the last week. Most people wouldn’t have lasted a day here. But, the betrayal of someone close to you is a hard thing to get over. Even for me.”
“I understand that feeling.” The events that happened at his old school ran through his head.
“I’m giving her the next week off with pay and I’ll be having someone follow her from now on. I know she’s normally with you but I want to keep her safe. She will be joining the family sometime in the future anyways.”
Eizan smiled. “Thank you for that. But I didn’t think you had someone protecting family members who weren’t blood related?”
Carter was frowning. “Who told you that? I have someone following everyone of my family members. You’ve experienced how necessary it is first hand today and it’s about to get worse for you.”
Now Eizan was frowning. “Why would it get worse for me?”
Carter let out a long sigh. “I was going to wait to talk to you about this.” He paused for a few seconds. “I know about you’re little trading bot.” Eizan stiffened up when he heard his grandpa’s words. “I like the name Tetraxial trading group.”
Eizan’s eyes went cold. “What do you want?”
Carter chuckled. “I don’t want anything. But others are investigating just like I did.”
Eizan chuckled. “I was just about to shut it down and donate the money to an orphanage.”
Carter smiled. “That’s very admirable… But you still have a problem. Even if you do that, you still made money to fast. Your investments eclipsed my own by a wide margin.”
Eizan chuckled. “How could that be possible? You’re widely known to be the best investor on the planet.”
Carter started laughing. “I used to be known as the best investor on the planet. Your little bot turned 1,500,000 yen into 110,000,000 in a year. That amount of growth is unheard of. If I would have invested the same amount, I probably would have ended up with half that.”
Eizan was staring at the screen in front of him. He was looking at the line of code he was writing. It would have made it about 10% more efficient. He had been so lost in thought about protecting Mio he hadn’t even wondered about the consequences of his actions. He was about to delete the code when he heard his grandfather’s next words. “There is a way I could protect you.”
Eizan’s hand hovered above the delete key. “How is that?”
“Just sell me the company. I don’t even need the code you have written. We can even give all the money away to charity for all I care.”
Eizan laughed. “Why would you do that?”
“You’re my grandson idiot. I would do anything for you.”
Eizan laughed. “Are you sure you don’t want the code? I just made it about ten percent better than it was.”
Carter froze on the other end and was silent for a few seconds. He snapped out of his astonishment after a few seconds. “Did it really need to be more efficient?”
“Not really. I was lost in thought about how to keep Mio safe and it just kind of happened.”
“Boy, are you sure you don’t want to just take over my company right now? Frankly, it doesn’t even seem like you need my company to surpass me. In a decade you could probably catch up to my wealth.”
Eizan sighed. “Actually, there’s a problem with my algorithm. Its efficiency would slowly go down the longer it has run. Eventually, it will run out of the best trades to make. It will probably only take another year before that happened. The markets would correct themselves and it would drop efficiency by 70%. Making it basically on par with your own unless adjusted. Even if someone got their hands on it now, it wouldn’t do them any good after about a year.”
Carter laughed. “Did you do that on purpose?”
Eizan smiled mischievously. “Now why would I do such a thing?”
“I wonder, maybe you knew you would be found out eventually. I bet you knew that I would be the first one to find out.”
“You aren’t one of the smartest men on the planet for nothing.”
Carter was sitting at his desk lost in thought for almost a minute. “You want something from me, don’t you?”
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Eizan stared coldly at the screen in front of him. “If you keep her safe for me, I will give you the algorithm. I will even teach you how to adjust it. You already know the other demands. I will live a normal life until the age of 24. After that I will join the company. It was a smart play to drag Mio into the office. You thought I would join sooner if she was there.”
Carter’s face stiffened. “Ok, ok, you got me. It drives me a little crazy knowing that my grandson, who is probably one of the smartest men on the planet is spending his days fixing air conditioners. Explain it to me. What do you get out of living a normal life?”
Eizan smiled and looked in the direction of his bedroom. “I already got the best thing I could have imagined. All I have to do is latch onto it and never let it fly away. I could have lost it today. I don’t want it to happen again.”
“I see. Well, live happy for the next few years boy. I sincerely hope you get what you’re looking for.”
“Thanks grandpa.” He paused for a few seconds and smiled evilly. “Deposit the money in my bank account tomorrow equal to the amount I have invest and donate 200,000,000 yen to the orphanage near my old apartment. You will get the company, algorithm, and a document on how to adjust it so hit holds up for five years after the money hits my account.”
“Hold on a second. Doesn’t that seem a little expensive?”
Eizan raised an eyebrow. “Really, I guess I could just delete the program right now then.”
“You wouldn’t?”
“I think you know I don’t have any qualms about it.”
Carter sighed. “Alright fine, I will have the money to you tomorrow.”
“Oh, and grandpa, next time you copy my math I would prefer you gave me some credit.”
Carter’s expression stiffened. “You knew?”
“How could I not know?”
“You were ten when I saw you put it on a chalk board in your mother’s study. I didn’t even think you knew the repercussions of it.”
“Do you know what I was trying to do back then?”
“No.”
“I’ve never told anyone this. Not even my mother or the woman I love. I shouldn’t even tell you this. I wanted to predict the weather years in advance. Not just simple temperature predictions. I wanted to predict storms far into the future. I’m close to being able to predict storms months or even years in advance.”
Carter’s eyes widened. “Why didn’t you publish this?”
“It’s not ready and its dangerous. I just adapted it to predict the stock market just like you did. But yours is an incomplete version. Even the one I am about to give you is far from the complete version. I was only ten when I made it. Hopefully, after I am done you could predict all kinds of things. Wars, storms, earthquakes, population changes, famines, economic collapses, crime, and yes stock markets could all be predicted. Do you know what kind of power that information holds?”
“Holy shit.”
Eizan laughed. “Well, that’s a reaction that I didn’t expect.”
Carter screamed into the phone. “What other reaction is there.” He was almost out of breath on the other line. “Eizan, I want you to stop working on this. If a government or organization got their hands on it.”
“Yeah, I understand it could be a disaster. But I had never intended to give it away to anyone. Once I realized the repercussions around twelve years old, of my obsession, I almost stopped. But you know our families curse just as much as I do. I can’t stop myself from researching every subject to make it a reality. If I want to finish, I need to have a mastery of everything. That’s why I study every subject.”
“Do you really need to finish it?”
Eizan started to laugh. “I’ve tried to stop. I even destroyed all my research a few times.”
Carter went silent on the other side of the line for almost a full minute. “Is all of your research on that laptop.”
Eizan stared at the computer in front of him. “Most of it.”
“I don’t want your program any more. Just destroy that computer. I’ll still pay you. Just destroy it now.”
Eizan stood up form his chair. “You want me to do what?”
“Destroy that computer.”
“Why?”
“Listen, it’s too dangerous to be left on a simple laptop. There are people trying to figure out who you are right now because of your little stunt. They might even employ a hacker to find your computer. If that happens it could be exposed to the world.”
Eizan stared at his computer and frowned. “Can I just take out the hard drive?”
“No. You should hit it with a hammer.”
“But I’ll lose a year’s worth of work.”
Carter sighed. “Would you really forget it?”
“Well, no.”
“Just destroy the damned thing.”
Eizan sighed. “Fine.”
“I’ll destroy it right after I get off the phone with you.”
“No, video call me now. I want to watch.”
Eizan gritted his teeth and the world started to spin. “I can’t destroy it. I just can’t bring myself to do it.” He was to focused on his conversation to notice the person approaching him from the side. He was astonished as he felt two small arms wrap around his waist. His eyes widened when he saw the cute girl looking up at him with a kind smile on her face. “M-M-Mio?”
“It’s ok.” She released him and grabbed his laptop off the table.
He was still staring at her in astonishment. “What are you doing?”
“Just close your eyes.” For some reason he instinctively closed his eyes when he heard her soft and kind voice enters his ears. SMASH.
Eizan swiftly opened his eyes. There on the ground was his laptop in pieces. He was staring at her as she picked it up of the ground only to slam it down again. SMASH. The hard drive could be seen sliding across the floor. Mio walked over and picked it up. She stared at Eizan as she raised it above her head. He broke from his surprised stupor and started to try and stop her. Before he could make it to her, she slammed it to the ground. Eizan fell to his knees as the pieces scattered across the floor.
“Why?”
She slowly approached him and knelt down in front of him. She raised her hand and lightly rubbed his cheek. “Calm down.” She flicked him in the forehead. “It’s all in there anyways.” She smiled at him softly. “But, maybe don’t talk about this so loudly while on speaker phone next time.”
Carter could be heard laughing on the other side of the phone. “I knew I like you girl. I’ll be hanging up the phone now. Have my idiot grandson call me tomorrow and make him take next week off with you.”
Mio giggled. “Will do.” Carter hung up the phone.
Eizan furrowed his brows and mumbled. “Smarter than you.”
Mio giggled as she stoked his hair. “Yup, you’re to smart for your own good.” She was still smiling at him as she pulled him into a hug. “I’ve always known you were hiding something. But I have to admit. This might be a little much.”
“How long where you standing there?”
Mio giggled. “I started listening right when you started to extort carter for money for the orphanage.”
He buried his face against her neck. “You’re not scared?”
Mio tilted her head to the side. “Scared of what?”
“I can run that equation in my head.”
Mio was silent for a few seconds and Eizan’s heat was beating out of his chest waiting for her response. “So that’s how you always seem to know what is about to happen?” Eizan nodded. “Do you plan to do something bad with it?”
Eizan stiffened up. “N-n-no.”
Mio smiled softly. “You don’t seem too sure of yourself?”
“I almost lost it earlier today. If I hadn’t had time to calm down before you guys arrived…”
Mio hugged him tighter. “I get it.” She separated herself from his embrace and kissed him on the forehead. “Nope, I’m still not scared. If I see you doing something wrong, I will stop you.”
Eizan looked into her beautiful blue eyes. There was a strong conviction behind them. “T-thank you.” He grabbed her and hugged her again.
She patted him on the back. She was staring off into space still thinking about what she had just heard. She sighed and thought to herself. “You really are a handful.” She started to stroke the top of his head. “I need to make sure my hero doesn’t turn into a villain.”