Chapter 77: New work partner.

After hanging up the phone, Cementoss returned to the classroom, where he found all the students sitting properly. The student who should be Yaoyorozu Momo was quietly scolding Saito Kai, who simply remained silent, looking away as if it had nothing to do with him.

“Well students, you should have received the next packet by now, so you can begin. You have one hour to complete the exam.”

Although Cementoss was prepared for another scene from the terrifying blue-eyed boy, he miraculously behaved correctly and 15 minutes later, he stood up, handed in his answer sheet, and left the room without saying a single word from start to finish. He didn’t even look at him, although he still had an incredibly annoyed expression on his face.

Due to everything the principal had told him, Cementoss decided to look at the answer sheet of the terrifying blue-eyed young man. Only to realize that exactly 90% of the answers were marked, not one more, not one less, which left him somewhat speechless. But since the questions were different for each student, he didn’t know whether they were answered correctly or not, but now he was a bit curious about this troublesome student.

The rest of the day passed without incident, as the students quietly answered their exams. As for Kai, he continued doing the same thing, leaving the room 15 minutes after the exam started, until all the exams they had to take that day were finished. Cementoss then saw through the window how the black-haired couple left the UA facilities, casually walking down the street, with the young girl holding one of the blue-eyed boy’s arms.

...

Upon arriving home using Accompany, Kai and Momo were greeted by the now-retired Keiko, as everyone else was busy with their respective jobs. She warmly smiled at them, then hugged them while asking in a cheerful and calm tone.

“How did my two loves do on their exams?”

“It was actually pretty easy, Oka-sama, I managed to answer all the questions without much difficulty.” Momo replied cheerfully as she returned her mother’s hug, a happy smile on her face.

“Fufufu, congratulations Momo, you did a great job. I’m very proud of you.” Keiko praised with a big smile, which greatly pleased Momo, who couldn’t help but laugh happily.

“Hehehe.”

“And how did it go for you, Kai?” Keiko asked with a concerned smile as she looked at Kai’s annoyed expression. He responded casually.

“Annoying, plus there was a block of cement with a face that I almost ended up hitting.”

“What happened?” Keiko asked worriedly while looking at Momo, who responded with an accusatory expression as she glanced at Kai.

“Kai almost ended up fighting with the teacher, so I had to scold him.”

“What did he do to you, Kai?” Keiko asked, staring intently at Kai, knowing that although he was a bit grumpy with strangers and tended to scare them off so they wouldn’t bother him, he had never had a problem like this before.

“Nothing, he just wanted to kick me out of UA, so I wanted to see if he was that capable. But in the end, Momo didn’t let me.” Kai replied, clearly annoyed, which made Keiko angry. She couldn’t help but comment through gritted teeth.

“Who does that trash think he is to believe he can kick my Kai out when he’s doing them a favor by attending their stupid institution? Don’t worry, Kai, I’ll make sure to teach Nezu how to properly educate his people.”

“Oka-sama, don’t spoil Kai like that!” Momo scolded her mother with an angry expression, which caused Keiko to hide her face in Kai’s chest and ask innocently.

“Spoil him? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You!”

Momo could only get even more upset by her mother’s childish behavior, which had only worsened since her retirement. But at that moment, Kai gently stroked her hair, calming her greatly, and then commented with a smile.

“Come on, let’s not make a fuss over this. The guy didn’t do anything else afterward, so let’s leave it at that.”

“Hmph.” Momo huffed angrily, then hid her face in Kai’s arm, which made Keiko smile amused as she briefly commented in a more cheerful tone.

“Well, let’s leave it at that then. Let’s go inside; a delicious meal awaits you.”

“Let’s go, I’m starving.” Kai commented, genuinely hungry, then entered the house, luxuriously escorted by the beautiful mother-daughter pair, who intimately hugged his arms.

After Mrs. Yoshiko served the meal, Kai ate voraciously. Then, after a quick bath, he headed to his workshop with Keiko, while Momo decided to read something in the library at home, as she didn’t want to get ahead in the drama she was watching with her mother.

“Well, let’s pick up where we left off. Last time we agreed to go with a modular structure made of graphene and high-strength polymers. Should we continue with the deployment system, or should we focus on control instead?”

While reviewing the different tactical drone prototypes in front of him, Kai commented as an incredibly detailed hologram of the drone’s structure appeared in the middle of the workshop. Keiko, his new ‘work partner,’ nodded thoughtfully before commenting in a serious, focused tone.

“I think it’s better to focus on the control system for now. For deployment, there are several pre-existing options available, so we can take one of those and adapt it to our needs.”

“Certainly, we shouldn’t waste time on that. As for the control system, do you have any ideas? I was thinking about training a hybrid AI, something that combines deep neural networks for real-time analysis with genetic algorithms for optimizing tactics. The idea is that the system becomes more efficient as it accumulates combat experience.”

Kai commented as a graphical representation of the algorithm he was thinking of using appeared in the hologram, to which Keiko responded by showing a different algorithm, quickly catching the attention of the blue-eyed boy.

“Well, I was thinking of a more swarm-based approach. Instead of a single centralized AI making all the decisions, we could design a decentralized network where each drone has its own basic AI that constantly communicates with the others. It would be something similar to how swarms work in nature.”

“You want each drone to have simple interaction rules and emergent behavior algorithms?”

Analyzing the algorithm with interest, Kai asked, noticing certain interesting parts of it, to which Keiko nodded with a smile and then explained her idea in more detail.

“Exactly. The simple interaction rules would be things like following the lead drone, avoiding collisions, prioritizing nearby targets, etc., while the emergent behavior algorithms would make them harder for enemies to predict and much more adaptable.”

“Also, since the decisions would be made in a ‘community’ and local way, it would give the swarm much more flexibility, as losing a node in the network could be easily replaced. Not to mention, it would be more error-tolerant and much more resistant to cyberattacks or electromagnetic signal jamming.”

“It’s a good idea. I like it, although we would need to work on developing a secure and robust network so that it doesn’t get overloaded or easily interfered with. Plus, we’d have to design several safety systems to prevent it from going out of control.” Kai nodded thoughtfully, his mind wandering among the possibilities, to which Keiko added with a smile.

“Certainly, though I really like your algorithm, especially the way you combine deep neural networks for data analysis, genetic algorithms for optimization, and decision trees for efficient decision-making. Maybe we could merge our ideas and create something much more complete and flexible.”

“Well, I don’t see why not. Although we’d have to make a few tweaks here and there, it’s possible.” Kai nodded with a smile as he reviewed the specific data of the algorithms to combine them, to which Keiko cheerfully commented.

“Then let’s get to work to have it ready as soon as possible. We haven’t even thought about the weaponry the drones will have yet.”

“Well, I’ve actually been jotting down some ideas, but let’s leave that for later.” Kai said with a smile, before sitting down next to Keiko and starting to define the details of the new control system.

Meanwhile, Keiko couldn’t help but look at Kai’s focused expression, with happiness written all over her face. Retiring had truly been the best decision she could have made. Now, not only was she living much more peacefully and relaxed, but she could also spend more time with Momo and help Kai with his ‘projects,’ which she wouldn’t dare say out loud, but it was the best part.

Working with Kai was so smooth. He understood her easily, his ideas were also fascinating, and his focused expression was incredibly attractive. It was such an exciting way to work that she had never had the chance to experience before. Truly, a genius can only be happy alongside another genius.

But as if that weren’t enough, she now truly felt fulfilled while working. Even though her career had always been a success and had brought her astronomical amounts of wealth, influence, and fame, the truth was that she had not been happy doing it for many years. But now it was different. Now she was actively working to improve the life, career, and safety of her beloved daughter, her beloved family, and she could even share a bit of the load with her beloved Kai.

By the time night came, Kai left his workshop with a smiling Keiko, who was hugging one of his arms, to return to the main house, where the whole family was waiting for them in the main room. Upon seeing him, they quickly greeted him with big smiles.

“Did you have fun at UA?” After greeting him, Nemuri asked with a smile, only for Kai to respond completely disinterested in the topic.

“Let’s talk about something else. The important thing is that I took the exam.”

“Alright.”

Seeing Kai’s attitude, Nemuri decided not to bother him further about the subject, and instead, they started talking about random things from everyone’s day and trivial topics while enjoying a delicious dinner. At one point, however, Nejire seemed to remember something and turned to look at Kai, asking with a small smile.

“By the way, Kai, I made some new friends at UA, and there’s someone who would like to meet you.”

“Who is it, and what do they want?” Kai asked casually as he ate, to which Nejire responded with a smile.

“His name is Togata. He has a very interesting quirk that lets him pass through things, and he’s gotten really strong recently.”

“Oh, and what does your new friend want from me?” Slightly interested by the quirk description, Kai asked while looking at Nejire, who quickly responded excitedly.

“He wants to train with you.”

“Mmm, it could be interesting. One of these days when I’m free, I might try it. His quirk sounds interesting, and I’d like to test a couple of things.” Kai replied after thinking about it for a moment, to which Nejire nodded with a smile.

“Alright, I’ll let him know.”