Chapter 185:

Ace toured the house, admiring the simple yet tasteful decorations, which suited his style and complimented his way of life perfectly. Throughout the compound, there was an assortment of guest 'houses', which contained all of the necessary amenities. They were the size of an average apartment, and were all clearly well thought out.

Also, there was a massive gym/training centre, one could access directly through an underground passage connected to the main house - where Ace would live. This tunnel also had two other separate exits - which were extremely well hidden, one led to the outside, and the other to a panic room, that was underground, and the size of half a football [A/N: Soccer, for the Americans] stadium. It was of course outfitted with all sorts of things, and was pretty much a house of its own.

There were multiple other rooms that had been converted to specific purposes, a movie room, arcade, and so on. There was one big room that had been laid bare though, a perfect cube, which had nothing to it, not even a desk or a chair.

This would be his gaming room, and Ace had specifically asked for it to remain bare, so he would be able to set it up himself. He had already made plans, and had asked for all the custom-designed furniture to be made. Now, it was just waiting for him to set it up where he wished.

All Ace had asked was for them to paint every wall a deep black, which also had a barely perceptible purple tint to it. So faint that it was only visible out of the corner of one's eye, once the light shone upon it.

This was the last part of his tour, and Ace stopped there, having changed into some more comfortable clothes.

"Ok, thanks for the tour, I'll stay here, for now, you can go.", Ichugama would stay in one of the guest houses, the one closer to the main house, and would live there for the foreseeable future, providing assistance when needed.

***

Ace spent the rest of the day in the gaming room, placing furniture, figurines, panels, and many other decorative assortments that would make his room like paradise to many. The pieces for his PC had already arrived, which meant he was also able to build it, and set up all the necessary drivers for the peripherals his set-up would be outfitted with. Of course, as expected, his cable management was both flawless and meticulous, not a single cable was visible. It was all seamlessly merged with the furniture and table, and looked, for lack of a better word, clean.

It was relatively late at night when he was finished with the room, and he decided to start his stream.

Quickly, people began to join, and the numbers rose quickly, greeting him, happy he was streaming. Quickly though, the questions about his environment came, and he smiled.

"Two secs guys, I'll wait for more people to come and then I will explain.", Ace said, and then read the various comments. His dynamic was a bit more different to most streamers truthfully. With his enhanced eyesight and reading speed, he could read every comment, this meant that he caught every question. However, he chose to only answer those that interested him. This way, he was able to control the narrative of his own stream.

Once more people got into the stream, and the numbers climbed to the tens of thousands, he began to explain himself.

"So, the new environment is because I just moved.", Ace paused, "Yeah, I know, no one knew anything, but it was planned pretty well so it was not going to make too much of an impact."

He read the chat for a few seconds, and continued, "Where? Uhh, I moved to Japan, I am living in Tokyo. I will go to school here for a while - don't know for how long honestly.", and again, another short pause, "Yeah, it kind of sucks that I can't really see my friends, but I plan on flying back as often as I can, so it should hopefully not be too bad."

He chatted with his viewers for a few hours, before he finally clocked out. Tomorrow, he would have to deal with a lot of admin stuff, as well as go to the school he would be attending and take a test. He also was not feeling like streaming much, either way, so he would just relax at night, tired of setting up his room.

After closing out the stream, Ace ensured that everything was prepared for tomorrow, and then went to his room, where there was a comfortable bed, and a massive TV. He opened up the streaming app, and just laid on his bed, watching whoever was on.

***

Ace left the house dressed neatly, a white dress shirt and some black trousers, accompanied by some black, leather boots. He was accompanied by Ichugama, who drove him to the school he would be attending in the future.

Once he got there, Ichugama opened the car door for him, and he walked out, facing the imposing school gates. As he walked through, some of the students noticed him and gave him looks, whispering to each other. Ace just ignored them, and walked straight into the school's reception.

Supposedly, classes had already begun, since they had agreed to meet slightly later than the start of the school day just to avoid this thing. At the reception, he only had to wait for a minute before a stern woman asked him to follow her. She led him to an office - the principal's presumably, and knocked once, before waiting for the door to open…

***

As the door opened, and Ace walked in, he was met by an image he certainly did not expect, a young man, smiling at him.

"Good morning Ace, I hope Mrs. Onawa was nice.", he grinned at him widely, almost scaredly so. Ace nodded, "Yes, she was quite welcoming.", the man nodded, "Well, I am Kai, your principal, before you ask, yes, I am 28 years old, and yes, I am qualified enough for this job, do not worry."

Ace smiled, "That was never really in question, if anything, I just wanted to know what it was you wanted me to do.", the man nodded, and stared at Ace straight in the eyes. "Well, I don't really need you to do anything, but the elders wanted to make sure that you were up to shape - even if we both know that you are. They wanted to carry out an exam of some sort, I have no clue what they cooked up though, so don't ask."

Ace was sure that that was a lie, it seemed that this guy had fingers in every pie. Nevertheless, it would make no difference.

"Sure, we might as well do it now.", Ace sighed, as he sat in front of the desk that had presumably been set up for this purpose.

"Thank you, as I am sure you can guess, I will be monitoring your test, but Mrs. Onawa will help keep an eye out as well - not that I think you will cheat."

"Ok, that is fine.", Ace took the pen that had been handed over to him by the woman. She then set the papers on the table, and stepped back. "You can take as long as you can, there is no time limit, also, if you cannot do a question, just leave it, they do not expect you to get everything."

'But you do', Ace thought, as he felt he had begun to get an idea of how the sly headteacher operated.

The test was a mixture of questions, and he did them all sequentially without any issues. Even the questions about Japanese grammar, he had no issue with. He finished the test after 56 minutes of writing without stopping.

He then set the papers neatly on the table, and looked at Kai, "We done?"