17 Arrival

The flight from Sydney International Airport to Narita Airport took around 8 hours. Apart from watching the occasional movie, Plato spent the time listening to music and sleeping. Since he was in the first class cabin, the food was naturally more lavish than what Naofumi had experienced.

It was a three course meal of epic proportions. The starter was a choice between a Japanese salad with wazu sauce and salmon roe or a caesar salad. For min, it was a choice between an A5 wagyu beef rib eye steak, or a seafood risotto with salmon roe and black truffle. For desert, it was either green matcha almond pudding and matcha ice-cream, or a caramel panacotta with a walnut praline.

Plato's tastes were more inclined towards the western cuisine; however, since he would be living in Japan for a long period of time, he felt that it was imperative that he get used to their cuisine. As such, he chose all the Japanese options. After finishing the meal, he did not feel too bad about it. Perhaps Naofumi's body had already been acclimated to the food, but Plato thought that he preferred it slightly over western cuisine. But then again, the main was a rib eye steak; even if it was wagyu beef, it couldn't get more western.

After the meal, Plato and the others suffered varying cases of food coma and were waken up only by afternoon tea and snacks and refreshments.

It was late in the afternoon when the plane finally landed. After taking their carry-on luggage, they left the plane simultaneously. Since they were all headed for the same baggage carousel, they did not separate at all. Along the way, the ambiguous atmosphere that bordered on tension between Plato and Junko remained almost tangible.

Even when waiting for their luggage, the four did not dare to speak. They simply waited in silence, hauling their own luggage onto the carts when it came along. It was only after they went through the arrivals gate that they separated, obviously going to different exits.

Basara and Iwatani let out a long sigh after watching Junko's figure disappear into the distance. Immediately, they turned to question Plato.

"Nao, why do I feel like the relationship between you and Ashikage Junko is more than what you previously let on?"

"Kuuh! I'm so jealous! She was obviously worried about you. I would do anything to have a girl get pissed off at me, yet you show no reaction towards her worry!"

"Besides, when have you started looking for romance? You've always said that you would focus on studying before you graduated! Well… we've technically graduated already. But that's besides the point. It's obvious that you met her before we graduated!"

"Hey, what techniques did you do to pick her up? Was it pretending to be cool? Acting as if you were unimpressed by her? Playing hard to get? What was it? Don't leave a brother hanging!"

The two sang very different tones. Basara was evidently trying to warn Plato off of Junko, while Iwatani was spouting on and on, trying to extract Plato's method of picking up girls.

Plato was beyond tired from the jetlag he experienced for the first time in his life, so he shut Basara and Iwatani up with a wave of his hand and a perfunctory answer.

"It's not like that. I don't even know why she wanted to speak to me, let alone she was so awkward about meeting me. Seriously. I only met her once, and she was the one that did all the talking."

With that, Plato started walking away, leaving Basara and Iwatani dumbfounded. In their hearts, they thought, 'My good brother! You don't even try, yet you have a heavenly beauty swooning for you! Are you trying to say that the effort we put into picking up girls is worth less than dogsh*t to you?!'

Nevertheless, the two followed him with quickened steps. They had arranged for their families to pick them up at the main carpark for arrivals. They had exhorted their families to only bring one car, but who knows if they listened. As such, being the good brothers they were, they wanted to warn Plato about it first, lest he blow up from shock.

Sadly, they had grossly miscalculated. In the first place, Naofumi was no longer Naofumi. Instead, Plato was in charge. And Plato had only recently arrived on Earth. Even with the Intelligence boost, adapting and accepting the trends of beauty and the other standards of Earth took a long time. Therefore, it didn't matter what brand of car it was, all Plato saw was a lump of metal on wheels that moved at high speeds.

As for the interior of the cars, he only felt that it was a pity; that much leather could have been used to create several sets of high-quality clothes, yet it was used as a cover for something that was not in constant use.

The trio arrived at the carpark, and two black and conspicuous Mercedes Benz C300s were waiting for them. Standing next to either car was the driver-cum-butler of both the Miyamoto and Hattori families. There was no need for bodyguards, since Basara and Iwatani would no doubt outperform them.

"Young Masters, welcome back. Amakusa-san, welcome. Please, get into the cars. We will handle your luggage for you."

Seeing that Basara and Iwatani did not object, Plato naturally did not make a scene out of nothing. He handed his suitcase to the Miyamoto butler, and entered the car next to Iwatani. Basara sat in the shotgun position. Since the C300s were only sedans, their luggage had been placed in the second car.

The Miyamotos and Hattoris were closely tied together anyway, so it did not matter which car carried the people and which car carried the luggage.

Along the way, Basara, Iwatani and the Miyamoto Butler, who was called Hideo, briefly introduced Plato to the areas in which their families had invested. The Miyamoto's were based heavily involved with manufacturing, owning several heavy industry groups across the globe. They were also a part of the car scene, owning the majority of shares of two major Japanese car brands; Nissan and Toyota.

The Hattori's had placed focus on the trading markets, owning several retailers, real estate companies, and entertainment companies. Again, these businesses were spread around the world.

While the Hattori's were unable to penetrate into the western part of the globe, the Miyamoto's had been able to do so thanks to their cars. However, there was a 25-year import ban on Japanese cars in the USA, which meant that any Nissan and Toyota cars sold in the USA had to be produced locally.

However, both families had extensive influence when it came to the eastern countries, including and not limited to South Korea and China.

They were briefing Plato on their businesses because they had received information from Basara and Iwatani that he was looking for their help to start one of his own; if they could help him, then they would. This conversation was simply to provide Plato with an idea of which industries that they had major influence in, and if he decided to join one of those industries, they would be able to help him immensely.

However, Plato was currently looking to create a company that focused on technology and its advancement. He was hoping to sell CPUs and GPUs to computer and phone manufacturing companies.

After all, he had already theorized a new CPU design which had twice the specs of the current generation. His Intelligence boost had allowed him to combine the best CPUs of the current generation together, melding their good points and getting rid of their bad. If he couldn't manufacture it, then it would be left to gather dust inside his mind.

With the basis of his CPUs being sold on the market, he would be able to further increase its capabilities with his Intelligence boost.

Upon hearing that neither family even dabbled in technology, let alone have influence in the industry, Plato was a bit dispirited. 'There goes my quickest way of getting into the market.'

However, Basara and Iwatani mentioned a meeting with their parents, so he regained some hope. If the Miyamoto's and Hattori's couldn't help, he could consider asking Junko for help. After all, it seemed like she was weirdly conscious of him.