A short while ago.

Rika’s workspace was controlled chaos.

Six panels floated in her field of vision, each one a window on the awakened platform’s creator interface, all of it driven through the neural link that turned thought into action faster than fingers ever could. Live feed on panel one.

Timeline editor on two with fourteen clips in various stages. Analytics on three. Thumbnail generator on four. Upload queue on five. Title bank on six, thirty options drafted in the first ninety seconds and now being ruthlessly culled to the clickbait survivors.

She grabbed a sixty-second sequence of Aria and Luna pressed against Kaiden’s chest with their faces raw and unguarded, sliced it into a vertical short-form clip, titled it "The Moon and Storm Titties Meshed Together! Look How They Hold Him!" auto-pulled the thumbnail from the peak frame, reviewed it in half a second, approved, and sent it to the upload queue before reaching for the next segment.

Her own little sister had been soaked since minute two, and she had not been given a single second to tend to it.

Her tongue poked out between her lips in full concentration as she dragged three clips into the editor simultaneously, stitching highlights with transitions she’d templated before the stream started.

Kira ran the live side: the face-cam, the commentary, the Phase 1 breakdown keeping the non-adult audience glued to their seats.

Rika ran this.

The engine that turned a single live event into a hundred pieces of permanent content, each one tailored for the algorithm, each one built to reach the millions who would never watch a stream live but would absolutely click a ninety-second clip at 2 AM with the lights off.

Fourteen uploads in nine minutes. Every last one trending.

Her analytics panel pulsed, and the latest clip crossed two million views in under a minute.

The algorithm was gorging itself on engagement metrics this strong, pushing her content into every feed, every sidebar, every recommendation queue on the platform.

Then a notification blinked at the edge of her peripheral vision.

Priority-flagged.

Verified creator badge.

International routing marker from outside the continental network.

She opened it in a new tab.

Cherry blossoms and silver lanternlight.

Ancient wood and floating petals framing a woman who stood before the camera as though the entire nation behind the lens were already listening.

Yunohana Tsukikage, High Shrine Maiden of the Moon-Thread Lineage and leader of the Shogunate Circle, looked into the camera in full ceremonial robes, ink-black hair threaded with silver cords that caught the light like veins of starlight through dark water.

The shrine in Kyoto stretched behind her, and the power radiating from her still frame reached through the screen like heat through glass.

"What the..." Rika gasped, struggling to understand what her eyes were showing her.

Behind the Japanese woman, five shrine maidens knelt in perfect formation, heads bowed, hands folded.

The production quality spoke for itself: professional angles, chosen lighting, a message prepared in advance and waiting for this exact moment to deploy.

"I don’t know what this is, but they’re serious..."

Yunohana spoke.

"To all who watch tonight." Her voice was quiet and carried the weight of mountains. "My name is Yunohana Tsukikage, and I address you as leader of the Shogunate Circle and as a citizen of Japan."

The backdrop behind her shifted. The cherry blossoms faded, replaced by a projection of the Dungeon Master Duel’s live footage: Kaiden in the Mire, both blades driving through chitin, blood on his arms and violence in his motion. The clips cycled. The chokehold defense. Alice’s golden beams. Five women holding the line while their lover fought alone in the deep.

"Across the sea, a young man fights to defend his home. His name is Kaiden Grey. The world calls him the Anomaly."

Yunohana took a single step forward, and the shrine floor answered.

The ancient wood split outward in hairline fractures that glowed faintly gold, as though the earth beneath the shrine recognized the weight of the woman standing on it and responded in kind. Golden light rose from the cracks like morning mist, framing her on both sides, and the five shrine maidens behind her did not move.

"In Japan, we understand what it means to defend one’s home with everything one has. We understand the spirit of a warrior who stands between his people and destruction, regardless of the odds." Her chin lifted. "This is bushido. This is the heart of who we are."

Her eyes returned to the lens, and the quiet intensity behind them hit Rika in the chest.

"The Shogunate Circle officially declares its support for Kaiden Grey and his companions. As of this moment, our guild’s full media network is dedicated to amplifying his content across Japan and the international community."

She paused. The gold climbed higher, framing her silhouette against the ancient wood.

"I ask my fellow Japanese, and all who value courage, to lend this man your eyes tonight. Watch his story. Share it. He fights alone against a mountain, the worst monster humanity has ever seen, and every pair of eyes on his struggle is a hand at his back."

The camera pulled wide enough to show what waited beyond the kneeling maidens, and Rika’s breath left her.

The shrine’s courtyard was full.

Dozens of Shogunate Circle members in full combat regalia, weapons displayed, guild banners unfurled against the night sky. The full weight of Japan’s most powerful guild, arrayed behind their leader’s words in a show of force that needed no explanation.

"The Shogunate Circle stands with the Anomaly."

Yunohana pressed her palms together before her chest and bowed once toward the lens, precise and formal.

"May your blade stay sharp, Kaiden Grey. Japan is watching."

The video ended.

Rika stared at the blank frame for two full seconds before her eyes snapped to the analytics panel.

Her upload view counters were no longer climbing. They were detonating. The graphs broke their own scale, and the source tags flooding beneath every clip read the same two characters over and over:

JP. JP. JP. JP.

The Shogunate Circle had just pointed the entire population of Japan at Kaiden’s content library, and the algorithm, already drunk on Rika’s engagement numbers, had been handed a firehose of fresh traffic to funnel into its recommendation engine.

Six hundred million views suddenly made a lot more sense.

And it was only getting started.