It is a well known fact that any single man with self respect and a fortune that earns them respect, or the man will have such a fortune when he reaches the legal age, he must be in search for a wife. A wife (or at the very least a mistress) to provide them an heir, someone for the public to love, as well as a companion for the rest of their life. And if their woman counterpart failed them in being the loving wife the public simply adores, the woman should at least have a head for business, for they will be the heiress of their partner's estate.

It was for that reason I raised my grandniece in this way- the embodied virtues of a lady, but the cunning and wit of a businessman. Had it not been for the fact she is a female and cannot produce an child by herself, as several Greek gods have done, Ayumi Ryuhana would be the handling my estate, as well as her parents', singlehandedly and as the unquestioned heir. It mattered not that she was the second child in her family; mattered not that she was the lone female; she alone had the will to mold her family's fortune, no matter the cost to her own life. True, she is sullen, tempestuous, and ruthless when it comes to business and dealing with her schoolmates- all female academies since the day she mastered the art of calligraphy at age four. But it was these qualities that made her accept my challenge on the day of her sixteenth year spent on this earth.

"You want me to find a husband, Auntie?" She had asked that as she kneeled before me in the tearoom, which served as my office at the time. She had come down to breakfast earlier that day, dressed in her school uniform, dark brown hair held back by a headband, book tucked under her arm, reading glasses in her uniform pocket and blue eyes portraying the glint of determination to prevail over her temporary bad mood, as she had woken up to find her brothers (three in number) causing chaos. She now looked over me curiously, face taciturn and posture just so, trying to see a joke, if there was any, in the words I greeted her with. It would be no simple task finding a husband for her, as she was still naive to what teenage girls call love, as well as the fact that she would only accept her equal, nothing more, nothing less.

"Yes. That's exactly right. Shouldn't be too hard, should it?"

"It won't if you don't mind me compromising my morals and becoming bisexual. I don't come into contact with males every day, you know that." She answered in a sullen mumble, jerking her head up I laughed.

"Of course I do; Which is why..."I slid a file across the table to her, smiling and folding my hands as I rested my chin on them, watching my grandniece suspiciously accept the manila folder, pursing her lips.

"Ōoba-sama, you shouldn't put your elbows on the table. It's improper." Ayumi mumbled, her eyes flicking back and forth like hummingbirds as she read her high school transfer slip. Frowning at the correction, I regained proper posture as she closed the folder. "Ouran High School? I'm sorry... Ouran Academy."She spat out the words, and I knew why.

Her rival, the only male she could really claim that she hated personally and not because all males to her were sexist pigs, practically reigned over Ouran, at least, indirectly.

Kyoya Ootori.

The Shadow King.

The glare in her eyes was piercing, her aura black and swirling like a thunderstorm on the horizon. Still, she smirked, standing and dusting her skirt off, declaring, "Well, I wouldn't want to be late! Dōmo arigatōgozaimashita! This is very interesting, Ōoba-sama, very interesting indeed." And with those words, she swept out of the room, leaving chaos in her wake, as she always did.

It was only a few minutes later did her older brother, Akihiko, hesitantly poked his head into my office. "What did you say to put Ayu-chan on the warpath? She's even scarier today." Glancing up from my papers, contracts and legal suits, I saw what he meant. It appeared as if she had delivered quite a blow to his eye, and a thin line of blood trickled from his lips.

"Kyoya Ootori." I muttered, ignoring the wide eyed look the eldest child in the family was giving me as I continued with my business.

"Good luck to you, Ayumi...And I don't mean with Ootori. I mean business."