5 First Encounter And Public Debut

While Seiji and Mia is talking, an angry shout suddenly interrupted them.

"You! Why did you order that uncle to do something like that!?"

When Seiji turned around to look at who it is who just shouted, he saw a girl with pink hair, accompanied by a dark blue haired boy. The pink head looks extremely mad while looking at Seiji.

"Excuse me—"

Before Seiji could say anything more, an equally high pitched and angry voice yelled back at the angry pink head.

"Why are you yelling at my onii-chama!? You, are you the bad guy that my onii-chama tells me stories about!?"

The pink head was visibly surprised at this sudden outburst as she gazed at the source of the voice.

"Rena, what did I tell you about yelling at others?"

Rena, who got reprimanded by her onii-sama, felt sad since she got scolded. She twisted her body left and right while fiddling with her index fingers.

"But but, this onee-chan yelled at onii-chama too…" Rena softly said.

"That doesn't mean you can also yell back at her. What did I tell you about getting easily agitated? Getting angry won't solve anything. That's why, always stay calm, remember?" Seiji heard her quite murmurs and said to her in return.

Rena just nods her head meekly, indicating that she understood. Seiji was satisfied with this and finally redirected his attention towards the pink haired girl.

"Good. Now, is there something wrong little miss? I assume that you're here because of the rude behavior that our butler showed towards you and your friend, right?"

The pink haired girl was slightly taken aback by the way the boy addressed her but she eventually regained her composure.

"That's right! That was bullying, you know? Me and Dai-chan arrived here first and that uncle suddenly arrived saying that we should leave since his young master and young miss is going to use this court!"

Just from the way she talks, Seiji could tell that this girl is quite smart for someone her age. She is already aware of what bullying is and was not just angry because the man from earlier tried to shoo them away. At the very least, she brought up a valid reason as to why she is agitated.

"I really am sorry about that. The uncle from earlier is new to his job so he didn't know that I especially forbade the butlers and guards to pull their own weight."

After Seiji explained all the things regarding what really happened and why it led to the scene earlier, the pink haired girl finally calmed down.

"Phew… I see, so it was all a misunderstanding."

"That's right. Again, I apologize for interrupting you guys. I hope we didn't cause too much trouble."

Seiji scratched his cheeks using his index finger before bowing to the girl in a perfect 90° angle while apologizing. This flustered the pink haired girl as she didn't expect the boy to suddenly apologize to her.

"Y-Y-You don't need to bow, you know? Right, Dai-chan?"

In her panic, she even asked her friend to confirm that she's right. In response to her question, the boy with dark blue hair and slightly tanned skin replied hastily.

"O-Oh, she's right. It's no biggie man!"

Seiji lifted his head up for a moment to look at the two's expressions before lifting up his head. While smiling at the two, Seiji once again apologized before extending an invitation to the two of them, asking them if they want to play with them for a while.

They never introduced themselves at the time so Seiji never got their names except the nickname that the pink head used to call the boy. That incident left a lasting impression on Seiji as it was the first time he talked to someone around his age in this life and it was also the first time he got called out for being a 'bully'.

That day, after they all had enough fun playing, Seiji, Rena, and Mia went on their way after saying goodbye and never visited that street basketball court again. Seiji was sad of course, but going around incognito all the time isn't safe at all.

Although they never had any public appearances, he and Rena are members of the Arisugawa Family. If they were to be kidnapped or something, they could be used against their parents or clan. This is the main reason why they never visited a place twice when they go incognito.

Like Hanna always said to them, "It's better to be safe than sorry." They were taught like that from an early age so that they could avoid an ugly incident from happening.

※・※・※・※

Years passed and it eventually came the time for Seiji to stand in a podium, in front of his parent's business partners and friends. It was such a nice experience to see rich people get speechless seeing a young boy like him speak so much and go off script multiple times during his first public speech.

It was even better because when Rentarou and Hanna presented their present, almost all of their jaws dropped on the ground from shock. It seems like, even for rich people, receiving a very grand arena as a birthday present is not normal. However, after the initial shock, many people surmised that it was just the Arisugawa Family's way of entering the sports industry.

All of the people present in Seiji's birthday party eventually shrugged it off as a diversion trick in order to mask their real intentions. Well, they're not wrong entirely but they're not correct either.

During that same birthday party, Seiji performed a simple task of showcasing some talent in front of the visitors. Thus, using the privilege that a reincarnator have, Seiji 'borrowed' a song from his previous world. Using the piano, Seiji played and sang the song Firefly by Owl City. His then childish voice, age, and the message of the song matched each other so well that the audience was once again left speechless.

"…Cause everything is bursting at the seams~♪"

When Seiji hit the last key and concluded his performance, a rain of applause filled the whole venue. Excited cheers and praises were said one after another that the place turned into something similar to a wet market.

"Very awesome! For a child like this to compose such a beautiful song is…"

"I'm not that fond of English songs but this is just great!"

"…A job well done. This performance level is something that even adults would envy."

After that brief show of talent, Seiji went down the stage and immediately made a beeline towards his room. He's already tired from all the smiling and such that he felt the need to rest. Of course, he didn't forget to tell the butler nearby to inform his parents that he's tired and will go to take a rest.

"Phew, that was incredibly tiring."

Seiji wiped the drops of sweat that formed on top of his forehead and thought, 'Even my past life's experience could not save me from feeling mentally exhausted.'

With a look of exhaustion and a smile on his face, Seiji plopped right onto his large bed. When he lifted the blanket to cover himself, Seiji noticed that there was something being covered with it already. With his sharp senses, Seiji was able to smell a very familiar scent.

"Ah, it's Rena. Did she sneak in again? *sigh* From whom did she learn to sneak around? Her maid probably didn't notice her again."

After giving it some thought, Seiji decided to just leave her be. Rena have been doing this for a few years now so it's not like Seiji would stop her at this point. He then went to the bathroom at the side of his luxuriously designed large room and took off the blue contact lenses that he always wear whenever he's in public eye or is not with his family or trusted aides like Mia and the head butler.

After placing the contact lenses on its case, Seiji thought about Rena while wiping his face off with a wet towel and dousing his face with some water.

'Did she remove her dress and changed into her pajama before sleeping? Oh, right, Mia is the one who helps her with that. I guess I'll just go to sleep now…'

Covering himself and Rena with the blanket properly, Seiji finally let Mr. Sandman do his job.

※・※・※・※

On a secluded part of the mansion owned by the Arisugawas, Arisugawa Rentarou can be seen having a conversation with an old man who's on his 60's. He would sometimes show a slight frown or straight up scowl for a brief second at the old man while trying to speak in a calm manner.

"So, what you're trying to say is, we could no longer use our clan's money to provide for our own child?"

The old man didn't seem to have noticed the killing intent laced within Rentarou's calm words as he continued to speak in a very self-important tone.

"That's right. Arisugawa Seiji is not a real Arisugawa. He does not deserve the treatment that he is receiving right now. Only the real heir of our prestigious Arisugawa Clan should receive such treatment."

Rentarou's vision clouded for a split second when he heard the old man's words. If he didn't have the great self control that he acquired over the years, this old man would already be ashes inside an urn. During the seven short years that he spent with Seiji, Rentarou learned to treat the kid as one of his own. Hearing someone speak ill of the boy, Rentarou felt his blood boil in anger.

'So they finally wanted to get rid of Seiji. It's unfortunate that we can't immediately accompany him. However, just a few more years. Once our new business ventures on the sports related market starts bearing fruit, we'll immediately cut ties with this rotten clan.'

Finally making up his mind, Rentarou gave a positive answer to the old man before turning away.

'Let's just see how your prestigious clan will rot from inside out after me and my family leaves this sickening place…'

※・※・※・※

To be continued…

[A/N¹: Yeeahh, that's kinda dramatic, atleast in my opinion, but atleast I'm done with that part. Next, Seiji will separate with his family for a brief moment before reuniting with them once again. For those who are curious, Hanna is the one with Arisugawa bloodline while Rentarou is just someone who married into the clan. This is why the old geezer didn't show any respect to him.]

[A/N²:I know it's kinda unnecessary for Seiji to be adopted to this family and then leave after a few years but still, I still opted to make him be born in such a family. Reason being, I want Seiji to build up some confidence in himself. Now, I know that it wasn't that apparent but if you grew up in a poor family, you'll always have low self confidence. Now, I'm not saying that everyone who's poor have low self confidence. All I'm saying is Seiji have low self confidence in his previous life. There might have been a better solution to solve Seiji's low self esteem but this is the only solution I could come up with when I started writing the novel.]