Scene 17.

"Jealousy."

[Domino City, Japan. Friday. 12/21/1990. Morning. Hongo Orphanage, Room].

After giving us a good scolding and making it clear that we would go to school without breakfast, Mrs. Koizumi finally left the room.

From that moment onwards, we had a whole week of punishment for our supposed previous misbehavior.

None of my explanations would have mattered in the face of the woman's severity, so during the entire lecture, I wisely chose to remain silent, no matter how many times she tried to extract the reason behind the fight from me. Kotsuzuka protested a little at first, strongly disagreeing with the harshness of the punishment, but he ultimately fell silent when he realized he had much more to lose if he blabbered. After all, he was the one who had initiated the whole charade.

Currently, even though Mrs. Koizumi had left the room five minutes ago, tension still hung in the air.

I could barely contain my anger towards the brat on the other side of the room, and as always, the culprit behind my inaction was my damn conscience. I couldn't just go and beat up a kid, no, no matter how much my heart desired it; I had enough on my plate already. And, ultimately, I still didn't know why Kotsuzuka had decided to attack me so abruptly and from behind. But without a doubt, I was going to find out everything, no matter how much that little bastard resisted the conversation. Even if I had to get a little rough in the process, I would definitely make him sing like a canary.

"Humph! Why the hell did you do that, idiot?" I asked, buttoning up my shirt.

Kotsuzuka, who was also putting on his school uniform at that very moment, groaned. "Ugh!"

When he heard the tone of my question, he nearly stumbled to the ground, frightened. However, he still chose to stupidly keep silent.

Upon that, I smiled. "Heh." Knowing his reluctance, I immediately understood that this was the perfect moment to apply a little pressure.

My eyes scanned Kotsuzuka and his surroundings.

"Uh?" Then, suddenly, I saw something interesting on the brat's bed—the perfect blackmail material to achieve my goal.

Without a second thought, I moved and then took that something in my hands.

"Uh?" Kotsuzuka saw me move, but by the time he reacted, it was already too late to do anything to prevent it. "Hey, hey, hey! What-what are you doing?! That's mine! Let go!" He panicked as he jumped onto me.

In my hands were his precious Duel Monsters cards, one of the few things Kotsuzuka cherished in this world.

I easily dodged Kotsuzuka's charge and then proceeded to threaten him. "Hold it right there!" I ordered, insinuating that I would tear up his cards if he didn't obey. "I won't give these back until you tell me the truth, shrimp!" I warned.

Seeing what I intended, Kotsuzuka blabbered on the brink of tears. "Uah! No! No, please, Hotaru! No! I'll do whatever you want! J-just stop it already! Don't do that, please!" He threw himself to the ground and made a rather pathetic gesture of pleading.

Now things were definitely going in the right direction. Although, honestly, I didn't expect Kotsuzuka to overreact the way he did; he clearly suffered from a serious game addiction.

Naturally, that wasn't my problem, so I continued with my task. "Talk," I ordered.

Kotsuzuka immediately obeyed without protesting. "Y-yes!" He nervously nodded my way. "I-I did it because... I did it because, damn it, Hotaru! You're already damn good at everything! School, sports, even with girls! Damn it! Why the hell Duel Monsters?! Why now, you bastard?! Hyaaa!" He added, visibly worked up.

Then, he abruptly stood up.

And then he threw a surprise punch at me, a punch I evaded once again. Kotsuzuka also had some serious behavioral issues; a tendency for violence was the main one.

"Heh. So basically, you're confessing that you did all this because you were jealous. You dumb brat! That's not a reason to attack me like that, let alone from behind! Humph, fool! You could have seriously hurt me!" I reproached.

I never could have imagined that Kotsuzuka had orchestrated this whole issue out of simple jealousy. It was rather anticlimactic.

And to top it off, it seemed he wasn't done with his tirade yet. "Brat this, brat that. I've had enough! We're the same age, Hotaru! Argh! And stop calling me an idiot, or a fool, or stupid! I'm not! Why do you talk to me like that, damn it?! Uah! I'm getting mad! Ah!" He shouted as he threw another punch at me.

If he weren't so puny, he probably would have hit me due to my brief moment of distraction. However, thanks to this body's good reflexes, I easily caught his hand before he could land his blow. Somehow inexplicably, he managed to make me drop his deck.

As a result, the cards scattered all over the floor.

"Uh?! My cards!" Kotsuzuka immediately bent down to pick them up.

The atmosphere in the room grew even heavier by the moment. Silence took center stage.

The words Kotsuzuka had said made me reflect internally. 'Damn it.' I had probably overdone it a bit with the whole thing. After all, I was the only adult in the room; I couldn't easily escape my moral responsibilities. Kotsuzuka didn't deserve to be treated like that, but that didn't mean I would change the way I spoke just because.

"I'll help you," I murmured.

Then, I knelt down next to him to pick up the rest of his cards.

He didn't say anything in response to my action, so I continued with the tacit silence.

My eyes wandered over the dwarf's cards.

"The Snake Hair, Pumpking the King of Ghosts, Stop Defense..." They were good cards.

The pressure in the air slowly dissipated as the seconds passed. It was about time; the whole situation had become strangely like a damn fourth-rate drama. I couldn't understand how I had let it escalate this far. Although, the stress from my situation could very well have been responsible. Currently, it sounded more like a cheap excuse.

It was time to lighten the atmosphere a bit, and I knew exactly how to do it.

"Just zombies, huh? No wonder, hehe." I teased.

Kotsuzuka definitely looked like one.

Understanding my joke, the brat grumbled at me, quite literally. "Grrr!"

However, upon seeing my smile, Kotsuzuka relaxed. He knew right away I wasn't trying to be cruel to him.

A few seconds passed in a truly uncomfortable silence until, finally, he spoke. "I have other types of cards too," he muttered irritably.

Hearing his words sparked a bit of curiosity in me. "Alright, show me?" I asked.

Kotsuzuka stood up and then started rummaging in the space beneath his bunk. Happiness returned to his steps.

An infectious happiness that made me smile.

The image of the brat overlapped in my mind with another image.

My thoughts immediately went to my little Yumi.

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To be continued...