Grass Snake
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"Kazuya… You…" The young man was startled by the sudden rejection.
"Lee, don't take it to heart. Kazuya…" Kyouko explained the current circumstances while holding Kazuya who seemed to be in pain.
This handsome young man is called Hashiyama Lee, Kazuya's father's adopted son. He was adopted when the couple separated which was approximately 8 months before Kazuya's birth. He was valued for being intelligent and was being personally groomed by Kazuya's father.
"What's wrong Kazuya? Does your head hurt?" He tried reaching to pat Kazuya's head again.
"I SAID DON'T TOUCH ME!" He swatted away the hand it was harder this time.
Lee was displeased by this but he immediately changed the expression on his face almost instantly. Kazuya on the other hand didn't miss this and glared while looking straight into his eyes. He knew this person was his adopted brother. The brother who relentlessly showed off how superior he was compared to him in his original memories. He had already been considered an adult when Kazuya woke up and recovered from his past life's accident.
Kazuya only met and found out their relationship when they met by coincidence. He really didn't mind that this person never visited him when he was recovering but this person had a hobby of shamelessly flaunting himself whenever they would meet. It went up to the point where he would find Kazuya just to embarrass him in front of people.
"I apologize little brother. I guess you don't remember how close we used to be. We used to play a lot together remember?" he said with a smile.
"Shut up you fake person! I don't know who you are but the pain in my head definitely doesn't want to remember you. These images in my head don't show playing peacefully… There's only you bullying and hurting me!" That was a lie. The actual images actually showed them playing and having fun but Kazuya had already decided to trust his original memories. Also, after seeing the subtle changes in this person's expressions, he knew that this guy was total scum.
"Lee you…" Kyouko looked at him with mixed feelings. She had grown fond of Lee and admired his talents but all of that meant nothing because Kazuya was her world.
Introduced to her when Hashiyama Lee was newly adopted, Kyouko had her guard up at first. When she saw that both boys had gotten along, she grew closer to him and even allowed him to stay at their house a few times. She figured that he would be a good influence to her own son since he was so talented and softened up to him. Now she realized that that decision was the wrong one. Truly nothing good came from 'that person's' side.
"Calm down first Kazuya okay? You must be confusing me with someone else, don't you remember asking me to stay over many times and we would play video games together and watch movies?"
"Have fun? Like how you practice martial arts on me? Didn't you say that no one would believe me because you practice moves that hurt a lot but don't leave any traces? Please stop trying to fool anyone. The old me may have been afraid to say something but that is a different matter now" He used a part of Lee's statements from his old memories. Since this guy loved to brag how strong he was then using it against him today made Kazuya feel a bit satisfied.
"Boss, I have something to say" Mei, who was sitting and silently working suddenly interrupted. This made Kazuya feel strange. A certain incident from his memory couldn't help but come to mind when she intruded in the conversation.
"Mei-san, please talk some sense into them" Lee gave her an affectionate look which made Mei's eyebrows twitch.
"I have told you repeatedly to not call me by my given name" The cold look she gave Lee reminded Kazuya of the future version of herself. He was relieved to see that Mei didn't seem like she had been fooled by this snake.
"K-kazuno-san please. It may not be Kazuya's fault but I'm definitely being wronged here" He couldn't help but avoid Mei's cold gaze.
"What do you have to say Mei?" Kyouko interjected. She really didn't want to hear his excuses.
"Nothing much. I just had a thought and wanted to confirm some things with you after hearing everything. Do you remember who was it that spent a long time with Kazu the day before he lost his memories? Don't they teach him their family's martial arts?"
"This…" Kyouko had a sudden realization and immediately understood. "You dare lay your hands on my son you ingrate! Get lost and never show yourself in front of us ever again!"
"M-mother this is all a misunderstanding!" Lee couldn't help but feel scared. He tried appealing to her but the way both ladies were looking at him made him want to run.
"Don't you dare call me mother! The only reason I allowed myself to be referred to that way by you is because Kazuya recognized and treated you as his older brother. Now that the truth is out, there is no reason to me to go along with this farce. Leave! I will get people to send whatever items you still have in our place"
"I…" Lee felt wronged. "I will excuse myself then. Get well soon Kazuya. I hope this misunderstanding will be cleared up when you recover" He quietly turned to the door. There was no reasoning with them now so he chose to retreat.
"I know enough about you just from fragments of my memories to tell you that there has been no misunderstanding. I hope you'll listen to my mom and never show your fake ugly mug in front of us again"
"…" The calm façade that Lee kept up crumbled at this point. He glared at Kazuya before finally leaving the room.
"(Playing with me happily during childhood then humiliating me after my mother dies? You're nothing but a common grass snake in my eyes. If I'm going to get my revenge then every single one who plotted or will plot against me will regret it)" he glared at the door until Lee's presence was gone.
"I'm sorry Kazuya I… let that monster—" Kyouko felt apologetic to her son. She had no idea that such a thing had been happening nor noticed any signs.
"Don't worry about it mom. He won't be able to do so ever again. It's not your fault, it's mine. It was my own cowardice that made it last this long" he comforted his mother who was about to cry. He felt a little bad for making her feel like this but this was a necessary step if he wanted to get rid of those that could possibly harm them.
"Mei" Kyouko turned to her assistant.
"I'm already contacting the lawyers. Where should the meeting be held?" She had already been sending multiple messages on her phone and the computer.
"That…" She hesitated while glancing at Kazuya. She was reluctant to leave him alone especially after such a discovery.
"I'm fine mom. Do what you have to do" he expressed his support. It would be more beneficial for him to be alone so he was not against whatever they were up to.
"Okay. We'll meet them at our office"
"We? Shouldn't I stay with—"
"No. I'll be needing you this time. You can think of this as part of honoring our agreement"
"Then I…" Mei stopped as if she had realized something and looked at the calm child in Kyouko's arms. She pondered a bit before nodding her head in agreement.
"Good. Tell the hospital director to not let any visitors come here without my approval"
Kazuya didn't mind their conversation since he would find out what they were up to sooner or later. What he needed to focus on was the body of his now that he provoked that petty-minded brother of his.
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A few hours later, at the hospital lobby.
"Excuse me, can you tell me where Kouzuki Kazuya is?" an blonde haired little girl with blue eyes asked one of the nurses.
"Visiting a friend of yours little girl? Let me check the records" the nurse smiled and immediately went to work. "Found him, he should be at—" She then found that there was a directive from the higher-ups and stopped her lips.
"Our teacher told me that he would be here. He didn't come to class, so I wanted to visit him"
"I'm sorry little girl. It looks like you won't be able to see your friend. He is still recovering and it says here that he can't have visitors at the moment" the nurse found this foreign looking girl sweet but she couldn't do anything about the directive.
"Is it really bad?" the little girl looked worried while trying to hold back her tears. "I-I saw him throwing up blood and I'm really worried since I haven't heard anything from sensei" The nurse felt immediately guilty because his file said that there was nothing wrong with him the directive was from a person that she couldn't disobey.
"He'll be fine little girl. I guarantee it. Can I ask for your name so I can tell him that you visited? I'm sure he'll be happy especially since a cutie like you is worried about him" The nurse consoled causing the little girl face to blush.
"M-my name is S-stockton K-kurumi" She cutely stuttered. "I will come back and visit again" she left after politely bowing and left the nurses admiring the sweet little girl.
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By the time the two women returned to Kazuya's room, they saw him sleeping soundly on his bed. What they didn't know was that he was feigning sleep. He didn't want to deal with them because he was too tired and could barely move now.
The two of them didn't really mind and were glad to see him finally resting peacefully. They needed to do some work themselves because they have been delayed by recent events. Everything had moved so fast today and this was the only time they could stop to think about what had happened.
"Boss are you really sure about this?" Mei suddenly started a conversation.
"About what? There is no one else I can count on to take care of my Kazuya if anything bad happens to me. Although I'm really reluctant to have named you as his primary guardian, if anything does happen, you are surely better than that two-faced kid Lee. With you, I would be assured that he would at least be loved. Taking care of him though, is another thing. He would probably be the one doing that for you"
"Then do you approve of our marriage mother-in-law?" She cracked a joke because she couldn't deny the last part of Kyouko's statement.
"*sigh* I'm regretting my decision already"
"What about his father then?" Mei waited for Kyouko's answer since this was an important matter.
"He has no say in the matter. I have all rights into making this decision. I will however, inform them of their precious adopted boy's behavior. I won't let this matter end with just this since dare lay a finger on my Kazuya"
Listening intently to their conversation, Kazuya was able to piece together facts that coincided with his original memories. It looked like his brother was listed as his primary guardian in the past and was able to take a hold of his inheritance when his mother died. Not only that, he also refused to take responsibility for him. It was probably at that moment in time that Mei stepped in and took up that responsibility.
From the way Mei acted towards Lee, he could easily see that she did not regard him as Kazuya's brother at all. She treated him as if he was air. This part confused him a little but decided not think too deeply about it since he still had a lot of time to figure things out.
There was one thing Kazuya was sure about though. Now that he had returned to this point of his life, he would make sure that the terrible past he experienced would never come to pass. It still may not be complete, but he would use the advantage of his knowledge combined with skills he learned in the past to make sure that the people giving him warmth would have better futures together with him.