(35) Preparations – part 1 – Difficult reveal
Date: Still 08/Sept/35MT
It’s currently late in the afternoon, which means Yasuna and the twins are done with their classes. Considering they’re supposed to take part in a tournament in just two days’ time, the director has given them tomorrow off to prepare for the trip; I don’t know why they’d need an entire day for tha… Actually, why don’t I stop with the speculations and just look up what this tournament is about.
————
…. I have some preparations to take care of…. Seriously. It makes so much more sense now… First of all, the location of the tournament? MDS Promotional Space Station Arena… And the space station part is literal. This type of thing keeps tripping me up. The amount of similarities this world shares with earth just works to stun me when more egregious stuff like this crop up. So I’m going to space. Let that sink in….
…
Good, now onto more important information. This explains why the amount of people the academy is sending is so low, only four duelists, four members of the cheerleading team, the Director himself and his assistant. All things considered, I’m surprised he even bothered calling the cheerleaders, but I guess he wants to show me off and that’s a decent enough excuse for me not taking part but still be there. I wonder what he would have done if he didn’t have that excuse? Oh well, not relevant now.
What is very much relevant is how I’m going to be revealing my family ties to him a few minutes from now. I decided not to wait any longer. The tournament will firmly brief the Katayama family of my location, and I imagine Light would like to know this before any demands get sent. So right after coming back to the dorm, I sent him a message requesting to have a talk with him and he promptly responded that he would be available right after classes ended.
Right now, I’m on the main path of the island, walking to the tower. This is one of the few times since I arrived at the NWDA that I’m legitimately anxious. The duelists here don’t scare me. The environment is peaceful, baring rank clashes and the Professors are passionate to say the least… Maybe a little too passionate. Either way, I’m dreading this.
After arriving at the tower, I’m told Light would be available in a few minutes, so I wait by the elevator where I continue thinking and overthinking about how I’m going to tell him this.
‘Maybe I should downplay it? It’s not like I was hiding this from him. I ultimately didn’t know I had relatives before Yuumi told me about them… Dammit, the goddess even straight up said I wouldn’t have to deal with relatives!’
The elevator doors opens and from inside comes out a tall man wearing a white shirt. I immediately recognize him as Blanc. He gives me a side glance and then walks away… Guess he’s got better things to do. Anyway, the receptionist wastes no time gesturing for me to go in. I do so and the doors close; the elevator speeds up rapidly and in no time I arrive at the 100th floor where Light’s office is.
“This is it.” I say, hyping myself up.
The doors open, revealing Light Haswell siting behind his office desk.
“Hello Yuumi, come on in.” He urges.
I comply and sit down on the chair opposite to him. “Good afternoon Director.” I greet.
He raises an eyebrow, most likely surprised by my uncharacteristically polite introduction, before forcing his expression to a more natural state. “Well, so, what did you want to talk about?”
‘Straight to the point, huh?’
“Erhg, well, see…” I stumble.
Light notices this and his natural expression turns into a knowing smile. “Alright, let’s just cut with the worry. What is your true last name? Miss Matsunaga?”
My eyes can’t help but open wide and I barely prevent my mouth from hanging open. “Huh, what? how?” I manage to say.
He leans back in his chair. “haha, come on? You? An orphan? No way, nooooo way. Orphans know to stay quiet and take verbal abuse. You, on the other hand, seem to be intent on reacting as boldly as possible at the slightest confrontation. Hell, just today I’ve had to deal with an irate family because SOMEONE broke their son’s arm.”
I recoil back into the chair at the implication… “S-sorry about that.”
“Ah! If that was the worse of it wouldn’t be half bad. Anyway’s that’s not why you came here, right? So what is your true last name?”
I compose myself and tell in a serious tone. “Katayama… My true last name is Katayama. Though I doubt you could verify that without a DNA test.”
“… Shit. They disappeared you, huh?”
“They kicked me out at 14 and somehow got the record changed to Matsunaga. I don’t know what ‘Disappeared’ means, but that’s what happened.”
The Director stays silent for a moment before letting out a deep sigh and leaning back on his chair. “Fuaaahh. Thank god.” He comments.
“What is this?” I ask, confused why he apparently thinks this is a good thing.
He quickly straightens up. “I’m so sorry I know that my reaction was inappropriate, but considering the possibilities, this is the best one out of them…” He says calmly before moving in to correct himself in a more hurried tone. “Practically speaking, I mean! It must have been hard on you!”
“… Thanks for the consideration? I mean, I don’t understand how this is good for you.”
“Oh, don’t get me wrong, it’s one more thing to deal with. But it’s something I suspected for a long time now and considering the other option included you being a runaway, this is much better.”
“Runaway? I’m 18.”
“I know, but little things like that wouldn’t matter if they really wanted to get their hands on you. But considering doing so would cause a scandal, I doubt they’ll be so overt.”
“Soooo… you’re fine with this? Just to let you know, the Katayama family is a crime family.”
“Pfffff, what rich family in Dragoon City isn’t? In an ideal world, we wouldn’t have borderline nobles running around, but I guess this is better than a shrivelled economy… Barely…”
“I’m sorry, I’m not following you.”
“Huh? Didn’t you learn about the Dragoon City uprising at school?”
“I got homeschooled and my older brother was poised to follow my father’s footsteps, so my knowledge about politics is very limited.”
“Ah, I’m guessing that’s why they never figured out your ability for dueling, is that right?”
“Precisely.”
…
He stays quiet before suddenly cracking up laughing. “AHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHA.”
I let him get ahold of himself before asking. “Ok, now what was THAT about?”
“Ahahah, I’m so sorry… but… this is hilarious, to think they’d let go of a Natural Penta-Summoner because of politics. Oh, this is so funny.”
“You really hate the upper class, huh?”
“You have no idea. While I urge you to look into the Dragoon City uprising, an abridged version would be this: ‘The top 3 leading families of the previous city council where disturbed at the rising influence held by dueling academies so they made a push for full control of the city. The push succeeded and with the military under control, they pointed their dueling blades at the dueling academies. Now, considering the academies were the source of all the city’s military might, and because they weren’t stupid enough to trust the council unconditionally, they had private armies of elite students. For 5 years, the academies fought a grueling guerrilla war against the Dragoon City military. In the end, the council members were dead and their forces crushed.’ That’s the gist of it. If you want to know more, just go on GlobalNet.”
‘… That’s a lot more violent than what I expected from this world… Jesus christ, how many people died in that?’
“If you don’t mind me asking, what was the official death count of all of that?”
His expression turns somber. “We don’t know. The City got completely demolished, and if you count just the soldiers, you get easily over a 100000. Most of the casualties came from the city's forces. They had numbers, but their duelists weren’t on par with the elites the academies fielded. For every one duelist, the academies lost, they lost 10. And the ratio for elites was over 1 elite for about 100 duelists.”
…
“That’s horrible.” Is all I’m able to say.
“It was a bloodbath, Yuumi, and I seriously hoped we wouldn’t have another conflict so soon, but with the way things are going with Cy City and the Protectorate?” - He looks around like he’s cautious of someone listening in. - “It’s too late now. The timing of the tournament will be essential for diminishing the effect a declaration of war between two of the great alliances of the main island will have on the public. There will be panic, but this way, we can manipulate the public narrative.”
While the first part left me unable to look up from the floor, the second immediately made my head shot up. “What do you mean ‘manipulate the public narrative’? I thought it was just a distraction!”
He looks up at the ceiling and draws a deep breath. “Because that’s how politics work.” - He says before facing me again and continuing - “If we don’t move to do it, the protectorate will. And trust me, that is a nightmare scenario. Whoever controls the flow of information wins Yuumi. When a gas-lighting speech or some doctored images are all it takes for a number of fickle minded tournament duelists to turn into spies and saboteurs for the enemy, information is key.”
“But why not just tell the truth here?” I ask before realizing something. “Wait, what is even the truth here? For all this effort you’ve put in to make sure I know what’s going on, you haven’t even mentioned the reasons for this conflict!” I can’t help but raise my voice at the end.
Light’s eyes open wide before he clearly attempts to close them.
…
…
A minute of silence passes before he opens them again. “So, how’s the cheerleading club?”
‘Really? That’s the best you can do? No, I’m not taking the bait.’
“Light, what’s the reason for this war?” I press in a fake calm tone.
He looks to the right. “Real shame if someone was to inspect one of its parties…”
“….. Really?” I ask.
“Yup,” He hastily responds.
Light then stands up before turning to the window behind him. “Right, we’re done here.”
I hastily stand up. “No, we’re not—”
“Yes, we are,” He interrupts then glances back. “Trust me, it’s for your own good.”
…
…
“Unbelievable.” I comment before stomping out of his office.
————
It’s already midnight. I ran back to my room while regretting not pulling my duel disk out back there. Truthfully, that’s a doomsday scenario, but my mind, at the time, was filled with too much anger to consider any consequences. Honestly, it’s a miracle I didn’t pull my duel disk out. I don’t care if Light used a full power Zoodiac deck. Hell, the Zoo play style is basically the base for every modern YGO Archetype and my Pendulum Magician deck follows that same concept of “popping off.”
Anyway. Thankfully, I’ve had enough time to cool down and properly think about what just happened. First, I might have pushed a little too hard… I can see the Director being very much against telling a student about a complex ongoing geopolitical issue… He’s not even telling my friends the reason he’s sending them off to this tournament…
Still, his reaction was very suspicious. It is clear he panicked. Otherwise, why would he try to threaten me using a club I just joined last month? Also angering so many blue ranks at once would make shutting down the club a non-starter. The reason I didn’t press him even knowing that is twofold. One, if it had degraded to a duel, I would have to win it and who knows what that would lead to. Second, the expression “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you” exists for a reason. I completely depend on the NWDA for housing, food, funds and, critically, dueling equipment. Thinking about it right now I wouldn’t be surprised if our duel disks had cut off function only available to the academy. Officially, our duel disks are unrestricted, but I doubt they would give deadly weapons out to yound adults with no safeties.
Overhaul this situation has made me realise something very important… Light, as friendly and generous as he seems, isn’t my friend. No, he’s more like my boss. But that means something else. I’m also not his friend, I’m his employ and, as stupid as it sounds, this isn’t a bad thing. I always thought I owed Light for taking me in, but as time passes, I realize that wasn’t a move made of generosity. It was a business decision, a hasty one, yes, but a decision that, in the long term, appears to have paid off.
Well, I’m going to sleep. I can’t do anything right now that would change how this is going to go and, frankly, I’m tired. Tomorrow I have a helluva lot to do and sleep deprivation isn’t a good idea.