rubestie

Season: Winter

Writer: Akira

Characters: Tsukasa, Kohaku, Madara

<Night of that day. Guest room of the Suou family mansion.>

Tsukasa: (F, for now, we decided that Mikejima-senpai and Oukawa would both spend the night at my house.)

(I was planning on protecting Oukawa here from the beginning, so we have a solid security system set up already.)

(Even amongst our servants, only the most trusted ones are allowed entry at this moment.)

(Unlike servants at new money households, our servants are descendants of retainer families who have served our family for generations.)

(Betrayal or failure used to lead to immediate infamy or even death for the retainer families.)

(It’s unlikely any of our servants would betray us for something like self-preservation.)

(Though this predicament does offer a tempting enough fruit that some may chose to ignore their ancestral lineage.)

(But this isn’t the Sengoku era, when people of low status would use military might to overthrow their lords.)

(Samurai customs may not be commonly applicable in the current era, but it is still used within reason to prevent rebellion and the like.)

(Such outdated, archaic customs are protecting us right now.)

(Of course, one can never be absolutely safe. But for now, I have no choice but to stubbornly lay my trust in them.)

(I do not wish for Oukawa to leave this house into the cold night, so i have no choice but to insist on my own usefulness.)

(Just like how you won’t let anyone interfere with your freedom, neither will I, Oukawa.)

Kohaku: Sessesse~no, yoiyoiyoi* ♪

kohaku+madara

Madara: Succharaka ♪ Succharaka ♪ Hoihoiho~i♪

Tsukasa: …I’m trying to be seriously worried over here, could the two of you please stop playing around?

Kohaku: Oh? Sorry ‘bout that, bon. J was lookin’ all bored, so since we’re spendin’ the night ‘n all I thought we might as well make use of those toys ya had gathered for me.

Are we bein’ too noisy since it’s so late at night?

Tsukasa: Not really. There are no other houses close to our house, so you won’t bother any neighbors.

However. You said J-san wanted to play, but is this J-san even in the room with us right now?

Kohaku: Yes, look, J is over there.

Tsukasa: Ah, it’s true. I couldn’t see him since he was hiding behind Mikejima-senpai.

Kohaku: He sure is a small kid, after all. Seems he hasn’t been raised in a very good environment, his growth seems stunted compared ta others his age.

Madara: That’s probably true. GFK refused to sympathize with anyone except himself.

Not even his own son.

Well, that’s one thing I can relate to J about.

Kohaku: Do ya have ta keep bringin’ up yer shitty parents ever time ya speak? It’s gettin’ annoyin’.

Tsukasa: Did J-san, was he being abused, by his parents…?

Madara: Nothing seems to suggest that. I checked just to be sure when helping him bathe earlier, and he was clean from top to toe, not a mark on his skin.

Kohaku: Right. I was afraid ta leave Madara-han alone to take care of the kid since he might end up playin’ too rough an’ hurtin’ him, so I helped out with the bath as well.

And he really had beautiful skin, it was so clear.

Still, he does seem a bit too skinny to me. Wasn’t GFK supposed ta be stupidly rich after inheritin’ Godfather’s fortune?

Then why does his child look like he ain’t ever had a proper meal in his life-

Madara: GFK had a bad habit of investing his financial power and influence only into things that intrigued him. He would nurture his investments until the time came to harvest and make them his own.

He lived his life in a paradise of his own creation, surrounded by such things he had invested in.

For better or for worse, it seems J did not manage to catch GFK’s eye in such a way.

It seems J’s mother and GFK hated each other, so they lived separately.

GFK probably disliked J for being born from the woman he hated, he might’ve felt disgusted just by looking at him.

Which is why once J’s mother passed away, GFK had his own flesh and blood, J, thrown into an orphanage, as if he was throwing away a garbage bag.

kohaku+madara

Kohaku: It’s like a badly written villain origin story.

Madara: GFK’s malice was bottomless. It really was for the best that we erased him… After throwing J away, GFK erased any information about it, as if trying to forget all about it himself.

He even made his relatives promise to stay silent. He tried making J’s very existence null and void.

Thanks to that, it took a whole while before it became clear that GFK even had a son.

Ibara-san and the others were surely planning to plunder GFK’s entire inheritance themselves, but then they found that a rightful heir existed-

That must have been an unforeseen turn of events, I’ll bet. They’re probably still panicking over it. Hahaha.

Kohaku: I don’t really care ‘bout that side o’ things. I don’t care ‘bout how anyone tries ta make money off this, the most important thing fer me is what J wants his future ta look like.

Tsukasa: Actually, I can’t help but wonder, how exactly did Mikejima-senpai learn of J-san’s existence?

Or rather, why are you dragging J-san around like this?

Madara: “Dragging around” makes me sound so bad.

Kohaku: As I thought, ya really did kidnap ‘im from somewhere, didn’t ya? Confess already!

Tsukasa: Ah… As I recall, there was a rumor at Yumenosaki that Mikejima-senpai would go around casually kidnapping people and forcing them to help him out with work.

Madara: What are you on about… I’m not like your Izumi-san or anything, I would never kidnap anyone or hold them captive.

Tsukasa: I, it’s true that Sena-senpai sometimes does step Out of line every now and then, but if you look at it holistically, he should be mostly Safe!

Kohaku: That reminds me, I was held captive by Knights once as well… Wow, Knights are really synonymous with kidnapping, huh.

Tsukasa: Ugh, this topic is off-limits! Let’s get back on track!

tsukasa+kohaku