Family Bonds

Pleading

Thanks to the generous gifts that Zarc's fans had given him for the kiddos, the asparagus-haired man had a nice little stroller that fit all four boys perfectly. Which made going out with them relatively simple. Apart from the many fans who liked to approach the family, and the many challengers who wanted a duel from Zarc. Fortunately the fans that came up to Zarc weren't the crazy kind who wanted to clone him or anything, and the challengers realized that a duel wouldn't be feasible while Zarc had the toddlers out and accepted his offers to duel later at the Crystal Agency.

But alas, not all the people who approached Zarc were so welcome. In fact, Zarc received a blast from the past one day when he was taking his toddlers to the Crystal Agency on-site park to play. He was adjusting the shade visor on their stroller to make sure Yuri and Yuya were well covered, since redheads like them burned very easily (yes, Zarc considered Yuri's pink hair to qualify him as a redhead, since pink was, after all, a shade of light red), when suddenly he heard a voice that made him cringe behind him.

"Zarc!" It was his old boss, looking rather distressed. Zarc would be lying if he said that his old boss's distress wasn't enjoyable to him. After all the mistreatment Zarc'd suffered under him, and all the cruel and hateful things he'd said about the little ones, the distress on his face was quite satisfying.

"What do you want?" he asked coldly. His old boss rushed to him and started pleading, "You gotta come back to the agency! Ever since you left, we haven't been getting very many duel contracts, and if we don't start getting more, the agency will go bankrupt! You were the most popular duelist we had, and when word got out that you'd switched agencies, more than three-quarters of the contracts we had were canceled! It turns out most of the people who wanted to work with us only wanted to do so if you were there!"

"Well, too bad!" Zarc replied. "I'm very happy with my current agency! I make way more money, the place is cleaner, and there's an on-site daycare so I can drop my kids off and still be around if they need something."

"We'll build a daycare in one of the old rooms! We'll clean up the building! We'll pay you more! Please, Zarc! Come back to the agency!" the old boss begged.

"Do you really think you can afford to do all that if you're nearing bankruptcy?" Zarc asked, raising an eyebrow. The old boss stammered, then said, "W-well, if you come back, the contracts will come pouring in again, and then we'll be able to afford it all!"

"Except for the fact that, even if I was willing to come back, I wouldn't do so until after there was an on-site daycare and the place was cleaned up," Zarc pointed out. "I'm not willing to be separated from my young children, and there's absolutely no way I'd let them be in such a filthy building again! But even if you did do all that, I still wouldn't come back. I've got an agency that I'm happy with, and I was never happy back at yours. Plus, you were simply awful to me and my little ones! There's no way I'd ever return!"

"Please, Zarc!" his old boss literally threw himself at Zarc's feet. "The agency has been in my family for five generations! My great-great-grandfather founded it! You wouldn't let five generations of hard work be destroyed, would you?"

"Oh, please, you did that yourself!" Zarc scoffed. "Seriously, you've been driving the agency into the ground ever since you inherited it! You never put in any work of your own! You were always relying on me to keep it afloat, and you couldn't even be bothered to do anything to make me feel like my efforts were appreciated! In fact, you seemed to be actively trying to make me feel like I wasn't wanted! Sorry not sorry, my final answer is no. Don't try to ask me again."

And with that, he continued on his way with his little ones and his dragons, leaving his old boss to his despair.