Family secrets that should stay hidden, but after the arrival of an unknown uncle, the cousins learn more about their parents than they would like to know.
I finally turned 16. Sweet 16. My parents, along with my aunt and uncle, prepared the best birthday party in the world for me. However, I expected something more from the gifts. Both parents gave me decks of cards. They say they value them very much and they want these decks to be passed from generation to generation, as they used to be. But why they both gave them to me, even though I have younger sibling, still bothered me. I folded my own deck of cards 2 years ago with Uncle Yusaku, who gave me some tips. He told me that when he was young, there was an era when real cards were almost never used. There was supposedly a digital world of Link Vrains. That's where people mostly dueled. People used AI in their duel disks, but this is probably why this system disappeared. We never had any AI at home. My father forbade them, it is said that we can cope without them, and my mother did not complain. The people in the village only used robots for cleaning.
"Ryo-chan! Aren't you happy with our presents?" my mother's voice interrupted me. I shook my head quickly. I had white hair for my father with red strands for my mother. My father had white hair with blue strands. I had almost the same eye color as my parents, my father had blue, and my mother had one blue eye and the other purple.
"But it's not like that. I was just a little surprised, since I already have my own deck. That's all," I said, smiling at them. My father was cold on the outside, but my mother also loved us and made us feel it all the time. Mom was gentle almost all the time, but you really wouldn't want to angry her. However, it has seldom happened that parents quarreled. Even though it happened once that my mother kicked her father out of the house after a big fight. Poor father didn't even have time to pack his underwear or take the car keys or his wallet when his mother slammed the door in front of his nose. Mom then cried in her room and forbade me to let our father in. The next day, father showed up with a bouquet of roses and knelt in front of the steps of the house. I wondered where he got the money for the flowers from, but he probably stayed at aunt's and uncle's place for the night and borrowed the money from them. My mother came home from work later than usual, so my father knelt there almost all day, but that didn't deter him either. When mum saw him in front of our house, she almost drove over him. She braked just in front of him when she saw that he was serious with not moving an inch. I watched them from the window, so I saw my mother get out of the car angrily and stand in front of her father. It was like this for about 15 minutes, until my father finally got up and mother took a bouquet from him. You may guess what followed, but I preferred to focus on my cards and homework.
"I hope you make better use of my deck than I used to," my father said, and my uncle raised an eyebrow and looked strangely at dad. My father noticed it and smiled at his brother-in-law. But it was a kind of sad smile, because then my dad fixed his eyes on mum She didn't notice, because she was just talking to Aunt Akame. Mom and Aunt were identical twins, so they were hard to tell. Mom had a little shorter hair from aunt and wore it in a ponytail or braided it. Aunt always wore her hair loose and reached almost to her knees. Mom's hair reached to her waist. That was time when I noticed that someone was looking at me. I looked in that direction and my gaze met my cousin's. He glared at me and threw a piece of birthday cake into his mouth ...
~ Akihiko ~
That jerk got a lot more than I did when I recently celebrated my fourteenth birthday. It is not fair! Even my parents treat him as if he were their firstborn son and not me! I angrily stabbed the fork into the piece of cake they had served me. At least it was delicious. I glared at my "amazing" cousin. Lord perfect, the best student, the best looking one, the most behaved one. And then there was me, who got into every fight, didn't learn well and kept getting beaten. They had to break my nose one last time because my bones didn't grow well. All I needed to do was walk with my nose like Baba Yaga. Then my gaze met my cousin's. He looked at me blankly. I finally finished the cake, got up from the couch, and went to play with my little cousin. Little Mirai was barely a year old, so she could barely talk, so I liked her. She didn't judge me like everyone else. When she noticed that I was next to her, she handed me a toy with a big smile on her face. I sat down next to her, took a toy, and hugged Mirai. She made her laugh and started telling me something in her childhood speech. This was the best feeling for me ...
~
The next morning was as usual. Both families were preparing for work and the children for school. Ryo and Akihiko met on the street and, as usual, went to school together. Ryo was a freshman in upper high school and Akihiko a sophomore in lower high school. Since there were not many children on the island, both stages were in the same building. On the ground floor was a classroom, infirmary, gym and teachers' offices. On the first floor there were 3 grades of lower secondary and 3 profesional classrooms. The second floor was occupied by 3 upper secondary classes and another 3 special classrooms. Pupils had lockers right at the entrance, where they changed their clothes and put their shoes in them. Everything looked like a classic Japanese school. Nevertheless, it was something unique, as was the whole island. The school did not use digital technologies such as robots, tablets, mobile phones, and the Internet was not introduced at this school. Not only did they want to cut the children off from the outside world, but because of the events of 17 years ago, everyone wanted to save the young generation. Another interesting thing was that all the children learned about dueling at school for 1 hour a day ...So the two cousins slowly got to school and each went to their own locker and then to their class. The day passed slowly, but when the class ended, they met again at the lockers. Today has been without major events. At least that's what they thought.
"Hey, Ryo and Akihiko! There's a weird guy standing at the school gate asking about you!" one of Ryo's classmates told them as he ran up to them. The two cousins looked at each other in astonishment, but went to look closely at the guy. As they went to the gate, they sawthat weird guy in terribly weird clothes. As soon as he saw them, he started waving at them happily.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"You know him?" Akihiko asked Ryo, but he just shook his head in disapproval.
"I have no idea who it might be," Ryo raised an eyebrow curiously as the guy ran towards them. He grabbed Akihiko in his arms very quickly and hugged him.
"Fujiki! I see you're all over Yusaku! But that's a pleasant surprise!" screamed as Akihiko tried to get out of his arms. When he finally pushed him away, the guy just laughed.
"You've got this after your Dad! Just hmmm, you have those eyes after mom. Nothing much. Yusaku has them nicer ..." the guy said to himself as he measured Akihiko.
"I'm sorry, but who are you?" Ryo asked him. The guy immediately turned to him and also measured him with a look.
"You seem to be more after your mom. That's just fine. I've never liked a Revolver. Although I must say that he's always been pretty handsome to a guy. Even though I'm surprised your mom stayed with him after all what happened. " "Wait, what, please ?! We have no idea who you are or what you're talking about!" Ryo snapped at the stranger.
"Oh, I'm sorry. My ways are kind of in the dust. Although they couldn't do it. Stupid human phrase," the guy continued. "My name is Ai. And theoretically, I'm your uncle."
